I can’t help but feel we’re being sold down the river out of desperation, on the part of some local government officials, in a misguided effort to boost the local economy by welcoming the gaming industry to Ottumwa.
We live in Iowa’s third poorest county and already feel the crippling effects of over 17 percent poverty and 10 percent unemployment, which place a heavy burden on law enforcement and social services organizations at taxpayer expense. Alcohol and substance abuse flourish in what has been termed “The Meth Capitol of the United States.”
Now, we’re expected to fund multi-million dollar projects associated with bringing a casino into our own front yard with the hope of recouping our losses, and then some, from an industry that promises the moon and delivers a nightmare. We can’t even afford a municipal animal shelter!
Las Vegas is hurting, yet we’re told that with gambling, the dollars will come pouring into Ottumwa. The only thing “pouring in” will be unemployed casino workers and those who make an illegal living on the fringe of the gaming industry.
When the common man becomes disillusioned and realizes his quality of life is diminished by legalized gambling, who will buy our homes so we can move someplace else? Nobody.
No amount of money is worth the pain a child feels when his stomach is empty, the cupboards are bare, and his parents have gambled the rent money.
Lisa Aslesen
Ottumwa
Letters to the Editor
January 8, 2010
Gambling our future away
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