Dear Editor,
I work with Stop the Casino 101 Coalition in Rohnert Park,
serving as the group’s Press Liaison and Community Information
person. As you may already be aware, our small university town is
threatened with a huge Las Vegas-style casino. As a result, I have
spent most of the past year becoming educated on the facts
surrounding the growing problem of casinos and the impact they have
on our communities.
Dear Editor,
I work with Stop the Casino 101 Coalition in Rohnert Park, serving as the group’s Press Liaison and Community Information person. As you may already be aware, our small university town is threatened with a huge Las Vegas-style casino. As a result, I have spent most of the past year becoming educated on the facts surrounding the growing problem of casinos and the impact they have on our communities.
Many local governments are lured by the thought of more money and more jobs that seem to be promised by a casino. However, money from casinos is a regressive tax; with over 80 percent of the typical casino patrons being local. Each and every dollar the casino makes is money the local residents have lost, and money that never enters the local or state economy. The $4 billion that California’s casinos take in every year actually represent $4 billion lost to the state’s economy, money that was not spent on such tax-generating items as retail sales, housing, appliance sales, automobile sales, etc. Even Donald Trump has stated that casinos are bad for local business, and it’s hard to argue with Donald Trump.
And while casinos do employ large work forces, the jobs are for the most part low-paying service jobs. In addition, there is a disturbing trend on the East Coast, where Indian casinos have been operating for more than 10 years in some areas. Apparently, many tribes back East have begun importing “students” from overseas to staff their casinos. One unexpected consequence of this influx of overseas labor is that homes in nice neighborhoods being chopped up into sleeping cubicles like cheap, downtown hotels, with some homes housing more than 20 people – all employees of the local casino.
Your recent editorial states, “Despite some negative impacts to society …”, but there are more than “some” negative impacts that arise from casinos. One New England town, North Stonington, CT, has been home to the largest casino in the country, Foxwoods, for about 10 years. The impact on the town has been truly disturbing.
Bear in mind that while the impact on traffic and local businesses is almost immediate, it typically takes three to five years for crime levels to start increasing. This is consistent with the amount of time it takes for problem and pathological gamblers to tap out their resources (second and third mortgages, credit cards, “loans” from friends and family ) before they turn to cash crimes, including embezzlement. Thus, some studies suggest that casinos do not simply serve as a magnet for crime, the actually create crime.
The Western States Sheriff’s Association in 2003 and 2004, supported legislation to examine the issue of tribal sovereignty because of the numerous problems that have arisen with regard to casinos, something I’m sure your county Sheriff can verify.
Also well-documented is the fact that bankruptcies, foreclosures, domestic violence complaints, suicides, and drug and alcohol addiction rates increase dramatically in casino towns. The toll on families and children cannot be underestimated. I personally know a Palm Springs landlord who was forced to evict a family who had rented from him for years. When the Palm Springs casino opened, the parents started spending all their money gambling, and failed to pay rent three months in a row. This family had two small children. This is the human toll that casinos exact.
The intrusion of Indian casinos into our urban areas has reached a tipping point, and if these casinos are permitted to locate in cities and towns instead of on the remote reservations which the voters intended when passing Proposition 1A, the result will be the degradation of California’s urban areas. There is no amount of money that compensate for such degradation as occurs in the towns and cities adjacent to casinos, Indian or otherwise. I cannot urge you strongly enough not to endorse any plan for a casino in your area.
Don’t believe the lies that there is nothing that can be done to stop the process, be it fee-to-trust or a compact. It can be stopped. Indian casinos are not inevitable.
Read the Selectmen’s report at www.tribalnation.com/NorthStonington.html and visit our Web site – www.stopthecasino101.com – for more information and to learn of other problems associated with casinos.
Marilee Taylor Montgomery, Press Liaison
Stop the Casino 101 Coalition, Rhonert Park
