Stop Predatory Gambling

Betraying the promise of America

by spgadmin

A newly released report from the Nebraska Gamblers Assistance Program lists the average gambling debt of 250 people who sought gambling-treatment services in the last fiscal year at nearly $27,000. Most of the debt came as a result of citizens using state-sponsored predatory gambling products. Here’s a brief excerpt from a news story about the report: 

Jerry Bauerkemper, the executive director of the Bellevue-based Nebraska Council on Compulsive Gambling, said that figure excludes the assets the gamblers already have tapped — such as annuities or 401(k)s — before maxing out credit cards or borrowing from other sources.

“The vast majority have cashed out a lot of other funds and reduced their outlay of funds fairly significantly,” he said. “Many times, they will stop buying health insurance. They will reduce their amount of money going out and then gamble that. Then they use credit cards and gamble that.”  

State Attorney Generals in America have been suing subprime lenders for their predatory lending practices. Congress recently acted to roll back the predatory practices of credit card companies. Yet in many states, there is a massive effort to expand the most predatory institution still standing in America – state-sponsored predatory gambling.

The purpose of government is “to promote the general welfare,” a mission so important it was put into the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution.  It’s about helping every American become a winner. 

Our movement to stop predatory gambling is the most politically diverse movement in the country, made up of people from the right and left.  No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, we can all agree that state-sponsored predatory gambling betrays the promise of America.