More on the Alabama Gambling Corruption Trial

It seems as if some of the people who were involved with gambling corruption in Alabama knew no limits when it came to sleeze.

According to Philip Rawls, a journalist covering the trial, a casino developer, Ronnie Gilley, suggested that a lobbyist, Jennifer Pouncy, expose her breasts to a state senator whose vote she was trying to get.

Rawls filed the article under the title, “Lobbyist Weeps over Call in Alabama Gambling Trial.”

I don’t want to even suggest that this behavior is typical of casino developers and their supporters, but it does not paint a very pretty picture of the gambling industry.

Sandra Adell, Author, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR.

RACE, POLITICS, AND CASINO GAMBLING

Since I began writing this blog in April, 2009, I have benefited greatly from the efforts of Diane Berlin to keep those of us who are deeply concerned about the negative impacts of casino gambling on this country informed.

Diane Berlin headed a coalition of anti-casino activists that fought long and hard to keep casinos out of Pennsylvania. As Diane Berlin stated in June, 2006, during a rally to repeal the unconstitutional casino licensing law that allowed the expansion of gambling in the state, many of the deals that are being made to bring casinos into our communities are undemocratic. They are being done without community input.

Diane and her group did not succeed in keeping casinos out of Philadelphia.They simply didn’t have the financial means and a strong and informed community to fight against their local and state elected officials, powerful lobbyists, and greedy billionaire entrepreneurs who made their case (and won) that casino gambling would be good for the City of Philadelphia, the State of Pennsylvania and the U.S. of A.

Diane Berlin continues to advocate against gambling by, among other things, regularly compiling articles and essays about gambling which she sends out to her e-mail lists. Two recent articles caught my attention. They have to do with race, politics, casinos, and African Americans. One was written by William Reed for the Memphis, Tennessee, based Tri-State Defender, which promotes itself as “one of the longest, continuously-published African American papers in the United States.

Titled “Is Gambling an OK Tool for Making Economic Development ‘luck’?”, William Reed states in his opening paragraph that “African Americans have little impact on gaming except as employees.”

He goes on to cite statistics on the gambling industry’s estimated revenues for 2011: it’s more than $92.27 billion. However, what he fails to deal with are the social and economic costs of gambling on African American and other vulnerable communities.

Instead he holds up the late Don Barden as the only African American entrepreneur who made it big in gambling. His point is that this is an industry that has closed its doors tight against African Americans (unless you are among the industry’s millions of losers) and that we need to see this as a viable opportunity for economic growth.

What William Reed failed to mention is that Don Barden was a compulsive gambler who lost millions of dollars and was deeply in debt, which is why he lost his license to build a casino in Philadelphia. Also, one of Barden’s casinos, the Majestic Star riverboat casino in Gary, Indiana, is nothing to boast about. It is nasty and stinky and contributes absolutely nothing to the economic growth of its host city, Gary, Indiana.

In his closing statement, William Reed writes, “African American political, civic and church leaders have to admit that gambling can be a powerful economic development tool.” As an African American woman who has struggled with an addiction to slot machine addictions, I want to say loudly and clearly, “NO THEY DON’T.”

Because the African American community is struggling mightily to retain whatever foot hold we have on the economic ladder, if anything, our leaders and legislators, and especially our church leaders need to say, as Diane Berlin and other anti-gambling activists throughout the country have said over and over again, “ENOUGH, ALREADY!”

The other article that Diane Berlin sent has to do with some political maneuverings by Alabama State Senators that was revealed during an Alabama trial on gambling corruption. It shows that for the GOP defendants in the trial, the state’s black voters are nothing but pawns in a vicious money-grubbing game. According to the prosecutors, an investigation into the dealings of certain unnamed Republican state senators caught them on tape explaining why they were trying to keep a gambling bill off the ballots (Click here for the complete article.)

“In the tape, the GOP senators talk about how they need to defeat gambling legislation because it will go on the November 2010 ballot if they let it pass the Legislature. They said having the issue on the ballot would bring out more black voters, which would hurt Republican candidates’ chances of getting elected.”

