MCC Letter to the Missouri Senate - Proposed Repeal of $500 Gambling Loss Limit

TO: Members of the Missouri Senate

FROM: Missouri Catholic Conference

RE: SCS/SB 430 – Proposed repeal of $500 gambling loss limit

DATE: February 28, 2007

SCS/SB 430 contains provisions repealing Missouri's casino loss limit of $500 for each two hour gambling “session” in order to fund the Smart Start Scholarship Program created by the bill.

The loss limits were part of the original proposal by the gambling industry to allow limited gambling in Missouri, subject to limitations designed to reduce participants' exposure to personal loss. However, many of these limitations have subsequently been repealed, and one of the few remaining limitations is the loss limit.

Studies have found that unrestrained gambling can lead to an increase in the rate of suicide, divorce and child neglect. A survey of nearly 200 members of Gamblers Anonymous in Illinois found that 79% had wanted to die, 66% had contemplated suicide and 45% had a definite plan to kill themselves. Twenty eight percent of Gamblers Anonymous members reported being separated or divorced as a result of their gambling. The National Gambling Impact Study Commission reported that “Children of compulsive gamblers are often prone to suffer abuse, as well as neglect, as a result of parental problem or pathological gambling.”

Games of chance become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his or her needs and those of others. The passion for gambling can become an enslavement for many people and can destroy families.

Increasing the gambling loss limit in order to fund the Smart Start Scholarship Program further fuels the state’s dependence on gambling revenues to meet the state’s fiscal needs. Rather than addressing the state’s revenue and expenditures in a structured fashion, the proposal relies on gambling losses, which produces no usable goods or services or in any way stimulates the economy, to offset the fiscal impact of the Smart Start Scholarship Program. The Missouri Catholic Conference is concerned about the growing number of proposals to finance state expenses through means other than a stable and sustainable revenue stream, including proposals to finance state college capital expenses through sale of assets of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority and cutting income taxes on higher income Social Security recipients.

The Missouri Catholic Conference urges the General Assembly to reject efforts to repeal Missouri’s $500 gambling loss limit.