Internet Gambling Puts a Slot Machine in Every Home

Internet gambling fails Governor Lynch's three wise and frequently stated cautions about expanded video and casino gambling:

·         The Governor opposes SB489 - which would legalize 6 casinos and 17,000 slot machines - because of his concerns about statewide gambling proliferation. Internet gambling would go far beyond this by putting a slot machine in almost every New Hampshire home.

·         For many years, the Governor has resisted endorsing any specific slot machine or casino legalization proposal until being convinced of no damage to our state's crown jewel, our high quality of life. The evidence for damage is already abundantly clear: the greatest increases in gambling addiction, personal financial problems, family breakdown, and crime occur in states having implemented highly proliferated slot machine gambling, such as Oregon, Montana, and West Virginia where slots are located in hundreds of local bars and restaurants.

·         The Governor's gaming study commission has not yet issued its report on potential revenues and social and economic costs associated various types of gambling expansion. Support for any proposal is premature.

Additional reasons why Internet gambling is wrong for New Hampshire:

·         Internet gambling would put the state in the business of promoting gambling in the home. Rutgers University found that teens are twice as likely to be heavy gamblers if their parents gamble. Teens are one-third more likely become level 3 (pathological) gamblers if their parents gamble. See Tables 2.14 and 3.5 of the Rutgers study.

·         University of Connecticut Internet gambling researcher Nancy Petry found that two-thirds of regular Internet gamblers were probable gambling addicts, compared with under 8 percent of non-Internet gamblers.

·         Determined gambling addicts and minors will easily circumvent as yet unproven security measures promised by the online gambling industry. The ease of 24/7 surreptitious access to online gambling will allow addicts to play slots on the job and children all over New Hampshire to gamble in their bedrooms.

·         The 2007 National Annenberg Survey of Youth found that Internet gambling and problem gambling among college-aged youth dropped sharply in months after the federal ban on interstate Internet gambling was passed in 2006, even though the online gambling industry has successfully blocked effective enforcement of the law through 2010.

·         Under federal law, legalization would also require the state to permit tribal Internet gambling, subject to even fewer regulatory safeguards.

·         Taxing Internet gambling sets a significant precedent in taxing Internet services.

Reasons we oppose SB489, saturating the state with 6 casinos and 17,000 slots.

Reasons we oppose SB490, legalizing 3 "historic racing" slot casinos.

23 Reasons we oppose any type of slot casino anywhere in our state.