Christian Action League of North Carolina, Inc.

By L.A. Williams

Gamblers flocked to some 5,000 stores March 30 to buy the first lottery tickets sold in the Tar Heel state, visions of winnings and happily-ever-afters dancing in their heads. Meanwhile, state education officials were all aglow with their own visions of increased, trouble-free funding, But the pictures simply couldn't be further from the truth, says longtime gambling expert Tom Spampinato.

"With North Carolina starting the lottery, I predict that within five years the state will have least 100,000 problem gamblers," said Spampinato, the North Carolina coordinator for the National Council on Problem Gambling and founder of the state's Gamblers Anonymous. And with every addiction negatively affecting the lives of an estimated 10 people, from family members to co-workers and friends, that means at least a million people in North Carolina should be bracing themselves for what's to come.

Billed as the panacea for education funding shortfalls, the idea of a state lottery had been bantered around for about 25 years when N.C. Governor Mike Easley took office in 2001 and began his push. Many lawmakers gave in to the idea after South Carolina and Tennessee started their lotteries.

But those who believe promoting gambling to its citizens is North Carolina's ticket to prosperity are, no doubt, in for a rude awakening.

A sixth-month investigation by Money magazine reveals that state lotteries have neither lowered taxes for their residents nor boosted funding for education, as their champions have promised. The fact is lotteries cost more than they are worth.

"They turn people into compulsive gamblers, which adds an estimated $10.9 billion a year to the financial burdens of the states and their taxpayers," said the Rev. Mark Creech of the Christian Action League.

The article in Money magazine goes on to say that statistics show that states wind up keeping only a mere third of sales, after shelling out billions on administrative cost and prizes.

Despite marketing slogans (North Carolina even calls it's an "Education Lottery"), lottery states spend less of their budgets on education than do those without lotteries, on average, Creech points out.

What money does come in it can't even begin to cover the social consequences of gambling and the lives lost to its addictive pull.

Consider Nevada, which legalized gambling in 1931. When compared with the other 49 states, Nevada is first in suicide, first in divorce, first in high school dropouts, first in homicides against women, at the top in gambling addictions, third in bankruptcies, third in abortion, fourth in rape, fourth in out of wedlock births, fourth in alcohol related deaths, fifth in crime, and sixth in the number of prisoners locked up.

Though many consider buying lottery tickets "harmless entertainment" and not as risky as casino gambling, Spampinato speaks from experience when he says the dangers of any form of gambling should not be underestimated.

"If you go to a casino, it's large and imposing and people are betting big money. The lottery is a different thing. It sneaks up on you slowly. You buy a couple of tickets and, since the cheaper ones have more winners, you're encouraged and you buy another 10 and then 20 and pretty soon you start elevating your bets as the dream of winning the big money sets in," Spampinato said. "Most people who chase that dream are the ones who can least afford to gamble. It's the poor, the people who can't afford a trip to a casino, but they can still spend their paychecks, their life savings, their pensions."

Spampinato, an expert bowler in his younger days, found himself winning as much as $1,000 a game and then taking that money to the race tracks in New York. He remembers losing in a card game the car his parents bought him for graduation, one of many losses as his gambling addiction picked up. He spent two years in the Army, gambling the entire time, and once out, became a race track regular.

"If I couldn't get to the track I would go to betting parlors," Spampinato said. He borrowed money at 20 to 40 percent interest to cover bets and keep a step ahead of his creditors.

"That's one of the things about compulsive gamblers. They are usually really good at not getting caught, but they spend so much energy doing that they have no energy for anything else, like their work or family," Spampinato said.

He said he left work four or five times a day to place bets and totally neglected his wife and five children until 1978 when he finally got help from Gambler's Anonymous.

Spampinato, one of a half-dozen plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the state of North Carolina, the governor and the Lottery Commission, is not only concerned about the massive increase in new gamblers, but also about the problems created when those who have made strides against the addiction now face lottery ticket offers every time they stop for gas or a snack.

"There are really two things that send people back to a life of gambling and that is availability of money and the gambling environment," Spampinato said. He said that even before the lottery tickets went on sale, the hotline set up by the state to assist problem gamblers was already getting calls, calls that he feels the state is totally unprepared to handle.

The lawsuit plaintiffs, which also include the North Carolina Family Policy Council and the Wake County Taxpayers Association, have appealed a negative superior court ruling and have also petitioned to have their case reviewed by the North Carolina Supreme Court.

The case argues, among other violations, that the act creating the lottery was improperly passed, as it did not undergo readings on three separate days in both chambers of the legislature with the second and third votes recorded in the chamber journals as required by the State Constitution for any revenue bill.

While hopeful for a fair ruling in the courts that would put a halt to the lottery, Creech and Spampinato are not willing to sit back and see what happens. The two are already making plans for presentations to help North Carolina churches arm their congregants against the evils of gambling and offer help to those in their communities already being lured in.

"We have to help the people, to make sure they know what the dangers are," Spampinato said.

Though his own life story is his most powerful testimony against gambling, he will also share a list of 20 questions that Gamblers Anonymous offers to anyone who believes he or she may have a gambling problem. Ranging from "Did you ever lose time from work or school due to gambling?" to "Have you ever gambled to escape worry or trouble?" the questions deal with a range of effects on the individual and family. Most compulsive gamblers will answer yes to at least seven of them.

Spampinato will ask churches to print the questions in their bulletins to train parishioners to recognize the signs and to point people to the help available through Gamblers Anonymous. He will also caution parents to keep careful watch on their children and teens now that the lottery is under way.

"Believe it or not, some people even under the age of 18 get addicted to gambling. There is a law against selling lottery tickets to them, but when nobody is looking, they may sell to anyone," he said.

According to Creech, studies show some 5 to 8 percent of adolescents in the United States are already gambling addicts.

Creech has long preached about the consequences of gambling, one of many forms of the sin of coveting.

"The reason people gamble is avarice. It is the old desire for something for nothing — the "'get rich quick' scam," Creech said. "And if you are a covetous person (that is your life is characteristically mired down in the mud flats of materialism), you will not enter the kingdom of God."

Creech said not so very long ago, gambling was widely understood in American culture to be addictive, progressive and dangerous.

"Parents warned their children about the evil of gambling, and some families wouldn't even permit playing cards in the home," he said. "More recently, however, numerous states have been spending multiplied tens of millions of dollars in propaganda which is, indeed, teaching people that there is nothing wrong with gambling, even changing the name of gambling to "'gaming' to improve its image."

While the effect of this publicity has changed many opinions (Some 51 percent of Americans now say that gambling is not wrong at all), it has not changed the Biblical truth or the hard reality of lives destroyed by the gambling addiction.

"Probably, the greatest example of this in history is the picture of the Roman soldiers – the gamblers at Calvary – surrounding the cross of Christ," Creech said. "They are down on their knees with their faces to the earth, casting dice for the garments of Christ; while above them hangs the Savior of the world, totally out of their area of concern. ... Gambling has a pernicious effect upon people in every conceivable kind of way."

Creech and Spampinato expect to have their presentation ready to offer in churches across the state next month, just in time for North Carolina to begin offering its next gambling attraction, the multistate Powerball numbers game.

To find out more about how to arm your congregation against the lottery and other forms of gambling, contact the Christian Action League at 919.787.0606. You can visit their website at www.christianactionleague.org or contact them by e-mail at calact@aol.com.