24 states have legalized casinos while 37 have embraced lotteries. These games have begun to crossbreed into video poker, kenogames, racetracks, offtrack betting, and on and on with no end in sight.

Despite the tax revenues it pays, Casinos are costing taxpayers more than the revenue derived from it.

Casinos have never helped business or education. In fact, studies from the Harvard University Center for Addiction have documented large increases in divorce, suicide, child abuse, bankruptcy, loss of productivity, and rampant crime waves (with crimes such as robbery, fraud, & embezzlement/ along with consequent police prosecution & imprisonment cost)

Nevada, where gambling is the dominant industry, has a suicide rate more than double the National Average and has led the nation in child abuse FATALITIES in the period when Casinos were still limited to Nevada & Atlantic City.

Within two years of Deadwood's CASINO INFLUX, child abuse reports increased 43% & domestic violence rose up 80%.* (Time Magazine)

In large part casinos are nothing more than rat holes for wage earners to dump their wages in. Unlike the bank, the only interest it pays is misery & poverty. You go in one door with money & you come out the other door with empty pockets. (Who has more money on Monday morning, you or the casino owners?) You go in with character & come out ruined, and in the longhaul it will let your wife and kids be buried by the county.

WHO PAYS for the casinos ill effects?? The Owners? NO. The landowner who doesn't get the rent because the money is gambled away; the grocer, the wife & children, the economy & the taxpayers who have to bear the burden of the cost of widows, orphans, & crime waves (caused by compulsive gamblers.)

The casinos will eat the carpet from your floors, take the clothes from your back, the gas from your car, your money from your bank, impoverish your children, yank the last crust of bread out of the hand of the starving child & leave your home a stranded wreck - a skeleton of what once was a bright & happy home.

It is the most damageable business that ever crawled out of hell.

Yet the TV News Media continues to portray it as a good institution, a respectable business & good for the economy. All one can see is the unreal glamour of lights and careless laughter & fun. But what really goes on? Why don't they analyze the whys of the burglaries & murders caused from addicted gamblers. "These are rare occurrences & seldom happen," they cry (see top of page stats) and besides all this "we can regulate this business with a high license and a gaming commission!" But you might as well try and regulate a dynamite factory in hell.

All the shattered & broken lives caused from the gaming industry could have been "respectable consumers for a lifetime" instead of wretched tax burdens. The casino is a liar. It promises good cheer but it delivers sorrow. It sends the husband home with a lie on his lips to his wife and it causes the employee to lie to his employer.

It degrades. It is God's enemy and the devils best friend (it's his craft). It respects the thief & esteems the blasphemer, and it will fill our overcrowded prisons. Its song is the siren.

It is apparent that the success of casinos lie in the creation of appetite among the population. Men & women who have formed the habit of gambling scarcely ever reform. But they will, after much suffering, die out, and unless there are NEW RECRUITS made to take their place, the casino owners would soon have empty pockets. To insure and maintain their ill-gotten fortunes, the casino owners must continuously create a strong glamours appetite for gambling, so that many, many more will also become addicted.

Like the moderate drinker who never intended on becoming an alcoholic, the moderate gambler never intends on becoming addicted.

Despite their smiling faces and their civic donations they do not care about you.

Only the immoral would contribute money to civic organizations if they thought doing so would make them look respectable and generate for themselves, in the future, many more paying customers.

In Collinsville, Illinois a teacher dropped off her two children at school one day last Janurary(now 2 years ago),drove to a parking lot & shot herself in the head. Friends told police the 40 year gambled frequently at the Casino Queen. The day she died sheriffs deputies were on their way to her home with an eviction order. She left a note on the door explaining that her husband knew nothing of their financial problems, even though she had pawned their wedding rings & skipped making house payments for a long period of time.

According to the latest estimate from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse & Alcohol, the cost to society from alcohol abuse is $116 BILLION DOLLARS annually. This is only a conservative estimate-- from reported traffic accidents to medical costs to crime related incidents to costs involved within the criminal justice system (prosecutions, etc.) and on and on ......This does not estimate the cost of suffering, the agony, the heartaches, & the disabilities of the MILLIONS of people who have had their lives shattered from the legalization of alcohol. Can society not see the rotten fruit produced from the legalization of alcohol more than 50 years ago??

