Posted 6:38 AM by Donald Sensing
A New Weapon To Fight Gambling: The Lawsuit
Big tobacco winnings gear lawyers toward ta,ing on gambling industry

This article first appeared on the Ethics & Religion site on August 17, 2002.

What government would pass a $1 tax increase that would lose $2 in tax revenue from other sources? The same government that would increase bankruptcies, divorce and suicide - YOUR negligent state government, unless you live in Utah, the rare state with no legalized gambling.

Some 38 states now have lotteries - often five different kinds: instant games, daily numbers games, lotto, electric terminals for keno and video lottery. Gambling is now Rhode Island's third largest source of revenue, next to only personal and corporate income taxes.

But at what cost? Americans gamble away more money than they pay for groceries!

Lotteries subsist on a small percentage of very heavy players whose average expenditures are $3,800 per year, according to the 1999 National Gambling Impact Study Commission (NGISC) report. Only 5 percent of players accounted for more than half of total sales. It is a disastrous investment. The chances of winning the California Lotto Jackpot are one in 14 million.

Richard Leone, a NGISC Commissioner, said that "State lotteries have paved the way for great increases in legalized gambling (by) propagating the myth that gambling is good for society. The best studies point in the same direction. Lotteries prey on the poor and the undereducated."

The advertising plan for Ohio's Super Lotto game designed promotions to coincide with the receipt of welfare and Social Security checks, the Commission reported.

Gambling is devastating to many of those it touches. It "ruins lives and wrecks families," said Dr. James Dobson, another member of the Commission. "A mountain of evidence presented to our Commission demonstrates a direct link between problem and pathological gambling and divorce, child abuse, domestic violence, bankruptcy, crime and suicide. More than 15.4 million adults and adolescents meet the technical criteria of those disorders.

"When other activities, such as smoking, have been shown to be harmful, the hue and cry for regulations to warn and protect the public has been loud and long. Today the silence of most of our leaders about the risks of gambling is deafening. It is well past time for a Paul Revere to sound the alarm. Gambling is hazardous to your - to our - health."

There is such a Paul Revere. He is Rev. Tom Grey, a United Methodist pastor and director of the National Coalition Against Gambling Expansion. I caught up with him in Rhode Island this week, where he was invited by the Rhode Island Council of Churches to testify to a commission against expanding the state's 3,000 video lotteries by another 1,800.

This year alone, he helped persuade such states as Illinois, New Hampshire, Florida, Kentucky, Kansas, Ohio and Maryland not to install slot machines at race tracks. And Hawaii, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana rejected adding casinos while Oklahoma, North Dakota, and Wyoming resisted the lottery's blandishments.

The issue will be part of this fall's elections. Tennessee voters will ballot on adding a lottery. In Maryland, the likely Republican candidate for governor favors slots at racetracks while the probable Democratic nominee opposes them. Both of Pennsylvania's candidates for governor favor adding video gambling at racetracks and the Democrat also lusts after river boat casinos.

However, Tom Grey has good news. He sees a calvary about to come to the rescue. Who?

Trial lawyers, believe it or not. He pointed to a case in Canada, a $579,000 class action lawsuit against Loto Quebec on behalf of 119,000 people who confess to being pathological gamblers, addicted to video lottery terminals. The lead plantiff in the case is Jean Brochu, a former municipal councillor who defrauded his own professional association of $50,000 to feed his addiction. After receiving treatment, he is once again practicing law.

What is sought for each gambler is reasonable: $2,800 to cover 30 days of therapy, $500 for psychological followup, $500 for medical expenses, $983 for lost salary during treatment.

"Machines put out by your friendly government on Main Street have created addicts," says Rev. Grey. "When Scott Harshberger was Attorney General in Massachusetts, he was one of the leaders who brought suits against the tobacco companies. Now head of Common Cause, he believes similar law suits will be filed against states promoting gambling as a public health issue."

Consider suicides and murders related to gambling. Casinowatch.org reports that a small business owner, already $500,000 in debt, squandered $225,000 at Las Vegas casinos, then murdered his pregnant wife and three children before killing himself. In Atlantic City there were three suicides in three recent months related to gambling.

Unleash the lawyers!

Posted 5:14 AM by Donald Sensing
Churches have a right to enter lottery debate

A couple of days ago, a letter to to the editor in the Tennessean newspaper said that churches, being religious, should stay out of the lottery debate, which is political. I already wrote about that belief.

Comes now this morning's Tennessean with the following "three star" letter in response:

''Churches'' have just as much right to oppose a lottery as casinos or other organizations have a right to support one.

Church congregations provide a moral compass. That's what they do, and the church members should not be precluded from voicing an opposing viewpoint simply because they belong to a religious group.

Otherwise you should argue that the American Civil Liberties Union should stay out of issues that affect civil rights, the National Rifle Association should stay out of issues that concern gun control, and the National Organization of Women should keep out of issues on abortion and equal pay.

You could extend the argument to say that the Democratic and Republican parties should stay out of issues that affect politics.

To suppress churches' viewpoints on the lottery issue violates both freedom of expression and freedom of religion. How un-American.

A lottery vote is about to be held. I hope we can muster the strength to entertain open debate and opposing viewpoints so that we don't make an ignorant decision, but an informed one.

Johnny Ellis

Posted 2:22 PM by Donald Sensing
A rant against "separation of church and state"
Non-constitutional principle is widely mis-understood;
church people among most unaware of its meaning

The phrase, "separation of church and state," is nowhere found in the US Constitution. Yet many people, including a lot of church people, use it in conversations as if it has some specific, well-codified or indeed Constitutional meaning.

I believe in the separation of church and state. The long process by which the West broke civil law and religious law apart was a chief reason the West is now free, diverse and prosperous compared to most of the rest of the world. In contrast, the union of civil law and religious law into one over-arching code gives you something like Saudi Arabia, one of the least free, most oppressive regimes in the world.

In my presentations as I have spoken against the proposed Tennessee lottery, I have discovered that most of the electorate is unawarer of the actual meaning of separation of church and state. And church people lead that charge.

