Say No to Casinos, the educational campaign devoted to distributing results of scholarly research on the issue of casino gambling in Kentucky, today calls on Governor Steve Beshear and House Speaker Jody Richards to drop their ill-fated proposal to allow casinos in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The campaign issues its comments in response to statements by both the Governor and the House Speaker that indicated they would try and resurrect the dying casino-horse legislation.
The humane thing to do would be to put this mortally wounded “casino-horse” out of its misery, and save the rest of us any more misery. The great tragedy of this issue is what it’s already cost our Commonwealth in terms of lost time, energy and money this legislative session that could have been devoted to moving our state forward, instead of trying to engage us in a race to the bottom via casinos.
Say No to Casinos went on to advise the Governor and the House Speaker to “cut their losses,” and try to save any face they can. When you keep doing the same thing over and over, and expect different results, people will and should start to question the quality of your leadership. It’s almost like they’re behaving like compulsive gamblers, who just can’t stop losing. We suspect that House members will tell the Governor and the Speaker that they have no interest in getting on a losers’ bandwagon.
Speaker Richards told the Lexington Herald-Leader and the Associated Press reported that he and the Governor would begin one final push to gain enough support to resurrect the failed legislation and to pass a constitutional amendment to allow casinos. This campaign advises the Speaker that House members should be focused on another resurrection.
This is Holy Week for a number of Kentuckians. We would hope that House members and the Governor would turn their attention toward the Resurrection that offers them hope, rather than one that offers us only despair, corruption, and loss.
