By: joe bernstein

joe bernstein — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:36:51 +0000

Yeah-great news.I worked at Lincoln Park for a few years after retiring from the feds and I had never spent any time in gambling venues before.What a disgusting place it was.Most of the customers were not the so-called “high rollers”-they were people who didn’t seem that they could really afford to feed the machines.It’s all a shell game-you can’t win in the long run and I believe a lot of rent,food,and heat money went into the slots.One day a bunch of women came in straight from a demonstration at the PUC over gas rates and shutoffs.They still had their buttons on their clothing proclaiming their grievences which is why I knew who they were.I couldn’t believe that they couldn’t pay for heat,but they could gamble.Why would they?Because of the false hope that gambling halls dangle before people’s eyes.the gambling industry is a regressive basis for economic development and has to be self limiting at some point,because the farther the economy goes into the crapper,the less money and credit will be available for gambling.The bubble will deflate and destabilize further an already disastrous budget crisis for the state.When I was in grade school,we used to get maps of the USA,beautiful productions in color,with pictures of various products superimposed on each state to represent what drove the economies there.I’d hate to see those maps today.More gambling is the last thing this state needs.

Comments on: I suppose this is good news?

By: joe bernstein