Social Impact

Are we trading lives for dollars?

The question for lawmakers to address with regards gambling is, “have they done their due diligence to ensure that the public good will not be harmed? If not, they are gambling with the lives. . .and especially with the youth who will bear the brunt of gambling addiction. . . . Our nation, our communities, our families, and our youth are worth more than the easy money and false promises of gambling.”ⁱ

Has the Lakewood City Council diligently kept their oft-repeated promise to “consider properly and carefully all of the factors involved in determining the appropriate role of gambling in the City”?ⁱⁱ

Note: While the social impact statistics on gambling in Washington, cited below, are from the year 2002*, and were therefore available when published in 2003, they are apparently not presented before any governmental agency in Lakewood until Lakewood Assistant City Manager and Community Development Director Dave Bugher’s report to the Planning Advisory Board on July 25, 2007. This is in spite of the fact that the Lakewood City Council, in every one of the twelve Ordinance/Resolutions establishing nine moratoriums on gambling in the city since 1998 stated their purpose as follows: “to consider properly and carefully all of the factors involved in determining the appropriate role of gambling in the City.”ⁱⁱⁱ

Social Impact statistics for 2002 for the State of Washington revealed the following^iv:

1. Over half of adult household residents gambled in 2002

2. More prevalent among adults above 200% of the federal poverty level 57% to 43%.

3. State-wide, 3.9% of adults (8.4% teens) are at risk for or meet the criteria for problem or pathological gambling, (roughly 1/100 adults) with the poor slightly more at risk.

4. At Risk (1-2); Problem (3-4); Pathological Gambler (5 or more):

1. Thinks of ways to get money with which to gamble

2. Needs to gamble with increasing amounts of money

3. Repeated unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back or stop

4. Restless or irritable in the attempt to stop, cut back

5. Uses as escape from problems

6. Attempts to get even after losing (‘chasing loses’)

7. Lies

8. Illegal acts

9. Jeopardized or lost a significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity

10. Relies on others to provide money to relieve a desperate financial situation caused by gambling

5. Substance Use, Need for Substance Abuse Treatment Higher Among Problem Gamblers

1. Nearly 3x as likely to use illicit drugs other than marijuana

2. Twice as likely to need alcohol or drug treatment

*Note: Even before 2002, “a 1999 state study estimated that 8.4 percent of all adolescents up to age 18 in Washington were experiencing severe gambling problems, compared to 2.3 percent of adults. The study further found that 12 to 18 percent of all problem gamblers in the state were teenagers.”^v

Additionally of concern is that “Twenty percent of compulsive gamblers attempt suicide – 5 to 10 times higher than the general population.”^vi

Do gambling benefits outweigh societal burden?

Greg Bakamis, Regional Director for the Grand Central Casinos (GCC) /Great American Casino, spoke March 20, 2003 at Lakewood United regarding the upcoming-summer opening of the newest GCC at Highway 512 and South Tacoma Way in Lakewood. Bakamis shared his 28-year involvement in the hospitality industry, most recently in the Tukwila Grand Central Casino. He told how nice and upscale it was; how the police chief had sent a letter praising its crime-free status; the number of employees, good benefits and welfare mothers they’d taken off the street and put to work; civic affairs they supported; baseball teams they sponsored; the high regard in which they are held by the State Gambling Commission and thorough background checks they conduct; 24/7 security; safety for patrons and employees alike – all of which Lakewood would see with entertainment seating for 400 with 385 employees; “a tremendous amount of light in the parking lot”; and the amount of tax dollars they would generate for the city.

The crime-and-social-costs-statistics of Las Vegas simply can’t happen here”

Bakamis then said, “I want to address some misconceived notions. I do not drive a big black Cadillac or live in a sprawling mansion. I drive a truck and live in Puyallup. I want to emphasize that the anti-gambling position is simply one of education. The statistics they (anti-gambling) print about crime and social costs simply can’t happen here. Three-hundred thousand people get off planes in Las Vegas every day. We watch for problem gamblers and don’t let them continue. Major crime is not an issue. The crime rate actually went down in Tukwila. We’re actually in the food and beverage, not the gambling, business. We’re not compelling people to come in. Our facility has a number of different venues, not just gambling.”

