From www.stoppredatorygambling.org:
“Les has been the National Director of the Stop Predatory Gambling Foundation since it was formed in 2008. During this time, he has spoken and written extensively about how government sponsorship of casinos and lotteries produces unfairness and inequality in America. He has testified before Congress, he has appeared on national television and radio including 60 Minutes, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Piers Morgan Tonight, National Public Radio and The BBC. He has been interviewed by national newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, USA Today, Sports Illustrated, and The Los Angeles Times. He has also spoken before dozens of business organizations, college audiences and faith groups across the nation…”
“We have dedicated ourselves to a fundamental national reform: ending the unfairness and inequality produced by government sponsorship of casinos and lotteries. We believe no taxpayer dollar should be used by government to lure citizens into gambling away their money and becoming slaves to debt; no agency or entity of government should depend on gambling to fund its activities; and no legislature, whether in the name of economic development or raising revenue, should pass laws to promote or sponsor gambling.
“Government’s experiment with gambling has failed. It stands as one of the biggest public policy failures of the last forty years. The time has come to get government out of the gambling business so we can pursue a fairer, healthier and more hopeful vision of the path to American prosperity. …”
Read more at www.stoppredatorygambling.org
A smelly scenario of government exploitation of its citizens:
· The Missouri Lottery Commission, a branch of Missouri Government overseeing the state’s gambling business, spends millions of dollars each year inducing and seducing our citizens to gamble … and thus lose. For example, as sponsors of Fox Sports Midwest telecasts of the St. Louis Cardinals, they spend several hundred thousand dollars – if not more — each year to get people to gamble and lose. Any number of times on each widely-viewed game, the Lottery Commission pays the “big bucks” to have the name “Missouri Lottery” repeated … and repeated … and repeated.
· So state government spends hundreds of thousands each year, if not more, sponsoring Cardinal games so as to induce, seduce, and entice our Missouri citizens to gamble. The State is aware that the more people who “take the bait” to buy lottery tickets, the more money the people lose. So State Government, through expensive advertising, pressures its citizens to gamble more … to lose more … to pay the Commission salaries … to buy millions more in advertising … to get more people to lose more … using the occasional big winners as “bait” … to sell more lottery tickets … to get the people to lose more to keep the whole thing going!
· “What is wrong with this picture?”
· They then attempt to justify their actions by sending a relatively small percentage of the multimillions of dollars in gambling losses they have lured people support “education”.
· Then there are the casinos, being encouraged by and, in reality, partnering with governments, promoting gambling and gambling losses with government approval so that governments get their “cuts” from the losses. And in St. Louis, casino saturation has multiplied the overall number of problems, including the number of “Gamblers’ Anonymous” chapters composed of ruined addicted gamblers.
· The examples are endless!