c. 1997 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ When the National Gambling Impact Study Commission holds its first meeting June 20, the Rev. Tom Grey will be there, ready to fight the apostles of the gospel of gambling and the prophets of the get-rich-quick profits of gaming.

Grey, a United Methodist minister, leads the only national organization working to stop the expansion of legalized gambling. At the grassroots level, Grey has mobilized civic, religious and political energy to fight legalized gambling.

His organization, the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling (NCALG), says gambling tears families apart, attracts criminal behavior and is addictive. Examining the big picture of gambling in the United States, Grey wants people _ and the federal commission _ to look beyond Las Vegas and Atlantic City and focus on keeping casinos off local”Main Streets.””My bottom line was that I felt very clear as a Methodist minister that gambling was predatory in nature,”said Grey, 56, in an interview.

But Grey sees his involvement as more than that of a minister. While his faith certainly sustains his work and is at the heart of his vehement opposition to gambling, he said the anti-gambling movement needs to become a broad-based”citizen’s movement.” His sentiments are rooted partially in his disappointment with what he believes is the mainline religious establishment’s failure to voice a cohesive opposition to gambling.”In the spectrum of things, I don’t think that the religious community has said this is a priority,”said Grey. But”where they have heard it, they have been extremely strong,”he added.

And several denominations do support Grey’s efforts. The United Methodist Church has an anti-gambling measure in its book of Social Principles. NCALG communications director Bernie Horn says that Mormon, Muslim and theologically conservative Christian groups have also been categorically opposed to gambling.

The National Council of Churches renewed its general opposition to gambling in 1996, when it issued a statement saying,”It is our view that gambling in any form contributes nothing positive to society.” Some Jewish groups have weighed in on the issue, too. The Central Conference of American Rabbis adopted a resolution in 1984 alerting rabbis to the”inherent problems”of casino gambling. In 1995, the Baltimore Jewish Council went on record with a statement opposing proposed Maryland legislation that would have introduced legalized gambling into the state.

Although the Catholic Catechism _ the compendium of basic teachings of the Roman Catholic Church _ says”games of chance (card games, etc.) or wagers are not in themselves contrary to justice,”several dioceses have pleasantly surprised NCALG by banning casino-type gaming within their parishes.

Most recently, the diocese of Covington, Ky., which gets about 4 percent of its annual income from casino booths at parish festivals, passed a resolution in May restricting casino-type gambling in its parishes.”We asked ourselves, why are you putting on a parish festival? Is it to make money or to build a community?”said the Rev. Thomas Sacksteder, communications director for the diocese.

Although Grey is pleased with the diocese’s decision, he is nonetheless critical of the lack of action on the issue by some religious communities.”We’re much more comfortable passing resolutions than we are seeing things get done or changed,”he said.”I’m embarrassed that after five years I’m still running around trying to fight this thing.” Grey’s battle has led him all over the country, sleeping on hide-away beds and working on a minimal budget, as he cheers local anti-gaming efforts fully aware that every state in the union, except Utah and Hawaii, has some form of legalized gambling.

In 1991, Grey fought his first battle against gambling when members of the county board in his hometown announced they were considering legalized riverboat gambling in the Mississippi River near Hanover, Ill.

Grey, who at the time was the pastor of a local congregation, attended a board meeting and began to ask questions.”The more we questioned, the more defensive they became,”he recalls, adding that the reaction”really surprised me.” Riverboat gambling was approved by just one vote and the 2,000-signature petition protesting the decision was placed”in a file drawer,”Grey said.”So now you’ve got me angry,”said Grey, who then left his congregation to pursue the gambling issue full time. “I stepped forth in faith,”he said, going from the local to the state level, and in 1994 founding the national coalition.

Grey called his battle a”street fight”_ one with powerful opponents.”The economic gains that come into a community far exceed the social costs,”said Frank Fahrenkopf, president and CEO of the American Gaming Association (AGA), a Washington, D.C.-based group representing the hotel casino entertainment industry.

Fahrenkopf, a former Republican National Committee chairman, and Grey often square off publicly, with the AGA claiming that more than 40,000 jobs are created annually as a result of casino industry capital spending and NCALG countering that 9,000 to 16,000 jobs would be lost in Maryland due to the”cannibalization”of local businesses by casinos.

Grey has been calling for a comprehensive study of the impact of gambling on U.S. communities since he began the fight. Now the controversial issue will finally be taken up in Washington when the National Gambling Impact Study Commission holds its first meeting this month.

The legislation setting up the commission was sponsored chiefly by Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va. The commission has two years to complete its work and among its tasks will be the study of compulsive gambling, gambling’s connection with crime rates and gambling on the Internet.

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Appointments to the nine-member commission were divided among President Clinton and Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress. The appointments encompass a spectrum of ideologies, ranging from Terrence Lanni, chairman and CEO of MGM Grand, Inc., to James Dobson, a conservative Christian broadcaster and president of Focus on the Family. The commission’s chair is Kay Coles James, dean of the School of Government at Regent University, the Virginia Beach, Va., school founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.

Grey says the appointment process became highly politicized because of the gambling industry’s track record of substantial contributions to political campaigns.

Of Lanni and other industry moguls, Grey said,”They are great at maximizing profits. They do nothing to minimize pain.” Grey, who will testify before the commission, said he has been called a”do-gooder,””moral crusader”and”religious zealot”by his opponents. But”this is not a religious revival. It’s better than that,”he said.”We’re either going to win or lose. If I were a betting person, I’d bet on us. The truth is on our side.”

MJP END LEBOWITZ