FLASHBACK 1988: Lottery champion Arlo James has become a master politician when it comes to fighting for a cause he is sure will benefit all Utahns. 

click to enlarge

In commemoration of City Weekly's 40th anniversary, we are digging into our archives to celebrate. Each week, we FLASHBACK to a story or column from our past in honor of four decades of local alt-journalism. Whether the names and issues are familiar or new, we are grateful to have this unique newspaper to contain them all.

Title: Don't Blame Arlo James
Author: Richard Barnum-Reece
Date: March 1988

click to enlarge

Standing there, watching the scene unfold, it's a little like the embarrassment of seeing a secret smile at a mortuary viewing. You've got Joy Beech—Utah's self-empowered matron of morality and punishment to those wicked souls who would enjoy—phooey! Spit the vile thought right out of your mouth!—such evils as, say, a sidelong glance at a Playboy or Playgirl centerfold, and she's presently lobbying Arlo James, a legislator in the Utah House of Representatives.

Arlo James is the Democrat from Kearns who would like to save the little guy a few bucks each year by sponsoring an annual Utah lottery, something he figures would save Utah more than $50 million smackers a year and lower the taxes of the average Joe Mormon and non-Mormon alike about $100 each April...

... "The problem is the way they've defined abstinence in this textbook they plan to use up at Weber College," one of Beech's minions is saying. The woman looks like she'd been beat up by life before seeing the light and the way and finally finding Jesus. "They say abstinence doesn't mean you can't have sex. It means you can lead up to everything but sexual intercourse. We don't see that as abstinence at all."

She's dressed in a plain gingham dress; looking like she popped out of a TV commercial for the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, still putting her shoulder against the wheel of that oversized handcart, still waiting for the fruits of the gospel. And Arlo, who is a politician, don't you ever forget it, and who knows how deeply powerful this self-empowered group of Citizens for True Decency is (okay, maybe they've come up with a new name recently, but you get the idea) is listening. Intently. And beneath the silver threads lining his hair and behind that regimental tie, that blue blazer, and the studied look of a legislator, he's thinking the thoughts that have brought him to this: amending the state constitution.

That's what it will take before Utah will join 46 other states in the country and have its own state-empowered lottery: a constitutional amendment. So, he's thinking, where will Joy Beech and the other Citizens for True Decency be when it comes down to the state-sponsored lottery? Where will they be then?

"In every poll that's ever been taken, by the Deseret News, the Tribune, Dan Jones and Associates—everyone who has ever taken a poll—the result has been that the people of the state are in favor of a state lottery," James says, pushing his silver-framed glasses back a bit on his nose as he talks. "I think the polls are a true representation of what the people of this state want. The problem is we don't live in a democracy in Utah. The people don't control what they want. The state legislature does.

"And unless we're able to put together a referendum-petition during this next general election where the people can vote to change the constitution of the state, then the legislature will continue to kill any attempt to provide a state lottery that produces revenue for this state and we'll continue to have a gold flow of more than $40 million a year leaving Utah and going into Wyoming and Nevada and Idaho and Arizona—where you can find either gambling or state lotteries."

"We will write the amendment to this offending paragraph so that it is in line with state law," says Mrs. Beech, who has now stepped in to control the conversation with Representative James. "And we just want to know if we can count on your support in the committee."

"You people are for education aren't you?" James asks.

"Yes—proper education," interjects the minion.

"Well, now you're saying proper education," he says. "I'm saying education. We're concerned for example, about the alarming incidence of AIDS that has been reported this year, 45 cases. We think education is an important deterrent to that kind of problem."

"Do you know that there has not been one case of heterosexual AIDS reported in the state of Utah?" asks Beech. "Did you know that?"

Arlo ignores the ramifications of Beech's inquiry. "Well," he says, "I think the bill itself has some real advantages and I don't have any problem with your two amendments. I'm a father and I think I successfully raised my children."

