Virtues guru Bennett: 'Gambling days over'

Christian Century, May 31, 2003

While most conservative Christians in the United States see gambling as a vice, Bill Bennett doesn't think so. Or at least he didn't until many of his fellow conservatives began criticizing him for recently publicized revelations about his massive gambling habit.

Bennett is a conservative hero for his many books, speeches and columns calling for a return of the virtues to public life. He served as education secretary under President Ronald Reagan and as drug czar under the elder President George Bush.

On May 5, he announced he was giving up gambling after an investigation by two magazines revealed he had a gambling habit that, according to casino records, cost him $8 million in losses over the past ten years. Bennett disputed the numbers, saying that casino officials' numbers did not accurately reflect his winnings.

But he did not dispute reports by Newsweek and the Washington Monthly that he was a regular VIP customer at several casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas. He has been known to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single night on slot machines or poker games, the publications said.

Bennett also said he is not addicted to gambling. "I play fairly high stakes. I adhere to the law. I don't play the 'milk money,'" Bennett said, according to Newsweek. "I don't put my family at risk, and I don't owe anyone anything." According to USA Today, Elayne Bennett maintained that her husband gambles only four or five times a year and that the family is financially solvent.

Several prominent columnists, such as Slate magazine's Michael Kinsley, criticized Bennett for hypocrisy. On May 5, several of Bennett's usual allies among conservative Protestants also criticized him. "We were disappointed to learn that our longtime friend, Dr. Bill Bennett, is dealing with what appears to be a gambling addiction," said Focus on the Family founder James Dobson in a press release. "'Gaming,' as the industry emphatically refers to itself, is a cancer on the soul of the nation."

In his statement, Bennett did not say gambling is wrong, but that he has "done too much" of it and that his "gambling days are over."--ABP