"I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!"

Capt. Renault, Casablanca

Last week, the state Gaming Study Commission held a hearing to discuss, among other things, the potential impact gambling industry campaign contributions could have on the political process. At one point, Rich Killion, spokesman for Millenium Gaming, the company that wants to install video slot machines at Salem's Rockingham Park, told the committee that he found it "insulting they (gambling opponents) allege that elected officials will be impacted by an industry." Killion was shocked, shocked, by the notion that money and industry lobbyists influence lawmakers.

A distinction must be drawn between "impacting lawmakers" and corruption. Industries spend millions of dollars each year in New Hampshire and hire scores of lobbyists, who, though they might prefer to think of themselves as legislative "educators," struggle mightily to influence legislation.

Industries support one political candidate over another specifically because that candidate favors their views or because politicians might listen more closely to someone who's handed their campaigns a fat check.

Pennsylvania's casino industry pumped $4.3 million into that state's political campaigns over the past seven years, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. One-fourth of that went to the campaigns of Gov. Ed Rendell. The extent of the industry's influence may be shocking, but not its involvement.

Corruption is another matter. New Hampshire has been blessedly free of examples of it. Cynics might ascribe that to a lack of scrutiny, but few New Hampshire politicians have been led away in handcuffs for crimes committed in their capacity as lawmakers. Will that change if the state opens its doors to casinos, racinos and other forms of widespread legalized gambling? Experience elsewhere suggests it's a distinct possibility.

More worrisome, however, is the likelihood that the gambling industry's financial clout will allow it to overwhelm the resources of its opponents. But most worrisome of all is the certainty that once a state opens its doors to expanded gambling and becomes dependent on its revenue - revenue that declined in almost every state that relies on casinos and lotteries to help fund government - there's no turning back.