Gambling may not be the answer, but it deserves a vote

By Adam Smith The North Jefferson News

COMMENTARY — Sometimes, the more you’re aware of something, the more you want it to go away.

It’s kind of like when you have a dead rodent in your house or a piece of popcorn in a tooth. It can almost drive you to the point of madness.

My dead rodent and piece of popcorn has become the most recent controversy over electronic bingo and gambling in the state.

My dead rodent was the recent sight of hundreds of state troopers marching on e-bingo parlors in south Alabama. Um, who’s patrolling the highways? Who’s keeping an eye on drunk drivers?

My popcorn in the tooth was Gov. Bob Riley’s recent 30-second infomercial, explaining his position.

Even more annoying is Riley’s anti-gambling bulldog on a chain, John Tyson Jr. When recently cornered with allegations that he took gambling money during his unsuccessful 2006 attorney general campaign, he flippantly told a reporter, “So what?”.

That made my blood boil.

Steve Flowers (see his commentary elsewhere on our web site) has done a pretty good job summing up my feelings about Riley’s crusade against electronic bingo in Alabama.

Riley is a lame duck governor. He can’t be re-elected. What’s he trying to prove? Morality issues with gambling aside, it seems like Riley is trying to settle some mafia-like score.

Last Wednesday, I listened to gubernatorial candidate and state treasurer Kay Ivey speak to the Gardendale Rotary Club. She handles all the money in the state and she’s convinced we have a real financial crisis headed our way. The sad thing is, I believe her. And it’s not just because she scares the dickens out of me.

Riley and the legislature are riding high over leftover federal stimulus funds, but those won’t last forever. They’re projected to last about another year and then we’re up the creek without a paddle.

I don’t care what side of the electronic bingo debate you take, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that those shiny machines could be the state’s financial savior. When the e-bingo halls were in full stride in places like Fairfield and Jasper, you would have thought Elvis was in the building. The parking lots were crowded, to say the least.

I myself am not a gambler. I’ve been to one casino in my life. I took in $20 and played slot machines for about an hour. When that $20 was gone, I left. I paid for the experience, not for the belief that I could win anything. I didn’t even eat at the buffet.

In my lifetime, I’ve bought maybe $10 in lottery tickets for myself. Again, I don’t believe the odds to be in my favor.

However, if I were to wager, I’d bet that legalized gambling and/or a lottery could be just what Alabama needs to pull itself out of the economic dumpster.

I’ve heard most of the arguments for and against legalizing gambling and/or the lottery in the state.

The best argument I’ve heard against gambling is the tried and true sentiment that it’s sinful and those who gamble will be damned to an eternity of burning in agony at the hands of the devil.

However, I consulted this week with a pastor about this very issue. It wasn’t the first time I called up Pastor Larry Dodd and asked him for his biblical insight on something that was nagging at my very soul.

So, I asked the questions: “Where in the Bible does it mention gambling? Does the Bible speak out against gambling?”

His responses surprised and enlightened me.

“To my understanding and knowledge, it [the Bible] doesn’t approve or condone gambling,” Dodd said. “It does talk about money that is gained through means such as that is easily lost, but it doesn’t mean it’s evil or not evil.”

He said what most ministers are in an uproar about is that money spent in gambling halls is money that should be spent on necessities for families. That’s a philosophy I can understand.

Another argument against legalizing gambling/bingo/the lottery is that fear of the “bad element” that will inevitably ride into town on motorcycles, rape the women, beat the children, kick the dogs, hang the cats, burn down homes and businesses and drink up all the town’s whiskey before riding into the sunset.

Inside the south Alabama casino I visited last year, 98 percent of those in the darkened smoke-filled casino were over the age of 75. About 50 percent of those senior citizens used walkers to get around. About 30 percent of those who used walkers were also carting oxygen tanks behind them.

That in and of itself should put the “bad element” concern out of the picture. Despite my poor fighting skills, if an 80-year-old woman with a walker and an oxygen tank came after me, I feel my chances of survival would be pretty decent.

It doesn’t matter what side of the gambling argument you stand on, thousands of Alabamians leave their home state each weekend and travel to other states to gamble. Whether they buy lottery tickets or hit the casinos, Alabama is losing out on that revenue. We’re losing gas revenue, food revenue, lodging revenue and the revenue of the gambling itself.

That’s money that could be put into improving the state, the schools, roads and other infrastructure. It could be used to help send smart high school kids to college. It could be used to build senior centers, boost preschool programs and maybe get rid of a few of the trailers that schools are being forced to use to deal with overcrowding.

I’m not saying that legalizing electronic bingo and/or gambling is the answer to all of the state’s problems. I’m just throwing it out there as a possibility.

The state should at least give its citizens a chance to decide what it wants. Put it to a referendum, guys. Let the people decide what’s best for our state, not a lame duck governor with an ax to grind.