No State Can Gamble Itself Rich
Jimmy Porter“We have one more shot,” pilot Captain Kevin Caffery yelled into his microphone. “Just drop the ring.” It was the one in a million shot that eventually saved the life of a man who had written a suicide note and then slid into the icy waters of Niagara Falls, March 19, 2003.
For two hours the man fought for his life, realizing that he did not really want to die. Rescue workers put their lives in danger to eventually pull the man to safety. As we often ask about similar tragedies, “Why would a person want to commit suicide? What could happen that would plunge an individual into such despair?”
Even though the police would not release the man’s name, his identity, in the Niagara region, is an open secret. He was a 48-year-old accountant with a gambling problem. That day he had lost a large sum of money in the newly opened Seneca Nation Casino on the U.S. side of the Falls. He was already more than $600,000 in debt to Casino Niagara on the Canadian side. He told the investigator that he had been overcome by despair after losing thousands of dollars borrowed from his father (Clarion Ledger, 7/8/03, 2a).
This story caught my attention because I had recently read another article that bemoaned the fact that Niagara Falls, once a top tourist attraction, was losing its appeal and becoming only a memory. The story line was that a casino had to be built to revive its attraction and to prop up the economy. Evidently, they got their casino with all the heartaches and problems that accompany them.
The Clarion Ledger (7/24/03) reported that Mississippi is adding another casino on the Gulf Coast, the Hard Rock Casino. Construction is to begin in October of this year if the State Gaming Commission in September gives final approval. If you believe what the proponents of gambling say, “Mr. Hard Luck Casino will come riding into Biloxi, on a white stallion and solve all of our economic woes.” Mr. Hard Rock will provide a thousand jobs and the spin-off will be more industry and more jobs.
If casinos, lotteries, and the such are such boons to our economic problems, then why do statements such as this one keep surfacing? “Casinos can only prosper by drawing money from the pockets of habitual gamblers and/or those who can least afford it, inflicting tremendous social costs on families and communities. Statistics show increased crime, bankruptcies, broken families, and unhealthy political influences inevitably follow casino gambling” (NCALG, May- June, 2003).
This statement was part of a letter sent by the head of the L.L. Bean Company of Freeport, Maine, to its thou-sands of employees urging them not to support the approval of casinos in Maine in this November’s election. He is right on target when he warned against “the promises of a quick economic fix that brings with it long-term harm.”
I am encouraged by the fact that there are still a few who realize the economic downside to gambling. But Mississippi has become addicted to the revenue from gambling and thirsts for more. We should all be alarmed when the chairman of the State Gaming Commission suggests that a change in the gambling laws to allow the casinos to be built on land rather than floating on water would be good. In other words, “just a few feet from where they exist now” (Clarion Ledger, 5/8/03). Then it will be a few yards and eventually a few miles. Casinos will spread like kudzu and be less useful.
The cash registers in the casinos of Mississippi rang up a total of $2,717,488,510.00 in 2002. That calculates into $7,445,174.00 per day going into an industry that costs state taxpayers anywhere from $3 to $7 for every dollar collected in tax revenue, according to Dr John Kindt, professor in the Business Dept. of the University of Illinois.
In the past 15 years we have unleashed a demonic industry that wreaks havoc on families and communities. Recent regional surveys now suggest more than 30 percent of all high school students gamble periodically. Middleschoolers are following suit. In Delaware a survey of student gambling revealed that nearly one-third of 6,753 participating eighth graders gambled in 2002. Those who gambled were more likely than other students to smoke, drink alcohol, use illegal drugs and commit petty crimes (Clarion Ledges 7/14/03, 5a).
The politicians who gave us gambling in Mississippi and those who support it now will keep on doing so until the voting public elects politicians who will curtail and hopefully one day eradicate this blight. The Christian community, therefore the church, will have to lead the way in this struggle. The Christian Action Commission urges you to support Anti-Gambling Day in some shape, form or fashion during the month of September. If we can be of assistance to you, please call us at 1-800-748-1651 or 601-292-3329.
Tom Grey, executive director of National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, sums up what we will one day realize when he wrote in a recent newsletter, “No state can gamble itself rich, as evidenced by Nevada that now has $704 million budget deficit.” Let’s carry this message to congregations and to our communities.
Taken from: Salt & Light – A Newsletter of the Mississippi Baptist Christian Action Commission; July/August 2003, VOL. 16, NO.4