People of Faith Against Gambling

Marylanders: Vote No on the Slot Machine Referendum

November 4, 2008…and encourage others to do the same…

1. Slots harm families, children, marriages and neighborhoods.  Slots are proven to cause increased bankruptcies, crime, embezzlements, divorces and lost work days, mostly among our poorest citizens.

1. Slots are an addictive form of idolatry, where people worship winning and possessions rather than God.  Slots gambling violates the First Commandment.

1. Slots gambling teaches that chance and coveting your neighbor’s lost dollars are more important than education, hard work and placing your neighbor before yourself.

1. Slots are destructive of good government, inviting public corruption and addiction to slots revenues.  Through increased advertising and marketing, the State becomes a promoter of gambling.  It teaches that to be a good citizen, you should gamble.

1. Without slots, there will be no education or school construction money and the horse racing industry will fail.  It is shameful to make children a tool for gambling interests.  The improving economy is eliminating the need for irrational solutions like slots.  Now, more than ever, we need good government and prudent leaders to return Maryland to its place of prominence in state governance.  Slots are the short term, easy fix to government's spending problems, a fix that will be born on the backs of the poor and elderly who are the large majority of slots gamblers.

1. Look at the hundreds of millions of lost revenues that go to Delaware and WVA.

This is a pot boiling argument.  Slots projections depend not on recapturing lost revenues but on creating thousands of new gamblers in Maryland and neighboring states.  Slots are about turning Maryland into a gambling state.  Every year, visitors spend over $8 billion dollars in MD at family friendly sites like Ocean City.  Hundreds of millions of dollars come from PA, DE and WVA because of our quality of living and good economy.  There’s no reason to destroy our best asset. 

1. We already have gambling with the lottery.  What’s the big deal?

This is not a discussion about the relative merits of forms of gambling.   Slots are not a lottery.  Slots gambling is highly addictive, brought to MD by heavily financed, out-of-state interests.  Once upon a time, the MD Legislature created the lottery promising a once-a-week drawing.  Today, it has expanded into a multi-game enterprise, including Keno terminals, with a drawing every four minutes.  The bill in the Legislature promises only a limited number of machines and locations.  Do you trust the state to maintain these limits or are casinos just around the corner?

1. You can’t tell adults what to do.  People want to gamble.

Government is a contract among its people.  We collectively agree to limit drinking, driving, prostitution, voting ages, drug use and other human behavior.  For people of faith, gambling is a moral issue that needs limits.  It is not a Constitutional right to be encouraged by the State.