I’m grateful to share that my column, “A Lesson North Carolina Cannot Afford to Miss: What the Gambling Debate Reveals About Power, Influence, and the Public Good,” appeared last Sunday in both the Greensboro News and Record and the Winston-Salem Journal.

I’m especially thankful to the Greensboro News and Record for providing such a strong platform for this important message.

This piece reflects on what North Carolina’s ongoing gambling debate reveals—not just about policy, but about influence, leadership, and the long-term consequences for the public good.

Rev. Mark Creech

Director of Government Relations

Return America

A Lesson North Carolina Cannot Afford to Miss

What the Gambling Debate Reveals About Power, Influence, and the Public Good

By Rev. Mark Creech

Phil Berger might well be considered one of the finest legislative leaders North Carolina has ever known.

For years, he has provided steady, principled leadership in the State Senate. Under his watch, our state has seen meaningful reforms, stronger fiscal stewardship, and policies that have improved the quality of life for countless North Carolinians. Much could be said in his commendation, and it should be said. He has served this state with distinction.

Yet even good men are not immune to the distorting influence of bad industries.

The controversy surrounding casino expansion in 2023, which Berger championed, and the political fallout that followed, should give us pause – not because it proves corruption on Senator Berger’s part (it does not), but because it reveals something deeper:

The gambling industry has a corrosive effect on everything it touches.

This is not new in North Carolina.

When the state lottery was passed in 2005, it was promoted as a harmless way to fund education. But almost immediately, it became entangled in scandal. Then-House Speaker Jim Black was brought down amid a web of corruption that included ties to lottery and video-poker interests. A lottery commissioner failed to disclose substantial payments from a vendor seeking state business. Lobbyists and operatives were charged with illegal lobbying on behalf of those same interests.

That was only the beginning.

In the years since, gambling-related money has continued to flow through our political system in troubling ways, through bundled campaign contributions, undisclosed lobbying efforts, and ongoing investigations into whether industry interests have sought to purchase influence behind the scenes. Even when no laws are proven to be broken, the pattern is unmistakable: where gambling expands, it invites the kind of influence that clouds good judgment, obscures transparency, and undermines the public trust.

Why is this so?

Because gambling is an industry built on loss, on the steady transfer of wealth from the many to the few. It thrives not on the prosperity of communities, but on their vulnerability. To expand, it must persuade lawmakers, shape public opinion, and often operate where influence is hardest to see.

In such an environment, even honorable leaders can find themselves entangled in forces that subtly reshape decisions and blur lines that once seemed clear.

That is why the casino debate proved so politically damaging. It was not merely about economic development. It raised questions, fairly or unfairly, about transparency, influence, and whether powerful interests were operating behind closed doors.

And those questions were enough – enough to weaken and begin dismantling something good that had stood strong for many years.

Not because Senator Berger is corrupt, but because the issue itself carries the stain of past abuses that ultimately invites suspicion wherever it appears.

This is a lesson we cannot afford to miss.

The danger of gambling is not only what it does to individuals who become addicted, though that cost is seriously tragic. The danger is also what it ultimately does to undermine institutions, governance, and public confidence.

It has a way of clouding judgment.

It has a way of attracting the wrong kind of influence.

It has a way of diminishing the moral authority and reputations of well-meaning, good men.

North Carolina should take heed. Gambling is not harmless entertainment. It is not a benign enterprise, but one that has proven time and again to warrant serious ethical and civic concern.

We are told that gambling expansion is inevitable. We are told that it is modern and necessary for economic growth. But our own state’s history tells a different story – one marked not by clean progress, but by repeated scandal and troubling patterns of influence that have followed it wherever it has gone.

We would be wise to ask not only what gambling promises, but what it costs.

Because once it gains a foothold, its influence rarely remains contained.

As we have seen, even the strongest leaders are not untouched by its reach.

Rev. Mark Creech is Director of Government Relations for Return America and a Christian minister who writes on faith, culture, and public policy.

You can also read this article, as well as many others, at RevMarkCreech.org

Share Truth for Our Times

If this article encourages you, please consider forwarding it to a friend, pastor, or family member.

Speaking Engagements

Churches, ministries, and civic organizations are invited to prayerfully consider Rev. Mark Creech as a speaker for worship services, revival meetings, conferences, and special events. Rev. Creech speaks on biblical faith, cultural engagement, public policy, and the Christian worldview, delivering messages that are faithful to Scripture and deeply relevant to the challenges of our time.

For scheduling inquiries:

RevMarkCreech.org/booking

919-915-3033

mark@revmarkcreech.org

______________________________

If you’ve found this week’s insights helpful, would you prayerfully consider forwarding this email to a friend, pastor, or family member? Everything here is free of charge, rooted in a solid Christian worldview, and meant to equip believers to think and act biblically about the issues of our day. Your sharing helps multiply the impact of these messages far beyond what I could reach alone – at no cost, but of priceless eternal value. Thank you for helping spread the Gospel truth!