Gambling and Judas
Some people were a little shocked Wednesday when Councilman Cecil Thomas, during his turn to say what he thought about the proposal to possibly build casinos in Hamilton County if Northern Kentucky builds some, compared the situation to Judas' betrayal of Jesus.
He said he wasn't ready to sell out for "30 pieces of silver." That, the Bible says, is the amount of money for which Judas sold out Jesus.
Obviously, Thomas voted against the proposal to ask the state legislature to put on the November ballot a constitutional amendment to let counties bordering states that enact gaming to have casinos also. Councilman Jeff Berding introduced the idea as a way to let Cincinnati and Hamilton County compete if the Kentucky proposal to put casinos in Northern Kentucky goes through.
After the Bible reference, the measure passed 7-2, with Thomas and Chris Monzel against. Monzel didn't quote the Bible in his reasoning, he just said he thinks the social consequences of gambling are too great.
19 Comments:
at 9:57 AM, March 13, 2008 
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at 9:59 AM, March 13, 2008 
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at 10:05 AM, March 13, 2008 
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at 10:30 AM, March 13, 2008 
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at 10:31 AM, March 13, 2008 
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at 10:36 AM, March 13, 2008 
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at 10:45 AM, March 13, 2008 
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at 12:04 PM, March 13, 2008 
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at 12:28 PM, March 13, 2008 
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at 12:42 PM, March 13, 2008 
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at 2:37 PM, March 13, 2008 
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at 2:42 PM, March 13, 2008 
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at 3:07 PM, March 13, 2008 
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at 3:39 PM, March 13, 2008 
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at 6:33 PM, March 13, 2008 
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at 6:58 PM, March 13, 2008 
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at 9:27 AM, March 14, 2008 
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at 11:06 AM, March 14, 2008 
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at 11:52 AM, March 14, 2008 
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Post a Comment*We should have learned by our past failures that you can't legislate human behavior.
Prohibition and the War on Drugs are two salient examples of trying to change behavior that were and are disasters.
Gambling is the same. Do we encourage our residents to go to Lawrenceburg or do we provide the gambling here and support our initiatives vs. Indiana's?
Maybe Councilmember Thomas should read his bible a little more closely. Following Jesus' death the disciples needed to choose a successor to replace Judas and return their number to 12. They had a number of candidates, but could choose only one. The solution was to put it in G-d's hands and have the candidates "cast lots". Casting lots is essentially shooting craps. If gambling is good enough for G-d, Jesus, and the disciples its good enough for Cincinnati.
At least Thomas has religious conviction backing his thought process on this, even though he's wrong, and the story of Judas' betrayal of Jesus Christ has nothing to do with this issue of whether we have gambling or not.
Chris Monzel is simply an idiot. He says that the reason NOT to have gambling is because of the "social consequences."
OK, what exactly does he think those consequences are? If he goes to any Indiana casino, he'll see that nearly all of the cars there are Ohio-plated cars. So the gamblers leave our state, spend their money on gambling, hotels, food, gas, entertainment, liquor and cigarettes over there, and they bring their problems back here. If there are any consequences, we are already paying them.
And if Northern Kentucky puts gambling in, which they will because they want Ohio money more than Ohio aparently does, does Chris think that the river will stop any of these phantom "consequences" from coming over to Ohio?
Monzel, Thomas and others should continue sticking their heads in the sand. They think they are protecting us adults from making adult decisions because we are incapable of doing it ourselves. They are afraid we are too irresponsible, and they have such little faith in law enforcement to deal with the lawbreakers.
The rest of Council, as much as they generally make bad decisions (like spending nearly $1 million on a study of a laughable idea of streetcars), sometimes find the right one to make.
Bring the casinos along with the night life, the convention businness, the out-of-state traffic, and let's start keeping our money here. Adult entertainment, if done right, can be clean, fun and safe.
Small minds like Monzel and Thomas would prefer to not have to deal with it.
I agree with anon. 9:57
In Amsterdam, Drugs, hookers, casinos and assisted suicide are legal.
Prohibition was the only contitutional ammendment I know of that took away our rights.
Let's not legislate morality.
In my mind, Holland is a much more civil and humane country than the USA.
So, does this mean that Jeff Berding is like a modern day Judas?
To 10:31-
Way to add insight into the discussion...
...NOT
Oh we've got trouble,
Right here in River City!
- Music Man
YOu don't think it will cost the city to have a significant enough police presence outside a casino in order to make people safe enough to take whatever they've won home with them?
I'm not afraid of downtown--I go all the time. But there are plenty who are. And those are often the people with money. They probably wouldn't go to a casino in the city without hefty (expensive) insurance that it is safe.
So if the people with money won't go, that leaves the people without to go. And that has costs also.
First of all, if any of you would bother to read the news from the other side of the river, casinos are going NOWHERE in Kentucky's legislature. That said, Ohio does need casinos but at the horse racetracks, similar to Pennsylvania and West Virginia. These new casinos would occur at already existing locations and revitalize River Downs, Lebanon Raceway, Beulah, Thistledown, etc. Ohio voted that down in 2006 but much of the opposition to it was based on how the proposal was worded and sold to the public.
Good for Thomas. To all the kool-aid drinkers who think that casinos are the be all and end all of our economic woes, just look at Detroit. The Downtown casinos there have not helped that city one bit.
When there are casinos in Indiana, Northern KY & Cincinnati there will be major over saturation in the market, and none of the casinos will do any business. Add to that the fact that the casinos are just recirculating local dollars that would be spent elsewhere in the local economy if they weren't being lost at the casino.
The house always wins by the way.
Sheriff Leis, the leader of our local law enforcement, was one of the biggest advocates for bringing slots to Ohio's race tracks. Everyone said that Indiana would be beat down by gambling but instead has found the revenue as a way to build up nicer infrastructure. The only crime it really brought to Indiana was auto accidents, where one Ohio car was wrecking into another Ohio car.
"The house always wins by the way."
Winning isn't always a zero-sum game.
To anon 12:42
You're right. Las Vegas is a prime example. That ghost town is oversaturated with casinos, and it's a failure (sarcasm).
People enjoy games. Legislating that casinos are bad and the lottery is good is one of the state's biggest hypocrisies.
If we take recreation out of Ohio, then those who want to have fun will go elsewhere.
Has Thomas ever heard of "seperation of Church and State"? Keep your religion out of my City Hall.
3:07-THIS IS NOT LAS VEGAS. Not by a long shot. Before you go and drink some more kool aid, look at Detroit's situation vis a vis casinos.
Anon 3:07 Have you ever been to the Argosy? It's nothing but Ohio plates. It's also probably the safest place to be on earth...everything is monitored. Do you feel that way about downtown? Let's face it, Detroit was so far in the crapper...nothing could have saved it.
Although I could've done without the Biblical quote, i agree 100% with Cecil Thomas.
I would encourage any council person, mayor, and uninformed (re: casino reality) to take a field trip to the Indiana casinos.
They are DEPRESSING at best.
Let KY. have at them on their banks (the restaurant, music, arts crowd will thrive across the river) and keep Ohio's at the racetracks.
Anon 9:27
The only thing I see depressing about Argosy casino is all that money going in the Indiana coffers.
I guess you gave your opinion by actually visiting the casino? Drop any coins in the slots while you were there?
We have a state lottery and we're afraid of gambling. Go figure that logic.
anon 12:04 may not be afraid of downtown, but City Council is. That's why they are hiring private security guards at City Hall.
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