Gambling foes go on attack
Let the people vote” was the rallying cry during the last legislative session from supporters of electronic bingo.
Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, will try to turn that slogan on its head in 2010 by pressing for a statewide vote on whether to abolish gambling entirely from Alabama.
That would mean no charity bingo, no betting at dog tracks and certainly no gambling halls with bingo machines that look and work much like slots.
I could not disagree more with Beason’s ultimate goal of banning all gambling. I would personally like to see it expanded, although not by means of a government run monopoly. But I will admit that I love the pugnacious political tactic. Using your adversaries own rhetoric against them is always fun.
As far as gambling goes…
It is interesting to look north to the state of Ohio. Voters there recently narrowly approved a measure to allow casinos to be built in a few cities. The four previous attempts to expand gambling in the state over the last 20 years failed. The motivation for the change of heart appears to be double digit unemployment in the face of the siren song of new jobs. Wanna bet that the Ron “Lifestart Lottery and Charity Bingo” Sparks campaign took note of that result?
Print This Post
I like it. Or not. I’ve often said make gambling all legal, or not. Personally I don’t mind casinos, lotteries, scratch-offs, video poker, &c. IIRC Rush said that lotteries should be legal if only to have a way to tax the poor.
I don’t like the inconsistent policies we have now where politically-connected gambling like the dog tracks that fund the Democratic Party is preferred, or the Sweet Home Bill which would have set up a protected monopoly on bingo casinos (also to fund the Democratic Party).
I don’t like dog tracks in general because of the history of mistreatment of the dogs (Michael Vick was small-time compared to dog tracks), and I find it ironic that the Alabama Democratic Party is partly built on the carcasses of dead dogs.