Stop Predatory Gambling New Mexico

Friends,

About a week ago Thom Cole wrote a good article in the Santa Fe New Mexican about the failure of the state to take gambling addiction seriously. I thought it would be useful to reveal more details about the state’s failure, so I wrote this op-ed below for the Albuquerque Journal that appeared today. It’s not just that the state fails to do a good job of attacking this enormous health problem (state studies since 1997 have indicated that there are between 35,000 to 45,000 problem gamblers in the state), the health department does not even recognize the problem. I hope you will read this article and encourage your state legislators to hold legislative hearings next month to remedy this problem.

To contact your legislator open the “Find Your Legislator by Address” page by clicking the link below.

https://www.nmlegis.gov/Members/Legislator_List?T=R

On the “Political Body” field you can scroll down to pick the house or the senate, then add your address in the following field. That will bring up a field with your legislator’s picture and name. You can then click on his/her name and it will take you to their legislative page where you can find their contact information.

The most effective contacts are by phone, so you could call your legislator at their home, since they won’t be at their Santa Fe office until mid-January. An email would also probably get to them. You could say something like, “I read the article about problem gambling in the Albuquerque Journal (or the SF New Mexican), and think that it is disgraceful that the state does nothing to help problem gamblers. Would you please do what you can to get legislation moving to get the health department to create an office that deals with gambling addiction?”

Stop Predatory Gambling New Mexico will be at the legislature and will use what influence we have to get legislation moving to get the state engaged in helping our citizens.

Thank you for your help,

Dr. Guy C. Clark, chairman
Stop Predatory Gambling New Mexico

https://www.abqjournal.com/1101255/state-ignores-health-dangers-of-gambling.html

OPINION | State ignores health dangers of gambling OPINION | Tens of thousands of gambling addicts in New Mexico create need for permanent agency

POJOAQUE AGEES TO SIGN ON TO GAMBLING COMPACTS WITH STATE

A little over two years since their gambling compacts with the state of New Mexico expired, the Pueblo of Pojoaque finally agreed to the terms that the other gambling tribes had already agreed to. Pojoaque sued the state, saying that the state didn't negotiate in "good faith," since it required them to increase their revenue sharing beyond the original 8%. They went even further in challenging the whole concept of "revenue sharing."

The Pojoaque lawsuits in State and Federal courts finally brought the Interior Department into the fray, and under the Obama administration, the department was working on compacts with the pueblo that would exclude the state in the process. This would be in violation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, which could have made for some more interesting lawsuits.

Recently, the 9th Circuit Federal Court in Denver approved lower court decisions that allowed the State of New Mexico to forbid vendors from supplying the Pojoaque casinos. That, and the likelihood that the currently constituted U.S. Supreme Court would probably side with the state, probably pushed Pojoaque into accepting the current state/pueblo compacts.

An article in the Friday Albuquerque Journal on the story can be read below.

Now Pojoaque is in the boat with all the other gambling tribes, and they will at least have to make a semblance of complying with its provisions. In Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and commercial casinos across the country, a team of a dozen or more FBI agents can show up at a casino at 2:00 am, hook into their computers, grab their books and collect real-time records of the income and expenses of the casinos. In New Mexico, there is provision for ONE state representative to collect gambling data from twenty-eight casinos, although over recent years, even that position has not always been filled. And that representative receives casino-generated reports, not subject to state standard auditing procedures.

Now Pojoaque can legally join in the process that causes bankruptcy, divorce, alcoholism, su***de, increased criminal activity, political corruption, and economic inequality and decline with the other gambling entities in the state.

