Opposition To Gambling
On Tuesday, October 26, 2004, one week before the 2004 General Election, Latham addressed the subject of State Question 712, a referendum on the expansion of tribal gaming and installation of gambling machines at three local racetracks. Speaking to attendees of the Tulsa Press Club’s “Two Views” luncheon, Latham said:
- "It grieves my heart to think we would do anything to undermine the effectiveness of the average home or the average person in our state...We don’t need gambling to help Oklahoma. What we do need is an empathetic heart toward small business. Through them, we’ll gain a true economic base for our state."
“The petition would be to allow the state’s people to vote on whether or not they want this kind of casino gambling in the state,” he said. “.... We’re hoping that we can gather not only 51,000 names but also many more who will see this as the moral issue that it is.”
Latham also said the social costs of gaming outweigh its benefits, and he opposed efforts to establish a state lottery.
State voters eventually approved both expanded Indian gaming and a lottery.
Read more about this topic: Lonnie Latham
Famous quotes containing the words opposition to, opposition and/or gambling:
“A man with your experience in affairs must have seen cause to appreciate the futility of opposition to the moral sentiment. However feeble the sufferer and however great the oppressor, it is in the nature of things that the blow should recoil upon the aggressor. For God is in the sentiment, and it cannot be withstood.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“My opposition [to interviews] lies in the fact that offhand answers have little value or grace of expression, and that such oral give and take helps to perpetuate the decline of the English language.”
—James Thurber (1894–1961)
“At the gambling table, there are no fathers and sons.”
—Chinese proverb.