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Rocket Fuel for Gambling Addicts
Submitted by paulboni on Fri, 11/06/2009 - 12:33pm.
Please make a few quick phone calls to help prevent foreclosures, bankruptcies and increased poverty in our communities. At present there are a number of state lawmakers working hard to promote the predatory gambling industry by pushing a bill to allow slots on credit, an issue Helen has written about here. We need your help so we can all push back.
Imagine this scene:
It's 3:30 AM, you’re still at the casino, you've been drinking the free booze all night, you've lost all the money you brought with you, and you've maxed out your ATM card. No worries — if casino lobbyists and most of the Philly state lawmakers have their way, the casinos will be able to offer loan you hundreds or even thousands of dollars or more of quick and easy credit so you can play the slots until dawn.
Our elected officials want to allow easy credit for slots. It’s the equivalent of rocket fuel for slots addicts or anyone else on their way to becoming a compulsive gambler.
We’re asking for help in contacting members of the Philadelphia delegation to oppose this aspect of the pending table games legislation – don’t allow easy credit at the slots.
Which senators are doing the dirty work? The following senators from Philadelphia either co-sponsored the bill or voted to approve it:
- Sen Christine M. Tartaglione (co-sponsor): (215) 533-0440
- Sen. Leanna Washington (voted yes), (215) 242-0472
- Sen. Shirley M. Kitchen (co-sponsor): (215) 227-6161
- Sen. Vincent J. Hughes (co-sponsor): (215) 879-7777
- Sen. Mike Stack (voted yes), (215)281-2539
- Sen. Anthony Williams (voted yes), (215) 492-2980
Please call their offices today and ask whether they will drop their support for slots on credit ("Will the senator drop his/her support for slots on credit?"). Then contact info@casinofreephila.org and let us know what they say.
It’s important to remember that this new law permitting casinos to offer instant credit on-site is a reversal of prior promises that slots on credit would be prohibited. Former Sen. Fumo himself promised this specifically when the gambling law was passed, by putting the prohibition in Section 1504. Now the very same lawmakers who voted for the Gambling Act just five years ago are flip-flopping by rewriting Section 1504 to allow slots on credit.
Slots on credit is yet another example of why so many Philadelphians will never stop fighting the casinos; because this industry will never stop trying to exploit Philadelphians. The key to understanding why slots on credit is so horrific is to recognize that about 90% of the casinos' profits come from just 10% of the gamblers. The average compulsive gambler carries a gambling debt of nearly $27,000. Easy credit fosters debt, especially when the "loan" goes directly into a slot machine
Will the Philly-based lawmakers relent and delete these provisions or will they be exposed as pathetic puppets of the casino lobbyists? The editorial boards of both the Inquirer and the Daily News have come out strongly against this idea. On the news side, Isaiah Thompson of the CityPaper first broke the story. But so far, no other media outlet has written a single news story about this.
Who are your partners in this endeavor? Working hard for the last several weeks is a growing chorus of local groups, such as Casino-Free Philadelphia, Asian Americans United, Liberty Resources, Arch Street Methodist Church, the Media Mobilizing Project, and the list is growing every day. Please join us.
Subprime mortgages, payday loans and soon, maybe, slots on credit. Say no to slots on credit, today. Make a few quick calls. And let us know how they respond by contacting info@casinofreephila.org.
Thank you for bringing attention to this issue
It's insane that any Philadelphia elected official is considering support for slots on credit.
Its also very striking that they are willing to open the hornet's nest to allow for this but not willing to open it up to re-examine siting. I'll contact my Senator about this.
I think this is something that anybody not completely beholdeden to gambling interests should understand as a remarkably awful idea.
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.
Well put
You're right on Sean. I had to educate the staff at the three co-sponsors' office what exactly I meant by slots on credit, and they were all pretty shocked (or that's what I like to think at least).
So, everyone, please call your senator (and the other Philly delegation senators that are currently supporting this) right now and find out if they are planning to change their stance. And, we'll be, uh, following up with them next week if they don't withdraw their support. So stay tuned for that info as well.
-Lily
Outrageous but not surprsing
The casinos stuff a lot of money into the pockets of our pols. This is just sick, though.
Putting PA profits (and tax breaks) at risk
Allowing casinos in Pennsylvania to become fiduciaries which can lend puts risk directly on the Commonwealth balance sheet.
Namely, the General Assembly will start "banking" on phony revenues generated by financing deals the casinos make with "supergamblers." State legislators will start becoming addicted to the revenue themselves and we will ALL go through withdrawal symptoms if gamblers can't continue paying.
We can't even get PA to stop check cashing stores, and we want to do something about the counties which are drowning in foreclosure, but then we propose to allow THIS?
While I am ambivalent towards casinos, I am not ambivalent towards excessive risk taking on our state-wide balance sheet. This is ridiculous and must be stopped.
If you want to gamble your money, gamble your own money.
I am surprised this hasn't gotten more attention
Not just the slots on credit issue, which I think concerned folks have done hard work to elevate to a point of debate, but this question about the role of the PA Casino Association, a group that has relentlessly lobbied on behalf of three major casinos in the state.
It is certainly worth questioning the interesting timing of the PA Court's overturning of the ban on gambling contributions to the rapid introduction of table games legislation and heavy lobbying and promotion by the PA Casino Association - about which at least one legislator complained of on the House floor. This latest revelation about the PA Casino Association's (mis)use of its legal status and its failure to reveal the role of a former Supreme Court Justice and his daughter in leadership positions in the Association just make you wonder if there are any legal boundaries when it comes to gambling in PA.
The PA Casino Association and casino lobbyists have been incredibly influential in the table games legislation. At least one legislator told me the issue of slots on credit and concerns about it were strongly dismissed by casino lobbyists who insisted on its importance and their need for it.
It should be noted as well that Senators Hughes and Kitchen signed onto Senator Farnese's bill banning slots on credit, so I expect that they are both aware of and open to the concerns and arguments about why this is such a repellant proposal by government.
Casinos and lobbying disclosure requirements
Thanks for posting a link to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, which raises serious questions about casinos and the state's lobbying laws -- how can these casinos do all this lobbying and not call it lobbying?
Today, the Inquirer is running a story on the amounts of money spent on lobbying by various industries, including the gambling industry. Apparently, the Inquirer is missing the fact that many of the casinos are not reporting their true lobbying expenses because they are instead spending money on the PA Casino Association, which is not registered as a lobbying group. To that extent, the chart in today's Inquirer article contains drastically understated figures for the gambling industry. (There's a really nice chart in the print version of the paper.)
Why are state lawmakers taking this lying down? Well, not all of them are. As reported in a follow-up story in the Post-Gazette, some state lawmakers (from Erie and Berks County) are concerned about this and are "considering" holding hearings: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09303/1009474-454.stm
How about lawmakers in the Philadelphia Delegation? Can any of you folks make some noise about the casinos and compliance with the lobbying laws? That is, if you're not too busy shilling for the industry by trying to enact slots on credit.
To help us push back on slots on credit (and to ask about the lobbying), please call your senator on Monday and Tuesday.
How despicable.
This is no different than taking the wallet from the back pocket of a drunk laying on the street and removing his money from that wallet. It's a form of robbery. I certainly agree that the names of these politicians that vote for these types of things should be advertised in newspapers and various articles. The public needs to know about who is responsible for these mistakes. casino online