Before Long Beach considers rolling the dice on legalized gambling as a cure for its economic woes, leaders must consider the future economic and sociological disasters a casino could berth.
The topic reared its ugly head recently when Long Beach Councilwoman Gerrie Shipske started generating buzz on her website. Shipske is touting the benefits of having tribal gaming near the Queen Mary.
According to an article on LBPost.com, Shipske believes gambling will provide needed tax revenues and increase tourism. It’s indisputable that gambling means money. So do prostitution, drugs and bookies, inevitable stowaways to gambling tourism. Shipske’s tail-wagging-the-dog moral argument is that everybody else does it, so why shouldn’t Long Beach?
On her blog at http://schipskedistrict5journal.com, Shipske highlights the remoteness of the Queen Mary as a safeguard to crime in residential areas. As with most promos, other hardships gambling can cause are glossed over, or not addressed at all. Shipske doesn’t attempt touching subjects like debt, addiction or suicide – all potentials when the betting bug bites.
Gambling has become a huge part of college life for many, yet is lucrative to extremely few. Online gambling has become a high-profit phenomenon over the past decade. A 2005 Canadian Safety Council study showed online dollars jumped by nearly four times during a three-year period, skyrocketing from $3.1 billion in 2001 to more than $12 billion in 2004. The report credits gambling as being a major factor in 6.3 percent of all suicides.
In a report by California State University, CSU students leave college with an average $14,000 in loan debts and another $3,000 in credit card debt. “Average” figures don’t indicate the higher end of the spectrum, where many students’ debt looms. Gamblers Anonymous (GA) estimates college student gambling debts range from $36,000 to $58,000 by the time they grab their diplomas.
Indebtedness can provide the impetus to eek out a quick fix through gaming. Imagine wiping out your Cal State Long Beach debt with one evening of pushing chips across a Texas Hold’em table. Many try only to discover “it just wasn’t my night.” The one-night stands may contribute to a larger debt, one that’s harder to feed.
Trying to recoup losses can lead to riskier behavior. A casual bettor who starts “chasing” his or her losses can become a “problem gambler,” according to the National Council on Problem Gamblers (NCPG). The NCPG identifies problem gambling as one “which causes disruptions in any major area of life: psychological, physical, social or vocational.” Both groups claim problem gamblers incur the risk of becoming “pathological” or “compulsive” gamblers.
Gambling’s popularity can be seen on CSULB’s campus. Big-screen TVs in the Nugget Bar and Grill, and smaller sets in the University Student Union, don’t lack viewers when the World Series of Poker airs live. A lot of students even like the re-runs.
We’re enthralled when our favorite yanks in more cash than he or she can carry after bluffing with a pair of tens. We like the Horatio Alger, rags-to-riches tales. Alger didn’t attain success by filling an inside straight, though.
College students are the target of choice for literally every gambling venue as a result of the lure to instant wealth. While legalized gambling might allay a local politician’s money worries, opening a casino where CSULB students can wager their futures between classes is a bad bet.
Not every gambler leaves the table, or the university, a winner.
Duke Rescola is a senior journalism major and the opinion editor for the Daily Forty-Niner.