"Take a Break from Gambling Day"

THIS IS A REMINDER....

The first nationwide "Take a Break from Gambling Day" is Thursday, Sept. 29.

The event has grown out of the work of SPG members Ronda Hatefi and Oregonians for Problem Gambling Awareness. Ronda's brother Bobby Hafemann took his life because he became addicted to electronic gambling machines pushed by his own state government.

What "Take a Break from Gambling Day" is:

1) Any store, restaurant or casino operator across the US that sells lottery tickets or offers electronic gambling machines is invited to stop doing it for this one day on Sept. 29th. Turn off the gambling machines just for one day. Stop selling scratch tickets for one day.

2) Any citizen who gambles is invited to stop gambling for one day on Sept. 29th. If you have a loved one or a good friend who is an active gambler, urge them to participate and be their sponsor for Sept. 29th. As a sponsor, your role is to help the person stay away from gambling, be supportive and help them pursue other activities.

"Take a Break from Gambling Day" has two purposes:

- The first is to offer an opportunity for gambling operators to acknowledge they have a duty of care to citizens. 

- The second is to offer family members and friends a way to start a conversation about gambling with the people they love.

The effort echoes The Great American Smokeout by the American Cancer Society which was effective in awakening the public conscience about the severe impact that smoking has on people's lives.

How you can help: Share this Facebook post about the day right now with your social network and if you have a Twitter account, retweet this tweet to your followers.

If you believe what we believe in, please support our work by contributing $10 or more today to help sustain it.

Thank you.

Best,

Les Bernal
National Director
Stop Predatory Gambling

________________________________

Improving the lives of the American people, using education and advocacy to free us of the dishonesty, exploitation, addiction and lower standard of living that commercial gambling spreads. 

Two major wins for opponents of predatory gambling

Members of SPG's network in both Nebraska and Alabama recently defeated massive predatory gambling bills in the face of big money lobbying campaigns by gambling interests. These are major wins for opponents of predatory gambling. 

Last week a bill proposing to legalize a state lottery in Alabama was rejected. Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, a key sponsor of the lottery bill, called the defeat a vote against "children in poverty today," once again proving the truth that when a practice is dishonest, its promoters speak about it dishonestly. Joe Godfrey, the leader of the Alabama Citizens Action Program and a SPG board member, played a key role along with several others in applying relentless pressure throughout the last four weeks.

This week the Nebraska Secretary of State announced that all three proposed predatory gambling petitions failed to reach the valid signature threshold to appear before state voters on the November ballot. Pat Loontjer, the dynamic and effective leader of Nebraska's predatory gambling opposition group "Gambling with the Good Life, has been educating citizens in her state about the issue for many years, making it challenging for even a paid signature gathering effort by gambling interests to advance. Pat is also a SPG board member.

You and I know how tough the fight is against predatory gambling in our communities and in our states. No other issue has such a disparity in political spending. Nor is there another issue that government officials make no effort to remedy even though the facts are clear and unavoidable that government's partnership with gambling has been a spectacular failure.

We are called upon not to be successful, but to be faithful. Today, we are thankful to be faithful and successful.

If you believe what we believe in, please support our work by contributing $10 or more today to help sustain it.

Thank you.

Best,

Les Bernal
National Director
Stop Predatory Gambling

________________________________

Improving the lives of the American people, using education and advocacy to free us of the dishonesty, exploitation, addiction and inequality that commercial gambling spreads. 

The Casino Trap

As the gambling industry booms, aggressive marketing targets older patrons

by John Rosengren, AARP Bulletin, October 2016 

Casinos use marketing ploys to target older patrons — and empty their wallets. — Mark Peterson/Redux

Beauford Burton had enjoyed the occasional poker game in his youth, but in his 60s the slots hooked him. He and his wife, Sharon, started making the 2 1/2-hour drive every Friday from their home in Kings Mountain, N.C., to Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort, where they won occasionally but lost more frequently. In one year, he lost about $50,000, nearly the equivalent of his annual salary as a manager in a textile company.