People have expressed this lack of knowledge expresses itself in two main ways:

1. Because I am an ordained minister, no political issue is properly my concern. I should focus on eternal salvation and conversion. I call this the "above the fray" position. This is the stance that many church people take. A lot of church people I have talked to have indicated that as a minister, I am supposed to be above the fray of what they perceive as a political issue. I (and the institution of the church itself) should not be concerned with temporal matters, but only with questions of eternity. Therefore, while they admit that I may have my own private opinion on political issues and vote like everyone else, I should not overtly participate in political processes at all. I should not take sides on any issue because I am "the church."

2. People who do not affiliate themselves with a church take a slightly different approach that I call the "outside the fray" stance. They claim that because of the "separation of church and state," I have no right to attempt to influence any political issue at all. As a minister, I am supposedly de facto, if not quite de jure, excluded from politics.

The former position is theologically erroroneous. The latter is simply un-American.

The First Amendment states that the government may not establish a religion. It may not favor any religion over another, nor prohibit the free exercise of religion. The Constitution also says that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States" (Art. VI ). Other than those two instances, the Constitution is silent about religion.

At the risk of sounding pedantic, I need to lay a very basic foundation of American civics.

Americans see the people as the only legitimate source of political legitimacy. In the United States, state authority lies in the voters. Hence, we have in our political lexicon the phrase, "popular sovereignty," which means the people are sovereign. In America, the government grants no rights at all to the people because the government has no rights to grant. All rights reside in the people to begin with. The American founders understood that human rights are simply a fact of human existence; human beings are "endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights," as the Declaration of Independence puts it.

In the American system, the people grant only powers to the government, but no rights. The government has no right, it has only the authority to exercise specified powers on the people's behalf. All rights automatically are always held by the people in the first place. The Bill of Rights was intended to restrict the power of the government and preserve the rights of the people from government encroachment.

Hence, we have a government of delegated powers which are limited by the specifications of the Constitution.

It is crucial to understand that the Constitution's restriction works only one way. It limits what the government may do regarding religion. It does not limit or restrict what religious people may do regarding politics.

My rights of free speech, free press and free exercise of religion remained intact when I was ordained. As an American, I have the same right as any other to speak out on political issues from whatever basis I wish, including a religious basis. No one has the right to silence me. They may only ignore me or attempt to counter my arguments.

One person accused me of "forcing others" to vote as I want and "bending others to my will." The very idea that I or any other minister enjoys this power is simply laughable! If I had that kind of power, be assured that everyone in my congregation would tithe, I would have a parsonage with a tennis court and pool and be given free country club membership to boot! Not to mention the Mercedes Benz! Please . . . .

It is un-American to claim that ministers or other religious people should remain silent on political issues, or that they should not offer religious perspectives on political issues. Others may reject my arguments, or counter them, but I have the same right as anyone else to make them.

Politics is how we define how we live together under law. Politics is how we grant or take away the power of the government to tend to the common weal. Politics is how we collectively decide on how we can form a more perfect union and provide for the general welfare. Such issues are inherently intertwined with Christian faith. Jesus never taught that we should be so heavenly minded as to be of no earthly good (to borrow C.S. Lewis' expression). Jesus stood firmly within the mainstream of Jewish prophecy, which was often overtly political.

The central concerns of Christian faith include justice, peace, stewardship of resources and the comity of the community. These are also the central concerns of government. Surely 3,500 years of Jewish and Christian tradition can valuably inform us in those concerns! And surely when those issues arise in our political processes they are also, at some level, matters of religious concern.

Methodism's founder John Wesley said, "There is no religion but social religion, no holiness but social holiness." The communal forms of faith in the Wesleyan tradition not only promote personal growth; they also equip and mobilize us for mission and service to the world. The United Methodist Book of Discipline says, "Scriptural holiness entails more than personal piety; love of God is always linked with love of neighbor, a passion for justice and renewal in the life of the world. We insist that personal salvation always involves Christian mission and service to the world" (para. 60, emphasis added).

There is no right relationship with God unless there is right relationship with other people. Any Christian who claims, "Politics does not matter; I just have to be right with Jesus" is, in my opinion, in eternal danger. No one can be right with Jesus who is unconcerned about the larger community in which he or she lives. I think that is as clear a teaching of Scripture as can be found. All the commandments, said St. Paul, "are summed up in this one rule: 'Love your neighbor as yourself'" (Rom. 13:9). There is no such thing as a purely personal relationship with God!

In my opinion, bad governance is a religious issue. Bad public policy is a religious issue. So is unjust taxation (which is what a lottery is). So is the corruption of children by luring them into addictive, destructive behavior, which is what the lottery does. Not everyone agrees, which is okay with me. It's not okay with me when they attempt to silence me because I am, you know, religious.

Lottery opponents will state their case, some parts of which may be explicitly religious and some not. Those who favor it will state their case. Then the people vote. That's how America works. And I am part of America.

Posted 5:01 AM by Donald Sensing
Now lotteries want the change in your pocket
Georgia lottery game will take as little as a quarter

Contrary to what many people think, there is more to a lottery than buying a cash-register-type ticket and picking six numbers out of 49 possible. Georgia's lottery has that, of course. It's called Lotto South. But the state also offers six other gambling games, and calls all of them lotteries.

Rebecca Paul, president of the Georgia lottery, wrote, "We are very excited to be the first lottery in the world to introduce a new type of game, the Change Game, to our players."

Not content fleecing you of your bills, the Change Game wants the loose change in your pocket.

Play your change on the Change Game for a chance to be one of three guaranteed winners every night.

All tickets are Quik Pik, where the computer randomly selects your combination. You can buy any amount from 25 cents to 99 cents.

Each unique 6-character combination includes a letter + four (4) numbers from 0 to 9 + another letter (for example, A1234B). To win, you must match all six (6) characters in the exact order drawn.

Keno Quick Cash announces a winning number every four minutes. It is ideal for creating compulsive gamblers.

