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Oppose Illinois Online Gambling Expansion Bills

Contact your legislators to tell them to oppose these bills.

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Illinois General Assembly

Subject: Oppose Internet Gambling Bills that will Increase Addiction Risk

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A bill was introduced in the Illinois House (HB3080) that would allow gambling operators with Illinois licenses to offer online casino-style gambling. This would massively increase the addiction risk currently posed by online gambling avenues like sports betting, creating new and even more deadly opportunities for secretive 24/7 gambling activity that prey on those prone to addiction. Sports betting has already created massive increases in gambling and addiction risk in Illinois, and these bills will increase the potential harm by allowing more types of gambling activity to be accessible from people's personal devices. People shouldn't have a casino in their pocket at all times. This is incredibly dangerous for those prone to or recovering from addiction and makes it much more difficult for people to stay on the path to recovery or to meaningfully self-exclude from gambling options. Gambling addiction destroys lives and families through debt, depression and divorce, and it also hurts the public as well, causing social costs in crime and healthcare for which taxpayers bear the burden. Furthermore, our children are at risk, with youth gambling addiction rates already mirroring adult rates. Children are flooded with gambling advertising in broadly viewed TV and social media programming, and this bill would increase the avenues available to them for accessing gambling. ABC News reported, “Between 60% to 80% of high schoolers say they've gambled for money in the past year, and up to 6% are addicted to gambling, according to the International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High-Risk Behaviors.” Finally, this will not bring fully new revenue but will cannibalize other types of already legalized and taxed gambling, undermining the credibility of projected revenue amounts brought by advocates. This bill would legalize and profit from the most high-risk type of gambling activity. Our government should not try to fund itself through this destructive and predatory industry. I ask you to strongly oppose these bills at every opportunity and to encourage your colleagues in the relevant committees to block them as well.

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