Although the massive gambling bill passed the Illinois General Assembly in the waning days of the Spring Session, Governor Patrick Quinn has made it clear that he is not excited about the size of this gambling expansion. In a press conference on June 1, 2011, Quinn told reporters that he thought this gambling bill was “excessive.”

According to a Chicago Sun-Times article, Quinn also said “I’m beholden to the people of Illinois, not to legislators, not to mayors. The people of our state, all 13 million good and true, they’re the ones who I get up in the morning every day and say, ‘What’s best for them?’ ”

If that is true, it is hard to see how Gov. Quinn can ignore the plethora of research that strongly suggests gambling is a blight on the social well-being of society.

Gov. Quinn said he wants to “listen to the people” and will look at every part of the gambling bill before deciding what to do. He may veto part or all of this predatory gambling bill. Since he is listening, the faith community must speak up and encourage him to do the right thing.

Take ACTION: Contact Governor Quinn today to ask him to VETO this massive gambling bill (SB 744). Remind him that he campaigned against the expansion of gambling in Illinois. Respectfully tell him that creating losers is a terrible way for the state to gain a revenue source. If there is an outpouring of calls into his office, this could still get defeated.

You can also call the Governor’s office toll free at (800) 642-3112.

More ACTION: Please also pray that Gov. Quinn recognizes gambling as being harmful to the families of Illinois. Pray that Gov. Quinn understands how gambling leads to an increases in foreclosures, bankruptcies, unemployment, crime and other social ills. Pray that the pleas of local mayors and other greedy politicians will be unpersuasive. Pray that Gov. Quinn will do the right thing for the families and culture of Illinois.

Please take three minutes to respond to this call to action!

With just a few days left before their scheduled May 31st spring session adjournment, Illinois state lawmakers do not have much time left to pass a budget, pension and retiree health care reform, workers’ compensation reform, and create new legislative districts for 2012.

As if they didn’t have enough to do, one of the proposals making their priority list is a massive gambling bill (SB 744) that would create five new casinos in the Land of Lincoln, including one in Chicago. This legislative proposal would authorize additional casinos in Danville, Rockford, Park City, and somewhere in the South Suburbs.

Sponsored by State Senators Terry Link (D-Lincolnshire), Dave Syverson (R-Rockford) and State Representative Lou Lang (D-Skokie), this 409 page bill would also create “racinos” — video slot machines at the state’s six horse race tracks and at Chicago’s two airports.

Take ACTION: Contact your lawmakers to tell them “NO MORE GAMBLING — PERIOD.” Don’t delay in speaking out! With only days left in the spring session, this gambling bill will move fast!

Background
Adding to the 10 casinos we currently have in Illinois, residents of this state face the prospect of having 21 casinos or casino-like establishments in the near future, making Illinois a top contender for the most anti-family and predatory gambling state in the nation.

The National Gambling Impact Study Commission suggests that problem gambling and addiction rates DOUBLE within a 50 mile radius of a casino. Think of all the people within a 50 mile radius of 11 new casinos or casino-like establishments, and how many new gambling addicts the state will help to produce with this foolish proposal. In Chicago there are 2.8 million people and in Cook County there are 5.2 million. There is an enormous potential for a great many new gambling addicts in Chicagoland alone! How is this good public policy?

While high-paid lobbyists for the predatory gambling industry promise our lawmakers to solve the state’s fiscal problems. Here are some important insights and facts that must be considered in this debate:

• Casino gambling causes up to $289 in social costs for every $46 of economic benefit. (Grinols, Earl L. Gambling in America: Costs and Benefits, Cambridge University Press, NY, NY, 2004)
• Professor John Kindt of the University of Illinois has studied the economic impact of gambling for over twenty years and concludes that for every $1 of revenue generated by gambling, the state must spend $3 on increased social services. (Tribal Proposals to Acquire Land-in-trust for Gaming Across States Lines: Hearing before the H. Comm. on Resources, 109th Cong. 4 [2005])
• Gambling is the fastest growing teen addiction, with the rate of pathological gambling twice that of adults — 4 percent to 8 percent for adolescents compared to 1 percent to 3 percent for adults. (Kindt, John, (Ed). US International Gambling Report, Hein and Co. 2008)
• The National Gambling Impact Study Commission strongly advised against the creation of racetrack casinos:
  

  Recommendation 3-12
  The Commission recommends that states should refuse to allow the introduction of casino-style gambling into pari-mutuel facilities for the primary purpose of saving a pari-mutuel facility that the market has determined no longer serves the community or for the purpose of competing with other forms of gambling.