They often stayed longer than they'd intended—many times the casino would offer them a free hotel room Saturday night. Burton can't remember ever paying for a room. He had access to an exclusive bar with free drinks and food, preferred seating in the restaurants and suite upgrades in the hotel. Harrah's once flew the couple to its casino in Laughlin, Nev., and covered all their expenses—except, of course, what they gambled.

In the end, Burton knew that all of the freebies weren't really free, and that he had paid for them tenfold with his losses. "I have always known you don't get something for nothing, but I fell for it," he says. "It's the good old devil at work."

Over four years, the slots drained more than $100,000 from Burton's 401(k). But he kept playing. He cashed in a life insurance policy, took out cash advances on his credit card and gambled away Social Security checks meant to pay utility bills. Finally, in 2008, the gambling habit took his home.

By then, he was playing in a panic, betting up to $15 to $20 a spin, chasing his losses and pursuing the one illusory jackpot that he hoped would save him. "As you start to lose, you think, This is a luck thing, my luck is going to change," says Burton, now 73. "But the more you go, the more you lose. It ends up in desperation. I can see how people get so deep that it causes them to take their own lives, because it gets really, really bad."

The rise of the casinos

Of the 101 million visitors to America's casinos in 2014 (the last year for which information was available), nearly half were age 50 or older, according to data from the gambling industry. In 2014, American casinos reported over $66 billion in gambling revenue, and much of that profit came from these older gamblers.

A 2011 study published in the Journal of Gambling Studies revealed that many older adults viewed the casino as a place where they can socialize and escape from loneliness or grief.

It's never been easier for them to get to one. Long gone are the days when the twin casino meccas of Las Vegas and Atlantic City, N.J., represented the sole options for American gamblers. Regional casinos have proliferated dramatically since 1988, when the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act legalized casino development on Indian lands. That sparked a loosening of state prohibitions on gambling and a nationwide casino building boom. Today, 1,400 casinos are spread across 40 states. Regional casinos are especially attractive to those who prefer to drive themselves and do not want to have to spend the night. States with large populations of adults over 65, including Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, Ohio, Massachusetts and West Virginia, have all expanded casino gambling in recent years.

Addiction experts alarmed

Older adults are an especially desirable demographic for the gaming industry because they fill the floors during off-peak hours, and casinos market to them aggressively, offering discounts on breakfast and lunch, free drinks and guarantees to "instantly win up to $1,000 Free Slot Play!" They stage free daytime entertainment such as polka dancing, magic shows and live "Golden Oldies" shows. The "third of the month club" provides complimentary shuttles from senior centers and retirement housing complexes on the day they receive their Social Security checks. Some casinos stock their bathrooms with adult diapers and disposal receptacles for diabetics' needles. They provide wheelchairs, walkers and more handicapped parking spots than a hospital. One Nevada casino operated an on-site pharmacy—since closed—where accumulated play credits could cover the standard $25 copay on medications.

The gambling boom—and the aggressive tactics the industry uses to lure older patrons—has alarmed addiction experts. Even casino patrons with no history of problem gambling can develop addictive behavior as they age. According to a 2005 study by David Oslin, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia, 1 in 11 adults over age 65 bet more than they could afford to lose in the previous year. The study suggests that more than 4 million older Americans could have a gambling problem. "That's a higher rate than we have for most diseases," he says.

Notable high rollers

Earlier this year, the Hollywood Reporter devoted a cover story to one such pathological gambler—Emmy-winning television producer and writer David Milch, 71. Despite earning millions from the shows he helped create, including NYPD Blue and the critically acclaimed HBO series Deadwood, Milch ran up enormous debts betting on horse racing (also the topic of his short-lived HBO series Luck). According to a lawsuit filed by Milch's wife against the couple's business managers, between 2000 and 2011 his gambling losses reached $25 million, and he's now $17 million in debt.

For other high-rolling notables with well-documented gambling habits, such as NBA great Charles Barkley and actor Ben Affleck, sports betting and poker are the typical culprits. But the majority of everyday problem gamblers are camped out at the slot machines, which have evolved from the traditional one-armed bandits into highly sophisticated "electronic gaming machines" powered by proprietary computer chips. Slots are the biggest revenue producer for the industry and the most popular attraction for older gamblers: 3 out of 4 adults age 65 and older identify slots and video poker as their preferred form of gambling, according to a Harrah's survey.

