An American Declaration on Government and Gambling

After reading An American Declaration on Government and Gambling below, please add your name by signing here.

After four decades of unfulfilled promises, it is time for our government to end its partnership with organized gambling interests and to embrace a fundamentally different and higher vision of the path to American prosperity.

In short, after four decades of consistent failure, it is time for our government to get out of gambling and for gambling to get out of our government. We come together now to work for this change.

We will not be satisfied with small concessions, nor with measures that merely slow down the pace of government’s gambling expansion.

We hereby dedicate ourselves to a fundamental national reform –an America where no taxpayer dollar is used by government to lure citizens into gambling away their money and becoming slaves to debt; where no agency or entity of government depends on gambling to fund its activities; and where no legislature, whether in the name of economic development or raising revenue, passes laws to promote, sponsor, or enable gambling.

We realize that many of our current political leaders will oppose this reform. They will say that they can no longer resist the power of the gambling forces, that the spread of gambling is inevitable, and that the debate is over.

We also realize that some of our fellow citizens, worn down by the relentless encroachments of the government-gambling partnership, will say that our cause is hopeless.

It is anything but hopeless. We are a free people who can reform our government and change our ways.

This is a critical moment. How our generation responds to the reach and arrogance of the government-gambling power structure will largely determine the quality of our social life in the coming decades.

Politically, economically, ethically, and spiritually, the stakes are extraordinarily high.

POLITICALLY: Government’s partnership with gambling fundamentally changes the compact between government and the governed. It pits government’s interests against the best interests of its people. For government to win, its citizens must lose.

ECONOMICALLY: No great nation has ever built prosperity on the foundations of personal debt, addiction, and the steady expansion of “businesses” that produce no new wealth. Relying on gambling as an economic development strategy is a sign of surrender and defeat on the part of leaders who have failed to lead.

ETHICALLY: A decent government does not finance its activities by playing its most vulnerable citizens for suckers, thus rendering the lives of millions expendable, exploitable, and unworthy of protection.

SPIRITUALLY: We mock the higher values that any good society depends on–honesty, mutual trust, self-discipline, sacrifice, concern for others, and a belief in a work ethic that connects effort and reward –when government tells its citizens every day that it is committed to providing “fun” instead of opportunity; that a rigged bet is the way to achieve the American dream; and that spending one’s hard-earned dollars on scratch tickets is a form of good citizenship.

This is America. Surely we can do better than this. Surely we must.  The choice is not – it has never been – between tying our future to gambling and accepting economic decline. Government-sponsored gambling is itself a form of economic decline. The alternative is to muster the courage to chart a path to true prosperity. An America freed from the yoke of government-sponsored gambling would be an America once again on the move–an America with broader and more sustainable economic growth, more honesty in government, more social trust, and the rekindling of the optimism that has long been our defining national strength.

Therefore, with this Declaration, we set forth our reasons for seeking this reform and appeal to a candid nation to judge the truth of our argument.

Over the past four decades, how has government’s partnership with gambling failed?

  • It has transformed gambling from a private and local activity into the public voice of American government, such that ever increasing appeals to gamble, and ever-expanding opportunities to gamble, now constitute the main ways that our government communicates with us on a daily basis.
  • It has broken its promise to remain a small component of our government and a small part of our society. In the brave new world envisioned by this power structure–where every cell phone is a “casino in your pocket” and every bar, gas station, convenience store, computer, and home in the nation is a place to place a bet–the essential driving message from the American government to the American people is “All gambling, all good, all the time.”
  • It has fueled irresponsibility and non-accountability in government by imposing a giant excise tax on the citizenry that politicians never have to call a “tax.”
  • It has failed to deliver on its over-hyped promises to fund education, lower taxes, or pay for needed public services.
  • It has taken political power away from the people and handed it over to gambling lobbyists.
  • It has perpetrated a phony model of economic development–a model with a jobs multiplier effect of approximately zero, since, in this model, nothing of value is produced.
  • It has promulgated the very economic attitudes and practices– short-term is more important than sustainable, wealth can come from ever-growing debt, something can come from nothing, slickness trumps honesty–that led us into the debt bubble and the Great Recession of 2008 and beyond.
  • It has caused neighboring states to compete against each other in a race to the bottom.
  • It has taken dollars from the poor to fund programs for the better-off.
  • It has spread addiction into our population, using the new science of machine design to produce out-of-control behavior that, according to scientists, closely resembles addictive behavior from cocaine.
  • It has spread debt and bankruptcy into our population.
  • It has led to serious gambling-related problems among young people.
  • It has extracted 80 percent or more of its profits from 10 percent of its “players,” with those high-volume “players” among our poorest and most vulnerable citizens.
  • It has contributed to broken families and child neglect and other social messes everywhere it goes, and has taken little or no responsibility to clean them up. 
  • It has turned many law-abiding citizens into criminals who cheat, steal, and embezzle in order to continue to gamble. 
  • It has arrogantly exempted itself from truth-in-advertising laws so that it can use taxpayer money to create and spread deceptive advertising.
  • It has corrupted our sense of community and undermined our faith that we’re all in this together.
  • It has deliberately changed the word “gambling” to “gaming” in order to make this often destructive activity sound as innocent as child’s play. 
  • It has fueled cynicism about the motives of our government. 
  • It has repudiated the value of thrift by creating mass incentives to turn potential savers into habitual bettors.
  • It has repudiated the virtue of “love your neighbor” and replaced it with a government endorsement of predatory practices, or preying on human weakness for gain. 
  • It has withered our capacity as a people to confront forthrightly our reluctance to pay taxes for the public services we desire.
  • It has trampled on the ideal of “confirm thy soul in self-control.” 
  • It has trampled on the ideal of “justice for all.” 
  • It has broken faith with the wisdom and leaders of earlier generations who, seeing the failure of gambling in the past, amended state constitutions to ban gambling activities. 
  • It has lied to us about how the government actually uses the money it gets from gambling. 
  • It has lied to us by repeating again and again that luck–rather than work–is the key to the American dream.

