Oakland Tribune: Jim BOREN

THE parking lot at Table Mountain Casino in Friant was so full on a recent Saturday afternoon that gamblers craving their slot-machine fix had to wait in their cars while others -- presumably a bit lighter in their wallets -- got in their cars to leave.

Inside the casino, you couldn't get near the Wheel of Fortune slots, and the Wild Fire slots were getting a steady feed of $20 bills. The table games were so crowded that you couldn't approach a hand of blackjack or pai gow.

By the looks of Table Mountain Casino and others in the region, you'd never know that California's San Joaquin Valley has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country or that many people are having to choose between buying groceries and paying utility bills.

But then the appeal of hitting it big on a slot machine often trumps good sense. There's a certain exhilaration in wondering whether you're going to win thousands of dollars on the next slot machine pull or go on a long winning streak at the Texas-hold'em table.

Even our state government plays on the gambling gene that many Californians seem to have.

So like it or not, California is a gambling state. We haven't yet reached Nevada proportions, but don't bet against us getting there.

Some say this trend will pass. But if there's a gambling saturation point in a region where casinos are popping up everywhere, we're not close to it yet.

In a supposed uncertain economy, where's all this gambling cash that slips so easily out of our hands coming from? Dr. William Thomp-

son, a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, says casino gambling will continue to increase in California for some time, but it will be at the expense of other consumer spending. Casinos change the flow of money in a community, but they don't create much new money.

Thompson's studies show that gamblers' proximity to casinos has a direct impact on how much they will lose. The average American has about $350 a year in gambling losses, he said, but the average Nevada resident loses about $1,000 annually. Thompson expects Californians will approach the Nevada numbers as more casinos are built closer to population centers.

If he's correct, that means millions of dollars in the San Joaquin Valley will be shifted from other spending activities to casinos. Local opinion makers need to factor these changes into the economic models they rely on in the Valley. But there's not a lot of talk about casino gambling when the economic development experts get together.

Some of the casino spending will be helpful to a local economy. The casinos add much-needed jobs, not just on the casino floor, but also in the restaurants, hotel rooms and related facilities. The Indian casinos are now looking at making their facilities overnight destinations by adding hotels, spas and swimming pools.

One thing is certain in the Valley: We've yet to see the full impact of Indian casinos. But we know that as gambling grows locally, things will change in ways that many of us haven't thought a lot about.

How many expected that the spartan bingo hall established in 1988 at Table Mountain would become a full-blown casino with slot machines and table games?

No matter how they pay for their gambling, casinos will change the spending habits of many people. Keeping a car an extra year would give someone $1,000 that year for gambling, Thompson points out. And Thompson said this isn't even taking into account the compulsive gamblers, whose numbers will increase as casinos are added.

This is such a huge issue that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, like his predecessors, has been trying to get the Indian casinos to pay their fair share of gambling proceeds to the state in lieu of taxes. He's made some progress, but the compacts that he's negotiated won't be paying the state nearly what he had hoped.

Gambling is only going to increase, and it's time that local governments, business leaders and others concerned about the future stop thinking this is a passing phenomenon. Those slot machines aren't going away.

Jim Boren writes for The Fresno Bee.