Featured Updates

WATCH “How States’ Experiment with Lotteries Has Failed”

WATCH “How States’ Experiment with Lotteries Has Failed”

Amid a backdrop of states like Texas aggressively selling $100 lottery scratch tickets in communities where citizens earn a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, and policy makers of both political parties talk continuously about ways to improve opportunity and attain financial security for more Americans and their families, we urge you to watch this important national webinar on what many believe is one of the country’s most-neglected yet consequential problems: state lotteries.

The event is for reporters, opinion leaders, public officials, and members of our national network interested in learning how state governments’ experiment with lotteries has failed and how this failure affects you, your community, and the nation, regardless whether you ever buy a single lottery ticket.

The forum is titled “How States’ Experiment with Lotteries Has Failed and Why It Affects You.” It features prominent national lottery expert Dr. Jonathan Cohen, author of the important new book “For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America,” and Sean Mussenden, data editor for the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland and a key figure behind the publication of the 2022 groundbreaking national series on state lotteries, “Mega Billions: The Great Lottery Wealth Transfer.”  Brief background about each speaker is below.

After you watch the webinar, we strongly urge you to share the video with your email list and your social media networks, inviting people to learn for themselves how serious and urgent the problem of state lotteries has become and how it affects all of us, including those who rarely, if ever, gamble on the lottery.

We also strongly encourage you to share the video with every local, state, and federal official in your region, along with members of the local and state media.

The video is posted to our YouTube channel and it can be watched here.

About the Speakers:

Dr. Jonathan D. Cohen is a program officer at the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He is the co-editor of All In: The Spread of Gambling in Twentieth-Century United States and Long Walk Home: Reflections on Bruce Springsteen. He received his PhD in history from the University of Virginia. His new book “For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America” was published by Oxford University Press and can be purchased here. 

Sean Mussenden is data editor for the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, an investigative reporting unit at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism that partners early-career journalists and veteran journalists at news organizations like the Associated Press, PBS NewsHour and National Public Radio to produce deeply reported investigative stories. He was a key figure in the Howard Center’s recently published, “Mega Billions: The great lottery wealth transfer,” an in-depth look at lotteries in nearly every state.

Les BernalWATCH “How States’ Experiment with Lotteries Has Failed”
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WATCH “The Truth About the Economic Impact of Casinos”

WATCH “The Truth About the Economic Impact of Casinos”

 

As casino gambling operators lobby to build more casino locations in large cities like Chicago and Manhattan as well as rural communities across the US, we organized a national webinar panel on what you need to know about the real economic consequences that local casinos leave behind in their wake.

This webinar is for reporters, opinion leaders, public officials, and members of our national network to learn how local casinos affect regional economies, lower the standard of living for all citizens, including those who don’t gamble, and the urgency for Congress to act.

The webinar is titled “The Truth About the Economic Impact of Casinos.” The panel features Dr. Jonathan Krutz, emeritus professor of the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University, and Dr. Earl Grinols, and Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus at Baylor University. Brief background about each speaker is below.

Below is the link to watch the important event “The Truth About the Economic Impact of Casinos” that featured Dr. Jonathan Krutz, emeritus professor of the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University, and Dr. Earl Grinols, and Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus at Baylor University. Brief background about each speaker is below.

We strongly urge you to share the video on your email list and and your social media networks, inviting people to learn for themselves how serious the problem of predatory gambling has become. We also strongly encourage you to share the video with every local, state, and federal official in your region, along with members of the local and state media.

In addition to appearing above, the video is posted to our YouTube channel and can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYf_zLZmV6Q

About the Speakers:

Dr. Jonathan Krutz holds an MBA from the University of Iowa and a PhD in Public Policy and Administration from Boise State University, where he is an emeritus professor of the College of Business and Economics. He has studied gambling policy issues and provided expert testimony for policy makers for more than 25 years. Because of his concerns about the lack of accurate, fact-based information about the impacts of commercialized gambling, Dr. Krutz has volunteered as a member of the Stop Predatory Gambling Board of Directors since 2007. His most recent research is titled “Do Casinos Create Economic Development? A 15-Year National Analysis of Local Retail Sales and Employment Growth” and you can read it here.

Dr. Earl L Grinols, Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus at Baylor University, holds an economics PhD from MIT and two undergraduate summa cum laude degrees in mathematics and economics.  He has studied the impacts, both benefits and costs, of gambling since the early 1990s.  His book, Gambling in America: Costs and Benefits through Cambridge University Press is available at Amazon.com.  His most recent book, How We Flourish: The Surprising Path to a Just Prosperity is also available at Amazon.com.  

Les BernalWATCH “The Truth About the Economic Impact of Casinos”
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A Top U.S. Law School Reveals the Truth Behind Gambling Operators

A Top U.S. Law School Reveals the Truth Behind Gambling Operators

One of the nation’s top law schools issued a series of articles exposing the truth behind gambling operators, including a spotlight on the issue of commercialized sports gambling.

This issue of the University of Illinois Law Review has nine must-read articles by highly-respected scholars and attorneys. The full list is here. They include:

– “Casinos- An Addiction Industry in the Mold of Tobacco and Opioid Drugs” authored by Northeastern Law Professor Richard Daynard, considered by many as the key legal architect behind the tobacco litigation movement, and his colleagues at the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University School of Law;

– “Bans on Sports Gambling and Lotteries Would Pump-Prime the U.S. Economic System in the New Age of Covid” authored by Dr. John Kindt, Professor Emeritus of Business and Legal Policy at the University of Illinois and one of the nation’s most distinguished scholars on the economic consequences of commercialized gambling.

– “Black Youths Lost, White Fortunes Found: Sports Betting and the Commodification and Criminalization of Black Collegiate Athletes” authored by Frank Vandalla and Tallulah Lanier of Emory University School of Law;

Please read the entire series of articles to expand your own knowledge about the truth behind gambling operators. The series is one of the few examples of independent scholarship being done on commercialized gambling because nearly all the research is presently funded by gambling operators. Please share these articles with opinion leaders in your region and across your and social media networks. Thank you.

Les BernalA Top U.S. Law School Reveals the Truth Behind Gambling Operators
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WATCH: What You Need to Know About America’s New Wave of Gambling Ads

WATCH: What You Need to Know About America’s New Wave of Gambling Ads

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As gambling companies further intensify their ongoing barrage of sports gambling ads targeted at the American people, we recently hosted a national panel on what you need to know about the massive wave of sports gambling advertising and promotions spreading across the U.S.

Above is the video to watch our important national event “America’s New Storm of Gambling Advertising: A Threat to Public Health” from earlier this year. It featured Mark A. Gottlieb, executive director of the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University School of Law, and Harry Levant, Director of Education for Stop Predatory Gambling.

Mark and Harry powerfully revealed the truth about what is really happening in our communities and across our country. After you watch it, we strongly urge you to share the video on your email list and and your social media networks, inviting people to learn for themselves how serious the problem of predatory gambling has become.

We also strongly encourage you to share the video with every local, state, and federal official in your region, along with members of the local and state media.

The full video is posted to our YouTube channel and can be watched here: https://youtu.be/12FtoYCE9jU

We also put the panel into four smaller parts if you can’t watch the whole thing all at once.

PART I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEVyikeJfJs

PART II: https://youtu.be/UgyIcxIw-u0

PART III: https://youtu.be/wP1YUTpfdM0

PART IV: https://youtu.be/YQf9-xMMF7k

About the Speakers:

Mark A. Gottlieb is the executive director of the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University School of Law, where he is also a lecturer and clinical instructor. Mark has focused his research and advocacy on tobacco litigation as a public health strategy for most of his career. His article, “Casinos: An Addiction Industry in the Mold of Tobacco and Opioid Drugs” (co-authored with Daynard and Friedman) was recently published in the University of Illinois Law Review. You can read his article here.

Harry Levant is the Director of Education for Stop Predatory Gambling and a public health advocate from Philadelphia. A gambling addict in recovery who made his last bet on April 27, 2014, Levant is dedicating his professional work to helping people and families to overcome struggles with gambling addiction and other substance disorders. In his role as an advocate, Levant will graduate from La Salle University with a Masters in Professional Counseling in May 2022. He is a member of numerous professional organizations including Chi Sigma Iota National Honor Society for Counselors, the American Counseling Association, the Pennsylvania Counseling Association, and Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers of Pennsylvania. He also earned a law degree from Temple University Law School.

Moderator: Les Bernal is National Director for Stop Predatory Gambling. Stop Predatory Gambling believes people are worth more than money. A 501c3 non-profit based in Washington, DC, its members work to reveal the truth behind commercialized gambling operators to prevent more victims.

