GAMBLING CONTRIBUTES TO THE HOMELESS PROBLEM

GAMBLING AND HOMELESSNESS LINKED

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May 25, 1999 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The following is from the Religious News Service, Tuesday, March 17, 1998:

Seventy percent of clients surveyed at the nation's rescue missions believe easy access to gambling makes it hard for them to put their lives back together and 18 percent said gambling was a cause of their homelessness.

Those were among the findings of a nationwide survey of more than 1,100 rescue mission clients by the International Union of Gospel Missions.

The survey also found 37 percent of the men and women surveyed continue to gamble occasionally or play the lottery despite their homeless status. The survey found 82 percent of clients had played the lottery or gambled while steadily employed. That number dropped to 23 percent as they became homeless.

"Make no mistake about it," the Rev. Stephen Burger, the IUGM's executive director, said in a statement. "The man or woman stumbling into our mission, addicted to gambling, is just as sick as the person addicted to alcohol or drugs. The addiction may be different, but the shattering of the human spirit is the same."

Burger condemned casinos and state lotteries for "creating a new generation of homeless addicts."

The survey results were released Thursday (March 12), four days before a meeting of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission.

The IUGM, based in North Kansas City, Mo., is an association of about 250 rescue missions across the country. They provide shelter, emergency food, and rehabilitation programs for those who are addicted.