Letters: Don't Let Mall Casino Further Pa.'s Gambling Addiction; Bypassing Normal Government Processes; Flushing Democracy

State College

20 February 2022

Pennsylvania Is Addicted to Gambling

Last Sunday’s Super Bowl set a record with Americans wagering nearly $8 billion on the game. This dramatic increase is a direct result of the legalization of sports betting; the matchup between the Rams and the Bengals was the first Super Bowl of the online gambling era.

Since online gambling and sports betting are now legal in Pennsylvania, Penn State has begun conducting research on the prevalence and impacts of online gambling. Key findings include that 11.1% of PA residents (i.e. about 1,400,000 million people) participated in online gambling and that 44.6% of PA residents who participated in online gambling (i.e. 4.95% of PA residents / about 643,000 people) exhibited at least one sign of gambling addiction.

Most research on gambling is funded by the gambling industry and is subject to conflicts of interest. Penn State’s report is no exception – its background notes that “[t]he funding for this report is provided by law through the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board [PGCB] from revenues of the interactive gaming licensees.” The report unsurprisingly stops short of saying it is problematic for nearly 5% of the state’s population to be addicted to online gambling, and it says nothing about the human or economic costs of gambling addiction on the individuals, families and communities that are affected.

Our government officials themselves are addicted to gambling because of the tax revenue that it generates – the report notes early on that online gambling “generated over $372 million in direct gaming taxes” in Fiscal Year 2020-21. It does not detail that the owners of the online gambling sites keep a additional 85%-625% of the amount that they pay in taxes for themselves depending on the type of gambling that is taking place. Every dollar of that money is extracted from our state’s economy and potentially redirected away from making productive economic investments or meeting citizens’ immediate needs.

To make matters worse, our state leadership is aggressively pushing to increase the prevalence of gambling by opening more casinos. Just as an addict often needs increasingly frequent and powerful “hits” to experience the same rush that they felt at first, our leadership is approving more and more casinos despite the fact that they no longer provide the surge of tax revenue that is being sought. A 33% increase from 12 to 16 casinos during the past two years has increased overall Pennsylvania casino revenues by only 3.6%. Further increases in gambling tax revenues will only come by getting more citizens addicted to gambling.

The latest location being considered for a casino is our community’s Nittany Mall. The casino industry is like a drug dealer and our citizens and elected officials are their users; the only way to stop this cycle of addiction before we hit rock bottom is for people who care about our community to stage an intervention. Please e-mail your opposition to the proposed Nittany Mall Casino to the PGCB at and put “Nittany Mall Casino” in the subject of your message.

Andrew Shaffer,
State College

Bypassing Normal Governmental Processes

Republican state legislators are working hard to undo our three-branch system of government that has served us well for over 200 years – and, simultaneously, treating the state constitution as a plaything. Trying to retain power at any cost, and unable to achieve their goals through legislation, they’re resorting to constitutional amendments to get what they want.

This is dangerous.

They started by interfering with the executive branch. In the May 2021 primary, two constitutional amendments were proposed to restrict the governor’s emergency powers, both the result of Republican legislators’ frustrations with Gov. Wolf’s science-based approach to COVID. Voters were provided inadequate and confusing information about the amendments. Legislators know that ballot questions have an extraordinarily high success rate because voters typically say “yes” when they’re not sure how to answer! And legislators time ballot questions to appear during low-turnout primaries.

The result? A very small minority of Pennsylvania citizens (about 13% of registered voters) limited the ability of the governor— current and future—to protect the public during an emergency.

Now they’re moving to the judiciary. Republican legislators are working on a constitutional amendment to eliminate statewide elections for Pennsylvania’s appellate judges, in favor of regional districts, thereby extending gerrymandering to judges. Isn’t it bad enough that our legislature is seriously gerrymandered? What happens when judges become pawns in a power play?

And what happens when our state Constitution becomes a catchall for legislative failures?

Let’s not allow Republicans to ditch democracy to stay in power.

Sheri Berenbaum,
Ferguson Township

Flushing Democracy

As a professional archivist. I am appalled and dismayed that anyone (no less the President of the United States) would consider flushing documents down a toilet. Certain documents, especially critical government documents, are to be preserved and made accessible. They are to be honored for the role they play in running a democratic process.

Since this basic construct is not evident to certain politicians, I would like to remind them that there are other fundamentals that should not be flushed down a toilet (real or philosophical). These include: voting rights, basic social justice, the right to choose, the right to free and fair elections, the right to financial and job security, equal opportunities, a basic education, and the right to be free of political anarchy, among many others too numerous to list here.

Personally, and professionally, I hope that we as a nation stop flushing our democracy, it is too precious a commodity to destroy.

Jackie Esposito,
Ferguson Township

‘Gospel of Trump’ Isn’t Funny

My favorite posting on our refrigerator door – going back a few years – is a Tom Toles depiction of a Bible-thumping preacher, arms raised at the pulpit, where he fulminates to his followers: “Blessed are the rich in Bank Accounts, Blessed are the Winners. Blessed are the Boastful! Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for Acclaim. Blessed are the Ruthless. Blessed are the Perfidious of Heart. Blessed are the Discord Makers. Blessed are they who Persecute those who Investigate them.”

The Gospel of Trump, forever intertwined with the Gospel of Political Evangelicals, seems riotously funny. But a closer look reveals the truth of what Trump and his acolytes have championed over the past five years. The hideous shallowness and lack of compassion for his fellow human beings (remember, this is the man who mocked a disabled person in front of a crowd, who equates a woman’s value to her appearance, goaded supporters into violence by vowing to pay their legal bills) is still drawing adoring crowds who, well, worship him.

When the church says ‘we can’t cross the line into the political arena,’ I say, ‘if you don’t take a stand, this is what people think they hear from the church.’ If the so-called evangelicals have hijacked Christianity to resemble something none of us believers recognize, the silence of the church to oppose that thinking becomes deafening. And in practical terms, it’s all but complicit.

Gina Hershey Leon,
State College

Message to Newly Elected Office Holders and Candidates

This is reminder to all about what it means to be an American. It means we are privileged to live in a country founded on Judaeo-Christian principles, as a nation under God. It means we need to remember our founding fathers were wise, knowledgeable and worked to establish the greatest country ever, even though they were not perfect. Each person has a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It means we have a duty and responsibility to foster these beliefs in our daily lives.

It means we need to help and encourage each person to be the best they can be. By promoting independence in a person, we help them to be self-sufficient and confident, not dependent on the government.

It means, we live in a civil society and need to to abide by the rule of law. This includes respect for authority, holding people accountable for their actions. Praise for good behavior and consequences for improper behavior.

It means respect for your fellow man. We need to promote mutual respect by our behavior. We cannot legislate, change by putting up signs, memos, etc.. It is who we are, our conduct of character is what defines us, for what Martin Luther King, Jr. hoped.

It means we welcome those who come to our country legally, help them assimilate and encourage them to become citizens. This way they learn about the privileges we have and also the responsibilities they have to maintain our country. People who are not citizens do not have the right to vote. Our country is free because many people have fought and died to maintain it. It is up to each of us to exemplify the qualities our forefathers had: respect for the rule of law, belief in one nation under God and the right of each person to reach their dream.