Friday, Sept.26

12:30pm – 1:30pm

Registration

12:30pm – 1:30pm

Opening Session

Maryland State Comptroller Peter Franchot

Prince Georges County, MD activist Bonnie Bick

Arelia Taveras, a recovering gambling addict who became a national story because of her pending lawsuit against an Atlantic City casino

2:45pm – 4:15pm  

Session 2  - Strategies to Reform the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act featuring U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-LA) and New York Attorney Neil Murray, a prominent New York State attorney who has become a national leader and legal force in challenging the massive abuses of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act

 4:15pm– 5:30pm  

Session 3- Faith communities and the role they play in educating the public about  predatory gambling

Bishop John Schol, head of the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. United Methodist Conference

Rev. Jonathan Weaver, Pastor, Mt. Nebo Church, Bowie (Prince George’s Co.)

Rev. Byron Brought, Pastor, Calvary United Methodist Church, Annapolis, MD

5:30pm- 6:30pm          

Workshop for Faith Leaders- Gambling Recovery Ministries: A Faith Based Approach

Janet Jacobs, Director, Gambling Recovery Ministries, South Indiana Conference, The United Methodist Church

6:30pm – 9pm              

Keynote Address- Taylor Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of Parting the Waters, the definitive history of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement.

Branch’s speech will examine state sponsored gambling versus American democratic values.

Dinner

Saturday, Sept. 27

8:00am- 9:00 am          

Session 4- Teen Gambling 101: Who, Where, What and Why?

Janet Jacobs, Director, Gambling Recovery Ministries, South Indiana Conference, The United Methodist Church

9:00am – 10:00 am      

Session 5-  Online Gambling: Bringing Las Vegas into Every Home in America

Greg Hogan, an Ohio father whose son became an online gambling addict at college and robbed a bank to feed his addiction. The son was recently released from prison. The story of his family was a national story.

10:00am – 11:30 am   

Session 6 – The Facts About the Design and Technology of Modern Electronic Gambling Machines               

Les Bernal, Executive Director of StopPredatoryGambling.org,  will discuss the design and technology behind electronic gambling machines

Dr. Guy Clark, Chairman of StopPredatoryGambling.org and a citizen activist who has aggressively led efforts to challenge the predatory and deceptive practices of electronic gambling machines before his state’s Gambling Commission

11:30am – 1pm           

Session 7- State sponsored gambling’s significant role in trapping millions of Americans in a cycle of debt

David Blankenhorn, President of The Institute for American Values, New York, NY, directed one of the most talked about reports of 2008 titled For a New Thrift: Confronting the Debt Culture, taking dead aim at state-sponsored gambling’s role in trapping millions of Americans in a culture of debt.

1pm – 2pm   

 Luncheon

2:00pm-3:30pm

 Session 8 –Have States Addressed Their Long-Term Budget Problems Through Predatory Gambling?

Robert Ward, Deputy Director/Director of Fiscal Studies, Rockefeller Institute of Government, Albany, NY. Ward co- authored a 2008 report which took an objective, in-depth look at how much states have become reliant on gambling profits to pay for public services.

3:30pm – 4:30pm 

Session 9- Building the National Citizen’s Movement to Stop Predatory Gambling

Les Bernal, Executive Director, StopPredatoryGambling.org

Tom Grey, Field Director, StopPredatoryGambling.org

4:30pm – 6pm                  

Reception