Is gambling a “moral” issue? Some suggest that it is not; it is merely a
pragmatic issue. Reflect upon this matter with us in this week’s Penpoints
segment.
Michael Fitzgerald is an award-winning columnist for The
[Stockton, CA] Record, a leading newspaper for the north-central region
of the sprawling San Joaquin Valley. A recent article addressed the growing
encroachment of gambling casinos in California.
While gambling casinos generally are not legal in this state, in recent
years they have been sanctioned on behalf of various Indian tribes. The
rationale is this: since the Indians were so abused historically by the White
man, the noble original American now should be permitted retribution; he is at
liberty to exploit the weakness of those whose adrenalin is discharged only by
the whirl of the roulette wheel or the rustle of a deck of cards.
But Fitzgerald is much opposed to this Indian uprising, and for a variety of
sound reasons. We will summarize them as follows:
The journalist first assaults
the so-called “economic” argument. This is the notion that casinos will
bring in huge revenues for the surrounding area, thus providing tax
relief. Not so, contends Mr. Fitzgerald. He cites a 1994 study out of the
University of Illinois that indicated that “the social problems” created
by gambling, (e.g., gambling addiction, domestic abuse, suicide, crime,
indebtedness, etc.) outweigh by far any benefits to the community. In
fact, the gambling enterprise costs “taxpayers $3 for every $1 of state
revenue collected.”
Additionally: “A Creigton University study found
that counties with casinos soon have double the bankruptcy rates of counties
without casinos.”
Another argument that the
respected journalist employed has to do with the
psychological/physiological damage believed by some authorities to result
from recreational gaming, at least for those who become compulsive
gamblers. Fitzgerald cites Dr. Howard J. Shaffer, of the Harvard Medical
School Division on Addictions.
”’Gambling is an addictive behavior, make no mistake about it. It has all the
properties of a psychoactive substance. It changes the neurochemistry of the
brain.’ In other words, the excitement of the possibility of winning a huge sum
of money, with minimal investment, has a narcotic-like effect on the brain—that
calls for greater and greater risks, in the hope of that ‘big’ win.”
According to the popular columnist, one study
revealed that 43% of those who gamble have a tendency towards “compulsion,”
that intense urge that causes them to get caught up in a frenzy that results in
their spending more money than they can afford.
Our journalist neighbor
addressed the environmental aspect of the casino problem. There are
enormous increases in traffic on local highways, as gaming addicts pour
into the casino areas—especially on weekends. Nearby, formerly peaceful
communities are smothered by the influx of those “suckers” (to use
Fitzgerald’s jargon) whose “neurochemically altered heads” continue to l
