The gaming company whose chief executive favors Starbucks-style legalized gambling told casino-free states Friday that they are losing out as their residents flee across the border to wager.

Harrah's Entertainment unleashed a blitz of state-specific press releases, using data from company-funded studies to note how many times residents from each of 11 states gamble at casinos.

Gamblers in casino-less Pennsylvania, for instance, made 8.9 million trips to casinos last year, Harrah's found.

"Pennsylvania residents are voting with their feet and pocketbooks for casino entertainment," Harrah's CEO Gary Loveman said. "Unfortunately for them, Pennsylvania public policy insists they cross state lines to do so."

Loveman had a similar message in press releases customized for Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Virginia.

Loveman believes casino-style gambling is benign entertainment that should be widely available to adults.

Each Harrah's release pointed out that adult gamblers took anywhere from 1.3 million (Oklahoma) to 13.5 million (New York) casino trips last year.

Each of the listed states has little or no casino-style gambling and in each state the gambling debate is ripe.

"We want to contribute to the policy debate, to provide some objective data on their citizens' current preferences for casino gaming and their travel patterns," said Dean Hestermann, Harrah's director of public affairs.

"We would like the message to get through that people all over the United States are enjoying casino gaming, regardless of whether casinos are legal and located in any particular state. It only makes sense for them to try to capture at least a portion of that spending," Hestermann said.

Tom Grey, executive director for the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, said it was telling that Harrah's did not tout economic development, jobs, tax revenue or entertainment in its message.

"What the industry's campaign has been reduced to is they have to say to legislators, 'Mug 'em in your state before they get mugged across the border.' If that's the best they can do, I'm licking my chops," Grey said.

Hestermann said Harrah's does not want to be seen as lobbying for gambling legislation. Having "Las Vegas casino interests" push for gambling can backfire, he said.

"One of the things we've learned in the gaming-expansion debate over the last decade is that there's not much casino companies can do to really push a state toward casino gaming," Hestermann said.

"We can only provide information and be there as a resource, and if the survey serves that goal we're very happy," he said.

Grey said Harrah's survey and press releases are clearly political tools, and poor ones at that.

In "Harrah's Survey 2003: Profile of the American Casino Gambler," released Friday, Harrah's found that Atlantic City was the destination for 74 percent of all casino trips from Pennsylvania.

Atlantic City was also the top choice for casino gamblers from New York, (53 percent of all trips), Maryland (50 percent) and Virginia (26 percent).

It was the second- or third-most popular choice for gamblers from Connecticut (4 percent), Delaware (18 percent), Massachusetts (4 percent), New Hampshire (9 percent), North Carolina (22 percent), South Carolina (15 percent) and West Virginia (11 percent).

Among metropolitan areas, Atlantic City was the destination for 82 percent of all casino trips from Philadelphia, 74 percent from New York City, 55 percent from Baltimore, 35 percent from Washington, D.C., and 30 percent from Pittsburgh.

At the casinos, Harrah's found that gamblers' favorite restaurant type is the buffet (57 percent), their favorite casino song is Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas" (34 percent), their roulette bet of choice is a favorite or lucky number (60 percent), and their favor card suit is hearts (40 percent).

Harrah's found that casino gamblers are more responsible than non-players with their personal finances and travel and eat out more. Gamblers, though, are far less likely to pray.

Harrah's prepared its report from three studies conducted by Roper ASW and NFO WorldGroup. They included face-to-face interviews with 2,000 adults, a mail survey of 100,000 adults and a mail survey of 3,300 adults.

The 32-page report is available online at:

www.harrahs.com/about_us/survey/

By JOE WEINERT www.pressofatlanticcity.com, (609) 272-7221, E-Mail JWeinert@pressofac.com