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2/2/2006: The state of the union - Gambling in the USA
It doesn’t take an Einstein to construct an equation to understand that gambling and politics are generating massive government corruption. What local and state governments have experienced is now engulfing our nation’s Capitol on a flagrant scale. Gambling promoters and their hired lobbyists are now joined at the hip with our elected officials to promote an extensive gambling culture in our nation.
Questions that I raised several years ago are now front-page headlines. After spending more than $80 million of tribal casino profits on U.S. Senators and Congress members, Abramoff has pleaded guilty to mail fraud, illegal lobbying activities and tax evasion. I have long observed that illegal gambling is the honey pot of organized crime; now legal gambling is the new cesspool of Government corruption.
When I read of the millions that flow from gambling predators to elected officials, I shudder on what corruption is doing to the democratic foundations of our land. Expanded gambling is not the result of citizens asking lawmakers for more wagering opportunities, but is the product of promoters who are loaded with cash and offering to buy legislative approval and privileges for casinos, lotteries and Internet gambling.
The Abramoff confession is neither a Republican scandal nor a Democrat scandal, but has become a national gambling scandal. Both political parties have been feeding at the political trough of gambling. This underground movement of gambling money must come to an end.
How could the former head of the Christian Coalition, now running for high office in Georgia, receive more than a million dollars from a Mississippi Indiancasino, laundered through an anti-tax organization created by Grover Norquist, a college Republican friend of super lobbyist Jack Abramoff, in order to torpedo a proposed Indian casino in Alabama? The Associated Press has listed more than 200 national lawmakers as receiving gambling money through Abramoff and his tribal clients. The list includes prominent lawmakers of both political parties. The tentacles of gambling have reached the highest levels of our government. Proposed “reforms” will not stop the rich promoters of seeking more gambling.Citizens must begin to vote for candidates who oppose expanded gambling. Promises of “It-will-never-happen-again” are not enough. More gambling promoters are waiting to take Abramoff’s place with new promises of easy wealth, painlessly acquired. The Mississippi tribal casinos that channeled $30 million to Abramoff are already hiring new lobbyists to do their bidding. The wealth of casino gambling, funneled through lobbyists, is the fertile soil for more corruption.
Proposed “reforms” will not stop gambling’s growth. Voters must begin to vote for candidates who oppose expanded gambling.
I have watched reform legislation come and go. Usually, the party in power re-writes the reform measures to benefit themselves while hurting the opposition. Tragically, the courts strike down the best reform measures as an infringement of freedom of speech. It is a delicate issue to balance the rights of citizens to express their views to office holders, and at the same time prevent the viciousness of the current gambling scandals.
The National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling supports meaningful reforms that will prohibit outings to the Super Bowl, free golfing excursions to Scotland, misused charities and stipends to wives of lawmakers. Congress should do what it can to prevent abuses and questionable benefits to themselves. However, the basic reform is to elect individuals who have character and integrity. The sad fact that approximately 200 members of Congress are returning gambling contributions is evidence that voters need better judgment at the polls. What next? Senators and members of Congress must have credibility and honesty before they can lead our nation to higher standards.
2006 is an ideal time to replace political greed with truth and justice. The flow of gambling contributions through political pipelines must end. NCALG has a network of individuals and organizations reaching into nearly every state. We plan to begin early to contact every viable candidate and discuss his or her views on gambling. With 435 Congressional seats up for election, we have a busy ten months ahead of us.
In early January, I was a participant in a panel discussion before prominent lawmakers and innovators of gambling equipment in San Diego. Personally, I was treated with courtesy and respect, but inwardly I was aghast at the future concepts of gambling technology. Those at the cutting edge of wagering are developing electronic devices that will permit any one, in any place, and at any time to gamble electronically. At home, on vacations, travel, restaurants and sports, cell phones will enable the public to gamble. The dream of the gambling industry is to transform the whole world into a casino, without walls.
Against the hurricane force of proposed gambling expansion, the forthright commitment of Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) stands out. Senator Kyl is sponsoring legislation to end the expansion of Internet gambling technology. Congressman Wolf was the successful sponsor of proposed legislation to exclude casinos, bars, liquor stores and message parlors from the tax privileges designed to assist Gulf Coast businesses.
Under Wolf’s leadership, H.R. 4440 became law. With the devastation of the Gulf hurricanes, the damaged areas require solid enterprises to produce needed goods & services, not re-building casinos to siphon purchasing dollars from their communities.
Even without taxpayers’ subsidies, Harrah’s announced on January 10 that they would spend $1,000,000,000 to build two casinos in Biloxi, MS. (Remember, one billion is the same as a thousand million.) Think of the wealth that Harrah’s will drain from the Gulf area. Harrah’s has also announced plans to build casinos in Spain and Slovenia. Their moneymaking juggernaut rolls on.
