Video: Groups want to ban casinos in Lakewood

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LAKEWOOD, Wash. – Residents in this Tacoma suburb could decide this fall whether to prohibit mini-casinos inside the city limits.

A volunteer group called Save Lakewood says it has enough signatures to put an anti gambling initiative on the November ballot. The group presented its petitions to the city Tuesday afternoon.

The ban would mean a hit for the city's budget. Eleven percent of a card room's gross revenue goes to the city. Last year, that translated into $2.8 million for the general fund.

But initiative organizer David Anderson says the cost to gambling addicts and their families outweighs any benefits.

"We've had people come to us and tell us that story. That they have lost tens of thousands of dollars to casinos. That they've contemplated suicide, lost custody of their kids and ended up in divorce when they get home," said Anderson.

Dolores Chiechi, executive director of Washington state's Recreational Gambling Association says closing casinos in Lakewood will only send gamblers to one of the state's 75 other non-tribal card rooms.

She also claims the casinos offer help to those with gambling problems.

"That's why our industry, our members, the horse racing tracks, the lottery, the tribes, they all contribute money to state programs to increase treatment, raise awareness for people who have issues with problem gambling," said Chiechi.

Since card rooms were first allowed in Washington state in 1997, more than 60 cities enacted bans on so-called mini-casinos.

This is the first use of the initiative process in Lakewood since the Initiative and Referendum powers were adopted in 2005.