Gambling for Scholarships

When I went to school in West Virginia, I received the Promise Scholarship. This scholarship let anyone with a certain high school GPA and ACT or SAT test score, go to any public college in West Virginia without having to pay for their tuition. They would give you the average amount of money spent for a public tuition if you went to a private in-state college. I have since lost the scholarship since I transfered to an Ohio school, but that's ok.

This was first turned down by the state before it passed the second time it was voted on by the state representatives in Charleston. The reason it was turned down the first time is because part of the bill was allowing casinos to be built in the state, such as at the Greenbrier, and part of the money from those casinos and the state lottery would go towards the scholarship. Casinos are actually illegal in West Virginia. Many of the county representatives voted against it because it "promoted gambling." Now the money comes from the tax payers in West Virginia. With the lottery already going on for years, slot machines at race tracks such as at Wheeling and Charleston, and the fact that many bars have machines in their business that pay out money (if you have ever been in JP Henry's, you know what I'm talking about), what would be the difference if businesses in the state could build a casino and some of the money could go towards students getting an eduacation? People are already going to gamble if they want to, no matter what, so lets at least make it so that someone benefits from it other than the casino owners.