A movement by Congressmen Mike Rogers and Frank Wolf has communicated with President Bush, asking for a moratorium on opening any new tribal casinos and to halt the recognition process for new tribes for gambling purposes. One year ago, NCALG called for a moratorium on new tribal casinos. We call on our friends to support this effort with letters to the President. Meanwhile, gambling interests keep pushing state and local governments to expand casinos into one community after another. On November 27, I was asked to speak to a group of concerned citizens in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Grand Forks is a town of 49,000 on the Red River, across the Minnesota. I was scheduled to fly to Grand Forks from Chicago, but got caught in a storm that cancelled my flight. I got back my luggage, recovered my car and for 19 hours I drove through a freezing rain to keep my promise to appear at a public meeting. Their concern was to prevent the establishment of a Turtle Mountain Chippewa’s off-reservation casino in Grand Forks.
On January 11, I joined Anita Bedell of ILCAAAP, and on a one-day notice, responded to Governor Rod Blagojevich’s announcement that Illinois would sponsor Keno to raise funds for school construction. Keno is an instant electronic game played in bars and taverns every 5 minutes. The game is fast, the stakes are high, and the profits enormous (which means that most participants lose). The governor’s office claimed that keno is only another form of the lottery, similar to church bingo. The press quoted me as declaring that “the more you play the more certain you are to lose.”
State by state:
A proposal was introduced in the Kentucky legislature on January 3 to legalize casinos at their race tracks. . . West Virginia, which is heavy into gambling, wants to expand their slots at their racetracks to include table games, such as craps and poker, in order to keep ahead of Pennsylvania’s slot barns. . . Massachusetts will vote in November to abolish wagering on dog races. A similar effort failed two years ago by a 49% to 51% vote. . . Isle of Capri Casinos has offered to pay for a $290 million Penguins hockey arena in Pittsburgh, provided they can also operate a slot machine parlor. . . U.S. Representative Tom Osborne has served 3 terms in Congress and has announced his candidacy for governor of Nebraska. Osborne - a former coach of the Nebraska football team - has vigorously opposed using college sports for wagering by professional gamblers. He also successfully opposed casinos in a state-wide vote in Nebraska in 2004. . . Jesse Ventura, former governor of Minnesota, is promoting worldwide Internet gambling, operating out of Costa Rica.
Delaware’s Governor Ruth Minner wants to liberalize her state’s gambling regulations to compete with Pennsylvania’s yet-to-be-built casinos. Delaware’s three racetracks now have slots. Gov. Minner proposes to raise the number of machines from 2500 to 4000 slots at each track and to extend gambling to 24 hours a day, except Sundays. She claims that her proposals do not “soften” her claim to be a self-declared anti-gambling governor. The cancer of gambling is metastasizing between states, until the entire nation will be infected Kansas continues to battle commercial forces that want to make the Sunflower State into a gambling mecca. A well-organized group, Stand Up for Kansas, has been victorious over expanded gambling for 14 years. but the battle continues. The newest proposal is to legalize casinos in Kansas City and Pittsburg, both next to the border of Missouri, which has casinos, and to permit slot machines at Wichita Greyhound Park. Stand Up for Kansas battles the issues, county-by-county, legislator-by-legislator, and editorial-by-editorial.
Gambling destroys!
Before our very eyes, it is destroying the integrity of our nation’s Capitol. Hawaii and Utah have no form of legalized wagering, but some of our states are so addicted to gambling that their governors want more. Gambling weakens the entire economy. Gambling destroys marriages and homes. Gambling destroys the character and values of people.
The National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling is in the business of opposing legalized gambling in any state, county or city. The Abramoff corruption is only the tip of the iceberg. Gambling corruption threatens to engulf our nation. NCALG believes that individuals and families are the basic foundation of a healthy democracy, character needs to be strengthened, and government needs to be purified. We invite your contribution to keep this battle going. Please use the enclosed enlistment card and envelope for a generous contribution.
America needs a new Declaration of Independence. Our country needs clear-cut leadership that will reject gambling dollars and re-build our society on honest effort and hard work. We are a prosperous nation that can afford the needed services of a well-ordered society. What next? The ballot box is where this new Declaration of Independence will be made. America must become a free nation again. Thank you for your support of this cause.
Battle on,
Tom Grey
NCALG Field Director
Administrator
February 3rd, 2006 at 6:19 am
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July 1st, 2011 at 12:26 am
So if they can find the Senator from Illinois Guilty, It would be Something,! and i’m sure He’s got something buried !No such thing being an Honest Politician !!!!!!!!!!!