What's wrong with gambling?

ManOfWord · #1 03-08-2007, 07:54 PM

I'm starting this thread at the invitation of another poster who had questions. I'm not going to post a whole bunch of stuff on the initial post, but suffice it to say that I have been politcally active in the state of Ohio for almost 20yrs to keep casino gambling from becoming legal. With the help of the Lord, we have been typically outspent over 10-1 in money and have won 2-1 at the ballot.

The government has no business being in the gambling business. It is a regressive tax which preys on those who can least afford it. It places the government's fiscal irresponsibilty on the backs of those who earn the least without regard for their welfare except to throw them a "bone" by using a miniscule portion of the revenues for problem gamblers.

Ferd · #2 03-08-2007, 08:02 PM

it isnt gambling if you win?

ManOfWord · #3 03-08-2007, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ferd

it isnt gambling if you win?

It isn't gambling if you're assured of winning.

#4 03-08-2007, 08:09 PM

Would you consider hedging commodities gambling? I have heard that preached before but it did not sit right with me

tbpew · #5 03-08-2007, 08:10 PM

I have inhaled this vice and found it almost immediately exhilarating.

I thank God that I got seriously "hustled" in a dreary basement with a load of cash on the rickety ping-pong table.

Before my meeting the darker elements of gambling, all I wanted to know every Friday, Saturday and Sunday was...."where's the game" and "what's the stakes".

I could never have understood (or believed) how euphoric wining was; leaving with a big old bulging wad of cash that you counted about 5 times before going to bed,
or how belittling it is to have to take your watch and shoes off to cover a pot that already had your endorsed, uncashed paycheck sitting in the big middle.

Thank you Jesus!
Thank you Jesus!
Thank you Jesus!
…for delivering me from the snare of the excitement and the lust of thinking I was going get something for nothing as long as the chumps kept seeing and raising.

All the while I was just being groomed to be the next chump in line.

Luck is such an enticing lie.

ManOfWord · #6 03-08-2007, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tbpew

I have inhaled this vice and found it almost immediately exhilarating.

I thank God that I got seriously "hustled" in a dreary basement with a load of cash on the rickety ping-pong table.

Before my meeting the darker elements of gambling, all I wanted to know every Friday, Saturday and Sunday was...."where's the game" and "what's the stakes".

I could never have understood (or believed) how euphoric wining was; leaving with a big old bulging wad of cash that you counted about 5 times before going to bed,
or how belittling it is to have to take your watch and shoes off to cover a pot that already had your endorsed, uncashed paycheck sitting in the big middle.

Thank you Jesus!
Thank you Jesus!
Thank you Jesus!
…for delivering me from the snare of the excitement and the lust of thinking I was going get something for nothing as long as the chumps kept seeing and raising.

All the while I was just being groomed to be the next chump in line.

Luck is such an enticing lie.

Professionals call that euphoric feeling the "chase." It is what drives gamblers to keep forking it over. The BIG win is just around the corner, they can feel it. You can't smell in on their breath or their clothes. It is a silent killer that destroys families and sometimes literally kills children. (more than one mother has left her child in the car with the windows up in blistering heat)

Newman · #7 03-08-2007, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ManOfWord

I'm starting this thread at the invitation of another poster who had questions. I'm not going to post a whole bunch of stuff on the initial post, but suffice it to say that I have been politcally active in the state of Ohio for almost 20yrs to keep casino gambling from becoming legal. With the help of the Lord, we have been typically outspent over 10-1 in money and have won 2-1 at the ballot.

The government has no business being in the gambling business. It is a regressive tax which preys on those who can least afford it. It places the government's fiscal irresponsibilty on the backs of those who earn the least without regard for their welfare except to throw them a "bone" by using a miniscule portion of the revenues for problem gamblers.

Wow! One of 3? states that hasn't fallen!

Gambling is an insidious family- destroying vice that sucks in its potential victims and their families before they even have time to realize that winning that first substantianal windfall was the worst thing that ever happened to them.

Christians are especially vulnerble because they think that its ok because they don't have other vices such smoking, drinking, drugs or extra-marital affairs. Besides that the buffets are such a bargain!

I have watched families crying in the courtroom because dad had quickly fallen and taken the family down with him. Divorce was the wife's only hope to preserve the family home for her children.

I have talked to parents whose children wiped out their joint bank account so they could play at the casino. I have talked to children who found out to late that their elderly mother was now destitude having spent her retirment nest egg on the slot machines.

Unlike alcohol or drugs; a gambling problem can bring about destitude at a far greater speed. It certainly robs the self esteem/ self worth of the person caught in its grip.

We had a police officer put a gun to his head and pull the trigger right at the casino table. The casino closed that floor down for a few hours while they cleaned up the mess and then they re-opened that floor for business as usual.

Gambling is big business for lawyers. Divorce attorneys, criminal attorneys and bankruptcy attorneys. But hey! The food is great at the buffet....