It is only because of the selfless financial generosity of our members that we are able to fund important events like this national webinar. If you support our mission to reveal the truth behind commercialize​d​ ​gambling operators to prevent more victim​s​, ​​please ​​become a member of our national network by making a gift of any size you can afford today.

Thank you.

Les BernalWATCH: What You Need to Know About America’s New Wave of Gambling Ads
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WATCH the Truth About Casinos: “A Conflict Between Love and Greed”

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“A Conflict Between Love and Greed” – Learn about the crisis of state-sanctioned gambling. Stop Predatory Gambling’s Les Bernal was invited to speak on the crisis of state-sanctioned casinos before an audience in Amherst County in Lynchburg, VA at Temple Baptist Church on Sept. 30, 2021. The region faced a massive lobbying push by out-of-state gambling interests attempting to force a slot machine casino into the heart of their community.
Stop Predatory Gambling believes people are worth more than money. Our members work to reveal the truth behind commercialized gambling operators to prevent more victims. Get started at https://www.stoppredatorygambling.org…
Les BernalWATCH the Truth About Casinos: “A Conflict Between Love and Greed”
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Taking Down This Monument to Injustice Will Help Millions

Taking Down This Monument to Injustice Will Help Millions

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An actual District of Columbia Lottery ad

(Note: The image above is the $100 lottery scratch ticket the Texas Lottery is selling in low-income communities across the state where citizens earn $7.25 an hour. The MLK image on the left is AN ACTUAL AD that the District of Columbia Lottery used to market lottery tickets.)

In the euphoria of winning the first major legislative action against slavery in modern history by abolishing the British slave trade in 1807, the English abolitionist Henry Thornton was asked what issue should be the nation’s next important fight. His answer: “The Lottery, I think.”

Ridiculous, you say. Why would one of history’s foremost campaigners for the abolition of the slave trade rank lotteries among society’s biggest injustices? Because of the life-changing financial losses that citizens suffer as a result of state lotteries. Here in the U.S., more than $500 billion of personal wealth will be lost by citizens to lotteries over the next eight years, much of it taken from African-American families.

State attorneys general have sued opioid makers, tobacco companies, polluters, and many other businesses for the damage their predatory, deceptive, and destructive practices inflicted upon the public. Yet not a single state attorney general has ever sued a lottery for the financial and social damage they have caused millions of American families.

Why? Because many public officials now consider lotteries an essential source of government revenue. So essential in fact that while public schools and other core state government functions were shut down because of COVID-19, every state lottery was still selling tickets. Several lotteries broke sales records for scratch tickets soon after economic stimulus checks and extra $600 weekly unemployment benefits began arriving to citizens.

Where does the hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth lost to lotteries go? Several states claim lottery revenues “fund public schools.” In California, the lottery contributes just 1% of the total K-12 education budget. In New York, it’s under 5%. In states like Georgia and South Carolina, lottery revenues are used to fund college scholarships, many of which go to students from middle-class to upper-middle class families. And in some states, like Colorado and Oregon, lottery profits are used to fund parks and other environmental protection projects because to be green, you need “the green.” Where the money comes from appears to be a secondary matter.

Like six-story high Robert E. Lee statues, we have been told state lotteries are part of “our heritage.” Yet the willfully-neglected truth is state lotteries are a contributor to the massive wealth disparity between whites and blacks. Nationwide, African Americans spend five times more on lottery tickets than white people.

The path to wealth is not just about how much you make, which is the side of the ledger almost always attracting public attention. It’s also about how much you keep. While differences in income are a major contributing factor, the disparity between whites and blacks in the accumulation of wealth-building assets is staggering. According to the Federal Reserve, 60% of whites have a retirement fund while only 34% of blacks; 73% of whites own a primary residence but only 45% of blacks; and 61% of whites own publicly-traded stocks compared to just 31% of blacks.

Building assets and the accumulating and investing of savings are the keys to financial peace. Owning a home, a college fund, retirement accounts, and a stock portfolio are the hallmarks of middle and upper class America, and these assets are all the result of savings. With fewer African-Americans and people of color holding these essential assets, they miss out on higher average returns than low-risk assets, as well as the power of compound interest.

Creating wealth by the accumulation of assets and the investment of savings is the direct opposite of what state lotteries represent and encourage. “The Fastest Way to a Million Dollars,” “Road to Riches,” “$200,000 a Year for Life,” “$10,000,000 Bankroll,” and “$7,000,000 Supercash” are just a sampling of the hundreds of different lottery scratch tickets that state governments across the United States are marketing at this very moment during a time when more than 20 million citizens are unemployed, of which a disproportionate amount are African-American.

But no one is forcing people to gamble away their future financial security on state lottery games, you say. While true, it is more like luring people into a life-changing financial trap difficult to escape. State governments deliberately concentrate lottery outlets in economically-distressed regions to entice more low-income citizens, often clustering outlets in neighborhoods with large numbers of minorities. Lotteries also aggressively target these communities with marketing campaigns exempted from truth-in-advertising laws under the Federal Trade Commission.

The types of gambling that used to occur in African-American neighborhoods before states imposed lotteries were local and private, and the money exchanged stayed in the community. Today, much of the tens of billions of dollars that lotteries extract from low-income and minority communities is redistributed to benefit residents of middle-class and upper-class communities. In one example representative of many others, a 2018 investigation by The State newspaper in South Carolina found Orangeburg County in the state had the 11th highest poverty rate and had spent $1,274 per person on the lottery since 2008 — more than any other county. But for every dollar Orangeburg County residents had spent on the lottery, they have received just 41 cents in scholarships, K-12 funding and other lottery funds. In contrast, Pickens County, which has the 15th lowest poverty rate, had spent $141 per person on the lottery since 2008, the least of any county. But for every dollar Pickens County residents spent, they received $3.26 in scholarships, K-12 funding and other lottery funds.

While the wealth lost to gambling now goes elsewhere, state lotteries leave another brand on black lives, especially black women: a severe gambling addiction problem. Results of a large nationally-representative study that investigated ethnicity and rates of problem gambling found that African-Americans had twice the rate of gambling addiction compared to whites and they were also more likely to be women in the lowest income brackets.

To keep the money pouring in, states labor to entice citizens to gamble with an ever-growing amount of new games and new forms of gambling, at higher price points, played at faster speeds, with more frequency, at more locations.

Lotteries are now lobbying hard to massively expand their gambling operation onto the internet, allowing them to open a virtual lottery outlet on every smart phone, tablet, and computer in a state. The future of lotteries depends on their ability to lure a whole new generation of young people to develop a gambling habit.

We don’t ban alcohol and tobacco sales in African-American neighborhoods to prevent people from developing a drinking or smoking habit, so why shut state lottery outlets? What separates commercialized gambling like lotteries from every other business, including vices like alcohol and tobacco, is it’s a big con game based on deceit and exploitation. Lottery games are a form of consumer financial fraud, similar to price-gouging and false advertising. Citizens are conned into thinking they can win money on games that are designed to get them fleeced in the end. If you pay for a pizza, a ticket to a sporting event, or a glass of wine, that’s what you receive in return. With state lotteries, what you receive is a financial exchange offering the lure that you might win money. But this financial exchange is mathematically rigged against you so inevitably you lose your money in the end, especially if you keep gambling. Any success only comes at someone else’s expense. All of this explains why lotteries are illegal unless you run the gambling scheme in partnership with state government.

How do you start to address the problem of state lotteries in America? The first step is to eliminate lottery advertising, marketing promotions, and sponsorships. What leads people to lottery games is the marketing.

A second step is to end the sale of high dollar gambling games, especially in financially-disadvantaged communities. Some states sell scratch tickets as high as $50 in neighborhoods where many residents make a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

A third step is for state legislatures to begin building a Lottery Replacement Fund which would act like a rainy day fund dedicated to helping wean the state from lottery revenues over a period of years.

As almost every facet of American life is rightly being scrutinized for its impact on black lives, state lotteries deserve to be included on center stage. It has been a long time coming.

– Authored by Les Bernal of Stop Predatory Gambling

Annotation:
1) Rev. Martin Luther King’s likeness and message was perverted by the District of Columbia Lottery to market lottery tickets to citizens in a community with a large population of African-Americans. https://www.stoppredatorygambling.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/DC-Lottery-ad-MLK-Martin-Luther-King-e1594605846737.jpg

2) Thornton quote on lotteries: “Bury the Chains,” Adam Hochschild, Pg. 308

3) “$500 billion of personal wealth will be lost by citizens to lotteries over the next eight years…” H2 Gambling Capital https://h2gc.com/ tracks gambling loss figures. The Economist has published these numbers. https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2017/02/09/the-worlds-biggest-gamblers US losses to lotteries are at least $70 billion a year and over an eight year period total losses will exceed $560 billion.