Slot machines are the most addictive form of casino gambling, enticing users to 'keep playing' until they've suffered major monetary losses. — Naomi Harris

'Electronic crack'

Slots are also the most addictive form of casino gambling, with the machines designed to maximize your "time on device" until you're out of money. A 2001 study by psychiatrist Hans Breiter, then of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, confirmed that the machine's nickname—"electronic crack"—is an apt one. Using MRI scanners, he found that in subjects playing slots, the brain's neural circuits fired in a way that was similar to those using cocaine.

Several factors make gamblers particularly susceptible to addiction behavior as they age. Loneliness, social isolation and the loss of a spouse can encourage older people to seek relief in casinos. "For someone older who has been sick in the hospital or who is bored or lonely, that can have a big impact on them," says clinical geropsychologist Dennis McNeilly of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

More serious age-related cognitive decline plays a role, too. A 2012 study found that changes in the anatomy and chemistry of brains in dementia patients 65 and up, particularly in the frontal region—which controls executive functioning—"may render older adults particularly vulnerable to the stimulation provided by the slot machine." Dementia afflicts about 14 percent of the U.S. population over 70 years old, and an estimated half of those (nearly 2 million people) are undiagnosed. "With both the reward system and impulse controls impaired, that creates the perfect storm for someone to develop problems with gambling," says Michael Hornberger, a neuroscientist at the University of East Anglia in England. Cognitive issues can cause sufferers to lose their sense of money's value, and those with dementia often repeat a singular behavior such as pushing the button on a slot machine over and over. "They just keep playing as long as the casino lets them," Hornberger says.

In some cases, compulsive gambling behavior can emerge as a side effect of medications. Mark Stacy, a neurologist at the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C., noticed that several of his Parkinson's disease patients began reporting gambling problems after he had increased their doses of drugs called dopamine agonists, used to treat motor dysfunction. As many as 10 to 15 percent of Parkinson's patients who take the drugs exhibit this tendency, he says. "I believe these drugs do cause gambling problems where they otherwise would not occur. When you stop the drug, the behavior goes away."

Foes of casino gambling say that the industry actively targets vulnerable older patrons. For every 20 older patrons who walk through their doors, says Les Bernal national director of the advocacy organization Stop Predatory Gambling, the casinos want to "find a couple of them that they can take for all they're worth."

From social gambler to addict

Beauford Burton's experience at Harrah's Cherokee Casino is typical of such relationships.

In addition to sending birthday cards and weekly mailings with ticket deals to shows and vouchers for free play, the casino assigned a VIP host who called Burton at home to invite him back for various specials. Casino hosts often lavish personal attention on high-rolling older charges, asking about their health, reminding them to take their medicine and eating meals with them.

"The whole premise of a host is to extract as much money from that player as possible," says ex-host John-Talmage Mathis, who worked as VIP marketing director at the Boomtown Casino in Bossier City, La. "For older people, the host becomes their friend, giving them attention they may not be getting from their children or friends."

Casinos award hosts bonuses based on how much the gambler loses. "The losses of your player," Mathis says, "are your success."

As the industry seeks to expand, more women are being enticed into casinos, and more are experiencing problems, according to a study published in the journal Psychiatry.

Many slot machines are now designed specifically for women players, who, like longtime slots addict Melynda Litchfield, sometimes feel bonded with their machines. Litchfield, 56, worked 27 years at a Chicago-area hospital, climbing from staff nurse to administrator with a salary of $100,000.

Yet she couldn't afford a prom dress for her daughter because she lost so much playing slots at the Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin, Ill., 10 minutes from their home. For Litchfield, the atmosphere was as addicting as the machines themselves. The staff treated her warmly and called her by name. "They gave me so much personal attention and TLC that you get the false impression these people—who are milking away all of your money—actually care about you," she says.

The casino also served as an escape, to a place where she did not have to tend to the needs of anyone else. "I didn't want to talk to anyone," says Litchfield, who quit gambling in 2012 and is now a national victims advocate for Stop Predatory Gambling. "I just wanted to get lost in my machine."

