Taking action locally creates momentum for reform at the state and national level. Below is sample resolution text to bring to your local Board of Public Health, your local town and city councils, and your county board.
Step 1: Copy and paste the resolution text below.
Step 2: Add the relevant details where you see italicized text in brackets.
Step 3: Enlist local individuals and groups to sponsor it with you.
Step 4: Contact a member of your local community or county board to file it.
Step 5: Contact and educate board members to support it.
Step 6: Advocate for it at the public hearing.
Step 7: Contact Campaign for Gambling-Free Kids and let us know the result. Please send the news onto us at mail[at]gamblingfreekids.org.
RESOLUTION for Campaign for Gambling-Free Kids
SUBJECT: Help [Name of State] Kids Thrive by Protecting Them from Gambling Ads and Marketing, Just Like Kids Are Protected from Tobacco Advertising.
PRESENTED BY: [The Names of Local Individuals and Local Groups Supporting the Resolution]
AUTHOR: Campaign for Gambling-Free Kids
WHEREAS, the State of [Name of State] has a duty to protect and preserve the health, safety and well-being of our children;
WHEREAS, state lotteries, local casinos, internet gambling, and commercialized sports gambling all depend on massive advertising to stimulate demand;
WHEREAS, this blizzard of gambling advertising invades the lives of almost all [Name of State] citizens, including young people;
WHEREAS, exposing children to gambling advertising normalizes and desensitizes them to the dangers of commercialized gambling, and increases the risk children will develop a gambling addiction.
WHEREAS, this exposure to gambling ads makes young people more likely to develop problems later in life because they grow up mistakenly thinking commercialized gambling is a harmless activity;
WHEREAS, the younger children are exposed to gambling, or start gambling, the more likely they are to become addicted due to their underdeveloped ability to gauge risk;
WHEREAS, gambling ads have so normalized and desensitized young people to the dangers of commercialized gambling that video game makers are now designing gambling into video games that millions of kids play habitually, using practices that have been dangerously linked to problem gambling such as “loot boxes,” token wagering, real-money gambling, and social casino spending;
WHEREAS, the recent lobbying push for commercialized sports gambling has resulted in an unprecedented expansion of gambling;
WHEREAS, professional sports have for more than a century been part of American culture and a source of family entertainment and pleasure shared by parents and children;
WHEREAS, commercialized gambling operators, acting in concert with professional sports owners, media companies, and technology firms, have demonstrated the intent to make gambling instantly accessible by every electronic device;
WHEREAS, every major broadcast network and professional sports league has a financial partnership with commercialized gambling operators;
WHEREAS, gambling advertising is presently unregulated on broadcast television, cable television, radio, social media, and the Internet;
WHEREAS, commercialized gambling operators, professional sports owners, media companies, and video game makers have demonstrated the inability to self-regulate their gambling advertising and marketing practices because they have a financial disincentive to do so;
WHEREAS, predatory gambling advertising and marketing directly imperil the well-being of [Name of State] children;
WHEREAS, [Name of State] kids are worth more than money; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the [Name of Board of Public Health or Town/City Council or County Legislature] of [Name of Community or County] calls upon the Governor of [Name of State], the State Attorney General, and the [Name of State] Legislature to pass and enforce legislation to prevent an epidemic of child gambling by protecting kids from the harm caused by exposure to gambling advertising and marketing, similar to the restrictions currently in place on tobacco products; and be it further
RESOLVED, that we instruct the [City/State representatives of_____] to make the need and support for such legislation known to our state’s Congressional delegation, and to the Congress at large and to ask for their leadership on such legislation.