[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 192 (Tuesday, December 5, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H13935-H13936]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               DEAD BROKE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Wolf] is recognized during 
morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I want to bring to the House's attention a 
front page article from the December 3, 1995, Minneapolis edition of 
the Star Tribune title, ``Dead Broke,'' about how gamblers are killing 
themselves, bankrupting their families, and costing Minnesota millions. 
Let me read from this compelling article:

       In less than a decade, legalized gambling in Minnesota has 
     created a broad new class of addicts, victims and criminals 
     whose activities are devastating families and costing 
     taxpayers and businesses millions of dollars.
       Thousands have ruined themselves financially, some have 
     committed crimes, and a handful have killed themselves. 
     Thousands more will live for years on the edge of bankruptcy, 
     sometimes working two or three jobs to pay off credit-card 
     debt.

  The Star Tribune said these people include Minnesotans such as:
  Catherine Avina of St. Paul, an assistant attorney general who killed 
herself with an overdose of antidepressants after a 4-day gambling 
binge. The mother of three had been fired just a few days earlier, and 
left debts of more than $7,000 and $600 in bounced checks.
  John Lee, a 19-year-old St. Paul college student who lost $8,000 in 
two nights at a casino. He returned home, kicked down the door to his 
apartment, put the barrel of a shotgun to his head, and killed himself.
  Lam Ha of Blaine, a father of two and waiter at a restaurant. Last 
year, he and his wife filed for bankruptcy protection with a $76,000 
debt, much of it on 25 credit cards. They listed gambling losses of 
$40,000 in 1994 alone, more than their joint annual income.

  Reva Wilkinson of Cedar, who is in prison for embezzling more than 
$400,000 from the Guthrie Theater to support her habit. Her case cost 
taxpayers more than $100,000 to investigate, prosecute, and adjudicate.
  According to the article, the costs of gambling include the 
following: 38,000 probable addicted gamblers in Minnesota; 100,000 
people with increasing gambling problems; 6 confirmed gambling related 
suicides; more than 140 confirmed suicide attempts since 1992; more 
than 1,000 people per year declaring bankruptcy; $400,000 per year in 

[[Page H 13936]]
welfare benefits withdrawn from casino ATM's and $200 to $300 million 
in estimated annual social costs--taxes, lost wages, and debts.

  The article also reported that some $39,000 a month in welfare 
benefits from Hennepin and Ramsey counties is being withdrawn from 
automatic teller machines in casinos. In September, there were 769 
withdrawals of public-assistance benefits using cash machines at Mystic 
Lake Casino in Prior Lake. Seventeen pawn shops have opened near 
casinos in the State. Several owners said they get 50 percent of their 
business from gamblers.
  Ten years ago, there was one Gamblers Anonymous group meeting in the 
State. Today, there are 49. Calls to the State Compulsive Gambling 
Hotline doubled from 1992 to 1994, reaching nearly 500 per month.
  Between 1988 when the first of the State's 17 casinos began operating 
and 1994, counties with casinos saw the crime rate rise twice as fast 
as those without casinos. The median change in counties with casinos 
was a 39-percent increase, compared with an 18-percent increase in 
noncasino counties.
  And, in the face of rising crime, pathological gambling, increased 
bankruptcies, and broken families, what are political leaders doing? 
The Star Tribune says they have been silent mostly because there is a 
lack of credible information on the subject. The article said:

       Political leaders--even those who have taken an interest in 
     gambling issues--acknowledge they know little about the 
     problem. There has been no comprehensive study of the social 
     costs--the debt, crime, and suicides associated with 
     gambling. The state does not know what kind of treatment 
     works, or how successful the programs it funds have been.

  Assistant Attorney General Alan Gilbert, a member of the State 
Advisory Council on Gambling, and ``But I think common sense tells you 
that there has to be some adverse effects. * * * We just don't know the 
extent of it.''
  Mr. Speaker, public officials in Minnesota are not alone. Public 
officials in Virginia, Louisiana, and States across America don't have 
the information they need to make informed decisions about gambling 
policy.
  That is why I have introduced, and 126 Members of the House have 
cosponsored, H.R. 497, the National Gambling Impact and Policy 
Commission Act. This legislation would charge a blue-ribbon panel with 
the duty of looking at all the social costs described by the Star 
Tribune so that America's policymakers and citizens know what the 
impact of legalized gambling may be.
  Mr. Speaker, the House Judiciary Committee ordered H.R. 497 reported 
by voice vote and the report could be filed as early as this week. I 
urge members who have not yet cosponsored to cosponsor this important 
legislation so we can rationally determine whether or not, as the Star 
Tribune headline puts it, America is going ``Dead Broke.''
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record immediately following my 
statement an Associated Press article which summarizes the three-page 
Star Tribune special report, as follows:

       Minneapolis.--Legalized gambling in Minnesota has created a 
     new class of addicts, victims and criminals, devastating 
     families and costing taxpayers and businesses millions of 
     dollars, a published report says.
       According to the report in Sunday's Star Tribune, thousands 
     of Minnesotans have ruined themselves financially, some have 
     committed crimes, and a handful have killed themselves 
     because of gambling problems.
       Thousands more will live for years on the edge of 
     bankruptcy, sometimes working two or three jobs to pay off 
     high-interest credit-card debts, the newspaper said.
       Political leaders acknowledge they know little about the 
     problem, or about the social costs of problem gambling such 
     as debt, crime and suicides, the Star Tribune said.
       ``The social costs really haven't been assessed very 
     accurately, and they certainly haven't been quantified at 
     this point,'' said Assistant Attorney General Alan Gilbert, a 
     member of the state Advisory Council on Gambling. ``But I 
     think common sense tells you that there has to be some 
     adverse effects. . . . We just don't know the extent of it.''
       Minnesota's problem gamblers are mostly middle-class people 
     whose appetite for wagering grew from office football pools 
     or church bingo to pulltabs, racetracks, lotteries and 
     casinos when state and federal governments began, legalizing 
     them in the mid-1980s, the newspaper said.
       The Star Tribune said they include Minnesotans such as:
       Catherine Avina of St. Paul, an assistant attorney general 
     who killed herself with an overdose of antidepressants after 
     a four-day gambling binge. The mother of three had been fired 
     just a few days earlier, and left debts of more than $7,000 
     and $600 in bounced checks.
       John Lee, a 19-year-old St. Paul college student who lost 
     $8,000 in two nights at a casino. He returned home, kicked 
     down the door to his apartment, put the barrel of a shotgun 
     to his head and killed himself.
       Lam Ha of Blaine, a father of two and waiter at a 
     restaurant. Last year, he and his wife filed for bankruptcy 
     protection with a $76,000 debt, much of it on 25 credit 
     cards. They listed gambling losses of $40,000 in 1994 alone 
     more than their joint annual income.
       Reva Wilkinson of Cedar, who is in prison for embezzling 
     more than $400,000 from the Guthrie Theater to support her 
     habit. Her case cost taxpayers more than $100,000 to 
     investigate, prosecute and adjudicate.
       The newspaper said even conservative estimate of the social 
     costs of problem gambling suggest that it costs Minnesotans 
     more than $200 million per year in taxes, lost income, bad 
     debts and crime. An estimated $4.1 billion is legally wagered 
     in the state each year, it said.
       Two independent surveys last year estimated that the number 
     of people who have experienced significant problems because 
     of gambling doubled from 1990 to 1994 and now exceeds 
     100,000. One of those studies also concluded that there are 
     about 38,000 people in the state with serious gambling 
     addictions.
       The problem has taken a toll on a larger-scale level as 
     well. In a report today, the newspaper said the 14 Minnesota 
     counties with casinos in them are experiencing a 
     significantly faster growth in the crime rate than are 
     counties without casinos.
       Between 1988 when the first of the state's 17 casinos began 
     operating and 1994, counties with casinos saw the crime rate 
     rise twice as fast as those without casinos. The median 
     change in counties with casinos was a 39 percent increase, 
     compared with an 18 percent increase in non-casino counties, 
     the paper said.
       In Sunday's report, the newspaper listed several indicators 
     of the scope of Minnesota's gambling problem. Among them:
       More gamblers are going bankrupt. It said there is evidence 
     that more than 1,000 people a year are filing for bankruptcy 
     protection in cases involving gambling losses.
       Gamblers are committing suicide. The newspaper found six 
     people with gambling problems who had committed suicide since 
     1991, five of them in the past two years. At least 140 
     gamblers have attempted suicide, it said. The real numbers 
     are probably much higher, it said.
       Credit counselors are seeing increasing numbers of gamblers 
     with seemingly insurmountable debts.
       Some $39,000 a month in welfare benefits from Hennepin and 
     Ramsey counties is being withdrawn from automatic teller 
     machines in casinos. In September, there were 769 withdrawals 
     of public-assistance benefits using cash machines at Mystic 
     Lake Casino in Prior Lake.
       Ten years ago, there was one Gamblers Anonymous group 
     meeting in the state. Today, there are 49.
       Calls to the state Compulsive Gambling Hotline doubled from 
     1992 to 1994, reaching nearly 500 per month.

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