SLOTS = Same Everywhere

From our friends to the north, the Granite State:


Maine Calls To Gambling Hotline Spike 10 Times Since Casino Opening


New Hampshire casino promoters claim that gambling addiction would not increase if casinos were legalized here. The Bangor Daily News reports the Maine experience to be otherwise.

Since the opening of Bangor's Hollywood Slots in 2005, calls from Mainers to the National Council on Problem Gambling hotline have increased by over ten times ... from 118 in 2004 to 1,263 in 2009. "I don't know how anyone can say there is not a gambling problem here; of course there is a problem," says Lee Thompson, who heads the Maine affiliate of the National Council on Problem Gambling.



New Hampshire casino promoters also claim that video slots are no different than the types of gambling already present in New Hampshire. Steve Burton, who runs West Virginia's gambling addiction treatment program, widely acknowledged to be one of the best in the country, testified otherwise.



This past Tuesday (3/16/2010), Mr. Burton, who is required by West Virginia state law to take no position on gambling, pro or con, told the Governor's Gaming Study Commission:



· 80% of his intake calls are from gamblers identifying video slot machines as their primary gambling problem, not horse, racing, bingo, or lottery.

· Only 10% of problem gamblers ever make an effort to ask for help from any type of treatment program. Those who do first hit "rock bottom." (Rock bottom usually means bankruptcy, money crimes, family breakdown.)

· Asked by a commissioner if slot machine accessibility (proximity) is an issue: "Absolutely."

· Asked if there will be added social costs: "Yes, there is no disagreement about that."



If the state were to adopt SB489, the Senate's six-casino saturation gambling plan, 10,000 additional New Hampshire residents would become gambling addicts.



The Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre found that 1-in-8 Ontario adults are negatively affected from someone else's gambling problems, usually taking form as being manipulated into lending money or not having money repaid.



Reasons we oppose SB489.

23 Reasons we oppose any type of slot casino anywhere in our state