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Jun 22, 2009
BINGO or SLOTS??
Which is it? A middle-aged Montgomery woman I had occasion to speak with over the weekend was telling me about her recent trip to one of the area places where gaming takes place, and whenever she mentioned the game she was playing, she referred to "the slots" or "the slot machines". Actual slot machines are illegal in Alabama, but what are the BINGO machines that look like slots? The Advertiser and other papers are carrying an AP story today about the Alabama Supreme Court case that could answer that question. And the stakes are huge...potential statewide regulation and a win/loss for The Governor or The Attorney General, old Republican friends who've fallen out. But no matter who wins or loses, for at least that one woman I spoke with, the BINGO machines aren't BINGO at all. She pulls he "arm" on the "slots". Period.
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Some, I'm certain, view gambling as a social evil, one against which the public must be protected.
ReplyDeleteAnd perhaps, to some extent, there may be some validity to their concerns. Who, for example, has NOT heard of "Gamblers Anonymous"?
Yet I recall the words of one of my bandmasters in Jr. High School, whom lectured us in his disappointment after someone had broken into his office and stolen the petty cash students paid for their reeds - the clarinetists, and saxophonists, predominately.
He said, "Locks were made for honest people, because dishonest people will get in anyway."
Obviously, I've not forgotten that remark.
I look at this issue and others in a somewhat similar perspective.
Consider that no "dry" county or municipality has any laws regulating the sale or locations of stores selling beverage alcohol. Though gambling is, for the greatest part, illegal in Sweet Home Alabama, by no means does it prohibit the legislature from enacting any "preemptive" laws regulating gambling, before it becomes legal throughout the state. And, I think it will, though I have no idea how long it will take.
Literally, there's no telling how many poker games using cash or any other legal tender are held here in Alabama. In fact, a parish I once attended had a men's poker night in which the winnings were donated to local charity, with the winner selecting the charity. (And I don't metaphorically mean an individual.)
Strictly speaking, of course, that violates Alabama's anti-gambling statues. And, who HASN'T seen a raffle that benefits a social group, children's baseball team or other community group?
Those are all illegal under Alabama statute.
People will, without regard for the law, do what they want, even if it appears harmless, benefits local charitable or social groups, and no criminal enterprise seems involved.
Fortunately, organized crime - at least to this point, as far as we know - has not been involved in widespread gambling... unless one considers the state's involvement in and regulation of parimutuel gambling at Greenetrack in Eutaw to be criminal enterprise.
Is there inconsistency?
You betcha'!
Should we be consistent?
Why, certainly!
I've never considered gambling as a personal sin, except perhaps, at the point or extent to which one loses their self-control and hurts their family and/or friends by excessive wagering. And yet, there are people whom so suffer already.
The best, I think, we could do is to regulate and tax it, providing for the rehabilitation of those whom find themselves caught up in excess. We should do similarly for alcohol.