As I was coming back from getting my newspaper this morning I noticed a group of at least 100 people (Mostly Seniors) waiting for the bus to Atlantic City.
This afternoon there was a group almost double that size waiting in the same spot.
As the economy gets worse more and more people are taking a chance.
And the government continues to try to bring draw more and more into this trap with ads in print on radio and on TV.
More and more seniors and young kids are getting drawn.
Something needs to be done.
This was first published last year and I thought we should share it again.
Take a moment and read it and the articles below.
“A GAMBLER’S CHRISTMAS”
T’was the night before Christmas when all through the house
The only sound heard came from my mouse
While the stockings where hung from the chimney with care
They were all empty barren and bare
My youngest was nestled all snug in his bed
While the piles of bills rose above my head
His mother and sister along with Aunt Bea
Were on they’re way back from a trip to AC
My other son James was locked in a gaze
As Chris Moneymaker considered a raise
Not even a Yule Log on our TV set
As he watched Phil Ivey check the last bet
The World Series of Poker on every TV
Had replaced all the classics that we used to see
No Frosty or Rudolph or Charlie Brown’s tree
Just Texas Hold'em on four channels not three
As I clicked all around to find my next site
To play online poker and cover last night
All the games that I lost both college and pro
Outside of my window it started to snow
I thought of the call I received just last night
From my dear old mom who had missed the last flight
It appears the she didn’t notice the time
While playing the slots where she lost her last dime
And the letter I got from my brother Bob
Letting me know that he just lost his job.
He had gone out to lunch and didn’t come back
Losing his pay check again at the track
I closed my eyes but I couldn’t sleep
Thinking of promises I wouldn’t keep
And Johnny would wake tomorrow to see
Not one single present under the tree
And I would have to think of a really good lie
To explain why Santa had passed us by
I would explain it was just a mistake
While thinking of even more bets I could make
But as if by magic I saw my way out
And I started to leap and dance about
For from the radio I heard a voice scream
“The New Christmas Lottery A Dollar and a Dream”
Although many of you may think that the poem above is an exaggeration it is a lot closer to the truth they you may believe.
Gambling is becoming more of the norm then the exception to the rule.
Families are losing their houses because of compulsive gambling.
Seniors on a fixed income are losing their life’s savings on repeated trips to Atlantic City and other casinos.
You cannot turn on the TV without seeing one version of a poker match or another.
Children in their teens and younger are playing at on line sites and losing real money.
Texas Hold’em tournaments are sponsored by schools and churches and teenagers are playing with alarming regularity.
Nights at the Races and Casino Nights are now regular events.
And the worst offender is New York State.
They spend millions a year advertising to lure more innocent people in with promises of millions.
Gambling is now at epidemic levels especially with teens and seniors.
Recent studies indicate that more than 70 percent of youth between the ages of 10 and 17 gambled in the past year, up from 45 percent in 1988. Almost one in three high school students gamble on a regular basis, according to the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers at Pennsylvania State College of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania surveyed 843 elderly people 65 years and older and discovered that 70 percent had been involved in at least one gambling activity in the past year and 11 percent fit the criteria of at-risk gamblers: they had recently laid down more than $100 on a single bet and/or they had bet more than they could afford to lose.
We are going to work with Gambler’s Anonymous next year and develop some seminars to address these issues. We will offer these to both schools as well as senior groups.
Anyone wishing to participate can contact us at info@where-to-turn.org.
In the meantime we need to get the Government out of the recruitment business. If people want to gamble that is their prerogative but we do not need to be barraged with lottery ads.
The state should get out of the gambling business all together. Just look what a great job they did with OTB. I never heard of a bookie losing money.
If they need to keep the lottery they should at least cut the advertising. The reduced cost would probably compensate for the lost revenue from new gamblers.
