Faith community says defeat of gaming bill will be top priority ...

TALLAHASSEE-- Religious leaders from around the state met in Tallahassee Monday to being laying out their strategy to defeat a controversial gaming bill that would dramatically expand gambling in the state by bringing three Las Vegas-style casinos to the South Florida market.

The Florida Catholic Conference, the Florida Family Policy Council, the Florida Baptist Convention and Florida Casino Watch all firmly declared their opposition at a press conference, warning of social costs that a gaming expansion could bring to the state.

"We believe that the casino bills are amazingly short sighted," said John Stemberger, who heads the Florida Family Policy Council. "We do not solve short term economic pressures by creating permanent institutions that are regressive, counterproductive and not in the best interest of the common good."

The opposition of the religious community is no surprise. They've rejected attempts to expand gambling in the past, but the group said the scope of the bill being floated by Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami, and Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, is so broad that they wanted to attack the issue as a group.

Stemberger said his group, which typically endorses Republican candidates for family friendly views, will be publishing the voting records of all members in committees and on the floor for the bill. It will also be putting out information on which lawmakers are taking gaming industry money.

Bill Bunkley, a lobbyist for Florida Baptist Witness, said additionally, he plans to reach out to leaders of churches or synagogues of individual lawmakers to see if they can help persuade them of problems they see with the bill.

The percentage of Americans morally opposed to gambling has remained flat, according to surveys conducted by the American Gaming Association, an industry information clearinghouse based in Washington, D.C. Since 1999, about 16 percent of respondents have said gambling is ?not acceptable for anyone,? while about 81 percent have said it is either ?perfectly acceptable for anyone? or ?acceptable for others but not you personally.? Another 3 percent did not respond.

Meanwhile, 60 percent of respondents in the 2011 survey ?view casinos as an integral part of their tourism mix,? and say casinos are ?very? or ?somewhat? important to the overall U.S. travel and tourism industry.

Supporters have said the presence of new casinos could be a major economic boost to South Florida, which has struggled under the foreclosure crisis and high unemployment.

Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, who appeared at the press conference, said potential social costs outweighed any economic benefit.

"Some things you don't do no matter how broke you are," he said. "You don't do it."

Source: http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/dcblog/2011/11/faith_community_says_defeat_of.html

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