Take the Casino-Free Pledge

Three years ago we prevented construction of two "inevitable" casinos through creative campaigns and direct action. Now we need your help to do it again. Sign the Casino-Free Pledge.

As you know, this weekend we were in Pittsburgh, protesting the opening of a predatory casino owned by Neil Bluhm, who is also behind SugarHouse (see photo). The effort to build casinos in major cities such as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia is the tip of the spear of the predatory gambling trade in its effort to put casinos as close as possible to residential communities. If Bluhm and Foxwoods financier Ron Rubin are successful, Philadelphia will be the largest American city with a casino.

In our last direct action campaign, Beat the House, we put the predatory gambling industry on notice that we'd not sit idly by while our communites are eviscerated for their profit. We promised we'd be back.

In the coming weeks, we'll be staging a series of creative direct actions confronting Neil Bluhm, Ron Rubin and other backers of the two proposed casinos in Philadelphia. We're no longer able to wait for our elected officials in the city and in Harrisburg to find their backbones and defend their constituents instead of the casino lobby.

That's why we need you stand up, by pledging to take action against casinos in Philadelphia:

I pledge to take nonviolent action to halt the construction of any casino built in Philadelphia. I will not allow the predatory gambling industry to destroy our community and our cities. Should such casinos be built, I pledge to take nonviolent action to prevent their effective operation.

As always, our actions will allow participation in a variety of ways. What we need now is your public dedication to confront the casinos.

If you'd like more information about our first action, to defend Philadelphia from any construction by SugarHouse, please attend our direct action training this Wednesday evening. Throughout the campaign, we'll be working with allies like the No Casino in the Heart of the City coalition, Asian Americans United and Liberty Resources. And as always, a key component of direct action is direct education, which we'll be continuing through our flyering nights in different parts of the city.

We need to show the casinos that Philadelphians won't back down or allow their neighborhoods to be taken over, simply because bought-and-paid-for politicians tell us it's "inevitable."

Sign the Casino-Free Pledge today.

Thank you, for all you've accomplished in the past three years, and for all we know you will be able to accomplish in the future.