Stop Predatory Gambling

A black woman’s reflections on the failed government policy of predatory gambling

by Les

Sandy Adell, a Wisconsin college professor and author of Confessions of a Slot Machine Queen, recently posted the excellent column below. Check it out.

From Sandy Adell’s blog: A Black Woman’s Reflections on Casino Gambling, April 2011

A few weeks ago, a woman sent me the following question regarding how I identify myself in this blog. She wrote, “I respectfully ask the question, why do you add “black” to the title? Why not just woman? Come from it from a woman’s point of view or even “just” a person’s? How is it relevant that you are black? To me, it is continually drawing these distinctions that keep us separate.”

First, let me say that I wish I could consider myself “just” a person, but the conditions of race and racism in the country won’t allow it. I am identified as Black (or African American) by virtue of the amount of melanin I carry on my body.

Secondly, to ask “how is it relevant that you are black” is to assume a tremendous amount of arrogance (or maybe ignorance) about identity construction. My identity is formed by the rich intellectual heritage and traditions that constitute African American culture. I’m proud of that culture, a culture that continues to be very relevant in shaping American society.

In terms of the specific issues I address here, casino gambling as a predatory industry, it is especially relevant that I’m a Black woman, because I’m trying to draw attention to the negative effects casinos are having on African American communities as they continue to expand into urban areas, often right into neighborhoods populated by poor African Americans and other disenfranchised people, including the elderly and the disabled.

On March 17, 2011, at the National Council for Black Studies Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, I was joined by three other Black women, Shirley Stewart, Denise Philips, and Dr. Deborah Haskins on a panel I organized titled “Robbin’ The Hood: Casino Gambling and the Economic Disempowerment of African Americans.” This was the first time such a panel discussion was convened by Black women at a national conference. We were very relevant, especially when you consider that Ohio will soon have four casinos, one in each of the major cities with large black populations: Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo.

An outcome we hope to achieve as we continue to collaborate and give presentations about casino gambling is more serious study of the industry that might make our elected officials take notice and perhaps put the brakes on their rush to generate new revenue by “any means necessary,” in this case by legitimizing dollar gobbling video gambling devices, i.e., slot machines, in every nook and cranny of our cities, as local and state legislators are trying to do in Illinois.

There are a few astute scholars who are trying to bring a bit of sober thought to this insane rush to generate new revenue by unleashing the scourge of gambling on us. Some of them have been mentioned in earlier posts. I would now like to draw your attention to some other scholars whose voices need to be heard.

One is Fred Gottheil, a professor of Economics at the University of Illinois, whose editorial about casinos need to be required reading for the folks up in Springfield, Illinois, who keep tampering with a forty year ban on electronic gambling devices in bars, restaurants and taverns in Illinois.

The other scholars/researchers are Sam Magavern and Elaina Mule. They recently released a study of poverty and casinos in Buffalo, New York. What they describe is very relevant to other black communities such as Detroit, with its three big casinos.

The bottom line is that despite all advertising showing glamorous people having great fun in casinos, the reality is quite different. The casinos are harming the very people to whom, our elected officials want us to believe, they are supposed to be providing economic relief.