Pushed toward the slots

Amy Ziettlow, a Lutheran minister and affiliate scholar at the Institute for American Values, visited casinos in Louisiana, Iowa and New York for her investigative report, "Seniors in Casino Land."

"The whole aim of trying to cater to the needs of the least among us simply to take their money is abusive," she says. "Owners push them toward the slots."

Industry advocates such as Chris Moyer, director of public affairs for the American Gaming Association, tell another story. "If seniors are enjoying the entertainment product we provide, there's no reason why they shouldn't be able to enjoy that in a responsible manner," he says. He points out that casinos do provide education materials on addiction, displaying pamphlets that urge patrons with gambling problems to call a toll-free help number. The casinos also encourage problem gamblers to put their names on self-exclusion lists. "The casino gaming industry takes extraordinary measures to spot those who need help and connect them to treatment," Moyer says.

As his addiction deepened, Beauford Burton found one of those pamphlets and called the 800 number. As he recalls, the person who answered his call just told him he should stop gambling if he couldn't afford it. "There was no meat to it," he says. "Once your intent is not to come back to them, I think they want to be clear of you."

After declaring bankruptcy in 2008, Burton finally managed to quit with the support of his wife and his faith. He and Sharon now live in a two-bedroom apartment in Kings Mountain, where he has become an outspoken critic of a proposal to build a casino in his community. He regrets his gambling problems but takes responsibility for his behavior. "I can't put total blame on those people because I was the one ignorant about it," Burton says. "But the casinos do try to make things as exciting for you as they can."

John Rosengren is a freelance journalist who lives in Minneapolis.

http://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2016/casino-traps-older-patrons.html

Out of Luck premieres nationwide today: the most important movie on state-run gambling ever made

Out of Luck, the first film to examine government-sponsored gambling in America, premieres today nationwide on Amazon Prime, iTunes and Google Play

I urge you to watch it this weekend and then PLEASE RATE THE FILM. Rating takes only a second but it's vitally important on these digital platforms that they have ratings for better placement.  Please encourage others in your social networks to join you. 

The film is available at these links:

Amazon: Out of Luck on Amazon Prime!

Google Play: Out Of Luck on Google Play!

iTunes: Out of Luck on iTunes

While it investigates lotteries, Out of Luck is significant to those of you who got involved in this movement because you believe government should not bring casinos into your community. Regional casinos are another form of government-sponsored gambling, as is the current lobbying campaign for online gambling.

The lobbying push for regional casinos and online gambling has happened in a big way because of the practices of state lotteries. They're the largest predatory gambling operators in the country and have made extreme forms of gambling like electronic gambling machines and $30 scratch tickets seem like a normal activity for government to be marketing to citizens.

A nationwide media tour is beginning to promote Out of Luck. They are also setting up screenings in cities and towns across the country. 

I strongly urge you or your organization to set up a film screening event in your region. It's easy to do and the film producers have a brief summary about how to organize an event.  Please contact the producers directly through the film's website or email Director Bert Klasey at bert@flapjackfilms.com.

To keep updated as fhe film spreads across the nation, you can "Like" the Out of Luck Facebook page andfollow them on Twitter @outofluckmovie. 

Please do your part to promote the film to your community members, your faith organizations and your public officials. The growing amount of people who strongly believe one of our local and national priorities must be to sunset the policy of government-sponsored gambling will become even larger after seeing the film.

The press release announcing the premiere of Out of Luck can be found here.

If you believe what we believe in, please support our work by contributing $10 or more today to help sustain it.

Thank you.

Best,

Les Bernal
National Director
Stop Predatory Gambling

________________________________

Build a more humane and just society: sunset the policy of government-sponsored gambling because it's dishonest, financially damaging to citizens and contributes to rising inequality of opportunity.

This morning's congressional hearing on gambling

I'm at the congressional hearing on online fantasy sports gambling this morning in Washington, DC. Here's a link to the statement we're presenting to members of Congress today on behalf of our national Stop Predatory Gambling network.

