Gambling opponents, hoping to dissuade lawmakers from considering legalized betting as an option for balancing the budget, argued yesterday that gambling would undercut civil society and lead to increased crime, corruption and economic hardship.

Spurred by estimates of a $315.4 million deficit in fiscal year 2010 and a $549.8 million deficit in fiscal year 2011, state lawmakers have introduced eight bills that would legalize some form of gambling.

Hawai'i and Utah are the only states that do not allow any form of legal gambling.

Honolulu police, city prosecutors and members of the Hawaii Coalition Against Legalized Gambling spoke out against gambling yesterday.

"Does Hawai'i really need one more addiction," City Prosecuting Attorney Peter Carlisle asked at a capitol news conference. "We don't need it here in Honolulu."

"Gambling is not going to save the budget of the state of Hawai'i," said John Kindt, a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, who is in Honolulu to lobby against the bills. "You can't gamble your way to prosperity. It's such an outrageous drain on the economy."

Proposals include a plan that would introduce slot machines and video poker at hotels in Waikiki.

State Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, D-14th (Halawa, Moanalua, Kamehameha Heights) who introduced one of the bills, has said the machines would not be marketed to local residents, but the state needs to consider all options during tough economic times.

Rep. Joseph Souki, D-8th (Wailuku, Waihe'e, Waiehu) supports the creation of a gaming commission in Hawai'i and has said the state should consider the possibility of diverting some of the money that Hawai'i residents spend in Las Vegas.

State Rep. Marcus Oshiro, D-39th (Wahiawa), chairman of the House Finance Committee, said legalizing gambling would solve none of the state's budget problems in the short term and would create layers of expensive administration necessary to regulate and maintain it.

"From a fiscal and pragmatic point of view, it does not address the current near-term shortfall and that's where my efforts and energies are right now," Oshiro said. "Tremendous amounts of money go out of state each year, but on balance the social cost that would be imposed on the community outweighs any net gain on gaming revenues."

Carlisle said crime would increase if gambling is legalized in Hawai'i.

He mentioned the 2004 Pali Golf Course murders — where two men were gunned down following an argument over security at illegal gambling parlors — as the type of crime that comes out of high-stakes gambling operations.

Members of the Hawaii Coalition Against Legalized Gambling and the Honolulu Police Department's Narcotics Vice Division echoed Kindt's and Carlisle's remarks.

Honolulu police caution that the social problems created by gambling, legal or illegal, lead to increases in violent and property crime. The highs and lows associated with winning and losing money often force people into desperate situations and can lead to violence and theft.

Police captains Lester Hite and Louis Kealoha, who run the department's Narcotics/Vice division, both said the police department cannot back any measure that would create crime and jeopardize public safety.

"Because of the lure of easy money and big paydays, it will attract organized crime and encourage public corruption," Kealoha said. "Our first mission is public safety and protecting the community. We cannot support something that would strengthen the criminal element in our city."

Hite said the percentage of Hawai'i residents who gamble is "blown out of proportion" and that the negative aspects of losing large sums of money in a short period of time are never mentioned by gambling marketers.

"They don't show the opposite side of the picture. They don't show what happens to people when they lose," Hite said. "Our law enforcement officers in Las Vegas have told us about the pitfalls of gambling. The addiction aspect of it really scares us. That just doesn't sit well."