Remember, all these games will be automatically legal in Tennessee if the lottery amendment passes this November.

Posted 2:32 PM by Donald Sensing
The UMC's official position on gambling
Book of resolutions spells it out

From UM Communications:

The United Methodist Church opposes gambling in any form.

The church's position is stated in the denomination's Social Principles (Paragraph 163G of the 2000 Book of Discipline and page 57 of the 2000 Book
of Resolutions):

"Gambling is a menace to society, deadly to the best interests of moral, social, economic, and spiritual life, and destructive of good government. As an act of faith and concern, Christians should abstain from gambling and should strive to minister to those victimized by the practice. Where gambling has become addictive, the Church will encourage such individuals to receive therapeutic assistance so that the individual's energies may be redirected into positive and constructive ends. The Church should promote standards and personal lifestyles that would make unnecessary and undesirable the resort to commercial gambling - including public lotteries - as a recreation, as an escape, or as a means of producing public revenue or funds for support of charities or government."

The Book of Resolutions also includes other positions on gambling adopted by various General Conferences.

One resolution (pages 491-493), adopted in 1980 and amended and readopted in 1996, elaborates on the gambling statement in the Social Principles. Opposition is expressed to the growing legalization and state promotion of gambling and the legalization of pari-mutuel betting. Concern is expressed for the "increasing development of the casino enterprise in the United States," and support is encouraged for the enforcement of anti-gambling laws. United Methodist churches are asked to abstain from "raffles, lotteries, bingo, door prizes, other drawing schemes, and games of chance for the purpose of gambling or fund-raising."

Posted 2:07 PM by Donald Sensing
Do you know what a lottery really is?
Proposed Tenn. lottery amendment will immediately introduce dozens of gambling games into Tennessee;
signs Tennessean's rights over to other states' legislatures

Do you remember the children's story, "If you give a mouse a cookie?" It continues, ". . . he'll ask for a glass of milk." Then the mouse asks for a napkin, then a little blanket for a nap, until finally it becomes the master of house because it always wants just one more thing.

That's the problem with lotteries. Their appetite is never sated.

Not only Tennesseans are considering whether to amend their state's constitution to permit gambling. Nebraskans are, too. Today the Omaha World-Herald carried this editorial advising Nebraskans to, "Read the fine print." That's good advice for Tennesseans, also!

Remember, Tennesseeans will not vote directly on the lottery itself this November. We will vote on whether to amend the state constitution to permit the legislature to authorize a lottery. To read the text of the amendment, click here.

The key points:

-- The lottery proceeds MUST be used to "provide financial assistance" to Tennessee students to attend post-secondary educational institutions located in Tennessee.

-- If there is any lottery money left over from that, it MUST be used for, in order, "( 1) Capital outlay projects for K-12 educational facilities; and (2) Early earning programs and after school programs."

-- No other use of lottery proceeds is authorized.

Here is a really key section, near the end:

A state lottery means a lottery of the type such as in operation in Georgia, Kentucky and Virginia in 2000, and the amendment to Article XI, Section 5 of the Constitution of the State of Tennessee provided for herein does not authorize games of chance associated with casinos, including, but not limited to, slot machines, roulette wheels, and the like.

That means that Georgia's legislature gets to decide what kind of lottery Tennessee gets. Or Kentucky's legislature. Or Virginia's.

To pass the amendment is to vote away our own destiny to the hands of other states.

Every kind of lottery game played there now or in the future will be able to be instituted in Tennessee with no public debate, because the amended state constitution will say those games are already permissible.

The Georgia lottery has seven games, including a quick-pick game that has a new winning number every four minutes. How do you say, "addiction?" ALL these games will be able to be introduced immediately by the Tennessee legislature with no further notice to the public.

Kentucky's lottery has EIGHT games, including three different "scratch off ticket" games, the most addictive kind of lottery game there is:

You buy a ticket and scratch off sections to win.

ALL these games will be able to be introduced immediately by the Tennessee legislature with no further notice to the public.

Virginia's lottery has five main games plus an incredible SEVENTY-ONE different scratch-off games! Seventy-six games altogether! Currently, Virginia is promoting the "Table Stakes" game (see picture).



Out-of-state gambling interests and lottery corporations are poised to move into Tennessee rapidly if we pass the lottery resolutuion this November. With no further debate, we will find ourselves swimming in literally dozens of gambling games called "lottery" by legislative fiat.

And remember, what ever Georgia, Kentucky and Virginia do will be immediatley legal here.

Do Tennesseans really know what a state lottery is?

And are Tennesseans really willing to sign their sovereignty over to other states' legislatures?

If you give a mouse a cookie . . . .

Posted 8:33 AM by Donald Sensing
Lottery vending machines lure children
Unsupervised lottery sales now done in Indiana

In the same story as referred to here, the Indianapolis Star paper discusses the use of vending machines to sell lottery tickets. Anyone can use them. Just slip in a dollar and get a ticket.

Therein lies the rub.

Foes of legalized gambling complain that free-standing machines are too handy for kids. The more available gambling is, the greater the risk for some
children to become problem gamblers before they're out of high school.

"They're very attractive lures. They're supposed to be," said John Wolf, a retired minister and coordinator of the Indiana Coalition Against Legalized
Gambling.

Indiana retailers are bound by their contracts with the state not to sell tickets to children under age 18. But critics say the proliferation of machines and their locations make sales difficult to monitor.

The state already operates about 650 scratch-off ticket machines in high-traffic retailers, including supermarkets. Last month, the Hoosier Lottery ordered 500 machines that dispense pull-tab tickets -- 460 new ones and 40 replacements.

Ticket machines "are one step from child's play to commercial gambling. They are cultivating tomorrow's customers," said Durand Jacobs, a professor at
California's Loma Linda University Medical School.

Posted 8:18 AM by Donald Sensing
15 percent of kids have serious gambling problem
Juvenile gambling is rising, and so are the associated problems

Ann Bennett sends a link to this story in the Indiana Star newspaper. The story reports the research of Durand Jacobs, a professor at California's Loma Linda University Medical School.

