[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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