More Casinos Maine? NO NO NO NO NO!

To be honest, ahem, there was the McDonald's monopoly err, incident. I reasoned somehow it wasn't gambling because I got the tickets with a meal free. I must have gained ten lbs before I realized the game was totally rigged. I guess we all live and learn no matter how upright we think ourselves to be.

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@dadpad,

Quote:

The real victims are the children of problem gamblers and taxpayers who end up paying the welfare bills to support them.

Is there really a connection between general child welfare and legalized gambling? I quickly looked over the research and I couldn't find anything conclusive. There is stuff that shows that there is a correlation between the number of gamblers and legal gambling... but this isn't well explained and could just be that gamblers choose to live where there is access to legal gambling. It seems likely to me that the small number of people who have gambling problems have problems that will manifest themselves whether there is legalized gambling or not. Life is filled with opportunities for irresponsible risk taking.

Every self-righteous movement, from prohibition to the anti-same-sex marriage folks say the same thing;

"But what about the children!".

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

i hate that whole "children are the future" thing

big deal, unless someone invents a time machine i ain't living in no future

let them deal with it, i got my present to be living in

1 Reply

Quote:

Life is filled with opportunities for irresponsible risk taking.

correct so lets add some more. Lets just have a gun free for all and call it irresponsible when shots are fired.

My wife works in community services directly involved with those seeking help financially. Whilst I have no statistics problem gambling and non problem gambling are part of what she deals with. The same scenarios applies to alchaholics and non alcoholics and drug addicts.
Prior to poker machines being introduced to our local golf club there were no problems due to gambling now it raises its heads on a regular basis. the incidence is no more reglar than alcohol based problems but its still a problem.

I think its really really sad that the freedoms the US work so damn hard to maintain results in so much suffering.

SURELY there is enough opportunity already for those who wish to gamble in the US to do so without more casinos.

Ask yourself what the motivation is behind the current proposal.

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@djjd62,

djjd62 wrote:

i hate that whole "children are the future" thing

big deal, unless someone invents a time machine i ain't living in no future

let them deal with it, i got my present to be living in

Sounds selfish to me DJ. I am an agnostic, in fact I hate most if not all religion and the arrogance that often accompanies it. I have not ruled out some sort of hell or afterlife justice for the innocent. I just don't know... but I want to be a compassionate and caring person. I don't want to be remembered as a careless "scrooge", God bless us everyone. I don't even believe in Jesus most of the time either but that does not excuse me for not loving my neighbor and, "suffer the little children..."

We have duties to the world and society and one who omits these duties represents what I consider as "evil"...

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@RexRed,

i help folks, i help charities, but if you got kids (i don't) they might be your future if you choose, but they're not mine and never will be, it's just a platitude folks use to make others feel guilty and to make their lives seem like they have value

in the end, even if there is an afterlife, all we have is today, yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come

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@RexRed,

Quote:

We have duties to the world and society and one who omits these duties represents what I consider as "evil"...

Don't worry, my kids all know not to chase straight draws unless they are getting good enough pot odds.

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@dadpad,

Quote:

I think its really really sad that the freedoms the US work so damn hard to maintain results in so much suffering.

You are really off base here, Dadpad. For example, the biggest problems in the US are caused by the "War on Drugs(tm)" which is our name for the attempt to keep people from using the chemical substances that good meaning people have decided are too harmful to be legal.

The more we clamp down on drugs, the more problems we have. We have made very bad criminal gangs rich and powerful. Our drug related violence is high and we have one of the highest incarceration rates in the developed world.

The restricting of "freedom" (I am not sure if this is really the term I would use) causes at least as much suffering.

I feel strongly that if we made drugs legal, and then took all of the money we save not having to jail people and put it into strengthening social services, there would be much less suffering and quite possibly less drug use.

2 Replies

@djjd62,

djjd62 wrote:

i help folks, i help charities, but if you got kids (i don't) they might be your future if you choose,but they're not mine and never will be, it's just a platitude folks use to make others feel guilty and to make their lives seem like they have value

in the end, even if there is an afterlife, all we have is today, yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come

Perhaps it is a platitude to help alleviate suffering in this world? You would quickly change your tune were it you who were suffering. And the earth does not need our stewardship either? It seems you are just taking the easy way out... you rationalize so you don't have to care for others.

