Deseret News (Salt Lake City): Utah's gambling crisis

If Utah can't pass laws prohibiting Internet gambling, it will have lost a large measure of its ability to define what people in this part of the country consider to be proper conduct. And recent efforts by law enforcers, such as Salt lake County Sheriff Aaron Kennard, to head off the rising popularity of poker tournaments will begin to ring hollow.

That's why the Bush administration needs to demand a renegotiation of trade agreements that concern international gambling.

The World Trade Organization ruled in favor of tiny Antigua last week in its fight against anti-gambling laws in the United States. The ruling effectively negates Utah's laws against Internet gambling, which is a main staple of Antigua's economy.

Utah's official aversion to gambling is not just a quaint holdover from some by-gone Puritan era. It is backed by sound logic and a desire to avoid the societal costs and economic squandering brought on by games of chance. No one is naive enough to believe state laws can stop all forms of private gambling, or that it can keep people from traveling across state lines to play lotteries or visit casinos, but the laws clearly state an official position that reflects popular will.

Now, despite reports to the contrary in some media outlets, all of that is in jeopardy. While one expert says Utah's laws are not in jeopardy, several other experts have looked carefully at this and think they are.

More than a decade ago, U.S. negotiators botched a section of an international trade agreement. They agreed to terms that failed to recognize the rights of individual states within the United States to set their own laws on gambling, and they allowed a cross-border supply of gambling services.

We frankly don't expect a small, politically insignificant state such as Utah to warrant that kind of attention in Washington, but we do expect the administration to take notice of what this ruling could do to other states that already allow gambling. It could negate a state's right to run the only lottery within its borders. It could keep them from limiting casinos to Indian reservations. It could, in other words, open all forms of gambling to competition.

The rise in legalized gambling in recent years has made many states dependent on money they collect in exchange for the minuscule hope that the person paying can reap a fortune. Much of the money comes from low-income people who can least afford to pay. In many cases, the actual winners end up destitute a few years later, having found themselves unable to deal with the sudden windfall.

People ought to support their local and state governments with taxes based on real, demonstrated need. They need to scrutinize public officials, then pay with the understanding that vital services and infrastructure will be provided in return. They should support government because it might make them rich.

And even if nearly all other states disagree with that position, Utah needs the right to put its position in law.