• Increases in rape, robbery, aggravated assault, larceny and auto theft are found in areas where casinos are built. (Grinols, Earl L, David Mustard and Cynthia Hunt-Dilley. “Casinos, Crime and Community Costs” Social Science Research Network, June 2000)
• An Australian study concluded for every 80 slot machines, 2 million dollars is drained from the economy. (Grinols, Earl L.Gambling in America: Costs and Benefits, Cambridge University Press, NY, NY, 2004)
• Some studies concluded that gambling is as much a risk factor for domestic violence as alcohol abuse. (National Gambling Impact Study Commission, 1999)
• Gambling is the fastest growing and fourth leading cause of bankruptcy. (Kindt, John, (Ed). US International Gambling Report, Hein and Co. 2008)
• Suicide rates are 2 to 4 times greater in gambling counties than non-gambling counties. (Phillips, David P. Ward Welty and Marrisa Smith. “Elevated Suicide Levels Associated with Legalized Gambling” Dec. 1997)

Expanding legalized gambling creates a web of loss, anger and despair that impacts not only the gamblers, but their families, friends and communities. Expanded gambling is not the answer to the state’s fiscal problem, but will instead create pain and suffering for far too many families. Much of this will have to be absorbed by taxpayers as foreclosures, crimes, addictions, divorce, bankruptcies, and unemployment increase.

Rep. Lou Lang is drafting an amendment to a (shell) bill passed in the Senate, according to the Chicago Tribune. If the bill passes in the House, the bill would go back to the Senate for a vote, but no amendments will be added according to Rep. Lang.

The Chicago Sun-Times recently published an editorial supporting a casino in Chicago and slots at six racetracks. The new Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, has expressed interest in a city-owned casino, and Governor Quinn is “open to discussing proposals” that raise revenue, create jobs and lead to greater investment in schools, as noted in the editorial.

Gambling interests promise more than they can deliver. The 10th casino license is scheduled to open in July, and promised to bring in about $9 million in revenue each year for the city of Des Plaines. The Daily Herald reported that based on the latest projections by a bipartisan state commission and the city’s own independent research, the city will only receive $2 million to $4 million — the cost of one fire truck!

The legislative session is scheduled to end on May 31. Legislators still have many issues to address. Gambling is an unstable source of revenue. Ramming a massive gambling expansion bill through in the final days of the session will not solve the revenue problems for Chicago or the State, and the cost, harm, and impact on communities are not even being considered.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send your lawmakers an email or a fax to encourage them to oppose any bill to yet again expand gambling in the Land of Lincoln.

More Action:

1. Call your State Representative and Senator at             (217) 782-2000       and ask them to Vote NO on ALL gambling bills.

2. Call Governor Quinn at             (800) 642-3112       to ask him to OPPOSE a Chicago casino, slots at race tracks, and ALL gambling expansion.

3. Write a Letter to the Editor

4. Share this Alert with your faith community and PRAY.

5. Forward to 10 others.

In 2009, the Illinois General Assembly passed and Governor Patrick Quinn signed into law, a bill allowing liquor-serving establishments to have up to 5 video gambling machines. The bill was and continues to be highly controversial. The law allows cities and counties to pass ordinances banning video gambling machines. Eighty communities and counties have passed bans. Ironically, the city of Chicago already had such a ban.

Earlier this week, State Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) announced that he was introducingSB 17, a bill that would repeal the state’s troubled video gambling law.

Take ACTION: Contact your lawmakers to encourage them to support SB 17 to Repeal Video Gambling.

Background
Video gambling is rightly called the “crack cocaine” of gambling. There’s no skill required, and studies have found that video gambling is highly addictive. (See HERE, HERE and HERE.)

Illinois lawmakers are wrong to think that they can mitigate our state’s revenue shortfall by expanding predatory gambling. Moreover, it is morally indefensible for the State to approve, licence and promote an industry that thrives on the exploitation of the citizens its constituted to serve. Creating thousands of citizen losers to create a revenue stream is terrible public policy.

Gambling addiction is linked to bankruptcy, home foreclosure, depression, and white-collar crime, all of which lead to family stress and can lead to domestic violence, divorce, and suicide. Playing these kinds of odds against your constituents is not good public policy.

Video gambling in our state is not worth the costs to the state in broken lives and shattered families. Please take a few minutes today to do this simple call to action.

