Lottery winner David Rush was irked Friday to find out local Salvation Army officials rejected his $100,000 donation. The religious charity, popularly known for its bell ringers outside shopping malls during the holidays, preaches against gambling. "The money that Mr. Rush received was via the lottery: We preach against gambling," said spokeswoman Maribeth Shanahan, who spoke on behalf of Cleo Damon, who heads the Collier County chapter and decided not to accept the donation. "To accept it would be to talk out both sides of our mouth." ... Shanahan, the local Salvation Army director of community relations and development, stressed the group could have used the money. This is precisely why the Salvation Army gets my money, including the share that the Red Cross, in its various guises, never will.
Anyone who thinks that lotteries are not gambling have never been in line in a convenience store watching the desperate, pathetic people buying tickets with rolls of coins, or the piles and piles of losing scratch tickets in the parking lots. But it's for the State, so it's not gambling.
And one can be certain that when the directors of the Red Cross get out of their Learjet, they would have fellated the Devil for this donation, regardless of where it came from or how it was won.
Lotteries are "not gambling" in a similar sense to that McDonald's is "not overeating."