4) “lotteries are considered ‘essential’ during COVID pandemic” and “lotteries broke sales records” during COVID shutdown:

“Coronavirus Crisis Prompts Call to Suspend Lottery Gambling; Antilottery group asks states to suspend lotteries until 30 days after stimulus payments,” The Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-crisis-prompts-call-to-suspend-lottery-gambling-11587376800?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1#comments_sector

“Scratch-Off Lottery Sales Soar,” Stateline Pew Charitable Trusts https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2020/05/13/scratch-off-lottery-sales-soar

“Chasing Sales During Coronavirus Pandemic, States Declare Lotteries ‘Essential'” The Intercept https://theintercept.com/2020/04/16/coronavirus-state-lotteries-gambling-essential/

5) “In California, the lottery contributes just 1% of the total K-12 education budget…” https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/lo/ceflottery.asp

6) “In New York, it’s under 5%.” https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/education/how-much-lottery-money-really-goes-to-education/71-607297164

7) “In states like Georgia and South Carolina…” low income and minority citizens are funding college scholarships for middle and upper middle class kids: Atlanta Journal Constitution https://www.ajc.com/news/state–regional-govt–politics/now-what-has-hope-accomplished/7tvZcMVQGSKQ19VDOgOc3M/ and The State Newspaper, South Carolina: https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/2018/10/12/south-carolinas-poor-play-lottery-but-wealthier-win-scholarships/1614069002/

8) Environmental protection groups in CO and OR receive money lost by low income citizens buying lottery tickets: Colorado https://www.coloradolottery.com/giving-back/funding/ and Oregon https://www.oregonlottery.org/oregon-wins/

9) “Nationwide, African Americans spend five times more on lottery tickets than white people.” Source: “State Lotteries at the Turn of the Century: Report to the National Gambling Impact Study Commission,” Charles Clotfelter, Philip J. Cook, Julie A. Edell and Marian Moore, all of Duke University http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/ngisc/reports/lotfinal.pdf

10) Statistics on the massive asset gap between whites and blacks came from US Federal Reserve Board Survey on Consumer Finances, 2016 and graphed by https://www.visualcapitalist.com/racial-wealth-gap/

11) Samples of lottery tickets:

“The Fastest Way to a Million Dollars,” GA Lottery https://www.galottery.com/en-us/games/scratchers/active-games.html

“Road to Riches,” WI Lottery https://wilottery.com/games/instant-games/road-riches-2139

“$200,000 a Year for Life,” MA Lottery https://www.masslottery.com/games/200k_year_for_life_2017
“$10,000,000 bankroll,” MA Lottery https://www.masslottery.com/games/10m_bankroll_2019
“$7,000,000 Supercash” NY Lottery https://nylottery.ny.gov/scratch-off/ten-and-up/7000000-supercash
12) “State governments deliberately concentrate lottery outlets in economically-distressed regions to entice more low-income citizens, often clustering outlets in neighborhoods with large numbers of minorities.”
Source: “A geospatial statistical analysis of the density of lottery outlets within ethnically concentrated neighborhoods,” Journal of Community Psychology, April 2010 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jcop.20376

13) “Lotteries also aggressively target these communities with marketing campaigns exempted from truth-in-advertising laws under the Federal Trade Commission.” “The Predatory Nature of State Lotteries,” Loyola Consumer Law Review, Andrew Clott, 2015 https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi48dWzysjqAhVVlnIEHcDdCaAQFjALegQIBBAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Flawecommons.luc.edu%2Fcgi%2Fviewcontent.cgi%3Farticle%3D1964%26context%3Dlclr&usg=AOvVaw3iQ5Co3C6j7Dd2lOiWADRO

14) “Much of the tens of billions of dollars extracted from these low-income and minority communities by state lotteries every year is redistributed to benefit residents of middle-class and upper-class communities. For example, a 2018 investigation by The State newspaper in South Carolina….” Source: The State Newspaper, October 12, 2018 https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/2018/10/12/south-carolinas-poor-play-lottery-but-wealthier-win-scholarships/1614069002/

15) “The types of gambling that used to occur in African-American neighborhoods before states imposed lotteries were local and private, and the money exchanged stayed in the community. “ Source: “Running the Numbers: Race, Police, and the History of Urban Gambling,” Matthew Vaz, 2020 https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo49299126.html

16) “Results of a large nationally-representative study that investigated ethnicity and rates of problem gambling found that African-Americans had twice the rate of gambling addiction compared to whites and they were also more likely to be women in the lowest income brackets.” Source: “Disordered gambling among racial and ethnic groups in the US: results from the national epidemiologic survey on alcohol and related conditions,” Alegria AA, Petry NM, Hasin DS, Liu SM, Grant BF, Blanco C CNS Spectr. 2009 Mar; 14(3):132-42. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19407710/

17) “Some states sell scratch tickets as high as $50 in neighborhoods where many residents make a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.” Texas Lottery $50 scratch tickets: https://www.txlottery.org/export/sites/lottery/Games/Scratch_Offs/index.html_635453064.html

Texas minimum wage is $7.25 an hour: https://squareup.com/us/en/townsquare/your-guide-to-texas-minimum-wage

Les BernalTaking Down This Monument to Injustice Will Help Millions
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Why Commercialized Gambling is Different Than Any Other Business

Why Commercialized Gambling is Different Than Any Other Business

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Below is the testimony of Les Bernal, National Director of Stop Predatory Gambling, before a Georgia Legislature study committee on gambling in October 2019. As part of his presentation, Bernal explains why commercialized gambling is different than any other business. A copy of Bernal’s slides can be found here.

Les BernalWhy Commercialized Gambling is Different Than Any Other Business
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“The American people are on course to lose $1 trillion over the next 8 years”

“The American people are on course to lose $1 trillion over the next 8 years”

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Below is the brief video testimony of Les Bernal, National Director of Stop Predatory Gambling, before the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism’s hearing  “Post-PASPA: An Examination of Sports Betting in America” on September 27, 2018. Bernal’s written testimony can be found below the video.

Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, and members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on the topic of sports betting in America.

My name is Les Bernal and I am the National Director of Stop Predatory Gambling, a national government reform network of individuals and organizations from across the United States. I’m also a parent and a former high school and college men’s basketball coach.

Stop Predatory Gambling believes in improving the lives of the American people with compassion and fairness.

We believe everyone should have a fair opportunity to get ahead.

We believe every person’s life has worth and no one is expendable.

We believe state government should not depend on commercialized gambling to fund its activities.

Because of what we stand for, we are one of the most politically diverse organizations in the United States, one in which conservatives and progressives work side-by-side to improve the common good.  This reality was evidenced by the amicus brief that Stop Predatory Gambling filed in the Murphy case, co-signed by more than thirty different organizations, including some of the most influential liberal and conservative groups in America.[i]

An Urgent National Problem that Only Federal Action Will Address

Leaders of all political stripes agree that improving opportunity and mobility out of poverty is one of the defining challenges of our time. Around 50 percent of the US population has zero or negative net wealth, meaning their debts equal or exceed their assets.[ii] Yet one major contributing factor to this serious situation has been ignored for too long: Americans are expected to lose $118 billion of their personal wealth to government-sanctioned gambling in 2018.[iii]  Many of these citizens suffered life-changing financial losses.

If Congress doesn’t take action to address this problem, then the American people are going to lose more than $1 trillion of wealth to government-sanctioned gambling over the next eight years. Sports betting will make these financial losses even worse.

The reason? The almost sole focus of state-sanctioned gambling has been to maximize government revenues, not to promote and protect the public interest. And nothing suggests sports betting will be any different unless there is strong federal action.

Why Gambling is Different Than Every Other Business or Commodity

There is a faulty assump­tion surrounding commercialized gambling and it has led to very bad outcomes for the American people. It’s the false perception that gambling is just like any other business. What separates commercialized gambling from every other business, including those involving vices like alcohol and tobacco, is gambling is a big con game. Citizens are conned into thinking they can win money on games that are designed, in the end, to get them fleeced. If you pay for a hamburger, a book, or a glass of wine, that’s what you receive in return. In commercialized gambling, what you receive is the lure you are going to win money. But the game is mathematically stacked against you and inevitably, you’ll lose in the end, especially if you keep gambling.

If you do win some money back, in most cases it comes at the expense and misery of many other people. And an ESPN story recently highlighted that in commercial sports betting, if you try to win, the bookmakers don’t let you place bets anymore.[iv] Bookmakers are severely restricting or closing accounts for the very fact that these people are winning!

“Let People Gamble If They Want,” You May Say

We already have the freedom to gamble. Up to now, many Americans participate in office pools for the Super Bowl, NCAA March Madness brackets, or make casual wagers on the golf course with their friends. These informal events are examples of social gambling.

