When North Carolina introduced the lottery in 2005, it put in a measure that officials thought would prevent it from exploiting people with gambling addiction. A law was passed forbidding the the agency to advertise the lottery in a way that would entice people to play. However, the North Carolina Lottery has disregarded this law.
Corruption at Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board
In a scathing 102-page report, a state grand jury in May 2011 slammed the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board as a patronage-filled, secretive agency that failed to safeguard the public by inadequately investigating casino operators and vendors, and succumbing to political pressure.
Sweepstakes Cafes Popping Up in North Carolina’s Low-Income Neighborhoods
This February 2010 article from North Carolina’s Independent Weekly highlights the fact that sweepstakes cafes are flourishing in the state – particularly in low-income and minority neighborhoods.
The Lottery: A New England Horror Story
In this 1990 article from New England Monthly, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch gives an overview of the development of state lotteries in New England and the danger this poses to our democracy.
Taylor Branch Speech at the Stop Predatory Gambling National Convention
This is a video featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch at Stop Predatory Gambling’s 2008 National Convention in Washington, D.C. He begins to specifically address the issue of government-sanctioned predatory gambling after the 6:00 mark. Daniel Hunter of Casino Free Philadelphia was invited to introduce Branch.
Sleep-Deprived Citizens Are a Lucrative Profit Center for Gambling Operators
In this study, researchers at Duke University Medical School found that sleep-deprived individuals tended to make choices that emphasized monetary gain and were less likely to make choices that reduced financial loss. Sleep deprivation can also change the way the brain assesses economic value. Finally, the study also demonstrates that sleep deprivation increases sensitivity to positive rewards while diminishing sensitivity to negative consequences.
Sleep Deprivation Biases the Neural Mechanisms Underlying Economic Preferences
The Ugly Carpets Inside Casinos are Hideously Clever Social Engineering at Work
This article from Gizmodo.com discusses the interesting designs of casino carpets and how they may be designed to be purposely distracting to keep people gambling. Others believe they are deliberately designed “to obscure and camouflage gambling chips that have fallen onto the floor. The casinos sweep up a huge number of these every night. So the carpets are just another source of revenue.”
The Ugly Carpets of Vegas are Hideously Clever Social Engineering at Work
Public Health Leader Calls on Rhode Island Not to Create Even More Gambling Addicts
Dr. Bob Breen, a psychiatrist from Rhode Island Hospital, wrote a letter in March 2011 to Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee explaining that 50% of the state’s gambling revenue comes from addicts and warning that allowing table games would create 1,000 to 2,250 new addicts.
7% of Wisconsin Residents Are Now Addicted Gamblers
According to the Wisconsin Council on Problem Gambling, 7% of the state’s population are now problem gamblers.
Wisconsin Council on Problem Gambling – 1.12.11 Press Release
Taylor Branch on Democracy and Government-Sanctioned Gambling
Taylor Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the Civil Rights Movement and biographer of Martin Luther King, lays out why the government policy of predatory gambling undermines the core democratic principles our nation was founded on: “State-sponsored predatory gambling is essentially a corruption of democracy because it violates the most basic premises that make democracy unique: that you can be self-governing, you can be honest and open about your disagreements as well as your agreements, and that you trust other people that you are in this together. That’s what a compact of citizens is. And the first-step away from it is to play each other for suckers. We’re going to trick them into thinking they are going to get rich but they are really going to be paying my taxes.”
The first document below is a opinion piece written by Branch for the Baltimore Sun in 2004. The second item is a feature story on Branch’s activism that appeared in the Sun in 2008.