Stop Predatory Gambling Foundation

One in four teenagers have a gambling problem. Suicide attempts are higher for people who gamble excessively, and for their family members. Gambling is a growing health concern for children and college students through online and sports betting, family anxiety and stress, disruption of work or study, and relationship conflict and breakdown.

Stop Predatory Gambling is working to safeguard the health and well-being of minors against predatory gambling. No kids under 18 should be exposed to gambling ads and marketing on TV, radio, at point-of-sale, or on the internet. There should be a ban on “Loot boxes” and other elements of commercialized gambling that are currently being engineered into video games that kids under 18 are playing.

This program is scheduled for September 29, 2020. The purpose of this day has three goals:

1) To educate people on the truth that financial security occurs most often from the act of regularly saving small sums of money over the long-term.

2) Offer an opportunity for gambling operators to acknowledge they have a duty of care to citizens. We do this by inviting any store, restaurant or casino operator across the US that sells lottery tickets or offers electronic gambling machines to stop doing it for one day on Sept. 29th. Turn off the gambling machines just for one day. Stop selling scratch tickets for one day.

3) To offer family members and friends a way to start a conversation about gambling with the people they love. We do this by inviting any citizen who participates in state-sponsored gambling to stop gambling for one day on Sept. 29th. If you have a loved one or a good friend who is an active gambler, urge them to participate and be their sponsor for Sept. 29th. As a sponsor, your role is to help the person stay away from gambling, be supportive and help them pursue other activities.

The event has grown out of the work of SPG members Ronda Hatefi and her organization Oregonians for Problem Gambling Awareness. Ronda's brother Bobby Hafemann took his life because he became addicted to electronic gambling machines pushed by his own state government.

EDUCATE
Working through partner groups involved with improving mobility out of poverty, child welfare, public health, domestic violence, the well-being of senior citizens, homelessness, and communities of faith, Stop Predatory Gambling Foundation will provide information to citizen leaders and opinion leaders on topics such as:

Release a state-by-state report of how much personal wealth citizens lost on state-sanctioned gambling schemes;

Illustrate the connection between the spread of commercialized gambling and the amount of debt that plagues millions of Americans;

Spotlight how citizens would have moved a lot closer to financial security by saving and investing their money rather than by participating in state-run gambling schemes

Demonstrate how scaling back citizen financial losses to state-sanctioned gambling would be a net gain to the state and all of its citizens rather than a perceived loss of government revenues;

Issue a state-by-state breakdown on how states promote gambling “on credit,” using credit cards, debit cards, etc.;


Stop Predatory Gambling will organize a national convention or an online event in 2021 on commercialized gambling to elevate the voices of citizens with the lived experience of commercialized gambling and to provide a stage for opinion leaders, public officials, and partner organizations to learn about the problems of commercialized gambling to families and children. They will be encouraged to return to their respective communities and states to take collective action. We will use the 2021 convention to announce ten specific reforms that will cut citizen gambling losses by half over the next eight years, building upon the bottom heavy network we established to move them forward.

ADVOCATE
With the intent to cut gambling losses by 50% over the next eight years, Stop Predatory Gambling will coordinate and support the efforts of a wide spectrum of partner organizations and individuals to help them engage in coordinated work at local, state, and national levels.

Our collective work will include a spotlight upon an initial list of twelve reform proposals.

Stop Predatory Gambling has become the go-to organization for all things related to predatory gambling. SPG makes white papers available on all significant gambling issues. We work diligently to provide up-to-date information through online communications such as a dynamic and content-rich SPG website and by sharing the latest information via email, Facebook, Twitter and other media.

We are working to better develop the large and diverse communities of faith who already oppose predatory gambling by establishing study groups in hundreds, and ultimately thousands, of churches, temples and mosques all over the nation.