There is a deceptive drive going on in our state to legalize casino gambling and slot machines at harness racing tracks. A love for truth and disdain for the actions of those who would prey upon the more vulnerable elements of Maine’s populace compels me to speak out about organized gambling.

Individual wealth grows through hard work, wise spending habits, proper investing and a generous spirit. Wealth, in any society, is generated by the production of real goods and real services, which meet real needs.

Gambling establishments can never create wealth. They can only transfer wealth, and they do this very efficiently. They consistently, year in and year out, transfer wealth out of the pockets of millions of regular people and into the pockets of those who run casinos and race track and slot machine houses.

Families suffer

• Domestic violence and child abuse increase dramatically when gambling comes into an area. (Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., “The House Never Loses, and Maryland Cannot Win.”)

• Child protection cases multiplied six-fold in the year after casinos arrived in Central City, Colo. (“Win, Lose, or Draw,” The Aspen Institute, 1994)

• Harrison County, Miss., has averaged 500 more divorces per year since casinos arrived there. (Mississippi Bureau of Public Health Statistics)

Addiction multiplies

• The number of compulsive gamblers in an area multiplies by anywhere from 100 percent to 550 percent when organized gambling comes into an area. (Professor John Warren Kindt writing in the

Drake Law Review)

• In Iowa, the number of people with serious gambling problems more than tripled when casinos were introduced. (Rachel A. Volberg, Iowa Department of Human Services)

• Casinos earn more than half their revenue from problem and pathological gamblers. (Earl Grinols, University of Illinois economist)

• In 1995, University of Minnesota researchers discovered that more than half of underage Minnesota youth surveyed had participated in legalized gambling activities.

Crime multiplies

• Within three years of arrival of casinos in Atlantic City, the crime rate there went from 50th per capita in the United States to first. (Robert Goodman, “Legalized Gambling as a Strategy for Economic Development”)

• The crime rate in gambling communities is nearly double the national average. (U.S. News and World Report analysis, 1996)

• At least two-thirds of compulsive gamblers turn to crime to finance their addiction. (Valerie Lorenz, director of the Compulsive Gambling Center in Los Angeles)

The state loses

• Each problem gambler costs society, that means you and me, between $13,000 and $52,000 per year. (Robert Goodman, “The Luck Business”)

• For every dollar a state receives in gambling revenues, it loses three in increased criminal justice, social welfare and other expenses. Thank about that. (John Warren Kindt, giving expert testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business)

• Counties that added gambling in the 1990s experience no additional growth in new business. (U.S. News and World report analysis)

The poor are victimized

• The poor and minorities are more prone to gambling problems than others. (Henry R. Lesieur, “Compulsive Gambling,” Society magazine, May-June 1992)

• More than 1,000 Minnesotans file for bankruptcy each year as a result of gambling losses. (Chris Ison, “Dead Broke,” Star Tribune, Dec. 5, 1995)

• Gambling related bankruptcies in metropolitan Detroit have multiplied 40 fold since the opening of a major casino across the river in Windsor. (Ron French, “Gambling Bankruptcies Soar,” Detroit News, Dec. 5, 1995)

A casino here in Maine?

Apart from the fact that the gaming industry itself is a blight on our nation, destroying many people and families and shackling cities and states with burdensome expenses, there are also specific flaws in the proposed casino and slot machine bills Maine will vote on Nov. 4.

Think About It, the pro-casino group, is planning to spend up to $7 million to convince the people of Maine to unleash the same gambling monster here that has caused such heartbreak in many others states. This group’s PAC reports reveal this tasty tidbit: All of the money has come from Las Vegas developers who hopes to build the casino and from the lawyer involved in this venture. Indeed, Maine ought to think about it.

The promoters of the very cleverly worded ballot question have managed to get the matter phrased in a way that sounds like happy days for Maine taxpayers. It reads: “Do you want to allow a casino to be run by the Passamaquoddy Tribe and Penobscot Nation if part of the revenue is used for State education and municipal revenue sharing?”

It is unlikely any money will go to the state education and municipal sharing program. Studies cited above have shown that costs resulting from gaming operations will be higher than the fees paid to the state. There will be no money there to put toward property tax relief and schools.

It’s no wonder that this is the way it is. After all, the law would exempt the casino owners from paying any state income tax on profits from the casino and allows the casino to conduct many kinds of gambling, but only pays any fee to the state on one. The casino will pay a fee equal to 25 percent of the take on “video facsimile” machines. All other revenues are tax free.

If, once the casino is operating, the people of Maine realize that they got scammed and decide to reverse this matter, they can’t for 20 years.

The proposed law also says that the casino owners are to be favored in court. The deck is stacked against Maine and its people.

This whole gambling area is the province of fools. Wealth comes about through the practice of sound principles of hard and wise work, investment, giving and generosity of spirit. Any scheme that proposes to make people rich without the production of real goods or real services, which benefit others, can only be a money transfer gimmick. The gambling industry knows well that the house always wins.

Eric Hanson is a pastor at Hosanna Church in Oxford and teaches history, government and other subjects at Oxford Hills Christian Academy in South Paris.

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