I have gambled before so please don't think I'm trying to say I am better than anyone else. I just don't think gaming is the answer for Dodge City and Ford County. This is a long post, so enjoy or hate it. Here's why:
by James C. Dobson, Ph.D.
Dear Friends,
Did you know that Americans gamble more money each year than they spend on groceries? 1 Or that more than $600 billion is wagered legally in the United States annually?2 Or that nearly one in five homeless people admit that gambling contributed to their poverty, and yet 37 percent said that they continue to gamble?3 Or that five to eight percent of American adolescents are already addicted to gambling?!4 Or that 75 percent of pathological gamblers admitted they had committed at least one felony to support their habit?5 Or that more money is spent on gambling in the State of Mississippi than on all retail sales combined?6 Or that a decade ago, only New Jersey and Nevada permitted casinos, but now 48 states have legalized some form of gambling?7 Or that more than 30,000 video poker machines, which are called the "crack cocaine of gambling,"8 are scattered through South Carolina, and that the governor who opposed them (David Beasley) was voted out in November?9 Or that children as young as four years of age can put money in those poker machines legally in South Carolina as long as they don’t accept their earnings?10 Or that the massive Las Vegas casino called "New York, New York" was completed in 1996 at a cost of $460 million,11 and more than half of it was paid for in a period of only one year?!12
Clearly, "gambling fever" has engulfed the nation and has penetrated every age group from the very young to the very old. It now threatens the work ethic and the very foundation of the family. Thirty years ago, gambling was widely understood in the culture to be addictive, progressive and dangerous. Parents taught their children about its evils, and some families, including my own, would not even permit playing cards in the home. More recently, however, betting has been given a face lift by the industry -- even changing the name from gambling to "gaming." The effect of this relentless propaganda has been dramatic. Most Americans now think of gambling not as a vice or an unsavory habit but as harmless entertainment.
In inner-city areas, gambling is seen as a "ticket out of poverty" and a last chance for riches. As such, it preys on the desperation of the poor, and its promises are based on lies. When state lotteries are proposed, for example, the public is assured that enormous funds will be generated for education, despite studies showing that after states legalize lotteries they actually reduce spending for education.13 The promised "money for schools" has been a scam, just like so much that is associated with the gambling industry.
It was these concerns and the sudden obsession with gambling that attracted the attention of several members of Congress in 1994. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va) led an effort to evaluate the impact of this industry on the economy, on families, and on those who become addicted to it. Largely through his leadership, a bill was finally passed in 1996 that created the National Gambling Impact Study Commission.14 It was charged with the responsibility of evaluating legalized gambling in all of its forms. The panel was given two years to investigate everything from casinos to lotteries, from dog and horse racing to video poker, from Indian gambling to sports betting, and finally, to Internet gambling, the most unregulated, pervasive and potentially destructive form of all.
Congress specified that nine members be appointed to the Commission, three to be selected by the President, three by the House, and three by the Senate. Kay Coles James (Dean of Regent University School of Government and a member of the Focus on the Family Board of Directors) was designated as Commission Chair. She has done a wonderful job with this controversial and difficult assignment. I was appointed by my great friend, Sen. Dan Coats.15 I knew it would be an unpleasant and a time-consuming task, but I felt it was something I needed to do. Our work began in June 1997 and is scheduled to conclude with a final report to be issued on June 18, 1999. Having spent the past 19 months working on this assignment, I’ve seen more than what I wanted to know about the seamier side of this industry. With the remainder of this letter, I want to share some of the facts that have come to light to this point.
Let’s begin by looking at Nevada, which legalized gambling in 193116 and remains the glitziest showplace for the industry. More than 40 million visitors come to Las Vegas, Reno, Tahoe and other Nevada cities annually,17 most with visions of riches dancing in their heads. The majority of them go home broke, or at best, considerably poorer than when they came. Every method is used by casino executives to take their money, from sophisticated behavior modification techniques to skimpily clad young women offering free alcoholic drinks and sweet talk to high rollers. Their seduction is highly effective.
