Ask yourself questions before voting on Issue 3

To the editor: Ask yourself questions before voting on Issue 3. Hard to turn on a TV now without seeing an ad for or against issue three, isn't it? Both sides are keying in on whether passage of the issue will create or eliminate jobs. Ironically, ads both for and against Ohio casinos are being paid for by out of state gambling interests that couldn't care less about creating jobs in Ohio. In the end gambling casinos are nothing but a mechanism for transferring money from people who need it to people who already have more than they need. For many years, prior to the once American textile screen printing industry being exported to countries where what amounts to slave labor exists, I was a frequent speaker at the industries annual conventions which were often held in Las Vegas. As such I can tell you that there was a considerable difference between the seminar attendees in Las Vegas and places like Indianapolis. Attendees in Indy were there to learn while all too often those in Vegas were there because attending seminars was the justification for getting a free trip to a place where "what happens stays". Sleeping through seminars after carousing all night was common for attendees in Vegas and I once had the challenge of keeping my eyes off a young man in the first row who had eyes painted on his closed eyelids. In all my visits to Las Vegas, I never so much as put a coin in a slot machine. Why? Because I kept looking around at the plush casinos and asking myself where all the money to build these pleasure palaces came from. There is a version of an old joke about a man visiting Vegas who asked a friend  for a thousand dollars to fix his leaking roof. " How do I know you won't use it to gamble?" the friend asked. "That won't happen" the man replied, " I have money for gambling". Unfortunately the real life version of this story isn't a joke. Too many people who vote against levies to fix the roof of a school are willing to gamble away a greater sum with no tangible benefit. According to the pro casino ads a billion dollars a year is leaving Ohio because people are going out of state to gamble. I have a few questions about that contention: 1. Is that the amount being wagered, the amount being lost, the amount being spent out of state or what? 2. Does the billion dollars include only what is being spent in adjacent states or does it include what is being spent in gambling  mecca's such as Vegas that people will no doubt still go to? 3. Would the amount being lost pay the salaries of 34,000 or more of the public servants whose jobs have been cut during the recent economic downturn ? Why do people gamble? For people I have talked to it usually comes down to either the desire to prove they are special by winning or to it being their best hope of ever living well. This brings up two more questions: 1. Doesn't setting ones self apart by concluding that gambling is stupid and acting accordingly set one apart and make them special ? 2. Shouldn't we be attempting to rebuild a society in which hard work is the road to living well rather than being satisfied with one in which winning big in the lottery or at a casino is   the best shot most people will have at ever living the good life? Ill conclude  with one final question. If gambling casinos are the secret to prosperity, why are the unemployment and foreclosure rates in Las Vegas among the highest in the nation? Charles Leach Lynchburg Ohio [[In-content Ad]]