I haven't yet heard any elected official respond to the increasingly clear evidence that convenience casinos are predatory. For years citizens have complained about the free alcohol, the 24/7 operating hours, the machines, the marketing, the coupons sent to our homes for $50 in free play, the ATM machines no more than 7 paces away from any machine, etc. Each of these elements were (and still are) expressly authorized by law. Now, with the recently enacted "reforms", our elected officials are pushing people deeper into debt by allowing free and easy credit -- enabling citizens to gamble on borrowed money; and of course an oh-so-convenient preemption of Philly's smoking ban.

The elected officials were careful to give Foxwoods another 1.5 years to open. But the elected officials don't bother themselves with the predatory gambling itself. They are too busy talking about the something for nothing (jobs and revenue) even though, in reality, we'll end up with a net loss of jobs and a bigger hole in our fiscal budget.

Perhaps the elected officials don't want to know the truth. In January 2009, it took Isaiah Thompson of the City Paper a single trip to Harrah's Chester to make the following observation:

As I walked past the glowing machines, I saw a strange sight: A man, maybe in his 60s, had gotten off his stool and was standing between two machines in a kind of half-squat, his arms banging the buttons on either side like two flippers. As the reels spun, he stared between the machines, at nothing.

And, now, Monica Yant-Kinney takes a single trip to Parx and finds a gambler who admits visiting the casino 2x each day. Moreover, she reports that the Parx CEO brags that most of his customers come to the casino 150-200 times each year.

Yup, it's not too hard to find compulsive gamblers. Unless of course you're an elected official.

I believe that 90% of the profits come from 10% of the gamblers. I believe that the gambling trade rests on a business model that relies on massive compulsive gambling. What do the elected officials believe, and why? Let's swap evidence. Steve Wynn talks openly about preying on his neighbors and being ecstatic about being "in a City with 7 universities." Yet our elected officials continue to remain silent.

As Stop Predatory Gambling puts it:

Casinos like Parx only exist because government is a partner. Any other business with such predatory practices would be shut down immediately. It is a government program based on addiction and indebtedness. The casual visitor, as we know from the numbers from Parx and other casinos, is virtually irrelevant to the business model.

HalnSue Rosenthal Moving our heads in an up and down motion while exclaiming "Uh huh" is not action.

To do something about this predatory casino gambling disease join by going to www.CasinoFreePhila.org. It is a fantastic group of creative activists you will enjoy working with.

Tell them HalnSue sent you.

The predatory gambling trade cultivates new criminals, from any walk of life, with any type of education background, who have never before broken a single law in their lives.

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/510857-196/teacher-who-allegedly-rob...

But I guess our state lawmakers, and our local elected officials who refuse to stand up, would say that predatory gambling allows us to save a few dollars in wage tax. These politicians wrote letters to the judge during the Fumo sentencing. Will they also write letters to judges when addicted school teachers are prosecuted for robbing banks?