[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 4, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S5778]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              WORLDWIDE GAMBLING BOOM IS CAUSE FOR CONCERN

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, a friend of mine, Robert Luken, sent 
me an article from the Catholic Times, the Springfield, IL, diocesan 
newspaper with a story by John Thavis that was distributed by Catholic 
News Service under the title ``Worldwide Gambling Boom Is Cause for 
Concern,'' which I ask to be printed in the Record at the conclusion of 
my remarks.
  It contains not only good moral advice but good common sense that we 
must keep in mind as we approach a decision on whether or not to have a 
Federal commission to look at the huge growth of gambling in our 
country.
  I urge my colleagues to read the article.
  The article follows:

          [From the Springfield Catholic Times, Apr. 21, 1996]

              Worldwide Gambling Boom Is Cause for Concern

                            (By John Travis)

       Vatican City.--A worldwide boom in gambling--increasingly 
     sponsored by the state--is raising moral concerns among 
     Vatican officials, theologians and Catholic social 
     scientists.
       Gambling is not a new issue for the church. Bingo has been 
     a parish mainstay for decades. Local churches have raised 
     money through raffles or other take-a-chance offerings.
       But this small-scale ``social'' gambling has given way to a 
     more aggressive form that, according to church experts, has a 
     corrosive effect on individuals, families and the entire 
     social fabric. In the U.S., nearly $500 billion is wagered 
     legally every year.
       ``Gambling is obviously reaching alarming proportions. I 
     think it represents a menace to the basic institution of the 
     family and to the community at large,'' said Jerzy Zubrzycki, 
     a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, who 
     has spent years researching the effects of gambling.
       Gambling ``is a search for a quick fix, like the drug 
     culture. It's escapism instead of facing one's problems and 
     trying to grow,'' said U.S. Jesuit Father John Navone, a 
     theologian at Rome's Gregorian University.
       For Swiss Dominican Father Georges Cottier, Pope John Paul 
     II's in-house theologian, the spread of gambling is no less 
     than a sign of a ``social disease.'' The house never loses, 
     but the weak and their families often do, he said.
       Yet, surprisingly to many, the church's official teaching 
     on gambling is quite tolerant. According to the ``Catechism 
     of the Catholic Church,'' games of chance and betting are not 
     in themselves evil or unjust.
       They become morally unacceptable when they ``deprive 
     someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and 
     those of others.'' The catechism also rejects unfair wagers 
     or cheating; but there's no explicit mention of the state's 
     role in promoting lotteries, casinos or ``scratch-and-win'' 
     tickets.
       The Vatican has not examined the finer moral points of 
     state-sponsored gambling in any comprehensive way, and the 
     Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declined to answer 
     questions about the issue. Church officials are, however, 
     tracking recent statements against gambling by bishops in the 
     U.S., Canada and Australia.
       ``The state, instead of being a brake or a guide on this 
     issue, is playing the game itself. Unfortunately, this is 
     part of the crisis of values in society,'' said Franciscan 
     Father Pier Giuseppe Pesce, a Rome theologian who advises the 
     Vatican.
       Mary Ann Glendon, a U.S. lawyer and a member of the 
     Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, said state-sponsored 
     gambling often appears a painless way to produce much-needed 
     revenues. But really, it's a ``regressive tax'' that hits the 
     poor hardest.
       What she especially finds objectionable is that the state 
     ``imitates the private operators of casinos, in trickling in 
     this little wins'' to keep people coming back. It's ``very 
     cynical and very exploitative,'' she said.
       Father Cottier said he thought the Vatican should take a 
     closer look at the morality of all this. One way in which the 
     issue might be advanced, he said, is for a bishop to pose 
     formal questions for response by the doctrinal congregation.
       But none of those interviewed was proposing a ban on 
     gambling. The question is more complex than that, they said.
       As Glendon said, ``When we address the moral issue we have 
     to make sure that we are not trying to eliminate things that 
     make life pleasant and fun.''

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