First of all, I am against gambling of any kind, electronic or otherwise.
As Christian people, I will say we have brought this on ourselves. We must accept the blame for the people we’ve helped to put in office, at times, voting the party line no matter who is running. We sat back once before and let one individual remove prayer from the schools. The current president says we are not a Christian nation and our leaders in government won’t accept a living Savior, but we turn around and accept pagan gods all the time. Are we to the point where a sinner can’t see any difference in our lives and his?
I would like to know how much our elected officials got for saying electronic bingo is OK. Are these same people leaders in their individual churches? I’m from Etowah County. God only knows what they got.
If Christian people don’t wake up and speak up soon and pray and put God first, we are surely headed for destruction.
James A. Roberson
Altoona, Ala.
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I am vehemently opposed to gambling, especially in my state where I will have to pay the fallout cost of the cancer that comes with it. I am opposed to gambling by Indians or anyone else. Gambling benefits no one, period.
The only financial gain is for the owners, but even they are too blind or calloused to see what they are doing to their neighbor.
Just as flies come with a pig sty so will crime, prostitution, divorce and corruption come with gambling. Stop for a moment and look at the places where gambling now exists and consider their environment.
How many would want to take your RAs or GAs on a field trip to a casino? How many want to take your second-grade class on a field trip to a casino and explain that this place was put here to benefit your education but it really does not? Gambling has no benefit for society whatsoever.
Electronic bingo is gambling. Just like a tadpole is a frog-to-be, electronic bingo is the precursor to full-scale casinos and all disease that accompanies it. What a shame it is that people with resources and the drive to do something will not direct their efforts toward improving our world.
Gary Bradshaw
Enterprise, Ala.
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I would like to share some insight from the battle front of the gambling issue. Walker County appears to have been the testing ground for what has blossomed across the state. It started with one bingo/casino hall and has now grown to 32. They came in under the guise of bingo; however, they now advertise triple seven, keno and other games. They give away cars, diamond rings, etc.
There is no interference from the sheriff at all. These machines are outlawed in the city limits, so local law enforcement is not involved.
The sheriff’s office originally established a gaming Web site, but the information was not kept updated. The site has since been removed. Our state representative has stated he does not know what these machines are so he doesn’t know if they are legal or not. Our district attorney stated that we have the largest form of illegal gambling in the state.
Since these places have opened, the churches have been overwhelmed by people needing assistance; some of the people admit they lost their money gambling. So a few of the churches have closed their assistance programs because they could not afford to continue.
Even the so-called charities that had stopped asking for donations due to the money coming in are starting to ask for donations again.
Recently we had a man rob several businesses here, and he was caught in one bingo hall gambling. Also the man accused of kidnapping and raping the little girl in Birmingham was caught in one of the halls here. This is the caliber of people these places draw.
There is a movement under way now to establish the legality of the so-called charities as being 501(c)3 and to see if appropriate taxes are being paid on the winnings. Even though the state is not collecting any taxes, federal taxes are still due.
A local coalition won its case in court for all the permits to be released from the sheriff. Most, if not all, do not fit the guidelines, yet they are still allowed to operate without oversight. All permit transfers that allowed new halls to open were frozen by Judge Vance, yet new halls are still opening. There is no control.
The best way to stop this is to never let it start. Untold millions of dollars are being sucked out of innocent people’s pockets daily. They don’t care to say that the people that are playing these slot machines are the ones who cannot afford it. They are hoping to hit the big one.
Larry Harkness
Nauvoo, Ala.
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I would like to tell you that we don’t need gambling in the state of Alabama. We need people to stand up for what’s right. Gov. Bob Riley is doing a good job for the state of Alabama. He’s a good Christian man who loves the Lord. Bob Riley is an honest man. He’s doing lots for Alabama’s jobs and for the people of Alabama. His wife, Patsy, is a good Christian woman. She loves the Lord and her family. People need to stand for what is right for the state of Alabama.
Brenda Norman
Ramer, Ala.
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I appreciate this opportunity to express my feelings on the Sweet Home Alabama Coalition. I never would have believed Randy Owen and some of the other country music singers would have betrayed us as they have.
Last July 5, I took an extra side trip to Fort Payne to show my great-great-nephew the life-size statue of the group Alabama. If I knew then what I know now, I could have saved a lot of time, not to mention the gas money.
I feel sold out!
Diana L. Partridge
Harvest, Ala.
