Gamblers stereotyped

Jim Peters (“Another casino is crazy,” May 16) employed numerous stereotypes – and no evidence whatsoever – in his argument against a new local casino.

He said, “These establishments pry money from people who can ill afford losing money.” Where did he get such a notion? Not from scientific evidence. Probably from his other notion, namely, that “gambling is an addiction.” Excuse me, but tens of millions of Americans gamble regularly, and few of them meet the clinical criteria for addiction.

Of course, gambling can be abused, and pathetic characters can always be found if you look for them. But try looking instead at the millions of Social Security recipients who gamble and are not poor because of it. They are far more common.

Most of all, try looking at scientific fact and quit pontificating based on prejudices. And stop pretending that the local casinos are “close” to each other.

Lee Freese

Pullman