TALLAHASSEE -- The hidden costs of expanded gambling in Florida include more compulsive gambling, increased crime and a government addicted to revenue generated by people's losses, a former House speaker and an economics professor warned lawmakers Friday.

Marco Rubio, former House speaker and U.S Senate candidate, joined leaders of the Christian Coalition and the Florida Baptist Convention at a news conference to condemn legislators for considering allowing more gambling in the state.

''There is a real moral issue with asking government to expand its operations to be increasingly dependent on an activity we should be discouraging, not encouraging,'' said Rubio, a Republican from Miami.

He and former state Rep. Dennis Baxley acknowledged the state's difficulties trying to provide sufficient government services while facing a $3 billion budget hole but warned that relying on gambling was a dangerous trade-off.

GRIM PREDICTION

''This plan to expand predatory gambling with the tribes and with existing parimutuels will cause extensive damage to Florida families,'' warned Baxley, a former Ocala legislator who now is director of the Christian Coalition of Florida.

For the state to collect a projected $1 billion in revenues from gambling, Baxley said, gamblers would have to lose $7 billion.

''Some things you just don't do, no matter how broke you are,'' he said.

Baxley was among many Republican lawmakers who signed a no-tax pledge during his eight years in Tallahassee, but Friday he said that to fill the budget hole he would prefer a broad-based tax increase over an increase in gambling.

''These are serious times,'' he said. ``But almost any budget-cutting or revenue-enhancing plan would be better than the destructive plan that is being presented today.''

The Florida House is pushing a plan to allow the governor to enter into a gambling compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida that would allow the tribe to continue offering Las Vegas-style slot machines but halting blackjack and other house-banked card games. The tribe started operating Class III slot machines and card games like blackjack at its Hard Rock casinos after reaching an agreement with Gov. Charlie Crist in November 2007, but the compact was later invalidated by a court.

THE OTHER EXTREME

A Senate committee this week passed a bill that takes gambling to the other extreme, giving the tribe full-fledged casinos, with games like roulette and craps. South Florida racinos would get blackjack. All other horse and dog tracks around the state would be allowed to operate video slot machines, which pit players against each other.

''It's fool's gold,'' Rubio said of the revenue a gambling expansion might generate. ``Much of this money is already being spent elsewhere in the economy.''

The House committee charged with writing the gambling bills heard Friday from a Baylor University economics professor and anti-gambling advocate Earl Grinols, who testified that if Florida increases its gambling presence, it will see an increase in crime.

He said half of all gambling revenues gleaned by casino operations, particularly slot machines, are generated by problem or pathological gamblers. He said most visitors to casinos live within 35 miles of a casino and if one is built in an already established tourist destination, it will siphon off business from existing companies.

''It's not new revenue and it's not new tourists, even though it may get reported as new revenues,'' he said.

Grinols, who was reimbursed $1,100 for his travel but received no speaker's fee, cited anecdotal examples of horror stories about compulsive gamblers who committed suicide, ruined their family's finances or committed felony crimes because of gambling addictions.

But several lawmakers challenged his assumptions and his data.

`I'M AFRAID'

''I've listened to your presentation and now I'm afraid to go home,'' said Rep. Joe Gibbons, a Hallandale Beach Democrat whose district includes two casinos established within the last two years. ``And in those last two years, our crime rate has gone down.''

Grinols responded that it usually takes three years for new casinos to have an impact on crime.

Mary Ellen Klas can be reached at meklas@MiamiHerald.com