wfn.org | States' voters OK gambling, despite churches' opposition

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Nov. 8, 2002	  News media contact: Joretta Purdue7(202)
546-87227Washington	10-21-71B{510}

NOTE: For more gambling-related coverage, see UMNS stories #439, #457 and
#485.

By United Methodist News Service

When voters in various states cast their ballots on Election Day, the
gambling industry won more rounds than it lost.

Tennessee, one of only three states that allows no gaming of any kind,
passed an amendment to the state constitution that permits the legislature
to institute a lottery, with 58 percent of the voters favoring the measure
and 42 percent opposing it. The amendment limits the use of proceeds to
educational purposes.

The Rev. Skip Armistead, who headed the Religious Leaders for a Gambling
Free Tennessee, explained that the amendment is very specific. If the
legislature enacts a lottery, the money raised could only be used for
college scholarships, capital expenditures to benefit kindergarten through
12th grade, and early-learning and after-school programs. 

"I can't believe we have forgotten our history as to why the prohibition is
there in the first place," he commented. "It's hard to believe we want our
state to manipulate and exploit persons through a lottery - or anything.

"We, the churches, are going to have to pay a big cost of what the state has
decided to do," he added. His congregation provides a meeting place for
Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous and now it will need to add
Gamblers Anonymous, he said.

The United Methodist Church officially opposes gambling in all its forms as
a menace to society and good government.

The Rev. Tom Grey, a United Methodist clergyman in Illinois and head of the
National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, praised the "magnificent
effort" of Bishop William W. Morris, other United Methodist leaders and the
Baptists in Tennessee in informing the public about the high costs of
gambling to the society.

Grey noted that 5 percent of the people buy 51 percent of the lottery
tickets and those are addicted people and poor people. He expressed
disappointment and sadness at what appears to be voters favoring their own
self-interest over stewardship for economic justice.

"In Idaho, the Native American tribes spent - and there are only 7,000 of
them in a state of 1.2 million - $3 million against $5,000 on our side" to
win the right to have gaming machines on Indian reservations, Grey said.
"But they ran a campaign calling us 'American Taliban,' (saying) that we
were moralists, that we were trying to keep them from giving Christmas
presents to their kids."  

Native American and other gambling propositions in Arizona met with mixed
results. The state renewed its lottery for another 10 years by a vote of 73
percent, but a measure to allow racetracks to offer slot machines was
soundly defeated. A proposal that would continue Native American casinos
narrowly passed. Another, sponsored by an individual tribe, would have
allowed casino-style gambling off reservation; it was defeated. 

Grey said he believes that church leadership, especially in United
Methodism, has been giving the Native Americans "a pass on this addictive
product called gambling," and the church needs to reassess this.

Elsewhere, voters in 11 Iowa counties agreed to eight more years of
riverboat gambling. 

"It's not an easy fight," Grey said. "It never has been, but it's not
getting any easier." He wants the whole church to provide more leadership
rather than leaving so much to the ecumenical national coalition and state
groups. He expressed concern that the United States will become an addicted
gambling nation, with the church just taking care of the casualties.

# # #

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org