3X Costs with Expanded Gambling

Expect 3X Costs If Gambling Funds Stadium Says Religious Group





Brian Rushe of the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition says Minnesota will suffer three times as much costs if gambling revenue is used to finance a new Vikings stadium in Minnesota. I'm Brian Rushe, Executive Director of the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition and my comments today are much more about the financing of any stadium proposal than about a site. So thank you for the opportunity.

We represent the Minnesota Council of Churches, the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Islamic Center of Minnesota and we're very concerned about the gambling that have been floating around to fund a stadium.

Gambling comes with significant social costs. And my concern is that too often that term 'social costs' is sort of glossed over and not given as deep a concern as it warrants. The best studies that are out there about what happens to a community when you put a casino inside of it, is that the social benefits are modest. You've provided a convenience for people that they might not otherwise have had. But the social costs swamp it by about a three-to-one margin.

And when I say social costs, I just want to take a minute to delineate what I'm talking about. so that there's some familiarity with the things you can actually, demonstrably, measure.

Family discord, family violence, even divorce are things that can be measured as an outcome of an escalation of gambling. Theft, embezzlement, lost productivity at work can be measured.

Police and court costs associated with all the social ills around gambling can be measured. Of course there's the direct treatment costs for addiction. There's this whole concept called 'distressed dollars' ? those are dollars that are lost because they're borrowed from friends and associates and never repaid.

What I want you to know, and I will provide written testimony next week, is that the costs exceed the benefit by about a three-to-one margin and I want this to be part of your calculations, not because we're against, we don't have a position per se about sports facilities.

We think its part of the culture here. In fact, some people joke in our world that it's the true religion of the state and this is all about building a temple. But gambling is not a road we want to go down if we're going to be a mature people that govern for the common good.

It's corrosive. It's damaging and any form that could be justified because it already exists somewhere else, to me is taking on the psychology of an addict. 'Let's do gambling because we already do it.' That's a horrible logic and I would just warn you not to go down that road. And I'd be happy to answer questions, but I will be providing written testimony on the sixth. Thank you madam chair.