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Church Gambling Grinds to a Halt in Kentucky

It's summer in the Heartland and that means church picnics. Well, the summer of '97 will go down in history as the time when the Catholic Church put a screeching halt to a traditional activity at those picnics...gambling. The Cincinnati Post reported that casino-style gambling will be severely curtailed in Northern Kentucky under new guidelines being prepared by the Covington Diocese.

"We're proposing serious restrictions on casino-type gaming. Basically, casino games are to be avoided," said the Rev. Roger Kriege, vicar general for the Kentucky diocese. Rev. Kriege plans to take a draft of the guidelines to the priests' council soon. The council then will recommend a policy to Bishop Robert Muench. "They will work to develop a long-term plan with clear parameters," said Rev. Kriege.

Popular casino-style games at Catholic festivals include Black Jack, Beat the Dealer, Jumbo Poker, Big Six, Chuck-a-Luck and various types of wheels.

In Kentucky, priests are reluctant to talk about the issue but say the new policy will require some creative thinking.

"We're going to have to change our booths around. We've got some new ideas," said a Covington priest who would not give his name to a Post reporter. "Instead of Big Six or instead of Horse Race, we have to come up with some replacements for those."

But it would be going just too far to restrict the mainstay of U.S. Catholic fund-raisers, bingo. Rev. Kriege said traditional games such as bingo are OK for the time being. "Pull tabs can go on for a little while but are not to be expanded," he said. Pull tabs are similar to scratch-off lottery tickets.

"It's hard to say what they're going to define as casino-style games," said the Rev. Mark Keene, pastor of St. Benedict Church in Covington, which has had Black Jack and poker games at past festivals.

Driving the diocese's new policy, in part, is the church's opposition to legalized gambling in Kentucky. "We figure we need to have our house in order. It gets back to stewardship and ethical consistency," Rev. Kriege said.

In December, the priests' council voted 13-0 to ban casino gambling at all parishes, institutions and diocesan properties, according to the diocesan newspaper The Messenger. In January, Bishop Muench affirmed his support of the ban.

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