Springfield lawmakers apparently think you are not taxed enough and that predatory gambling is good for Illinoisans.

As you probably know by now, Illinois’ Democrat leaders — Governor Patrick Quinn, House SpeakerMichael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton — are proposing a plan to raise your income tax by 75 percent.

Their plan would increase the personal income tax rate by 2.25 percent (from 3 to 5.25 percent) for the next four years. They claim that two percentage points of this increase would be temporary. And despite Illinois’ anti-business reputation, their proposal would also increase the corporate tax rate by 4 percent (from 4.8 percent to 8.4 percent).

In addition to this proposed irresponsible tax increase, our lawmakers are seriously considering a massive expansion of gambling that would more than double the number of casinos in Illinois — all in an effort to feed the rapacious desires of big and growing government. Proponents claim that each proposal will raise billions of dollars in revenue for the state — $7.5 billion from taxes and $1 billion from additional gambling.

But that is not even enough to satisfy the beast. According to the Wall Street Journal, our political leaders are still hoping to borrow billions of dollars despite having the lowest U.S. state credit rating from Moody’s Investors Service.

Indeed, even as Illinois considers a tax increase, it is also considering borrowing $3.7 billion to make required pension contributions and an even larger “debt restructuring bond” to pay the state’s vendors who haven’t been paid in months, according to a person familiar with the matter.

ACTION:  Contact your legislators and ask them to vote for ‘NO’ to more gambling and ‘NO’ to new or additional taxes.

John Bambenek, a well known conservative activist from Champaign, points out:

[Springfield lawmakers] plan to increase your income tax by 75 percent and the corporate tax by 75 percent. You read that right, they will nearly double your income tax and nearly double the tax rate on businesses in Illinois. You can read more HERE at Crain’s Chicago Business.

You might think, “surely they will cut spending”. You’d be wrong. They plan to actually INCREASE spending with this plan and borrow billions on top of it. This is tax, borrow and spend at it’s absolute worst. The only ones who will make it under this plan are residents of Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kentucky and Missouri because companies have said they will leave this state with this kind of tax increase and take the jobs with them.

Lawmakers in Springfield refuse to live within the means of our current cash flow and refuse to cut the size of government. Instead they again turn to tax increases and expansion of gambling. Just how much is enough?

Increasing taxes, like expanding gambling, is counter-productive. It will adversely affect Illinois’ economy, hurt businesses and cause them to relocate out of state, and will ultimately increase the already high tax burden on families that remain in Illinois. These proposals are decidedly anti-family.

Illinois taxpayers should not continue to tolerate wasteful, bloated government.

Tell Governor Quinn and your state lawmakers to stop increasing the size of government. We do not have a tax problem — we have a spending problem!

SB 737 was amended in committee and passed in the Senate during the Veto Session. Sen. Terry Link, the sponsor of SB 737, told the Republicans who complained about inaction on the budget and employment that this bill would deal with both of those issues by generating a billion dollars a year in new state revenues and creating thousands of new jobs, according to Capitol Fax.

Adding 11 more casinos will not help horse racing, nor will it solve the budget and cash flow problems in the State of Illinois. It has taken over 10 years to approve and build the 10th casino license, which is scheduled to open in 2011. Remember the flawed legislation that quickly passed last year to legalize Video Gambling Act and Internet Lottery? These forms of gambling are not yet operational, with 75 communities and 4 counties “opting out” of video gambling.

Take ACTION:

1. Send a note or Christmas card to thank your Senator who voted NO on the massive expansion of gambling. (Click on the names below for contact information.)

2. Gov. Quinn told reporters he opposed “top-heavy” gaming legislation. Contact the governor to OPPOSE SB 737, a massive expansion of gambling. (Call 800-642-3112 or 312-814-2121 or e-mail by clicking HERE.)

3. Contact your State Representative in their District office Before January 3 to ask him/her to Vote NO on SB 737. (See Talking Points below.)

4. Share this Alert with your faith community and PRAY.

5. Forward to 10 others.

Pamela J. Althoff
Tim Bivins
J. Bradley Burzynski
James F. Clayborne, Jr.
Jacqueline Y. Collins
Gary G. Dahl
Dan Duffy
Linda Holmes
Dan Kotowski
Chris Lauzen
David Luechtefeld
James T. Meeks
John J. Millner
Matt Murphy
Michael Noland
Christine Radogno
Dale A. Righter
Dan Rutherford
Ronald Sandack
A. J. Wilhelmi

Roll Call: Click HERE.

