I’m a business owner in Norway and have been editor of the Oxford Hills Magazine for six years. I’ve spent countless hours talking with local people about the “embarrassment of riches” the Oxford Hills has to offer.

This region has a strong tradition of ingenuity and community self-reliance that is alive and well, along with ample resources to develop a robust, sustainable local economy.

To make this a reality, it will take entrepreneurs and investors with insight, vision and patience, not grand, get-rich-quick schemes and wild speculation touted as fact.

We are struggling with a broad range of economic, ecological and social problems. The proposed Oxford casino will make them worse.

A casino would extract more wealth from the area than it would contribute. Poverty, addiction, traffic, pollution and crime will increase.

We can do better.

We will prosper by working hard to solve today’s myriad problems, not wasting our money, time and energy on wildly speculative casino schemes and demeaning service jobs.

For every family that benefits from what amounts to simply shuffling money around the economy and skimming obscene profits off the top, more families will suffer. Casinos create no value or wealth, only redistribute it to those who need it the least.

Casino gambling is a loser for all but a few. We must look beyond the millions of dollars worth of relentless hype, take a hard look at the numbers, consider the negative impacts to the region, state and planet, and vote “no” on Question 1.

Scott Vlaun, Otisfield