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Conservative Crusader's Losses Top $8 Million

"The Washington Monthly said on its Web site that `over the last decade Bennett has made dozens of trips to casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, where he is a preferred customer at several of them, and sources and documents put his total losses at more than $8 million.'

"In an article that depends on much of the same reporting, the online version of Newsweek said 40 pages of internal casino documents show Bennett received treatment typical of high-stakes gamblers, including limousines and `tens of thousands of dollars in complimentary hotel rooms and other amenities.'

"...The fact of Bennett's gambling is not new. He has said over the years that he likes to gamble and that it relaxes him.

"...The magazines said that in one two-month period, Bennett wired one casino more than $1.4 million to cover his losses.

"The magazines said he earns $50,000 for each appearance on the lecture circuit, where he inveighs against various sins, weaknesses and vices of modern culture. But he exempts gambling from this list.

"He has said in the past that he does not consider gambling a moral issue. When his interviewers reminded him of studies that link heavy gambling with a variety of societal and family ills, Bennett said he did not have a problem himself and likened gambling to drinking alcohol.

"`I view it as drinking,' he said. `If you can't handle it, don't do it.'

"Bennett is popular among social conservatives, but many of them consider gambling a serious problem.

"...During the 1990s, leaders of the conservative Christian Coalition joined with other religious leaders to create the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling..."

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