Jacobs has researched juvenile gambling for decades and concludes that:

o Children start gambling around age 10.

o By age 12, children and the majority of their peers have gambled for money.

o In the late 1980s, one in 10 children reported serious gambling-related problems. By 2000, the number increased to one in seven children.

o In the late 1980s, about 45 percent admitted gambling for money during the previous year. By 2000, that figure had jumped to 66 percent.

Jacobs traces the rise in juvenile gambling to the growth of state-run lotteries.

Tennesseans, don't be deceived that the proposed Tennessee lottery is good for our kids. We may as well sell them cocaine!

Scholarships is not a reason to ruin people's lives with a lottery.

There is no right reason to do a wrong thing.

Posted 5:15 AM by Donald Sensing
Virginia, a lottery state, is $1.5 billion in the hole
Lottery is no cure for revenue problems

This morning's Washington Times explains that Virginia has a $1.5 billion shortfall this year. Virginia is a lottery state; according to the lottery's official web site,

The lottery proceeds, which are approximately one-third of lottery sales, are sent each year to the Commonwealth to be used as determined by the elected officials. . . . [Since] 1999, a state budget amendment sent lottery proceeds to local public school divisions to be used solely for educational purposes.

(Tennessee's proposed lottery constitutional amendment gives the state legislature no leeway is determining how the proceeds may be used. It will be impossible to use Tenn. lottery money for the general fund unless the state's constitution is amended again.)
Virginia's Gov. Mark Warner -

directed state agencies to prepare plans to reduce their 2003-2004 general fund budgets by up to 15 percent. He ordered those to be submitted to cabinet secretaries by Sept. 20. . . .

Those reductions would be in addition to the 7 percent and 8 percent reductions already enacted for most state agencies. The governor said combined with earlier cuts, this would result in potential reductions of up to 23 percent for certain state agencies.

Warner said that so-called non-general fund program and agencies also will have to abide by the percentage reductions and the analysis of possible reductions.

"The magnitude of this additional $1.5 billion shortfall, on top of the $3.8 billion shortfall we have already addressed and the budget actions we have already taken, is truly sobering," according to Warner's prepared text.

He also told lawmakers that since the beginning of the year, the state now faced a budget problem equal to $750 for each and every resident of Virginia, a total of $5.3 billion.

The state lottery is no solution to general fund problems!

Posted 10:18 AM by Donald Sensing
Senator Cohen responds to my letter
Denies that the "Church Lady" ads libel Christians;
admits that ads will "attack" people of religious faith - but says lotteries benefit Christians

Last week the Tennessean ran a story on upcoming pro-lottery TV ads featuring an actor playing SNL's famous "Church Lady. For that background, click here.

In response to the story and the ads' content (which mocks Christians), I emailed state Senator Steve Cohen this letter. (Cohen is the principal sponsor of the lottery resolution.)

Today at noon I received his response, which I am publishing verbatim:

Dear Mr. Sensing,

The proposed ad you speak of in your e-mail is independent of the group Tennessee Student Scholarship Lottery Coalition, which I chair. Contrary to what GFTA intended to do in intentionally attacking me as a human being, Mr. Pandey's ad is an attempt at humor and not character assassination. Regardless, I will respond to its attack on my group or myself or misinformation concerning this issue. However, it is not my responsibility to comment on other groups or
issues. I have not seen Mr. Pandey's ad, but I don't belive it slanders Christians, something I would certainly not do or condone, it appears to attack those who because of religious reasons want to influence activities that other Christians actively engage in 38 states and the District of Columbia and which benefit Christians in those states and the district.

Most Sincerely,
Stephen I. Cohen
State Senator

First, GFTA never intended to attack Mr. Cohen "as a human being," whatever that means. Second, this response is just a crock. Mr. Cohen says he has not seen the ads (and so presumably, knows no more about them than any Tennessean reader does), and then makes the rather breathtaking assertion that it is aimed at religious people who want to "influence activities that Christians actively engage in." Why, pray tell, should a spat among Christians be of concern to pro-lottery people who make no Christian claims themselves?

I'm trying to parse this, but having little luck. Let's see: the ads "attack" (Cohen's word) religious people who disagree with what Christian people are doing. I think.

"Attack." That's what the man said. But in Cohen's world, that's "humor," not "character assassination.

And no, Mr. Cohen, the lotteries in other states do not "benefit Christians" there or anyone else. Lotteries are always harmful for 99 percent of everyone whom they affect, and that's everyone of each state where they are played.

Posted 4:54 AM by Donald Sensing
Senator Cohen Watch
I have still not received an answer from Sen. Cohen to my inquiry

Cohen is now nowhere to be found concerning the infamous Church Lady ads; my sources tell me that anti-lottery activists want the ads to run, say they will hurt lottery more than help it.

Posted 6:17 AM by Donald Sensing
Tennessean weighs in against "Church Lady" ads and lottery
Tim Chavez sees through the scam

In a column this morning on the front page of the Local News section of the Tennessean, Tim Chavez ripped apart the Church Lady TV ads scheduled to begin next month:

The commercials, however, are actually good news for lottery opponents. Their campaign is shifting gears to add a new message. It will stress political oldies but goodies in Tennessee to defeat the lottery at the polls on Nov. 5: the dislike of more state spending and the threat of an income tax.

Lottery opponents will be able to draw on real-life reinforcement of their position ? instead of a make-believe character from Saturday Night Live being resurrected by proponents. The growing fiscal mess that the lottery has made of higher education in the state of Florida ? another non-income tax state ? is rich with lessons for Tennessee voters.

Colleges there are under fiscal siege because of the burden from increased enrollment produced by lottery scholarships. College presidents are crying for more money.

Anti-lottery forces here will say the burden on Tennessee public colleges and universities from lottery scholarships would reignite the income tax push. But this time, income tax proponents would have a popular instrument to cloak their intentions: education. The biggest proponent of the lottery is a big proponent of the income tax, state Sen. Steve Cohen.

Read the whole thing; it's right on target.

