Gambling: The cost is too great

Gambling has been repackaged, sanitized, glorified, down-marketed and ubiquitous. People gamble for reasons that are mostly obscure and which resist all rationality.

Robert Goodman, author of "The Luck Business," and John Kindt of the University of Illinois have done research that suggests that the costs of gambling are greater than the benefits. The gambling jobs, taxes and recreational values provided by the industry cannot compensate for the social pain -- bankruptcies, white-collar crime, divorces, a compromised political process and an increase in alcoholism -- that it inflicts.

The wealthy play the stock market, the poor or middle class play the casino. They receive free meals, entertainment and a venue which promises getting rich without working for it. The moral argument transcends the utilitarian argument.

In the 1 Corinthians 8:13, Paul's argument about eating meat is this: "If food is a cause of my brother's falling, I will never eat meat, lest I cause my brother to fall." It doesn't have to say the word "gambling" or "gaming" to make it so.

The gambler that wins does so off the backs of those who must lose. Is that doing unto the least of your brother as you would have them do unto you? If it is, then you have exchanged the Bible's promise for the casino's promise.

I urge you to vote no for gaming.

CHARLES GUDERMUTH, Cape Girardeau