Life in a gambling town has its ups and downs

Life in a gambling townhas its ups and downs
EDITOR:
The subject of casino gaming keeps rising from the ashes, so it is time to comment.
We lived in the Reno-Sparks area for 121/2 years while I was employed by the University of Nevada, Reno, so we know a great deal about legalized gaming.
True, tourism flourishes, but there are others who come that the area would prefer to avoid. First, there are the operators who try to operate on the fringe of illegality, causing the Gaming Commission to be an expensive operation. Second, there are those who do not understand the laws of probability, so, upon losing, believe that a new stake will insure that they break the bank. Their remedy, far too often, is to engage in theft, petty and grand, in order to get that stake. Again, the need for policing is greatly increased.
We are now having trouble funding adequate protection, don't count on gaming making it better.
Nevada used the excuse of funding education. Gaming does fund education, but the funds which would have been used for education have simply been dedicated to creative spending by the legislature.
The fringe benefit which we enjoyed as residents, however, was the availability of good food at good prices used as a means of getting people into the casinos. A $5 roll of nickels invested in a semi-generous slot machine was an excuse to dine in a manner not normally available to young college couples with small children.
My advice on gaming: Don't do it.
GEORGE E. SUTTON
Poland
Effects of overspendingwill catch up someday
EDITOR:
Bush is right in telling the young of our country that they should be afraid of the future debt. It is just the wrong debt that he is talking about. It is not Social Security that is going to leave the young holding the bag. It is the massive debt that his "cut tax and spend" policies created that is going to cost them their future. And no amount of private investment is going to prevent them from having to pay for it.
The generation that knew that there is no free lunch is just about gone. The generation that is now here thinks that you can have it all and right now. Someday, someone has to pay. If you don't think so, you are wrong. Bush and his people know this and they are spending your money to make themselves richer.
It is not the old that are stealing your future. The money they are collecting is the money they were promised when they paid into Social Security for the 40 to 50 years that they worked. Not one cent of tax money has supported Social Security during its 75-year history. But money has been borrowed from the overpayment of Social Security each year and replaced with government bonds. Is Bush now saying that the government is going to default on that debt?
What has happened to the people of this once great country? Why are the people willing to sit back and allow these things to happen? Where are the great news people of the past, who would have exposed these shenanigans?
I think that everyone just thinks it will go away by itself or someone else will take care of it. It is not going away, it is getting bigger. Each time that we allow a government official to do something wrong without being punished, it emboldens them to push the envelop just that much further. Now they are stealing Our future. Will we stop them now?
PAUL SHANABARGER
New Springfield