Posted 6:19 PM by Donald Sensing
No answer yet from Sen. Cohen
The sound of silence isn't just for Simon and Garfunkel

I have not received an answer from State Senator Steven Cohen to the letter I emailed him.

Posted 6:17 PM by Donald Sensing
Anti-lottery resources list
All resources are available to everyone; denomination does not matter

Ann Bennett sends:

Folks, the days are slipping by. It is now the middle of August. In about 2 1/2 months, the battle will be over. The future of the state of Tennessee is at stake. Either the state will get into the gambling business or it will not. It WILL depend on YOU! What will YOU do? What will your church do?

In addition to the resources mentioned below, other resources are available at Gambling Free Tennessee Alliance, tel. (615) 460-1183.

From the Tennessee Baptist and Reflector, Aug. 14, by Linda Lawson, excerpted:

Beginning Tuesday, Sept. 3, The Tennessee Baptist Convention will distribute 3.2 million bulletin inserts and 75,000 copies of a 32-page magazine to 67 association offices by the first week of September. Associations, in turn, will be responsible for getting materials to every church, according to TBC Executive Director James M. Porch.

Each insert includes information about the vote and addresses a key topic related to the lottery. Titles include: Lottery Gambling Puts Children at Risk, The Lottery Does Little for Education, The Lottery Takes Advantage of the Poor, The Lottery Is Bad for Tennessee?s Economy.

Also, Porch said he hopes the magazine, Keep Tennessee Gambling Free, produced by the Baptist & Reflector, will become the primary teaching piece in the churches. He said the magazine can be a resource during discussion times and educational settings to deal with the issue of the lottery.

Information also is available through the Lottery section on the Tenn. Baptist Convention web site.

Posted 7:47 AM by Donald Sensing
I have asked Senator Cohen to respond
Here is the text of the letter I emailed him this morning.

Dear Senator Cohen,

I read with interest the Tennessean's article this morning that explained the TV ads planned by Bart Sibrel and Aneel M. Pandey.

I would appreciate your responses to the following points, please:

1. Back in in April you chastised the GFTA for appearing to plan to attack you as a Jewish man. Now your lottery allies seem to be deriding Christians as unthinking nitwits.

Will you publicly renounce, soon, the ads' slanders against Christians and other people of faith who oppose the lottery? If not, why not?

2. These ads tell outright falsehoods about the proposed lottery, as you surely know, being the lottery amendment's chief sponsor. Their claim that it will result in "$300 million annually for public schools" is simply false, as you well know.

Will you publicly correct, soon, the falsehood that the lottery would provide $300 million for public schools? If not, why not?

3. An ads's script was quoted: ''With all this talk about a state income tax, why not make up the difference with a voluntary tax that's fun?"

Will you publicly correct, soon, the falsehood that the lottery would provide money to the state's general fund, thus obviating the potential need for a state income tax? If not, why not?

Finally, will you ask Messrs. Sibril and Pandey not to run these ads because of their offensive content and factual falsehoods? If not, why not?

Sincerely,

Donald Sensing
Franklin, TN

Posted 5:22 AM by Donald Sensing
Lottery proponents now resort to outright deception
TV ads to be aired don't just duck the truth - they state falsehoods;
Ads also will mock people of religious faith

An article in this morning's Tennessean says that two pro-lottery TV ads to be aired as early as next month bash people opposed to the lottery for their presumed Christian faith. Not only that, the ads tell outright falsehoods about what lottery-tax money can be used for. The ads were produced by Bart Sibrel and paid for by Nashvillian Aneel M. Pandey, who seriously need to check into the Real World.

A Franklin actor, dressed the "Church Lady" made famous by Dana Carvey on Saturday Night Live, is . . .

. . . chided for opposing ''a lottery that is estimated to raise $300 million annually for public schools.''

She replies: ''I think 50 kids to a class is fine. . . . It helps prepare them for the real world. It's crowded out there, you know. And teachers make enough money as it is. Most of them need to be full-time housewives anyway.''

Asked about ''the fact that our Christian founding fathers used a lottery to support the first public schools,'' the Church Lady responds: ''Well, isn't that special? If I had my way, I'd take every founding father and hang them up by their . . . . ''

She is then interrupted by a phone call naming her as a Powerball winner. The Church Lady jumps up to do her arrogant, rooster-walk dance while the announcer's voice-over says:

''With all this talk about a state income tax, why not make up the difference with a voluntary tax that's fun? On November 5th be sure to vote, and vote yes for the lottery. Improve schools, keep your taxes down, and maybe win some money!''

I almost lack the words to respond to this looney-tune ad. So let me state the facts, which Sibrel and Pandey simply ignore. (Why, I wonder. . . .)

Oh, did you catch the accusation that if you oppose the lottery, you must think that teachers are overpaid and women should not work outside the home?

It is not true that only Christian denominations in Tennessee are fighting the lottery. The Inter-religious Concerns group of Gambling-Free Tennessee includes many non-Christian religious leaders also.

But Sibrel and Pandey dimiss people of religious faith as, well, unthinking nitwits: '' 'As far as I know, the only people who are against it are the religious folks who feel it's not moral,'' he said." Can't you just hear the sneer in that statement?

Sibrel and Pandey simply do not tell the truth about the lottery. It will never bring in "$300 million annually for public schools," as they claim. As explained here:

The vote this November is actually a vote to amend the state constitution in a way that will permit the legislature to authorize a lottery. The language of the proposed amendment was specified by the legislature and by law cannot be changed.

If the amendment passes in November, the state constitution will be amended in a way that requires lottery profits to fund scholarships for Tennessee students attending Tennessee colleges or universities. Excess funds, if any, must be used for certain capital expenditures for K-12 schools.

It will be unconstitutional to use lottery money in the general state's fund. But the general fund is the one with the huge shortfall.

Sibrel told the Tennessean that the lottery is, "like buying a $1 raffle ticket, and it all goes to education.''

