wfn.org | Clergywoman Testifies on Internet Gambling

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (249
notes).

Note 247 by UMNS on July 30, 1997 at 15:52 Eastern (4326 characters).

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Contact:  Joretta Purdue                          435(10-71B){247}
          Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722           July 30, 1997

United Methodist clergywoman testifies
against internet gambling at first hearing

     WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- A United Methodist minister was one of
five people testifying here July 28 at this country's first
Congressional hearing on internet gambling.
     The Rev. Ann E. Geer, chairwoman of the board of the National
Coalition Against Gambling Expansion, told the Senate Judiciary
Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government Information
that the "ABCs of internet gambling are addiction, bankruptcy and
crime."
     Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) is chairman of the subcommittee. Geer
is executive director of the Council of Churches of Greater
Springfield [Mass.].
     Kyl has proposed legislation that would prohibit interstate
on-line gambling, assist law enforcement agencies in cutting off
phone or internet service to providers and encourage Justice
Department enforcement, while exempting bets between friends.
     The hearing brought together an unusual group of advocates.
Geer said this is the first time she and the Las Vegas gaming
industry have been on the same side of a gambling issue.
     Sen. Richard Bryan (D-Nev.) testified for the bill as did
National Football League executive Jeff Pash.
     Wisconsin Atty. Gen. James Doyle, incoming president of the
National Association of Attorneys General, declared that because
gambling on the internet is unregulated, "odds can be easily
manipulated, and there is no guarantee that fair payouts will
occur." An attorney with expertise in constitutional law also
testified.
     Geer said she is particularly concerned about young people.
     "On the internet, there is no way of knowing the age of
someone who's gambling," she observed. Young people seem to have a
special propensity for games on computers that might easily lead
them into gambling there, she concluded.
     "Addicting behavior is really a lack of impulse control,"
Geer explained, adding that people who have not reached maturity
do not have good impulse control. Consequently, she said, the
likelihood of addiction is at least double that of adult players.
     Geer quoted Howard J. Shaffer, director of Harvard Medical
School's division on addiction studies, who said that today more
children experience adverse symptoms from gambling than from
drugs.
     She cited statistics to prove the experts' statements that
gambling addiction is closely linked to accessibility and
acceptability of gambling in society. In Iowa, she said, the
introduction of riverboats more than tripled the percentage of
residents who were problem gamblers.
     In Minnesota, she said, the number of Gamblers Anonymous
groups shot up from one to 49 as 16 casinos opened across the
state.
     "Internet gambling," she stressed, "would multiply addiction
exponentially."
     It also would result in more bankruptcies. Studies have shown
that 20 percent or more of compulsive gamblers go bankrupt, Geer
testified. Businesses lose, too, and sometimes go bankrupt for
lack of the customers who have diverted their resources to
gambling. But, she added, virtual gambling does not offer the jobs
provided by a riverboat or casino.
     Geer said she expects that an increase in pathological
gambling would increase financial crime, noting that pathological
gamblers are responsible for an estimated $1.3 billion of
insurance-related fraud a year.
     The fairness or randomness of the dice, roulette wheel or
cards can not be assured in internet gambling, Geer said, nor
could one keep organized crime out.
     She pointed to the six states that defeated referenda that
would have expanded gambling in 1996 and the 14 state legislatures
that refused such expansion in 1997. 
     "The only way to preserve the federal policy of keeping
gambling a local decision is for Congress to make it clear that
gambling on the internet is illegal and give law enforcement
authorities the tools they need to enforce the law," she said.
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