한글자료 RECURSOS EN ESPAÑOL Bookmark and Share SHARE

FIND A CHURCH

eNEWS SUBSCRIPTION




facebook


Chicago Office
77 W. Washington St.
Suite 1820
Chicago, IL 60602
Phone: 312.346.9766
Fax: 312.346.9730

Program Office
217 Division St.
Elgin, IL 60120
Phone: 847.931.0710
Fax: 847.931.0732


Home | News > AC2009: Report from Anti-Gambling Luncheon

AC2009: Report from Anti-Gambling Luncheon

06-25-2009

Rev. Tom Grey was the speaker, and he is a retired Elder from Northern Illinois who has been taking on the gambling industry since he was assigned to Galena and the State of Illinois decided to put a riverboat casino there.  Tom is working with a national group called Stop Predatory Gambling with a web site of www.StopPredatoryGambling.org.  Tom gave a short history of gambling in Illinois starting when he was assigned to a church in Chicago and used to send paper and other supplies to the neighborhood elementary school from the church so that his kids would be able to have a minimum level of education. 

When asked, a legislator said, "Don't worry, the Lottery will take care of this."  That was the start of legalized gambling in Illinois.  For the future, he said that "America is on a gambling binge.  The cost to our children and grandchildren is too great for us to not fight it."  If you are not disgusted by this, then you are part of the problem.  We have let the legislature do this to us.  Yesterday at the breakfast, Phil Blackwell said that "When leaders are afraid of those they are leading, they make cowardly decisions."  We need to talk about this as a predatory problem in our communities.  20% of Americans are now in a 'Lottery Class'.  The only way they think they can afford to retire is if they hit a lottery.  We need to call the Governor now to tell him to veto the bill that the legislature passed about video poker.  At a video poker machine in a bar - in your community - you can play 30 hands of poker per minute on a machine designed to beat you.