In a bet there is a fool and a thief—Anonymous

It is deja vu all over again. Can anyone remember when video poker was being introduced to the CNMI decades ago? Do you remember how the poker advocates and many of our leaders insisted that we had nothing to worry about because only our tourists would play poker? Fast forward to today. How many tourists do we see playing poker? Because the CNMI government savors the millions made on poker fees each year, many of our leaders turn a blind eye to a poker industry that does more harm than good. Perhaps they should talk to our family court judges, our prosecutors and public defenders, our counselors, our social workers, our parish priests, our doctors and nurses, and our police officers. Then maybe they will begin to understand why we need to get rid of poker altogether.

It makes me cringe when I hear our leaders say that the economic benefits of poker outweigh everything else, and that the CNMI just can’t afford to lose the poker industry. What rubbish! These leaders fail to understand that every dollar pumped into a poker machine is a dollar less circulated in our local economy. In South Carolina, a study on video poker reported that while the state took in $122 million in revenue, it actually cost South Carolina $422 million, which included regulation, compulsive gambling, and other social and economic costs (Thompson, William N., Ph.D. and Frank L. Quinn, Ph.D., An Economic Analysis of Machine Gambling in South Carolina)

So how do our local poker proponents protect their greedy interests? By connecting poker revenues with college scholarships, namely SHEFA. It has become an emotional ploy for the poker parlors, which is, “Take away poker parlors and you take away my child’s college education.” Perhaps a more accurate statement coming from the neglected children of poker addicts would be, “Take away poker parlors and you give me back my mom and dad.”

In 2007, many of our leaders pledged to get rid of poker in the villages when they were running for office. How quickly they forgot their promises once they were elected! Perhaps in this upcoming election, we need to remind them that we didn’t forget their empty promises. While business fees are being increased exponentially and unfairly in this dismal economy, several of our leaders want to make an exemption to poker. In fact, they want to lower the fees! Why? So that we will have more poker parlors, thereby stimulating more poker revenues. This is incomprehensible. We need more poker parlors and poker addicts in the CNMI like we need more prostitutes and ice dealers in the CNMI.

And now, of all things, there are leaders up on Capital Hill who are welcoming and encouraging an ally to poker: pachinko. HB 16-225 proposes to lower the annual fee for pachinko slot machines from $6,000 to $2,000. According to the bill, “More machines offered will entice more players, translating to more license fee revenue and jackpot winning taxes for the general fund.” I don’t know if our leaders are aware of this, but tourists will not flock to Saipan to play pachinko! They come to Saipan to frolic on our beautiful beaches and to see our spectacular sunsets and scenery!

To add insult to injury, the 2009 Liberation Day Committee is pushing for Las Vegas-type gambling booths to generate more funds. Gambling associated with Liberation Day? Really? Kids on carnival rides while parents are drinking and gambling their paychecks away? Do we really want to market gambling at a family-focused event? Gambling at the Liberation Day grounds is a recipe for disaster, and I hope and pray that the Attorney General’s Office rejects their proposal.

My dear friends, haven’t we learned our lesson from the evil associated with poker? Who has really gotten rich off of poker anyway? Is it our society, or is it the poker parlor owners? Machines that are programmed to win and that have caused rampant social problems here in our small community do not enrich our community; rather, they destroy it.

So what can we do as concerned community members? For starters, we need to call, write, and mount pressure on our leaders and let them know that we strongly oppose poker in our villages and legislation that encourages more gambling in our society. We also need our spiritual leaders of every denomination to publicly denounce this disgraceful, longstanding threat to our society in their homilies and in letters to their faithful followers. As a Catholic, I would love to see our beloved Bishop Camacho lead this crusade against gambling, and I am sure there are many parishioners who would gladly volunteer to help him.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.” We all must realize that if we truly want our economy to flourish once again, we need to stop believing in luck and start believing again in an honest day’s work.