In "Gambling bill's sponsor rolls again"(Monitor, March 28) Sen. Lou D'Allesandro says, "We want to protect open space. We'd like to reintroduce horse farms to New Hampshire and we want jobs to be created."

We have always admired D'Allesandro as a political straight-shooter, but this quote goes over the edge.

Senate Bill 255 is not about creating horse farms and protecting open space. This bill is about creating six or seven casinos - one on every border of our state.

Imagine a room with 1,200 video gambling machines and you will envision a casino. For this concept to succeed, these casinos need to become destinations -big facilities with entertainment and nightclubs.

Read the bill. Each machine has a daily revenue goal of about $300. Multiply that by 5,700 video machines across the state: $1.71 million per day is expected and needed to make this work. Read the bill carefully and you will see that the revenue side is clear, but many of the costs - like law enforcement costs - are "unknown."

No doubt this will increase tourism. "Come to New Hampshire and gamble on every border!" Salem, Hinsdale, Seabrook, Belmont and Coos County will all have casinos.

Because of the strict application process, we can be assured there will be no illegal activity connected with these new casinos, as we have recently found in Belmont.

Sorry, Senator, we are not convinced.

Don't we owe more to the families, youth and young adults of this state than we do to the horse industry? We already struggle with drug and alcohol issues. Do we need to give our young people and families one more addiction opportunity?

People can become addicted to all kinds of things, but most of them have a physical consumption limit in one sitting. Gambling does not.

A person can lose a week's paycheck in less than a hour, and it happens every day.

We have a fiscal crisis in New Hampshire. Let's face it with integrity and honest leadership, not with what seems to be a painless solution.

Gambling is a bad deal. You can bet on it!

NANCY TALBOTT & STEVE COLE

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