It’s bad enough the casino’s have infiltrated the lives of people around the world to the point where we don’t just have to deal with them on vacation, but in our everyday lives, but what the heck is the deal with making odds for TV talent shows?
I was just doing a little research for my Andrew Johnston Squidoo Lens when I came across this article from My Park Magazine. They are making odds on who will win Britain’s Got Talent, if Amanda Holden will cry when Andrew sings during the final, and if he will have a number one single this year. Does society need to put odds on everything? When will it stop?
Do I think the government needs to step in on something like this, NO? I don’t believe in government regulation. I think the bookies should take a look inside and really take a look at what they are putting odds on. Will it happen? I know the answer is no. There is a reason that these people are bookies and not book store owners. They don’t care who gets hurt when they are trying to make a living for themselves.
I hope Andrew Johnston doesn’t realize that there are odds out there on him; imagine the kids at school then if he doesn’t win. I can hear it already “My mom can’t afford to buy me new shoes anymore because she put our life savings on you to make Amanda Holden cry and you didn’t” and then a big fat pow in the face.
If the people that bet on this type of thing would just stop, the bookies would possibly stop wasting their time with odds on this type of thing, until then, I guess I have my blog to rant on.
If you have read some of the previous posts in my blog you may wonder why the heck I’m still with my husband. Over the next month, I’ll be exploring those reasons myself.
Reason number 1 why I stay with Q - He really is a good guy. He’s a little insecure, but a good guy. When we first started dating he was very unsure about the fact that I made more money than he did and I think this still bothers him, but he’s not as verbal about it. As much as I try to get it through his thick skull that I have a college degree and he doesn’t, many times he still just doesn’t get it. I think his gambling problem grew out of this insecurity, instead of trying to better himself he’d try to go and win the big jackpot at the casino instead. Once he looked at what was left of his paycheck, he’d start to chase the losses and try to win it back; before he knew it, his whole paycheck was gone. There were times when instead of taking what he had to try and buy me something nice, he’d take the money to the casino to try and make more and buy something even better. His heart was in the right place, but they way he went about making the extra money just doesn’t work.
Yes, the gambling still started out as greed, but I really think his intentions when this all started were just to help us out and better our life. We are still fighting the battle of getting it through his think skull that this method of making money just doesn’t work.
There may have been some people that wanted to keep the Passamaquoddy tribe down, but maybe they need to rethink the reasons why most people voted against this referendum. Did they ever think that the people that voted against this casino were once affected by a loved one that had a gambling addiction? Maybe they moved to this particular area to get away from casinos because they are a compulsive gambler? Who knows, this area could be thought of as a safe haven for people affected negatively by gambling.
I think that the people of Washington County would have voted this bill down no matter who was proposing it. Maybe they should try that out, have a company owned by the majority come in a propose a racino and see how far they get. I’ll bet it’s the same results.
I’m thinking that the Passamaquoddy tribe needs to come up with a better solution to bring their people out of poverty because it doesn’t look like this racino will pass, seeing as they’ve been trying for 15 years. Think of the good things they could have done for their tribe with the $700,000 in advertising they purchased to get this thing passed. That’s only this time around, what did they spend prior to this? There’s a lot of education that could have been paid for with that money.
Wake up people, this referendum didn’t fail due to racism, it failed because people care.
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.
