Busy, Busy, Busy

Working over 60 hours last week, plus all the other things in my life, not a lot of time to blog. A few thoughts.

Leo's Place/ Gambling

The main item making the local news this week was the raiding of a couple of Internet Cafe's in Fall River and Fairhaven. Both Internet Cafe's, called Leo's Place were owned by Leo Pelletier, a long time Fall River City Councilor.

An Internet Cafe is a place where someone can buy time on a computer on Internet in order to play sweepstakes games. Pelletier denies that the state's gambling laws were violated. Some local authorities seems to disagree. After complaints and an outgoing investigation by the state's Attorney General's office, state and local police raided both Internet Cafe's. Equipment was taken, making forcing Pelletier to close down his Internet Cafe's for the foreseeable future.

I'm not a lawyer. I don't know if Leo's Place violated the state's gambling laws. What went on in there sounded a lot like gambling. If there was gambling going on there, I don't care and I really don't think that state should get involved. Pelletier was operating a private enterprise and he had his fair share of paying customers.

Which brings us to the larger issue, gambling and casinos. Delaware has a casino and Massachusetts can't seem to get a casino bill passed. I find it rather interesting that state politicians oppose casino gambling, but have nothing against the lottery. Go to any local resturant and bar that has Keno and you see a lot of people (on occasion myself included) play the Keno ran by the Massachusetts State Lottery. More money that goes to the state. But they oppose private enterprise opening up gambling ventures. Things that make you go hmmmm. In the meantime, A lot of money is being spent in Connecticut that could be spent in Massachusetts.

In Other News

Later on today, I'll be running the Thomas Guinta 5K Road Race. It's ran in the memory of a Fall River police officer who dies in the line of duty. It's a well ran race, good course and a great post race meal and party.

In addition, I decided to enter a short story writing contest put on by The Writer magazine. After an endless amount of encouragement from family and friends, I decided to do submit some of my writing. The contest will be step one. I already got an idea on what I'll be submitting as a short story. Off I go.