If you know of someone with a gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER
Dennis
THE GROWING GAMBLING PROBLEM IN AMERICA
http://www.where-to-turn.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=41184
They Are Gambling With Our Future
http://www.where-to-turn.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=45712
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Mosque Developer Can't Manage Existing Holdings Yet Wants Federal Grant to Build Near Ground Zero
It has been reported that the developers looking to build the mosque near Ground Zero are requesting a $5 million grant from the LMDC to help finance the build. Hopefully the LMDC has done its homework as the developers do not have such a great track record when it comes to managing properties. According to Mike Daly of The Record “Rauf' is the owner (along with Daisy Khan) of a slum apartment building in Union City, NJ. The local mayor refers to Rauf as a slumlord. Last week, a judge placed the building in the hands of a custodial receiver until code violations were fixed. (There were more than 200 violations.) The place didn't even have working fire alarms. While Rauf and Khan were out raising money for their Ground Zero mosque, the poor people of Union City were forced to live with rats.” (See full article below) Now whether you believe the mosque should be built or not do you really think that management of this property would be any better. Hopefully the LMDC will consider this when making their decision about the grant. The mayor and all the others fully supporting this effort should have at least done the same fact checking as Mr. Daly. Again they have every right to build the mosque but they definitely do not appear to be the people that they present themselves to be and they definitely do not deserve any type of City, State or Federal support of this effort.
Kelly: Mosque developer misses chance to come clean on apartments
http://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/103027309_Cleric_misses_his_chance_to_come_clean_on_repairs.html
Kelly: Mosque developer misses chance to come clean on apartments
http://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/103027309_Cleric_misses_his_chance_to_come_clean_on_repairs.html
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
THE CUT AND PASTE GENERATION
More and more states are on the verge of bankruptcy and the federal government just continues to toss good money after bad. Has anyone wondered why we are in this situation? Here is our take. The problem is that we have become a cut and paste society and original thinking has all but disappeared from this generation. Just ask any student when was the last time they visited a library to do real research. Why should they when with the click of a cursor they can get all of the information they need. Ask them to write an essay and see how many spelling errors or "text abbreviations" you find. And you can forget about grammar all together. But why do they need to worry when they all have spell and grammar check on their computers. And it is not only the student's fault. School rankings are based on success in standardized tests. So students are taught to pass those tests. Shortcuts are instituted to bypass anything that is not covered on these standardized tests. And the problems just get worse and worse. An entire industry now exists to teach students to pass High School entrance exams and SAT tests. Shortcuts....shortcuts....shortcuts. And this extends to the business world as well. These same students have become today's executives. The majority of who have never worked their way up the corporate ladder. No real on the job training and more importantly no common sense. Personal gain overshadowing corporate responsibility. And why not! This is a generation that has been able to fast forward most of their lives while skipping over or deleting anything that has gotten in their way. A generation of "Guitar Heroes" who can't read a note of music. A generation who do not know the value of a dollar and whose lives are "PRICELESS" or who "WON"T LEAVE HOME" without their credit cards And these are the people who are now making the corporate decisions that have brought our country to the brink of bankruptcy. They are the same people taking these ideas into government who think that a $10 trillion national debt is not a concern.
The same people who pass bills without reading them.So we will have to work till we die as our 401K's disappear and Social Security goes bankrupt.
As the new cut and paste generation takes the place of the old cut and run generation before them We can only pray that the day will come when they begin to realize that Real Life is not something you watch on MTV. And hopefully that day comes soon.
The same people who pass bills without reading them.So we will have to work till we die as our 401K's disappear and Social Security goes bankrupt.
As the new cut and paste generation takes the place of the old cut and run generation before them We can only pray that the day will come when they begin to realize that Real Life is not something you watch on MTV. And hopefully that day comes soon.
Monday, November 1, 2010
A GOOD TRAILER DOES NOT GUARANTEE A GOOD MOVIE...DON'T BE FOOLED AGAIN
As it has been recently reported candidates for office in this midterm election will spend over $4 billion dollars on their campaigns.
That's right not $4 million...$4 billion and this is not even a presidential election year.
And that's just what they are going to spend; God only knows how much they have actually raised.
Maybe it's just me but in these tough economic times there are definitely better ways to spend this money.
People can't put food on their tables, unemployment is near record highs, schools are having their budgets slashed, the country's infrastructure is falling apart and we are trillions in debt but candidates can spend $4 billion attempting to get elected.
How can we expect any fiscal responsibility from any of them?
And this is just one side of the coin.
You then you have the millions that has been raised that will just go into campaign war chests for future elections or even worse spent on legal fees for when quite a few of those elected get into trouble.
And this process is repeated every two years with the numbers jumping during a presidential election.
So much for campaign finance reform.
They say that money can't buy you love but it is obvious they think that it can buy an election.
And it doesn't say much about what they think about the electorate.
