Sermon Illustrations
Casino Promotes Gambling as a Solution to Debt
A casino in New Mexico ran an ad that offered an interesting solution for those facing financial problems. The Isleta Casino & Resort bills itself as "Home of Albuquerque's Loosest Slots and Hottest Table Games."
The casino put out a TV commercial showing images of dollar bills floating down to an outstretched hand while an announcer said, "So the holidays have passed, and those credit card bills just keep piling up? Well, Isleta Casino Resort comes to your rescue."
In the weeks that it aired, the commercial received sharp criticism and eventually the casino pulled the ad. Guy Clark, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition Against Gambling, angrily denounced the spot as targeting "the uneducated, desperate and poor." Denouncing gambling as a losing proposition that traps you into "chasing your losses," Clark suggested that the more common results of gambling were not financial windfalls but economic devastation and suicide.