Gambling - Casinos
- Aug 21, 2006 - 1
“The New York Times reported on the sad case of Aaron W. Walsh, a 33-year-old man who recently lost his wife and his career due to a gambling addiction. The twist on the story was that this addiction was brought on and encouraged by his former employers … the United States Army. Slot machines have existed on some military bases since the 1930’s. The one-armed bandits were temporarily removed from Army and Air Force bases in 1971 because of their ‘corruptive influence.’ The two branches returned to the easy sleazy money of gambling to pay for recreation programs. According to gambling expert Professor John Kindt of the University of Illinois, the five branches of the armed services operate about 8,000 slot machines located in 94 facilities overseas.
“A 2001 Department of Defense survey concluded that 2.2 percent of military personnel had experienced at least three gambling-related problems in their lifetimes. Instead of seeking to help those soldiers who succumb to the addiction of gambling, the U.S. military neglects them, usually resulting in discipline and/or dishonorable discharge—but not counseling.”
An Army of One-armed Bandits (Family Research Council), October 20, 2005
The gambling industry does not want to admit there is any connection between legalized gambling and bankruptcy. But a recent study conducted by Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, found that there was a connection. They studied two counties—one with and one without legalized gambling—in 1990 and in 1999. Business bankruptcies were lower in the counties with gambling, but personal bankruptcies were double the rate in comparable counties where there was no legalized gambling.
Jeffrey Freedman, senior partner in Jeffrey Freedman Attorneys at Law, said, “Bankruptcy attorneys in different parts of the country report an increase in filings where the debtor admits the cause of his or her financial problems is gambling. And we know there are a lot of people who don’t admit gambling is at the root of their problems. That’s the nature of gambling addiction.”
Freedman added: “There has been an explosion of legalized gambling in this country in the past 25 years. Twenty-five years ago you could only gamble in Nevada and Atlantic City. Today there are 648 casinos in 31 states that allow gambling, and the majority of states have lotteries . . . Over the past 10 years total consumer bankruptcies went from 770,000 to 1.6 million—part of which is attributable to gambling.”
“Studies Show Link between Casino Gambling, Bankruptcy Filings,” Daily Record (Rochester, NY), December 7, 2005
“When legalized casino gambling dawned in America, in the era of Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky, primitive slot machines—those one-armed bandits—served as little more than mechanical babysitters for the wives and girlfriends of high-roller card and dice players. And for decades thereafter, even as casinos low-rolled their way into the mainstream, gambling itself retained an air of disrepute (charming though it could be) that tended to keep decent folks away. But the recent proliferation of highly sophisticated, computerized, brightly lit, singing-and-talking slots has done away with any lingering social stigma attached to the betting life. Some statistics, random but telling:
“America now has twice as many publicly available gambling devices that take money-slot and video-poker machines and electronic lottery outlets—as it does ATMs that dispense it. In the past fifteen years the number of such devices has grown fivefold, to more than 740,000, and it’s still mounting. This year a record 73 million Americans will visit one of the 1,200 gambling joints now stretching from coast to coast-a nearly 40 percent increase in visitors from just five years ago. Players make an average of six pilgrimages a year to these beckoning temples of luck, and more than a quarter of American adults now list gambling as their No. 1 entertainment choice. As much as 70 percent of the $48 billion in gaming revenues raked in by the casinos comes from slots. (Texas Hold’em poker and other table games may be the latest gambling fad both on TV and in Ben Affleck’s social circle, but for the casinos it’s all about machines, machines, machines.) Americans now spend on slots five times the amount they spend on movie tickets.
“The slot-machine market is so hot, it’s in a state of perpetual shake-out. More than 500 games a year are introduced on the casino floor, but each is granted only a few weeks’ probation. They either perform immediately or get yanked, junked, and replaced (a profitable machine that costs about $10,000 can pay for itself in just thirty days).”
Marc Cooper, “Sit and Spin: How Slot Machines Give Gamblers the Business,” The Atlantic Monthly, December 1, 2005, 121.
“Henrietta Rundell’s gambling addiction led her to rack up $20,000 in credit card debt, file for bankruptcy and even spend a night in jail after she returned to the casino despite agreeing never to go back. Yet, the 72-year-old former Army medic who lives just outside Omaha can’t seem to silence the almost-constant calling from those three casinos in Council Bluffs. She never knew she was addicted until the slot machines became so easy to visit. She knows she shouldn’t go back, she even knows that if she does she’ll probably lose and could be arrested again.
“But when the feeling comes, none of that matters.
