Gambling Revenues

* While legalized gambling has grown significantly during the last decade, the industry is not the $550-billion behemoth described in your Aug. 16 editorial. Although $550 billion was the gross amount wagered last year, industry revenues totaled $44 billion. A typical casino game “pays back” about 90 cents on the dollar; state-run lotteries pay back in the neighborhood of 50 cents.

Now that you know that the industry is less than one-tenth as big as you feared, I trust that in the future your readers can look forward to 90% less hand wringing on the gambling issue.

DEAN W. HESTERMANN

Manager, Policy Analysis

and Research

Harrah’s Entertainment

Memphis, Tenn.

* If, as The Times asserts, legal gambling represents a $550.3 billion annual industry; and that we have a $4.9 trillion national debt, why not mandate a 1% federal tax on all gaming establishments on all gross revenues with the receipts going directly to retiring the national debt? An advantage is that this is all voluntary revenue. Isn’t “skimming” a historically known practice? After all, the United States certainly provides “protection.” Finally, “a billion here and a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money!”

LELAND P. HAMMERSCHMITT

Ojai