Yes, says Arlo, he's raised a few kids and he'll admit that he was the ruler of his home. He spent 30-some-odd years at Kennecott Copper, putting in his time, and he knows a little about give and take and standing up for a person's rights. And right now what he's standing up for is the right of the people of the state of Utah to rule for themselves if they should have a state lottery or not.

click to enlarge

"The first time we brought a bill before the full house—it was the only time in fact that we got it to the floor of the house—it was voted down 47 to 15," says James, tugging a bit at his tie as he explains the lottery's history and his plans. "Since then it has been tabled in committee by the same people every year. When it was on the floor of the house we had bipartisan support for it: eight Democrats and seven Republicans. So it isn't a politically divisive issue, party to party. Right now we're just going to have to change the Utah Constitution and to do that, we're going to have to get 5 percent of the voter population of 13 counties to sign a petition to put it on the general ballot."

It happens that James got together a petition that picked up 4.2 percent of the voter population of 29 counties and the referendum-petition was thrown out because he didn't have the right numbers. But he's planning on going back into the cities and getting the numbers to put the issue before the voters, he says, and he thinks he's doing the right thing. "I'm LDS myself," he says.

Indeed. If James has his way the state will have a lottery and 51 percent of the revenue from that lottery will, by law, go to education. That will relieve a good many of the current problems the legislature is presently tackling thanks to its lack of revenue. And the legislature can determine where it wants to spend the rest, says James.

"We are mandated by the federal government to provide for the education of the deaf and blind and handicapped and that calls for just over $50 million each year," he explains. "Why not mandate that the money goes directly to support the school for the deaf and blind in Ogden? That would free up money for other worthwhile purposes."

The Representative from Kearns went on a fact-finding trip back East and he discovered that other states were providing free medical prescriptions for senior citizens with their lotteries; doing public good with the revenues. James likes that idea and he says that what with the money leaving this state every year anyway it's senseless to continue to subsidize the lotteries and gambling establishments of Nevada, the parimutuel betting in Wyoming, and the lotteries in Arizona and Idaho.

"There's nothing wrong with a Utahn buying a lottery ticket in another state," he explains. "You just can't purchase it through the mail. But if you think a fella doesn't buy enough lottery tickets for his whole family when he goes up into Idaho I'd say you were making a mistake."

James says that any fool who goes to Wendover or Evanston, to the gambling hotels or to the race horses, only needs to look at the license plates on the cars to see that nine-tenths of the people are from Utah. That's a sign, he allows. And Utah's legislators should be able to read that sign and take advantage of it. "I've talked to people in St. George who say they figure they're losing $125,000 a week to Mesquite and Vegas," says James. "Don't you think there are Mormons who live in Nevada who are benefitting from the gambling there? People in Moab say they figure they're losing maybe $90,000 a week to Colorado and their lottery.

"The net profit from gambling in the United States is 160 billion dollars—$160 billion," he says. "Only four states, Utah, Hawaii, Illinois and Missouri lack a lottery. The rest of the country divides up that $160 billion in profit and I think they do it at our expense.

As to creating the lottery, it would be a simple investment of $1.5 million by the state which would be paid back in the first month of ticket sales," says James. "In Oregon the Safeway stores bought $10 million in tickets in one swipe," he says. "The retailers want to handle the tickets because it brings people into their stores and those same people purchase other goods."

Is the Utah legislature unable to move ahead on the lottery because of the influence of the Mormon Church?

"Well, let me put it this way," says James. "There have been times when the church has put pressure on legislators but I have personally never been directly lobbied by the church in eight years as a state representative. But I can tell you this, the church has a very strong influence. They have a heck of an influence. In the House of Representatives there are 27 bishops and 13 former stake presidents or bishops. I wouldn't say that the church runs the state but they have a very strong influence.

click to enlarge

"I just think that the people of the state haven't been given an opportunity to vote on this and they should be given that opportunity," he continues. "It should be on the ballot. This has been a democracy of the legislature, for the legislature, and by the state legislature. I think it's time we had a democracy for, of and by the people of this state and on this one I'm fighting for the people to make the decision for themselves and I'm not going to throw in the towel. If I can get it to the people, I know it will go."