“Every black in this state will be bused to the polls,” one senator said.

“They are going to be bused on HUD-financed buses,” another replied.

“That’s right. That’s right,” a third senator said.

“It’s pretty hateful stuff, isn’t it?” the prosecutor asked casino developer Ronnie Gilley, who was on the witness stand.

“It’s nauseating,” Gilley replied.

Day did not identify who made each comment, but he said senators in the meeting were Beason, Ben Brooks, Larry Dixon, Jabo Waggoner, Rusty Glover and Paul Sanford.”

The message in this article is clear. These senators don’t want anything on the ballot that just might get black people out to vote. This is the kind of stuff the public needs to know. Especially for African Americans, since casinos are being built in or near urban areas, it’s important that we be informed about how they are impacting our communities.

Diane Berlin is doing her best, but we need more people to intervene in public discourse about the pros and cons of the continuing expansion of gambling in this country.

Sandra Adell, Author, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR.

GLADYS KNIGHT and SANDY ADELL: TWO SISTERS FROM DETROIT and GAMBLING ADDICTION

We’re both from Detroit. We both used our talent, motivation and sheer will to do something out of the ordinary. Gladys is world renowned as a singer and entertainer. Her voice is thrilling, a Motown Sound unlike any other. I became a university professor. I’m not famous, though. Nobody knows me beyond the cloistered world of academe, and I can’t carry a tune in a bucket.

But I share with Gladys Knight the experience of becoming addicted to gambling and a desire to share my story with others, especially black women, in an effort to get people in the black community to come forth and let the policy makers who think gambling is good for us know how devastating it really is, even to someone as wealthy and famous as Gladys Knight.

From time to time, someone who has read my memoir, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN, will say to me, “but you weren’t that bad. I know people who lost everything, their homes, their families, everything. You weren’t all that bad.”

I certainly didn’t lose the mind-boggling sums of money Gladys Knight did at the blackjack tables. But then, I’m not a famous entertainer with a beautiful voice working in Las Vegas making millions, like Gladys Knight.

In a Biography Close-up, Gladys says about her gambling, “I knew I had a problem. I knew I had a problem. I lost Gladys.”

That’s what happened to me when I became addicted to slot machine gambling. “I lost myself. I lost Sandy.”

Sandra Adell, Author, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR

DETROIT: THE CITY CASINOS COULDN’T SAVE

When Michigan residents voted to allow casino gambling in Detroit almost two decades ago, they did so because of the really big promises that were made to them. They were told that casino gambling would bring much needed new revenue to the city so that services provided by the police and fire department would be vastly improved and their garbage would be collected each week and public transportation would be improved so that people who had jobs could get to them on time.

They were told that people would come from all over the country to gamble in the three casinos that now hover over the city’s cultural area, throwing their shadows across the ever growing expanse of deserted neighborhoods where some of the poorest residents reside.

It did not happen. The new and high tech gold rush that promised to spill its riches onto the streets of Detroit could not save the city. Detroit is going broke.

As experts like John Kindt and Earl Grinols have shown again and again, putting casinos in cities that are already struggling as a result of population loss, the decline of manufacturing jobs, failing schools, and other urban infrastructure problems too numerous to list here, does not bring economic development.

Of course, it would be foolish to attribute the fact that Detroit is broke to gambling. In a special report for WTVS-Detroit, Desiree Cooper showed how badly things are in Detroit and how some communities are trying to cope.

But every time I visit the city of my birth, I hear stories about people, most of them black women, who have lost what little they had in the casinos in the hope that they would get a little something back.

It’s too late to turn things around in Detroit and elsewhere in the country where casino gambling has been touted as the cure all for failing economies. But as more and more public officials across this country keep singing the same song about how gambling will create new jobs and improve their local and state economies, it’s important to keep in mind that for that to happen, ordinary, hardworking citizens must lose millions of dollars.

Back in the days when it was illegal, gambling was considered a really dumb way to try and “make” some money to pay our bills. It still is, despite what our politicians tell us as they sell us down the river.

