GAMBLING ADDICT'S SURVIVORS MAY ASK VOTERS TO OVERTURN GAME

SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Friends and relatives of a man who committed
suicide after becoming hooked on video poker are hoping to ask Oregon
voters to pull the plug on the game two years from now.

The video poker opponents gathered on the front steps of the Capitol
Tuesday to remember Bob Hafemann, a Milwaukie man who fatally shot
himself three years ago after falling deeply into gambling-related
debt.

Hafemann's sister, Rhonda Hatefi, said her brother enjoyed his life as
a $45,000-a-year steelworker before he became addicted to the Oregon
Lottery's video poker game and lost his life's savings.

"He only paid his rent. He let all of his other bills slide," Hatefi
told reporters. "His death has devastated us as a family."

Tom Grey, executive director of the National Coalition Against Lottery
Expansion, said he will help Hatefi and others with an initiative
campaign in 2000 aimed at ending or at least curtailing
state-sponsored gambling.

Grey, who lives in Hanover, Ill., said the campaign will be launched
soon after this November's election to give gambling opponents plenty
of time to round up signatures for the ballot two years from now.

To give voters a choice, the opponents plan to push one initiative to
get rid of the Lottery altogether and another one to ban just video
poker -- by far the biggest moneymaker of the Lottery's games.

"Our ultimate goal is to eliminate video poker," he said. "We see it
as the crack cocaine of gambling."

The opponents will have their work cut out for them, though, because
various polls have indicated wide public support for the highly
profitable game.

"I think people understand that if the Lottery were to go away, you
would lose $500 million in state revenue," said David Hooper,
spokesman for the Oregon Lottery. "You would either have to lose
services or increase taxes."

Plus, he said, the state has allocated $4.5 million to run a 24-hour
telephone hot line and treatment programs for problem gamblers, who
make up about 3 percent of the total number of people who play the
lottery.

Still, Grey and other opponents said the state's own estimates are
that there are more than 70,000 problem gamblers in Oregon and that
state government is cashing in on those people's addiction.

"Obviously, we've got a feeding frenzy in this state," he
said.

Hafemann's father, Harvey, said he knows only that video poker ruined
his son's life.

"He was trying to stop, but video poker took him down a road of no
return," he said.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry