Gambling Data

                                                                                                                Vol. XII, No. 8, September 1999

Gambling addicts provide a disproportionate share of casino profits. Such addicts form only 4% of adults but may account for as much as 52% of a casino’s revenues. Similarly, the National Gambling Impact Study Commission estimates that 51% of all state lottery revenues come from just 5% of lottery players. The good news is that since 1994 not one state has legalized casinos or slot machines. [Christian Voice, July/August 1999.]

[Comment: It is a disgrace that Virginia preys upon the poor and gullible with a state lottery. TCP]

SC to Vote on Video Poker

SC hosts 34,000 video poker machines, more than any other state. SC Baptist Convention executive director B. Carlisle Driggers wrote in the state's Baptist Courier news journal Aug. 5, “Church leaders and members have been far too silent for too long on the emergence of public gambling in South Carolina."

A 2 November statewide referendum will pose one question to voters: "Shall cash payouts for credits earned on video game machines continue to be allowed after June 30, 2000?" A yes vote will keep the video poker industry legal, and, according to the bill, will increase the cash payout from the current $125 limit per game to $500 per game. A no vote will, in effect, ban the video poker industry beginning June 30, 2000.

"We have one last, final chance to ban video poker," Joe Mack, Christian life concerns director for the state convention, told the Baptist Courier. The state convention began a mailing campaign in early July to encourage churches to help make sure their members are registered to vote. Other denominations trying to defeat video poker in the referendum include Roman Catholics, United Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterian Church in America, Pentecostal Holiness, and Evangelical Lutheran. [BP]