Talking Points for Letter to the Editor and calls Gov. Quinn and State Representatives

SB 737 is a massive expansion of gambling that includes:

• A City owned land-casino in Chicago with 4,000 gambling positions.
• Legalizes 4 additional casinos–Rockford, Danville, Park City, and South Suburbs.
• Transforms 6 racetracks into land-based casinos with slots/video gambling.
• Creates the Chicago Casino Development Authority with the ability to use eminent domain, finance public bonds, exempt from real estate taxes, and less control from the Gaming Board.
• Pre-empts Home Rule in Arlington Heights and Chicago.
• Requires one Illinois Gaming Board member to have 5 years of casino management experience.
• Racetracks in Cook County could relocate up to 3 miles to build electronic gambling facility.

Contact your state lawmakers today.  Please tell them “NO MORE GAMBLING — PERIOD.”

Senate Bill 744 was sent to the Governor on June 25. Governor Patrick Quinn (D) has 60 days to sign SB 744 and HB 4927, which was sent to the governor on on June 17. These bills legalize non-stop video gambling at truck stops 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and Penny bets that prey on the poor and vulnerable to keep them gambling. HB 4927 also contains provisions to allow those who have been operating illegal gambling machines to qualify for a license as long as they have not been convicted of gambling, which is rare in Illinois.

Although a governor’s spokeswoman says it’s still under study, Crain’s Chicago Business reported HB 4927 is expected to be signed. The question is whether it will actually prolong board investigations instead of streamlining them. “Are we going to say, ‘It’s wonderful you’ve been operating an illegal activity for years?'” {Illinois Gaming Board Chairman} Jaffe says, “If we’re limited in that way, you’ll have a licensing scandal in three to five years.”

If you have already made calls to the Governor, please ask others to do so. We must “turn up the heat” as the election nears. Illinois has just overtaken California as the worst credit risk among American states. Expanding gambling will cause more harm and debt to Illinois residents. (Read more HERE.)

Take ACTION: Our last effort to stop these bills is to appeal to Governor Quinn who promised not to expand gambling when he originally ran for Lieutenant Governor. Click HERE to send Gov. Quinn an email or a fax to ask him to veto these bills.

More Action:

1. Call the governor’s office and ask him to VETO HB 4927 and SB 744. Toll free:             800-642-3112      , Springfield:            217-782-0244      , or Chicago:             312-814-2121      .

2. Share this Alert with your faith community.

3. Write a Letter to the Editor asking the Governor to VETO the video gambling expansion bills. (For more information click HERE.)

4. Forward this email to 10 others.

Dear Friends,

Elected officials in the Village of Niles are hosting an Open Meeting to discuss an ordinance to ban video gambling machines within city limits. The meeting is scheduled for next Wednesday, June 30, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers at Village Hall, 1000 Civic Center Drive. Input will be welcomed from Niles citizens and Niles businesses.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send an email to Niles Mayor Robert M. Callero to encourage him to vote in favor of banning video slot machines in Niles. You can also call the Mayor’s office at            847-588-8000      .

Please follow up by emailing the six Village Trustees (listed below) as well.

Chris Hanusiak cjh@vniles.com

James T. Hynes jth@vniles.com

Joe LoVerde jvl@vniles.com

Louella Blaine Preston lbp@vniles.com

Andrew Przybylo atp@vniles.com

Andrew Przybylo adweel@vniles.com

Background

The Illinois General Assembly passed and Governor Quinn signed into law, a bill allowing liquor-serving establishments to have up to 5 video gambling machines. The law allows for cities and counties to pass ordinances banning these. Dozens of communities and counties have already passed bans, thereby preventing local family restaurants from turning into mini casinos. Video gambling is rightly called the “crack cocaine” of gambling. There’s no skill required and studies have found that it takes approximately one year to become severely addicted, versus 4 years of other forms of gambling.

The State of Illinois has a serious revenue shortfall which they think they can fix by expanding gambling, but in order for the State to profit, it needs to create thousands of losers. Is this good public policy? Hardly! With the potential of an increase in gambling addictions which lead to bankruptcy, divorce and even suicide, state lawmakers and the Governor have done Illinois residents a great disservice.

Thank you for speaking out on this important family issue!

Sincerely,

David E. Smith
Executive Director

P.S. Get more of my political and cultural commentary on my personal Facebook page HERE.

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