Part 1: Casino Gambling: For every $1 in gambling revenue, the state must spend $3 in social costs
Next video clearly explains the math. This statistic is also in other articles I read.
Increased social costs: Coming soon to a neighborhood near you...IF, you don't act NOW!
Write to your local political officials.
Here's an example of how the big money gambling institutioins are infiltrating. This commercial starts playing before you can view the one about the harm that casino gambling causes.
Part 2: JOBS
Labor unions pressure their membership and local politicians that casinos will bring with them jobs, tax revenues...Many feel it's time to become more creative and look for other ways to generate jobs...
Chastened by a series of economic downturns that punished the hospitality industry, state leaders are working to broaden the economy.
Read more at the above link to see how an economy that previously focused only on the entertainment industry is diversifying and moving into other businesses.
Part 3: Shifty SANDS: Playing Sleight-of-Hand with the Public & our Officials
A local friend who's been very involved with the NO CASINO front sent me this recap on the most recent June public hearing at Hempstead Town Hall.
ME: Please read it to see their deceptive tactics:
If I may offer a re-cap, interesting approach by Nassau County. They attempted to present this as a simple request by Las Vegas Sands to be awarded the lease to run Nassau Coliseum. Seems innocent enough, but there is no reason for Sands to want an underutilized entertainment space. So, Sands had people there to speak about how they need the 400 jobs at the Coliseum, 'so please award Sands the lease'. Several even attacked us as anti-jobs who do not care about families' survival in Nassau County. Such talk seemed to make us more resolute. Every one of us was well-focused, and as Karen commented by text, we were armed with better information than we had when we met in March and April 2023. I think we had fifteen speakers, including the Mayor of Garden City. The elephant is the room was 'Sands just wants an entry point'; a seemingly innocent first step. Monica Kiely effectively called them out, asking the Planning Commission, 'why are they being awarded a 42-year lease which gives Sands sole and total control to sub-lease the coliseum, as they wish, in just three years? Sands need not ask anyone; they can sub-let it to anyone. Monica asked, 'what kind of lease is that'? More importantly, 'why is the rent for the coliseum $10,000,000 per year'?!? It was telling that the Planning Commission allowed us to go after Sands and their reason for being here, the Casino. They don't care about Nassau Coliseum. Someone thought we would be duped into accepting that as innocent. We did not. We all had to adjust our speeches when we discovered, at the meeting, that they may want us to stick to the lease as the focus and not the casino. As noted above, the PC gave us a pass, allowing us to go after the casino for what it is: a socially, economically, and environmentally irresponsible plan. My three-minute speech is attached. Each of us brought fresh perspective as to why a Casino in the Hub is simply an awful idea. If you have thoughts against awarding a lease to Sands, you have until June 28 to send your comments to NCPC@nassaucountyny.gov Please write if you can. All the best,(friend's name removed)
Part 4: CASINO GAMBLING DISPROPORTIONATELY IMPACTS THE POOR
Includes links to Powerpoints and other resources, including this 2-hours video:
On February 22, 2024, Ms. Lucy Dadayan, of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, presented a report noting casinos create $3 in social costs for every $1 they bring in.
Part 5: GAMBLING PAIN: ADDICTION - EVEN AMONG CHILDREN
Are these games of chance? NOT the way THEY design 'em!
"Deception is Deceiving"
[from the article which includes links]
As an addiction researcher for the past 15 years, I look to the brain to understand the hooks that make gambling so compelling. I’ve found that many are intentionally hidden in how the games are designed. And these hooks work on casual casino-goers just as well as they do on problem gamblers.
Studies have shown that the release of dopamine during gambling occurs in brain areas similar to those activated by taking drugs of abuse. In fact, similar to drugs, repeated exposure to gambling and uncertainty produces lasting changes in the human brain. These reward pathways, similar to those seen in individuals suffering from drug addiction, become hypersensitive. Animal studies suggest that these brain changes due to uncertainty can even enhance gamblers’ cravings and desire for addictive drugs.
[from the above article which includes link]
The gambling industry is responsible for:
profiting from the poorest and most vulnerable in the community,
increasing crime rates,
breaking up thousands of families each year, and
causing 12,000 Victorians to consider suicide each year.
[from the above link]
Once confined mostly to casinos concentrated in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, access to gambling has expanded dramatically, including among children
People in their early 20s are the fastest-growing group of gamblers, according to recent research. And many kids are starting younger than that...Starting young carries a relatively high burden of psychological distress and increased chances of developing problems.
Like addictions to alcohol and drugs, gambling addictions are characterized by an increasing tolerance that requires more gambling as time goes on to feel satisfied.