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I would like to let you know that our governor is doing a good job as governor, and the people who are saying that he took money is not true. I don’t think we need gambling in our state at all. We need more Christian people to stand up and vote their opinion in a booth. The gambling machines need to be put out of our state.
Judy Norman
Ramer, Ala.
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I want to thank you for the excellent coverage of the electronic bingo debate and proposals during this year’s legislative session. It is obvious that gambling interests want to use the Sweet Home Alabama bills as a pretext for full-fledged casino gambling in our state.
Even if that were not the case, the proposed bills would woefully undertax the bingo destinations.
Furthermore the proposed tax revenues being advertised as a solution to the state’s revenue problems are but a drop in the bucket of the financial problems our state faces as the result of poor budgeting during recent years of plenty.
Many studies point to the economic and social detriments of expanding gambling, from higher costs due to crime, treatment of addicted gamblers and the social costs to children and families torn apart by those who lose money at these facilities, where the big winners are always the gambling industry magnates.
Many of the charitable payments made to local organizations are but a poor tradeoff, especially when there is little accountability on the bingo operators.
I would also like to thank Gov. Bob Riley for his principled stand against electronic bingo and other forms of gambling. His administration has been one of the most ethical and open in our state’s history, even when not always agreeing with the positions he has taken.
With God’s help, may he succeed in preventing Alabama from becoming the “Bingo Capital of the Nation.”
We have a lot more things to be proud of. If there is any vote to be taken on the expansion of gambling, may it also include a provision to eliminate dog or horse racing or any other form of gambling in our state if such a referendum is defeated by the voters of this state.
Don Wallace
Northport, Ala.
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I would like to offer you a platform to address the people of the Wiregrass about the pitfalls of gambling. Ronnie Gilley uses Bama Jam to promote Country Crossing, but Heroes for Hope has a three-day event with celebrities, sports stars and Nashville recording artists that will bring in a large amount of people in one location that could be addressed on the adverse effects of gambling.
Ronnie Gilley would like the people to believe that he is the only person who has the ability to bring in celebrities and promote an event that helps the economy. That’s untrue.
The Heroes for Hope event consists of a plated dinner party, celebrity golf tournament and concert. We would love to have your organization come onstage at the concert and present your side of the casino issue. Gilley did this to promote the casino, and we are offering our stage to you to tear down the casino idea.
Entertainment events are a great source of revenue, and celebrity events do bring large crowds of people, but when you add a casino, that just promotes greed.
What they don’t tell you is that it’s usually the poor man supporting their business that makes them the majority of their profits. A lot of times, it’s the same people they employ to work in their casino.
For more information about the Heroes for Hope event, call 334-390-0478.
Wilmer Broxton
Enterprise, Ala.
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I’m totally against bingo.
It’s nothing but gambling.
Joy Ann Perry
Adamsville, Ala.
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After being bombarded with Sweet Home Alabama gambling ads, I am fed up with silence on this subject from our elected representatives that apparently have been bought off by big gambling interests.
Two years ago, a financial manager of three casinos in the western United States told me that his client’s bingo parlor (one without machines) in Alabama was not making any profits but that this was going to change in the near future. He said his client knew Alabama was going to open up.
The White Hall casino in Lowndes County was said to be a bingo parlor. If that is a bingo parlor, then Reno, Nev., is loaded with bingo parlors, but out there, they call them gambling casinos. We are being duped with the term “bingo parlor.”
If it’s about tax monies going to schools, the kids and helping our state, then why has Mississippi not made any progress? If the lottery is so good for Georgia, then why are its schools hurting financially? Why is Las Vegas hurting in this recession?
The truth is they will take heavy profits from our state and this money will not be recycled in Alabama and therefore cannot be taxed over and over again. The little money that might go to schools is a pittance to what will be taken out of our state. Who loses?
Ask yourself the question why would these people spend millions of dollars to locate in Alabama. The answer must be evident.
You cannot gamble your way to prosperity anymore than you can borrow your way to prosperity.
Help the kids? I wonder how many will go without food after daddy or mother lost his or her paycheck at one of these gambling dens.
Help the state? What will be the cost to the state in resultant welfare?
If the Alabama voters do not wake up and defeat the gambling interests, we will see more suffering, graft and corruption than we ever could imagine.
Curtis E. “Eddie” Guest
Gadsden, Ala.
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The Sweet Home Alabama Coalition that’s trying to bring more bingo to the state is not being honest with television viewers.
