Gambling

What is Twenty-One Debunked's position on gambling, you may ask?  Despite simmering on the back burner of public discourse for the most part in recent years, gambling is hardly a trivial issue.  Historically, gambling in most of its forms was banned for most of the 20th century in most of the USA except for Nevada since 1931, Atlantic City, NJ since 1977, and Southern Maryland from 1947 until it was banned again in 1968.  In the 1960s and 1970s, many states began running lotteries for revenue.  Then, starting around 1990 more and more states began to legalize casino gambling, and the number casinos has exploded since then, as has the number of people directly and indirectly affected by them.

While casinos, lotteries, etc. do have their benefits, they also have a very serious dark side as well.  And while the benefits (i.e. economic stimulus, jobs, revenue) of adding a new casino to a community are generally short-lived, the negative effects (crime, addiction, financial ruin, cannibalization of local businesses, etc.) build over time and can eventually outweigh such benefits in the long run.  They are also engines of inequality as well (i.e. rob from the poor, give to the rich, hollow out the middle class).  Just look at what happened to Atlantic City to see that there is a whole lot to unpack here.

Twenty-One Debunked is basically neutral on gambling in and of itself, though we do take some specific positions on the issue nonetheless:

1. We believe the age limit for gambling, whether in casinos or otherwise, should be no higher than 18, and the onus should be on the sellers and casino operators rather than the young gamblers themselves.
2. We believe that there should be a moratorium on building any new casinos anywhere in the USA, at least until we can get a better handle on the problem of gambling addiction and its consequences to both individuals and society.
3. We believe that all existing casinos should be required to adhere to the following safeguards to protect against the worst of gambling's infamous dark side:

• A loss limit of $500 like Missouri used to have before 2008, or even as high as $1000.
• No credit (loans) at casinos.  Seriously, why is this even a thing at all?
• No "comps" (complimentary rewards/perks like food, drinks, valet parking, and even hotel rooms that are "earned" the more one gambles), or at the very least, no more free alcoholic beverages.
• No chips or coinless slot machines (unless used to enforce the loss limit above).
• No 24/7 operations--must be closed for at least four consecutive hours per day.
• No ATMs on the premises, or at least not on the gambling floor or close to the machines.
• Require numerous windows and clocks on the gambling floor, and clocks on the machines themselves, so guests don't lose track of time in "the zone" as easily.
• Issue monthly statements of all wins and losses to guests, or at least those exceeding $500, by mail.
• Voluntary self-exclusion must be taken seriously.

Thus, while our views on gambling are a bit nuanced, we really see no benefit to setting the gambling age any higher than 18.  While most states currently have an age limit of 21 for casinos, there are several who set it at 18 that don't seem to be any worse off than those who set it at 21.  And with the aforementioned safeguards, we can really help knock the bottom out of the all too silent epidemic of gambling addiction in this country--for all ages.

Keep in mind that in Atlantic City, the gambling age was originally 18 in 1977, and was only raised to 21 in 1983 because the drinking age in NJ had just been raised to 21 two months earlier, and they felt that the casino gambling age also had to be raised so as to better enforce the new drinking age (since casinos typically serve alcohol).  Yes, really.

OK, but what about states and localities that allow slot machines and poker machines outside of casinos, often ubiquitously?  Well, those can certainly pose a challenge, and we do not inherently oppose them, but if a state or locality does decide to allow them, they need to take seriously their newfound social responsibility to minimize the harm that these "electronic pickpockets" (to paraphrase the late Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia of NYC) can wreak on both individuals and communities.  Regulate these devices, close loopholes, and consider applying the voluntary self-exclusion program to these devices as Sweden currently does via "player cards" that must be swiped for the gambling machines to be unlocked for use (that is, those on the exclusion list are denied cards).

Of course, the biggest casino of all is Wall Street.  And that needs to be much better regulated with a new and improved Glass-Steagall Act, a ban on quote-stuffing, and a a financial transactions tax such as the Universal Exchange Tax (UET) that the True Spirit of America Party supports.