Social gambling stands in contrast to state-sanctioned gambling, or predatory gambling, that—by design—is much less constrained. It happens when state governments partner with powerful corporate gambling interests to operate and market for-profit gambling to citizens and their communities.

In state-sanctioned gambling, there is a “house” skimming a large profit. It’s exempt from truth-in-advertising laws, giving states and gambling corporations wide latitude to market gambling, grossly exaggerate chances of winning and aggressively lure citizens to gamble away bigger sums of their cash. People often borrow money to participate. It goes on all day, every day of the week, year round. And ​it requires the majority of Americans who rarely gamble to subsidize the scheme with their own cash, footing the bill for the steep social costs and state budget problems it leaves behind.

One can be a libertarian on this, while at the same time, believing that we cross an unacceptable ethical line when we go from allowing individuals to gamble to allowing our government to set up a massive marketing and distribution scheme urging people to do so. Making a bet with a friend, that’s one thing, but if you do it against a sportsbook, you’re going to lose money all the time.

Illegal Gambling Tends to Increase When States Legalize Gambling

The primary source of information for the size and scope of illegal sports gambling in the U.S. has been the American Gaming Association, the national lobbying organization for gambling operators who have a vested financial interest in seeing commercialized gambling metastasize.

When gambling operators call for “regulation,” what they really mean is government granting monopolies and awarding regulatory advantages to favored firms.

Presently in the U.S., no illegal gambling operator is putting liens on the homes of citizens to collect gambling losses, like legal operators do. No illegal operator sends free gambling wagers by direct mail to your house to lure you back to the local casino, like legal operators do. No illegal operator is pushing $50 lottery scratch tickets, seven days a week, in economically-depressed communities, like state lotteries do. No illegal operators are running gambling ads during live broadcasts of sporting events with such intensity that one out of every five ads is to place a bet, which is what some of the legal sports gambling operators maneuvering here in the U.S. do in places like the United Kingdom.[v] No illegal operator is sponsoring pro sports teams, which involves team uniforms emblazoned with the names of gambling companies on them; stadium and arena surfaces where continuous gambling ads surround the game itself; and pre-match and post-match interviews, like the legal operators do in the U.K.[vi]

If the illegal sports gambling operators supposedly cannot be controlled right now, as the big commercial gambling operators claim, then how can you control and regulate the gambling operators you license? If you can’t shut down the illegal sports gambling operators now, how would you possibly shut down licensed operators who don’t follow the rules?

There are a number of other reasons why illegal gambling tends to increase when states sanction gambling. These include:

  • Untaxed illegal operators can offer better odds and tax avoidance that legal operations cannot.
  • Once gamblers start betting legally, they become less averse to gambling in unlicensed venues and websites.
  • Law enforcement in gambling states view illegal gambling as a state revenue issue rather than a criminal activity, making enforcement less of a priority.

Commercialized Sports Betting Severely Harms Kids and Will Radically Change the Way That Kids Consume Sports

Studies show that children in those countries with legal sports gambling are repeatedly exposed to harmful messages and advertisements about sports gambling.[vii] The frequency of sports gambling ads normalizes gambling for kids.[viii] These kids come to see gambling as central to playing and watching sports.[ix] Rather than talking about their favorite team, they talk about the odds of their team winning.

The younger children start gambling, the more likely it is they will become habitual and problem gamblers, regardless whether they are from an urban or a suburban community.[x]

Researchers at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health have published nearly a dozen papers on Baltimore youths and gambling.[xi] They found a strong link between gambling and other problems among the city’s youth. Other studies in the Johns Hopkins’ series found that gambling often leads to depression, crime, homelessness and joblessness in young adulthood.[xii]

When you talk about sports gambling in 2018, it means gambling on almost any kind of contest you can imagine:

  • In-play betting;
  • Betting on video games or eSports;
  • Betting on pop culture TV programs like The Bachelor and The Oscars;
  • And much of it is happening online in the form of online gambling.

Can you imagine allowing young people to gamble on video games? That’s where gambling operators, and their partners in state government, are leading this country unless Congress acts.

For the Majority of Americans Who Don’t Gamble, You Pay Even If You Don’t Play

Gambling lobbyists and some public officials continue to tout government-sanctioned gambling as a way to raise tax revenue. But history has shown repeatedly that this argument is either overstated or wrong. A 2016 national report by The Rockefeller Institute at SUNY-Albany found that while states creating new revenue streams from gambling may see momentary bumps in tax income, “the revenue returns deteriorate—and often quickly.”[xiii]

Beyond its obvious status as a budgetary shell game, government-sanctioned gambling incurs major social costs that end up being footed by all taxpayers. In addition to targeting and exploiting the financially desperate and cultivating addiction,[xiv] [xv] government-sanctioned gambling leads to increases in rates of personal bankruptcy and provides new avenues for crime and money laundering.[xvi] [xvii] Gambling operators don’t pay for the harms they cause families, businesses, and communities. Taxpayers do.

All the citizens who don’t gamble also pay another way. Government-sanctioned gambling lowers our national standard of living because it’s a sterile transfer of money from millions of ordinary people’s pockets into a small number of other people’s pockets, producing nothing new and nothing of lasting value. Its economic impact is similar to throwing your money on the street so someone else can pick it up – it redistributes wealth without creating it. Because this nonproductive activity nevertheless uses up time and resources, we experience a reduced national standard of living, a consequence that impacts all of us.

CONCLUSION

State governments are often called laboratories of democracy. But over the last 30 years, the record is clear: when it comes to gambling policy, states are laboratories of fraud, exploitation and budgetary shell games.

Without Congressional action, the American people are on a collision course to lose more than $1 trillion of wealth to government-sanctioned gambling over the next eight years. Widespread commercialized sports betting will make these financial losses even worse.

Public officials and opinion leaders who profess a desire to improve opportunity and alleviate poverty often lament how few levers they have to pull. Priority one needs to be to stop turning millions of people who are small earners, who could be small savers, into habitual bettors.

SOURCES

[i] Stop Predatory Gambling amicus brief in Supreme Court case Murphy vs NCAA, https://www.stoppredatorygambling.org/stop-predatory-gamblings-amicus-brief-for-the-us-supreme-court-case-christie-vs-ncaa/

[ii] The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, Vol. 1, May 2016, Issue 2, Wealth Inequality in the United States Since 1913: Evidence from Capitalized Income Tax Data, Pg. 554. http://gabriel-zucman.eu/files/SaezZucman2016QJE.pdf

[iii] “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

[iv] “Won and done? Sportsbooks banning the smart money,” David Purdum of ESPN, August 30, 2018 http://www.espn.com/chalk/story/_/id/24425026/gambling-bookmakers-growing-us-legal-betting-market-allowed-ban-bettors

[v] “Gambling adverts ‘in 95% of TV matches’,” BBC News, Oct. 23, 2017, http://www.bbc.com/news/business-41693866

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] Hannah Pitt et al., “It’s just everywhere!” Children and parents discuss the marketing of sports wagering in Australia,” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 480, 485 (Oct. 2016) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27524502

[viii] Ibid.

[ix] Sally Monaghan, et al, “Impact of gambling advertisements and marketing on children and adolescents,” McGill University and Univ. of Sydney, Journal of Gambling Issues: Issue 22, December 2008 http://youthgambling.mcgill.ca/en/PDF/Publications/2008/Monaghan Derevensky Sklar.pdf

[x]  “The Dangers of Youth Gambling Addiction,” New York Council on Problem Gambling, Know the Odds  http://knowtheodds.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/NYCPG_ebook_YouthGambling_052114.pdf

[xi] “Disadvantaged urban youth may be more likely to be problem gamblers: Link found between gambling, other abuses among Baltimore’s youth,” The Baltimore Sun, April 18, 2014  http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2014-04-18/health/bs-hs-youth-gambling-20140418_1_problem-gamblers-gambling-problems-las-vegas-style

[xii] Ibid.

[xiii] 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

[xiv] 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

[xv] John Rosengren, “How Casinos Enable Gambling Addicts,” The Atlantic (Dec. 2016) https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/12/losing-it-all/505814/

[xvi] Social Costs of Problem Gambling, Problem Gambling Research and Intervention Project, Georgia State University, https://goo.gl/kcgQv2

[xvii] Dr. Earl Grinols and Dr. David Mustard, MIT Press, Review of Economics and Statistics, Feb. 2006, https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/rest.2006.88.1.28?journalCode=rest

Les Bernal“The American people are on course to lose $1 trillion over the next 8 years”
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Meet the Men and Women Enshrined as Members of The Hypocrite Hall of Fame

Meet the Men and Women Enshrined as Members of The Hypocrite Hall of Fame

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Imagine the legendary chicken business owner Frank Perdue, when asked if he ate the poultry he sold, responded by spitting on the floor and declaring his chicken was “for losers.” What business would ever say that about their product or service? Only one. The gambling business.

When The New York Times asked a slot machine designer at International Gaming Technology if he ever plays the machines he builds, “he acted as if I had insulted him. ‘Slots are for losers,’ he spat.”

The actions of the IGT employee are not an isolated case. Commercialized gambling is the only business where most of the people who own it and promote it don’t use it and don’t want to live near it.

It’s like the executives of the failed energy giant Enron – infamously known as “The Smartest Guys in the Room” – standing in front of their employees assuring them their retirement funds invested in the company are a good bet while at the same time, they were selling millions of dollars of their own stock because they knew it was a sure loser. The owners and promoters of commercialized gambling are “The Smartest Guys NOT in the Room.”

These hypocrites cause life-changing financial losses for millions of American citizens. People like Sandy Hall, who had the courage to be interviewed as part of a 60 Minutes investigation into slot machines. Her life was reduced to almost nothing because of slots.

Below are the hallowed members of The Hypocrite Hall of Fame. To read more about each Hall of Famer, click on the arrow following the member’s name.

In this June 2011 story by Casino Enterprise Management, Adelson, the late casino billionaire said he gambled only on vacation when he was on an island and took only $500 with him – a far cry from those citizens who are now gambling between 150 to 200 times a year at local casinos like the Bethlehem (PA) Sands Casino that Adelson built.

Excerpted from The Boston Globe, April 21, 2008:

“Ted’s Stateline Mobil is the King Kong of Massachusetts Lottery agents. The store sold $12.6 million worth of lottery tickets in 2007, millions more than any of the other 7,500 or so bars, restaurants, and convenience stores that sell lottery tickets in the state. Owners Ted and Tony Amico earned a staggering $625,000 on the standard 5 percent commission lottery agents receive for all lottery ticket sales, not including a 1 percent commission on all his customers’ winnings. The average store owner made about $37,000.

As for Tony Amico, he said he does not play the lottery much. “Once in a while, when the jackpot’s really big, I buy a ticket like everybody else,” he said. “That’s it.'”

Bluhm owns many casinos in the US and now is investing heavily into online gambling. Does this billionaire lose any of his fortune gambling inside casinos? According to this excerpt taken from The Chicago Tribune:

“As Neil Bluhm walked through the sophisticated high-roller lounge of his newest casino Thursday, I asked him, ‘Do you ever gamble?’ ‘No,’ he said, prompting his gaming chief to remind the Chicago billionaire about a trip to Las Vegas last fall. So Bluhm supplied a different answer. ‘I gamble putting one of these deals together,’ he said with zeal. ‘I spent millions of dollars not knowing whether we were going to have a casino. So do I gamble? Yes.'”

Penn National has been an influential player across the country in lobbying for small regional casinos that extract hundreds of millions of dollars of wealth from ordinary Americans. Their profit model is based on getting people to gamble away their money at least 4-5 times per week.

Carlino has been at the helm as Penn National metastasized across the US in recent years. Does he gamble away any of his own wealth? Carlino confessed to a Boston Globe reporter in September 2013: “I’m not a gambler.”

Cordish profits from a business that makes more than half its money from gambling addicts and spends millions of dollars marketing to gamblers who chase their losses– those gamblers who lost the money they came with and then hit the casino ATM to withdraw their savings to lose even more.

Yet in this Baltimore Sun Magazine article, Cordish reveals he is barely a gambler himself. If all his casino patrons gambled like he does, his casino would be out of business: “When I go to gamble, I take $100. When the $100 is gone, it’s gone. If I get ahead, at some point I quit. I think that’s how 99 percent of the world gambles. [Gambling] is just a form of recreation.”

From The New York Times Magazine cover story written by Gary Rivlin, May 9, 2004:

“Most of the people I met inside I.G.T. told me they never played slot machines on their own time… Even one corporate P.R. staff member couldn’t resist shaking her head in disbelief as she described scenes of people lining up to play a new machine. ”It was unfathomable to me,” she told me. When I asked one I.G.T. artist if he ever plays, he acted as if I had insulted him. “Slots are for losers,” he spat, and then, coming to his senses, begged me to consider that an off-the-record comment.

”It’s the slot machine that drives the industry today,” Fahrenkopf said in this 2004 New York Times story. Yet despite being the lead spokesman for the predatory gambling operators of America, here is what he had to say later in the same story about his trade’s primary money maker:

“Fahrenkopf is reportedly paid in seven figures to praise all things casino, but he can’t seem to help taking a poke at the slot machine. He views the transition from table games to slots as symptomatic of the dumbing down of American life. Playing craps means learning a complex set of rules. Blackjack may be easy to learn, but it still requires skill and concentration, and it’s not uncommon for the novice player to feel stupid in front of strangers. ‘I don’t know if it’s the education system, or maybe it’s that we as a society have gotten intellectually lazy,’ says Fahrenkopf, who headed the Republican National Committee under Ronald Reagan. ‘But people would rather just sit there and push a button.'”

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Fahrenkopf, the one-time head of the casino lobby, shockingly said he would oppose a casino near where he lives in Virginia.

Fields was a co-developer of the Seminole casino in Florida and as part owner of Suffolk Downs horse track in Boston, was a driving force for casinos in Massachusetts. Yet in a jaw-dropping admission to The Boston Globe, Fields confessed that he has “never gambled.” Fields went on: “It’s so funny—I just don’t do that. It’s not for any reason other than it’s not in my psyche. I go to Vegas or any of these places and I’ll go through the projects and find them really interesting and exciting. But I’m a developer and sort of an entertainment guy, and I’ll look at this from the standpoint of how do you make sure people have a good time? But it never occurs to me to gamble. Isn’t that interesting?”

DraftKings and other “daily fantasy sports” companies are really online gambling operators.

DraftKings has never turned a profit but they survive for now because they intend to become an online sportsbook if the U.S. legalizes sports betting.

Despite their efforts to get millions of young people hooked on sports gambling, are the founders of DraftKings hardcore gamblers themselves?

One of the founders of DraftKings confessed to The Boston Globe that “I had never even stepped foot in a casino. The three of us have computer science degrees. We’re a bunch of dorks that wanted to build something cool.”

Stanley Ho is an Asian billionaire casino magnate who is considered the father of modern gambling in China. (New Jersey casino regulators found Ho had extensive ties to organized crime in China and their suspicions led MGM Mirage to agree in 2010 to sell its half of Atlantic City’s top casino — rather than abandon the lucrative Chinese market, where it has a joint venture with Ho’s daughter.)

Ho was interviewed by CNN TalkAsia which aired on October 2, 2004. Here is the full interview and below is what he told the interviewer about his frequency of losing his own money on gambling:

LH: Welcome back to TalkAsia. Some call Stanley Ho the patriarch of Macau. That’s because in the past forty years, he’s developed some of Macau’s most famous landmarks and key infrastructure, including the main bridge and international airport. In recognition of his contributions, the government has named an avenue after him. But I can’t help wonder what the man behind the businessman, is really like.

SH: What am I like? Well I am very normal; the only difference is I don’t gamble.

LH: For sure right?

SH: I don’t gamble at all, all my life. I am only interested in sports.

LH: Even the king of gambling?

SH: Well I enjoy this name, but to be very frank I don’t deserve this casino king, I don’t gamble, how can I be the casino king?

From a column written by The Providence Journal’s M. Charles Bakst, May 13, 2004:

Former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones, a top aide at Harrah’s Entertainment, the Narragansetts’ partner, said yesterday that she’s offended by the notion that casinos are filled with “unhappy, depressed, sort of hypnotically drugged people.”

Jones said, “Sometime I’ll take you to the movies in Las Vegas. I want you to look at the people sitting in there. And, you know, some of them are grossly overweight and a lot of them don’t look that happy and some of them aren’t as attractive and well dressed as they should be. But should I make assumptions about all moviegoers because some of them aren’t what you would expect?”

Jones said she doesn’t gamble. “I’d rather spend my money on shoes. And houses.” (She has three homes.) So she wants you to gamble, but she’s too smart and thinks you’re stupid? Jones laughed, “That’s like saying I like to go out and buy Manolo Blahnik shoes but you don’t. Does that make you stupid or does that mean you just aren’t into shoes?”

As the head of Genting, Lim has helped to drive well-financed, relentless lobbying efforts to allow casinos in several states including New York, Florida and Massachusetts. Worth close to a billion dollars, does Lim regularly lose any of his personal fortune on his own “service?”

According to The Business Times Singapore on December 2, 2006, Lim said: ” Life is full of gambles but I’m not a hard-core gambler.”

Loveman, the man who was paid $40 million in one year for encouraging millions of Americans to lose their money during this severe financial crisis, does not gamble. As Wall Street Journal Christina Binkley reported in her book “Winner Takes All” (Pg. 177):

“There was a fundamental disconnect between Loveman and his customers. The professor believed that people were gambling for recreation, so he didn’t expect them to feel so upset about losing their money. He believed gambling was games. Loveman isn’t a gambler and has never been a gambler. He can analyze customers’ behavior but he doesn’t get them deep in his belly.”

At MGM, Murren led one of the world’s largest casino operations. He was also a strong proponent of legalizing online gambling, especially in social media.

But how likely is this multimillionaire to lose his own money gambling? The New York Times reported in this December 24, 2006 story: “Murren doesn’t play the tables or slot machines.”

The late Si Redd, the man known as “the King of Slots” for designing the modern slot machine, did not even play the machines he invented according to this excerpt in The Las Vegas Sun from June 25, 2001:

“Si Redd says he listens intently to, and reads reports of, the gaming device that has become known as the “crack cocaine of gambling” because of its highly addictive nature.

‘Of course it hurts me when such things are said, I guess because it is kind of the truth,’ Redd said. ‘I never intended it to become that way, and I never could have dreamed of how successful the video poker machine would become.’

Although he is a member of the Gaming Hall of Fame, Redd today has little to do with gaming. He sold his interest in IGT as an octogenarian and opened a rival company, International Technical Systems Inc., which is no longer in business.

He does not even play the machines he invented.

Redd’s concept of the 99 percent payout on dollar slots drew millions of people who otherwise never would have put a coin into the one-armed bandits.

All the while, Redd had to overcome his knowledge that his mother did not approve of the fortune he was making off customers of the gaming industry. ‘I kept sending her more and more money, yet she would just give it away to people as poor as she was,’ Redd said.”

Reilly is a key leader of the NCRG, a wing of the casinos’ main trade group, the American Gaming Association, that funds most of the scientific research on gambling addiction in the United States. The NCRG has helped casinos gain a legal foothold across the country — and covered up the ways casinos profit from gambling addiction.

Does Reilly lose any of her casino-funded salary using slot machines? According to this story that appeared in Salon on June 16, 2008, Reilly said: “I play a slot machine for ten minutes and I’m so bored I want to shoot myself.”

Silver has been the champion for widespread sports gambling among the professional sports commissioners.

During a speech in Las Vegas in July 2014, five months before he published an op-ed piece in The New York Times where he announced his endorsement of government-sanctioned sports betting, Silver declared: “I personally enjoy being here, although I don’t gamble as the Commissioner of the NBA for the record.”

Donald Trump made enormous profits by encouraging citizens to lose their money inside his casinos.

Despite his involvement in the casino business, Trump himself does not lose his own money on commercialized gambling games.

According to a New York Magazine article titled “Fighting Back: Trump Scrambles off the Canvas” from November 9, 1992 (page 42): “He [Trump] does not gamble.”

Wynn told Charlie Rose in this 2009 60 Minutes interview: “The only way to win in a casino is to own one.” And he says, even when people are lucky, they usually gamble away their winnings.

“Have you never known in your entire life a gambler who comes here and wins big and…walks away?” Rose asked. “Never,” Wynn replied.

“You know nobody hardly that over the stretch of time is ahead?” Rose asked. “Nope,” Wynn said.

Barton was the chief sponsor of legislation that would open a poker casino in every home, office, dorm room and smart phone in America.

While Barton has said he is an occasional poker player in a social setting, he said he does not gamble online with his own money. He has no personal experience with the incredible speed, the intensity of the high, the frequency of play, the enormous amount of money lost and the highly predatory marketing involved with internet poker.

Bonacic dutifully served the interests of predatory gambling operators as much as any legislator from any U.S. state. Whether it was casinos, online gambling, daily fantasy sports gambling or sports betting, Bonacic carried their special interest legislation year after year.

But dis Bonacic waste his own money on the commercial gambling schemes? In an appearance on “Up Close” with ABC Channel 7’s Diana Williams on Sunday, October 27th, 2013, Ms. Williams asked him that question.

Bonacic responded by admitting he doesn’t gamble but did offer that he buys stocks, as if investing in Apple or Microsoft was the same as blowing his own cash on $30 NY Lottery scratch tickets.

As State Treasurer, Cahill was a relentless advocate for casinos and the State Lottery in Massachusetts. Does Cahill lose any of his own money on government’s predatory gambling program?

Here’s what he told Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen in this Sept. 24, 2007 story: “I don’t gamble. I never have.”

Campbell was a vocal co-sponsor of legislation in the U.S. House that would open the door to predatory internet gambling by legalizing for-profit online poker sites. He has said that legalizing and regulating online poker would create jobs in the U.S.

But while he worked hard to allow gambling interests to target his constituents through the internet, Campbell acknowledged he does not lose his own money on gambling.

On February 8, 2011, Chafee told WPRI Channel 12: “I don’t go to the Twin River myself but having toured it, when you see the acres of machines in there, you think what’s the difference between live tables and what’s here? So I don’t think it’s a significant change from what exists there.”

When he was the Florida governor, Crist made the expansion of casinos one of his top priorities.

When Crist was asked whether he loses his own money on government’s gambling program, according to this story excerpt from The Orlando Sun-Sentinel: “He laughed. ‘I don’t gamble,’ he (Crist) said.”

As Senate President, Cullerton was a leading advocate for a massive expansion of casino gambling across Illinois.

When asked if he’s a gambling man himself in this interview on a Chicago news program from Sept. 19, 2011, Cullerton responded: “I’m not.”

Cuomo tried to brand himself as a man with “a vision for a progressive future” yet legalizing commercial casinos was a top priority of his administration. Cuomo doesn’t lose his own money gambling in casinos, though.

From The New York Post: “Cuomo himself yesterday revealed that he last gambled in a casino “many, many years ago — and I lost.” He also told reporters he’s never laid down a wager at any of New York’s nine racinos and hasn’t played the state-sponsored lottery in ‘months.'”

D’Allesandro has been a long-time champion for casinos and other forms of predatory gambling. No one has filed more legislation on behalf of powerful gambling interests in his state.

But does D’Allesandro gamble away his money? He confessed to an Associated Press reporter in 2014: “I don’t gamble.”

After assuming the role of Speaker of the Massachusetts House, DeLeo’s number one priority was to legalize casinos and slot parlors in the state. How many times had he been to a casino in his life? In a WCVB-TV interview on September 25, 2011, the 61-year-old conceded that “I’ve only been in a casino twice in my life and one of those times was for a boxing match.”

While many of his constituents will be losing money at casinos more than 200 times a year like what is happening in Philadelphia, how likely was he to lose his own money at one of the casinos he pushed so hard to legalize?

According to this Boston Globe story from April 11, 2010:

“But DeLeo learned other lessons from his father, too, ones he has not spoken about as publicly. Even though Al DeLeo loved the track, he recognized its dangers, to the point that he forbade his son from gambling. Robert DeLeo remembers one occasion when he bet on a horse, won, and bragged to his father.

“I was as proud as a peacock,” he said in a recent interview. “I said, `Hey, Dad, I won a race.’ And he looked at me and said, `You’re going to lose too many. I don’t want to hear it. Don’t even go there, pal.’ “

As mayor, Elia supported casinos but she did not gamble herself. According to a story in The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle written by Jim Memmott on Sunday June 24, 2001:

“Mayor Irene Elia of Niagara Falls, a supporter of the casino, said she too, is concerned about possible impacts. ‘We have to monitor it -we have to make sure the casino has a positive impact.’ Elia added she is no gambler.”

Ellis was an active proponent to legalize casinos in Texas. But does he lose his own money on the government’s program of predatory gambling?

According to The Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2009: “Mr. Ellis said he doesn’t gamble, but that a lot of his constituents do — and he doesn’t want them spending that cash in neighboring Louisiana or New Mexico.”

As a member of Congress, Frank was a leading proponent of legalizing internet gambling yet he said he does not lose his own money gambling. Below is an excerpt from a front page story on internet gambling that appeared in The Boston Globe, July 13, 2008:

“Barney Frank does not play poker or blackjack. The games bore him, and he thinks he would be terrible at them even if he tried. He’s never played a slot machine, doesn’t go to casinos, and has never tried to gamble online.

“I wouldn’t place a bet with your money,” he said. And yet, over the past year, the Democratic congressman from Newton has quietly become a cult hero for poker players and the online gambling industry – the pit boss of poker politics – by championing their cause on Capitol Hill.”

State Senator Hinojosa is a key sponsor of legislation to allow casinos in Texas. But does he lose his own money on government’s predatory gambling program?

