Odds of Addiction Grows With More Casinos
Here's and interesting story from the Tulsa World newspaper documenting how the number of problem gamblers grows with the number of casinos. Rebecca is a mother of three and a practicing licensed professional counselor.
She also is one of a growing number of Tulsans whose lives have been disrupted by an uncontrollable compulsion to gamble.
Until five years ago, Rebecca had never gambled and had no interest in it.
In June 2004, after a series of personal crises that included the loss of a job and a grandparent, she began to go to the Cherokee Casino to play gaming machines on her lunch hour.
"It seemed harmless enough," she said, "a time to unwind and escape."
Within a month, she found herself gambling away money that she needed for rent.
"It really got ahold of me hard and fast," she said. "I call it a roller coaster to hell."
Over a 10-day period in August of that year, she wrote 10 checks for amounts from $100 to $2,500.
"I went off the deep end," she said. "It was completely irrational. I told myself, 'I'll win the money to cover the checks.' "
But she didn't, and she found herself borrowing money, pawning her goods and in court paying fines for writing bad checks.
Rebecca eventually went to Gamblers Anonymous and got her life back on track.
Other problem gamblers have not. Some are in prison for embezzlement, some have committed suicide and others have lost everything.
A form of Las Vegas-style (Class III) Indian gaming was legalized in Oklahoma five years ago. Before that, tribes offered Class II gaming. The state now has more than 100 casinos. Three of the largest are in the Tulsa area. Only California has higher Indian gaming revenues than Oklahoma.
And as the number of casinos has increased, so has the number of problem gamblers.
Click here to read the full Tulsa World article.
0 Comments posted by: Site Administrator on February 3rd, 2010