LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: GAMBLING HAS A COST

To the Editor:

Today's (Sunday's Southeast Missourian contains a letter from the YES GROUP in reply to Dr. Michael Wulfers' letter that calls into question the amounts of profits to be realized as a result of riverboat gambling. Dr. Wulfers' letter had asked the same questions about accounting for that profit that had also occurred to me.

The extremely condescending reply of the YES GROUP, although answering his questions in detail, did not make me feel any better. After all, how much faith can you put in someone's answer when you are told that, in order to understand it, you must be familiar with "established accounting and business practice"? Also, I would remind the voters of Cape Girardeau that, when you don't have a good answer to a question it is easy to attack the questioner. Someone with a good, strong argument, on the other hand, would welcome questions with the expectation that the opportunity to provide good answers would strengthen their case. The voters of Cape Girardeau have recently said NO! to this issue. Isn't that enough? Is the YES GROUP so desperate for this profit that it will attack its questioners as well as answer their questions?

If so let me be the next in line to be attacked, because I have another question for the YES GROUP: where will your profit come from? I am not trained in economics, but it seems to me that the essence of money is that it is to BE USED; and if it is not used for one purpose, it will certainly be used for another. And more to the point of my concern, if it IS used for one purpose it will certainly NOT be available for another.

So, YES GROUP, tell me and the rest of the voters: where WILL the money spent on gambling at the Cape Girardeau riverfront come from? I have my own suggested answer: savings accounts... children's clothing ... life insurance premiums ... groceries ... IRA's ... medicine ... cultural offerings ... health insurance policies ... Red Cross donations ... car payments ... children's books ...

Every dollar spent on gambling is one less dollar available for these and other uses. Illegal? Certainly not. Immoral? I don't know. I do know that I have truly enjoyed living in Cape Girardeau for 19 years. And if this community takes the position that gambling is more important than clothes and books for children, or the Red Cross, or sound personal financial planning, then some of the joy in my life will be gone ... and I will be saddened and I will weep for my children.

Steven N. Trautwein

Cape Girardeau