LETTERS

Stop this craziness

Posted 3/7/23

To the Editor,

A certain amount of the profits liquor companies and liquor stores make from the sale of alcoholic beverages goes to the state and becomes a part of the Ocean State's annual budget. …

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LETTERS

Stop this craziness

Posted

To the Editor,


A certain amount of the profits liquor companies and liquor stores make from the sale of alcoholic beverages goes to the state and becomes a part of the Ocean State's annual budget. Of course, those who run state government would love to get even more revenue from alcohol sales.


Instead of drinkers traveling to liquor stores and bars to imbibe their habits, what if the state provided a mechanism through which liquor stores pumped alcohol to homes and it was available to everyone simply by turning a spigot, or through intravenous drips to those unable to move about? Obviously, this would result in far more liquor sales and far more alcohol taxes flowing into state coffers. It would also result in far more people becoming alcoholics, far less productivity in general, and far more families losing their homes and their family life to the scourge of alcoholism.


Surely, most Rhode Islanders would agree that such an idea is offensive and should be rejected outright. Yet, Bally's Casino is pushing our legislators to enact a law that would do exactly the same for people susceptible to the lures of gambling.


Is the idea of pumping alcohol to homes any different than electronically pumping casino slot machines and blackjack tables to Rhode Island homes? Currently, except for sports betting, one must travel to a casino to gamble. Much like traveling to a liquor store or a bar for alcohol, having to travel to a casino to gamble vastly reduces the amount of money gambled; and greatly reduces the number of our neighbors who become addicted to gambling.


How many more children will lose their homes to foreclosure because hard working parents have become addicted to gambling at their home computers? How many more divorces will result from home-based gambling addiction? How many more domestic disturbances and even deaths?


How many mothers and fathers come home from work, feed their children, cuddle with them as they fall asleep, and then get into their cars and head to a casino? Very few! Conversely, how many of those loving parents might walk a few feet from their children's beds to a computer and gamble away the next week's grocery money or the mortgage payment? Many, many more than would travel to a casino!
There comes a point in citizens' support of government when they say enough is enough. We have capitalized on people's weaknesses enough already. How much revenue must we get from alcohol sales, marijuana sales, casino gambling, scratch lottery tickets, and other forms of "recreation" before we decide it's time to stop financing our roads and schools on the backs of people unable to resist the temptation of excessive alcohol, drugs, or gambling?


Enough is enough, Rhode Island! Let's stop this craziness before it totally consumes us. We have enough problems with domestic disturbances, divorces, home foreclosures, and homelessness--much of it already caused by alcoholism and gambling addiction. Let's not add to the problems by allowing Bally's and our legislators to convert even more of our neighbors to gambling addicts; all in the name of adding the almighty dollar to the supply of money these legislators have, in many cases, historically misspent.


Lonnie Barham
Warwick

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