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BY LINDA WORTHINGTON
UMCONNECTION STAFF

Everyone expected it to pass, but they were wrong. Gambling interests in West Virginia received an unexpected setback with the defeat of proposed legislation to allow casino-style table games gambling at four county racetracks. The bill was defeated by a huge margin of 1,200 votes in a special election June 9.

The defeat came in Jefferson County, the site of West Virginia?s premier racetrack, Charles Town Races and Slots, because of the passionate and concentrated campaign waged by the Rev. Doug Fraim and a small band of believers, working out of Bolivar UMC.

Supporters of the bill were confident of a win when the state Senate passed the measure with some changes from the original earlier this year. The House then re-approved the bill with the changes.

One of those supporters, Penn National Gaming, owner of the Charles Town racetrack, had already constructed a new building to house the 72 games the law would allow, and made $200 million expansion plans, including parking garages and a hotel, reported Casino Gambling Web, an online newsletter.

A real estate agent in Fraim?s church said she had already sold a house to someone who would be a dealer in the anticipated new enterprise.

Other gambling interests poured money into the effort to allow table gaming, such as poker, blackjack and roulette, at the four racetracks.

Dennis Sparks, the executive director of the West Virginia Council of Churches, said that the gambling industry promised a bonus to their employees when the final vote was in.

'They?re paying a bonus,' Sparks said. 'If they win, they?re saying they?ll give every employee a $500 bonus.'

But before the legislation could take effect, each of the four counties that hosts the racetracks had to decide whether to allow the gaming tables at their facilities. That?s what the June 9 vote was about. And that?s where Jefferson County voters said 'no.'

How did Fraim and the Vote No Group beat the odds and defeat the legislation?

'We had going for us that the representative in our area switched sides,' Fraim said. John Doyle, who represented Jefferson County in the state legislature, had originally voted for the bill. When it was amended and sent back to the House, the division of the earnings from the table gaming was changed, giving more to the gambling industry, less to the state, and far less to the four counties where the racetracks are located.

Only about 3 percent ($1.5 million) would go to the schools, Fraim said, out of many millions needed. Promised support of education is a big reason people support gambling expansion. Ten percent would go to the state government, but that would be divided between 51 counties, not just the four counties with race tracks.

'In debate, it wasn?t a moral or ethical issue,' Fraim said. The opposition sprung up because 'they' were taking all the money and not leaving it in Jefferson County.

Fraim organized members of his church, volunteers from other churches and others in the community to form the group that worked to convince the voters that table games weren?t good for the county. It?s a small group, about 11 women and three men, Fraim said.

They plastered the county with 350 'Vote No' signs, went door-to-door with flyers detailing the drawbacks of the bill, did local TV spots, published letters-to-the-editor in four regional newspapers, held three debates, and inundated mailboxes with letters the last week before the vote. Local radio and television news frequently mentioned the issue and the campaign.

Fraim preached for three weeks on the topic at the three churches he serves. 'I let them know what the Discipline says (in Para. 163G of The Social Principles),' he said.

The effort also rested on a lot of prayers, he said. 'Without prayers going up, it never would have happened.'

While the gambling interests poured in millions of dollars, Fraim?s group spent about $12,000, to which the Baltimore-Washington Conference social justice ministries contributed around $3,000. The rest, Fraim said, will come from some of the 85 churches in the county, as well as committed individuals.

Fraim and others have no illusions that this is the end of the fight. He?s called the Vote No Group together for a victory dinner, but also to start planning strategy for the future. The 'no tables gaming' legislation is only good for two years.

'Table games died in Jefferson County,' said the Rev. Al Clipp, pastor of Calvary UMC in Martinsburg, 'until the next resurrection attempt by gaming supporters.'

SIDEBAR:

The Discipline on gambling

Para. 163G: Gambling is a menace to society, deadly to the best interests of moral, social, economic, and spiritual life, and destructive of good government. As an act of faith and concern, Christians should abstain from gambling and should strive to minister to those victimized by the practice. Where gambling has become addictive, the Church will encourage such individuals to receive therapeutic assistance so that the individual?s energies may be redirected into positive and constructive ends. The Church should promote standards and personal lifestyles that would make unnecessary and undesirable the resort to commercial gambling - including public lotteries - as a recreation, as an escape, or as a means of producing public revenue or funds for support of charities or government.