How do you feel about legalized gambling?

[More Than A Feeling]

http://nytimes.com/2005/03/31/national/31gamble.html?hp&ex=1112331600&en=fd3ad7cb838ab4b5&ei=5094&partner=homepage

This is another possible wedge issue, this one would peel off the evangelicals/fundamentalists who oppose it as immoral, if the Democratic Party came out against gambling.

Combine that with my earlier proposal to ban the sale of personal information by corporations (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3389398&mesg_id=3389398), and we are talking serious wedges in the GOP.

Where do you all stand on this? Is this something we should try?

on edit: This would have a few benefits. One is that state parties could go along with it or not as they wished, and since this is a state issue, coming out against it at the national level would do no harm. It would be fun watching Bush being torn in two between the corporate profits and the fundamentalist moralizers.

[Dookus]

1. No, I don't think it's something we should try

We don't need more nanny-ism in government, and trying to get into a race with the Republicans over who can control individual decisions the most is just a dangerous proposition.

[Lucky Luciano]

2. I am all in favor of legalized gambling

If the Wall St guys can do it, then so should everyone else. However, slot machines and Roulette should not be allowed since the house edge is so outrageous that it is criminal.

I am in favor of poker and blackjack...the rest of the games suck, but they can be allowed because th edge is not so outrageous (eg craps, baccarat). That said, in Los Angeles, during graduate school, I padded my income by playing poker at a lot of the card clubs. There were a lot of suckers there as well as good players. California blackjack was also there. That is a bad game because no amount of card counting will make up for the commissions you have to pay the house - a compelte waste of time to play. However some did and some lost a lot of money. You can tell who lost a lot based on the people that you would occassionally see with 4 fingers on one of their hands. On the 1st and the 15th of every month there was easy money to be made at the poker tables as people came in with their welfare money. These last two points I made are the very dark side of gambling. On the one hand I approve because I generally win in the long run, but otehrs lose and cannot control themselves. I do not want to be deprived based on someone else's lack of self-control, but I do feel bad for them.

[expatriot]

3. gambling is like drugs and prostitution

in and of themselves i am not necessarily opposed to, but rather I do become opposed to the phenomona when certain socio-economic determiners (read: poverty and psycho-social despair) 'drive' their uses and presence to excess which then has harmful individual, societal and economic hardships.

[Selteri]

6. I agree - I'm for gambling, 'soft drugs' and Prostitution

Just like the Netherlans, a progressive, forward moving country.

Yes, there are problems in all three too, but these are crimes of 'morality' aren't themselves like the other crimes that are against society and it's members, not for chosing to do something that is outside of the 'societal norm'.

[illflem]

4. Since most states have a lottery isn't gambling already legal?

[TankLV]

5. I make my living off it. I'm all for it!

We're building another big casino in Lake Charles - set to open in May-June this year.

Couldn't be happier.

[Pushed To The Left]

7. Gambling should be legal

I believe that all vice laws should be abolished. The government has no business legislating personal morality.

[More Than A Feeling]

8. I guess that is a no on using the issue against the GOP then?

Oh, well, it was just a thought. I will keep trying to come up with issues we can use and power plays we can try. Thank you all for your input.

on edit: did you guys at least take a look at my earlier privacy thread?

[Dookus]

9. yes, I saw that thread

and thought it was flawed, too. I see no practical way to stop the selling of information. If we outlaw in the US, it occurs offshore. Plus most people really don't MIND if their names and addresses are sold.

I don't think we need to find NEW issues to fight the GOP on. We have plenty of good ones right now. I don't see the value in making up new fights.

[More Than A Feeling]

11. I am just trying to find our version of the gay marriage amendment

something we can spring on them that will tear them apart.

It seems like that is what they do. Make up issues like activist judges and gay marriage, and torment us with them.

I want to be on offense for once.

[Pushed To The Left]

12. Illegal immigration!

This is Bush and the Republican Party's achilles heel right now. Illegal immigration provides cheap labor for the corporate conservatives to exploit, and I believe this is the reason that Bush and many Republicans are weak on the issue. It is also a reason why border security should be a progressive cause!

[More Than A Feeling]

13. Good one! and very natural for us.

Protect the American worker, and stop the exploitation of illegals by getting them out of the country. Plus, it isn't right that illegals should get in when there are people who do it the right way, and wait very patiently to get the proper paperwork.

Since Bush hasn't done shit on border security, as far as I know, this could be a tie in to homeland security as well.

"President Bush, how do you expect to stop terrorists from getting in, when you can't stop illegal immigrants from coming over the border"

Cool.

[brettdale]

10. we have it newzealand

We have legal gambling in NewZealand, a few Casinos, pubs have one arm bandits and we also have lotteries, its starting to become a big problem for some people who are spending more than they can afford.

We also have sports betting, we can bet on anything sports game on any sport around the world, not only on the result but little things, like for NFL games, "What player will score the first touch down" "Will there be a safety" basically you can bet on anything that might happen in the game.

I dont gamble myself, but if thats what people want to spend thier money on, they should be allowed.

[oscar111]

14. Gambling = Greedmind: creates more RW youths, voters: ban it

Gambling promotes lust for money.

especally money gotten easy. So the gambling experience leads some to look for other ways to get money without honest work... like bank tricks, like store tricks, like boss tricks, like repairman tricks.

Gambling is a RW activty. It is like Junior Achievement in that both train youth to lust for easy money.

Ban gambling.

When it exists, it also seems to funnel money to the mafia.

Casinos breed burglars. Lose the rent money, and some burgle to get some.

Casinos bleed money that also would have been spent on places like furniture stores.

Gambling is the only entertainment that can cost your life savings.

I have seen Casinos rent busses, fill them up at the retirement homes, and bus senile ladies and halfsenile ladies off to a casino. Like to see that happen?

ban gambling.

Gambling results also in a de facto tax on the poor and dumb. Those folks need protection, not vultures picking their bones.

ban gambling.

[leftofthedial]

15. I think it is a blight on our culture

it's almost as corrosive to democracy as the whore media

[tjwmason]

16. It's one of those things which can be good or bad

I see no problem with spending an evening at a casino, having a few drinks with friends and spending some money (I would consider it spending). But then gambling addiction can be a very serious problem, and can bring many many social ills in its wake.

I think that a regulated system is best (which is what we have in the U.K. - I'm not sure about the recent relaxation of the law). We have bookies in the High Street who offer odds on just about anything though horse-racing is the most popular; but until recently casinos were very tightly regulated in terms of waiting periods for membership and advertising.