It is time for the government to get out of the predatory gambling racket.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1043448/pojoaque-pueblo-agrees-to-gambling-compact-with-new-mexico.html

Pojoaque Pueblo agrees to gambling compact with New Mexico By Mark Oswald / Journal Staff Writer • SANTA FE — Pueblo of Pojoaque leaders have agreed to sign a new gambling compact with New Mexico after years of fighting back against the state's attempts to increase its share of revenue from the…

LOCAL BAD IDEA TO RESCUE THE STATE LOTTERY SCHOLARSHIP FUND

In an article in the "My View" section of the Saturday, June 10 Santa Fe New Mexican, Mike Patrick, VP of Datastream Media, proposes a so-called solution to the lottery-scholarship dilema: Video lottery on hand-held devices.

Although Mr. Patrick extols the virtue of his Rio Rancho, home-grown company solution, he would have to stand in line behind such "industry" giants as Scientific Games, IGT, and Interlot, who supply video lottery support for dozens of states in the U.S. , and have had lobbyists encouraging our state lottery board to move in exactly that direction for years.

He wonders why we should worry about harmless little lottery games on smart phones, when we allow video gaming to take place in 25 casinos. Certainly the 25 casinos are a menace to our society, and a source of addiction and suffering. Do we need another source of addiction and suffering that WE CAN CARRY AROUND IN OUR POCKET?

In recent years that NM State Legislature has defeated bills that would allow electronic expansion of the state lottery. We hope they will hold the line and avoid the escalation of the lottery to online gambling and video lottery terminals in the future.
It's time for the government to get out of the predatory gambling racket.

The article in the Santa Fe New Mexican can be viewed by clicking on the link below.

Dr. Guy C. Clark, chairman
Stop Predatory Gambling New Mexico

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/who-really-runs-the-new-mexico-lottery/article_1244bfdd-4758-5135-b370-10e87fc7d546.html

Who really runs the New Mexico lottery? The New Mexico Lottery Authority is responsible for our state lottery. Intralot, a Greek-owned multibillion dollar company, for all intents and purposes, is the New Mexico Lottery. Intralot provides the purchasing network for lottery tickets and scratchers; it runs the back office and computer syste...

POJOAQUE V. STATE OF NEW MEXICO MAY BE NEARING CONCLUSION

For nearly two years since the gaming compact between the Pueblo of Pojoaque and the State of New Mexico expired, Pojoaque has been using the courts to try to avoid paying the state revenue sharing on its gambling profits. The state has been trying to get Pojoaque to agree to an identical compact that all the other gambling tribes in the state have signed.

Following various court hearings, the Obama Department of the Interior sort of adopted the pueblo and said that they could negotiate a compact with the tribe without state involvement. Federal courts have already supported the state in preventing vendors from crossing pueblo borders to supply gambling activities.

Earlier this year, a District Federal Court ruled that the Interior Department acted improperly in working with the pueblo to approve compacts, cutting the state out of the process. On April 21, the 10th Circuit Court in Denver agreed with the District Court's decision saying that the Interior Department action would have, "stripped New Mexico of certain procedural protections or benefits" from the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).

Although the pueblo has the option to appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit court decision is a major setback for the pueblo, and a victory for the State of New Mexico.

Pojoaque is supposed to have been keeping the equivalent amount of revenue sharing in a trust account in the event that they lost the battle and have to pay the state for the last two years of non-compliance. All tribal payments to the state are made on a sort of self-monitoring honor system, with the state having virtually no hard regulatory authority. Maybe the federal government can get them to comply. It will be interesting to watch.

An article on the court decision in the Santa Fe New Mexican can be read by clicking here. Besides cannibalizing local businesses, damaging the local economy, causing misery through the addictive effects that casinos have on citizens, according to a 2005 article in the economist, tribal casinos cause significant economic problems for tribal members.

It's time for the government (tribal and state) to get out of the predatory gambling business.

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/judge-sides-with-n-m-in-dispute-over-pojoaque-gaming/article_dda371e1-087b-57e3-b942-d9b43c9469bb.html

Judge sides with N.M. in dispute over Pojoaque gaming compact A federal appeals court has rejected an appeal by the U.S. Department of the Interior and Pojoaque Pueblo that would have given the agency the right to negotiate a gaming compact with the tribe.