Was it a good transaction for the economy? Has the revenue derived from the alcohol industry offset the $116 BILLION DOLLAR a year cost to society? Can these old arguments that are being resurrected from the prohibition era and are being used promote the legalization of gambling, still "hold water"? Will the children in school, who are benefiting from this money now, will they later have their lives ruined by gambling & alcohol?

· Last fall, Maryland antigambling activist squashed efforts to turn Baltimore into another Atlantic City.

· New Hampshire has said "NO TO CASINOS".

· In the last 3 months nine states have turned away casino efforts.

· Even Kansas & Maryland voted out slots at racetracks.

The stakes we are GAMBLING are frighteningly high. Don't leave your children a country owned by rich casino owners.

Gambling violates Biblical Principles:

While the Bible contains no "thou shalt not" in regard to gambling, it does contain many insights and principles which indicate that gambling is wrong.

1. The Bible emphasizes the sovereignty of God in the direction of human events. (Matthew 10: 29-30); gambling looks to chance and luck.

2. The Bible indicates that man is to work creatively and use his possessions for the good of others (Ephesians 4:28); gambling fosters a something-for-nothing attitude.

3. The Bible calls for careful stewardship; gambling calls for reckless abandon.

4. The Bible condemns covetousness and materialism (Matthew 6:24-34); gambling has both at its heart.

5. The moral thrust of the Bible is love for God and neighbor (Matthew:22-37-40); gambling seeks personal gain and pleasure at another person's loss and pain.

· For the average state, legalized gambling proceeds supply only a tiny fraction of the money needed for operating expenses. State lotteries provide only an average of 2% of the total state revenue. (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1992, 1993).

· Lotteries do not improve conditions of public education. Net lottery proceeds tend to become a substitute for, rather than a supplement to regular funding for schools. (Borg and Mason, Journal of Education Finance, 1990)

· Legalized gambling does not generate new wealth or high-end employment. Jobs created by casino gambling tend to be low-earning positions. (Gambling Rage: "Out of Control?") U. S. News and World Report, May 30, 1983

· Casino and lottery gambling simply redistribute wealth from the many to the wealthy few. They drain money from the local economy, hurting small businesses most. ("A Mixed Blessing for America's Ethiopia!" U.S. News and World Report, March, 2 1994)

· Legalized gambling is one of the least efficient ways available for gaining revenue. (Bayer, "Are Lotteries a Ripoff?" Consumers' Research, Janurary 1990)

· Casino and lottery gambling take a higher toll on lower-income people. State lotteries are a regressive form of taxation. Lower-income groups bet three times more on a regular basis than do more affluent groups. (Gambling in America: Final Report of the Commission on the Review of the National Policy Toward Gambling, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1976)

· Casino and lottery gambling introduce more people to gambling, causing a rise in the number of compulsive and problem gamblers. (Gallup Poll, 1989)

· Forty percent of white collar crime is committed by gambling addicts. (Wexler, Vice President of the National Council on Compulsive Gambling, Parlin, New Jersey)

· Legalized gambling is devastating on the compulsive gambler and his family. It is associated with a higher suicide rate among gambling addicts, their spouses and children. (Investors Business Daily, June 26, 1992)

· Children of pathological gamblers do worse in school, and are more apt to have alcohol, drug and gambling problems. (The Need for a National Policy on Problem and Pathological Gambling in America, The National Council on Problem Gambling, November 1, 1993)

· Casino and lottery gambling increase the opportunities for and the incidents of public corruption. (The American Legion Magazine, Janurary 1985)

· Lotteries have helped create an estimated 1.3 million teenagers with problem gambling behavior.

(Legalized Gambling as a Strategy for Economic Development, Robert Goodman, March 1994)

· Casino and lottery gambling do not diminish illegal gambling (Governor's Advisory Commission on Gambling, Trenton, New Jersey,1988)

· Legalized gambling attracts the same kind of criminal elements as unauthorized games. It is accompanied by increased crime rates. (Easy Money: Report of the Task Force on Gambling, New York: Fund for the City of New York, 1974)

The prohibition of a lottery was written into the State Constitution as a warning. Will Arkansas accept the responsibility for compulsive gamblers, their dependent families and chronic adolescent gamblers?

The proper role of government is to protect and enhance its peoples' lives. Yet, A lottery makes the state a predator of its people, especially the poorest and most vulnerable.

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