Some television stations stopped running an ad that cited a U.S. Senate report that Mississippi Indian casinos bankrolled Bob Riley’s gubernatorial campaign in 2002 to keep in-state gambling from expanding. The Indians, supposedly, do not want competition for Alabama gambling dollars.
The governor’s office asked stations to pull the ad off the air.
We don’t blame the governor for objecting. The implication is that the governor is against expanding bingo as a payback to his Indian supporters. The ad appears as a bold front page headline from The Decatur Daily on June 29, 2006. Actually, it was a small headline on an article that appeared that day on page B1.
The article came from The Associated Press, as did the one the next day that quoted Mississippi Indian officials as saying the report is false.
Newspapers decide where an article will appear and the size and boldness of the headline based on importance and, sometimes, on the source of information.
We didn’t think much of the article that quoted disgraced and convicted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who linked Mr. Riley to the money from the Indians. We wonder why the coalition would seek to leave the impression with viewers that we did.
State voters need to know much more about Sweet Home Alabama before they vote to elevate bingo from amateur status and expand it across the state.
Editorial
DecaturDaily.com
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This letter is in regard to the electronic bingo in our state. I live in Walker County, where it seems that the worst of the bingo is located. People who do not live here come from miles away to play bingo, but myself and a lot of friends feel that our county has become the sleazeball of the state.
Every quarter mile is a bingo hall, and most of us do not like it a bit. There have been cases of people leaving children in cars for hours while they play bingo inside, prostitutes going from car to car, fights and gunshots, loud music and noises blaring all night (this is from a friend that lives directly beside one). And on Sunday mornings, when they have to close, the parking lots are just big trash heaps. I’m sure it takes all Sunday just to get them clean.
The Birmingham mayor is trying his best to get bingo in Birmingham. Well, if he can convince them to come from Walker County, he can sure have them all. The charities get a small amount of money, but the bingo halls make millions each month. When you see the parking lots of these places, they are packed. With the economy the way it is, I do not see how people have the money to go to these places and just throw it away.
I value my hard-earned money too much to just give it to these big-time gamblers. I applaud Gov. Riley for trying to stop this illegal gambling. I hope he can close every bingo place in the state. If he is not successful, I would like for the people to be able to vote — not to tax illegal bingo, as the Sweet Home Alabama wants to do, but a vote to decide if we want electronic bingo to continue here or not. I would like to see each county be able to vote separately on this issue.
Ellen Dreher
Jasper, Ala.
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Ten years ago, we were fighting the education lottery and the citizens voted it down (even though the governor proposed it). I thank God that Gov. Riley is opposed to the expansion of gambling in Alabama. The so-called Sweet Home Alabama crowd ought to be ashamed of their lies and greed. Gambling supporters promise money and help for the economy but deliver corruption and heartaches.
Mike Shaw
Pelham, Ala.
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No gambling in Alabama. For those who are for gambling, what part of “no gambling in Alabama” do you not understand? There are more important things to be concerned about such as the ecomony, health, etc. On the negative ads on Gov. Riley, find something better to do with your time. Gambling, like drugs, brings nothing but crime and misery to everyone.
Jackie Adams
Athens, Ala.
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The phrase “Sweet Home Alabama” is being tarnished by the gambling supporters who have chosen it for their campaign. Their cause is anything but sweet, as I’m sure anyone living in a community with legalized gambling will attest.
Neither are their tactics sweet as they falsely portray their cause as the answer to our prayers and defame those who say otherwise.
Oh, they’re pulling out all the stops — linking themselves to a long-popular saying and using buzzwords designed to draw voters to their side — but I think the best response is for us to bring the lies to light and let people know the sour truth about legalized gambling. As for their outrageous claims, I suggest an anti-gambling slogan in reply: Don’t bet on it.
Anne Looney
Athens, Ala.
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Editor’s Note — The letters in this section were received by The Alabama Baptist following the call for letters relating to electronic bingo gambling in the April 23 issue. We printed excerpts or the entire copy of every letter that was received. The editorial from DecaturDaily.com was used with permission.
Coming soon:
- Legislative wrap-up for the 2009 session and a review of how each senator and representative landed in the electronic bingo gambling debate.
- In-depth look at electronic bingo gambling as related to the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.
- Continued coverage of electronic bingo gambling in general in Alabama and specifically in the 18 areas where traditional charity bingo is allowed.
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