"Any law which UPLIFTS human personality is JUST.
Any law which DEGRADES human personality is UNJUST."- Martin Luther King, Jr.
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The History of Predatory Gambling in America

 

Click here to view a time line of important dates in the expansion of state sponsored predatory gambling in America!  Did we leave something out? Email us your additions at mail@stoppredatorygambling.org.
MUST SEE VIDEOS


Here's a brief  video that every citizen needs to watch about electronic gambling machines - the purest form of predatory gambling.



Here's MIT Professor Natasha Schull speaking about the design and technology of electronic gambling machines before the Massachusetts Legislature in March 2008. Most legislators and citizens possess very little understanding about how these machines work and the business model behind them.

The Pulitzer-Prize winning historian of the Civil Rights Movement and MLK biographer, Dr. Taylor Branch, delivered the keynote speech at the Sept. 2008 kickoff of Stop Predatory Gambling.  Special thanks to Casino Free Philly for editing the video. We invited Daniel Hunter of Philly, a leader in one of the best local opposition movements in the country, to introduce Branch. (skip to the 6:30 mark if you want to hear Branch begin his predatory gambling-related remarks.) 

This interview with Dr. Branch was conducted after his keynote speech at the kick off 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.
MUST READ TALKING POINTS, NEWS ARTICLES
AND REPORTS
1) MIT Professor Natasha Schull writing about the design and technology behind electronic gambling machines in The Washington Post. Read the article here. Is there any other way to describe it except for predatory gambling?

2) Here's what may be the best investigative news story about electronic gambling machines and the partnership between the predatory gambling trade and our government written to date. The reporter was Isaiah Thompson of the Philadelphia City Paper and it appeared in January 2009. Read the article here.

3) Read the recently released report from the Rockefeller Institute of Government which found that predatory gambling leads to long term budgetary problems for states

4) Here is a great article from Popular Mechanics about how the predatory gambling industry in Las Vegas pioneers the most effective and invasive surveillance technology in the world.

5) Individuals are urged to have their local libraries order the most comprehensive analysis ever on the financial, criminal, and addictive perils of predatory gambling, the 3-volume United states International Gambling� Report series, which is
available for sale online as well as over the phone at 1-800-828-7571.  Published by the Research Editors Doctoral Directorate on Gambling (i.e., REDD Report on Gambling), any potential author/editor financial returns were pre-assigned to charity.

6) Studies of lottery spending, including a 2008 study from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, show the money comes largely from Social Security, unemployment and other government support. Government, in other words, is paying government — with a lot of money siphoned off in the process. It's inefficient, the reserve bank writers concluded.

7) Alan Mallach prepared this paper for the Community Affairs Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia titled "Economic and Social Impact of Introducing Casino Gambling."  In it, he states that the local benefits of casinos could be outweighed by costs such as increases in pathological gambling, crime and personal bankruptcy.

Public Testimonies and Commentaries by SPG
SPG Commentary on TX Lottery attempt to approve terminal printed instant tickets
SPG Testimony before IL Gaming Board regarding video poker
Click to read our Illinois Video Poker Primer