Cyber Parlors Springing Up Like Weeds in Brunswick County

Photo By Paul Stephen

Come on folks! Let's call a duck for what it is!

These lowlife gaming parlors are invading our communities under the guise of some simple minded sweepstakes game. By playing with words and definitions these hucksters are slipping through the cracks of local laws with little or no regulation. In fact, in knee-jerk fashion, many localities are attempting to control these gaming parlors through zoning regulation until further legislation can be passed to legally control these new menace to our society.

If you remember back to the nineties Myrtle Beach faced a similar problem of the quick-buck vermin opening gambling parlors under similar word playing games. If I recall the operators of theses parlors insisted their games were games of luck and not skill. This somehow eased through the laws of Myrtle Beach at the time. Those parlors lasted no more than a year or two before the laws were tightened up and the shady operators packed there stuff and moved on to the next get-rich scheme. Myrtle Beach said "NO" to these undesirable establishments and in time so will Brunswick County.

Don't get me wrong. I am all in favor of legalized gambling, but let's do it legitimately, instead of some marginal business on the outskirts of society. Let's make Myrtle Beach the Las Vegas of the East. Myrtle Beach all ready has the shows, the restaurants, the golf, the beach, the lodging, the housing and the infrastructure to support legalized gaming. Add gambling to this already impressive resume and we will have quite a nice playground right in our own backyard.

But let's do it right. Let's not play word games and skate around the law. This will only attract low-end operators and a low-end clientele, something I do not want in my backyard!