I also shared with the group that by no means is this proposed casino a “done deal.” The Catawba Indian Nation filed an application with the U.S. (See our article Breeding Addiction for Profit in the most recent edition of Family North Carolina magazine for more details.) These influences are most severe the closer you live to a casino. Crime, divorce, domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, financial hardship, bankruptcy, job loss, homelessness, and attempted and actual suicide all increase when a casino comes to town. More importantly, a casino would destroy the lives of countless individuals and families who become victimized by an inevitable increase in gambling addiction. A casino would cannibalize the local economy by siphoning money away from existing hotels, restaurants, retail stores and other businesses. Sometimes you just have to get involved, and for me, that time is now.”ĭecades of research conducted by the North Carolina Family Policy Council clearly demonstrates the havoc a gambling casino would wreak upon this region of our state. “I love this town, I love this county, and I love this state, and I am not willing to see my community ruined by the gambling industry. “I did not go out looking for a fight, but I guess this fight came looking for me,” Forcade said. However, Adam Forcade, the volunteer leader of the Kings Mountain Awareness Group, is not one to back down from a challenge, especially one to which he believes God has called him.

A majority of the Kings Mountain City Council, the Cleveland County Board of Commissioners, and the Cleveland County Chamber of Commerce appear to have wholeheartedly bought into the notion that a casino would bring economic prosperity and needed jobs to the area. If the South Carolina-based Catawba Indian Nation and the gambling interests behind this “project” have their way, a proposed 220,000 square foot casino complex would sit right off of Interstate 85 along the North Carolina/South Carolina border adjacent to Kings Mountain.Īt present, the odds seem heavily stacked against the newly formed Kings Mountain Awareness Group. to a group of pastors and other citizens who are deeply troubled by the prospect of an Indian gambling casino being built in their town. This past Friday night, I had the opportunity to speak in Kings Mountain, N.C.

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