Gambling can be a problem
Posted by Moonage on 10 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: Ethics, US Regional Politics
I read this post on Independent Sources and loved it so much I thought I’d run with it here. Namely:
37-year old Arelia Margarita Taveras is an attorney with a serious ethics problem. She also has a gambling problem and lost her law practice, her apartment and her parents’ home, and she owes the IRS $58,000. Worse, she dipped into clients’ escrow accounts when she needed money and still faces criminal charges over that. Fortunately for her, and unfortunately for society as a whole, if her legal training has taught her anything is that fault should always lie on a deep pocket. In this case, it’s the casinos that allowed her to lose her money……
Now, you might think this is an odd post for a political blog. Well, due to circumstances in Kentucky, it’s not. Last year we had a gubernatorial election. The incumbent had been dogged by ethics issues, mostly trumped up political stuff. The challenger ran on the promise of bringing gambling casinos to Kentucky. The challenger, Steve Beshear, won. Immediately upon taking office Beshear announced the state was running about $400 million annually short of money and told higher education to expect massive cuts in funding. They didn’t like that. Now, he’s proposed legislation to legalize gambling that will raise ( drum roll please ), about $400 million annually, which would fix higher education. Beshear is basing his entire argument on the fact that gambling would generate revenues for the state at no cost.
As Independent Sources points out, Beshear couldn’t be more wrong. It comes with a heavy cost to society that does affect the state balance sheet. Along with gambling, we’d need increased police forces, gambling addiction programs, and increased funding for the court system to deal with the people who lost it all and resort to stealing to support their habit. Nothing is farther from the panacea Beshear makes it out to be, just Arelia Taveras.
In the meantime, let’s enjoy something good to come from gambling ( do I really need a reason to play Boz Scaggs? ):
5 Comments »
on 10 Mar 2008 at 11:24 am 1.Insider said …
Thanks for the link. Now I will sue you!
on 10 Mar 2008 at 11:31 am 2.Moonage
said …
I’m betting you lose.
on 11 Jul 2008 at 1:16 am 3.arelia said …
Let’s wait and see…
on 11 Jul 2008 at 7:27 am 4.arelia said …
( I moved this comment to the more appropriate post. No one ever googles “About”.)
RESPONSIBILITY
July 9, 2008
“Responsibility”… what charged “word.” It has so many meanings and interpretations for so many different people.
For Compulsive Gamblers, the world wants them to own up to their “responsibility” and not blame anyone for their addiction. For Alcoholics, people want personal “responsibility” for taking a drink. For Drug Addicts, they are to be “responsible” for the drugs they put into their systems. When thinking about “responsibility,” personal responsibility seems to be the theme of the day, and, I agree with all of those premises…I take responsibility for all that I have done.
But, when thinking about “responsibility,” our ideals seem to change, when a drunken driver kills our family member, or, one of our children is a “drug addict,” or, when our grandmother is eating out of a garbage can because she gambled away her social security checks in a casino.
The Dram Shop Act came about, not because of all the alcoholics with this addiction who took personal responsibility, but, because people were dying, and, realizing that this “responsibility” is one that must be shared. This “responsibility” must be shared by the provider and the customer.
The bar that served alcohol was finally legally responsible for letting alcoholics or over the limit drinkers, go too far in their intoxications, whether they were alcoholics or not. MADD came about from mothers losing children to drunken drivers. SADD came along because of students dying due to drunken driving accidents and alcoholics putting people at risk on the roads as a result of bars over serving them. The Dram Shop Act, in every state that has adopted it, resulted from deaths of innocent people drinking or not. But, the bars’ “responsibility” shifted in society’s eyes because of the havoc bar owners’ irresponsible service of alcohol had wreaked on communities. People said “enough” and change in the laws followed.
In the tobacco industry, many cases were won against the cigarette companies, due to their active concealment of the negative side effects cigarettes were causing to individuals. Cigarette companies had to come to terms with their “responsibility” in the millions of emphysemic and cancerous deaths of smokers worldwide. They took “responsibility” for their part in the health hazards caused by cigarette smoking and paid for it dearly…but, people had to die before any of that took place.
