Home

The state of Pennsylvania is trying to force casino slot parlors within 200 feet of residential communities in Philadelphia. We believe any development should happen in an open, transparent manner. Casinos have been the opposite.

There are no standards about where slot parlors are placed in the City. Philadelphians believe casinos should be at least 1,500 feet away from homes, places of worship, school, playgrounds or parks, as shown by our recent polling.

As concerning is that no cost/benefit analysis has shown that casinos will bring the revenue they promise into the city — at least, not without costing the city even more in hidden costs.

On Jan. 1, Casino-Free Philadelphia was profiled in the Wall Street Journal:

"Late last month, at a house in West Philadelphia, there was a party that had little to do with the holidays. More than 100 members of Casino-Free Philadelphia observed the group's second anniversary with live folk music, food and the sale of T-shirts that read 'We the People Reject Casinos in Our City.' They were able to commemorate success in keeping casinos out of Philadelphia despite the fact that two huge gambling operators desperately want to locate there."

The article goes on to note that the current economic downturn is "devastating" the casino industry, reinforcing growing public opposition to increased gambling establishments. "In locale after locale, citizens are realizing that they were snookered by politicians' promises that casinos would provide a problem-free explosion in jobs and income from tourism," the Journal notes. Read the whole article.

People in Philadelphia are against casinos for many reasons. One reason is that predatory gambling fundamentally threatens the most important founding principles of our American democracy, sharply undermining the principles of equal citizenship, self-government and accountability.

On September 26-27, 2008, several members of the leadership of Casino-Free Philadelphia participated in the annual convention of the national anti-casino group Stop Predatory Gambling, which was held in National Harbor, Maryland. During dinner on the first evening, we were treated to a keynote address by Mr. Taylor Branch, the world-renowned historian and an author of many books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning trilogy "America in the King Years," which is widely considered the definitive history of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement.

Introducing Mr. Branch was our very own Daniel Hunter, a co-founder of Casino-Free Philadelphia. The theme of the presentation is that state-sponsored predatory gambling is antithetical to the core values of democracy and equal citizenship. Please take about 20 minutes and watch this video. We are pleased to note that two days after giving this speech Mr. Branch accepted the special Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Lifetime Achievement.