The question of whether Kentucky should expand gambling is a public policy issue – not a "private policy issue." This means that whether you plan to gamble or not, it will affect you. It also means that many people who gamble will be against expansion because they recognize the complications it will bring.

Over the last eight months The Family Foundation, as a public policy organization, has researched the issue thoroughly and has concluded that there are four major aspects of society that will absolutely be changed forever—and not for the better. . .

I. FAMILY: Expanded gambling targets families. Corporations can’t gamble, businesses can’t, institutions can’t, schools can’t, churches can’t, nonprofits can’t, clubs can’t – only moms and dads, and a few singles—not to mention that grandparents regularly pay big at the gaming tables. . .

In other words, all the BILLIONs of dollars that they say will be raised over the years through gambling is just a shift of assets FROM the hands of the family INTO the hands of the gambling industry. Government gets its share simply by heavily taxing the money as it changes hands.

The bottom line is that family picks up the whole tab, and tragically, government, charged with protecting families, is maneuvering to get in on the action.

II. BUSINESS: Once families lose, businesses lose. Once families lose they can’t eat out, buy their children new clothes for school, purchase a new refrigerator, or … fill in the blank. In other regions of the country where casinos/racinos have opened, the losses to business have been clearly documented. Further, jobs that gambling expansionists often boast will increase do so only briefly (2 to 3 years). At that point there is an overall loss of jobs. Only the gambling industry, and newly opened pawn shops, continue to prosper.

This impact on local businesses was succinctly summed up by I. Nelson Rose, professor at Whittier School of Law and legal consultant to various gambling casinos: "A casino acts like a black hole, sucking all the money out of the local economy."

III. GOVERNMENT: Government will be corrupted. This is scary, folks. Think about it. . . . With literally billions of dollars going into the hands of the gambling interests, who will become the greatest contributor and most influential group in the political process? If our legislature is "gambling friendly" today, how much more "friendly" will it be ten years from now, when all of its members have received sizeable legal contributions from the gambling interests? And how easy will it be for them to "replace" anti-gambling legislators? Now imagine that there’s a debate, as Nevada had, as to whether to legalize prostitution in order to embellish the "good times." What about making strip bars and pornography more available? If gambling interests want it, what will the legislature do?

The gambling world is all about two things – A good time and the bottom line. "Good times" demand prostitution and strip bars, and of course, when good times go awry, you’ll need abortion to be readily available. "Nice" legislators that will vote for gambling today will themselves be replaced within ten years by pro-gambling legislators that will not care one iota about family values. We must ask ourselves, if government comes under the heavy hand of gambling interests, how likely is it to escape that corruption?

IV. THE VULNERABLE: There will be some human beings, those poor in spirit, as well as poor in financial assets, whose lives will be totally destroyed – suicide, spouse abuse, divorce, child neglect and abuse, embezzlement, alcoholism, and crime, both victim and perpetrator. The family will be ravaged financially, but its fortunes will turn even worse as the pressures mount and the individuals in that family are hurt by the one who is ensnared and who flails like an animal caught in a trap.

When families or businesses need money, the first thing they do is cut their expenses. Why can’t our state government learn from its people? The second thing government should learn from families and businesses is NOT to go to a casino in hopes of generating more income. Why is government suggesting that this is good for its people? Why is government assuming it’s good for itself? If government truly needs money, let it pursue funds along the route that it lawfully is allowed to: through taxation, not through unsavory partnerships with the gambling industry that allow both to fleece the people.

Can the progression described above be stopped? Sure, that’s why you’ve received this publication. But do remember the proverb: "All that it takes for evil to triumph is for good men (and women) to do nothing." Sign up and act. . . and together we’ll stop this expansion — this predictable calamity — in Kentucky.