So what is all the fuss about

I've always been a bit mystified about the strong emotions that gambling elicits from people. People's response to it varies widely. Some see nothing wrong with it at all and actively participate in gaming ventures. Some believe others should be able to gamble if they choose to, even though they don't do it themselves. And then there are those who believe that gambling is an evil and terrible thing to do and don't think anyone should be able to gamble on anything ever.

It's the third group I want to address in this column because that perspective seems so foreign to me. We gamble in our lives literally every day. It may not be organized gambling or for-profit gambling but it's gambling just the same. We gamble with our lives, with our safety and the safety of others every time we get in a car, a train, a plane, or any other mode of transportation. Anyone who trades in the stock market or the commodities market is gambling that their buys will make them money, even though they know they could lose money just as easy. Opening your own business is a gamble; a significant percentage of individual or family start-up businesses fail in the first year for a variety of reasons. We gamble with our heart every time we enter into a love relationship. We gamble that our friends will remain our friends instead of becoming our enemies. We gamble that the education we pursue will help us achieve a better standard of living. We gamble that the religion or faith we hold is the right belief system and not the wrong one. There are a host of other examples as well but the one commonality they all share is that there are no guarantees implicit in any of them. Things can turn out good or things can turn out bad and, for the most part, the result is out of our hands.

We happen to live in a state that has some of the most peculiar gambling laws in existence. It's perfectly legal in Nebraska to buy a Powerball ticket or pickle cards, or play bingo or Keno, or go to the horse races in Grand Island and Lincoln. And, if we participate in any of these activities, we're free to spend as little or as much as we choose to pursue our dream of hitting the big one and becoming financially secure for the rest of our lives. Most people don't, of course, but at least they believe there's a chance. Richard Dreyfuss said in the movies "Let It Ride" that a person ought to place a bet on something every single day because they might be walking around lucky and not even know it.

On the other hand, every time Nebraskans have the opportunity to vote on casino gambling, it is defeated. This perceived difference that somehow some forms of gambling are OK and consequently permitted and other forms aren't and are prohibited has never made much sense to me at all. Gambling is gambling, regardless of the form or shape it takes and one thing I know beyond a shadow of a doubt is that a certain percentage of people will always gamble. They always have and they always will. By legalizing other forms of gambling in Nebraska, we could take some of the proceeds and apply them to education, roads, town and city infrastructures, and aid to people in need. In other words, taxing the proceeds of gambling falls into the only category of taxes that makes any sense because it would only tax the people actually taking part in the activity, the gamblers themselves.

One of the local watering holes in town used to have a harmless little game that any of its customers could play, but they could only play it once a day. It involved a cup with 5 dice in it. The customer got to roll eight times for a dollar and the dollar was put in a jar. If the customer hit a full house, they received a chip for a free drink. If a customer was lucky enough to have all five die come up the same, like 5 sixes or five fives, all the way down to 5 ones, the customer received all the dollars that had been placed in the jar. This particular establishment was recently told by authorities that they were promoting a form of illegal gambling and that they would either have to stop providing the game to its customers immediately or face prosecution.

Football season is once again upon us and people all over the state of Nebraska are gambling illegally on football games, just as they do every year. Those who enjoy this pastime do it through bookies, who set point spreads for games and the customer chooses the game and side they like, wager a certain amount of money and if the team covers, they win, if not they lose. There are bookies all over the state of Nebraska who take this kind of action. One particular operation has statewide coverage with people located in every town of any size to collect the gamblers losings or pay his winnings every single week.

Of course, because betting on athletic events in Nebraska is illegal, it creates tens of thousands of new criminals every August when the football games begin again.

Everyone knows that life is a crap shoot.

But shooting craps is illegal, too.