Sandra Adell, Author, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR

Jack Abramoff, Leslie Stahl, the Indian Casino Deals and the Unfortunate Nun

On November 6, 2011, the intrepid 60 Minutes correspondent, Leslie Stahl, sat down with Jack Abramoff, to talk about how he bought off a whole bunch of people in Washington, D.C. and bilked Indian tribes out of millions of dollars with trumped up casino gambling deals. The title of the program was THE LOBBYIST’S PLAYBOOK. And you guessed it! Abramoff is writing a book about his corrupt career and what Washington needs to do to clean up its act!

Abramoff’s arrogant attitude during the interview was a bit disgusting to me. Although he admitted that he’s ashamed of his behavior, which brought him millions of dollars, he frequently commented about how broken the congressional system is and how easy it is to bribe some people with expensive gifts while bilking other people, like the Indian Tribes and their casinos, out of millions of dollars and do it legally.

Since he has such an insider’s view on corrupt lobbyists, Abramoff probably at some point in the near future will get his own TV talk show and get on the lecture circuit where he will make $10,000 or more each time he tells his story and gives advice about what needs to be fixed so that crooks like him won’t get away so easily. Of course, he has to pay restitution, but being the really smart guy that he is, I’m sure he’s got some money, and lots of it, stashed away somewhere on the planet.

Jack Abramoff served a three and a half year term in a minimum security prison for his crimes, not a long time considering the magnitude of his rip-offs. Which brings me to the story of the Unfortunate Nun.

Sister Marie Thornton was the Vice President of Finance at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, when she fell victim to a serious addiction to slot machine gambling. She managed to embezzle a million dollars from the school before she was caught and arrested in 2009. Instead of serving a jail term, she was given three years probation and required to do 2,000 hours of community service. She also was committed to solitary confinement by her convent.

The New York Post recently published a very unsympathetic article about her under the title, “Twisted Sister in Nun Jail.”

An Op Ed by Monica Bugajski in an online journal titled Sympathico ca., while not as harshly worded as the Post article, argued that this punishment is too lenient for Sister Marie Thornton, since she violated the public’s trust.

So did Abramoff, and in a much more dramatic way, but he only served three years in prison and hardly seemed contrite about his actions, at least not on the 60 Minutes show.

Sister Marie Thornton is one of an increasing number of ordinary people who are committing crimes of theft and embezzlement as a result of the becoming addicted to the slot machines that now proliferate in every nook and cranny of this country.

I hope that as other victims of our country’s elected officials’ ill conceived ideas about generating more revenues by building more casinos and filling them with even more addictive slot machines, are brought before the criminal justice system, other judges will practice merciful sentencing and order rehabilitation rather than incarceration for people like the Unfortunate Sister Maria Thornton. That way we will have space to put the real crooks, like Jack Abramoff and his crew, in prison and keep them there a bit longer than three and a half years.

Sandra Adell, Author, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN.

Gordon Moody and a Real Online Gambling therapy Group

Last month, I mentioned that I found a site that offered gambling therapy online while it also actively promoted gambling. Well, as it turned out, that site, which really is a UK based gambling site, was doing what most casinos do: offering help to clean up the mess of gambling addictions after the damage has been done.

In the United States casinos are required to set aside a fixed amount of money to fund gambling hotlines and to post in the casinos and on their advertisements the number to call to get help. For most people, it is much too late. By the time they reach out for help, they are in deep financial trouble and emotional distress and usually don’t know where to turn, since there are so few facilities or counselors trained to deal with gambling addictions.

Recently, someone mentioned an online gambling therapy group that is not in cahoots with the gambling industry. This gambling therapy site is connected to the Gordon Moody Association, which provides residential treatment for compulsive gamblers. Gordon Moody is in the UK; the gambling therapy site is international and apparently is moderated by gambling addiction counselors.

I have just started checking in and reading some of the posts. A recent one was about relapse. I know that relapse is always a possibility when one has an addiction, but the stories about people who have relapsed are so sad.

