The Capital (Annapolis, Md.)

Dear Editor:

I’m sure it’s not your usual practice to rely on a single advocacy group as a source when independent government studies have determined most of its accusations to be unfounded, yet that’s exactly what you did in a recent story on gambling [“Slots come with their own costs,” Jan. 20, 2003]. While our organization takes no position on the question of gambling expansion, we do take issue with the selective reporting of information in this article.

In fact, research conducted in 1999 for the National Gambling Impact Study Commission found that the presence of casinos does not correspond to increases in crime or bankruptcy; that communities closest to casinos experienced a 12 percent to 17 percent drop in welfare payments, unemployment rates and unemployment insurance; and that pathological gambling affects approximately 0.6 percent of the U.S. population, relatively unchanged from the estimate made 20 years earlier by the previous federal commission, despite a significant increase in gambling opportunities.

In addition, a 1999 U.S. Treasury Department study found no link between casino gambling and bankruptcy, and a 2000 study conducted by the General Accounting Office (GAO) also failed to find a link between gambling and purported social costs.

No less an authority than the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences reached the following conclusion: “Gambling appears to have net economic benefits for economically depressed communities.”

As you continue your coverage of gambling, I hope you will provide your readers with more complete information, not just trumped up charges from parties with an agenda.

Sincerely,
 
Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr.
President and CEO