Dear Source:
The National Council on Problem Gambling estimates about 1% or 2.5 million Americans meet the criteria for pathological gambling (are addicted to gambling) another 2%-3% are or 5 to 7 million Americans are problem gamblers. In the late 1990’s the people of the Virgin Islands voted to allow gambling only in resort casinos under strict supervision of the Government and only on the island of St. Croix.
Somehow against the wishes of the people, someone got a license to run a video gambling operation on St. Thomas and St. John. And…..there is a great built in penalty if the people decide to stop it. As we all know most of the money being poured into these machines is by local people who generally do not have spare money to use for this purpose. Rich tourists do not pour their money into them. The only good thing that has come out of this is more local people are going into bars and restaurants that in the past have been mostly white.
Some Senators have decided that this is a good way to make money. So they intend to install betting machines at the race tracks on St. Thomas and St. Croix, strategically placed to encourage local people to pour more money into them. What are the leaders of this community thinking?
I have a better idea, why not stop the machine gambling and legalize drugs. The Government could add a 50% tax and the drugs could be sold in “drug stores” since prescription drugs are already abused much more than “illegal” drugs. We could add laws against driving under the influence of drugs and police accordingly. All the young guys would have to stay in school so they could get a real job instead of shooting each other over drug sales. Police officers would not be tempted to go bad to make side money and the jails would become less crowded.
Estimates of the total overall costs of substance abuse in the United States—including health- and crime-related costs as well as losses in productivity is approximately $168 billion for tobacco, $185 billion for alcohol and $181 billion for illicit drugs. If we remove the cost of crime and punishment illicit drugs would be the cheaper by far. Best of all the tourists would be the biggest customers.
We could tell the gambling machine owners that their license is revoked and they have 6 months to earn enough to pay off the penalty then the machines have to go, while we phase in drugs.
Greg Miller, St. John
