Pentagon slot machines funding troops' vacation trips

[babylonsister]

:wtf:

Pentagon slots funding troops' vacation trips
By Roxana Tiron
December 11, 2007

Troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan can relax for a discounted price in Disney World, a luxury resort in Hawaii, or even a fancy lodge in the German Alps.

They can do that thanks to recreation programs funded in part by money service members and their families lost on the military’s own slot machines and bingo games.

While the military argues it is in dire need of the approximately $130 million generated each year from gambling to keep its troops happy and enlisted, critics charge that it is preying on its own and fostering an addiction it does little to prevent or treat.

To Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-Tenn.), the repercussions of raising such revenue from members of the military themselves come at a high cost.

“It is wrong for the U.S. government to use gambling to pay for what we {in Congress} should be supplying for our troops to begin with,” Davis said. “That’s a disgrace and a shame.”

Davis, a Southern Baptist who says he opposes gambling for moral reasons, is poised to introduce a bill that would prohibit the use of gambling devices with the exception of charitable events and state lotteries.

Gambling in the military amounts to a large business, generating revenues of more than $130 million a year — similar to a medium-sized Las Vegas casino. That money gets pumped into recreational programs for the military.

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http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/pentagon-slots-funding-troops-vacation-trips-2007-12-11.html