October 25, 2012Dear Sir,Proponents of gambling have consistently, and without exception touted the following benefits of introducing legalised gambling — economic development, job creation, tax revenues for education, social programmes and the like. Those who will have us “jump on” gambling as a vehicle to prosperity and societal transformation will inflate the positive socio-economic impacts and ignore or trivialise the negative impacts of introducing legalised gambling. It is important to note the difference between gaming and gambling. Gaming can be any competitive activity involving skill or chance for simple amusement. Let’s be clear: gambling is the practice of gaming for money. Let’s also agree to dismiss any further discussion on the vice of gambling and look at what research from around the world has concluded about gambling and its place in any given society.Here is the stark reality: Gambling activities and the gambling philosophy are directly opposed to sound business principles and economic development. Societies which embrace legalised gambling activities can expect enormous socioeconomic costs and a decline in the quality of life. Central to this is the ongoing debate as to whether gambling activities even constitute a valid strategy for economic development. Research to evaluate state-sponsored gambling across the US by University of Illinois Professor J Van Der Slik concluded that gambling “produces no product, no new wealth, and so it makes no genuine contribution to economic development”.Are these broad and unsupported scaremongering comments? In 1994, various experts who testified before the US House of Representatives Committee on Small Business criticised the impacts that casino-style gambling activities inflict upon the criminal justice system, the social welfare system, small businesses and the economy. Utilising legalised gambling activities as a strategy for economic development was thoroughly discredited during the hearing (Congressional Hearing 1994).Legalised gambling activities act as a regressive tax on the poor specifically; the legalisation of various forms of gambling activities makes “poor people poorer” and can dramatically intensify many pre-existing social-welfare problems (Clotfelter and Cook 1989).The Australian Government concluded: The action of one problem gambler negatively impacts the lives of between five and ten others. This means there are up to 5 million Australians who could be affected by problem gambling each year, including friends, family and employers of people with a gambling problem.Here is a story in summary. On August 23, 1989, the first casino in Moscow was opened in the Savoy Hotel when the Soviet government repealed its ban on gambling. By 2006, there were an estimated 58 casinos, 2,000 gambling parlours, 14 bookmaking offices and over 70,000 slot machines in Moscow. In 2006 Vladimir Putin proposed to end legalised gambling in Russia; a ban which was to protect the health of Russian society, and put an end to the era which saw an eruption of gambling fuelled by a lawless business culture at great social costs. Others would argue this was pure politics on Putin’s part. Ironically, today the Russian government plans to invest $18 billion in infrastructure projects for its new gambling zones in four locations across Russia. It is hoped that American casino giants will turn these remote areas into the next Macau which is now the world’s most lucrative gambling destination, producing $33.5 billion in revenues in 2011.“There is always a certain glamour about the idea of a nation rising up to crush an evil simply because it is wrong. Unfortunately, this can seldom be realised in real life; for the very existence of the evil usually argues a moral weakness in the very place where extraordinary moral strength is called for.” WEB DuBois, 1896.LOOK AT THE FACTSSmith’s