Declaration of Independence from Casinos

We seek to embolden one Philadelphia elected official — a Philadelphia politician representing us in City Hall, Harrisburg or even Washington — to publicly adopt the position that casinos, no matter the location, would be bad for Philadelphia.

We seek a hero to stand with We The People.

Read the text of the Declaration of Independence from Casinos.

There comes a time when it is necessary for the people of a city to stand up and say "This is our city; this is our home, and it is time for those who represent us to stand with us or get out of our way." That time is now.

On Tuesday, January 27, 2009, we — the people of Philadelphia — declared our independence from casinos.

A Problem of Our Own Making

This problem of casinos being proposed for Philadelphia does not exist by some accident; it is a result of a law passed by Philadelphia politicians. Were it not for the state elected officials from Philadelphia, the Gaming Act would never have garnered enough votes to become law.

Now that We The People are resisting casinos in our own neighborhoods, the elected officials are all too quick to blame the governor or legislators in far off corners of the state. Now politicians declare themselves “not anti-casino” and with defeat in their voices say that “there will be” two casinos in Philadelphia — we say that’s not good enough.

We The People will now require our government officials to declare a position either in favor of casinos or against them.

A Solution that is Ours to Create

We believe most elected officials from Philly who voted for the Gaming Act in 2004 were misinformed. But collectively we have learned more, particularly about the impact of casinos on Philadelphia:

the economic costs of casinos outweigh their benefits
the industry seeks to extract money from the poor and middle class
Philadelphia’s culture and vision will be damaged severely by predatory gambling

With our current economic situation, we cannot afford to have casinos that would make Philly poorer and burden us with the costs that gambling brings.

What the Revolution Will Look Like

We will expand our ranks by recruiting more Philadelphians to join our movement. We will enlist friends, co-workers, neighbors and people from all neighborhoods and parts of our city.

We will publish a manifesto: The definitive publication on why casinos do not belong in Philadelphia. This publication will help our recruitment, our advocacy and will challenge others.

Public and private activism. We will hold town hall meetings in different parts of Philadelphia covering various legislative districts. We will recruit residents and workers and we will invite elected officials. We will meet with legislators in their offices to form relationships and to provide accurate information to empower them. We will introduce the concept of Freedom Playing and we will even have our own Philly Tea Party.