A ‘desination casino’ is desirable, but likely it’ll be just the locals

Bakamis expressed concern about the need to “level the playing field”. The Entertainment Coalition (evidently a reference to Evergreen Entertainment which is a part of the Great American Casino) had proposed, and Bakamis favored, a plan to increase the number of slot machines to nearly 19,000 throughout the state. “Our quarrel is not with the Indians, it’s with the State. We just want everything to be fair,” Bakamis said. But at the same time Bakamis stated, “We have 82 casinos in this state and we have reached the saturation point. Washington will never be a Las Vegas.”

But when asked if Bakamis hoped the soon-to-be-opened newest Grand Central Casino might become a destination casino - that is people arriving from elsewhere as opposed to local patrons, Bakamis replied, “I would love to be a destination casino. But it’s not likely. Our clientele will be local citizens for the most part.”

So how many addicted locals are we talking about?

Dan Voelpel, business editor for the Tacoma News Tribune, dismisses gambling addicts as “the relative few prone to harmful excess.”^vii

Bakamis, in contrasting Las Vegas with Lakewood, would apparently agree.

But as noted above, 8.4% teens in the State of Washington, are at risk for, or meet the criteria of, problem or pathological gambling. As there are 2,983 students in the highschools of the Clover Park School District, and another 762 eighth graders (13-year-olds and thus teens), 8.4 % of 3,745 are 314 which demonstrate three or more of the symptoms associated with their addiction (listed above). Additionally, with nearly 60,000 people in Lakewood (and assuming that represents 12,000 families, estimating five people per family with just two adults per household over 18 years of age, or 24,000 adults) with 1-out-of-100 of them statistically problem or pathological gamblers as well, that’s 242 adults plus 314 teens totaling nearly 560 in Lakewood that are in Voelpel’s words “prone to harmful excess.”

Statistics for youth across the state of Washington approximate those of the nation. Children of compulsive gamblers do worse in school, are more prone to alcohol, drug or eating disorders, more likely to be depressed.^viii Youth, once exposed, are three times more likely than adults to be hooked; 1 out of 6 adolescents are already experiencing gambling related problems; 1 of 10 has engaged in theft, prostitution, selling drugs to finance gambling related debts.^ix Gambling is the fast growing teen addiction, with the rate of pathological gamblers among high school and college twice that of adults.^x In the next decade there will be more problems with youth gambling than drug use.^xi

“Teen gamblers. . .tend to be harder to treat than adults because many don’t accept gambling addiction as a serious problem and don’t stay long in therapy. ”^xii

Double-standard & hypocrisy all rolled into one?

House Bill 2872 would make non-tribal minicasinos and card rooms off-limits to anyone under 21 (but not horse racing, lottery, and other games) due to “some disturbing numbers about increased problem gambling among kids.”^xiii

Most tribes – including the Puyallup, Muckelshoot and Nisqually tribes, set their gambling age at 21. So why, asks Callaghan, does the legislature, ‘concerned’ about youth problem gambling, still let kids buy lotto tickets – their “game of choice” - according to state-sponsored studies - $14 million worth annually and $4.7 in revenues? These statistics represent kids that have been identified as “a key market the lottery intends to pursue” and “the players of the future”.

At the other end of the age spectrum, of special concern among the adults, are the seniors. In an article entitled “Older adults vulnerable to gambling addiction”^xiv older gamblers’ favorite venue is card rooms which have seen a jump from 15 to 302 million dollars revenue in just the last 10 years. And now, in Lakewood, card rooms, with their senior attraction, make Lakewood “the nontribal gambling capital of Washington state.”^xv

“Gaming is thriving in Washington, but its appeal can prove overwhelming. Senior citizens are among those most at risk. . . . Having a casino in the neighborhood didn’t help. . . problem gambling has emerged as a serious public-health concern. . . .at worst, it ruins educations, careers and relationships, and drains life saving. . . .squandering Social Security checks or retirement savings normally used to pay for medication and food. . . .participants (suffering) significant memory loss. . .anxiety and alcohol abuse.

“State gambling officials have identified three groups as being especially vulnerable to problems with gambling:

“Older adults may have no way to recoup their losses if they blow Social Security checks or loot their retirement funds to gamble.

“Young people tend to be impulsive and impressionable.

