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Gwinnett Daily Post Editor:
Staff writer Jim Kvicala and editorialist Bill Shipp are wrong about government involvement in video poker and here's why. It is illogical to say video poker is immoral, and that state sponsored gambling is not. If this is true, why is everybody upset about video poker? The answer lies in monopoly power.
Until 1996, New York City residents paid double for trash removal. That's because mobsters controlled the trash haul-away business. They used violence or the threat of violence to create a monopoly and run honest operators out of business.
In 1992 Georgia created a state gambling monopoly. Georgia, like the gangsters in New York, must use the threat of violence to protect their monopoly. Recall the September 2000 raid on video poker stores along the South Carolina-Georgia border. Over 100 officers from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Georgia State Patrol, and the Lavonia Police Department participated in the raid.
Consider additional comparisons between the two monopolies.
In both monopolies, consumers were and are being charged higher prices for products or services they purchase. Georgia pays out 55% of receipts to gambling consumers in the form of winnings, versus 90% in Las Vegas.
Georgia taxpayers pay police to use the threat of deadly force to protect the state's monopoly. New York mobsters never received taxpayer funding.
Unlike Georgia police officers, the New York mobsters were not diverted from catching murderers, rapists, vandals, and burglars.
In New York, a popular mayor fought the mobsters on behalf of legitimate businesses and consumers. Nobody in Georgia is willing to protect the gambling consumers against monopolists.
The elected representatives of Georgia have forbidden me: to spend my money, to invest my money, or to profit from any business that involves gambling. They allow me to gamble, but only via their statewide monopoly.
Do you really believe state sponsored monopolies are okay? That's what Georgia citizens are allowing. What would the citizens of Georgia do if the state legislature decided to monopolize dry cleaning and jack up dry cleaning prices to pay for their version of what is best for society? If they can monopolize gambling, they can monopolize anything. Enforcing monopolies is not a proper function for state government or police. I prefer laws and enforcement that protect my life, my liberty, and my property. That's what government is designed to do for free people.
Wes Alexander
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