On Monday, March 29, St. Clair Circuit Court Judge Charles Robinson ruled that electronic bingo was legal in St. Clair County.

I have a great deal of respect for Judge Robinson, and have found him at times to be the soul of wisdom.

However, I do believe that electronic bingo, like its paper sister, is gambling, and therefore is illegal in the State of Alabama.

We have conducted many straw polls of the people in St. Clair County and have found—at least anecdotally—that most of our citizens are in favor of gambling. Many have added the caveat, “But don’t let my preacher know.”

Personally, I believe that gambling is unethical. My belief is based on the fact that gambling is a zero-sum game for money.

A zero-sum game is simply defined as a situation or interaction in which one participant’s gains result only from another’s equivalent losses.

In game theory and economic theory, zero-sum describes a situation in which a participant’s gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other.

A game of Bingo or Blackjack is a zero-sum game. When one bets on these games, one’s winnings are the sum total of everyone else’s losses.

A simple definition of gambling is an activity characterized by a balance between winning and losing; that is governed by a mixture of skill and chance. I would add for money or profit.

That is where I believe the ethical line is drawn.

Some would point out that at the very core of most games there are winners and there are losers, this is true. However, we do not bet money on all games.

Competitions such as chess, checkers, little league ball, track or tennis are very different than slot machines or other games of chance.

Of course, in a world that plays to soften the meaning of words, gambling is most often referred to as gaming. Gaming is gambling and a pig is still a pig even in Sunday clothes.

There are those who believe games of chance can be enjoyable as a form of entertainment, and I intellectually understand the concept.

As I have often said, I can argue that an American citizen has a right to squander their money, get drunk or kill themselves in a multitude of ways without me interfering.

So from that stand point, if the government says it is legal, I can live with the consequences.

Many times people say they want gambling or at least a lottery because it will improve education and saved the cash strapped education funds. This myth has been spread for over 40 years and it has been shown time and again that lottery or gambling revenue accounted for less than 1 percent to 5 percent of the total revenue for K-12 education.

In reality, most of the profits of a lottery go to sustaining the games themselves.

While the money from a lottery is not chump change, do not be deceived that education is the real winner.

This story will continue on, now, to the Supreme Court of Alabama and perhaps the end of a very long a divisive era.

Gambling and its legality have set brother against brother and friend against friend and I am afraid this will be a continuous divide.

Judge Robinson has shown himself a man of principle over the many years. He is not obsequious or fawning but courageous in his adjudication. However, on this one point, I hope we can agree to disagree.