Dear Editor:
If it is legal, it must be okay. The government sanctions it. It is for charity isn’t it? It brings in money for the town. It cannot hurt me. Or can it?
Gambling. It’s a bad bet. For individuals, communities, churches and government the whole gaming business is out to destroy.
Gambling is a moral blight on our land. It produces no new wealth for anyone local. People who gamble spend less on gas, food and clothing. It is an economic parasite. It leeches the already scarce economic resources available to help the poor. Crime and drug trafficking goes up.
What is the true cost of gambling? Gamblers bet their life away. Suicides increase. Families are betrayed. Gambling is abusive because it deprives the family of what it needs financially and emotionally, and children suffer neglect. The gambler plays the dice, but his family pays the price.
The deck is stacked against the gambler. The odds of your number coming up in a six number game are an astronomical one in 10 million. In Super Seven, guessing seven numbers in a row, the odds are 1 in 100 million. These odds are astronomical!
One popular excuse for gambling is it is free money for charity or for the town. Let’s look locally at the Centre Wellington. The Advertiser reported on April 27 that in 2022-23 the township received $3,022,252 for hosting the casino in Elora. Wow, what a windfall?
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation returns 5% to the town. Did you hear what I said? Five per cent. That means they took out of the community a sum of more than $50 million.
For every $100 dollars you spend at the slots, the township gets back $5. Think about it. Would you pay McDonald’s $100 for a $5 meal? Could you spend your hard-earned money on something else? Every dollar spent in our community goes around eight times and enriches others in our community, enabling businesses to stay open and hire our students and young adults.
It is morally wrong for the government to feed people’s bad habits and prey on their addiction.
What a poor investment! It’s a bad bet.
Irma DeVries,
Minto
*Editor’s note: Under their agreements with OLG, municipalities receive: 5.25% on the first $65 million of slot revenue, 3% on the next $135 million, 2.5% on the next $300 million, and 0.5% on revenue above $500 million. One hundred per cent of OLG profits go back to the province ($57 billion since 1975).