Rethinking my thoughts about legalized Gambling

Posted on Tuesday, 30th October 2007 by User Image Bcarter

When I first started this blog, I posted my feelings on banning gambling. I don’t agree with the government controlling the lives of everyone, but the more I think and write about what Q’s gambling addiction has done to our family, the more I am torn on my position.

Gambling has put my household in an extreme predicament to digging out of a hole that seems never-ending. In Wisconsin, where I live, we have the 5th highest tax burden in the country according to this CNN article. Now, let’s take into consideration that according to our LONG overdue budget, our Indian Casinos here in the state are budgeted to pay $75 million to the state of WI in the 07-08 fiscal year and $79 million in the 08-09 fiscal year. Where would our tax burden be without these payments? I’m not really sure right now, but I’ll try to do the math for a later post.

I’m sure a lot of the money these casinos are making is coming from households with children that can’t afford to be losing money because they should be feeding their children. In turn, the state turns around and feeds the children with food stamps and other such programs, so how much money is the state really making? Right now we are just subsidizing our state budget with the broken dreams of families in a downward spiral.

Let me know what you think.