Earlier I was reading a news blurb on the provincial gambling numbers of problem gamblers being down! I could not help but muse at the loosely described method used to reach this conclusion. Ross said we asked them! And 77% said they had not gambled much in the year! Asked who, Gamblers? Would they tell the truth?
Isn’t it a widely understood fact that addicted gamblers will do anything, including lying to conceal their addiction? Is this a fool proof scientific process being used to gather data? Of course not, Ross old man, and you never cease to amaze me with your departments inexcusable excuses, and your
posturing to hide the real facts in most cases!
I have a question for you Ross! There are
indisputable facts that the first addictions in this province, beginning decades ago, were addictions to two retail goods, namely alcohol and tobacco products. It is known that both are proven to cause severe health issues and even death. With alcohol causing family breakups, violence and death via drunk driving accidents; and tobacco causing cancer and
respiratory ailments; and the higher health care costs associated with all of these,
isn’t your government exploiting the very people addicted by having the highest tax rate out of all other provinces on both of these product lines?
The very next
provincially regulated addictions were pull tab tickets, once only allowed to be sold by charity or non profit
organizations, until our government saw a windfall of potential profits being lost. So by
deregulating the old policy concerning who was allowed to sell these tickets, and thereafter by
implementing the current policy allowing any retailer, and even independent kiosks, to sell these commodities, government paved a highway to further misery for persons with addictions.
I remember when the old Atlantic Lottery unfolded, top prize was a hundred thousand dollars, whereas today we are giving away jackpots of 30-50 million dollars. Pull tabs were maxed out at $50.00, now many payout up to $500.00. Due to the statistical
improbability of winning, these government regulated schemes are designed to literally steal peoples money, but those addicted will not recognize the no-win-system that it is!
This system was soon followed by the scratch ticket scenario! Same steal, same scheme, same
progression of prize payout and ticket cost. I was at an Irving outlet recently, where a good friend is the manager. He told me, on a good week they sell 12-20 boxes of pull tabs and scratch. He said it was common to see people come in and buy a package of smokes, a
Pepsi and twenty dollars worth of pull tabs, and take home another twenty in scratch. He added, we have quite a few regulars who do this daily, and many, many more who do this at least three times a week. I feel bad he said, our regulars are like our friends, you sense they have problems.
All of this was followed closely by the
installation of the infamous
VLT, where hundreds of millions of dollars are stolen from those who are often the most vulnerable of our citizens, and all for profit by government.
Ross, please do not “excuse” the fact that 90% of pubs and bars, especially the small town and rural operations stay open because of
VLT profits, and not bar sale profits. I am
surprised government has not found a way to use a debit/credit system where users can stop along sidewalk kiosks and use a plastic debit type card to pay for and receive winnings from
VLT's, not unlike the
alc.ca web site.
For Christ sake, even family restaurants have
VLTs. Addictions do not have barriers, Ross. Have you ever been at a restaurant sitting near a table where a Mom, Dad and their kids are seated waiting for service. Then Mom and Dad enter into an
indiscreet low tone argument over the addicted one of the two needing to play the machine while awaiting their order? Have you seen these same people receive their order, and the rest of the family is finished eating before Dad finally gets back to the table?
Ross, I have seen this often enough to know that change must happen. Life is about personal choice, but there is something
fundamentally wrong when a government can not only provide, but profit form goods and services that literally kill people, destroy families and ruin futures for children!
Take a look around town. How many bars are now open before noon or after midnight these days? It seems that the regulated times of operation for the
VLTs,
combined with the reduced numbers of
VLTs, have come to dictate the reported reduced revenue. I would suggest that this is the
explanation for your numbers drop Ross, rather than your unsupported claim of an improvement in problem gambling statistics. Take your nose out of your ass long enough to admit there are 100s of thousands of
Newfoundlander's out there who are smarter than they are being given credit for, smart enough to see through the BS, but only a handful with balls enough to tell you that you are lying or that you are wrong!
What I find most difficult to accept is the fact that
government subtly admitted that there were going to be issues for people and their developing addictions; that there were huge profits to be made even while people and families would be hurting. This is evidenced just by the virtue that, behind the gambling schemes, government provided a multi hundred million plus
Treatment Package per year to treat addictions, when they provided the means by which people became addicted in the first place. This spells huge profits, not
contradiction.
The report appeard Sunday July 05/09 It does not refute my argument.... You decide!
REPORTBrudder
Posts
