Casino Supporters Go Bipolar on Gambling Addiction

Casino supporters have gone all bipolar over the costs of gambling addiction.

On one day, they claim that all the gambling addicts New Hampshire will ever see are lurking here symptom-free and that a casino here would cause no addiction increase.

Today, they make headlines about how Massachusetts casinos will cause gambling addiction increases here in New Hampshire.

At the center this of all this are projections by the New Hampshire Public Policy Research Center that the casino proposed in SB152 would be a net economic loser for our state, raising $45 in tax revenue but costing $47 million in crime and addiction-related social costs.

Even though casino supporters (at least today to suit their constantly shifting PR and messaging strategy) now acknowledge that casinos cause increases in gambling addiction, they continue to attack the Center, charging it with having an "unproven" social cost model.

As to the Granite State Coalition, we do have a social cost model, the one most often used in the published, peer-reviewed literature on gambling addiction. A single Salem casino as proposed in SB152 would cause $105 million dollars per year in increased costs of gambling addiction, more than double the Center's excessively conservative projection.

What are these costs?

• Lost work days and decreased workplace productivity.
• Money taken under false pretenses from friends and relatives.
• Increased family bankruptcy.
• Increased household debt loads and liquidated savings.
• Increased family violence, child abuse, and divorce.
• Increased serious crimes, including violent physical assault, breaking and entering, auto theft, and embezzlement.
• Increased criminal justice, welfare, and social services costs paid by state and local taxpayers.

We urge the House to defeat any measure which would legalize casinos and to find a humane means to balance the state budget.

Respectfully,

Jim Rubens, Chair