It seemed that for a week or so I couldn’t pick up the paper without seeing an article on how evil Internet cafes and sweepstakes parlors are stealing money meant for our children’s education (“Internet cafes hurt casinos, officials say,” Feb. 19).
I’ve been to a casino or two since 1970 and have been known to visit a “game room” on occasion.
If casino revenues are threatened by the handful of people patronizing these places at any given time, most of whom can’t get to a casino or don’t have the money to last in one long enough to qualify for free parking, then I would say the industry itself is on thin ice and should look in the mirror for answers.
The majority of people are seeking an hour or so of stress relief, a short mental vacation, and perhaps, if the planets are aligned, turn their $10 into $30. Of course, there are and always will be the 2 percent seeking a means to early retirement. Such is human nature, but these are the same people who spend money they don’t have on Ohio Lottery tickets.
Hope springs eternal, and if their tickets come in, maybe they could afford the minimum $25 blackjack tables instead of playing the 40 cent blackjack machines.
So, as it always does, the answer lies in competition. If the casino monopoly is truly concerned with these blips on the screen, I would offer some free marketing advice.
Cover Ohio and neighboring states with billboards advertising the best odds, the biggest payouts and the lowest minimums in the four-state area. Not only would this result in the holes-in-the-wall fading into irrelevance, but it would bring new money into Ohio.
Alan MacFarland
Tallmadge
Forgotten about the Newtown tragedy
Several recent letters have said there is no right to keep and bear arms or that the right belongs only to militias. That is not correct.
In the Second Amendment, the phrase “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” has the dominant meaning.
More important, the Supreme Court confirmed that the Second Amendment applies to the individual right to bear arms.
It seems that many have forgotten the facts behind the tragedy of Newtown. The mother of the shooter legally bought the guns that she had in her house, and she obeyed all the firearms laws of her state.
Her weapons were not bought at gun shows, flea markets or from friends she knew.
Her weapons were registered as required by the laws of her state, which has some of the strictest gun control legislation in the nation. None of that did any good. Her son, who had mental health issues, took her guns, murdered her and then went on to kill the children he thought his mother loved more than she loved him.
She knew he had mental issues for years. He lived in the basement, where he blocked out the windows, had violent pictures on the wall and played violent computer and video games for entertainment. He was a loner at school and had few friends.
The writing was on the wall. If you want to reduce gun violence, keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill and criminals and increase penalties for gun-related offenses.
The criminals who have illegal guns and use them should be punished, not law-abiding citizens who do not abuse that right.
John F. Kline Jr.
Akron
One true way
I keep hearing and reading about pictures of Jesus, displays of the Ten Commandments and other biblical issues. I was born in America, and I am proud of it.
I was taught and raised in a Christian home, and I believe that what is right and was right can never be changed or altered to suit me. It has to be God’s way or no way.
I think what we are doing in the name of freedom of religion is breaking down the fibers and morals of our society. There is only one true God, and we need to return to him.
Acts 4:12 reads, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
Charles Cutright
Rittman
Demand the removal of assault weapons
The people run this government, and those in Washington, D.C., who forget that do so at their peril.
I am one of those who are sick and tired of committees, panels and commissions on assault rifles.
The effect of allowing the sale of these weapons rests squarely with Congress; however, the people allowed this to happen.
We sit in our front rooms and watch on TV the massacres of our children happening over and over, and we do nothing to stop it.
Now is our chance to get off our duffs and contact representatives and senators to demand these weapons be removed from society. If it looks like an assault rifle and shoots like an assault rifle, it is an assault rifle.
Have we gone mad? Anyone using an assault rifle in the commission of a crime should receive a mandatory 20-year sentence, with no parole.
The shootings with these weapons have got to stop.
Leon T. Doutrich
Wadsworth