WE therefore come together as American citizens, from diverse backgrounds, religious faiths, political convictions, and life circumstances, to declare our intention of making these United States free and independent of government-sponsored gambling, and once again able to resume their place as protectors of our security, leaders in building a shared prosperity, and examples to the world.

Please add your name to An American Declaration on Government and Gambling by signing here.

Les BernalAn American Declaration on Government and Gambling
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The Freedom Players

Why Participate as a Freedom Player?

You need to become a Freedom Player if you want to help the 40 million Americans suffering harm because of the greed of big gambling operators. 

People like you are the reason why Freedom Players always win.

What is a Freedom Player?

Our action is simple but powerful. We enter a local casino (or local gambling venue), sit down at an electronic gambling machine, put in our money and then we begin Freedom Playing.

Freedom Playing means you play the machine any way you want except you don’t press the Play button. While we Freedom Play, some of us talk with a friend, some read a book and some even knit. The ideas are almost limitless.

While you are Freedom Playing, you are encouraged to ask casino staff some essential questions such as: how do electronic gambling machines work? Why does the casino give away “free slots play” to citizens? Will I ultimately lose all of my money if I play these machines for a length of time? The DSM V labeled gambling an addiction like heroin, cocaine, and opioids so should this slot machine be considered a dangerous and addictive product, and if so, does this casino have a legal duty of care to ensure that I’m not harmed by this product? And so on. You get the idea.

Once you are done Freedom Playing, you will hit the cash out button on the machine and receive a paper voucher that you will present to the Cashier’s Window to receive your “winnings.”

Here are the few steps it takes to be a Freedom Player along with some sample questions you can ask.

What The Freedom Players Aim to Achieve

We use our freedom to play these machines in such a way that:

  • Spotlights the 40 million Americans suffering harm because of the greed of big gambling operators;
  • Demonstrates commercialized gambling extracts enormous personal wealth from ordinary Americans, leaving many in life-changing levels of personal debt, and how this financial devastation affects their future.
  • Highlights the urgency for commercialized gambling to be dramatically reformed in America, especially because we believe the life of every person has intrinsic value and no one is expendable.

All Freedom Players Need to Bring the Following:

  • A $5.00 bill or larger (not surprisingly, many slot machines require that you insert at least a $5 bill even though you may be playing a penny slot machine)
  • Bring a Valid Photo I.D. (All participants need to be 21 years old or older to enter the casino.)
  • Something to do while “Freedom Playing” (i.e. a book, knitting, drawing, etc.)
  • Please bring at least one other person with you, a family member, friend or co-worker.

If you need more info, contact us at mail[at]stoppredatorygambling.org

Below is a brief video of the first Freedom Players action from back in January 2008. We were rookies then.

 

 

 

Les BernalThe Freedom Players
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MUST-WATCH: “Out of Luck” the first U.S. film on state lotteries

Out of Luck, the first film to examine government-sanctioned gambling in America, premieres today nationwide on Amazon Prime, iTunes and Google Play. 

We urge you to watch it and then PLEASE RATE THE FILM. Rating takes only a second but it’s vitally important on these digital platforms that they have ratings for better placement.  Please encourage others in your social networks to join you. 

