Why worry about CO Amendment 50?

Chad Hills [Updated: 11-05-2008]

Why would Colorado voters support a public virtue like education by expanding a social vice such as gambling? Isn't this hypocrisy?

Amendment 50: Know More, Vote NO!

• Amendment 50 – Limited Gaming information on the CO Secretary of State Website
•  Amendment 50 Text 

•  View All 2008 Colorado General Election Amendments and Referenda 

Amendment 50: Sugar-Coated Gambling Expansion

How do you disguise something that is bitter and unpalatable? Coat it with sugar, of course. Colorado gambling Amendment 50 advertisements accomplish this quite effectively. The radio commercials tell us it's about more nurses. It's about more policemen and firemen. It's about supporting our heroes. Amendment 50 will give more money to community colleges so we can have more trained professionals, right?

Wrong! Amendment 50 basically changes the Colorado Constitution to expand gambling significantly, but the gambling proponents have disguised their true motives by coating it with the sugar of "additional education funds" to make it more appealing to Colorado citizens.  In fact, education is all you really hear about in their slick advertisements. Perhaps some of the "other details" should be examined before you decide how to vote.

Something Shifty About Amendment 50

Why not tout gambling expansion? Why is the Gambling Cartel hiding their true motive, gambling expansion, behind the shadow of educational funding? It's because nobody in Colorado wants more of Las Vegas in their backyard. According to a study from the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, the most unpopular types of community development among U.S. citizens are: landfills, power plants and casinos.

Colorado is about the outdoors and the Rocky Mountains! Activities such as hiking, skiing, biking, kayaking, camping, four-wheeling, fishing, hunting, rock climbing, rafting and exploring the Old West mining towns are just a handful of attractions in Colorado. Our state is not about sitting in front of an obnoxious, chirping slot machine in a dark gambling hall and wasting money. 

Colorado gambling is not  a destination attraction, as it is in Nevada, Atlantic City or Mississippi. No, Colorado casinos take millions of dollars out of the local economy. Black Hawk, Cripple Creek and Central City suck money out of Colorado, take a cut for themselves and the rest is shipped to Las Vegas, Pennsylvania and other out-of-state casino owners. Most local, Mom-and-Pop shops and small-time casinos were driven out of town within the first four years of legalized gambling in Colorado.

No doubt about it, Black Hawk is host to the largest casinos in Colorado and these Big Gambling operators run the show for the other two smaller gambling towns. It may be of interest to note that crime, corruption and gambling go hand in hand, and Black Hawk is no exception. In the first five years of Black Hawk's casino operations, police calls increased from 25 per year to over 15,000. During that same five-year span, Cripple Creek's serious crime increased 287 percent, while Central City arrests increased 275 percent [Colorado Division of Gaming, 2003]. Read articles below for more and learn more about Black Hawk.

• June 11, 2008: Changes Possible For Gambling Cash After Call7 Investigation
• May 10, 2008 No, no - Not Las Vegas
• May 1, 2008: Black Hawk's Use Of Historic Preservation Money Questioned
• April 30, 2008: Millions Go To Fix Up Mayor, Council Members' Homes
• April 25, 2008: Publisher: Black Hawk Officials Fund Paper's Competition After Critical Article
• April 25, 2008: Black Hawk City Leaders, Spouses Live Large In Vegas

Colorado Can Increase Revenues Without Expanding Gambling

Since 1990, when gambling was approved in Colorado, gambling interests have tried to expand gambling seven times. Voters defeated all expansion measures, because Coloradans have seen how out-of-state gambling operations monopolized and destroyed three of the historic mining towns. And now Amendment 50 seeks to strip mine more of Colorado's bank accounts by raising bets 20-fold and staying open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Colorado does not have to "cut a deal" with the Gambling Cartel to increase the state's take of gambling revenue, because it's already in Colorado's constitution. Consider the amount other states tax gambling and compare that rate to Colorado at about 14 percent with an allowable maximum of 40 percent (state revenue$ as a percent of gross casino revenues$):

[Source: American Gaming Association, Industry Information: State Statistics, 2007]

Why not INCREASE TAXES on casinos WITHOUT EXPANDING casinos?

Colorado should require more money from this $816 million vice industry, because the harms are so great and far-reaching. Other states require much more than Colorado, which can tax up to 40 percent on casino revenues. But states must be careful not to make essential programs, such as education or any other necessary entity, dependent on gambling revenues and casino performance. Gambling is an unstable, volatile revenue source that is experiencing market decline.

Amendment 50 Opens Casinos 24/7, Bad For Addiction

When Colorado first allowed gambling into three historic mining towns, people felt it was important that casinos close between 2:00 AM and 8:00 AM. Counselors agree that people who have a problem or pathological gambling addiction sometimes need to be forced to leave casinos, because they cannot stop themselves from gambling. Shutting down casinos for several hours creates a "cool-down" period where gamblers are forced leave and think about something other than gambling (maybe how much they have lost). In Las Vegas, addicted gamblers will sit in front of a slot machines for a 24 or 36 hours straight (usually wear adult diapers or urinate and defecate in their clothes). Colorado does NOT WANT 24/7 gambling. Keep the "cool-down" period to help those with gambling addictions stop and think.

According to research, the top 10 percent of gamblers account for nearly 61 percent of all casino revenues from table games and slots. In lottery gambling, the top 10 percent of gamblers accounted for 65 percent of all lottery revenues. [EL Grinols, Gambling In America: Costs and Benefits, 2004, p. 46.] The lion's share of gambling revenues come from a small segment of big spenders and people who are likely addicted to gambling.

Amendment 50 Would Destroy More Lives And More Families In Colorado

Excerpt from:

Dr. Rachel Volberg, Gambling and Problem Gambling in Colorado, Report to the Colorado Department of Revenue, 28 August 1997, pp. 36-37. (The study was published about six years after the first casinos were built in Colorado.)

"In Colorado, 4.4% of the respondents scored as lifetime problem gamblers and an additional 1.8% of the respondents scored as lifetime probable pathological gamblers. In contrast, 1.8% of the respondents scored as current problem gamblers while 0.7% of the respondents scored as current probable pathological gamblers. Overall, the lifetime prevalence of problem and pathological gambling in Colorado is 6.2% while the current prevalence rate in Colorado is 2.5%. The lifetime prevalence rate in Colorado is higher than in other Western states while the current prevalence rate is lower than in many other states.

"Lifetime problem gamblers in Colorado are significantly more likely than other respondents to be male, under the age of 30 and unmarried. In contrast to lifetime problem gamblers, current problem gamblers are just as likely to be women as men. Problem gamblers in Colorado are most likely to gamble weekly on the lottery, at Colorado casinos and on bingo or pulltabs. Problem gamblers are more likely than non-problem gamblers to spend six or more hours gambling in a typical session and to have lost $100 or more in a single day.

"... The costs of gambling problems can be high, not only for individuals but for families and communities. Pathological gamblers experience physical and psychological stress and exhibit substantial rates of depression, alcohol and drug dependence and suicidal ideation. The families of pathological gamblers experience physical and psychological abuse as well as harassment and threats from bill collectors and creditors. Other significant impacts include costs to employers, creditors, insurance companies, social service agencies and the civil and criminal justice systems."

Amendment 50 Increases Gambling, Increases Addiction, Ruins Lives

 ["Online gambling leads one woman to prison," WNDU 16 News Center, 19 November 2003.]

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