Allowing casino loans is risky business

From Stop Predatory Gambling :

Editorial: Allowing casino loans is risky business 
By the Editorial Boardstltoday.com | Posted: Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Missouri state Rep. Scott Largent, R-Clinton, worries that professional athletes who visit Missouri aren't able to gamble as much as they might like. So he is sponsoring a bill to let casinos lend money directly to patrons who find themselves a little short of cash.

"You can't carry $30,000, $20,000 in cash," Mr. Largent told the Post-Dispatch's Virginia Young last week. "Some of these athletes who come in, they want to gamble. If they want to gamble that much, they should be able to."

It's unclear how much personal experience Mr. Largent has had with frustrated, cash-poor pro athletes. We note, however, that "l'argent" is French for 'silver," which should count for something in this context.

What should count for more, however, is that making it even easier than it already is for people to borrow money to gamble is a terrible idea. It is a well established and significant risk for problem gamblers, to say nothing of people whose problem has advanced to the pathological, compulsive state.

Indeed, the casinos' own outreach activities regarding "responsible gaming," as they euphemistically style it, underscore the danger of gambling and access to credit.

The website of Caesars Entertainment, owner of Harrah's St. Louis, provides a direct link to a downloadable tool kit for problem gamblers developed by the Harvard University Medical School.

The kit opens with 10 questions, a "yes" answer to any of which indicates a gambling problem. Question 7: "Have you ever borrowed money to pay for your gambling?"

The website of Penn National Gaming, which owns the Argosy Casino in Kansas City, lists 10 statements under "How do you know if you have a gambling problem?" One says, "You have borrowed money to finance your gambling."

Then again, Penn National also owns the Argosy in Alton. Illinois permits casinos to lend money directly to gamblers, but with restrictions. "They can't just give out markers willy-nilly," an Illinois
Gaming Board spokesman assured the Post-Dispatch.

No, sitting in their bulletproof cage on the casino floor, Willy and Nilly can lend gambling money only to people who meet the tough credit standards for Illinois car dealers and furniture stores.

Mr. Largent's bill was added as an amendment, without discussion or debate, to a banking bill that then passed the House Financial Institutions Committee by a vote of 13 to 1. After a review and vote by the Rules Committee, it could wind up on the House floor for a final vote. Passage there would send it on to the Senate.

It's true that most states that have casinos already permit casino lending. It's also true that elimination of Missouri's prohibition on casino house loans would be the latest, and perhaps the last, of the state's precautionary operating restrictions to fall. The two-hour "cruises" have long since disappeared, as have loss limits and the lifetime ban on compulsive gamblers.

The professed concern for the gambling desires of athletes and rock stars is nonsense. Anyone who can afford to lose big knows how to arrive at a casino with enough cash and credit cards to finance his action.

This is just another giveaway to the casino industry. The result will be more damage to people who
will borrow money from casinos that they cannot afford to lose, and then promptly lose it.


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