The film is available at these links:

Google Play: Out Of Luck on Google Play!
iTunes: Out of Luck on iTunes

While it investigates lotteries, Out of Luck is significant to those of you who got involved in this movement because you believe government should not bring casinos into your community. Regional casinos are another form of government-sanctioned gambling, as is the current lobbying campaign for online gambling.

The lobbying push for regional casinos and online gambling has happened in a big way because of the practices of state lotteries. They’re the largest predatory gambling operators in the country and have made extreme forms of gambling like electronic gambling machines and $30 scratch tickets seem like a normal activity for government to be marketing to citizens.

How to Hold a Film Screening

1) Who Is Coming?

Ask yourself how many people may attend this screening, as this will help you choose an appropriate venue.

2) What’s the Venue?

Once you have an idea of how many people may come, you can start picking out a venue. If it’s a small number of folks, then a living room or small community room could be fine. If you have a larger group, then start looking at some venues in your community. Churches, community rooms, schools, libraries and meeting rooms within your city or town hall are all great venues for a screening.

Most of these venues will allow you to use their space for free if you let them know the educational purpose of the film, and the audience it is intended for. Make sure to invite their staff/group/congregation to be a part of the screening as well.

3) How Will You View It?

Once you’ve chosen the venue, you’ll have to find out what equipment they have and how they will show the film. Most, if not all, will have a DVD player and projector while some will prefer to connect and play the film via computer. Once the venue has let you know what they prefer, you can purchase the film from the Out of Luck movie website.

4) Which Version of the Film?

You can purchase the film on DVD and/or purchase a digital download from the links on Out of Luck’s website. Please note, the film does have a very few instances of foul language that may not be appropriate for all audiences. In that case, there is an “Education Edition” that is appropriate for all audiences and venues. You can buy the Education Edition DVD here. The Education Edition is only available on DVD for now, but will soon be available for digital download via Amazon. Please check back.

5) Get The Word Out!

Once your venue is set and a date is chosen, it’s time to let people know! Contact your friends and family as well as local churches, recovery/addiction professionals and groups, your local politicians – both for your town and your state legislative district, and your local newspaper. Make sure to reach out via social media and link to the film @outofluckmovie.

6) Enjoy The Film and Hold A Discussion

After the screening, it’s a great idea to have a discussion about the film with those in attendance. The experience of the gamblers, the relationship of government and gambling, the advertising and marketing, and the expansion of lotteries in your state are all great topics for a group to discuss.

7) Share The Event

It’s important to spread the word. This film does not have Hollywood blockbuster budgets and relies on you! Take pictures at your event and share them on social media and with friends, family and your community. Let us know about your event by posting to our Twitter and Facebook pages @outofluckmovie.

If you have any questions, please contact the Out of Luck production team via their website!

*Director Bert Klasey and certain people who are featured in the film are available to attend select screenings and lead or participate in Q&A sessions. If you are interested in bringing them to your event, please contact them above and they will provide the details.

CkirbyMUST-WATCH: “Out of Luck” the first U.S. film on state lotteries
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The Take a Gambling Break Challenge

Gambling Operators Are Called On to Turn Off Their Lottery Terminals and Gambling Machines for a Day; Citizens Urged to Stop Gambling for One Day and Deposit the Money They Would Have Gambled in a Bank or Credit Union

#TakeaGamblingBreak

 

WHAT:

1) If you buy state lottery tickets, use electronic gambling machines, gamble online or at regional casinos, just stop for one day. Take the money you would have risked and deposit it into a bank or credit union account. If you don’t have an account, open one.

2) Any store, restaurant or regional casino operator that offers lottery tickets, electronic gambling machines, or any other form of gambling, is asked to stop for one day..

3) If you have a loved one or a good friend who is an active gambler, be a sponsor for the one day. As a sponsor, your role is to help your loved one or friend stay away from gambling for the day, encourage them to put the money they would have risked into a bank or credit union (if they don’t have an account, show them how to create one,) and help them participate in other activities to substitute for gambling.

WHY:

1) To spotlight the 40 million Americans who have been harmed by the greed of big gambling operators. This growing campaign first began in Oregon more than 25 years ago out of the work of Ronda Hatefi, a member of Stop Predatory Gambling. Ronda’s brother Bobby Hafemann committed suicide because he became addicted to the Oregon Lottery’s electronic gambling machines. Every year on September 29th, her late brother’s birthday, Ronda has organized a day to spotlight the serious harm the state’s gambling machines were inflicting on citizens and their families.

