More yes. This is all true. Over the past dozen years I’ve spent a lot of time in Vegas. I’m familiar with the city, inside and out. (Surprise: I prefer “out”. Red Rocks, to be precise.)
To Fr. Longenecker’s comments I’ll add that gambling generates no wealth. It doesn’t feed, clothe or shelter any better than my sitting on the porch playing 3-men’s morris does so. (Except, in that case, I get to spend time with my child, teach some strategy, get my rear whipped by a 4-year-old . . . yes, there is all that. The bulk of casino gambling doesn’t even pretend to give us that much.)
Gambling does redistribute wealth. If you need a method to get cash from the hands of wealthy private-jet owners into the hands of waitresses, well, yes, that is one way. But what Fr. L says about the industry is absolutely true, including the addiction and family-destroying and saving-depleting bits.
He didn’t mention the associated crime, but you can count on that too. When you take a whole bunch of people who want something for nothing and stick them all together in one place, it’s not exactly a surprise that greed crosses legal lines here and there.
–> This isn’t some fundamentalist getting his rear in a wad because you like to play poker with your friends. It’s not about whether games of chance are somehow evil.
But when you pray that prayer about “lead me not into temptation”? It implies a responsibility to avoid leading your neighbor into temptation either.
You want investment? Build a farm, or a factory. A school even. (Or, go crazy, send a guy to seminary. That’s an investment.) The gambling “industry” is not industry at all. And you go there to spend your money, and end up spending yourself as well.