Stop Predatory Gambling

Florida families are being denied a chance to live the real American Dream

by spgadmin

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said he heard the concerns that lawmakers are raising about the predatory gambling compact that he signed Monday with the Seminole Tribe but said he hopes that the Legislature will ratify it anyway.

Crist said. “I know the children of Florida deserve the money. I know our teachers do. So I hope they ratify it.”

But the way we raise money to pay for public needs says as much about our principles and values as the way we spend it.

One vital purpose of law in our democracy is to “promote the general welfare” of all citizens, a mission the United States Constitution clearly highlights in its Preamble. Crist’s predatory gambling compact violates this purpose.

Because state-sponsored predatory gambling violates America’s core democratic principle of equal citizenship and plays a major role in trapping millions of Americans in debt.

The question that the citizens of Florida should be asking Governor Crist and other legislators is why does government consider some of our fellow citizens as expendable and why is it encouraging people to get into more debt rather than encouraging them to save so they can accumulate the capital they need to live the real American Dream?