Casinos in Ohio? (I don't think so!)

Once again, someone is trying to convince Ohioans that we need our very own "casino resort," in order to prevent all those precious gambling dollars from leaving our state to go to Michigan, West Virginia, or any of the other crime-ridden states that currently support such types of gambling.

Casino gambling is a zero-sum game--it benefits the richest (a.k.a., the owners of the casinos), and penalizes the poorest (a.k.a., the working folk who waste their hard-earned money on a fleetingly "good time.") Meanwhile, the casino owners (many of whom don't live in Ohio anyway), benefit from the lowest taxes on earth for any business, a virtual monopoly on gambling (guaranteed by the constitution, if this issue passes), and a morally-ambiguous mission that doesn't create as many jobs as it promises, brings down property values, and causes other, even more insidious types of crime and decay in its wake.

Let me make this clear: No one--not you, not me, not this state--will benefit from casino gambling, except for the casino owners themselves.

VOTE NO ON ISSUE 6!

(And yes, in case anyone is wondering, this is an official, and legal, position of The United Methodist Church, and a letter about this from the two Ohio bishops can be found here. In fact, the East and West Ohio conferences have a goal of 5,000 signs in church yards opposing gambling before election day--churches can advocate for/against issues, just not candidates.)

Yours most politically,

David

Famous for Fifteen Minutes

Here is a link to my claim-to-fame (from the East Ohio Conference website, an article about my call to ministry and ordination).

Link

Hope you enjoy! (Those who haven't seen it a bazillion times by now!)

--David