Comments on: Legalized Sports Betting is a Bad Bet

By: FRANKIE CALZONE

FRANKIE CALZONE — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:12:18 +0000

EVERYTHING SHOULD BE LEGALIZED ITS A FREE COUNTRY STOP BABYSITTING THE PEOPLE

By: CashMoney

CashMoney — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:53:45 +0000

Sports betting should be 100% legal in this country. Lottories are legal as well as betting on horse races. Is horse racing not a sport?

Sports betting in this country is already here. Why not keep the money in this country as opposed to sending it off shore?

Many will argue that gambling in itself is a vice. The same can be said for smoking an drinking. Prohibition has never worked in this country and never will.

Legalize sports gambling, tax it, create jos.

By: Sports Handicapping

Sports Handicapping — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 22:23:52 +0000

A couple of posters seem to have it right. If the Government wants to outlaw gambling, they have to outlaw ALL gambling activities. No more State lotteries, no more charitable casino nights, no more Church bingo events etc.

The Gov’t cannot control gambling. People will always find a way to gamble even if it means tracking down a Bookie at your local bar or pool hall.

Keep it legal, tax it and enjoy the revenue.

By: RSmitty

RSmitty — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:13:12 +0000

Wow. Maria is on DTR right now agreeing with Jason on this. What’s next? Cats and Dogs creating Cogs and Dats?

By: Mike Protack

Mike Protack — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:34:45 +0000

Years ago, Rich Davis insisted on having a set % of gaming revenues set aside for problem gamblers.

The same idea would hold true now. I guess I could adopt the liberal answer to gaming as they apply to abortion. The liberal answer to abortion is if you are against it don’t have one, same for gaming- if you don’t like it don’t do it.

By: cassandra_m

cassandra_m — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:24:17 +0000

Scratch-off hedge funds?

This is Classic!

There are gaming options that require more disposable income to seriously play — blackjack, poker and so on. No idea if you can require those games to have a min. $100 limit, but that would get you to the deep pockets, but you’d have to be able to compete with the bigger games in places like AC or Las Vegas (or Niagara Falls, Canada for that matter).

By: anon

anon — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:17:34 +0000

Maybe I’d be swayed if the gaming options were expanded to bring in some Greenville money.

Scratch-off hedge funds?

By: jason330

jason330 — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:15:41 +0000

Okay. Maybe I’d be swayed if the gaming options were expanded to bring in some Greenville money.

By: Unstable Isotope

Unstable Isotope — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:03:51 +0000

Hear, hear Cassandra.

By: cassandra_m

cassandra_m — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:58:15 +0000

You do know that poor people were gambling before state-sponsored, lotteries, right? It was called playing the numbers. It was illegal (still is) and you can still do it, but that business has been really stepped on by the state — who started their own legal numbers racket and made some money on it. It doesn’t make it right, but it does make it their choice and unlike smoking, you don’t get second-hand effects. Everyone used to be up in arms over OTB and how poor people would spend all of their money there and never go to work.

Efforts to protect adult poor people from their choices is awfully paternalistic and, frankly, there are probably better uses of advocacy to help poor people in the long run.

By: jason330

jason330 — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:08:04 +0000

Look. It is not my opinion that state sponsored lotteries are a regressive tax on poor people, it is an established fact.

Poor people play lotteries and gamble. Rich people don’t.

Any speculation about why poor people support lotto schemes and slot parlors in disproportionate numbers is just that…mere speculation.

By: The Mourning Constitution » Liberal Hypocracy (aka, how my honeymoon with Delaware Liberal ends)

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:26:29 +0000

[...] at Delaware Liberal, there is an active discussion about allowing sports betting in Delaware at the local slot house [...]

By: The Mourning Constitution » Liberal Hypocracy (aka, how my honeymoon with Delaware Liberal ends)

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:26:28 +0000

[...] at Delaware Liberal, there is an active discussion about allowing sports betting in Delaware at the local slot house [...]

By: Tyler Nixon

Tyler Nixon — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:30:35 +0000

Thanks anonone. You point out the most despicable aspect of the drug war….the root of it all : more and more money for the prohibitionist meat grinder and all its little piggies.

To justify and continue this sustained assault on personal liberty and civil rights (centered around draconian imprisonment, criminal stigmatization, and the progressive militarization of law enforcement) because too many people now have a vested financial interest (whether direct or ancillary, whether in jobs, budgets, or corporate revenues) is just evil.

By: Brian Shields

Brian Shields — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:23:36 +0000

I refuse to believe that poor, uneducated people are too stupid to make a decent decision about their own lives.

It seems like that is really the root defense against this, that the poor people are too dumb to take care of themselves, and don’t know what is better for them. Like masses of dumbasses are going to immediately take their Walmart paychecks and gamble them away on the Eagles (you said they are too dumb to know the difference) and leave the kids at home starving and deprived.

You cannot legislate stupidity, no matter how hard you try.