Stop Predatory Gambling

Government’s biggest dirty secret

by Les

The Philadelphia City Paper’s Isaiah Thompson writes another excellent column this week about casinos, this time about the recent hearing on a bill that would allow the revoked Foxwoods Casino license to be re-bid statewide.

Thompson writes: “Less cunning was the heartfelt testimony of Paul Boni, a board member of Stop Predatory Gambling, who used an oldie but goodie: the rhetorical question. Explaining his own opposition to “convenience” casinos everywhere, Boni said: “I’ll put it to you in the form a question: What percentage of the revenue of Pennsylvania casinos is coming from gambling addicts and problem gamblers?” It’s a question, as Boni pointed out, whose answer is known to the casinos.”

The answer is also widely available for public officials and the media but only a few really want to know. Here is a sampling of the facts:

- The Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre found that 60% of machine revenue was derived from problem gamblers;

- The 2010 report from the Productivity Commission of Australia (the Australian Government’s independent research and advisory body) found that up to 75 percent of total machine losses are paid by moderate and high risk problem gamblers.

- The Nova Scotia Department of Health found that problem gamblers generated 53% of machine revenues;

- The Australian Institute for Gambling Research and the University of West Sydney reported that 48% of gambling machine revenue was attributable to problem gamblers;

- The amount of money casinos make from problem gamblers has been known for a long time and the figures have been becoming more extreme year after year. Dr. Henry Lesieur, in a 1998 report published in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, found that pathological and problem gamblers account for 41.2 percent of the profits in Louisiana.

The facts are well-known. The deeper question here  is do public officials and the media have the will to bring change to the most predatory business in America? Thanks to thousands of citizens like Paul Boni who are challenging this government program, we believe the answer is yes.