I think that although these stories are reminders that people who are experiencing addictions are always a step away from sliding down the slippery slope, it also is really helpful and inspiring to hear from folks who are on the far side of recovery. That is, they are going on about their lives and not even thinking about gambling.

I wish I could say that about myself, but with the absolute saturation of advertising inviting us to come where the winners are and lose our souls, spirits, and lives, I’m always on alert.

Sometimes when I’m driving in my car and a commercial comes on the radio promising me and everyone else listening that Ho Chunk Casino is were the winners are and that all I have to do is come to the casino to win some money and some junk I don’t need, I have to turn it off! Not because I’m afraid that I will go back to gambling after having stopped more than two years ago, but because I don’t like to think of the struggle I had with myself as I was trying to break the hold that slot machines had on me.

Every time I think about the darkness of the abyss that was gambling for me, I remind myself about how good life is now. Even when things aren’t going the way I hope they might on a given day, I remind myself that I have come a long way into the light. Stepping into a casino for anything, including a stage show, would destroy this contentment I’m beginning to feel now. I have choices in this life and my choice is to stay far, far away from things that will cause me harm. I’m often asked if I still gamble. The answer is NO.

Sandra Adell, Author, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR

Gambling Therapy Online

It’s been a while since I wrote anything on my blog, not because I don’t have anything more to say, but rather because I needed to turn my attention to another book project which has nothing to do with gambling (it’s about black women playwrights and theater designers).

Also, I spent much of the summer traveling to New York, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, London and Wales attending theater events and a women’s theater festival. I’m thinking about adapting my book, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR, for the stage, but not as a solo show.

I want to put some people on the stage in what I think will be more of an abstract rather than a realistic dramatization of my struggle with gambling addiction.

What I wasn’t able to write in my book, mainly because I had such trouble understanding this as an addiction and was in deep denial, was the therapeutic experience, that is, my sessions with a private therapist and the intensive group sessions I went through in the Fall of 2009, at Gateway Recovery in Madison, Wisconsin, after I was arrested for drunk driving on July 10, 2009, while I was trying to get to Ho Chunk Casino to finish myself off.

By the way, I ended up in group therapy for alcohol and drug addiction, mainly because there wasn’t a group program for addicted gamblers. As I have mentioned elsewhere in this blog, there are very few mental health professionals trained to deal with gambling addictions

I remember thinking that nearly disastrous night, “Why don’t I just go to Ho Chunk and gamble until I lose everything, so I can finish destroying myself?” That’s how crazy I was. I now realize that I was suffering a mental illness.

It was sheer craziness, that feeling that the labyrinth that is the casino (any casino), was hell and I deserved to be there, that I needed to be punished. But for what? Well that’s where the private therapist came in, to help me understand some things about myself, so that I could begin to change my behavior.

I was in personal therapy for about five years. I said goodby to the lovely lady who worked with me just a few months ago. Only then did I feel that I could go, travel and start other work, that I could trust myself to stay away from casinos and from alcohol. I don’t drink any alcohol or gamble anymore. It’s a very liberating experience to be so sober!

This is not to say that I don’t think about gambling. In fact, although I have no problems staying away from drinking alcohol, my experience getting arrested on July 10, 2009, and the realization that I could have injured or killed someone on the road to Ho Chunk is sobering in itself, I must very careful about things that trigger the impulse to gamble on slot machines.

I’m very careful about the kinds of images I allow myself to focus on. For example, I am getting to the point that when I drive to Chicago on interstate 90, I barely notice the big billboard advertising the Grand Victoria Riverboat Casino in Elgin, Illinois.

It wasn’t too long ago when that billboard would be the trigger that set me on a gambling binge despite my best intentions. I also am careful about spending too much time on the internet on websites that are active, with pulsing images and electronic sounds. They are triggers; mini slot machines right here on my computer, at least in my mind. Which brings me to something that I find very troubling.

I’m absolutely dismayed that a website, gamblingkingz.com, which is supposed to be offering “gambling therapy” also promotes gambling on its page. There are several advertisements right next to the text about online gambling therapy that are promoting gambling. I don’t see the point of this at all. What’s the difference between this and serving alcohol at an alcoholics anonymous meeting? It’s downright insidious.

