NATIONAL GAMBLING IMPACT STUDY COMMISSION

CHAIRMAN JAMES: Calvin Chandler.

MR. CHANDLER: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I want to tell you I won the jackpot. But first let me tell you my name is Calvin Chandler and I'm a member of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Local 1 and I work on Majestic Star casino in Gary. I'd like to say that the casino industry has given the people of Gary and myself the jackpot and let us win a chance to better ourselves with new and abundant job opportunities.

It was Godsend to me because I had to leave college in Alabama to come home because my mother was deathly sick with cancer. The infamous steel mills of Gary were slow and dying and they weren't and haven't been hiring many. So basically I ended up bouncing between temporary jobs such as lifeguarding for the boys and girls club and bartending at a local lounge and off and on doing some substitute work at elementary schools.

The big problem was I was also trying to raise a daughter and finish college. This was not easy. But new blood flowed through the veins of Gary and that was called the casinos. The casinos were the fountain of youth, a whole new look on life. But to finish this statement, I've been with the casinos for two years and it's provided me money to finish college, the health benefits and vision benefits for myself and my daughter and keep me out of bankruptcy from the overpowering student loan bills that were upon me at the time. All I would like to say is I hope you keep the dice rolling in Gary. Thank you.