Letters to the Editor: State is addicted to gambling

To the editor:

Regarding your editorial lamenting the New Hampshire Legislature’s “power grab” of the jurisdiction over charity-run games of Texas Hold ‘Em and the like (“The New Hampshire Tax ’Em tournament, Aug. 4-17 NHBR), it would be really refreshing to see some publication speak to the real issue: the proliferation and marketing of gambling as a means to fund everything, from our schools to our chartable endeavors.

How sad is it that while the vast majority of such tax avoidance (the state of New Hampshire) and fund-raising (public charities) schemes are needed to help households and communities with limited means, the gambling is done primarily by folks of limited means.

What really ought to happen is that the Legislature should prohibit such funding mechanisms, but we all know that will never happen: They and the supporters of this form of fund-raising are as addicted to it as the most pathetic inner-city crackhead. Another great legacy to pass on to our future leaders.

I’ll keep waiting for New Hampshire Business Review’s editorial advocating a taxation system structured on people’s ability to pay … but I won’t be holding my breath.

David H. Wood
Bethlehem