Many of us first participated in our mission to oppose a regional casino or lottery in our part of the country. But after becoming involved in this good fight, we learned this issue has an equally damaging impact on our nation and its future.

Each of us needs to be a messenger in our local area and deliver the word about why the time has come to sunset this public policy. The message that we're giving to Congress today can be boiled down to 30 seconds and can be used to talk with anyone, regardless of their age, political persuasion and geography. Here it is:

A look at the facts of almost 40 years of government-regulated gambling leads to one unavoidable conclusion: Whether in the form of regional casinos or state lotteries, government’s regulation of gambling has been a spectacular failure by almost any measure.

1) It creates more inequality of opportunity than any other single act of government

2) It has shown over and over again that the almost singular focus of government-regulated gambling has been on driving maximum sales and profits, not protecting citizens: “Taxation By Exploitation”

3) It has led to higher taxes for less services for the 2/3 of citizens who rarely gamble and to worse state budget problems over the long term: “You Pay Even If You Don’t Play”

4) It has supremely failed to reduce illegal gambling

5) It has proven to be about granting monopolies and awarding regulatory advantages to favored firms and little to do with economic growth and free market principles

Our Congressional statement looks at each of these failures more in depth.

Please do your part to talk to your community members, your faith organizations and your public officials about why one of our local and national priorities must be to sunset the policy of government-sponsored gambling.

If you support our mission and work, please contribute $10 or more today to help sustain it.

Thank you.

Best,

Les Bernal
National Director
Stop Predatory Gambling

________________________________

Build a more humane and just society: sunset the policy of government-sponsored gambling because it's dishonest, financially damaging to citizens and contributes to rising inequality of opportunity.

3 things to know about your taxes and state gambling revenues

As the nation's annual April 15th tax filing deadline nears, one reason why you and citizens everywhere are paying more taxes for less government services than you should is because of regional casinos and lotteries.

State governments have relentlessly pushed these extreme forms of gambling onto the public in a bid to collect more money.

Yet a new report this week by the Rockefeller Institute of Government at SUNY Albany confirms what is becoming obvious to most Americans: "In the long-run, the growth in state revenues from gambling activities slows or even reverses and declines."

That means higher taxes for less services. And worse budget problems. For everyone. Except for the people who own the commercial gambling operation.

You're paying even if you're not playing.

You can read the full report here. You can read a Reuters national wire story about it here.

Please share it as widely as you can, especially with opinion leaders in your region of the country including legislators, local and state officials, journalists, business leaders, civic groups and non-profits. You can copy and post this link to share on Facebook and other social media.

Key takeaways of the report include:

1) Government-sponsored casinos and lotteries are contributing to rising inequality. According to the report: "The economics literature supports the argument that gambling activities, particularly lottery activities, are regressive in nature and attract poorer population. Therefore, gambling often leads to reduction of disposable income for low-income households, particularly at a time when their income is not growing and is even declining in real terms."

2) In states that sponsor commercial gambling, all taxpayers—including the non-gamblers-- end up paying higher taxes for less services and their states end up with worse budget problems over the long term. Taxpayers who don’t gamble are footing the bill.

3) Expansion of gambling leads to more social costs, which in turn leads to economic costs. These costs are paid by all taxpayers and not just by gamblers.

Please make the extra effort to share this report and its message. Instead of lowering the tax burden on citizens, government-sponsored gambling has proven to be a spectacular failure, worsening state fiscal woes while contributing to rising inequality of opportunity for tens of millions of Americans.

Thank you.

Best,

Les Bernal
National Director
Stop Predatory Gambling

________________________________

Build a more humane and just society: sunset the policy of government-sponsored gambling because it's dishonest, financially damaging to citizens and contributes to rising inequality of opportunity.

If you support our mission and work, please become a member by contributing $10 or more today to help sustain it.

Letter to AG Maura Healey on Penn National's Deceptive Online Marketing Practices

Below is our letter today to Attorney General Maura Healey requesting that her office take swift action to protect Massachusetts consumers from Penn National's deceptive and unfair online marketing practices as reported in today's Boston Globe.

I encourage you to contact her office by email or a hard copy letter, urging her to act against these fraudulent practices. 

