Opposition to gaming not based solely on morality

Opposition to gaming not based solely on morality

Rev. Michael Edds Contributing columnist

 

Reading the gambling owners’ response in the Laurinburg Exchange this morning, I was saddened by their gross misrepresentation of what the citizens of Laurinburg presented Tuesday evening to the city council. I did not see even one of these owners attending or speaking at the meeting. Yet, they assumed to know what was said. We never addressed the proliferation of gambling in our community as just a moral issue but from the perspective of the selling of a dangerous addiction, namely gambling and the negative effects it can have. They tried to marginalize us as a bunch of religious folks. No, I am not ashamed of being a Christian but when we attended the meeting, we came as tax-paying, concerned and involved citizens of Laurinburg. So, since these owners missed the meeting, I would like to present to them the facts.

 

Gambling is defined as “Taking a risk to obtain something and often means losing what one has and obtaining nothing.” Recently, internet gambling has proliferated all over Laurinburg. According to calculations by The Fayetteville Observer, this includes 21 locations and 451 machines, of which the city earns $88,800 in fees.

 

Some had said to me, “Hey preacher, it’s legal, provides jobs, it fills up empty buildings, so don’t get in the way of business regardless of what you and others think is moral or immoral.” However, the problem is much deeper than a moral discussion. Gambling is a deadly, brutal and highly destructive addiction. Five percent of America’s population is at risk of this addiction. That is 16 million people. It is more dangerous than drug addiction. This addiction is ravaging and destroying lives and families. It has the highest suicide rate of all addictions in the nation.

 

Dr. Howard J. Shaffer, director of the Harvard Medical School for Gambling Addiction states: “Today, there are more children experiencing adverse symptoms from gambling than from drugs and the problem is growing.” Dr. Rachel Volberg, an expert on compulsive gambling in America, states that 18 to 21 year olds are three times more likely to have problems with gambling addiction.

 

National statistics tell us that 5 percent of the US population is at risk of gambling addiction, which means 5 percent of Laurinburg and Scotland County are at grave risk to this addiction.

 

In Laurinburg that means 775 potential addicts and 1800 in the county.

 

Sixty percent of addicted gamblers will become involved in crime. In Laurinburg there will be 465 new criminals and Scotland County — 1080. These people will no longer be tax payers but tax liabilities.

 

Twenty percent of addicted gamblers will commit suicide — Laurinburg 155 people, Scotland County 360.

 

Twenty percent will file for bankruptcy — Laurinburg 155 people, Scotland County 360. Median family income is $26,802 for city and county. This addiction will affect family income in Laurinburg in the amount of $4,540,000 in a year. Scotland County will be $9,648,000. This is a tragic loss in purchasing power.

 

Fifty percent of gambling addicts will abuse their spouse and children. In Laurinburg 388 new abusers, in Scotland County, 900 new abusers.

 

Fifty percent of addicted gamblers will divorce; in Laurinburg, that means 388 families broken and in Scotland County, 900 families.

 

Research Institute on Addiction states that those living in a 10 mile radius of gambling shops can increase the chance of addiction by 90 percent.

 

Gambling addiction cost the US between $32 billion to $54 billion dollars. The cost for the city and county will be astronomical.

 

One addict adversely affects the lives of 8 to 10 other people. That is 6,200 people affected in Laurinburg, and 14,400 in Scotland County.

 

Business and Employment Costs: Lateness to work, missed work days, loss of productivity, theft and embezzlement.

 

(Statistic sources include: Harvard Medical School, Baylor University, National Council of Problem Gambling, Columbia University Medical Center, National Research Council, California Council on Problem Gambling and the Connecticut Department of Mental Health)

 

I serve on the city/county Crime and Drug Committee, which is commissioned to develop proactive ways to address the violence, crime and drugs that are rampant in our community. In the last decade, 30 young people have been murdered on our streets. The county is the fifth most violent county in the state. We have some of the highest rates on teen pregnancy, child poverty, and hunger and child abuse. We have the highest unemployment rate in the state. Gangs are thriving. Gun shots fill the night air. Drug and alcohol abuse is pervasive. Our committee’s task is daunting at best without opening the flood gate for a far worse, and far more destructive addiction — that of gambling.

 

These purveyors of gambling addiction are not opening up businesses for the community benefit or community good. They are making money off another’s calamity. They are no better than drug dealers. Those who rent buildings to these gambling shops are accomplices of this evil. Who in their right mind would rent to drug dealers so why rent to another seller of addiction? These people are selling Laurinburg’s and Scotland County’s future for a fast buck.

 

Lumberton City Council just passed an ordinance that enacts strict rules for gambling there. Our city council is the protector of our elderly, our children, our families and our quality of life. It is the first line of defense against those who would ravage our people for making money at any cost.

 

We call upon and implore the council to remove city ordinances in which these sellers of addiction can hide. We plead with our leaders to immediately take action to legislate ordinances to prohibit the most destructive of addictions.

 

There are families, men, women, teenagers, children and the elderly who will be damaged and destroyed if action is not taken. Laurinburg’s future lies in the council’s hands.

 

Failure to act will cost the city far more than the $88,800 in fees that it collects from the gambling shops. Deitrich Bonhoeffer, who bravely stood against the genocide, and hate of Hitler and Nazism in Germany made an incredible statement: “Silence in the face of evil is evil itself. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

 

We as the citizens of Laurinburg call upon our city council to take swift action to rid our great community of the plague of gambling and the destruction that it will surely bring.



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