Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2011 22:58:49 -0400
From: CrYpTiK
Subject: Regarding: Internet Casino right in the Pittsboro Circle
I will attempt to avoid speaking too heavily of the original sender and focus on the subject at hand. Apologies in advance if I veer off course, and feel free to post a response that proves me wrong. I’d rather be wrong and learn something, not FEEL right but actually be wrong and a closed-minded fool.
Your opinion is that the business (which you repeatedly denounce by assigning the negative-context term “casino” though there will certainly not be craps and roulette tables with real currency used to bet on the
game results) “will serve only as a nuisance.” A nuisance of what kind, and to whom? These “sweepstakes” businesses are all over the place; most of them are actually machines inside of gas stations rather than dedicated “sweepstakes parlors,” but the point is that they are in fact already present in Chatham County and the surrounding areas, and some have been present long enough to have reached “serve as a nuisance”
status already.
Unfortunately for your arguments, there seem to be no notable reports in the newspapers, on radio, on television, nor even anecdotally from people that I personally speak with, that indicates that these places are any more of a nuisance than a restaurant or bar. When was the last newspaper article whose headline was something in the vicinity of “CRIME ON THE RISE NEAR INTERNET SWEEPSTAKES SHOPS?”
Furthermore, have you performed some sort of formal, peer-reviewable study on the subject, that could be reproduced? Has anyone? Is there evidence that you can present of the nuisance that you prophesy? I have
yet to see where you mentioned it, so please point it out for the rest of Chatham County, or feel free to highlight a passage and correct my myopia.
“This type of business operates solely to serve the financial gain of the proprieter[sic] and does nothing to benefit the community.”
Congratulations, because the first part of that statement accurately describes the entire point of running a business: to serve the financial gain of the proprietor. Sure, there might be other reasons, but how many
entrepreneurs do you speak to that say “I don’t want to make money by taking the risk of opening a business?” I’m going to venture a guess that part of the reasoning behind this statement is the notion that some people seem to have come up with that says “profits are evil and hurt society and the business owners and managers don’t deserve to make all that money.” Business is about making money, so that part isn’t even in the realm of consideration as a valid point.
“Does nothing to benefit the community” suffers from the same problem as before: a lack of evidence to support the statement being made. Invoke common sense here: if the community doesn’t want it there, they’ll go out of business because the community won’t go there. A for-profit business that serves walk-in customers quickly goes bust if people in the community don’t like it, and thus by extension, choose not to patronize the establishment.
“It…would usher in an increase in crime in the area.” Again, no proof, no evidence, no facts, no studies, no supporting details whatsoever. Critical thinkers do not accept your premise with no supporting evidence. You seem to have an assumption that this particular class of business incites people to commit crimes. However, I point once again to my statement about how I have yet to see where existing businesses in
this service class have been reported to be the hotbeds of criminal activity that you claim. In fact, most of the people I know of that visit such establishments are older individuals who enjoy playing the
game and doing something fun outside of the house. Unless that has suddenly become a crime, or unless you present some evidence other than an implicit omniscience about the subject, I don’t see how anyone can agree with your statements so far.
“I just don’t think this type of business is what downtown Pittsboro needs.” I think that, given how many empty office spaces, retail areas, and entire buildings there are in Pittsboro, the town can use every single business that it can get its hands on! There’s an absolutely beautiful brick office building just outside of the circle on the left as you start heading towards Apex, and it essentially looks abandoned because…guess what…there’s only one space rented! As long as this business doesn’t make itself look tacky and disgusting, why does it matter if they are there or not? Would you prefer that downtown continue to have giant windows with “AVAILABLE FOR LEASE” all over them, backed by the banal appearance of a gutted business space? And if the place is popular, it would draw people into the downtown area, which means that
more incidental business might come to the other shops downtown. Yes, I am implicitly stating that your position is one that disregards others to serve your own unsupported-by-evidence stated opinions. Maybe I would make a good politician, but I digress…
“Feel like saying something about this to somebody you might know?” Yep, and I just did. Over 5,000 of my neighbors. The same sort of moral arguments were thrown around regarding liquor by the drink being voted
upon in Chatham County, and yet somehow I don’t see the mass DUI murders that were predicted. I don’t see this as being any different. You have moral or religious objections that have absolutely no basis in fact, and you want to use the city government to push your opinion onto others.
Until you can prove that this Pittsboro rapture shall come to pass, I see no reason to object to a business which is legal to operate in the State of North Carolina opening its doors, provided that it does not, in fact, cause the nuisance you claim it will.
Like I said, if Pittsboro doesn’t want it, they’ll be forced to close due to lack of revenues, and you’ll get your beautiful, empty retail space back. Let the community decide once it actually sees what the proprietors have in mind. Vote with your dollars. To deny them the ability to open their establishment on the baseless claims you have presented would be unfair. And if you read this whole thing with anger in your heart because I don’t want to “throw the bums out!” then here’s something else you should chew on: if a sweepstakes parlor opens downtown, and they can’t make money because Pittsboro doesn’t want it and therefore no one chooses to visit the parlor, not only will they go away, but future sweepstakes parlor proprietors will also be heavily dissuaded from trying the same game when the entire town will gladly tell them that “yeah, there was one of those here, but they didn’t make any money so they packed up and left town!”
It’s even in your best long-term interests, dear morality police, if you are indeed right about how terrible this business will be, to let them open and subsequently be expunged. Let them play the role of “the example.” You won’t have to deal with the plight twice. The way Pittsboro is going, I don’t think that businesses OPENING is what you need to worry about so much, but that’s just my opinion.
Hey, where do I return this soapbox I’ve been standing upon? I think I wore it out 🙂