Video gaming—letter to the editor
Friday, October 2nd, I mailed the following “letter to the editor” to our village’s two local news papers. Each paper publishes once a week—basically on Wednesday. The letter:
Don L. Vance
Morton, Illinois 61550
http://www.christiangunslinger.blogspot.com/
October 2, 2009
Letter to the editor
The Morton Times-News (also to the Morton Courier—my addition)
1616 W. Pioneer Parkway
Peoria, Illinois 61612
In May of this year, the Illinois General Assembly passed a law allowing video gaming in virtually every establishment in Illinois that sells alcohol by the glass. According to a Chicago Tribune article, “State officials estimate that as many as 45,000 legal poker machines could eventually be up and running across Illinois.” The State will be taxing this newly legalized gambling at 30%. According to the same Tribune article, almost 60% of the people of the State oppose the new law.
The process used by the General Assembly is tainted. The Constitution requires all bills to have three readings on three different days. During the third reading on H.B. 255 dealing with the estates of dead people, the Senate on May 20th gutted the entire bill after the title and amended it with the provisions to establish video gaming. It was passed that same day. The public was denied any real possibility of providing input in relation to the bill. Since the House already had the required three readings when the bill dealt with the estates of dead people, the amended bill was also quickly passed without any substantial input from citizens.
The General Assembly seems to have recognized possible problems with legalizing video gaming. 25% of the fees collected are to “be paid to programs for the treatment of compulsive gambling.” Individuals under 21 are prohibited from playing the machines. And under two very unusual provisions, communities and county boards—acting for unincorporated areas of a county—may ban video gaming within their jurisdictions and the citizens of a community may ban video gaming through a referendum. Representative Keith Sommer wisely voted against the bill. At last count, I know of 12 communities and 1 county that have already banned video gaming.
On my blog—http://www.christiangunslinger.blogspot.com/—I have just concluded a series on this new law. It started on September 14th with “Give US more money” and ended on October 1st. I can’t cover all that was discussed on my blog in this letter but, among other items covered, some authorities consider video gaming to be the “crack cocaine” of gambling—addicting more people faster than any other form. Other experts have argued that gambling/video gaming will increase crime, increase debt, lead to more bankruptcies, remove money from the local community that would otherwise be spent in the community, increase addiction, and increase suicides. John W. Kindt—Professor of Business Administration—at the University of Illinois has said, “While advocates of legalized gambling say it brings in revenues needed for education and other uses, it actually has led to higher taxes, loss of jobs, economic disruption of non-gambling businesses, increased crime and higher social-welfare costs.”
I have given a packet with my blog writings on this issue to every voting member of the Morton Village Board. I urge the Morton Village Board to be a leader in this county and ban video gaming now! I urge the village boards and city councils of other communities in this county to ban video gaming. I urge the Tazewell County Board to ban video gaming in unincorporated areas of the county. Video gaming will undoubtedly do more harm than good both morally/socially and economically.
Sincerely,
Don L. Vance
As always, this letter will be posted on my blog.
Friday, October 2nd, I mailed the following “letter to the editor” to our village’s two local news papers. Each paper publishes once a week—basically on Wednesday. The letter:
Don L. Vance
Morton, Illinois 61550
http://www.christiangunslinger.blogspot.com/
October 2, 2009
Letter to the editor
The Morton Times-News (also to the Morton Courier—my addition)
1616 W. Pioneer Parkway
Peoria, Illinois 61612
In May of this year, the Illinois General Assembly passed a law allowing video gaming in virtually every establishment in Illinois that sells alcohol by the glass. According to a Chicago Tribune article, “State officials estimate that as many as 45,000 legal poker machines could eventually be up and running across Illinois.” The State will be taxing this newly legalized gambling at 30%. According to the same Tribune article, almost 60% of the people of the State oppose the new law.
The process used by the General Assembly is tainted. The Constitution requires all bills to have three readings on three different days. During the third reading on H.B. 255 dealing with the estates of dead people, the Senate on May 20th gutted the entire bill after the title and amended it with the provisions to establish video gaming. It was passed that same day. The public was denied any real possibility of providing input in relation to the bill. Since the House already had the required three readings when the bill dealt with the estates of dead people, the amended bill was also quickly passed without any substantial input from citizens.
The General Assembly seems to have recognized possible problems with legalizing video gaming. 25% of the fees collected are to “be paid to programs for the treatment of compulsive gambling.” Individuals under 21 are prohibited from playing the machines. And under two very unusual provisions, communities and county boards—acting for unincorporated areas of a county—may ban video gaming within their jurisdictions and the citizens of a community may ban video gaming through a referendum. Representative Keith Sommer wisely voted against the bill. At last count, I know of 12 communities and 1 county that have already banned video gaming.
On my blog—http://www.christiangunslinger.blogspot.com/—I have just concluded a series on this new law. It started on September 14th with “Give US more money” and ended on October 1st. I can’t cover all that was discussed on my blog in this letter but, among other items covered, some authorities consider video gaming to be the “crack cocaine” of gambling—addicting more people faster than any other form. Other experts have argued that gambling/video gaming will increase crime, increase debt, lead to more bankruptcies, remove money from the local community that would otherwise be spent in the community, increase addiction, and increase suicides. John W. Kindt—Professor of Business Administration—at the University of Illinois has said, “While advocates of legalized gambling say it brings in revenues needed for education and other uses, it actually has led to higher taxes, loss of jobs, economic disruption of non-gambling businesses, increased crime and higher social-welfare costs.”
I have given a packet with my blog writings on this issue to every voting member of the Morton Village Board. I urge the Morton Village Board to be a leader in this county and ban video gaming now! I urge the village boards and city councils of other communities in this county to ban video gaming. I urge the Tazewell County Board to ban video gaming in unincorporated areas of the county. Video gaming will undoubtedly do more harm than good both morally/socially and economically.
Sincerely,
Don L. Vance
As always, this letter will be posted on my blog.
posted by Christian Gunslinger at 5:05 AM
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