"Show me a wealthy gambler and I'll show you someone who has made his money from something other than gambling." VP Pappy

The Oklahoma Legislature should:

· Introduce legislation to require full funding of gambling addiction treatment programs for the gambler and their families that are at no cost to these individuals.

· Fund Gambling Addiction Awareness and Prevention Programs.

· Pass legislation to ban ATMs from casinos.

· Establish a system for gambling addicts to receive treatment and pay restitution for gambling related crimes instead of jail time.

· Mandate that gambling addiction awareness be taught along with alcohol and drug awareness in the classroom.

· Encourage the gaming tribes to set aside monies to help fund these programs

· Require placement of gambling addiction hotline numbers on all lottery tickets and easily visible locations in all lottery ticket vending locations.

· Encourage the governor to limit approval of new gaming venues.

· Not allow the sale of lottery tickets where alcohol is served, pawn shops, payday loan companies or anywhere else that someone may be in financial distress or whose judgment is likely to be impaired such as a bar.

· Assure that gambling addiction treatment services are available throughout the state, especially near any casino gaming operation.

· Divorce law should allow for easier classification of gambling debt and should not consider gambling debt that was obtained by the gambler without the knowledge of the spouse to be considered marital debt.

· Propose legislation that a spouse of a diagnosed gambling addict could garnish the wages of their spouse to pay for household expenses, child rearing expenses and marital debts.

· Legislation should be enacted to allow students whose parents are problem or addicted gamblers to have special consideration when applying for student financial aid. A portion of state gambling revenue should be earmarked for these students. These students are required to report the parent's income in determining the amount of financial aid that they can receive. While on paper that income may seem adequate to allow for assisting the student, the reality is that that income may be consumed by repayment of gambling debt. Therefore, these students are penalized doubly, once by the addiction itself and secondly, by decreasing their chances at a higher education. The Oklahoma Lottery revenue is supposed to assist in the education of our youth. Those unfortunate enough to have be affected by gambling addiction in their families, should not be further penalized by not being able to go to college.

· Legislation should be passed to prohibit credit card companies from soliciting on college campuses.

· All public and private educational facilities should be required to implement policies banning any gambling activities on their premises including advertisements.

Establish “Gambling Courts” to deal with crimes that are committed due to gambling.  These courts should be based on drug courts which allow for treatment instead of incarceration for those who are willing to participate in treatment programs.  Such a court has been established in Amherst, NY, by Judge Mark G. Ferrel in 2001 and has proven to be successful.

Copyright 2007

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