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Philadelphia has long been debating gambling. The state legislators have pushed hard to bring gambling in and now it is a reality. Sugarhouse Casino just opened this past week. The casino is set to be one of the premiere gambling locations in the area and hopefully will be able to steal gamblers from neighboring states too. Overall the project is expected to bring millions into state coffers and hopefully help to regulate the budget and decrease the deficit. The recession created a huge deficit to deal with for the state—like all other states—and now it has just a short list of options that bring in the millions needed for overcoming the difficulties of its financial state. Gambling is proving to be one of the single viable options to aid in balancing the budget.

There are some detractors though. In fact, Sugarhouse Casino’s opening was met with some opposition. One group stood outside the casino with signs and protested. Mainly they were there because gambling had negatively affected their lives over the years. Some of the signs prominently displayed were “6,200 Bankruptcies”, “6,000 Suicides” and “1,600 Jobs Lost”. The protesters also read statements to the media citing their disappointment with legislators who were quick to push through gambling initiatives for the sake of money. They believe that there are many negative repercussions of gambling that were not addressed by legislators and those problems are going to affect coming generations gambling at Sugarhouse Casino. Their main problem is the prevalence of gambling addictions. If casinos are so readily available, then potential addicts could easily fall into problems—both emotionally and financially. Now that Sugarhouse is open to the public, there may be more people who fall into temptation and have few options for helping themselves. The Casino Free Philadelphia project plans on a continued effort to bring awareness to the cause of addiction to gambling. the group wants to maintain their positions outside of the casino and continue to educate residents of the dangers of gambling addictions. Though the casino will open as scheduled, it still has yet to be seen how much the group can do to help protect visitors to the casino.

Outside of Alabama’s state capitol, bus-loads of protesters were waiting to have their voices heard.  “Let us vote!”, they cried enthusiastically. Over 100 people were packed onto the steps of the state capitol building to take a stand against Governor Riley’s task force on illegal gambling.  The state is currently waiting for the Alabama Supreme Court to rule if they can follow through on a planned raid of Victoryland Casino.  The hang up, however, comes from a push in Montgomery from politicians and others to bring this continuing issue to a statewide vote. Despite protesters calling the Governor and his task force to task, the Governor isn’t backing down. He has been a long-standing opponent of the move and knows full well what a huge task he has before him if he is going to stand strong. Thus far, he is managing to uphold his position and deny casinos.

“About a year ago we determined that there was absolutely no gray area, no ambiguity in the law. The law is crystal clear that you can not do what these casino’s are doing today,” said Governor Riley. Shortly after leaving the capitol, the Governor had to leave to go to Washington, DC, where he and other legislators were to meet with President Barack Obama regarding energy issues. The Governor did take the chance outside the capitol, however, to say that he had a choice to make when the Attorney General and some local officials were unwilling to act and that’s why he created the task force on illegal gambling. Some believe that it is only a matter time before Riley is forced to relent.

The debates are still going on, but one thing that the legislators do know is that by eliminating gambilng, they are turning away the millions in tax-dollar revenue that could potentially help turn the state’s economy around for the good. It will be time before any changes are seen and until them, both parties are left to duke it out over legalizing the games. No one knows where it will end up, but if Riley has his way, he will stand firm on the issue and not allow the casinos to continue running.