A front page story in today's Boston Globe highlights an excellent example of government at its finest. In need of revenue, the state aggressively promoted savings bonds to small investors. It's a sharp contrast to the government practice of marketing predatory gambling in the form of slot machines and instant scratch tickets to raise money.

Promoted in the name of getting someone else to pay our taxes, predatory gambling is one of the key drivers in our debt culture and has split Americans into two classes of people: The Investor Class and The Lottery Class.

The Investor Class has mutual funds and other investment vehicles to save for retirement and their kids’ college education. The Lottery Class represents the more than one out of five Americans who, according to the Consumer Federation of America, believe the best way to achieve long-term financial security is to play the Lottery. We have turned people who are small earners with the potential to be small savers into a new class of habitual bettors.

We have a shrinking middle class in America in large part because of predatory institutions and one of the very worst is the State Lottery. It is not possible to have a large Lottery Class and a strong, expanding middle class at the same time. Yet our government spends millions of dollars every year trying to convince citizens to buy large sums of virtually worthless lottery tickets instead of putting their money in wealth building tools.

The successful savings bond initiative affirms that government can raise the revenue it needs while at the same time, helping its citizens get ahead.

A long awaited study on predatory gambling in Connecticut has been just released. The study was funded by the CT General Assembly and compiled by a pro-gambling trade consulting firm, Spectrum Gaming. Titled "Gambling in Connecticut: Analyzing the Economic and Social Impacts," you can read the study here.

Can you imagine a state legislature anywhere allowing Countrywide Mortgage do a high profile report on subprime predatory lending or allowing a consulting firm with well-established ties to the tobacco lobby make important recommendations about state tobacco policy?

"Something for nothing" schemes like legalizing more slot machines, scratch tickets and Keno are not going to rescue us or our economy. We’re going to have to get out of this economic crisis the old-fashioned way--by digging inside ourselves and getting back to basics: improving U.S. productivity, saving more, reducing our debt, strengthening our families, studying harder and inventing more products and services to export. The days of phony prosperity are over.

America’s most enduring quality is her resiliency. It’s a resiliency grounded in our strong faith, our sense of family and our commitment to the core democratic principles of freedom, equality and opportunity. Last night, Philadelphia citizens did their part. See the Philadelphia TV news video.

This interview with Pulitzer Prize winning historian Taylor Branch was conducted after his keynote speech at Stop Predatory Gambling's kick off event last fall.  Though there are some picture issues during the first couple of seconds, stick with it to hear some great points about how state-sponsored predatory gambling undermines the core democratic principles our nation was founded on.

Welcome to the new Stop Predatory Gambling website!  Please bear with us as we are working to create a new website that will hopefully serve an interactive community of supporters united in our effort to awaken America's conscience about predatory gambling, what it means for our democracy and the impact it has on the families and businesses in our communities.

Not only will our new site feature frequent updates about happenings all across the country, it will also feature a forum meant to encourage visitors to our site to voice their observations, opinions and experiences with this important social issue.  Please check back soon and join the movement and become part of the community.