My greater concern, however, is not with families that budget for vacations in a gambling center and go there expecting to lose a pre-determined amount of money. This is called "destination gambling," and some people are able to participate in it without losing control or becoming hooked. The greater tragedy involves those who turn out to be vulnerable to the highly addictive nature of gambling. No one expects to be one of those victims in the beginning, but the system is designed to snare those who are vulnerable. A substantial portion of casino profits is generated by exploitation of those men and women who have a weakness for gambling.18
As problem gamblers inevitably slide into the quicksand of debt, they become desperate to "earn it all back." That almost never happens, and even when it does, the addictive individual quickly loses everything again. What follows in those cases is creeping poverty, family disintegration, business failure, fraud, and other serious social ills. Many casino gamblers are older. Up to 40 percent in some centers are over 55 years of age,19 and it is too late for them to recover the devastating loss of their savings. And believe me, that happens far too frequently. On our tour of the Atlantic City casinos, it appeared that the majority of the patrons were well past retirement age.
The Toronto Sun described a familiar scene this way: "The late night crowd [at Casino Niagara] … is unmistakably elderly. One woman in her 70s sits at a $1 slot machine. She has her leg up on the chair of another and her cane thrown over a third. She’s playing all three machines as fast as she can. I glance at my watch. It’s 3:35 a.m. I decide to wait for her and see if she’ll talk with me when she leaves. (Casinos forbid reporters to speak to their patrons anywhere on the property.) Eventually, although I wait ‘til 5:30 a.m., she outlasts me."20
(To be cont.)
1 U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1997, (117th edition,) Washington D.C., 1997, p. 769; Eugene Martin Christiansen, "A New Entitlement," International Gaming and Wagering Business, August 1998, p. 3.
2 Christiansen, op. cit.
3 Tim Poor, "1 in 5 of Homeless in Survey Blame Gambling," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 15, 1998, p. A9.
4 Andrew Quinn, "Studies Find Many Teens Hooked on Gambling," Philadelphia Inquirer, August 16, 1998.
5 Arnold Wexler, "Statistical Information on Compulsive Gamblers," Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey, Inc, pg. 2.
6 Joe Rutherford, "Resist Expansion of Casino Gambling," Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, September 30, 1995, p. 6A.
7 Patricia McQueen, "North American Gaming," International Gaming and Wagering Business, September 1998.
8 Viveca Novak, "They Call it Video Crack," Time, June 1, 1998, p. 58.
9 Edward Walsh, "Gambling's Election Win," The Washington Post, November 6, 1998, p. A1.
10 Testimony of Dr. Frank Quinn, Carolina Psychiatric Services, Columbia, S.C. before the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, Las Vegas, Nevada, November 10, 1998.
11 Carol Bidwell, "Welcome to Boomtown: New York-New York is Just One of Many Megaresorts Rising from the Desert," Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, March 2, 1997, p. 2.
12 "MGM Grand, Inc., Reports Ninth Consecutive Increase in Quarterly Net Income and Record Annual Earnings,"
PR Newswire, January 29, 1998.
13 Peter Keating, "Lotto Fever: We All Lose!" Money, May 1996, pp. 144, 147; Donald E. Miller and Patrick A. Pierce, "Lotteries for Education: Windfall or Hoax?" State and Local Government Review, Winter 1997, pp. 40-41.
14 "Clinton Signs Gambling Study Bill," United Press International, August 3, 1996.
15 Although it is probably not necessary to do so, I feel obliged to make it clear that I am writing to you in my capacity as President of Focus on the Family -- not as a member of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission. The views expressed in this letter are mine and those of Focus on the Family.
16 Geoff Dornan, "Nevada's Gambling Industry Turns 50," United Press International, March 20, 1981.
17 Ed Vogel, "702 Fight May Split Nevada," Las Vegas Review-Journal, January 13, 1998, p. 1A.
18 Henry Lesieur, "Measuring the Costs of Pathological Gambling," Revision of the presentation to the Tenth International Conference on Gambling and Risk Taking," Montreal, Quebec, June 1997; E.J. Grinols and J.D. Omorov, "Development or Dreamfield Delusions?" Assessing Casino Gambling's Costs and Benefits, The Journal of Law and Commerce, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Fall 1996, pp. 58-60.
19 Illinois Gaming Board, "Patron Survey," April 1998, p. 2.
20 Jean Sonmor, "High Rollers...and Big Losers," Toronto Sun May 11, 1997, p. 12.
(to be cont.)