The American Journal of Economics and Sociology reported that those earning less than $10,000 per year spend over twice as much money on gambling than people making 3 or 4 times that; meanwhile, the unemployed, retired and people on fixed incomes gamble 61-TO-83 percent more than the employed!

One out of every five pathological gamblers commits suicide: National Council on Problem Gambling, Inc., "The Need for a National Policy on Problem and Pathological Gambling in America," November 1, 1993, p. 7.

Gambling increases divorce: Many sources, for instance, Mississippi State Department of Health, "Vital Statistics Mississippi" for the years 1991-1998.

Gambling increases spousal abuse: Many sources, for instance, Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr., "The House Never Loses and Maryland Cannot Win: Why Casino Gaming Is a Bad Idea," October 16, 1995, p. 5; NGISC Final Report, p. 7-27.

Gambling causes embezzlement: The American Insurance Institute.

Gambling is the fastest growing addiction among teens: "Survey Says Public School Students are Gambling," Associated Press, February 2003; National Gambling Impact Study Commission, page 4-12, citing the National Research Council, 1999.

Costs $3 for every $1 raised: John W. Kindt, S.J.D. Professor of Commerce and Legal Policy at a University of Illinois, Statement Before Hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business, 21 September 1994.

Gamblers spent $68.7 billion in 2002: http://gambletribune.org/article.php?pid=635.

Gambling increases numbers of suicides: "Elevated Suicide Levels Associated with Legalized Gambling," David P. Phillips, et al, Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, Vol. 27, December 1996, p. 373.

Poor gamble 3 times as much: U.S. Government Commission on the Review of the National Policy Toward Gambling, "Gambling in America," (1976), p. 65.

One third of Atlantic City business closed down: Robert Goodman, The Luck Business: The Devastating Consequences and Broken Promises of America's Gambling Explosion, New York, Free Press, (1995), p. 23.

More money on gambling, less on retail items: Harvard Magazine, "Trafficking in Chance," by Craig Lambert, July-August 2002, p. 33-40.

Crime in casino counties increases 10% in three years: Prof. Earl Grinols, Prof. David Mustard, and Cynthia Dilley, "Casinos and Crime," 2003.

62% of gamblers committed illegal acts as a result of their gambling: Native American Press/Ojibwe News, "Casinos, Crime, and Community Costs," by Clara NiiSka, January 25, 2002.

47% of gamblers admitted to stealing to finance gambling: Prof. Earl Grinols, Professor of Economics at University of Illinois, Statement before Hearing of House Judiciary Committee, September 1996.

52% of casino revenues come from problem and pathological gamblers: Prof. Earl Grinols, Professor of Economics at University of Illinois, Statement before Hearing of House Judiciary Committee, September 1996.

Problem gamblers sell all they have and then beg, borrow and steal to support their addiction: Harvard Magazine, "Trafficking in Chance," by Craig Lambert, July-August 2002, p. 33-40.

25 to 50% of gamblers spouses are victims of domestic violence: National Gambling Impact Study Commission (NGISC) Final Report, June 1999, p. 7-28.

One in 11 spouses of problem gamblers will attempt suicide: Dr. Robert R. Perkinson, clinical director of Keystone Treatment Center in Canton, SD "Gambling Addiction," Alcoholism/Drug/Abuse/Teen/Gambling/Addiction Treatment Information online advice (9/4/2003).

According to a study by the Research Institute on Addictions at the SUNY University at Buffalo: African Americans were less likely to gamble in the past year than whites, but those who did gambled more heavily than other racial groups, and along with Hispanic gamblers were more likely than average to be pathological gamblers.

Alcohol/drug Treatment Agencies in the Buffalo Region have seen the highest Relapse rates back into active addiction – since the establishment of the casino(s). Gambling also fosters alcohol and drug use, abuse, and relapse!

Each week the Las Vegas Hotline receives approximately 2000 calls – many suicidal, desperate.

When legalized, gambling isn’t limited just to adults. Over one-third of high-school and college students polled nationwide gambled before age 11, and by age 15, more than 80% had bet. One estimate is that there are over 2 million teenagers currently addicted to gambling nationwide.

Furthermore, problem or pathological gambling also seriously currently affects more than one-quarter million New Yorkers who are the spouses, partners, children, parents, family members, friends and colleagues of the problem gambler.

Many of the states which have recently legalized gambling are now just discovering the devastating consequences of gambling TO individuals, families and their communities. But it’s too late. Once legalized they can’t reverse the trend and control the increase in the gambling addiction.

"Intermittent Positive Reinforcement" is the strongest proven dynamic for shaping social behavior, i.e., a lab rat will press a lever hundreds of times to get 1 or 2 pellets of food!

Furthermore, as a matter of good public policy, state officials and legislators in Illinois have proposed legislation to prohibit contributions by legalized gambling interests to politicians and political campaigns. In the case of casinos, New Jersey already has such prohibitions, but other states have neglected to enact similar prohibitions. Political scientists have raised concerns that the newly developing constituencies in the licensed gambling industry are becoming so widespread that the industry can dictate economic, social, and tax policies. For example, the industry drafted a state constitutional referendum in Florida which would have mandated the introduction of casinos into communities even if a particular community voted unanimously against a casino. The industry spent approximately $3 million to get the Florida referendum on the ballot and $6.5 million to campaign for the casinos-- more than the combined gubernatorial campaigns of Governor Lawton Chiles and Jeb Bush.

