wfn.org | United Methodists Testify Against 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 (278
notes).

Note 278 by UMNS on Aug. 21, 1997 at 15:41 Eastern (7637 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Joretta Purdue                        466(10-21-71B){278}
         Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722            Aug. 21, 1997

United Methodists fault
gambling at commission hearing

     WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- At least six of the more than 40 people
who testified at the first public comment period of the National
Gambling Impact Study Commission here Aug. 20 were United
Methodists.
     "Gambling does appear to bring jobs and money to some areas,
but it brings with it far more trouble than it's worth," said
Barbara Knickelbein, reading from a prepared statement.
     Knickelbein, the Maryland state coordinator for the National
Coalition Against Gambling Expansion and chair of church and
society at Glen Burnie United Methodist Church, appended her
written statement with copies of articles about gambling-related
suicides, bankruptcies, child neglect and the National Governors'
Association meeting in Las Vegas earlier in August.
     "All we are asking is that the gambling industry tells the
truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," she said.
Knickelbein commented that industry spokespeople often offer
fictional revenue projections and "downplay, or totally ignore,
the negative economic and social impact that their so-called
'product' brings to an area."
     The Rev. Tom Grey, executive director of the National
Coalition Against Gambling, said "What we have here is strictly a
product liability case." The product that the gaming industry is
promoting comes with a cost of addiction, bankruptcy, crime and
corruption, death, embezzlement, fraud and "underlying it all is
greed," he declared.
     Grey, who was featured in a "60 Minutes" television segment
on anti-gambling efforts four days earlier, said the coalition was
formed by citizens who felt under attack by the gambling industry.
     Dianne M. Berlin, a retired teacher representing the
Lancaster County Pennsylvanians Against Gambling Expansion said
voters in East Lampeter Township there clearly have rejected
gambling expansion and now they want to be left alone. 
     Instead, she observed, the barrage continues, and they have
had "to endure a fully operating bookie joint for more than a
year" while waiting for its appeal to be heard.  All this in spite
of Pennsylvania's being the first state to ban lotteries -- in
1833 -- and the fact that a raffle or bingo game by a charity
would have been stopped immediately.
     Jaydee Hanson, assistant general secretary of the United
Methodist Board of Church and Society, noted that United
Methodists oppose all forms of gambling. 
     "The Bible does not include explicit prohibitions against
gambling," he observed. "But gambling is one of the ways we place
other things above God." 
     By fostering greed and stimulating belief in fate and chance,
gambling is "an alternative religious system," he commented.
"Government sponsorship of gambling might even be seen to violate
the separation of church and state by promoting a particular
religious belief system."
     Instead of government's using its might to protect people
from gambling, the state has promoted it, Hanson said, adding that
now U.S. gambling businesses make more money than the publishing,
motion picture and recording industries combined.
     The Rev. James Zeisloft, executive director of A United
Methodist Witness in Pennsylvania, spoke about gambling "as a
moral issue, not a religious issue," and therefore of concern to
the whole nation.
     He argued that gambling is a moral issue because it sucks
money out of the community, it contradicts the work ethic cited in
moving people from welfare to work, it is prohibited to minors
like alcohol and tobacco, it gives rise to compulsive behavior and
addictions, and addictive gambling increases bankruptcies and
crime.
     The Rev. Lawrence D. Jameson, pastor of Wesley United
Methodist Church in Elkton, Md., recounted the struggles of
NOcasiNO in Cecil County, Md.
     He said NOcasiNO forces won in 1995 -- when the county
commissioners passed a resolution opposing gambling -- 1996 and
1997, and the gambling industry won't take no for an answer.
     "We're besieged," he lamented, saying the latest effort to
buy friends was a $500 donation to the local girls' Little League
team. He asked the study commission to "put a leash on this bad
dog."
     Among the others who testified was the communications
director of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling,
Bernard P. Horn, who urged the study commission to use its
subpoena power "to uncover documents showing the extent to which
gambling enterprises rely on addicts for their revenues."
     Horn expressed the belief that documents exist proving
leaders of the gambling industry are as aware of the nature of
their product as the tobacco industry was. 
     "They know that many of their customers suffer from gambling
addiction, a medically recognized mental disorder," he said. "And
they respond by designing gambling games and establishments in
ways to encourage and exploit this addiction."
     The majority of people testifying -- with a strictly enforced
three minutes to make their points -- were against gambling or
gambling expansion. They included representatives from the League
of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Pennsylvania state
legislatures, Restaurant Association of Maryland, Pennsylvania
Family Institute and other groups concerned with the family,
Central Maryland Ecumenical Council and neighborhood associations.
     Helen Blackwell of the Voting Integrity Project urged the
study commission to look into vote fraud in regard to the gaming
industry's efforts to move into certain areas. 
     Mark Andrews of Casino Watch, Inc., a St. Louis resident,
asked the commission to look into deceit and unethical behavior on
the part of the casinos with "bait and switch" occurring in what
was promised and what was delivered. He said opposing gambling had
resulted in personal attacks with trumped up charges brought
against him.
     Joe Battisto, a member of the Pennsylvania state legislature,
declared that his own study found "casino gambling has a
cannibalizing effect." He noted that it is hard to obtain
objective materials but that he found gambling exacerbates social
problems and is not a worthwhile economic effort.
     Michael Enright of the Maryland Attorney General's Office,
voiced concern about juveniles becoming involved with gambling. As
to gambling as entertainment, he remarked that he goes to Camden
Yards to see Cal Ripken and the Orioles play baseball, but he
doubts that anyone plays blackjack to see how the dealer flips
cards.
     Two individuals not affiliated with any organization spoke:
one, primarily as a parent, who said the gambling industry excels
at "appearing appealing" and the other, a lawyer, who termed this
issue "a crisis in constitutional government." Government is being
sold to gambling, said New Mexico attorney Alex Johnson, adding
that the question is "How fast is the sale going to be
facilitated."
     The proponents of gambling were there, too, with individual
accounts of career success, talk of the benefits provided to
Native American tribes and to certain communities and other
arguments.
     During the public hearing a press release from Nevada Sen.
Richard Bryan blasting the commission and its chairwoman Kay Cole
James was distributed.
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