Untrue!. State Senator Steve Cohen, the lottery amendment's sponsor, has said many times that lottery taxes will award $300 million in scholarships. But to do so, the state must collect $900 million in new taxes.

The reason is that only about 30 percent - call it a third - of money collected by lottery ticket sales will go to education payouts. The other $600-plus million will line the pockets of the out-of-state corporation contracted to manage the operation, buy advertising, pay overhead and give prizes to the very few people who actually win.

So for every $1 ticket you buy, kiss 70 cents of it goodbye. It certainly does not "all go to education."

Senator Cohen says he and his pro-lottery allies "had no connection" with the TV ad, but Sibrel said he had met with Cohen.

Cohen told the Tennessean, ''What Anee [Pandey] has produced is an independent production on his own,'' Cohen said. ''I appreciate everybody who supports the lottery, but that is not the content I would have chosen. When I heard about it, it concerned me. I thought it could offend somebody.''

Excuse me, Senator, but I flat don't believe you. They say they met with you about these ads, yet it is full of falsehoods and anti-Christian slurs. That being so:

1. Will you ask Pandey not to run the ad because of its untruths?

2. Will you publicly correct the falsehood that the lottery would be a windfall for the public schools?

3. Will you publicly renounce the ads' slanders against Christians and other people of faith who oppose the lottery?

A man of integrity will clean up his own mess, Senator. Will you?

Update:The text to my letter to Sen. Cohen is here.

Posted 2:42 PM by Donald Sensing
We can arrange for a speaker to talk to your church or civic group about the lottery
Tennesseans are starting to pay attention to all the election issues now that primaries are over

If you would like a speaker to talk to your group, please email one of the following persons:

Donald Sensing

Jay Voorhees

Skip Armistead

You may also contact the Gambling Free Tennessee Alliance directly

2000 Glen Echo Road, Suite 212
Nashville, TN 37215
Phone: 615-460-1183
Toll Free: 1-800-460-1351 (Outside Nashville)
Fax: 615-460-3871

Mailing Address:

GFTA
P.O. Box 150871
Nashville, TN 37215

Posted 5:24 AM by Donald Sensing
From Task Force chairman Jay Voorhees

Dear friends,

Our work continues on. We only have 84 days until the November 5 election. Please review the news on our work below as you determine how God is leading you in this effort.

1) We continue to need to urge our people to prayer on this issue. Skip Armistead's e-mail prayer service is a great way to remind folks to pray about the issue. Please send e-mail addresses to SkipArmistead@worldnet.att.net.

2) We have reached crunch time regarding finances. Television spots have been produced to spread the facts about the lottery, however its doubtful whether there will be money to purchase air time. We desperately need to identify potential donors who oppose the lottery and/or conduct love offerings in our congregations to raise funds. Donations should be sent to the conference office and identified for the Lottery Fund.

3) Things are moving forward in the Clarksville District. Three events have been scheduled: a power breakfast with community leaders; a church-wide mobilization session with Dan Ireland (the leader of the anti-lottery effort in Alabama); and an interdenominational citywide rally. Thanks for your work in Clarksville.

4) GFTA has produced "Vote No" bumper stickers, lapel stickers, auto decals, and yard signs. Please let me know if you are interested in obtaining any of these items at cost.

5) The next scheduled meeting of the Bishop's Task Force on the Lottery is Monday, August 26 at 3:30 p.m. at the West End United Methodist Church. All persons who have an interest in opposing the lottery are invited and encouraged to attend.

Folks, it's time for the momentum of the campaign to pick up. We cannot win this battle without a concerted effort by us all. It isn't easy work, and it comes at a busy time in the church year. So, we are all dependent on one another for support in this fight. I look forward with anticipation to see how God will be moving among us in the next 84 days.

May God's grace and peace be with you.

Jay Voorhees
Bishop's Task Force on the Lottery

Posted 5:12 AM by Donald Sensing
Glamour lures teen gamblers
Forwarded from Bobbie Patray:

AUSTRALIA is in the grip of a teenage gambling crisis with thousands of young people losing their pay, dole and pocket money each week. Experts say up to 200,000 adolescents have become gambling junkies, with little or no action being taken to tackle the problem.

Welfare, youth, anti-gambling groups and researchers say a culture which glamourised gambling had created the next generation of adult problem-gamblers.

The preferred method of gambling is the poker machine, despite it being illegal for most teenagers.

[Bobbie's note: These machines are very similar to the Video Lottery Terminals so prevalent in state run lottery operations.]

The magnitude of teenage gambling addiction had never been established, Professor Alex Blaszczynkski of the University of Sydney's Gambling Treatment Clinic said.

Professor Blaszczynkski, who is researching the link between attention deficit disorder and adolescent problem-gambling, said children from lower socio-economic backgrounds were most at risk.

"There's no doubt it's a major public health issue, but we don't know how bad it is because there's been no systematic research of adolescent teenage gambling in Australia," he said.

"But overseas research shows how big a problem we are facing. Research in Canada found 5 per cent of high school students were problem gamblers.

"Some adolescents will grow out of it, but many will carry it into adulthood," he said. "Adolescents see gambling as a way to make money and will then chase their
losses."

Professor Blaszczynkski said those who could least afford to lose were the most likely to become problem gamblers. "They will (bet) because there's no cover charge, a safe environment and cheap drinks, but it's all subsidised by gambling," he said.

The Federal Government will announce a $400,000 research grant this month to examine the extent of the problem.

A spokesman for Family and Community Services Minister Senator Amanda Vanstone said the lack of research would be addressed. "If we can find out what gets young people involved, we can work out how to keep them from being sucked into problem gambling," the spokesman said.

[Bobbie's note: Just like we keep them from alcohol and tobacco? BTW, Tennessee has the highest teen smoking rate in the nation.]

University of Melbourne professor Alun Jackson, who conducted problem gambling research programs for the Victorian Government in the 1990s, said evidence was emerging that gambling among adolescents had exploded. Professor Jackson said his research showed one in eight 13 and 14-year-olds were gamblers.