Sandra Adell, Author, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR

Jackpot: The Legal and Social Implications of Gambling in the Black Community

When I began working on my memoir, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN, there was almost no material anywhere about casino gambling and the Black Community. In fact, my book is currently the only work published by a black woman that describes the experience of becoming addicted to slot machine gambling, the preferred form of gambling for women all over the globe.

Now, a group of students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Program on Documentaries and the Law, under the direction of Professor Regina Austin, has created an important and revealing documentary about what casino gambling is doing to black communities in Pennsylvania. It’s titled “Jackpot: The Legal and Social Implications of Gambling in the Black Community.”

Among the people interviewed is Dr. Deborah Haskins, one of only a very few African American psychologists specializing in gambling addictions among African Americans. The Reverend Jesse Brown, a local Philadelphia minister and community activist was also interviewed.

I hope other ministers will speak out about the negative effects casino gambling is having on the black community and take a stand against this encroachment of casinos into every nook and cranny of our country.

I thank the young men who produced and directed this very important documentary: Nathaniel Koonce, Wendell Holland, Andrew Pinkston, and Jerome Jordan. I am especially grateful for the important work Professor Regina Austin is doing as director of the Penn Program on Documentaries and the Law.

Sandra Adell, Author, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR

Dear Rahm Emanuel: Chicago Does Not Need a Casino

Dear Mayor Rahm Emanuel:

Chicago does not need a casino. This city for me is a second home. It’s where I come to be rejuvenated when I want to get away from Madison, Wisconsin, where I also live and teach. I come to Chicago to enjoy the many riches the city has to offer: great theater, wonderful art museums and galleries and restaurants, plenty of sports, Millennium Park, and music everywhere. That’s why tourists come to Chicago, to partake of its energy and cultural life.

I realize that the city has an enormous budget deficit, but a casino is not a remedy. If anything, it will change the city’s character. For one thing, many tourists will spend (or rather lose) their money at the slot machines and blackjack tables rather than in the restaurants, the museums, the stores. Keep in mind that people must lose millions of dollars in order for a casino to rake in the enormous sums of money that have made a few rich people even more wealthy.

Which brings me to another point: a Chicago casino will have a devastating effect on people in poor and working class communities. Granted, Chicago gamblers now go to Indiana or to casinos outside of the city, but it takes a bit of effort for them to get there. A Chicago casino will be a short CTA ride away and the people who can least afford to lose what little they have will risk it all for the elusive jackpot.

At the risk of being disrespectful, let me say that I find it absolutely irresponsible for you and all the other public officials who support a Chicago casino to unleash this insidious form of entertainment on the public.

In closing, Mr. Emanuel, please tell me if you plan to go and gamble? If so, how often will you put your money in the dollar gobbling slot machines or on a blackjack table so that the City can generate new revenue. How much money are you willing to bet AND LOSE?

Respectfully:

Sandra Adell, Author: CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR (See also my blog: “A Black Woman’s Reflections on Casino Gambling” www.saadell.wordpress.com)

The Life and Death of Don Barden

When I read this morning that the multi-millionaire entrepreneur Don Barden had died on Thursday, May 19, I have to admit that I felt somewhat guilty for writing critically (but I hope not disparagingly) about him and his casino empire.

His was indeed a rags to riches story: he rose up from his early origins as a poor black boy from a large family to become part of an exclusive club of American millionaires. Don Barden was the quintessential self-made man. He made millions in real estate, the cable TV industry, and casino gambling.

As I mentioned in earlier posts about Don Barden, I wish that I could have celebrated rather than criticize this first, but considering the damage casino gambling does to the black community, especially a community as economically depressed as Gary, Indiana, I could not then or now.

Don Barden is gone; his casino empire is not doing well at all. But as a businessman, he had a mission: “to prove that a poor, young African American from a very large family, from humble beginnings, can rise to the top in America, in a free enterprise system.” He did that. May he now rest in PEACE.

Sandra Adell, Author, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR