Dishonest Indignation

Last night the local news had a report about a gambling operation being raided and shut down by the State in Orlando yesterday. The reporters, the law enforcement officials, the state officials, and pretty much everyone else was indignant about how this place was operating against Florida's anti-gambling laws, and that they were ripping people off, because so many people played and lost money, while so few people won anything at all.

A few things about this story bothered me, though it seemed to all be lost on the news reporters and such. First, they talked about the people who ran the operation as if they were armed robbers, forcibly stealing money from unsuspecting innocent people. While I certainly don't approve of what they were doing, and it could almost certainly be classified as stealing, the so called victims were hardly innocent bystanders. These people went to this establishment looking for some easy money, and thinking that they were the ones that would get lucky and strike it rich, knowing full well that in all likelihood, they would leave with less than they came in with. In fact, it looked like most of the people who went there were regulars. Now, I'm not defending the operation in any way, they were preying on the desperate, but let's face it, they did not take the money at the point of a gun, the people handed it over to them willingly.

The other thing that really bothered me was the utter dishonesty on the part of the reporters and the State officials. They were all claiming, be it implicitly or explicitly, to be outraged and disgusted that such an operation is going on in Florida. They were just indignant that there was a gambling operation designed to take advantage of desperate, low income people, where those people would be nearly certain to lose their money and end up with nothing to show for it, or, at best, win back far less than they would lose over the long haul. But maybe I'm being too harsh, maybe they really are outraged, maybe they've never heard of the Florida Lottery!

That's right, the Lottery, in any state, but today I'm talking about Florida, is based on the same principles as the operation that was shut down by the State yesterday. They prey on desperate and low income people, who stand a very low chance of winning anything, and if they do, most of them lose far more over the course of their lives than they will ever win (let's face it, if the Lottery were a good way to make money, rich people would play it too, and they don't). The state makes huge profits off of the Lottery, supposedly for Education, but don't worry, sticky fingered politicians find ways around that (yes even here in Florida, it's not just a New York problem). And that is the real source of the outrage. You see, the Government officials and the reporters and all of them aren't upset because this is going on in Florida, they are upset because somebody was encroaching on their turf. Like a mob boss who is angry when another mob tries to operate in his territory, he's not angry that there crime there, he's angry because he's not getting his cut. It's the same with the State.

Wait, what? Did he just call the State a bunch of Mafia thugs?!? Yes, I basically did. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not that I want places like this operating all over the place, it's just the horrendous display of dishonesty I saw in this news report. Let's be honest about it, the State doesn't want this going on unless they are getting their cut, and that's the truth.