“They” said it would not happen. “They” promised
there would not be a significant increase in the
number of compulsive gamblers in Louisiana.
“They” said regulations would be so tight that
teenagers would not be affected by gamblers.
“They” said it would not happen. “They” promised
there would not be a significant increase in the
number of compulsive gamblers in Louisiana.
“They” said regulations would be so tight that
teenagers would not be affected by gamblers.
“They” lied. Statistics and studies abounded that
showed where the state was headed if it legalized
gambling, and they were readily available all over
Baton Rouge.
Every statistic of every study where legalized
gambling was instituted shows a significant increase
in compulsive gamblers and teenage gamblers. The
bottom line is leaders and a majority of legislators
in our state government chose to ignore all
statistics and/or deny them while talking only about
the increase in state revenue legalized gambling
would bring.
The truth about compulsive gamblers and teenage
gamblers has come out again and again in our state’s
media, albeit several years after the state-wide
debate on such issues was settled. Where was the
media when the battle was raging?
In a single issue of the Alexandria Daily Town Talk,
that did not take up the subject of compulsive
gambling or teenage gambling during the days the
expansion of gambling was being considered, this
week had several articles on one issue that points
out some of the problems with gambling.
Concerning compulsive gamblers, consider these lines
from the front page article entitled “Compulsive
gamblers pay high price to make bets.” Here are the
lines: “Casinos are resorts, according to the
advertising. They are depicted as a dandy place for
people to have a little fun while watching the
apples and cherries spin in the slot machines or the
cards turn up on the gaming table.
“But casinos do not advertise the human wreckage
gamblers say the businesses leave in their wake such
as the Alexandria husband who put his family into
debt totaling over $100,000 so he could gamble, or
the Alexandria man who stole his betting money from
his professional organization.”
Or, consider the account of “L.B., a 48-year-old
Marksville resident, who said he had never gambled
before going to the Paragon (an Indian-owned casino
in Marksville), but before he knew it, he was
gambling seven days a week.”
Next, L.B. said he began writing worthless checks
because once he begins, “I can’t stop. I’ll play
everything I’ve got and everything in my wife’s
purse.”
Casinos love this kind of gambler. They do not play
to a certain preset limit and quit; they play until
everything is gone. The big money maker is not the
$20 slot player, but the people who gamble until it
is all gone.
Now, who pays for this compulsive gambling? The
employers, the merchants who cash the checks and the
public – you and me.
In another article entitled “Video poker ban spurred
reduction in bad checks,” the parish District
Attorney’s office is quoted as giving statistics
that worthless checks went down 25 percent at
restaurants and other businesses that previously had
video poker machines when video poker machines were
voted out of the parish. There is no reference to
bad checks in other business.
One of the compulsive gamblers registered himself
with the casino as a compulsive gambler. The casino
is supposed to prohibit compulsive gamblers on this
registry from entering the casino, but the man said
he went back several times and although the casino
personnel knew him and that he was a compulsive
gambler, they never said anything to him, asked him
to leave or prohibited him from entering.
And then there is the matter of teenage gambling.
Check out these first lines from the Associated
Press story. “Whether with their friends at parties,
at school or in solitude on the Internet, millions
of American teens are taking up an
ever-more-accessible national pastime – gambling.”
The rest of the story is a sad re-counting of how
kids are getting caught up in more and more kinds of
gambling.
Now, I guess “they” will tell us that a greater
percentage of these youth will not become compulsive
gamblers. And if “they” say that, “they” are lying
again, and “they” know it. The same article quotes
the International Center for Youth Gambling Problems
based at McGill University in Montreal. It says that
compulsive gambling problems affect up to eight
percent of young gamblers compared with three
percent of adult gamblers.
Now, what does the average citizen of Louisiana get
in return for these sacrifices?
Ask yourself: Are your taxes lower than before
gambling was legalized in Louisiana? Are your
schools better? Are the roads, other than the ones
you are paying for with your $.04 a gallon gasoline
tax, better? Are you making more money? Is your
life better?
Louisiana has been sold a bill of goods. We are
paying a terrific price for a thimble full of
benefits to a smaller thimble full of people. Now,
what do “they” have