2) To awaken the public consciousness about how the widespread promotion and availability of extreme forms of commercialized gambling is a major factor behind the financial hardship and unfairness of opportunity facing millions of American families today.

3) To educate Americans on the truth that financial peace occurs most often from the act of regularly saving small sums of money over the long-term.

4) To give families and friends a way to start a conversation about the problem of commercialized gambling with the people they love.

5) To offer an opportunity for commercialized gambling operators to acknowledge they have a duty of care for citizens.

 

KEY FACTS: 

Americans are on course to lose more than $1 trillion of their personal wealth to commercialized gambling over the next five years.[1] Many of these citizens are suffering life-changing financial losses.

– Commercialized gambling is a dangerous and addictive product, now recognized as an addiction on the same level as heroin, cocaine, and opioids in the American Psychological Association’s DSM V, used by health care providers and insurers as the principal source for mental health diagnoses.

– Citizens who are financially desperate look to commercialized gambling as a way to improve their lives and help them escape their financial condition.[2] It’s become a Hail Mary investment strategy, one that dooms them to inevitable failure and personal debt. This is a critical issue because asset-building, the opposite of commercialized gambling, is almost non-existent for nearly half of the nation’s population.

– More than 40 million Americans have been harmed by the greed of big gambling operators. 

– All taxpayers, regardless whether they ever gamble, end up paying higher taxes for less services, and the state ends up with worse budget problems over the long term because of commercialized gambling. It’s the ultimate budget gimmick.[4] You pay even if you don’t play!

Commercialized gambling is an antiquated, outdated public policy and a relic of past failures of leadership. Each year state governments spend more than $1 billion of public money marketing gambling to the most financially-disadvantaged citizens. The state’s gambling monopolies are exempt from truth-in-advertising laws, allowing them to grossly exaggerate the chances of winning and lure citizens into losing their money on gambling games that they are mathematically guaranteed to get fleeced.[5]

The nation’s political elite – from both political parties- have transformed gambling from a private and local activity into the daily public voice of state government, such that ever-increasing appeals to gamble, and ever-expanding opportunities to gamble, now constitute the main ways that our state governments communicate with us on a daily basis. Nothing else comes even close.

Stop Predatory Gambling: Who We Are

A 501c3 non-profit based in Washington, DC, Stop Predatory Gambling is a national advocacy network of individuals and organizations working to reveal the truth behind gambling operators to prevent more victims.

SOURCES:

[1] “This is how much Americans lost on state-sanctioned gambling last year,” Quentin Fottrell of MarketWatch, published by Dow Jones Media, May 15, 2018. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-is-how-much-americans-lost-on-state-sanctioned-gambling-last-year-2018-05-15

[2] Cornell Univ. Professor David Just, “The big swindle: In lotteries, the poor are the biggest losers,” CNN, Dec. 18, 2013https://www.cnn.com/2013/12/18/opinion/lottery-poor-just-opinion/index.html

[3] National Institute for Health, May 2011 http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/May2011/Feature1

[4] Lucy Dadayan, State Revenues from Gambling: Short-Term Relief, Long-Term Disappointment, The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government (2016), http://www.rockinst.org/pdf/government_finance/2016-04-12-Blinken_Report_Three.pdf

[5] “This is how much Americans lost on state-sanctioned gambling last year,” The Wall Street Journal’s Marketwatch, May 15, 2018, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-is-how-much-americans-lost-on-state-sanctioned-gambling-last-year-2018-05-15[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

CkirbyThe Take a Gambling Break Challenge
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Week of Action to Stop Predatory Gambling, Sept. 29-Oct. 5, 2024

To spotlight the 40 million Americans harmed by the greed of big gambling operators and to prevent more victims, we are organizing the National Week of Action to Stop Predatory Gambling, Sept. 29- Oct. 5, 2024.

At least 100 actions will be happening across America and the world during the week. 

We are calling for 100% participation from you and everyone who wants a future better than the one predatory gambling offers us. It’s an opportunity for thousands of citizens across the US and the world to act together to confront the unjust and dishonest policy of predatory gambling.

Do your part. Please commit two hours to participate locally in some way during the week of 9/29-10/5. If you can’t commit the time, then please participate by making a gift of $25 or more tax-deductible to support our work locally.

Possible Actions Include: The “action” can be anything you (or your group) want it to be. It could be a prayer vigil, a sign-holding visibility with homemade signs, participating in a “Freedom Players” event at a regional casino (or at a local restaurant/tavern with video gambling machines)…the ideas are limitless.

Also, here is a brief, effective guide that we put together with the Alabama group about how to organize a prayer vigil in your place of worship that weekend.

