CLICK TO HEAR SEN. MCBROOM’S COMMENTS ON GAMBLING LEGISLATION
The Michigan legislature last week passed legislation that expands gaming in the state, allowing for casinos to offer games on-line and allowing for betting on sports.
Upper Peninsula State Senator Ed McBroom was one of only three senators to vote “no” on the legislation that passed. He is opposed to gambling in general.
“Both the state and that business of the mass extraction of the maximum legal amount of money from a person that they can,” McBroom (R-Norway) told RRN News. “And I think that’s immoral. I think that it’s bad for society. It degrades people, especially the most vulnerable within our society.”
McBroom says that he doesn’t believe the state should be endorsing gambling and profiting from it. He is especially concerned about sports betting.
“To risk the purity of the sport, with the corrupting influence of gambling, and it’s happened before, is troubling,” McBroom said. “It gets ramped up and ramped up, because people look at it and say, ‘yeah, they’re doing it anyway, the state might as well get some money off of it, you know, we could use the tax dollars for this or that’. It gets bigger and bigger, and it all comes crashing down in the corruption.”
Once the governor signs the legislation, Michigan will be the 20th state to legalize sports and internet gambling. Michigan will also be the fifth state to allow casino-style games to be played online.
“It passed anyway, and hopefully it works out for people, and I’m proven wrong.” McBroom said. “It (gambling) exists, we’ve managed it, it is a part of our community, and the casino here has been a great partner in many things going on in our community, and I applaud them for giving back. But I just, to my conscious, cannot vote for an expansion beyond what we already heave, in particular, in the sports gambling side of things.”
Former governor Rick Snyder had vetoed similar legislation last year.
