The state of Washington has had legalized gambling for most of a century. Pari-mutuel horse-race betting was established with the opening of the Longacres course in 1933. The state now has five tracks. The Longacres facility was purchased by Boeing Aircraft Company for plant use.
The state also has a government-operated lottery under control of the Washington State Lottery Commission. The lottery was authorized in 1982. The state’s most popular games are instant tickets. It also offers lotto and daily numbers games. Additionally, gambling games may be conducted by charities, by amusement centers for children, and by commercial establishments in the form of casino table games; pull tabs, including video pull-tab machines; and punch boards. The machines, which may also include a daily keno game, are under the supervision of the lottery.
There are sixteen Native American casinos operating under state-negotiated compacts, pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. Table games have been authorized through compacts; however, machines have not been, although the tribes utilize machines that appear to be slot machines anyway, and they have operated them while the state was unsuccessful in winning federal support to stop their play.
In 1996, the voters of the state were asked to approve slot machines for the tribes. Only 44 percent were in favor of the machines. The state also authorizes instant video ticket machines (IVTMs) to dispense instant lottery tickets (scratch-off tickets) directly to a buying public that inserts currency into the machine for tickets. These machines can be placed in any location in the state and dispense tickets twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year.
Bingo games are conducted for charities and at Native American facilities as live games. Bingo is also conducted through satellite operations connecting Native American casinos in Washington to ones in other states. Additionally, bingo is conducted through electronic machines.
Washington authorized commercial public card rooms in 1976. Initially, the games were basically player-banked games – poker and blackjack in which the deal rotated among players – until the legislature approved house-banked card games in 1997. The commission first approved a two-year test project, which allowed these commercial card rooms to essentially be full-scale casinos. They were allowed to have fifteen table games. The commercial minicasinos also could have banks of state-owned pull-tab machines and large boxes of pull tabs for sale. There was no limit on the number of machines. During the first six months of the test, the minicasinos had twenty-five-dollar limits per play; however, afterward the limits were raised to $100 for each play. The pilot project for having commercial (mini) casinos was ended in March 2000. The state deemed it a success, or so it must have done, for the project was made permanent. There are now approximately sixty such casinos. I toured casinos as a consultant for the Colville tribe in April 2000.
These minicasinos are not small facilities, as they offer players up to fifteen live casino games that operate almost identically to the casino table games found in Las Vegas. They certainly have the form and appearance of table games in Las Vegas. Considering the world of gambling, it may be suggested that fifteen tables represent not a minicasino, but rather an average-sized casino. Off the Las Vegas Strip, fifteen tables would be considered average or even a large casino facility. The minicasinos call themselves casinos.
Revenues from legalized gambling in Washington are substantial. In 1997, players gambled over $1.5 billion in legal facilities in the state, in non-Native American facilities. The players lost over $460 million of this amount. The addition of commercial minicasinos and expanded compacted Native American casinos and machine gaming makes the amount of gambling money much higher today—probably well over double the amount.
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