|
The U.S. has between
5 and 10 Million
problem gamblers.
"Gambling is a hidden addiction,"
Jeff Deverensky, McGill Univ.
"1 out of every 5 compulsive
gamblers attempts suicide."
Robert Custer, When Luck Runs Out.
"Gaming doesn't come cheap. It brings Crime...Prostitution...things
that areas didn't have before...a big cost to pay.
Jurisdictions...that have accepted it, given their choice...would've
turned it down."
Donald Trump, CBC Venture, l993.
"A Casino can actually result in
a net loss of jobs for the region. Locals spend their money at
the casino instead of restaurants, concerts and other businesses.
Some even gamble away money they should spend on food, clothing and
housing."
Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo, NYS
Gambling "isn't economic development and it isn't an acceptable
funding source. What it is, is a life-shattering addiction for
millions. It's being fueled by a State that seems addicted to the
promise of easy revenues."
Sen. Frank Padavan, R-Quns.
"750,000 New Yorkers - have
experienced serious to severe gambling problems,"
Dir. NYS Council on Problem Gambling, James Maney.
"Gambling creates no output but absorbs time and resources. (It)
subtracts from the national income. Beyond the initial boost, the
Social Costs overwhelm the benefit."
Dr. Paul Samuelson, Nobel Prize winner.
"The State should not be in the
business of promoting addictive behavior."
Dennis Proust, spokesman, NYS Catholic Conference, 2/04.
"Gambling is a financial vampire, a time bomb in a pretty package."
Rex Rogers,Seducing America, Is Gambling a good Bet?
"The So. Carolina video gambling
industry was banned by the Courts in 2000.
That industry sucked $3 to 4 Billion out of people's pockets every
year,
Money that could've been spent in grocery stores, or on wives and
children."
Rep. John Altman, III, R-Charleston.
"...between 10 and 15% of Seniors are problem gamblers."
Chris Armentero, Dir. Problem Gambling Services, Middleton, Conn.
"The costs of problem and
pathological gambling equal the cost
of the lost output of an additional recession in the economy every 4
years."
Dr. Earl L.Grinols, Gambling in America: Costs & Benefits , Camb.
Uni. Pr.
GAMBLING - America's Latest Addiction, tells the story
of a man led completely astray by the demons of gambling, how he
gambled away 3 Million dollars, a man who had never had any
problems in his life previously. This book tells the personal story
of a man, happily married, successful in his career, who lost his
fortune and his inheritance gambling.
After allowing the story to illustrate what the addiction of
gambling can do, the book goes on explore gambling from an the
viewpoints of Economics, Addiction, Social Values and Social
Costs, including Suicide, Religion, and Government involvement.
Gambling, of the magnitude with which its being done these days, is
a new, 20th century phenomenon. It's an Addiction that we just
uncovered and now encourage its spread. In fact, its government
addicted by the revenue from gambling that is fueling gambling's
recent expansion.
Yet the Revenue, the money, is a small part of gambling's
overall picture. Gambling comes in hand with the whole panoply of
social ills including inciting significant increases in divorce,
bankruptcy, embezzlement, suicide, crime, etc. These social ills are
glossed over and ignored by the gambling entrepreneurs but it's a
very real and virulent epidemic that being encouraged by government
and private industry, 'private industry gone amok'.
If Gambling is a poor choice for individuals, it's an even worse
choice for Communities. Look at Atlantic City, Las Vegas. Is this
what you want your communities to look like. People in poorly paid
jobs, dealers, waiters, house cleaners, neon lights, prostitution -
materialism developed to a high degree.
People's gambling losses, money such as Social Security
checks, rent payments, family savings, student tuition, fund the
already wealthy, who often send it far away, out of the local
communities, sometimes even out of the country. Gambling magnet,
Solomon Kerzner, sends his many millions from the lucrative
Connecticut Indian casinos back to his home in South Africa. Money
flies out of communities, never to return from gambling. It's a
'black hole' that takes community resources and gives back nothing
in return.
Gambling is a poor choice for individuals, a misguided and
financially unsound idea for communities, and a reckless,
materialistic and unproductive course for a country.
Read this book and see the studies and research that have been done
by experts in the field who detail how gambling affects and
influences the economic system of the society and the community and
the society. This book discusses gambling as an addiction, its
clinical make-up, how it affects individuals and concludes that
casinos play a big role in the addicting of people.
This book will tell you all you ever wanted and or needed to know
about gambling. It will show you the uncountable stories of
tragedies, created and incited, by this addiction.
When you finish, you also will be an expert of gambling and an
advocate for the what we, as a society, should begin doing - Closing
down the gambling halls !
|
