Here are a couple snippets from local news on the table games vote in Kanawha County …
Dan Adkins, vice-president of Hartman & Tyner Inc., which has owned the racetrack since 1989, said he couldn’t say how much Tri-State had spent for a flurry of television, radio and print ads pushing for table games. Tri-State has also paid for T-shirts, giveaways and mass mailings urging voters to vote “yes” on the issue.
From the same article
Ben Beakes, chief of staff for Secretary of State Betty Ireland, said the rules are different for single-issue election and general elections. A 1996 court case specifically prohibits the secretary of state’s office from collecting campaign finance reports in elections like the table games referendum.
Opponents of table gaming say they’ve spent only a few thousand dollars to fight the referendum.
Don Surber and I don’t agree on this one…
I use this not to promote my support for the casino, but rather as an example of how liberals — progressives — never lose their pessimism no matter how sunny and bright things may be.
It isn’t easy standing for what you know is right when the world is against you. Ok. Maybe not the world but a lot of big money players. The government is against me. The newspapers are against me. Where were all these players when building a NASCAR style track in eastern Kanawha County was being touted? Talk about economic development! If the energy and money were played to bring that about that track would be operating right now! But, apparently I live on the wrong end of the county. All we’re good for is coal severance taxes.
The State Journal has a list of why folks should vote in favor of expanded gambling. Here are two of them:
The people of West Virginia accepted gambling in 1984, when they voted to establish a state lottery. Over the years, the Lottery Commission has expanded, as has state government’s dependence on gambling revenues.
Emphasis mine.
Sprouse, on the other hand, sees this thing a lot like I do. [Notice I didn't say exactly.] Among other things he says …
Who would have known that in the Casino vault, other than the truckloads of money, they would hold a secret.
That’s right is… (GASP!)
A vote for Table Games is a vote to cure AIDS.
A vote for Table Games is a vote for World Peace.
A vote for table games is a vote to end hunger.
Those three claims are the only ones left the gamblers haven’t used to try to convince people in Kanawha County to Vote Yes on Saturday.
Lincoln Walks at Midnight links to a Daily Mail story where “church-going workers at Tri-State Racetrack & Gaming Center in Nitro who are ‘questioning’ why some table games opponents are invoking God into the discussion and painting the track as a house of sin.” Well, could it be that gambling, smoking and drinking are happening there?
Let’s see, most Christian churches teach that the body is the temple of Christ and knowingly doing things that damage that temple is sin. And gambling is like throwing your pearls to the swine. Those things may have something to do with it.
If it passes I’ll deal with it, but I won’t like it.
3 Comments
August 11, 2007 at 1:55 am
For the sake of argument, Muze:
It’s fine that Christians believe that the body is a temple which ought not be destroyed. Why should they impose that view on other people?
They are free to avoid and not patronize the casino, but why should they stop other people from doing so?
Don’t get me wrong, if I lived in Charleston I might be closer to you on this issue than you would think. I just think that these were the questions that people may have had in mind when they were asking “why are they invoking the name of God…?”
August 11, 2007 at 7:59 pm
It isn’t about anyone imposing views on anyone. That particular part is looking at “church going workers” questioning Christians calling a house of sin, a house of sin.
So Christians think it’s a house of sin. That’s part of what they believe. They have the freedom to believe that and the “church going workers” have the freedom to work there. I don’t see a problem, unless the “church going workers” are having difficulty reconciling their beliefs with their work.
I bet the “chuch going workers” wouldn’t take a job as a prostitute - even if it were legal.
Again, I’m not against table games for religious reasons. I was commenting on the comments of someone in a published article. One person can’t understand why another would say someting … I just gave my two pennies worth.
August 11, 2007 at 11:59 pm
I see what you’re saying, Muze.
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