wfn.org | Methodists called to act on gambling study

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

June 21, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-21-71B{339}

NOTE: This report is accompanied by a sidebar, UMNS story #340.

By United Methodist News Service

A national report urging restraints on gambling should be a call to action
for United Methodists, those involved with the issue say.

"We're going to need church-based groups to educate themselves and arm
themselves with the information of this commission and join in a plan of
action that implements some of this," said the Rev. Tom Grey, a United
Methodist pastor who serves as executive director of the National Coalition
Against Legalized Gambling. "Otherwise, the study is going to sit on the
shelves."

Issued June 18 by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, the report
describes the epidemic of gambling addiction and makes 76 recommendations on
how to curb gambling's harmful effects on society. None of the
recommendations is binding on Congress, which established the commission,
but they could serve as a basis for legislation.

In a written statement applauding the commission and its report, the Rev.
Thom White Wolf Fassett, chief staff executive of the United Methodist Board
of Church and Society, urged lawmakers to introduce such legislation.

"The report must be a rallying point for United Methodists and other
anti-gambling activists on the federal, state and local levels," he
declared. 

Mark Harrison, a Church and Society executive and coalition board member,
said he is meeting with members of Congress on the issue. He also hopes to
provide information on the commission's recommendations to each United
Methodist annual (regional) conference to encourage action.

Any success of  gambling-restrictive legislation, Harrison believes,
"depends very much on the grass-roots momentum we are able to generate."

The United Methodist Social Principles call gambling "a menace to society,
deadly to the best interests of moral, social, economic and spiritual life
and destructive of good government."

The principles also call upon the church to "promote standards and personal
lifestyles that would make unnecessary and undesirable the resort to
commercial gambling - including public lotteries - as a recreation, as an
escape, or as a means of producing public revenue or funds for support of
charities or government."

Grey hopes the gambling commission's report will be taken seriously by the
faith community. If the church wants merely to fix the mess, he said, it can
start taking care of gambling addicts, but if it would like to clean up the
problem, "we welcome them to join us in the fight." Cleaning up, he added,
means holding elected officials "accountable for the public policies that
hurt people."

He acknowledged that "cleaning up" is not easy at a time when America is in
love with gambling. "We've got the job of helping our sheep not get fleeced
when they want to get fleeced."

Grey credited his coalition with helping contain the spread of gambling. In
1994-95, for example, coalition members led successful battles to stop
casinos in 17 states. "It (gambling) is not expanding as rapidly," he said. 

"I'm suggesting we contain it and then we begin to restrain it," Grey said.

The commission's recommendations for restraint include:

*	raising the legal gambling age from 18 to 21;
*	banning ATM and credit machines from gambling floors;
*	levying gambling taxes to pay for addiction research, prevention,
education and treatment;
*	banning gambling on the Internet;
*	disallowing political contributions to state and local campaigns by
gambling companies;
*	imposing a moratorium on further gambling expansion until states can
assess the possible impact.
*	requiring gambling establishments to post warnings and gambling odds
in prominent locations; and
*	banning all betting on college and amateur sports.

More information on the national coalition is available by calling (800)
664-2680 or visiting www.ncalg.org on the World Wide Web.

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