June 10, 2011Dear Sir,I am sick and tired of the same old excuses about the lack of funding for our athletes, particularly those athletes who have or are close to qualifying for international competition. It is even more unacceptable now to hear that we may have to go begging to cover the cost of sending one of the largest contingents of Bermudian athletes ever put together to compete in the 2012 Olympic Games to be held in Britain.I think of the millions of dollars of funding given to Bermuda’s cricketers to compete internationally and we all know that was millions down the drain because they failed miserably at the wicket.Here we are now at the eve of the Olympics having to be concerned about funding for or the lack of. This is totally unacceptable when this could have been avoided with the establishment of a National Lottery years ago to aid our athletes.The Olympic Games will begin about a year from now so where will the funding come from to accommodate our Olympic team? I along with many others, play the football pools every week. I am willing to bet that the majority of us who bet on the football pools every week will be the first in line to purchase a lottery ticket that will go toward funding our athletes.It’s time for this Government to get their heads out of the sand to give serious consideration to the establishments of a National Lottery to aid our athletes who compete internationally.FOOTBALL POOLS GAMBLERCity of Hamilto