Half of these ads just bash opponents with very little regard to honesty.
To say that they stretch the truth is an understatement.
The other half exaggerate what the incumbents have accomplished or overstate what the challengers will do if elected.
But they must think that it is worth it because the spending increases with every election.
And it is our fault if we let these ads impact our decisions.
If an incumbent is not doing the job vote him or her out.
If you only see a challenger come election time disregard him or her.
We need to put people in office who are involved with our community and care about “our needs”
We need hands on people of action.
As they say a good trailer does not guarantee a good movie.
Tomorrow let’s tell them we are smarter then they think.
If we don’t we will wind up with another two years of broken promises and little change.
That's right not $4 million...$4 billion and this is not even a presidential election year.
And that's just what they are going to spend; God only knows how much they have actually raised.
Maybe it's just me but in these tough economic times there are definitely better ways to spend this money.
People can't put food on their tables, unemployment is near record highs, schools are having their budgets slashed, the country's infrastructure is falling apart and we are trillions in debt but candidates can spend $4 billion attempting to get elected.
How can we expect any fiscal responsibility from any of them?
And this is just one side of the coin.
You then you have the millions that has been raised that will just go into campaign war chests for future elections or even worse spent on legal fees for when quite a few of those elected get into trouble.
And this process is repeated every two years with the numbers jumping during a presidential election.
So much for campaign finance reform.
They say that money can't buy you love but it is obvious they think that it can buy an election.
And it doesn't say much about what they think about the electorate.
Half of these ads just bash opponents with very little regard to honesty.
To say that they stretch the truth is an understatement.
The other half exaggerate what the incumbents have accomplished or overstate what the challengers will do if elected.
But they must think that it is worth it because the spending increases with every election.
And it is our fault if we let these ads impact our decisions.
If an incumbent is not doing the job vote him or her out.
If you only see a challenger come election time disregard him or her.
We need to put people in office who are involved with our community and care about “our needs”
We need hands on people of action.
As they say a good trailer does not guarantee a good movie.
Tomorrow let’s tell them we are smarter then they think.
If we don’t we will wind up with another two years of broken promises and little change.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
And They Wonder Why People Don’t Vote
Every year we always hear how unfortunate it is that so many people don’t vote.
The real tragedy is that we have set up a system which produces so few candidates worthy of our votes.
Candidates have become more like cartoon characters that morph into criminals once elected.
We have members of the locust party that only appear every election telling you what they are going to do when elected.
Most of these professional candidates only appear every two to four years and do little or nothing to help their communities between elections.
They are at least not as dangerous as the party “store bought candidates” who run on campaigns based on promises that they know the people want to hear but they know they can’t deliver.
Add these to the candidates whose only platform is bashing and badmouthing their opponents.
These candidates wouldn’t know a local issue if it bit them in the butt.
But this is the process that has been created.
There was a time when we could at least choose the lesser of two evils but nowadays that’s not even the case.
We now get to choose between criminals both accused and convicted or witches or wrestling owners.
We have people who have never had a real job running against those whose resumes are more fiction than fact.
And that is why we have a federal government that has spoken about fiscal responsibility for years that has managed to increase federal spending every year since 1954.
On a local level back room deals and partisan politics have made the NY elected officials the poster children all that is wrong with government.
At the federal level we constantly send back millionaires who never had to worry about what they spend and act surprised when they do the same with our tax dollars when elected.
Ronald Regan once said “Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first”
Maybe it’s not crazy that a former madam is running for Governor at least she will know how to deal with the Assembly and Senate in Albany.
But we cannot give up. We need to go out and vote.
We just need to be smart with our vote.
We don’t need to vote Republican, Democrat or Conservative.
We don’t need to follow the Tea Partiers or the Tax and Spend Liberals.
We need to become educated about the candidates and make educated choices.
Our own choices, not choices made by the self serving media.
It’s the only way that we will stem this tide of inept government and finally get some real change.
I am a disgruntled tax payer and I have approved this message.
The real tragedy is that we have set up a system which produces so few candidates worthy of our votes.
Candidates have become more like cartoon characters that morph into criminals once elected.
We have members of the locust party that only appear every election telling you what they are going to do when elected.
Most of these professional candidates only appear every two to four years and do little or nothing to help their communities between elections.
They are at least not as dangerous as the party “store bought candidates” who run on campaigns based on promises that they know the people want to hear but they know they can’t deliver.