“Certain ethnic groups (primarily Asians in Western Washington) may come from cultures that accept gambling as entertainment.”^xvi

Lakewood also has a significant Asian population. “Asians. . .are considered disproportionately affected by problem gambling. ‘When you go to the casino gambling rooms, we’re over represented,’ said Connie Cheng, clinical manager of mental-health services for Asian Counseling and Referral Service in Seattle. Some casinos target Asians with special food and entertainment and send free buses. . . .”^xvii

Even the tribes say they know the danger of what they do

Initiative 892 (2004) was an overwhelming vote by the citizens of Washington rejecting – by nearly a 2-1 margin – the proposal of card room owners to allow slot machines in neighborhoods throughout the state. This was the second time in 10 years that voters turned away gambling initiatives. “During that campaign the Muckleshoots, who run one of the biggest casinos in the state, in Auburn, sent out a pamphlet warning that expanded gambling would increase domestic violence, theft, substance abuse and unemployment.”^xviii

>Do nearly 560 people in Lakewood with problem/pathological characteristics attributable to gambling sound like only a few to you?

Can you simply respond with a ‘sorry-they-couldn’t-handle-it’ shrug of the shoulders? Is the money to be made worth the trade?

Lakewood’s now-six-casinos employ 800 people. A pitch casino owners often make is that this is the number of people that would be unemployed were there a ban on their industry. So are 800 ‘employable’ offset by 560 addicted? And can we honestly accept our designation as one of America’s top 100 cities keeping America’s Promise to children and youth, without at least a twinge of hypocrisy?

Consider the words of Alma Powell, America’s Promise Alliance Board Chair and wife of Ret. General Colin Powell – founder of America’s Promise: “Everyone can ensure that the hopes and dreams of every child become realities.”

But, “you do not build hope and dreams for our young people by building more casinos. The family unity is not strengthened by offering more convenient gambling in every neighborhood. . . .There is a direct link between problem gambling and domestic violence, child neglect, substance abuse, personal bankruptcy and crime.”^xix

Add them all together – youth, families, seniors, Asians - and the fact that they are not primarily destination-gamblers but are rather are our own residents, and what you have is not a “relative few prone to harmful excess”, but rather far more accurate is this conclusion drawn by the Director of the Business and Economic Research Center in Las Vegas who revealed in an April, 2003 study that problem gambling in Southern Nevada has a social cost between $300 million to $450 million per year, “a high cost for recreation.”^xx

What difference do ‘values’ make in running the city?

“Consider the irony: Here is the government, essentially breaking the. . .social contract – the agreement by which the people submit to being governed, in trust that those who govern them will act in their benefit. Instead, the government is actively seeking to legitimize a vice that destroys people and wrecks homes. For government to encourage – and even profit by – such self-destructive behavior is, as Kelly puts it, ‘a profound betrayal of every value there ever was’.”^xxi

“A Gamblers Anonymous survey found that 44 percent had stolen from work to support gambling debts; 34 percent had lost or quit a job; 26 percent had divorced or separated; 21 percent had filed for bankruptcy; 18 percent had gambling-related arrests.”^xxii

“A survey of 400 Gamblers Anonymous members found that 57 percent of them admitted to stealing to fund their gambling – an average of $135,000 per person.”^xxiii

“Sixty-two percent of addicted gamblers commit crimes, including theft, embezzlement, and insurance fraud to support their habit.”^xxiv

Values matter, do they not, in city government? According to the July 2007 issue of “Lakewood Connections” – the city’s publication of happenings throughout our community – City Manager Andrew Neiditz quoted the Army’s top officer of a few years ago as saying “Our values are sacrosanct, but everything else is on the table.” Neiditz then stated, “Our citizens expect and deserve a city government that is ‘value-driven.’”

“Lakewood should kick addiction to gambling”^xxv

“It’s deceptive for the city to say it has a gambling moratorium – which isn’t allowed under state law.

“Lakewood’s so-called ‘gambling moratorium’ – which the Lakewood City Council is likely to extend for another six months – is something of a con game. Under state law, the nearly 2-year-old moratorium really doesn’t exist, but the city has a big stake in convincing everybody that it does.

“It’s a shame that (the city) turns a blind eye to problem gambling, whose cost to society is almost half that of drug abuse, according to economist Earl L. Grinois of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“Those costs include increased crime, time off work, bankruptcies and financial hardship of gambler’s families. Grinois, a senior economist for the Council of Economic Advisers to President Reagan in 1987-88, says casino gambling creates $289 in societal costs for every $46 of economic benefit.

“Casino ads show happy people enjoying themselves – and invariably winning a jackpot. But that’s part of the con. Too often the reality includes broken lives and damaged families. Lakewood can and should live without that.

Are these acceptable values?

Lakewood has recently been described, with regards gambling, as ‘addicted’^xxvi; and moratoriums “deceptive”^xxvii; “unenforceable”^xxviii; “something of a con game”^xxix; and “illegal.”^xxx

 

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