Vision Calvary Chapel Leaderships’ Letter
FROM THE LEADERSHIP OF VISION CALVARY CHAPEL – LINDSAY/PORTERVILLE, CA.
Dear Bureau of Indian Affairs,
With love and respect, I write to you. Please, know that I mean no disrespect to you in writing this letter.
Though I love all people, the following are some reasons why I am humbly and respectfully asking the BIA to oppose Eagle Mountain Casino’s land-trust application in order to relocate its casino to Porterville, CA.:
1. Casinos have a negative, fiscal impact on communities – “…Earl Grinols, an economics professor at Baylor University, in Texas, and the author of Gambling in America: Costs and Benefits, has estimated that every dollar of benefit a casino brings to a community entails about $3 in social costs—whether it’s increased crime, or declining productivity, or more spending on services such as unemployment payments. ‘It’s a social negative,’ Grinols told me. ‘Casino gambling is bad for the economy. It should not be allowed by anyone, anywhere, anytime.’”[1]
2. Drugs – The selling of methamphetamine is a real issue in our area. I am very grateful that recently, through a sting operation provided by Tulare County Sheriff, seven people were arrested and are being accused of selling methamphetamine at the casino.[2]
Please, we don’t want more drug related issues in our community. Please do not approve the relocation plan.
3. Gambling addiction[3] – As a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I offer the hope, the truth, and the comfort of the Scriptures to help people overcome sin through faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know people who have succumbed to gambling addiction in our area. I have counseled and shared that the Bible says that Jesus Christ possesses the power to set anyone free from gambling addiction. As I have shared the love of Christ and the power of His resurrection, I have been told that rehab did not help. Gambling addiction brings people into bondage, and the research shows that the casino industry takes advantage of those who are trapped in this sin (I am not pointing the finger, for I am a sinner too. However, Jesus Christ has set me free from the bondage of sin which leads to death. He will set anyone free who repents of sin and believes in His death and resurrection because He is gracious, loving, and merciful).
Research reveals that casinos prey on the addicted gambler: “As Richard Daynard, a law professor at Northeastern University and the president of the Public Health Advocacy Institute, explained at the group’s forum on casino gambling in the fall of 2014, ‘The business plan for casinos is not based on the occasional gambler. The business plan for casinos is based on the addicted gambler.’”[4]
I have read that a casino cannot afford to have the truth made public in regard to their business plan: “They cannot afford to have that made public, because it would confirm what everybody knows: that one- to two-thirds of their income comes from the roughly 10 to 20 percent of their customers who are pathological and problem gamblers.”[5]
Casinos take advantage of problem gamblers: “Such addicts simply cannot stop themselves, regardless of the consequences. ‘When you’re dealing with an addict active in their addiction, they’ve lost all judgment,’ says Valerie Lorenz, the author of Compulsive Gambling: What’s It All About? ‘They can’t control their behavior.’”[6]
I do know of One who can set people free from bondage and death; He is Jesus Christ who is risen from the dead and will help anyone who will turn to Him by faith. There is hope for people because God is the God of hope.
4. Electronic gaming machines (EGM) – electronic gaming machines (though legal!) are flagrantly deceptive. The computer chips that operate these machines deceive people into thinking they are close to a win, when in fact they are not. Casinos are permitted to legally deceive people – exploit people – in order to gain a financial reward.
Roger Horbay is “the EGM expert and former gambling-addiction therapist.” He stated, “I think society in general has been led to believe that this is a highly regulated and fair industry because the regulators test everything… but they would be shocked if they knew even slot machines don’t have to comply with consumer-protection laws.”[7]
“Horbay points to informed choice as the central tenet of consumer protection, which is why when you apply for a loan, the bank has to tell you the interest rate and how it’s calculated. It’s why many state lotteries have to disclose their odds, and it’s why even the contests on the backs of cereal boxes list the chances of winning a prize. Yet such essential disclosure is not required of electronic gaming machines. ‘These machines present all sorts of deceptive trade practices that wouldn’t be allowed in any other industry, not even in other gambling games,’ he says. ‘The standard for game fairness is nonexistent on slots.’”
EGMs are designed with “virtual reel mapping.” “Astonishingly, the patent application for virtual reel mapping, the technology that made all these deceptive practices possible, was straightforward about its intended use: ‘It is important,’ the application stated, ‘to make a machine that is perceived to present greater chances of payoff than it actually has within the legal limitations that games of chance must operate.’ Countries such as Australia and New Zealand have outlawed virtual reel mapping because of the harm the inherent deception inflicts upon players.”[8]
5. Sex Trafficking – there is sex trafficking in Tulare County, CA., and we pray to the Lord Jesus Christ against this plague and seek to make our community aware of its dangers. My wife has prayed with and comforted precious souls who were tortured and violated by human traffickers here in Tulare County. How our hearts break over this vile practice and how we pray for its abolition!
