Sunday, July 09, 2006

As reported by the Washington Post: "Opponents of a campaign to bring video
lottery terminals to the District said yesterday that the introduction of
large-scale gambling to Anacostia would stunt economic growth and increase
crime in an area that has struggled for decades to improve its image. "As
cars whizzed by and bulldozers worked in the background, politicians wearing
suits, ministers carrying bullhorns and teenagers worrying about the future
held a rally in the historic neighborhood to deliver the same message:
Nothing good could come from more gambling. ".The rally was meant to disrupt
a political action committee's petition drive to obtain more than the 19,000
signatures required to put an initiative on the November ballot. If
approved, the Video Lottery Terminal Gambling Initiative of 2006 would allow
its backers to put an undisclosed number of slot machines near Martin Luther
King Jr. Avenue and Good Hope Road SE. The initiative would allow similar
sites to be established across the city. "In 2004, an effort by entrepreneur
Shawn Scott to bring up to 3,500 video lottery terminals to Northeast
Washington was upended by widespread election law violations that included
forged and improperly collected signatures."