Thanks.

Best,

Les Bernal,
Stop Predatory Gambling

March 23, 2016

Attorney General Maura Healey
Office of the Attorney General
c/o Gaming Enforcement Division
One Ashburton Place
Boston, MA 02108

Dear Attorney General Healey:

On behalf of Stop Predatory Gambling (SPG), I am writing to request that your office act swiftly to stop the unfair and deceptive marketing practices being used by Plainridge casino in their online marketing program.

As reported by The Boston Globe on March 23rd, Plainridge’s parent company Penn National has designed a fraudulent online slots game that creates an illusion of success with the intent of luring more citizens to use real slot machines.

According to the story:

“If the games look the same and sound the same, but the payback of one is much lower, then that’s misleading,” said Natasha Dow Schull, an associate professor at New York University and the author of Addiction By Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas.
Schull said online casino sites have a bait-and-switch quality to them because their large payoffs condition players to expect the same at the casino.

The goal of online slot machines, a growing trend known in the casino industry as social gaming, is to “prime your system for gambling — to hook you in,” she said.

The real slot machines inside Penn National’s casino are designed mathematically so users are certain to lose their money the longer they play. At the same time, the machines are literally designed so citizens cannot stop using them, exploiting aspects of human psychology and inducing irrational behavior.[1] Every feature of a slot machine - its mathematical structure, visual graphics, sound dynamics, seating and screen ergonomics - is designed to increase a player's "time on device" – which means how long a person plays.[2]  (See Figure 1 below)

Figure 1: Addiction By Design by MIT Professor Dr. Natasha Schull, Pg. 112

 

No single act of government creates more inequality of opportunity than its promotion of gambling. Bringing about major reform on this public policy includes stopping the unfair and deceptive marketing practices used by commercial gambling operators such as Penn National.

For additional information on the issue, please contact me at (202) 567-6696. Thank you for your attention to this important consumer protection issue.


Sincerely,

Les Bernal

National Director
Stop Predatory Gambling

________________________________

[1] Natasha Dow Schull, PhD, Addiction By Design, Machine Gambling in Las Vegas, (2012), available at http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9156.html

[2] Natasha Dow Schull, PhD, Beware: Machine Zone Ahead, Washington Post, July 6, 2008, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/04/AR2008070402134.html

____________

Build a more humane and just society: sunset the policy of government-sponsored gambling because it's dishonest, financially damaging to citizens and contributes to rising inequality of opportunity.

If you support our mission and work, please become a member by contributing $10 or more today to help sustain it.

I've found this to be true, whether you're a conservative or a progressive. For me it's been a good benchmark for identifying whether a politician will play to our strengths or our weaknesses, whether they're a thoughtful person or just apt to take the easy way out, and so importantly, whether they can stand up to big money.

How to Know If Your Choice for President 

Is the Real Thing

Most people know a reheated biscuit is never going to be as
good as a fresh-from-the-oven biscuit. All it takes is one bite
and you know right away. When it…

THEPULSE2016.COM

How to Know If Your Choice for President Is the Real Thing

By Les Bernal on February 16, 2016
Filed Under: Candidate, Commentary, Donald Trump, gambling

Most people know a reheated biscuit is never going to be as good as a fresh-from-the-oven biscuit. All it takes is one bite and you know right away.

When it comes to determining the best candidate to support for president, there is no taste test to tell you the “fresh-from-the-oven” choice from the “reheated” ones.

But there is one major and often overlooked issue that can be more revealing than any other about whether a candidate has the ingredients to be an effective leader for the country.

That issue is the candidate’s record on “The Big Con,” also known by the label of government-sponsored gambling, and it takes place in the form of lotteries and regional casinos.

Whether or not you wager a dollar on any of government’s gambling programs, this practice affects you.

No single act of government creates more inequality of opportunity than its promotion of gambling. Fueled by massive spending on advertising, marketing and campaign donations, politicians purposely concentrate gambling in economically-distressed communities. Financially desperate citizens have become ensnared in these government-run gambling schemes as a way to try and improve their lives and help them escape their financial condition. It has become a Hail Mary investment strategy, doomed to inevitable failure. By targeting the least advantaged, government-sponsored gambling adds to the increasingly separate and unequal life patterns in education, marriage, work, and play that now are dividing America into haves and have-nots.

