LETTER: Crazy to gamble

In the March 17 story “Crosstown Craze is not too far away,” we find out that “Students can test their luck on rolling the dice in a casino...”

The place is The Summit in Kalispell, which promotes health, and the event is the post-graduation party for Kalispell high school seniors.

As a former high school teacher, and as one who worked with several other concerned citizens for nine straight months through Kalispell City Planning Board and City Council meetings to try to stop the Town Pump casino project on West Reserve Drive, and then successfully imposed restrictions on future casino development in Kalispell, I don’t see casino gambling as a healthy, innocuous activity for high school students.

Consider this: In “How the Brain Gets Addicted to Gambling,” it is explained that “Addictive drugs and gambling rewire neural circuits in similar ways.” (www.scientificamerican.com, 11-1-13). The Institute for American Values’ 2013 report titled “Why Casinos Matter” estimated in 2013 that “three-quarters of a million young people ages 14 to 21 are already problem gamblers.”

I propose substituting a healthy game such as hula hoop or cribbage during quiet time at Crosstown Craze. It looked like young kids were having fun at the 23rd Annual Retired and Senior Volunteer Program All School Cribbage Tournament at the Gateway Community Center (Daily Inter Lake, March 17). Maybe some of the same senior citizens would be willing to run the game — a great elder influence on graduating seniors, too.

Thank you for your efforts to arrange a safe, fun, and healthy post-graduation party for our graduates, Mmes. DeVries and Van Allen. If you will make one activity change, it will be perfect!

—Jenny La Sorte, Kalispell