SPG Foundation Staff
Les Bernal – Executive Director
Like many of the tens of thousands of citizens who have aggressively fought to get government out of the predatory gambling business over the last twenty-five years, Les was a convert to the fight. The more he learned about the failed policy of predatory gambling
the more he became convinced that no issue better represents what is broken about our government today and most of all, how together we can fix it.
Les has been the Executive Director of the SPG Foundation since it was formed in 2008. During this time, he has spoken and written extensively about the failed government policy of predatory gambling. He has appeared on national television and radio including 60 Minutes during its expose of slot machines in January 2011, CNN, Fox News Channel, National Public Radio and The BBC. He has been interviewed by national newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, The Economist, USA Today, Sports Illustrated, The Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe. He has also spoken before dozens of college audiences and faith groups across the nation.
Prior to joining the national movement, Les served as a Chief of Staff in the Massachusetts State Senate and worked as a campaign strategist for more than forty federal and state campaigns. He is also a former college and high school basketball coach, founder of the Robert Frost Foundation in Lawrence, Massachusetts- the hometown of America’s favorite poet – and a past chairman of the city’s Planning Board. Below are two newspaper op-eds written by Les about why the government policy of predatory gambling has failed.
Loser-friendly casinos The Lottery Class is no match for “The Patriot Way”
Phone: (202) 567-6996 x1
Email: Les[at]stoppredatorygambling.org
Tom Grey – Senior Advisor
Tom Grey has been the leading voice in the national movement against the government program of predatory gambling for almost twenty years. He first became active in the predatory gambling movement when a riverboat casino was docked in his county in 1992.
Joining with other concerned citizens from across the political spectrum hailing from every region in the U.S., Tom emerged as a leader for the movement representing a diverse national coalition of groups and individuals.
Hailed as “Prophet of the Year” by The Chicago Tribune, and “Riverboat Rambo,” Tom traveled the country, teaching local citizen groups how to organize and fight back against the enormous spending by predatory gambling interests in their bid to overpower state and local governments.
Tom has appeared in numerous major media outlets including: Time; U.S. News and World Report; The Los Angeles Times; The Nation; The Chicago Tribune; The New York Times; The Wall Street Journal; The Philadelphia Enquirer; PBS’s Frontline; and 60 Minutes.
Before becoming a minister, Tom served as the commander of a U.S. Army rifle company in Germany and as a military advisor to a Vietnamese infantry battalion in Vietnam. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary. He has served four churches, including one bi-racial congregation made up of members from four denominations: Presbyterian, United Methodist, Disciples of Christ, and the United Church of Christ.
Phone: (202) 567-6996 x2
Email: Tom[at]stoppredatorygambling.org
Debbie Blank- Financial Manager
As the SPG Foundation’s Financial Manager, Debbie Blank brings over thirty-five years of business and non-profit expertise to the organization. She has served as Vice-President of a national restaurant chain, co-owner of family businesses and Mobilization Coordinator for Gambling with the Good Life in Nebraska as well as volunteering on nearly two dozen local and national non-profit boards. Currently, Debbie is President of Living Word Ministries and uses her financial background to assist several non-profit groups. She and her husband, Bob, have two grown sons and live in Omaha, NE.
Michelle Graff – Online Communications
Michelle helps to coordinate the SPG Foundation’s website and social media. She is attending American University in Washington, DC. She strongly believes that the government should be offering the American people real opportunity to become financially secure rather than further pushing them into deeper personal debt.