Oppose ALL Gambling Expansion Proposals
"Slot machines are fast becoming America's preferred way to tax the poor. . . . Many experts have spent a lot of time making these machines entertaining and seductive. They have earned a deserved reputation in the trade as the "crack cocaine of gambling". The machines are mathematically rigged to take your money and psychologically designed to help turn you into a gambling addict." ("Lemons in a Row, The New York Times, 7/13/04). At a recent conference on gambling, Professor Henry Lesieur dubbed these electronic gambling machines "Addiction Delivery Devices". ("Turning the Tide", 9/17/04)
In Illinois 85 percent of the revenue from casinos comes from slots (electronic gambling devices). In Iowa 96 percent of the revenue from racetracks and casinos comes from the machines.
Gambling draws its revenue disproportionately from sick people-- pathological gamblers. Professor Earl Grinols estimates that between three-eighths and one-half of casino revenues will comes from problem and pathological gamblers. (IL Business Review, Spring, 1996, p. 7)
"[Gambling] involves simply sterile transfers of money or goods between individuals, creating no new money or goods. Although it creates no output, gambling does nevertheless absorb time and resources. When pursued beyond the limits of recreation, where the main purpose after all is to "kill" time, gambling subtracts from the national income." --Nobel Laureate Paul Samuelson, in Economics (1970)
Illinois voters believe we can do better than gambling. A recent Chicago Tribune poll found that 64 percent of registered voters opposed more casinos "to help the state through its current budgetary problems". (9/28/04)
"No reputable economist anywhere believes gambling is an economic tool," Kindt said. "For every dollar of revenue generated by gambling, taxpayers must pay at least $3 in increased criminal justice costs, social welfare expenses, high regulatory costs, and increased infrastructure expenditures." Professor John Kindt, University of Illinois ("Gambling: an answer to budget troubles?" by Pam Eggemeier, The Journal-Standard, 6/1/04)
"The cost-benefit question is whether we need another form of entertainment badly enough that we are willing to pay for another social problem whose costs are equal to an additional recession every decade in order to have it," said Earl Grinols, an economic/public finance professor at Baylor University. ("Gambling: an answer to budget troubles?" by Pam Eggemeier, The Journal-Standard, June 1, 2004)
Gambling may be hazardous to your health, your wealth, and your future.