For the majority of citizens who never or rarely gamble, government-sponsored gambling is the biggest budget gimmick of all. Where states authorize commercial gambling, all taxpayers — including the non-gamblers — end up paying higher taxes for fewer services, and their states end up with worse budget problems over the long term, according to research by the Rockefeller Institute at SUNY-Albany. You pay even if you don’t play.

America’s most influential leaders, regardless of party, have traditionally been opposed to The Big Con. One of them, former President Ronald Reagan, has been mentioned more on the campaign trail than any other past politician. To give his impact some context, it was reported that in one of the Republican debates, the candidates invoked Reagan 42 times. They only invoked God 16 times.

How did Reagan feel about government-sponsored gambling? When he was asked for his position on a lottery for California, Reagan boldly declared: “I prefer to govern Californians based on their strengths, not their weaknesses.”

For the first time in modern presidential politics, there are several candidates, who unlike Reagan, prefer to govern citizens based on their weaknesses. Hillary Clinton, John Kasich and Donald Trump each have been major boosters of commercial gambling and government’s promotion of it.

Trump has been one of the country’s most visible casino operators, running major casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas. “I left Atlantic City before it totally cratered,” he said at a Fox News debate for GOP candidates in August 2015. “And I made a lot of money in Atlantic City, and I’m very proud of it.”

No great nation has ever built prosperity on the foundations of personal debt, addiction, and the steady expansion of businesses that produce no new wealth. Relying on gambling is a sign of surrender and defeat on the part of leaders who have failed to lead.

Government-sponsored gambling represents the absolute worst of crony-capitalism and big government. It pits government’s interests against the best interests of its people. For government to win, its citizens must lose.

The alternative is to muster the courage to chart a path to true prosperity. An America freed from the yoke of government-sponsored gambling would be an America once again on the move — an America with broader and more sustainable economic growth, more honesty in government, more social trust, and the rekindling of the optimism that has long been our defining national strength.

That’s a purpose worth sacrificing for.

Les Bernal is the National Director of Stop Predatory Gambling based in Washington, DC.

http://thepulse2016.com/les-bernal/2016/02/16/how-to-know-if-your-choice-for-president-is-the-real-thing/

This is the most important movie on state-run gambling ever made

It's finally here.Out of Luck, the first national film to examine the policy of government-sponsored gambling in America, is about to be released. You can watch the movie trailer below.

The film producers are working with iTunes, Amazon.com and Google Play to make it available to the world in April. I don't know the exact date yet but will let you know when it's announced.

There will be a nationwide media tour to promote the film, including print media, digital media/podcasts, radio and television. They'll also set up screenings in cities and towns across the country. 

If you or your organization is interested in setting up a screening event and would like more information, please contact the producers through the film's website or email Director Bert Klasey at bert@flapjackfilms.com.

It's important to show the world that people are interested in this topic so please "Like" their Facebook page and follow them on Twitter @outofluckmovie. These basic social media stats are influential in building momentum for the film.

While it investigates lotteries, the movie is also significant to those of you who got involved in this movement because you oppose casinos in your community. Regional casinos are another form of government-sponsored gambling.

The lobbying push for regional casinos and online gambling has happened in large part because of the practices of state lotteries. They're the largest predatory gambling operators in the country and have made extreme forms of gambling like electronic gambling machines and $30 scratch tickets seem like a normal activity for government to be marketing to citizens. 

Out Of Luck Trailer from Bert Klasey on Vimeo.

If you don't see the film trailer to click above, you can see it here https://vimeo.com/150933479.

Thanks for being a part of our work to change the world we live in.

Best,

Les

____________

Les Bernal

National Director

Stop Predatory Gambling

Build a more humane and just society: end government-sponsored gambling because it is dishonest, financially damaging to citizens and contributes to rising inequality of opportunity.

If you support our mission and work, please become a member by contributing $10 or more today to help sustain it.