Post 23

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

During our November meeting of the Indiana Conference Advocacy, Social Justice, and Ethnic Ministries Team, we discussed what might be the focus topics for 2012. What top three issues in Indiana might we want to particularly study in terms of potential State legislative items to be considered and implemented? No one mentioned gambling issues - and neither did I. It seemed that 2012 could very well be quiet with regard to the gambling scene at the Hoosier Statehouse.

One month later, national news carried the federal Office of Legal Counsel Opinion: internet gambling could be made legal via any State legislation. Suddenly, year 2012 became forecasted as a boundary-breaking timepiece for cyber-space gambling. Now, a perfect storm would be forming.

For sociologists, one could say that this will be a really interesting time.
For The United Methodist Church, this is a critical point in time.

Legally expanding gambling to the internet is not just about yet another venue of placing bets. Opening the airways to gamble without fear of breaking the law, in effect, brings a legal mini-casino into every home/car/phone with a computer. Gambling legally, then, could be done at any time and almost anywhere.

Given our national economic condition, a need prevails for increasing State revenues. Then too, with the legal lid off, more likely, we will see a dramatic increase in internet gaming venues ... and gambling. How will the States that pass legislation to permit internet gambling handle the tremendous increase in revenues? Will the current state slashing of budgets - especially of mental health services - continue? Will specialized counseling for problem gamblers and their families be made universally available throughout these States? Will prevention education about gambling addiction be broadly expanded for the public eye to see, plainly?

Again, this is a critical time for The United Methodist Church. Our UM Social Principles speaks out against gambling - and any expansion of gambling. Moreover, within the Principles, there is the call: Where gambling has become addictive, the Church will encourage such individuals to receive therapeutic assistance so that the individual's energies may be redirected into positive and constructive ends.

In response to proposed State legislation to legalize internet gambling. once more, United Methodists will be reminded that the expansion of gambling within our country is not a dead issue. The need for the Church to respond is essential. The time to prepare for the storm is now.

The critical points to include are the following:

** no legalization of internet gambling

** increased budgeting for training counselors to be certified in gambling
addiction counseling

** creation and support of in-patient treatment facilities for compulsive gamblers

** statewide expansion of prevention education concerning problem gambling and
recovery issues

In closing, I urge you to study, prepare for, and take action with regard to your State legislature's consideration of legalizing internet gambling. A recent blog that I read, from another website, called for waiting to see what will happen by his State legislators. Why wait? Their action might take place before your action ever began. Why wait?

For more information on problem gambling concerns in Indiana, go to http://www.indianaproblemgambling.org/

Information about online problem gambling can be found at http://www.ipgap.indiana.edu/images/documents/factsheet/online_college%20gambling.pdf

For further information on gambling addiction and recovery issues, go to www.grmumc.org

Rev. Janet Jacobs
Director, Gambling Recovery Ministries