Perhaps you have never been shown love so as to appreciate it as the greatest of all gifts.

There are children who are suffering now... not just in the future. We have many lessons of the past to teach us wrong from right. The problem with addiction is that it is blind to reason.

We do not learn from our mistakes, we learn when we no longer duplicate our errors and do things right. In doing the right thing we finally learn. People make the same mistake over and over and never learn a darned thing. How about a little humility?

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

Quote:

I think its really really sad that the freedoms the US work so damn hard to maintain results in so much suffering.

You are really off base here, Dadpad. For example, the biggest problems in the US are caused by the "War on Drugs(tm)" which is our name for the attempt to keep people from using the chemical substances that good meaning people have decided are too harmful to be legal.

The more we clamp down on drugs, the more problems we have. We have made very bad criminal gangs rich and powerful. Our drug related violence is high and we have one of the highest incarceration rates in the developed world.

The restricting of "freedom" (I am not sure if this is really the term I would use) causes at least as much suffering.

I feel strongly that if we made drugs legal, and then took all of the money we save not having to jail people and put it into strengthening social services, there would be much less suffering.

That is simply not true. Look at Mexico, should they let the cartels demolish Mexican democracy? Should we have arrested Al Capone and his cohorts in the 20's?

There is more to life than getting high. Unfortunately some never realize this. A childhood needs to be sheltered and protected from this scourge.

Some people simply have it ass backwards and that is the main problem. I am not against some recreational drugs but I am against these drugs funding gangsters and thugs.

1 Reply

@djjd62,

djjd62 wrote:

i help folks, i help charities, but if you got kids (i don't) they might be your future if you choose, but they're not mine and never will be, it's just a platitude folks use to make others feel guilty and to make their lives seem like they have value

in the end, even if there is an afterlife, all we have is today, yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come

That still sounds selfish to me. I am agnostic not existential.

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@RexRed,

you know nothing about what i've experienced or the things i've done and continues to do to help folks, and i'm not about to lay it all out

still doesn't change the fact that anything we do is transitory, and could be gone in an instant for any number of reasons

i can live by the platitude and still be realistic enough not to believe it, it's called multi tasking

1 Reply

@djjd62,

djjd62 wrote:

you know nothing about what i've experienced or the things i've done and continues to do to help folks, and i'm not about to lay it all out

still doesn't change the fact that anything we do is transitory, and could be gone in an instant for any number of reasons

i can live by the platitude and still be realistic enough not to believe it, it's called multi tasking

It behooves us to do the utmost considering life is so fleeting and transitory. I am not judging you but I am taken back by your apparent lack of general caring for those less fortunate and unable to defend themselves with maturity and the support of their peers.

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@RexRed,

i believe you can be completely flippant and derisive of a concept and still care about it

in fact i think it's more realistic than fake moral outrage

i love life, i love nature, but i don't delude myself with the thought that it has any real purpose other than to create a buffer between life and death

if i'm wrong, so be it

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@RexRed,

Quote:

That is simply not true. Look at Mexico, should they let the cartels demolish Mexican democracy? Should we have arrested Al Capone and his cohorts in the 20's?

You are completely missing the point.

The fact that drugs are illegal it the very reason the Mexicans cartels have so much money and power to cause so much suffering, (For the record, drugs aren't legal in Mexico or the US ad it is the US market that is fueling the Mexican drug cartels). Criminal gangs don't make these obscene profits selling legal products.

Al Capone made lots of money during prohibition (when we made alcohol illegal). Things got better when we wised up and ended prohibition.

1 Reply

@dadpad,

Quote:

Prior to poker machines being introduced to our local golf club there were no problems due to gambling now it raises its heads on a regular basis. the incidence is no more reglar than alcohol based problems but its still a problem.

The question I have is whether the overall number of financial problems goes up when gambling becomes legal. It could be that the people who display irresponsible financial behavior will just find other inappropriate ways to squander their money when legal gambling isn't available.

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@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

Quote:
That is simply not true. Look at Mexico, should they let the cartels demolish Mexican democracy? Should we have arrested Al Capone and his cohorts in the 20's?

You are completely missing the point.

The fact that drugs are illegal it the very reason the Mexicans cartels have so much money and power to cause so much suffering, (For the record, drugs aren't legal in Mexico or the US ad it is the US market that is fueling the Mexican drug cartels). Criminal gangs don't make these obscene profits selling legal products.

