To the editor:

This letter is in response to Robert Hinton’s letter of Dec. 21 concerning expansion of the gambling debate.

I, for one, am tired of my taxes escalating every year. Half of my taxes go to fund schools and education and I don’t even have children. But I’m not complaining about this funding. I just believe we could explore other avenues for revenue, and the obvious is taxes that could be collected from the gaming industry.

I don’t understand why Hinton says it would take years to generate dollars for our schools. From what I read, the gaming industry would give a couple thousand dollars per slot machine and there are currently dog and horse tracks that could install the slot machines immediately!

This, people, is not rocket science. There are gamblers who are going to gamble regardless. They will either go to the Indian casinos, which pay no taxes to the state of Kansas, or worse, they will go to the riverboats in Kansas City, Mo., and give away Kansas dollars to the state of Missouri. We would probably be shocked to see how much potential revenue for this state crosses the border into Missouri.

I realize the obvious down side for potential for gambling addiction, but like I said before, gamblers will find a way to gamble.

Let’s be logical and keep potential tax dollars in Kansas!

Craig Tucker,

Lawrence