Casino-Free Philadelphia started June 1, 2006, with a rally of two hundred people for greater transparency and more public input on casinos. Since that rally, we created a grassroots movement to stop the casinos, including:

• Earning thousands of media articles about this struggle both locally and nationally, including coverage by National Public Radio, USA Today, the Washington Post and international press in the UK and Australia;
• Publicizing the harms of casinos on neighborhoods and their link with increased crime with hundreds of public service announcements;
• Successfully lobbying for the introduction of House Bill 1477 to create the same 1,500-foot casino buffer as the question the PA Supreme Court prevented from being on the city ballot;
• Setting up a fully staffed riverfront office;
• Filing numerous lawsuits which slowed down the process;
• Organizing dozens of demonstrations and actions across the city and region to voice our concerns in many venues; and
• Proving that citizens can take back their government.

We did this with an opponent that bought nearly every major public relations firm in the city to discredit us. SugarHouse claims our delay tactics have cost it $100 million, which included their hiring private investigators to try to smear and intimidate us, law firms to intimidate and threaten lawsuits, and an aggressive public relations strategy.

Our core beliefs and strategy have shown to be effective. We believe in strengthening the power of the people through grassroots organizing, direct action, and sustained public involvement. To fight corruption, one needs transparency; to fight poor planning, one needs public involvement in planning processes; to fight despair in the political system, one needs involvement that does not merely ask politicians but respectfully insists on a fair process. These values are reflected in our recent campaigns.