After years of studying the psychological effects of video game violence, psychologist James Sauer, PhD, a senior lecturer at the University of Tasmania in Australia, took notice when Belgium became the first country to ban a feature called loot boxes in video games in 2018. Loot boxes are digital containers that players can buy for a small amount of money. Once purchased, the box might reveal a special skin or weapon that enhances a character’s looks or gives a player a competitive advantage. Or it might be worthless.
Loot boxes are not the only avenue to gambling for kids. Online games that simulate gambling without financial risk are often available to very young children, said Derevensky, who once watched a young girl play a slot machine game on a tablet installed in an airport waiting area. She was earning points, not real money, and loving it. “She’s winning, and she’s saying to her dad, ‘I can’t wait until I play it for real,’” he said. “She must’ve been no more than 6 years old.”
[from the above link]
Government can’t succeed in eliminating poverty but it can certainly contribute to poverty’s perpetuation. Authorizing commercial casinos throughout the country disproportionately damages poor people through the encouragement of bad habits. Barbara Dafoe Whitehead of the Institute for American Values notes that in the Northeast alone, 23 new commercial casinos have opened since 2004, with 12 more under-development. These establishments make most of their money on slot machines which Dafoe Whitehead describes as “sophisticated computerized devices engineered to produce continuous and repeat betting.” Numerous studies show the poor as chief victims of gambling addiction with its distortion of core American values- exalting success as a product of luck, rather than hard work and self-discipline. To pay for expensive social programs to help the poor, officials actually hurt the poor by taking their money to get tax revenue from gambling.
PART 6: LOCAL UNIVERSITY OPPOSES CASINO
PART 7: ADDITIONAL PERSPECTIVES
Here are additional perspectives from my friend:
The words from Lucy Dadayan really hit home. Casinos are a relic from the days of Dean Martin.
I’m glad an economist like Ms. Dadayan was able to put it into words and graphs. Her observations are from a Town Hall zoom hosted by NYS Senator Liz Krueger.
{Me: See link in Part 3 above}
She is fighting hard against any casinos coming into Manhattan. In fact, I believe she agree with my view that no new licenses should be awarded downstate. I hope, if they must, they only upgrade Yonkers Raceway and Resorts World (Aqueduct Raceway) to full fledged casinos.
Unfortunately, Hochul is as short—sighted as Cuomo. She plans for her three new casinos to fund the ailing MTA. She is lost in the weeds with this one.
Casinos are a dying business, as we learn from better information than we had one year ago. Sands does not belong here.
Gambling was prohibited in NY State until 2013 when Andrew Cuomo quietly changed the wording of the casino ballot measure to read like an ad, promising job growth, increased aid to schools, and lower property taxes through revenues generated.” [1]
[1] Stacked Deck – Inside the Politics of New York’s Dishonest Casino Plan. An investigative Report by Paul Davies. Institute for American Values 2013.
Cuomo made these changes with no evidence to prove casinos may be good for the economy.
A July 13, 2014 NY Times editorial warned us “just when New York is proposing to ramp up its gambling business, the financial community (Moody’s Investment Services) is souring on the idea that casinos are an easy answer to state and local financial problems.”
In 2021, The University of Illinois published a report titled: “Bans on Sports Gambling and Lotteries would pump-prime the U.S. Economic System in the new age of Covid” [2], quoting Jesse Jackson, who predicted many serious socio-economic costs when he labeled legalized gambling activities as “the new chains of slavery.”
[2] University of Illinois Law Review Volume 2021, Number 5
In May 2023, Hofstra University published a paper titled: “The Economic Unsuitability of a Casino at the Nassau County Hub’.[3] {ME: See link in Part 5.}
They proposed alternate projects similar to those which the Legislature has welcomed. For example, the announcement by NYU/Langone and Nassau Community College to coordinate on the establishment of a medical center at the Hub.
LV Sands wants to erect the nation’s second largest casino in a year which will be the hottest on record while drawing so much water that they have to request re-zoning, build a new well AND figure out where to move all the waste.
On February 22, 2024, Ms. Lucy Dadayan, of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, presented a report noting casinos create $3 in social costs for every $1 they bring in.
She adds:
- “gambling revenue decline is everywhere, even in Nevada.
-In Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago, all are falling short of income forecasts. New York has seen a revenue decline of 10-25% since 2019”.
-Revenues are volatile and decrease over time, and won’t fund critical services.
-FBI statistics show non-violent crime increases, and Nevada is the capital of human sex trafficking
-casino revenues are ALWAYS over-estimated”, and “offer low-skilled jobs which hinder economic growth.”
With on-line gambling also on the rise, gambling in brick-and-mortar casinos will not survive. Reject Sands this second time around.
The age of casinos has passed. They are a dying business we cannot afford to support.
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#casino #humor #NassauCounty #BruceBlakeman #NYSSenLizKreuger #GamblingAddiction #poor #children #SocialCosts #NebraskeFamilyAlliance
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