Legalized gambling activities act as a regressive tax on the poor (Clotfelter and Cook 1989). Specifically, the legalization of various forms of gambling activities makes "poor people poorer" and can dramatically intensify many pre-existing social-welfare problems.

One study estimates the yearly costs for each compulsive gambler to range between $6500 and $18,500.

NGISC: Case studies of 10 casino communities conducted for the National Gambling Impact Study Commission revealed that the majority of those communities witnessed increases in domestic violence relative to the introduction of casinos.

Casinos cause distrust! Many long time residents distrust the government and the industry. The skepticism and frustration felt by many of Atlantic City residents is summed up in the following quote by Pierre Hollingsworth, retired Atlantic City fire chief and former president of the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP): "Will more casinos make the difference? How? You have 13 now and you still have run-down neighborhoods everywhere. Atlantic Avenue is dead as a doornail. Pacific Avenue is shot. And you still have double-digit unemployment. That’s how much casinos have helped Atlantic City so far. What are five or six more going to do for the people who live here because nobody cares about the people who live here."

Noted author and columnist George Will has said, "Aggressive government marketing of gambling gives a legitimizing imprimatur to the pursuit of wealth without work… The more people believe in the importance of luck, chance, randomness and fate, the less they believe in the importance of virtues such as industriousness, thrift, deferral of gratification, diligence and studiousness."

From "Casino Gambling : Asking the Right Questions": What are the net benefits? Perhaps the most obvious "benefit," based on experience elsewhere, is huge political contributions from the gambling industry for legislators.

Revesals: Iowa, one of the first states to allow substantial casino gambling in the 1990's, has now imposed a moratorium; South Carolina, after having 34,000 machines installed in businesses throughout the state, has ordered their withdrawal; and Louisiana, after having recently legalized casino gambling, shows signs of making it illegal again (the new governor intends to outlaw casino gambling.)

"In the next decade or so, we'll face more problems with youth gambling than we'll face with illicit drug use." — Howard Shaffer, Center for Addiction Studies

Claiming that a "percentage point or two" of state revenue is worth all the dollar costs and human misery of social services, crime, truncated careers, broken marriages, and destroyed families is a hard case to make on the merits.

FBI and organized crime sources agree, legalized gambling increases, not decreases, illegal gambling!

Impact upon Restaurants? In Minnesota, restaurant business within a thirty mile radius of casinos with food service fell by 20 to 50 percent. Another is Atlantic City, where 40% of restaurants disappeared over a 10 year period.

"Gambling always creates large socioeconomic problems, and (raises demand) for new taxes to address those problems." — Boston Globe reporters Mitchell Zuckoff and Doug Baily

Gamblers Anonymous chapters doubled in number from 1989 to 1995. The national 1-800-GAMBLER hotline received more than 40,000 calls in 1994, up from 11,000 in 1991.

Atlantic City, N.J. The city went from 50th to 1st in the nation in per-capita crime after casino operations began in the late 1970's.

Deadwood, S.D. Limited-stakes casino gambling was legalized here in 1989. Three years later, authorities reported a 60-percent increase in crime, forcing the town to double the size of its police force.

Central City, CO Just two years after gambling was introduced, assaults and thefts had already increased 400 percent.

Casino gambling attracts pathological gamblers, who "tend to engage in forgery, theft, embezzlement, drug dealing and property crimes to pay off gambling debts," said Robert Goodman, an urban planning professor from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

As reported n the Portsmouth Herald: The forces behind the pro-casino movement were well-funded, professional and accustomed to going into communities and pushing their product. They had all the pro-gambling data, dangled millions of dollars in front of a cash-starved legislature and had the ability to deploy advocates anywhere in the state where objections arose.... but Maine - and the Seacoast region of neighboring New Hampshire - "was saved by a tiny group of people who believed in their hearts that what they were doing was right and then devoted themselves totally to making others believe it too. It is a testament not only to those brave and dedicated people, but to all the people in the state and to the notion that one person, committed to a purpose, can battle an army of mercenaries and win."

"Las Vegas' foxhole conversion to family values is really its latest, most magnificent con. If the Disney companies set out to make children happy, the Vegas casino owners hope to keep them distracted, at least long enough for Ma and Pa to pump the college tuition money into the gambling maw." -- Boston Globe

In a typical county of 100,000 adults the introduction of casinos would create additional social costs of $12.7 m annually and direct social benefits of $4.2 m. Using $750 as the average value to the rest of the county of a job means that casinos would have to increase the total number of jobs in the county by more than 11,333 to improve well being of residents, an unlikely outcome. -- The Economics of Gambling: Summary Points, Professor Earl L. Grinols, Dept. of Economics, University of Illinois.

Gambling: The Seductive Fantasy, John MacArthur Jr.: "America is on a gambling binge. It is the new invisible addiction assaulting millions of people in our country and around the world. America is fast becoming a land of gamblers and not only legal gambling, but illegal gambling makes the actual effect and impact of this thing almost incalculable."