I was intrigued to see in last week’s Current an agricultural emphasis used to promote slot machines in our town. I grew up in an agricultural setting – a small farming community. My first “real job” was loading hay bales on a wagon and then into the hay mow. Each year I looked forward to the county fair held in our community. I’d walk through the barns and look at the award-winning crops and animals. On the farm and at the fair, I learned life lessons.

One life lesson I learned was from a midway game at the fair. The game offered some impressive and expensive prizes to entice me to participate. All I had to do was toss rings over clothespins until the numbers reached a total; then I’d get the prize. I was even invited to try it for free and then begin with the points I already had won. It seemed like a sure thing. Of course, the sure thing was for the carnival. Too late I realized not everything was as it appeared on the surface. There was some sleight-of-hand action going on. The big prize kept me from seeing the “con” until it was too late. While I lost some money, I learned a lesson I’ve never forgotten: not everything is as it appears.

Promoting slots for the betterment of the agricultural community is a sleight-of-hand. But instead of tossing rings at pins, it’s pushing buttons to stop spinning wheels. And Penn National is the carnival coming to town.

Slot machines do not promote a strong work ethic or produce goods. They offer money without labor, earnings without effort. Instead of working hard and waiting for a harvest, slots offer quick riches with no work. That is not the work ethic I was taught on the farm, and that is not the work ethic I’ve seen in Scarborough. On the farm, we had to battle pests and blight that would steal the crops, yet slots are a parasitic industry. Rather than producing a product, they latch onto other earnings gained by hard work.

We need to keep an eye on the other hand so we don’t find that the new Scarborough Main Street was just another carnival midway. We’ll get conned by Penn National if we aren’t watching both hands. And we won’t like the prizes they’ll award at this Scarborough Fair.

Ken Endean

Scarborough