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Monday, November 02, 2009
Lobos, Casino Not a Good Fit
By Guy C. Clark
Executive Director, New Mexico Coalition Against Gambling
Imagine the University of New Mexico joining Coors Lite beer or Camel cigarettes in an advertising campaign promoting UNM sports. Most people would be shocked and outraged, yet UNM has joined an ad campaign just as despicable and outrageous.
If you watch KOB-TV very often you have probably seen the "Go Lobo Loco/Route 66 Casino" ads promising to give away "tons of prizes" to lucky winners in their contest. The UNM Athletic Department is probably happy to get some free promotion for their football team, and Route 66 Casino is probably hoping to benefit from the loyalty of Lobo fans and gain respectability from the association with UNM.
Is anyone else appalled by this marriage between UNM and Route 66 Casino?
In February 2008, UNM made a contract with the Laguna Pueblo casino that included $2.5 million in support for UNM athletics in exchange for advertising rights. The Go Lobo Loco/Route 66 Casino campaign is the logical extension of this unholy union.
The NCAA sends all participating universities reams of posters, usually placed in the athletic department locker rooms, warning student athletes against gambling. What hypocrisy for UNM to warn their athletes against gambling on one hand and trumpet their partnership with Route 66 Casino on the other.
Slot machines, the principle money-earner of the casino, are predatory addiction machines, programmed to be deceptive and addictive. What business does our principle state university have legitimizing predatory gambling? State universities, as other government agencies, should have the responsibility of promoting the "common good," not promoting a product that takes advantage of our most vulnerable citizens.
There is a reason why the NCAA and the professional sports leagues do not allow their members to gamble on games: it is because the culture of predatory gambling is corrupt and corrupting.
UNM should extract themselves from the ruinous contract with the casino owners immediately.
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