EDITORIAL: The ever-wider world of gambling

Desperate for new sources of revenue, elected officials in New York have developed a sharply stronger appetite for the complex taste of legal gambling. This week the state is expected to finally recognize a winner in the messy effort to put video slot machines at Aqueduct Racetrack. Meanwhile, the Shinnecock Indian Nation is busy examining locations in Nassau and Suffolk for a full-scale casino.

But before anyone starts counting the money - and dealing with the consequences of gambling closer to home - it's time to take note of a gaming development in Congress whose early rumblings could presage an earthquake. A House committee has approved a bill to legalize a good deal of Internet gambling. It's a step that could bring online gaming back to this country only a few years after Washington forced it offshore. Legal online gambling could bring in $42 billion in federal tax revenue over a decade, a congressional analysis suggests.

That raises some worries. Online gambling might cannibalize the business of betting venues already in place, to say nothing of the new ones about to leap off the drawing boards. Any federal windfall might come at the expense of states that depend on taxes from bricks-and-mortar gaming parlors. And bettors will have to muster some real willpower to withstand the temptation to gamble 24/7 without ever leaving the comforts of home.

Pay close attention to the players. Gambling involves winners and losers. hN