Bruce Barron, President, No Dice

            Forty-eight of our 50 states offer legalized gambling.  

Seventy percent of Americans gamble, losing about $90 billion a year.

Twenty-three percent of Allegheny County residents responding to a 2007 survey said they knew someone who had gambled too much in the past year.

Three to five percent of American adults have a gambling problem.  About one-third of casino revenues comes from problem gamblers.

Home foreclosures have become a national crisis, and debt is spiraling out of control in hundreds of thousands of American families.

Might there be a connection among these facts?

My name is Bruce Barron.  I serve as volunteer president of No Dice, a local grass-roots organization that opposes the expansion of legalized gambling in Pennsylvania.  From 1994 to 2004 No Dice helped keep casino gambling out of Pennsylvania, but on July 4, 2004, our state legislators passed Act 71 and issued their Declaration of Dependence on slot machines as a source of government revenue.  Now we have seven casinos operating in Pennsylvania and more on the way, including one in development here that will markedly transform the pleasant Manchester neighborhood where we stand today.

Although we were unable to keep casinos out of Pennsylvania, we can still encourage Pennsylvanians to stay out of casinos. That is the goal of the “Winners Avoid Casinos” campaign we are announcing today.

Gambling is America’s fastest-growing addiction.  It is a hidden addiction, less easily detected than dependence on drugs or alcohol.  It is an extremely expensive addiction – the average gambling debt of callers to New Jersey’s compulsive gambling help line is $25,000.  And it is an unpredictable addiction, exerting psychological control over many who did not think they were at risk of getting carried away when they first walked into a casino. 

Slot machines are highly addictive, and casinos are skilled and psychologically sophisticated in their marketing.  The only certain way to steer clear of the lure of gambling addiction is to avoid casinos.  Even those of us who feel sure that we are not vulnerable to this temptation should not want to be a stumbling block to others, or to subsidize an industry that profits so much from the vulnerability of our neighbors.

So we have chosen a positive message for our campaign: Winners Avoid Casinos.  We are offering bumper stickers and window clings with this message through our Web site or by e-mail at nodicepa@aol.com.  We also offer free, colorful presentations on how the gambling industry works and how to respond to it.  We will call on people throughout southwestern Pennsylvania to stay out of casinos and to encourage those whom they love to do the same. 

No Dice will also continue to call for reasonable legislation that could reduce the damage caused by casinos—such as bet and loss limits, sending monthly activity statements to gamblers and their families, and a more effective self-exclusion program.  But we have not asked today’s speakers to endorse any legislative proposals.  In particular, Gamblers Anonymous is focused specifically on assisting people affected by gambling addiction, and the appearance of a GA representative here today should not be interpreted as an endorsement of No Dice.  What brings us together today is our shared awareness that the availability of casino gambling has resulted in great suffering for millions of Americans and our shared desire to help people avoid that suffering. 

I will now introduce the others who will speak briefly at this conference.  We will then take questions and, finally, show those who are interested some of the colorful visuals from No Dice’s presentation, “The Two-Armed Bandit: Gambling in 21st-Century America.”