Gov. Andrew Cuomo won't push for casinos if the process is, as he puts it, politicized. Yet he wants casino location decisions to be made by his newly constituted State Gaming Commission, for which five of seven members will be appointed by him. And we're now told he also wants a casino in Niagara Falls.
So Mr. Cuomo believes no politician, except him, should command the process.
Under that command, state revenues from casinos are promoted while down-side impacts for our communities are ignored. The well-established relationship, of increasing incidence of gambling disorders with increasing opportunities to gamble, has no place. And the role state policies play in promoting those disorders is too inconvenient to acknowledge and accept responsibility for.
It's as though the Dec. 20, 2012, hearing of the Assembly's Committee on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Programs for the Prevention and Treatment of Problem Gambling was from another world.
Testimony from expert witnesses: Of the nearly 1 million New Yorkers estimated to exhibit gambling disorders, only 5,000 are in treatment; state prevention programs were defunded in 2011; and $2.1 million from the state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services goes to gambling prevention and treatment while the Division of Lottery spends $60 million annually to advertise.
DAVE COLAVITO
Rock Hill
