Tobe Johnson, professor of political science at Morehouse College in Atlanta, said that the views of African-Americans on gambling are shifting as legal games of chance have spread across the country.
Historically, he said, gambling has "to some extent been a way of life" in the black community -- since long before states began sponsoring lotteries and other forms of gambling.
"A large cross section of blacks played the 'policy rackets,' or the numbers, every day -- from Harlem to Mississippi," Johnson said.
But views changed as states got into the gambling business to pay for broader government programs and services, Johnson said.
Many blacks regard lotteries and other forms of state-controlled gambling as "largely a transfer of money from the underclass to the middle and upper class," he said.
"Ministers and others have come to see this as another level of exploitation of the black community," Johnson said.
| Continue Greg Garland's Baltimore Sun article "Black communities split over impact of slot machines"
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