Boys were more likely than girls to consider gambling an easy way to make money. "What's surprising is the high participation rate among the young when you consider that it's illegal for them to gamble," he said.

"Patterns are also emerging which link 13 and 14-year-old gamblers with illicit drugs, gang membership and other illicit behaviour. "Our children are growing up in a high-level climate of legal gambling and we need to get very serious about preventive education," Professor Jackson said.

Gamblers Helpline has a youth action group to help teenage gamblers. Counsellor John Laidlaw said low self esteem, homelessness and boredom were triggers.
"Doing things that they're not allowed to do also adds to the excitement," he said.

Victoria's Inter-Church Gambling Taskforce spokesman, the Rev Tim Costello, said having an early win was the worst thing that could happen to teenagers. "Then they think they are going to win on a regular basis and the never-ending losing spiral begins," he said.

By IAN HABERFIELD, State Political reporter, 11aug02 Herald and Weekly Times

Posted 5:08 AM by Donald Sensing
Can corruption exist related in any way to state lotteries?

"Five members of the Kentucky Lottery Corporation resigned after a report found that lottery officials wasted taxpayer's money on perks, broke state laws in awarding contracts, and engaged in other dubious practices, including allowing retailers to keep lottery money for more than a month. Kentucky lottery executives were paid $500,000 in bonuses the very day that the Kentucky Lottery Corporation took out a $10 million loan."

Source: Carlton, Chad, "Lottery president, 3 board members quit, Chairman Brown hints he'll also resign," Louisville Courier-Journal, 7/23/1993, cited in Miles, Jim, "Comparison of Georgia and Kentucky Lottery", The Bipartisan Lottery Opposition Committee (South Carolina), p. 2. Also www.motherjones.com/coinop_congress/easymoney/KY.html. (This is quoted from Gambling Free Tennessee Alliance 101 Things You Should Know About A
Lottery, 2002, p. 1)

Posted 7:15 PM by Donald Sensing
Yeah, what a great deal . . . .

The Georgia Department of Human services reports that the new compulsive gambling in Georgia, after the introduction of the HOPE Scholarship lottery, incurred new costs (from addictions only - not the other costs which emerge) which estimates range from $221 million to $884 million a year. (Charles Walston, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, 1999)

Posted 2:33 PM by Donald Sensing
LOTTERY INFORMATION:
Believe it or not, lotteries can be "fixed," and "rigged" illegally. I'm sorry this is longer than most, but you won't be able to stop reading this fascinating account of the "Pennsylvania: The 666 Scam" written by Roger Abramson. Yes, this is a True Story!

"Lottery machines are (theoretically) random, with no regard to lucky or unlucky, good or evil. Unless, of course, someone tampers with it. And, in 1980, that's exactly what happened in Pennsylvania in a scandal so huge a movie ("Lucky Numbers") was made about it in (2000).

Before the Pennsylvania Lottery had a television studio of its own, it broadcasted its lottery drawings from WTAE-TV in Wilkinsburg (near Pittsburgh). The lottery used the well-known "ping-pong ball" method. A bunch of ping-pong balls labeled with numbers between zero and nine would be jumbled by an air machine and sucked up randomly, one-by-one, until three digits were announced the winner.

The drawing was hosted by Nick Perry, an avuncular local weatherman who was fingered by witnesses as the mastermind of the ultimate plan to fix the lottery. "[W]hat I'm about to tell you I don't want you to tell no one," Peter Maragos, an associate of Perry's testified Perry had told him. "The lottery can be fixed."

The trick was to weight some of the balls down with white latex paint (baby powder was tried first-unsuccessfully) so that they would be too heavy for the air machine to lift. Perry enlisted the assistance of station art director Joseph Bock, stagehand Fred Luman, Maragos and his brother Jack, and, ultimately, district supervisor of the lottery Edward Plevel, who possessed one of the two keys (Perry, conveniently enough, was entrusted with the other) to the room containing the ping-pong balls.

The group conspired to weight down a set of replacement ping-pong balls except those labeled "4" and "6" and replace the real balls with these on April 24,1980. Before the drawing, they and their associates purchased over 10,000 lottery tickets in all of the eight possible combinations of "4" and "6" ("666," "444", "646", etc.). They also placed a number of bets with private (and illegal) bookmakers.

The fix worked; the machine pulled up the numbers "666", and the conspirators thought they had (literally) hit the jackpot. The winnings, based on a $500 payout per winning ticket, were the largest in the game's history: $3.5 million, almost half of which went to the Perry conspirators,

Ironically, it was the underground bookie network, and not the state lottery commission, that busted the scheme open. The bookmakers noticed unusually heavy play on "4" and "6" combinations and suspected a fix as soon as the three sixes were drawn. Consequently, they "put the word on the street that they weren't paying off" and went to authorities with their concerns.

The station itself also became more wary after review of the drawing videotape. WTAE anchorman Don Cannon noted that "[w]e looked at it, slowed it down frame-by-frame. All of the other balls were staying flat-only the 4's and 6's seemed to be buoyant. That's when we started investigating it thoroughly ourselves."

In the meantime, the state and lottery officials were playing defense, insisting that there was no evidence of foul play. Howard Cohen, Pennsylvania Revenue Secretary, was especially insistent, holding a news conference that resulted in at least temporarily returning public confidence in the lottery.

Some in the press, too, seemed to be unwilling to acknowledge the fire that was responsible for all of the smoke, at least at first. A New York Times article published just two weeks after the drawing, noted that [t]hough the 666 payoff was the largest ever, the number that got the heaviest play that day was 999. Had that been the winning number, the payoff would have been $6.4 million. The number 444 was also played more frequently than 666.

While there is no ready explanation for the betting pattern on 6, a check of newspapers that day shows many references to 6, and lottery players often follow such references as hunches.

A numerology chart in The Philadelphia Daily News listed the leading number for April 24 as 6. The paper's banner headline was about the Sixers, the city's basketball team. There was a page one picture showing the number 6 on Julius Erving's basketball jersey. A columnist, in a reference to the Democratic Presidential race, wrote that its takes 1,666 delegates to assure nomination.

