Opinion

Video gaming bad for West Chicago

Posted March 15, 2018 1:00 am

On March 20, West Chicago will have an opportunity to vote on a referendum allowing video gaming (gambling) in our city.

Yet on July 13, 2017, the city of West Chicago said, "The City of West Chicago is a culturally diverse, family-oriented community with an unflagging commitment to providing excellent services and programs."

I am proud to have been a part of this "family-oriented community" for the past 42 years, proud to have raised my family in a "culturally diverse" safe neighborhood. And I am proud to be a part of a community that stands by "an unflagging commitment to providing excellent services and programs."

I strongly believe that video gaming should not be a part of our "family-oriented community." I am directly opposed to our city approving video gaming in any form. Once video gaming is allowed to begin, it will continually encroach our "family-oriented community."

Under the innocent disguise of "video gaming," it is simply gambling. Video gaming feeds isolation. It is not family friendly; it is not socially interactive.

How can West Chicago encourage video gaming while at the same time claiming to be a healthy, "get moving" city that has so strongly been exemplified over the past years? Don't we want to encourage "healthy" interactive socialization and "excellent" recreational activities that exercise both the mind and body of our "family-oriented community?"

Al Hallett

West Chicago

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