Montgomery County, Maryland State Senator (Nancy King, a Democrat, District 39) appears as a co-lead sponsor for a bill that would push to expand internet gambling in Maryland.
The bill would authorize “the State Lottery and Gaming Control Commission to issue certain licenses to certain video lottery operators to conduct or participate in certain Internet gaming operations in the State; authorizing the Governor, on recommendation of the Commission, to enter into certain multijurisdictional Internet gaming agreements with certain other governments, subject to certain limitations; and submitting the Act to a referendum of the qualified voters of the State.”
Translation: we’ll put internet gambling to a “voter referendum” where we know big money gambling interests will spend huge sums to get this across the finish line and expand internet gambling into Maryland.
This same state Senator, Nancy King, interestingly brags on her campaign site that she “took action to crack down… on scams” in the housing loan market. See screen shot below:
Casino/house gambling is the definition of a scam. The best “house” odds for various games, like table craps, are 50-50 and this is true for only a select few games. Most card and table games have odds less then 45% for the prospective gambler, and slot machines are even worse. These are carefully orchestrated, meticulously researched enterprises that study player and human psychology and micro-economic actions to a “T”. They exist to rake in hundreds of millions from mainly desperate or addicted individuals.
Internet-based gambling is a top way for casino owners and gambling interests to promote their schemes to those already addicted to online games or fantasy-type role games online.
The organization StopPredatoryGambling.org points out:
“Young teens who were frequent video gamers had more gray matter in the rewards center of the brain than peers who didn’t play video games as much — suggesting that gaming may be correlated to changes in the brain as much as addictions are. This characteristic is precisely why casino owners are aiming to promote internet gambling and target those who are already prone to addiction.”
This post was in reference to a 2011 LA Times article about psychologists who studied fourteen-year-olds who were frequent video gamers. The researchers focused on the gray matter in the ‘rewards center’ of the brain in frequent gamers versus peers who didn’t play video games as much. They suggest that gaming may be correlated to changes in the brain, much as addictions are.
It is very easy to see how the mega-players in the gambling industry simply brain-hack the same concept as “rewarding” in massive online video games, to feed addiction. Below is a screen shot from the site for IGT, a mega-corp that runs “fun” slot machine applications on Facebook (among other things).
Senator Nancy King boasts that she served on the “Kirwan Commission” and that this “generated bold solutions to improve our public schools.”
“She’s championing widely available pre-k, along with deep investments in teachers and schools. She is also working urgently to help students who have fallen behind during the pandemic.”
What does the Senator honestly think is beneficial about expanding internet gaming in Maryland, where lottery, casinos, horse racing, Keeno and more already operate and pilfer hundreds of millions out of neglected people and Montgomery County communities?
It is beyond time for Montgomery County politicians to look in the mirror and understand their actions and ‘laws’ are what feed the economic “inequality” and “inequity” they sanctimoniously talk about or issue resolutions for. Making gambling more widespread and easily obtainable to anyone with an internet connection is the opposite of “progress” towards a more secure, prosperous county.
Will public libraries become internet gambling hubs now? Full of addicted people sitting in the public library to spin an online roulette wheel or play another Black Jack hand? Already public libraries have a very real problem of porn-addicted individuals watching pornography on state / taxpayer supplied computers during library operating hours.
Getting a slight cut of more gambling revenues to prop up a middling, often unaccountable public school system isn’t worth the cost to society at-large. It will simply make (much) of the poor even poorer. Then this same Senator will claim she needs to redistribute more money to help the poor of Montgomery County. Meanwhile a dozen check-cashing and lotto / gambling sites pop up next to an “affordable housing” complex in Germantown, MD (as an example). This is madness.
Rejecting or withdrawing this Senate bill would be a good idea.
