Type | Page 6 | Stop Predatory Gambling

Behind the Human Urge to Gamble

Lotteries, Online Gambling, Public Health, Regional Casinos, Sports Betting, Studies

Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, a legendary Las Vegas casino operator played by the actor Robert De Niro in the movie “Casino,” said this about gambling in a 1997 PBS Frontline interview: “I don’t agree with the premise or the concept it’s entertainment.”

Then why do human beings gamble? This study by Dr. John Nyman of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health finds that people gamble for two reasons: the possibility of getting something for nothing and the need to escape, which includes the human desire for an intense high or buzz.

Something for Nothing – A Model of Gambling Behavior

2 Out of 5 Low-Income Americans Believe the Lottery is the Best Way to Build Wealth

Fraud, How Gambling Impacts Democratic Values, Lotteries, Lowering the Standard of Living for Ordinary Citizens, Predatory Business Practices, Studies

According to the survey of 1,000 Americans by Opinion Research Corporation for the Consumer Federation of America and the Financial Planning Association, 21% of Americans believed that the lottery would be their most effective and practical strategy for accumulating several hundred thousand dollars. This percentage was higher among lower-income individuals, with 38% of those who earn less than $25,000 pointing to the lottery as a solution.

Survey- 21 percent say lottery is most practical path to wealth

Study finds strong link between lottery sales and poverty

Lotteries, Lowering the Standard of Living for Ordinary Citizens, Predatory Business Practices, Studies

This detailed study by Cornell University shows that state lotteries get a disproportional amount of sales from the poor and disadvantaged and examines the reasons behind why those who have the least spend the most on the lottery. While it is for many a source of entertainment to play, the study finds that the real reason for this trend is that those stricken with poverty look to the lottery as a way to improve their lives and help them escape their poverty. However, the lottery will often hurt, not help, their financial predicament, further pushing these Americans deeper and deeper into a downward spiral of crippling poverty.

Cornell University study -Entertainment, Poverty and the Demand for State Lotteries

The State Lottery: A Failure of Policy and Ethics

Essays, Fraud, How Gambling Impacts Democratic Values, Lotteries, Lowering the Standard of Living for Ordinary Citizens

This powerful essay by Elizabeth Winslow McAuliffe in Public Integrity shows how the lottery is a public policy failure by spotlighting two fact-based conclusions: 1) the evidence indicates that the original aims of the state lottery have not been fulfilled; and 2) the lottery cannot be defended as an ethical enterprise for government.

The State-Sponsored Lottery

Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank: Costs of Predatory Gambling Outweigh Any Benefits

Crime, Economic Effects, Regional Casinos, Studies

This report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia concludes that the local benefits of casinos would be outweighed by costs such as increases in pathological gambling, crime and personal bankruptcy.

Economic and Social Impact of Introducing Casino Gambling

Prominent Independent Study Shows Casinos Have Made Native American Tribes Poorer

Native American Casinos, Regional Casinos, Studies

For more than 25 years, the casino lobby has told the American people that casinos are the engine to help Native American tribes prosper. Now The Economist, the world’s leading international magazine, spotlights how casinos have actually made tribal members poorer, pointing to a new study in the American Indian Law Journal showing that growing tribal gambling revenues can make poverty worse. The study looks at two dozen tribes in the Pacific Northwest between 2000 and 2010. During that time, casinos owned by those tribes doubled their total annual take in real terms, to $2.7 billion. Yet the tribes’ mean poverty rate rose from 25% to 29%. Some tribes did worse: among the Siletz poverty jumped from 21.1% to 37.8%. Below is both the story from The Economist and the study from the American Indian Law Journal.

How cash from casinos makes Native Americans poorer

American Indian Law Journal report by Gregory Guedel

Oregon launched an aggressive advertising campaign to promote the Lottery’s highly-addictive electronic gambling machines

Lotteries, Lowering the Standard of Living for Ordinary Citizens, Predatory Business Practices, Public Health, Studies

This excellent blog post from The Tax Foundation highlights how the state of Oregon, after passing a smoking ban in bars and restaurants to restrict a dangerous activity, launched an aggressive advertising campaign to promote the Lottery’s highly-addictive electronic gambling machines to make up for the anticipated loss of revenue caused by the smoking ban.

The Tax Foundation – Reading Between the Lines of Oregon’s Video Lottery Terminals

The New York Times Magazine Exposes Modern Slot Machines

Fraud, Investigative Journalism, Online Gambling, Predatory Business Practices, Public Health, Regional Casinos, Slot Machines

This must-read New York Times Magazine cover story by Gary Rivlin exposes the slot machine business as predatory and deceptive.

New York Times story on slots by Gary Rivlin

Casinos Failed to Bring Prosperity to Connecticut

Economic Effects, Essays, Government Revenues from Gambling, Native American Casinos, Regional Casinos

Despite developing two of the largest casinos on the planet in the 1990s, the state of Connecticut is in dire fiscal shape. The New York Times piece below states that “Connecticut’s finances are among the most troubled in the nation: it is last or close to last in financing pension obligations and retaining reserves for emergencies, and near the top in per-capita debt…Moody’s lowered its outlook for the state’s bond rating to negative from stable.” This is just another example that casinos fail to provide the revenue promised by lobbyists of the predatory gambling trade. And what about jobs? The state has “an abysmal level of job creation and economic growth that has left the state with fewer workers employed now than in 1987.”

Beneath Connecticut’s Image of Affluence, Deep Fiscal Pain

Slot Machines Near Misses Are Perfectly Tuned to Stoke the Addiction

Fraud, Investigative Journalism, Lotteries, Predatory Business Practices, Public Health, Regional Casinos, Slot Machines

The Discover Magazine blog helps explain the allure of slot machines and the difficulty that some gamblers have in walking away by highlighting that, to a gambler’s brain, a near miss provides almost the same high as a win.

Slot Machines Near Misses Are Perfectly Tuned to Stoke the Addiction