The problem of commercialized gambling will be a subject of conversation in millions of American homes over the next few days as families and friends gather for Thanksgiving.
Why? Because it's America's biggest most-neglected problem today.
Americans are on course to lose more than $1 trillion of personal wealth to commercialized gambling over the next eight years.
Our mission is to reduce this enormous loss of wealth by citizens by 50% over the same span.
Below are some must-share facts along with some specific reforms that will dramatically improve the lives of millions of Americans:
The Problem: Tens of millions of citizens are broke!!! And millions of citizens are now addicted to commercialized gambling.
Partial Policy Solutions That Have Been Put Forward From Both Political Parties to Help Solve the Problem:
- Tax Cuts
- Tax Credits
- Raising the Minimum Wage
- Increasing Taxes on the Rich
- ….None of which represent a consequential fix
Absent from the List is America's Biggest Most-Neglected Problem: The Life-Changing Citizen Losses of Personal Wealth to Commercialized Gambling
The sheer size and scope of these financial losses lacks any comparison:
The Way Forward
- Building assets, the accumulation and investment of savings, are key for anyone looking to make a better life. A home, a college fund, retirement accounts, a stock portfolio—these assets are the hallmarks of middle and upper class America, and they are all the result of savings.
- Building assets is the direct opposite of commercialized gambling. No single policy reform would create more financial peace for low-to-middle-income citizens than reversing the current scheme of turning millions of people who are small earners, who could be small savers, into habitual bettors.
Partial List of Reform Proposals Include:
- To safeguard the health of minors, no kids under should be exposed to gambling ads and marketing on TV, radio, at point-of-sale, or on the internet.
- No advertising or marketing of commercialized gambling to low income populations.
- A ban on the sale of lottery products in check-cashing outlets, which serve unbanked, low-income people.
- No high dollar lottery tickets should be sold in low income areas (ending the practice of selling tickets greater than $5.00)
- Capping staking levels on all slot machine-style games, regardless whether it is a physical machine or online, to $2.00 or less. There is no justification for staking levels above $2.00.
- End the predatory practice of allowing commercialized gambling on credit, whether by credit card or “markers,” (interest-free loans issued by casinos.) It’s inconceivable that states encourage citizens to fund their gambling addiction using debt.
- Require state lotteries to track and report re-wagers and quantify their relationship to sales and subsequent prizes.
- Ban “loot boxes” and other elements of commercialized gambling that are currently being engineered into video games that kids under 18 are playing.
- Reduce the overall amount of lottery games being marketed to the public. Presently, some states offer dozens of different gambling games. For example, Texas was promoting 92 scratch games for sale in November 2019.
- Reduce the amount of locations where extreme forms of gambling like electronic gambling machines are being marketed by the state.
- Reduce the speed of the commercialized gambling being offered by states. Many of the most harmful forms of commercialized gambling are also the fastest like electronic gambling machines, online gambling, and scratch tickets.
- Require commercialized gambling interests to be treated the same under civil litigation laws as any other business.
- Create an Office of the Public Advocate committed to public service in representing state citizens in any matter that is covered by the authority of the state gambling commissions, as well as proceedings before state and federal agencies and courts, so that they are protected from being exploited and cheated by commercialized gambling operators. This is similar to what many states do in representing state utility consumers.
- Require that state problem gambling councils collect and report annual data on state gambling addiction numbers and on the effectiveness of the problem gambling interventions being funded (changing the measurement from how many calls are taken to how many people are moved from addicted to not addicted).
- Restrictions on the inducements offered to gamblers to keep them gambling or luring them to start gambling after they have stopped.
Please consider how you can use your time, talent, and treasure to help move these desperately-needed, long-overdue social reforms forward over the next 18 months and let me know. Thank you.
Best,
Les Bernal
National Director
Stop Predatory Gambling
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Who We Are —
- A 501c3 non-profit based in Washington, DC, we are a national social reform network of citizens and organizations from across the U.S.
- We believe in improving the lives of the American people with compassion and fairness, freeing us from the lower standard of living, exploitation, and fraud that commercialized gambling spreads.
- We are one of the most diverse organizations in the United States, one in which conservatives and progressives work side-by-side to improve the common good.
What We Stand For —
- We believe everyone should have a fair opportunity to get ahead and improve their future.
- We believe every person’s life has worth and that no one is expendable.
- We believe that a good society depends on the values of honesty, concern for others, mutual trust, self-discipline, sacrifice, and a work ethic that connects effort and reward.
- We believe no government body should depend on predatory gambling to fund its activities.
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