Betting on an education

That is a great way to legitimize gambling habits. Really, all those goodie-goodies that protested the California lottery got what they wanted. The lottery has been putting money into education every year and huge jackpots beckon millions of gamblers to enormous payouts.

Cal State Long Beach is receiving the fourth largest allocation in the system, some $760,000 for strategic workforce programs. That means high impact programs such as nursing, computer science and engineering, thus permitting more people to graduate and fill needed job openings.

It is great that such a loathsome vice as gambling can bring a sliver of goodness to the world? What if all the money spent in Las Vegas was contributed to education and other human services, would it not make the world a better place?    That is probably why the Indian gaming propositions passed overwhelmingly in the past few years.

Not all Indian tribes have gaming on their reservations, but they do share a portion of the profits with non-gaming tribes. The excess money goes to building a basic infrastructure for the reservation, including roads, schools and hospitals.

Gaming is a great way to generate extra money for education, health care and social programs. Like most vices, gambling has been around since the beginning of time. And like drugs, prostitution and alcohol consumption, gambling will never really go away. It's funny how these things are all inter-related and we can't get rid of them. At least we can regulate gambling and generate money for more worth while ventures.

In the mean time, go grab some quick picks and make a donation to the future of America. What could be better? Gambling is part of the American dream, to get rich quick and easy.