Here is what he said in his presentation at the Texas Lyceum in Corpus Christ, TX on August 5, 2011: “I don’t gamble.”

Lang was a relentless pusher for casinos in Illinois for years. But is he someone who will frequently lose his own money gambling, causing him to go into severe personal debt as a result of this government program like thousands of other Americans?

According this Chicago News story from June 24, 2011: “Mr. Lang is not a regular gambler but enjoys betting occasionally.”

In 2011, Madigan shepherded a bill through the Illinois House that called for five more casinos in the state and slot machines at the horse tracks. He has called government’s gambling program the most politically “viable” way of raising capital dollars.

Yet will he personally lose any of his salary to help fund these needed capital projects? Does he believe it is in the best interest of his constituents to become habitual gamblers? According to this Illinois newspaper report, Madigan said: “I don’t gamble, I don’t go to casinos, I don’t go to racetracks, I don’t play cards, I don’t bet on sports. Gambling is something to be avoided – by everybody.”

In a state already saturated with electronic gambling machines, Markell has been a major advocate for government sponsored gambling, including a proposal to legalize sports betting in Delaware. Here is what he told ESPN The Magazine about his gambling habits in a column written by Chad Millman:

“A prediction: Sometime soon—after Tim Tebow brings peace to the Middle East but before the Lions become contenders—you’ll walk into your local deli and bet on sports. You won’t get pinched. You won’t go on the lam if you can’t pay up. Seriously. It’s a lock.

For this, you may have Jack Markell to thank. Which is funny because Markell, Delaware’s governor-elect, is not a betting man. Hasn’t been to Vegas in 15 years, can’t remember ever playing one of his state’s slot machines, never gambles on football or basketball.

And yet, soon after he’s sworn in on January 20th, there’s a chance he’ll start an avalanche of unprecedented gambling reform, and become the betting man’s biggest hero since Charles McNeil invented the point spread.”

Throughout his tenure as Lieutenant Governor, Murray was a consistent supporter of legalizing casinos in Massachusetts.

Even though much of the rationale to bring in casinos is based on the recycled narrative that some citizens are already going-out-of-state, how frequently does Murray himself go out-of-state to lose his own money at the Connecticut casinos? In an interview with WUML (Lowell, MA) radio on September 17, 2007 he said: “I have not been down to Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun.”there’s no money involved. The only game I’ve played with money is Monopoly.

Pallone is one of the biggest advocates for sports gambling operators in Congress. But does he waste any of his taxpayer-funded salary on government-sanctioned gambling games? Will he bet and lose his own cash on the commercialized gambling he relentlessly promotes?

Pallone confessed to USA TODAY Sports on Nov. 28, 2017: “I don’t bet. People think I’m a gambler because all of this, but I’m not.”

Paul had been a vocal supporter in Congress of legalizing online casinos. Does he lose his own money in government’s gambling program? According to this excerpt from a profile in The New Republic, December 31, 2007: “I don’t gamble, but I’m the gambler’s best friend,” he says, boasting of his support for online casinos.

In his role as Maryland’s Secretary of Labor, Licensing and Regulation for Governor Martin O’Malley, Perez was the administration’s public face to legalize slot parlors across the state. He later went on to become the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice and then moved to become the U.S. Secretary of Labor. Does Perez lose his own money on government’s slot machine program? According to The Washington Post, November 12, 2007:

Prior to studying the issue for O’Malley, Perez said he had never been to a gambling parlor. “This is not how I’d choose to spend my entertainment dollars,” he said.

Not surprisingly, Perez has left off his leading role in legalizing slot machines in Maryland on his Wikipedia page.

Campaigning as an outsider in 2006, Patrick railed against gimmicks and challenged citizens “to wish for your neighbors what you wish for yourself.” Yet shortly after his inauguration, Patrick declared with much fanfare he would study the issue of casinos. In reality, it proved to be nothing more than a roll-out strategy. Patrick officially ushered in casinos four years later in November 2011.

How much personal experience did he have with the policy that represents his primary legacy as governor? Virtually none. According to a State House News excerpt from November 22, 2011: “Patrick said he used to take his mother to gamble at Foxwoods and recalled spending time at a Las Vegas casino when he worked at Coca-Cola. “It was glamorous,” Patrick said, remembering the meals and taking in a Cirque du Soleil show.”

After leaving the governor’s office, Patrick went to work at Bain Capital. He oversees “a social impact fund” which invests “in companies that provide a social benefit in addition to financial returns.” You won’t find a single, credible social impact fund anywhere in the world that invests in predatory gambling operators.

As Governor of Pennsylvania, Ed Rendell spearheaded the drive to legalize casinos in that state. In 2010, he famously called the 60 Minutes team “idiots” and “simpletons” after being pressed by Lesley Stahl to explain why government is creating new gambling addicts and pushing people into deeper personal debt in an ultimately failed attempt to fund public services.

Regarding whether he frequently loses his own money in the casinos he helped create, here is what Rendell said in a story that appeared in The Erie Times on February 7, 2008:

“On criticism from anti-gambling groups who say he doesn’t go into the state’s casinos: ‘He’s ashamed of what he’s created,’ Rendell said, quoting them. But Rendell said he would also be criticized if he were to visit the casinos.”

Robey was a strong advocate for predatory gambling in Maryland including the legalization of slot machines in the state. But does he lose his own money on the government casinos he helped create?

Here’s what The Baltimore Sun reported on August 24, 2008: “I’m not a gambler, but I’m a realist,” said Robey.

Rosenberg helped to lead the state’s drive to legalize casinos. He was described by some in the media as the “State House’s casino expert.”

During a public hearing in June 2010, Rosenberg opened it by telling those in attendance that the casino issue “had been debated literally for decades’’ and that “every point of view, every study, has been heard, vetted, and considered.’’

His self-admiration proved hollow. In an interview with The Atlantic in 2016, Rosenberg revealed he was “unaware of near misses, false wins, and other electronic gambling machine practices.” He admitted: “I don’t know the engineering and science of it.” It’s a jaw-dropping confession, especially in light of the fact that America’s leading expert on electronic gambling machines, Dr Natasha Schull, was at nearby MIT and had testified several times before the Massachusetts Legislature.

Aside from Rosenberg’s self-acknowledged ignorance on slots design, how much personal experience did he have with intense forms of gambling like slot machines? How likely is he to lose his own money in the government’s predatory gambling program that he championed?

Here is an excerpt from an interview in The Ideas section of The Boston Globe on January 10, 2010 titled “Inside Man: An interview with Stan Rosenberg, the State House’s casino expert”

IDEAS: Do you ever gamble?

ROSENBERG: Nope. Never put a coin in a slot machine. Well you don’t put coins in them anymore, you play by putting a card into the slot. I buy a lottery ticket every now and then when the jackpot gets really large, just for the fun of it. But no, I’m not a gambler.

IDEAS: Not even a nickel slot machine?

ROSENBERG: I don’t even play poker with friends. When we play card games there’s no money involved. The only game I’ve played with money is Monopoly.

Strickland was a pivotal leader in the effort to legalize casinos in Ohio in 2009.

In addition to his support for casinos, he also expanded the state lottery to Sundays and added Keno games as well as proposed bringing in video slot machines at the state’s seven racetracks as a way to bridge a $3.2 billion budget deficit.

Prior to being elected Governor in 2006, Strickland was a United Methodist minister – a denomination which strongly opposes predatory gambling in their Social Principles.

Thomas was a leading proponent for a Rhode Island casino to be partly controlled by the Narragansetts tribe. Yet does he lose any of his own money on the business he so desperately wants to operate?

From a column written by The Providence Journal’s M. Charles Bakst, May 13, 2004:

“Does he patronize casinos? Rarely. ‘I’m not a big gambler.’

Wagner was the chairman of the House legislative committee that spearheaded the push to legalize casinos in Massachusetts. How likely is he to lose his own money in government’s gambling program? According to this excerpt taken from a story titled “House passes casino bill” that appeared in The Boston Globe, Sept. 15, 2011:

“Personally, expanded gambling, I suppose I could take or leave,’’ said Representative Joseph F. Wagner, a Chicopee Democrat and the lead sponsor of the bill, who confessed his gambling experience is limited to the “occasional game of Keno.’’

Wright had been at the forefront of high-profile efforts to legalize online gambling including sports betting in California- a state that already has more than 60 tribal casinos, more than 80 poker casinos and a lottery.

Does he lose his own money like his constituents do on government’s gambling program?

During his appearance at the 2010 Global iGaming Summit & Expo, Wright said:

“I am the consummate shopper. I’m not a gambler. I need to provide a vehicle by which you (operators) can make money and I can get money (for the state).”

