November 15th, 2004
Initiative 892 goes down in flames!
Voters reject I-892 by over 60% No vote.

Contact: Steve Zemke
206-366-0811
stevezemke@msn.com

Seattle, WA—Initiatives sometimes sneak by voters who afterwards realize that they voted wrong when they see the consequences of their actions. Regarding I-892 there was no question that Tim Eyman's attempt to characterize this measure as a property tax cut was something only a fool would believe in earnest. Sure some people voted for it hoping for an Eyman much hyped state property tax break.

But Initiative 892 was really a massive attempt to expand gambling in Washington State. It would have gotten the State even more in the business of promting gambling as gambling even for a state is addictive. There's always the desire to "win" a little more. Pretty soon the state is pumping money into advertising because revenue is coming up short so they promote gambling some more so the state can "win" some more.

One interesting figure to note is that over 40% of gambling money comes from addicted gamblers. So rather than helping what is already a largely unfunded problem in our state, I-892 would have added to this problem. Sure Eyman put in a small amount of the "net win" for helping addicted gamblers but based on the figures given out by the state it would fall have fallen far short of helping the new gambling addicts I-892 would create, let alone the old one..

A 1999 study done for the Washington State Lottery Commission projected that as many as 102,000 Washington residents are addicted to gambling. They estimated that problem gambling per person cost over $11,000 in lost productivity, social services and creditor losses. A very excellent article by Jennifer Latson of the Olympian written on Oct. 10, 2004 going into significant detail on problem gambling can be found here.

One can find more information on problem gambling at the website for Second Chance Washington. The site address is www.secondchancewa.org.

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