Add these to the candidates whose only platform is bashing and badmouthing their opponents.
These candidates wouldn’t know a local issue if it bit them in the butt.
But this is the process that has been created.
There was a time when we could at least choose the lesser of two evils but nowadays that’s not even the case.
We now get to choose between criminals both accused and convicted or witches or wrestling owners.
We have people who have never had a real job running against those whose resumes are more fiction than fact.
And that is why we have a federal government that has spoken about fiscal responsibility for years that has managed to increase federal spending every year since 1954.
On a local level back room deals and partisan politics have made the NY elected officials the poster children all that is wrong with government.
At the federal level we constantly send back millionaires who never had to worry about what they spend and act surprised when they do the same with our tax dollars when elected.
Ronald Regan once said “Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first”
Maybe it’s not crazy that a former madam is running for Governor at least she will know how to deal with the Assembly and Senate in Albany.
But we cannot give up. We need to go out and vote.
We just need to be smart with our vote.
We don’t need to vote Republican, Democrat or Conservative.
We don’t need to follow the Tea Partiers or the Tax and Spend Liberals.
We need to become educated about the candidates and make educated choices.
Our own choices, not choices made by the self serving media.
It’s the only way that we will stem this tide of inept government and finally get some real change.
I am a disgruntled tax payer and I have approved this message.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Chilean Miners....British Petroleum and our Government
The effort to save the miners is a perfect example how a focused well thought out solution works.
A stark contrast to BP's fiasco in the Gulf.
Unfortunately our government seems to have missed the boat on focused and well thought out solutions and that is why the country is in such bad shape.
So cheers to all those involved in this rescue and hopefully we will be able to replace the do nothing but spend Representatives (off all parties) in government in November
Now that would be a legitimate change
A stark contrast to BP's fiasco in the Gulf.
Unfortunately our government seems to have missed the boat on focused and well thought out solutions and that is why the country is in such bad shape.
So cheers to all those involved in this rescue and hopefully we will be able to replace the do nothing but spend Representatives (off all parties) in government in November
Now that would be a legitimate change
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
OPEN LETTER TO MAYOR BLOOMBERG REGARDING ZADROGA BILL
Dear Mayor Bloomberg,
In your statement regarding the Zadroga Bill today you stated ““Today’s bi-partisan vote by the House of Representatives is a significant moment in a fight we have waged for years. Today’s vote acknowledges that the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks were an attack on America, and addressing its health impacts is a national duty. This bill recognizes that the country should be there for the tens of thousands of responders who were there for us on 9/11”
I find it difficult to understand how you could make such a statement at the same time that your administration through the WTC Captive Insurance Corp has denied almost every claim from people ill as a result of 9/11.
The Federal Government gave New York City $1 Billion to aid those ill as a result of 9/11
The WTC Captive Insurance Corp a Registered Not For Profit that has spent over $400 Million in Federal Funds and distributed less than 1% of the funds to satisfy health claims.
They have paid their administrators millions in salaries and have regularly paid attorneys $500 an hour to fight the claims of our sick 9/11 responders.
I do agree with you that the bill recognizes that the country should be there for the tens of thousands of responders who were there for us on 9/11 but my question is why your administration hasn’t been there as well.
Dennis McKeon
In your statement regarding the Zadroga Bill today you stated ““Today’s bi-partisan vote by the House of Representatives is a significant moment in a fight we have waged for years. Today’s vote acknowledges that the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks were an attack on America, and addressing its health impacts is a national duty. This bill recognizes that the country should be there for the tens of thousands of responders who were there for us on 9/11”
I find it difficult to understand how you could make such a statement at the same time that your administration through the WTC Captive Insurance Corp has denied almost every claim from people ill as a result of 9/11.
The Federal Government gave New York City $1 Billion to aid those ill as a result of 9/11
The WTC Captive Insurance Corp a Registered Not For Profit that has spent over $400 Million in Federal Funds and distributed less than 1% of the funds to satisfy health claims.
They have paid their administrators millions in salaries and have regularly paid attorneys $500 an hour to fight the claims of our sick 9/11 responders.
I do agree with you that the bill recognizes that the country should be there for the tens of thousands of responders who were there for us on 9/11 but my question is why your administration hasn’t been there as well.
Dennis McKeon
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