Bet you'll love the wings

I just don’t understand. Now I know that I am not that smart. I am aware that my intellectual acumen resembles that of a four slice toaster. If I didn’t know this I get it pointed out to me. Usually daily. At home the question is often posed, “How can you be so stupid?” On the highways of NEPA I often hear “Get out of the way, you idiot!” So I must come to the conclusion that I am as dumb as a box of rocks. So perhaps some kind soul can explain to me this gambling deal to me. I walk into the grocery store and there is a machine twice the size of my refrigerator dispensing scratch off lottery tickets by the thousands. Some of them cost $20. Over at the pharmacy you can get your prescription filled and buy lottery tickets. Go down the street and the church is running a bingo game. Head “up the line” as they say and you can step into the casino filled with “one armed bandits” which vacuum money from your wallet or purse faster that you can say “Indian tribe.” Google “Gamble” and the return is: Results 1 - 10 of about 8,770,000 for on line gambling. (0.30 seconds). So it’s pretty clear that even though the bible tells us the wages of sin is death that there is plenty of availability to throw our dough down the drain. It would also appear to be legal. So why is it that a local bar and restaurant owner will lose his and his children’s livelihood because of gambling? This entrepreneur evidently set up a web site (one of 8,770,00 it would seem) that allowed bettors to place wagers of sin on sporting events. Then the losers or winners would go to his joint, have a few drinks, eat a nice dinner (I am told the chicken wings are to die for) and pay off or get paid off. This 71 year old man not only faces jail after being caught in a sting by the FBI but the cheerful Wilkes-Barre U.S Attorney’s office wants his Sports Bar. Now I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. I know that it’s the money, honey. The Sports Bar guy wasn’t playing nice and sharing the dough. But if that’s the case why incarcerate him and take the bar? Why not make him write a check? Because all I know is that if and when the U.S. Attorney’s office gets possession of the Sports Bar, what was once a thriving, taxpaying business will sink faster than the Titanic. Because who wants to eat wings made by the government? I could be wrong.