In late 1997, Pennsylvania citizens worked to stop an effort by the Ridge administration to pass a piece of gaming legislation right before Christmas. Their work was successful and the legislation was pulled from the calendar.

In this lame duck session, the gaming lobby, with the support of the Ridge administration, is once again attempting to pass their legislation.

The language calls for a referendum on gaming to be placed on the ballot in the spring primary. Gaming proponents, led by Governor Ridge, claim that they will only move forward on expanding gambling after the referendum.

• Pennsylvania is NOT a state with binding referendum status. The voters in southwestern Pennsylvania used the referendum process to turn down tax dollars for new stadiums, but now the stadiums are moving forward anyway. This administration has proven that it will ignore the will of the people, as expressed in a referendum, if it suits their agenda.
• Casinos hurt the local economy. While casinos are incredibly profitable to their owners (the Washington Post reported that the Empress riverboat in Joliet, IL paid $87 million in dividends in its first 18 months), the economic benefits are not shared by their communities. A 1996 study, "Monetary Impacts of Riverboat Casino Gambling in Illinois" by William Thompson of the University of NV, on results in Illinois, found that 61% of the gamblers lived within 35 miles of the casinos, resulting in local net economic losses of $239 million per year.
• Gaming causes more than just economic loss. In Dec. 1995, the Minnesota "Star-Tribune" reported that "legalized gambling in MN has created a broad new class of addicts, victims and criminals whose activities are devastating families and costing taxpayers and businesses millions of dollars." The paper estimated a cost of $300 million per year.
• When government benefits from gambling it loses the ability to make objective decisions. Robert Goodman in his "United States Gambling Study" explains that government becomes a gambling promoter rather that a gambling regulator. For example, Iowa removed the bet and loss limits on its riverboats, dropped the rule that boats must cruise while gambling, and allowed the opening of the state's first racetrack casino while the state's own study was showing that problem gambling had more than tripled.