How many problem gamblers have to die before change occurs in this industry? As I sit in another Gambler’s Anonymous meeting and frown upon hearing about another person having attempted suicide, or another marriage lost, or, watch another young guy enter the room because gambling has destroyed his early existence…where does it end, or, where do we begin?
I say “we” because its “your” fight too!
I cannot continue to go on TV and tell people my story and the pain I am going through daily, when no one will stimulate change. I don’t care about the criticisms, I am used to that by now. But, I do care that this fight, by myself, might kill me. If others don’t come forward and initiate change, I risk my recovery for naught. When are those mothers going to step up for their addicted kids, when are those wives going to form organizations and say I lost my marriage because of compulsive gambling, when are the grandchildren of the elderly going to say, I miss my grandparents because they spend their leisure time addicted in casinos…???
This week they decide the fate of my case, do we move forward or back? Do they dismiss it, because my damages were not enough or do they move it forward, because something wrong happened here?
When thinking about “responsibility,” I am accepting mine, facing the criminal matter, facing the people I owe money to, facing the shame of what I have done…when will CASINO’S TAKE THEIRS!
You see, I never gambled alone, the CASINOS were right there with me!
When have you guys had enough? When your kid/husband/wife/grandparent/siblings die because of compulsive gambling?
When do you send those nasty emails I received to casinos and ask them to take responsibility for the destruction they cause daily? When do you ask them to own up to the crime, deaths and addictions they are nurturing?
If this happened to someone you loved, you would be devasted to know that CASINOS OWE NO ONE A DUTY OF EVEN THE MOST MINOR CARE WHEN THEY ENTER A CASINO. Doesn’t that scare you?
This week is a big week for me. I have a lot of soul searching to do. Whether this case moves forward or not, CAN I KEEP FIGHTING THIS FIGHT ALONE? Will “ye” of little faith and much criticism step out of anonymity and start doing something…anything…to protect the future for your children against compulsive gambling. Because a casino is popping up everywhere. Let’s hope it’s not in your living room, with your child or husband, in your marriage, in your economic structures….because you didn’t realize that 88% of students are gambling, there are bookies on campuses, poker games every night of the week in dorms, there is kiddie bingo and poker at church events, there are slots at every rest stop in America, gambling is spreading like wildfire! Why are we not putting “brakes” or “safety mechanisms” in place to protect our loved ones? I am not sure I am strong enough or economically blest enough to continue alone. I am asking you to “step up,” do something, stop criticizing me because it easier, God knows I make it easy and do something!
Let’s say I win, who gives me back my time lost? I will have to be in treatment until the end of my days. Who will replace the time away from my mother, my family…what amount of money will give me back my credibility, honesty or restore my shame? Did you know that sometimes I still cry myself to sleep? Or. that there are days when going forward is a challenge for me? Maybe I deserve all of this, but, others don’t.
They deserve to enter a Casino and be safe, because there are protective measures in place when their gambling has gotten out of hand…We lost lives getting the Dram Shop Act, we lost victims to cigarettes, let us not lose more gamblers before Change is adopted!!!
on 11 Jul 2008 at 7:36 am 5.Moonage
said …
As far as the wait and see goes, the Kentucky legislature never let it get off the floor. So, for the time being, it’s dead.
As far as the safety of casinos, when an establishment sells a vice, all bets are off for me. I don’t assume a stripper’s not going to take every penny I’ve got. That’s what they do. I don’t assume politicians won’t try to tax every penny I’ve got. That’s what they do. To assume online sex sites won’t try to take every penny I’ve got is pretty well assumed to be naive. To assume people pushing gambling won’t try to do the same is something I’ve never done. For me personally, I have no use at all for casinos. None. So, the best safety precaution I know of is just not to have them at all here. And, because “here” doesn’t promote a lot of vices, that’s why I choose to live here. I think most of my state probably makes more money promoting the fact we don’t have casinos than we would making money from them.
Good luck with that lawsuit.