THE PUBLIC MIND: GAMBLING WILL BRING ADDICTION AND CRIME TO OUR CITY

To the Editor:

As the vote for riverboat gambling draws near, we must decide if gambling is really the best choice for bringing income to Cape Girardeau. Several articles that have appeared recently in the media show that gambling is not the ideal method for generating income.

Dan Rather, of CBS news, presented a segment on Eye on America which essentially stated the following. The promise of fast money is a powerful aphrodisiac to young people. It is very attractive to them and the more exposure they have to gambling, the more likely they are to have a gambling problem. Teens, once exposed to gambling, are four times more likely to be hooked than adults. Experts say that it is no less addictive than drugs or alcohol and within 10 years will become just as big a problem in the U.S.

Increasing numbers of students are dropping out of school because of gambling. School becomes secondary. Many that drop out of school resort to crime to support their habit. They steal, embezzle from employers, or they get the money from cash advances on their parents' credit cards.

The attitude of teens interviewed was "if it's OK for our parents, it should be OK for us." Do we in Cape Girardeau want to set this kind of example of our children?

H.R. Lesieur reports in the psychiatric journal Addictive Behavior, that 892 high school students from four New Jersey high schools were interviewed concerning their gambling behavior. Eighty-six percent admitted to gambling last year, 32 percent gambled at least once per week and almost 6 percent of these students showed clear signs of pathological gambling. It is interesting to note that students gambled even though it is illegal for them to do so.

R.J. Rosenthal and V.C. Lorenz state that the majority of pathological gamblers (at least 70-80 percent) commit offenses late in the disorder and that these offenses are strictly gambling related. This is from a population which essentially had no previous history of crimes, which turned to crime out of desperation over gambling and their problems. Crimes related to gambling include bad check-writing, loan fraud, embezzlement, employee theft, hustling at pool, golf or other games of skill, bookmaking, tax evasion, tax fraud, robbery, pimping and prostitution. In the light of these facts and our recent awareness to Cape Girardeau's drug problems and the crime it produces, does gambling seem to be a reasonable choice?

Mati Stone of the Community Counseling Center stated in an interview on KFVS-TV that gambling is the "Addiction of the '90s." She also stated that over 9 million people admitted to having an addiction to gambling.

Merv Griffin, who helped establish riverboat gambling in Metropolis, Ill. recently said that "gaming is the thing of the '90s." He went on to state that he uses the philosophy of O.P.M. - Other People's Money. He uses other people's money to finance his own interests. One may think that this is just free enterprise but one may conclude also that he is out for the quick money. As has been said before, do you think Merv Griffin cares what happens to Metropolis, Ill.?

Gambling is not the cure-all it is hyped to be. Joel Belz, editor of World Magazine, stated that the residents of Atlantic City didn't gambling has paid off. The casinos brought in $4 billion from gamblers and $98 million in property taxes in 1992. "They also brought more crime, traffic, homelessness, and the mob." He went on to quote Arnold Wexler, executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling in New Jersey, "Fifteen years ago, Atlantic City was a hell hole. Today it's a hell hole with 12 casinos sucking away the money." Anyone who has gone to Atlantic City knows that only one block from the glitter and lights of the Boardwalk are poverty and filth.

As we go to the polls we must be aware of the variety of problems gambling causes. We must ask ourselves do we want this for Cape Girardeau?

John M. Eaton

Cape Girardeau