Dear editor,

With less than two months before the November elections, the stakes seem higher with each passing day. The governor’s race is going to draw a lot of attention and speculation between now and then. Some of the political prognosticators like Steve Flowers are salivating at the prospects of electing a Democrat. Of course, according to his writings, he seems to favor opening up the state to gambling. Therefore, he would probably favor Ron Sparks regardless to his political affiliation.

Mr. Flowers has been writing and telling everyone who would listen the polls have changed from 10 or 12 years ago when the state lottery was soundly defeated in Alabama. Maybe it has, but maybe it hasn’t either. If put to a vote again, Mr. Flowers could be in for a big surprise. So far there has been no organized effort to educate the general public on the negatives of the gambling issue

I was encouraged to read Mr. Hulsey’s recent letter to the editor in The Selma Times-Journal. He is a local businessman and realizes that gambling will hurt local merchants by pulling dollars out of the local economy. A very astute observation and one I have eluded to in previous columns on the subject.

To borrow a phrase from 1992 Presidential candidate H. Ross Perot on describing that passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) would create a “giant sucking sound” with jobs leaving America.” In the case of legalized gambling in the state, the “giant sucking sound” would be dollars otherwise spent on goods and services locally would be going in the pockets of gambling kingpins and politicians.

I know the argument that gambling will create some jobs. Granted, but does that offset the damage to small businesses that may have to lay off workers or close up shop completely due to dollars flowing into gambling that might otherwise be coming to them? Small businesses employ people too, as a matter of fact, they employ most people in our area. What about the displacement of these workers? Small businesses produce a good or service for consumption and in the process gives back jobs, license fees and taxes to the community. What goods or services does gambling produce?

The Alabama Legislature spent an inordinate amount of time last session on gambling. There is no reason to believe this next session will be any different.

James G. Smith

Selma