Friday, January 7, 2005
Española (NM) Officials See Gambling's Dark Side
By Colleen Heild
Journal Investigative Reporter
As executive director of Española public housing,
Leroy Salazar sees the underbelly of gambling.
"I deal with that all the time," Salazar said. "It's sad
when I have to go and evict a family because ... the single parent who
lives in the home has spent all the family income at the casino and
they don't have any food and they can't pay their utilities, much less
their rent. "It's kind of hard for me to go home and sleep at night
when I know there are young children who don't have a place to sleep."
He doesn't blame solely Indian gaming, "but more Indian
gaming than anything else. Ever since it became as open as it is, and
as legal as it is, it has created a big epidemic among the lower-income
families I deal with."
There are four Indian casinos within 15 miles of his office
in the San Pedro area of Española. "We're just overtaken by
them," Salazar said. He's not much of a gambler, but sometimes goes to
a casino "for one thing or another."
"I see a lot of my residents at the casino when in fact they
are delinquent on their lease agreements," Salazar said. "They're
looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."
Most of his residents don't have jobs, and are receiving
some form of public assistance. He said he also knows "a lot of people"
who are waiting to move into one of his 382 federally subsidized
apartments or houses because "they have lost more than what they should
have at the casinos.
"They've lost their homes, they've lost their vehicles,
they've lost their families, and all of a sudden, both male and female,
they're either divorced or thrown out of the home and they have nowhere
to live and they apply for public housing."
The waiting list for housing is in excess of 600 families,
he said, more than triple the number that were on the list when he
started at the agency 18 years ago.
"I attribute over 50 percent of it to gambling," Salazar
said.
Española Mayor Richard Lucero said gaming is taking its toll on the community.
The city spends $500,000 a year responding to emergencies at Santa
Clara's Big Rock Casino because it is located within city limits.
And, he added, "I come into contact with people with a
gambling problem on a daily basis. We are not helping them."
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/gambling/284097nm01-07-05.htm