Here in Tennessee “the Bible belt” it always amazes me when people rise up against gambling in the same fashion they do about prostitution, bootleg liquor and sundry other evils of society. Yet seven days a week you can walk into any local stop and rob store and purchase your lottery ticket in hopes of striking it rich. I suppose the difference is that the money goes to the school systems or students? Really, what is the deference? Gambling is gambling.
High stakes poker or the Saturday night boy’s poker night with a $10 buy in it’s all the same. Grown adults using their money however they see fit. I wonder on any given night in our local area how many “high stakes” or low-end poker games are going on? Does anyone really care? I know I don’t.
The reasons for keeping gambling out of Tennessee have been stated but really amount to a lot of bull. The gambling money is taking money away from families and food out of children’s mouths. Oh and the lottery isn’t? People are bringing guns to poker games and/,or there is a threat of a robbery with the potential of people being hurt. That being said, I wonder if anyone has ever been robbed of a lottery ticket? Or has a store ever been robbed because they sell a high volume of lottery tickets and have cash on hand?
My solution to the “gambling problem” is this. Give Moccasin Bend to the Cherokees, legalize gambling in Tennessee and build the largest casino in the South here in Chattanooga. You want jobs for the “young gangsters” well there you go. You want a boost to the local economy, well, there you go. You want tourism in the area, there you go. And on top of the boost to the economy the security level at casinos would take guns out of the hands of the gamblers and it would even be safe.
You can’t have your cake and eat it too, folks. Either gambling is wrong and not allowed in Tennessee or it’s not. Which is it?
Mike Cox
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I agree with Mike Cox, we should give Moccasin Bend to the Cherokees and put the south's largest casino there. The construction would require the hiring of hundreds if not thousands of workers. When completed there would be at least another 1,000 high paying permanent jobs. The casino would attract thousands of people from Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky and the Carolinas, plus thousands more people passing through town on I-75 and I-24.
It would bring gourmet dining and big name entertainment to our town, all in an environmentally free atmosphere.
If Moccasin Bend is not available I would suggest working out a deal for the old foundry site where I-24 comes into downtown. That would bring all the above benefits plus create a real economic renaissance on the South Side.
Doug Jones
North Chattanooga
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If I am not mistaken, if Moccasin Bend is given back to the Indian tribe it belongs to, then they do not have to abide by state law due to it being an Indian reservation and pulled into the Indian Nation. I know there are sacred burial grounds out there. It would be the right thing to do.
Glen Pope
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Another major advantage of a casino that unlike a car company, a casino would pay its own way. No taxpayer welfare, no free land, no tax breaks to be paid for by the taxpayers. And at the same time more employment opportunities. With more competition for Chattanooga's workforce, wages would go up in all areas.
This being said, watch how the 1 percent of the population will come against this in religious righteousness saying how sinful this would be when what they're doing is trying to keep wages low by keeping unemployment high.
F. Doug Craig
Chattanooga