Stop Predatory Gambling
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Philadelphia Inquirer reporter exposes the state’s failed predatory gambling policy
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Monica Yant Kinney has consistently been a member of the small company of American journalists who have aggressively examined government’s policy of predatory gambling. Below is another must-read Inquirer column she published recently: The Valley Forge Casino… Read more
“Gambling Addiction and Me” – The Documentary
Here is a new must-watch BBC documentary about the human impact of government’s gambling policy. Government’s partnership with gambling interests has created millions of new gambling addicts like those who appear in this film yet gambling addiction continues to receive… Read more
Lottery Sales Rise to Record as Cash-Hungry States Search for More Revenue
While severe income inequality continues to worsen here in America, below is an excellent report from Bloomberg News on our government’s primary response to this major challenge: Facing growing unemployment, record home foreclosures, declining tax revenue and an annual budget… Read more
How casino ATM vendors share “intelligence” with casinos
Because most legislators are not frequent gamblers like those citizens losing their money at casinos almost five times a week, they possess little understanding about the highly predatory practices involved with this failed public policy. Casinos like Caesars make 90%… Read more
How did America’s leaders view predatory gambling operators during the Great Depression?
During the Great Depression, leaders like the legendary New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia aggressively went after those who preyed on the financial struggles of his city’s working class. Below is a brief video of Mayor La Guardia dumping… Read more
Casino gambling and drinking alcohol ARE fundamentally different
Drinking a glass of wine or a can of beer is fundamentally different than playing a slot machine or buying a $20 lottery scratch ticket: 1) No sip of a Miller Lite has ever offered the false promise of a… Read more
Government-created gambling addicts are not equal citizens
In the news video below, WPRI recently spotlighted how more than HALF the revenues from government’s casino program comes from citizens who have been turned into gambling addicts- citizens just like Sandy Hall who appears in this story. She lost… Read more
Cash Win-Fail
This weekend’s excellent reporting from The Boston Globe’s Andrea Estes and Scott Allen revealed a “quirk in the rules” on a lottery game in Massachusetts called Cash WinFall. They found that the game had been exploited by a few bettors,… Read more
Pressure mounts on Connecticut’s failing casinos
The Hartford Business Journal reports again about the decline in annual slot revenues at Connecticut’s two casinos, continuing a six-year slide for Foxwoods and a four-year slide for Mohegan Sun. Read the report below. CT casinos’ slot revenue short again… Read more
Public Agency Acts as Casino Debt Collector in Nevada
The taxpayers of Nevada are funding efforts to collect debts for the state’s casino industry. According to this recent Las Vegas Sun column, this is the only state in the country where this occurs. Casinos make a practice of giving… Read more
Casino Companies Send Workers Home Due to Fear of Tax Increase
On Wednesday, the predatory gambling industry halted construction of 2 casinos in Ohio after the state legislature proposed increasing taxes on them. After already spending $200 million dollars on the projects, executives at Rock Gaming and Caesars Entertainment sent hundreds… Read more
The first question every legislator and member of the media needs to investigate and answer about predatory gambling
The Florida Legislature is holding a “Discussion on Gambling in Florida” in the state capitol this morning. These information gathering sessions are almost always dominated by predatory gambling interests. To help intensify the spotlight on casinos and lotteries, we shared… Read more
Ohio taxpayers are only beginning to see the bill for their state’s predatory gambling program
Alexander Coolidge of The Cincinnati Inquirer has an excellent news story about how the state revenues from proposed Ohio casinos will be 40% less than what the casino interests promised during their unprecedented $60 million campaign in 2009 to amend… Read more
Garden State Needs to Bury “Casino Reform” Bill
Wall Street ratings company Moody’s Investors Service said yesterday the New Jersey’s Legislature’s fast-tracked proposal to help Atlantic City’s casinos would add up to a “zero-sum game” because predatory gambling revenue would simply go “in one pocket and out the other.” The government… Read more
Leaderless in Illinois
Predatory gambling profits in Illinois are in a free fall. The state already has an aggressive state Lottery, nine casinos (a tenth is on the way) and recently passed a proposal to turn bars and restaurants across the state into… Read more
Rendell’s something-for-nothing scheme leaves Pennsylvania in a fiscal mess
Outgoing Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell’s primary legacy will be the introduction of casinos across the state. To sell his predatory gambling plan politically, he tied it to “tax relief.” So what does the future look like for the state’s taxpayers… Read more
Missouri casino revenue is not going to fund education as promised
To help pass casino and lottery legislation, predatory gambling interests run PR campaigns promoting how their profits will benefit the public yet in the end, it seldom ever happens. In Missouri, they promised their profits would go to fund education… Read more
Stupid Policy Leads to Stupid Behavior
A story out of Pennsylvania today describes a new legislative effort to punish parents who go to area casinos and leave behind their children in the car. The push comes after there were seven cases involving 12 children left in… Read more
Sooners are getting swindled
In a news story that reads like a press release written by casino interests, The Oklahoman reports that state revenues from Indian gambling have soared in recent years, largely due to the success of casinos operated by the Chickasaw, Choctaw… Read more
Casinos put people on welfare and profit from welfare
California casinos continue to reel from news reports that the state’s casinos are profiting from the gambling losses of welfare recipients using taxpayer-funded debit cards. How did the casinos respond? They expressed surprise that the ATMs can be used by… Read more
A huge ripoff even by the standards of a business based on ripoffs
The Baltimore Sun reports Maryland state government agreed this week to pay nearly $50 million to buy about 1,000 slot machines for the planned Cecil County casino. Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot, a longtime leader against the government program of predatory… Read more
The state lottery business plan in its full glory
The California Lottery announced yesterday it is increasing the prize pool for the scratch tickets it sells to increase its profits. Higher prize pool (i.e. payout percentage) = more people win = more people put their winnings back into scratch… Read more
The reality of how much public funding actually comes from lotteries
Rachel Norton, a San Francisco School Board member, recently wrote an excellent post on why the Lottery has failed as a public policy: “…I was chagrined to read in the PAC/PPS report that more than a few people are still… Read more
A republic if you can keep it
At the close of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 18, 1787, a woman asked Benjamin Franklin as he emerged from the long task now finished: “Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” “A republic… Read more
Pennsylvania State Senator acknowledges casinos are predatory
Pennsylvania citizens opposed to predatory gambling have been working hard to defeat legislative efforts that would allow casinos in their state to extend credit to gamblers. The Philadelphia Inquirer has a report here. Predatory gambling opponents visited the West Philadelphia… Read more
The Oregon Lottery is addicted to addicted gamblers
According to a news report by The Oregonian, a major newspaper in the state, more than half the money the Oregon Lottery collects from video gambling — about $375 million last year — comes from a small number of Oregonians,… Read more
Saving what was supposed to be the savior?
When casinos were legalized in Gary, Indiana, they were supposed to “save Gary.” Now, there are five casinos that stretch for 30 miles. Yet in a story that has been repeated over and over again across America, the casinos have… Read more
New report reveals government-sponsored predatory gambling adds to long-term budget problems
Here’s the must-read press release and the report: “State and local government revenues from authorized gambling operations declined by 2.8 percent from fiscal year 2008 to 2009, marking the first time those revenues have declined in over three decades, according… Read more
One of the undeniable truths about predatory gambling
Our growing movement to stop predatory gambling is the most diverse social movement in America. The reason for our opposition is not based on partisanship: we are non-partisan and our movement is made up of people whose views span the… Read more