If you want to stop the harm that predatory gambling inflicts upon your community, then you personally need to act. Don’t think it will happen without your sacrifice because it won’t.

Les BernalWeek of Action to Stop Predatory Gambling, Sept. 29-Oct. 5, 2024
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Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock was a gambling machine addict

Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock had a serious gambling machine addiction. Read the latest New York Times story on his gambling behavior. Electronic gambling machines were at the center of his life.

Yet news coverage continues to use terms like “professional gambler” when describing Paddock. He was not a professional gambler.

No professional gambler uses slot machines and video poker machines like Paddock did. The machines create the illusion of skill but a user is mathematically guaranteed to lose all their money the longer they play them. Once you press the button on the machine, there is no skill involved. The computer inside the machine (known as the Random Number Generator) decides whether you lose or win. The player has no control over the outcome.

The image below is from the landmark book investigating electronic gambling machines Addiction By Design (Pg 112):

The business model of casinos is based on people like Paddock losing over and over again. While he may have won occasionally, it’s a statistical certainty that he lost huge sums of money the longer and more frequently he played as the graph above shows.

Paddock was playing hundreds of hands per hour (about one hand every six seconds) for many hours straight. Almost day after day.

No credible gambling addiction expert unaffiliated with gambling operators and independently-funded would describe him as a “responsible gambler.” ‘Responsible gambling’ is little more than a marketing slogan made up by commercialized gambling operators and their partners. Its intent is to place the spotlight on the citizen and away from their predatory and fraudulent business practices.

Whether Paddock’s out-of-control addiction to electronic gambling machines was a central factor in what happened last Sunday will be determined by the FBI investigation. But news coverage and public discussion should not normalize Paddock’s single-minded obsession with gambling machines and the exploitive business practices used by the casinos to keep Paddock gambling continuously.

Les Bernal, National Director, Stop Predatory Gambling

Les BernalLas Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock was a gambling machine addict
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What is Predatory Gambling?

Predatory gambling is when corporate gambling interests partner with government to cheat and exploit citizens. It ultimately forces the taxpayers who don’t gamble to foot the bill for the long-term public budget problems that result.

It’s a form of consumer financial fraud like price gouging and false advertising and it causes life-changing financial losses for tens of millions of citizens. Over the next eight years, the American people are on course to lose more than $1 trillion of their personal wealth to government-sanctioned gambling. At least half of this personal wealth – $500 billion – will be lost to state lotteries.

Predatory gambling is America’s biggest most-neglected problem.

The almost sole focus of state-sanctioned gambling has been to maximize profits, not protect the public interest. It’s exempt from truth-in-advertising laws, giving gambling corporations wide latitude to market gambling, grossly exaggerate chances of winning and aggressively lure citizens to lose their money.

Let people gamble if they want, some may say. But we already have the freedom to gamble. Up to now, many Americans participate in office pools for the Super Bowl, NCAA March Madness brackets, make casual wagers on the golf course with their friends, or play a Friday night poker game.

These informal events are examples of social gambling. There is no “house” skimming a large profit, guaranteeing the participant will inevitably lose over the long-term. No one is wagering continuously at rapid speeds of every five seconds, for hour after hour. Very few people feel an intense “buzz” or high from the experience. There’s no aggressive and deceptive marketing to get people to gamble more often with bigger sums of money. No one is lending or borrowing cash to participate or ends up losing their entire pay check. It doesn’t go on all day, every day of the week, year round. And ​it doesn’t require the majority of Americans who rarely gamble to subsidize it with any of their own money.

Without the legal, administrative, regulatory, and promotional privileges provided by state governments, lotteries, regional casinos and other commercialized gambling operators would not be spreading into mainstream American life as they are today. They would likely still exist only on the fringes of the society.

Les BernalWhat is Predatory Gambling?
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The U.S. has a lottery problem. But it’s not the people buying tickets.

From The Washington Post:

Despite their role in increasing economic inequality, lotteries remain remarkably popular in the United States, as millions of players believe in the distant chance that a lucky gamble will change their life. In 2014, annual sales reached over $70 billion, and Americans spent more on lottery tickets per year than they spent on books, sports tickets, music, video games and movie tickets combined.

The United States has a lottery problem, but it runs much deeper than players duped by a “stupid tax.” Public officials need to address the nation’s lottery addiction. When they do so, however, they need to consider not only the root causes of lotteries’ popularity — for example, declining access to social mobility and the concentration of lottery outlets in poor neighborhoods — but also the beliefs about taxes and state revenue that ushered in lottery legislation in the first place.

View Original Article

Les BernalThe U.S. has a lottery problem. But it’s not the people buying tickets.
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