The jig was up, however, when Pennsylvania law enforcement officials conducted computer traces on ticket purchases and discovered the fingerprints of the Perry conspirators everywhere. The fallout was enormous. Pennsylvania's Attorney General Dick Thornburgh (later Attorney General of the United States), with the help of a grand jury, ultimately prosecuted the central members of the conspiracy. Perry and Plevel were sent to prison on charges of "criminal mischief, criminal conspiracy, theft by deception, and rigging a public contest" and Bock and Luman were sentenced to one to five years in prison for their roles in the scheme. The Managos brothers received lighter sentences for turning state's evidence.

Even to this day, two decades later, Pennsylvanians "have been talking., investing the story with its own mythology, retelling it whenever a glitch disrupts a lottery drawing."

Posted 2:29 PM by Donald Sensing
The Beggar
By Rev. Clint Andrews
Crossroads Christian Church, Gray, TN

Ann Bennett sent this with the comment, "it that it exactly explains the spiritual issue we are dealing with in fighting the lottery."

Maybe it was the bright orange University of Tennessee T-shirt.or possibly the camera hanging about my neck.or maybe it was the word "sucker" printed on my forehead.but something marked me as an easy target during my family's recent trip to New York, because every time I turned around, a street person was asking me for a handout.

No one else seemed to be plagued by this blessing. Certainly none of the other men, for that matter. Both my brother-in-law and son-in-law managed to do the impossible.to spend an entire week in New York City without one beggar shaking them down for spare change. I, on the other hand, got shook on a regular basis. One would have thought a cold front was passing through the city. I figure the reason the others were able to escape its clutch was because all the beggars in New York had my number.and they were too busy dialing me to give anyone else a problem.

However, lest you think I'm a complete idiot.let me assure you, it's not like I was giving out cash all over the Big Apple. No. I learned years ago not to hand out money.

Some where back in the early 80's, our young-adult Sunday School class at Hales Chapel went to a diner in Elizabethton. As I recall, we had a good time.and as we prepared to leave.a panhandler approached Eddie Rowe in the parking lot. Why this beggar singled out Eddie, I couldn't say, but it could have been Eddie's orange U.T. shirt. Eddie asked him why he wanted the money, and the man's response was the universal answer almost every panhandler gives. He was hungry. He needed something to eat. Now it was at this point I learned the lesson I would later apply in New York City.

Accepting the beggar's explanation, Eddie led him back to the diner and bought him a meal. No cash. Just food, just like the food we had eaten. In other words, Eddie gave the man what he needed, not necessarily what he asked for. There was something to be learned in that. So, when I was approached by every beggar in New York City asking for spare change, here's what I did. I told them, "I don't give money.but if you're hungry, I'll buy you a meal. Is that what you want?" Only two panhandlers accepted the offer. and of those, only one acted like he was really hungry.

Some didn't even respond at all. Even though they had assured me they needed the money for food, when they realized they weren't going to get cash, they turned away, seeking a new target. Still others started to argue their case.but soon gave up, looking for an easier mark. Now, why do I share all of this?

Because I believe there is a spiritual application in it.when it comes to prayer. In many ways, we can be like those beggars. We approach God humbly, mouthing the pious words. "Give us this day our daily bread," when in reality, it isn't the bread we want. We prefer the money. Let's be honest, in this land of plenty, we aren't overly concerned about full bellies. We want full pockets. Give us money.and we'll take care of our bellies. In that sense, we sound just like the beggars.

Yet, we know the panhandlers don't really want our change to purchase food.in spite of what they say. They want the cash to buy their next drink.or their next fix. So, they make their "begging" sound righteous.appealing to human compassion. But in reality, they are lying.to us.and maybe to themselves. They want the money for their pleasures.

James warns us it is possible that we may do exactly the same thing in our prayers: "You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask you do
not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." (James 4:2b, 3)

Give me the money, God. I promise I'll spend it wisely. You know I will.

Posted 8:41 AM by Donald Sensing
Educators speak out against lottery-funded scholarship programs
Florida university presidents call lottery scholarships "bad public policy."

Florida has a "Bright Futures" scholarship program funded by the Florida lottery. An April 8, 2002 article in The Gainesville Sun titled "UF, FSU advocate radical changes" reports that the presidents of U. of Forida and Florida State University are not fans of the scholarship program. President Charles Young (UF) says in the article "It's horrible public policy." Like most states with similar programs, the article reports he is criticizing the state keeping the tuition low by subsidizing higher education with tax dollars and then awarding "merit" scholarships which are disproportionately going to upper- and middle-income families.

"The poor are subsidizing the rich - that's the ultimate effect of it," he said. "People who can't afford to come to the university are paying taxes to support those who could very easily afford to go to Stanford or Harvard or wherever else they might want to go."

He even reports that nearly 30% of UF's Bright Futures recipients received refund checks from the prepaid tuition program in the 2000-01 school year. He adds, "If the state had so much money that they didn't know what to do with it, then I would still think (Bright Futures) was bad public policy, but I wouldn't be as concerned about it."

Posted 8:40 AM by Donald Sensing
We hate to bring this up, but . . .
"You do not have, because you do not ask." James 4:2

In order for our oppostion to the lottery to have a major impact, we need the masses to hear the whole truth concerning lotteries.

Our opponents will do a good job making sure their part of the lotteries are presented. We need to make sure our part of the truth is also presented. To do this, we need to pray for people to make financial contributions for television, radio and newspaper advertisements. So this is a totally different issue for us to pray, but no less important.

James says, "You do not have, because you do not ask." So, I'm asking us to pray. Will you pray for God's help in securing the finances to fund the rest of the campaign to oppose the lottery?

Prayer:
Most loving gracious God, we've been praying for the truth concerning lotteries to be presented and heard. Today, we ask for your help to find the funding to finance other means through which this truth is presented and heard. TV, radio and newspapers cost a lot. Please guide persons to give to fund the opposition to the lottery. In God's Holy Name, we pray, Amen!