It makes little sense

Published Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Dear Editor

As I ponder the dilemma we find ourselves in over gambling in our state, I found it quiet iconic that you had an anti gambling editorial letter within an inch of the lottery numbers from Georgia and Tennessee. This is a perfect example of our dilemma.

My dictionary defines gambling as “no risk or bet something of value on the outcome of an event, a game of chance.” When you pay money {or something of value} you are gambling. We all do it in life every day, and yes, lotto is gambling, bingo is gambling, just as much so as playing Blackjack at a table in Biloxi. Our problem stems from wanting to define gambling in terms that make it OK for some and not for others based in large part on who or what the profits go to.

Our political leaders don’t seem to get it that it’s hard to understand why it’s OK to go to Riverside in Wetumpka and gamble, but illegal to go to Shorter and do the same thing. Why one group can have Bingo to raise funds, but a business can’t.

While it makes perfect sense for us to debate and consider the pros and cons of allowing gambling in our state, our current controversy makes little sense and the proposed referendum is just more of the same. Please give us consistent laws that apply to everyone the same.

As for gambling, for or against, we can’t leave it for the politicians, the people of Alabama must decide this one.

Ted Harrell, Jackson’s Gap

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