We have always prayed for the protection of our police force and for their ability to capture sex traffickers. In the summer of 2017, we prayed for the Lord Jesus Christ to expose sex trafficking in our city. Soon after our prayer time, arrests for the crime of sex trafficking were publicly announced by our local and county law enforcement!
There have been many arrests for sex trafficking crimes in Porterville, CA.[9]
Moreover, the data on sex trafficking and Native American women is alarming. Studies from four sites in the USA and Canada reveal that 40% of sex trafficking victims are Native American women.[10]
“Human trafficking of Native women in the United States is not a new era of violence against Native women but rather the continuation of a lengthy historical one… Native women experience violent victimization at a higher rate than any other US population. Congressional findings are that more than 1 in 3 Native American and Alaska Native women will be raped in their lifetime… more than 6 in 10 will be physically assaulted. Native women are stalked more than twice the rate of other women. Native women are murdered at more than ten times the national average. Non-Indians commit 88% of violent crimes against Native women. Given the above statistical data and the historical roots of violence against Native women, the level of human trafficking given the sparse data collected can only equate to the current epidemic levels we face within our tribal communities and Nations.” Lisa Burnner, National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center [11]
There are those who believe that the presence of casinos contribute to the sex trafficking of Native American women.[12]
A strong advocate for Native American women is Cindy McCain. She is the wife of former Senator John McCain. She is the co-Chair of the Arizona Human Trafficking
Council. Here is what she has stated in one article: “I witnessed with my own eyes six little girls lined up against a wall in a casino outside of Phoenix on display for customers.”[13]
As a minister of the Gospel of the risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I will advocate against anything that has the potential or possibility to contribute to sex trafficking.
6. Liquor sales – On the reservation, Eagle Mountain Casino is an alcohol-free casino.[14] Many of us are very grateful for this fact. However, alcohol will be sold once the casino relocates.
(I am a strong advocate of abstinence among those with political, judicial, and ministerial positions. The Bible warns kings and leaders to refrain from alcohol – Proverbs 31.)
Studies show that there are cases where casinos have used alcohol to their advantage as another means to exploit their patrons and get their money.[15]
One such patron to a casino was Jenny Kephart. “In 2006, she spent an entire night gambling at Caesars Riverboat Casino, drinking strong alcoholic beverages provided for free.”[16]
Again, I am against anything that deceives or takes advantage of others. I believe what the Lord Jesus Christ taught: love God and love your neighbor as you already love yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor, and love is the fulfillment of God’s law.
Research proves that gambling will be bad for the economy of Porterville. The potential increase of drug dealing, gambling addiction, gambling deception, sex trafficking, and liquor manipulation are enough to make a reasonable and intelligent argument that the casino industry is not a positive influence on a community.
Please do not approve Eagle Mountain Casino’s Relocation Plan to Porterville, CA.
7. Most importantly, the gambling industry is based on greed. Greed is the love of money. The love of money is idolatry and sin and brings people into bondage. I have devoted my life to helping people find freedom from bondage through repentance of sin and faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches us to be free from the love of money – to run from it:
9 But they that desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 11 But you, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. 1 Timothy 6:9–11
It comes as no surprise that “California outlawed many forms of gambling soon after statehood.”[17]
Please, do not approve the Eagle Mountain Casino land-trust application for relocation to Porterville, CA.
The casino would do more for our community by remaining in its current location.
Thank you for your time in reading and considering my views.
Respectfully,
R. Ryan Ruckman – Servant, Vision Calvary Chapel
Official Signatories – Bob Ruckman, Kurt Espinoza, Tony Cota, Gill Gonzales, Bob Buck, Darren Bay – Leadership of Vision Calvary Chapel, Porterville/Lindsay, CA.
[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/12/losing-it-all/505814/
[2] https://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/story/news/2018/07/09/undercover-investigators-arrest-seven-porterville-casino/769328002/
[3] http://walkerd.people.cofc.edu/pubs/2010/UNLV.pdf
[4] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/12/losing-it-all/505814/
[5] Ibid
[6] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/12/losing-it-all/505814/
[7] Ibid
[8] Ibid
[9] https://www.recorderonline.com/news/sex-trafficking-ring-broken/article_4092ed76-7344-11e7-87e4-036c8634124e.html
[10] http://humantraffickingsearch.org/traffickingofnativeamericans/
[11] http://www.ncai.org/policy-research-center/research-data/prc-publications/TraffickingBrief.pdf
[12] http://humantraffickingsearch.org/traffickingofnativeamericans/
[13] Ibid
[14] https://www.eaglemtncasino.com/play-responsibly/
[15] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/12/losing-it-all/505814/
[16] Ibid
[17] https://lao.ca.gov/2007/tribal_casinos/tribal_casinos_020207.aspx