Al Capone made lots of money during prohibition (when we made alcohol illegal). Things got better when we wised up and ended prohibition.

We cannot live in utter lawlessness. Laws are meant to shield the young from predators and protect the innocent.

For some reason I am reminded of Pinocchio. Behind every corner is a wolf and a fox and we cannot appease them out of stupidity and gullibility. Children are not puppets of the drug companies but real and tangible.

I do not want cocaine and heroine legalized. I have seen it ruin too many people in my life. Sometimes judges to this day revoke a citizens right to drink alcohol and for damned good reason. Most people in prisons are there for alcohol related reasons. The profits from alcohol sales should not go to private companies but to government programs that educate the public about the terrible consequences that too much consumption can cause. Thousands of college students die a year from hazing and alcohol related injury.

The bible speaks out strongly against witchcraft and most people do not know that the word translated as witchcraft in the king James Bible is the ancient Greek word pharmecia where we get the modern word pharmacy. Some people say the Bible does not mention drugs but it does...

The modern witches of today peddle drugs, alcohol, energy drinks and such to kids. One arm of the pharmacy heals ills and the other creates ills.

Common laws should differentiate between the two.

It is a tangled mess and one must unravel the tangle thread by thread until a balance is achieved between a healthy society and liberty. The answer is not to just legalize the whole mess.

You cannot open Pandora's box half way... Pandora's box does not represent drugs but the laws that surround drugs. And when you open it all the way leaving society lawless a scourge is unleashed upon the world that will destroy society as a whole. Society needs to understand that some taboos are not a social thing but taboos for a good reason.

The private sector should not be profiteering from drug sales. Then they lobby our government and laws are left too wide open.

Since when does bingo constitute a grandfather clause for slot machines?

This whole gambling thing is the result of unbridled corruption and lobbying by organized crime. The very same organizations pimping out children and addicting them to paramecia and witchcraft. As it stands now the laws are often against society not for it. I am not against recreational drugs such as pot and alcohol within reason but I am against strong drugs being made available such as cocaine, heroine ecstasy etc... Also I am against the private sector peddling drugs as if they are some medicine show peddling some cure for ills. Alcohol does not cure anything.

Alcohol is a recreational drug and should be sold as such by our government and not by private interests. The profits from such sales should pay for medicare, social security, hospitals and law enforcement etc. Drugs are in an epidemic state as it is and it is time to rethink the mechanisms that provide them to society.

1 Reply

@RexRed,

Trying to control others people actions have a cost and one hell of a large cost in ruin lives.

We already have a larger percent of our citizens behind bars then any other first world country by far and in fact most third world countries also.

We could grant free college education to all our citizens if we stop throwing people in prison for drugs crimes.

Thirty nine thousands or so Mexico deaths every year could be stop at once and the fuel for street gangs would be greatly reduce in the US.

There in nothing moral RexRed about your wish to try to keep using the state to enforce your moral values on your neighbors at such a cost.

1 Reply

@RexRed,

RexRed wrote:

Yes it is insulting (but that was the intention huh?) and no I do not take any medications, drink or smoke, other than vitamin D and an occasional ibuprofen. How about you considering how out of line your question was... You point a finger but forget you have three fingers pointing back at yourself.

I really didn't mean it as an insult but probably should have known you would not see it that way. Your stream of consciousness is just very different to me and that wasn't intended as a slight.

I'm pretty disjointed in the head myself, if you knew how much respect for crazy I have I think you'd understand me better. Ain't nothing wrong with being crazy in my book.

Quote:

All so you can promote prostitution for young girls and boys which is usually the rule. (who wants sex with old people anyway?) And you don't think out of state gamblers would flagrantly litter considering they are low life scum to begin with?

1) Not wanting to proscribe something is not the same as promoting it.

2) I don't think that gamblers are as scummy as you seem to (I think a majority of Americans gamble be it in a casino, online, office sports pool or the stock market) and also don't see any correlation with littering. That was a connection that was incongruous to me.

In any case, I think we'll have to agree to disagree. You seem to have strong feelings about this and there's nothing wrong with that but probably not much left to discuss either.

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@maxdancona,

What is really really sad Maxdancona is this "war" is unlikely to had stopped one person from getting ahold of whatever drugs they wish to have.

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