As Senate President, Cullerton was a leading advocate for a massive expansion of casino gambling across Illinois.

When asked if he’s a gambling man himself in this interview on a Chicago news program from Sept. 19, 2011, Cullerton responded: “I’m not.”

Lang wasa relentless pusher for casinos in Illinois for years. But is he someone who will frequently lose his own money gambling, causing him to go into severe personal debt as a result of this government program like thousands of other Americans?

According this Chicago News story from June 24, 2011: “Mr. Lang is not a regular gambler but enjoys betting occasionally.”

In 2011, Madigan shepherded a bill through the Illinois House that called for five more casinos in the state and slot machines at the horse tracks. He has called government’s gambling program the most politically “viable” way of raising capital dollars.

Yet will he personally lose any of his salary to help fund these needed capital projects? Does he believe it is in the best interest of his constituents to become habitual gamblers? According to this Illinois newspaper report, Madigan said: “I don’t gamble, I don’t go to casinos, I don’t go to racetracks, I don’t play cards, I don’t bet on sports. Gambling is something to be avoided – by everybody.”

Excerpted from The Boston Globe, April 21, 2008:

“Ted’s Stateline Mobil is the King Kong of Massachusetts Lottery agents. The store sold $12.6 million worth of lottery tickets in 2007, millions more than any of the other 7,500 or so bars, restaurants, and convenience stores that sell lottery tickets in the state. Owners Ted and Tony Amico earned a staggering $625,000 on the standard 5 percent commission lottery agents receive for all lottery ticket sales, not including a 1 percent commission on all his customers’ winnings. The average store owner made about $37,000.

As for Tony Amico, he said he does not play the lottery much. “Once in a while, when the jackpot’s really big, I buy a ticket like everybody else,” he said. “That’s it.'”

Ash was a highly-visible spokesman in support of government-sanctioned casinos in Massachusetts. He was the co-chair of the carefully-titled “Massachusetts Coalition for Jobs and Growth.” Yet does Ash regularly gamble away his own money at casinos?

In a Boston Herald op-ed that promoted the merits of building casinos in local communities published by Ash himself, he wrote: “It was the second of my two trips to Foxwoods that convinced me I was really among my element. No, not gamblers – although I do play cards in a regular home game, I’m not much of a gambler. Instead, I found my element while walking through the shops.”

As State Treasurer, Cahill was a relentless advocate for casinos and the State Lottery in Massachusetts. Does Cahill lose any of his own money on government’s predatory gambling program?

Here’s what he told Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen in this Sept. 24, 2007 story: “I don’t gamble. I never have.”

Cromwell positioned his tribe as the front for its billion-dollar casino development partner Genting, the overseas predatory gambling giant from Malaysia. As a highly visible advocate for casinos, does Cromwell lose his own money on commercialized gambling?

According to this Boston Magazine excerpt from December 2011:

“I’m not a gambling man.” Casinos aren’t really Cromwell’s thing — actually, risk isn’t his thing. “When I walk across the street, I try to make sure that there are not too many cars,” he says. “I’m a business person and a leader of a tribal nation.”

Crosby accepted the position to lead the state’s predatory gambling program even though he told The Wall Street Journal on July 30, 2010 he “thought it was a regressive and thoughtless and unproductive way to raise money.” He later changed his position because “eventually I decided that as the need for money got greater and greater, it’s a little silly to be making a point of principle when you’ve got gambling casinos all around you.”

OK, so he thinks it is regressive, thoughtless and an unproductive policy. But at least he’s a gambler, right? The answer is no, according to a State House News story from December 13, 2011: “Aside from a few scratch tickets and a visit with his family to a casino in Cripple Creek, Colo., Crosby said he is not a gambler…”

After assuming the role of Speaker of the Massachusetts House, DeLeo’s number one priority was to legalize casinos and slot parlors in the state. How many times had he been to a casino in his life? In a WCVB-TV interview on September 25, 2011, the 61-year-old conceded that “I’ve only been in a casino twice in my life and one of those times was for a boxing match.”

While many of his constituents are now losing money at regional casinos more than 200 times a year, how likely is he to lose his own money at one of the casinos he pushed so hard to legalize?

According to this Boston Globe story from April 11, 2010:

“But DeLeo learned other lessons from his father, too, ones he has not spoken about as publicly. Even though Al DeLeo loved the track, he recognized its dangers, to the point that he forbade his son from gambling. Robert DeLeo remembers one occasion when he bet on a horse, won, and bragged to his father.

“I was as proud as a peacock,” he said in a recent interview. “I said, `Hey, Dad, I won a race.’ And he looked at me and said, `You’re going to lose too many. I don’t want to hear it. Don’t even go there, pal.’ “

As a member of Congress, Frank was a leading proponent of legalizing internet gambling yet he said he does not lose his own money gambling. Below is an excerpt from a front page story on internet gambling that appeared in The Boston Globe, July 13, 2008:

“Barney Frank does not play poker or blackjack. The games bore him, and he thinks he would be terrible at them even if he tried. He’s never played a slot machine, doesn’t go to casinos, and has never tried to gamble online.

“I wouldn’t place a bet with your money,” he said. And yet, over the past year, the Democratic congressman from Newton has quietly become a cult hero for poker players and the online gambling industry – the pit boss of poker politics – by championing their cause on Capitol Hill.”

Throughout his tenure as Lieutenant Governor, Murray was a consistent supporter of legalizing casinos in Massachusetts.

Even though much of the rationale to bring in casinos is based on the recycled narrative that some citizens are already going-out-of-state, how frequently does Murray himself go out-of-state to lose his own money at the Connecticut casinos? In an interview with WUML (Lowell, MA) radio on September 17, 2007 he said: “I have not been down to Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun.”there’s no money involved. The only game I’ve played with money is Monopoly.

Campaigning as an outsider in 2006, Patrick railed against gimmicks and challenged citizens “to wish for your neighbors what you wish for yourself.” Yet shortly after his inauguration, Patrick declared with much fanfare he would study the issue of casinos. In reality, it proved to be nothing more than a roll-out strategy. Patrick officially ushered in casinos four years later in November 2011.

How much personal experience did he have with the policy that represents his primary legacy as governor? Virtually none. According to a State House News excerpt from November 22, 2011: “Patrick said he used to take his mother to gamble at Foxwoods and recalled spending time at a Las Vegas casino when he worked at Coca-Cola. “It was glamorous,” Patrick said, remembering the meals and taking in a Cirque du Soleil show.”

After leaving the governor’s office, Patrick went to work at Bain Capital. He oversees “a social impact fund” which invests “in companies that provide a social benefit in addition to financial returns.” You won’t find a single, credible social impact fund anywhere in the world that invests in predatory gambling operators.

Rosenberg helped to lead the state’s drive to legalize casinos. He was described by some in the media as the “State House’s casino expert.”

During a public hearing in June 2010, Rosenberg opened it by telling those in attendance that the casino issue “had been debated literally for decades’’ and that “every point of view, every study, has been heard, vetted, and considered.’’

His self-admiration proved hollow. In an interview with The Atlantic in 2016, Rosenberg revealed he was “unaware of near misses, false wins, and other electronic gambling machine practices.” He admitted: “I don’t know the engineering and science of it.” It’s a jaw-dropping confession, especially in light of the fact that America’s leading expert on electronic gambling machines, Dr Natasha Schull, was at nearby MIT and had testified several times before the Massachusetts Legislature.

Aside from Rosenberg’s self-acknowledged ignorance on slots design, how much personal experience did he have with intense forms of gambling like slot machines? How likely is he to lose his own money in the government’s predatory gambling program that he championed?

Here is an excerpt from an interview in The Ideas section of The Boston Globe on January 10, 2010 titled “Inside Man: An interview with Stan Rosenberg, the State House’s casino expert”

IDEAS: Do you ever gamble?

ROSENBERG: Nope. Never put a coin in a slot machine. Well you don’t put coins in them anymore, you play by putting a card into the slot. I buy a lottery ticket every now and then when the jackpot gets really large, just for the fun of it. But no, I’m not a gambler.

IDEAS: Not even a nickel slot machine?

ROSENBERG: I don’t even play poker with friends. When we play card games there’s no money involved. The only game I’ve played with money is Monopoly.

Wagner was the chairman of the House legislative committee that spearheaded the push to legalize casinos in Massachusetts. How likely is he to lose his own money in government’s gambling program? According to this excerpt taken from a story titled “House passes casino bill” that appeared in The Boston Globe, Sept. 15, 2011:

“Personally, expanded gambling, I suppose I could take or leave,’’ said Representative Joseph F. Wagner, a Chicopee Democrat and the lead sponsor of the bill, who confessed his gambling experience is limited to the “occasional game of Keno.’’

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