“‘I haven’t robbed a bank yet, but I’ve thought about it,’ said the tough-talking, thinly-built senior citizen. ‘It’s like a drug. When I get that feeling, I’d do almost anything to play.’
“At night, the crowd at Council Bluffs casinos represents a mix of the city’s adult population, but during the day those rows of slot machines are frequently occupied by women like Rundell, some older, some younger. Most sit at their favorite machine and play what they can afford, treating their losses like another form of entertainment comparable to bingo or going to a movie.
“But a few, like Rundell, just can’t stop. With every win Rundell feels a buzz of satisfaction she described as comparable to shooting drugs. And with every play she feels a mini-buzz of anticipation that quickly subsides when the slots fail her. So she sits on the chair hour after hour, repeatedly pushing the spin button with fingers twisted by arthritis, searching for that feeling that seemingly becomes a little harder to reach with every time she gambles.
“Not all of the problem gamblers are women squandering their Social Security checks.
“Fred Cappellano of Omaha was a 32-year worker in the Pottawattamie County treasurer’s office, with a lake house, a collection of classic cars and an infectious personality that almost everyone liked. He’d always enjoyed visiting Las Vegas a few times a year, but when the casinos came to Council Bluffs he was able to gamble two or three times a week.
“As his thirst to gamble became more insatiable and his losses began to mount, he started to embezzle money from the treasurer’s office, where he’d risen to become deputy director of motor vehicles.
“When auditors in July told him his scheme was up, that he had embezzled nearly $100,000, he was shocked it was so much, but he knew there were times when he’d gamble after work nearly until it was time to go back to work the next day.
“Like Rundell and many addicts who fall into debt, Cappellano . . . is considering bankruptcy. Personal bankruptcies have increased statewide since the casinos arrived, compared with non-casino states, according to a study by Ernie Goss, a professor of economics at Creighton University in Omaha . . . ‘I never realized that I was ruining my life,’ said Cappellano, a family man and longtime bingo caller at his church. ‘I’ve lost my job, my health insurance and my reputation. I just never took the time to think about how many people I could be hurting.’”
Excerpted from Matt Assad, “One City’s Jackpot is Neighbor’s Bust; Decade of Casinos Shows Host Town in Iowa Reaps Benefits but Region Shares in Gambling’s Woes,” Morning Call (Allentown, PA), November 6, 2005
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, has told tribal leaders that he intends to go forward with legislation that would place new restrictions of tribal casinos. He wants to keep tribes from building new off-reservation casinos because they escalate gambling in urban areas.
“If Congress doesn’t take action, ‘you get into a situation of, where does it stop?’ McCain said in an interview with The Oregonian. ‘Soon every Indian tribe is going to have a casino in downtown, metropolitan areas . . . I do think it’s not a healthy thing to do.’”
Tribal leaders from nine tribes in Oregon who met with McCain expressed opposition to any changes in the 1988 law regulating Native American gambling. McCain responded that tribal gambling had grown from a $580 million-a-year business in 1988 to a $19.5 billion industry—one that needs more oversight.
Jeff Mapes, “McCain Targets Tribal Casinos,” The Oregonian, October 25, 2005
“Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff had dealings with only a handful of American Indian tribes, but the scandal he left behind has touched every tribe everywhere.
“In fact, the Abramoff affair, with its tens of millions of dollars in lobbying fees and political contributions from Indian tribes with casinos, has become a political millstone for the Indian gambling business in particular and tribal governments in general. It has drawn more scrutiny to Indian casinos and is driving talk in Congress of new restrictions on tribal gambling, which is the fastest-growing segment of the gaming industry.
“The extraordinarily large amounts that some tribes paid Abramoff, in some cases to try to undercut potential Indian competitors, feed a public perception that tribes have become just another wealthy special interest—or worse, have become corrupt themselves. No tribes have been accused of wrongdoing during a Justice Department inquiry that dates to the middle of 2004 . . . Some in Congress are shying away from contributions from any Indians this election year, for fear the public can’t distinguish one tribe from another and will believe that all tribal money is somehow tainted, says Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a member of the Chickasaw Nation and the only American Indian now serving in Congress.
“It is for that reason that poorer tribes badly in need of federal aid might try to distance themselves from those with thriving gambling operations—only about 40 percent of the 567 federally recognized tribes are involved in gambling, according to the National Indian Gaming Commission.”
Excerpted from John Cochran, “Scrutiny on Tribes Keeps Stakes High,” Congressional Quarterly Weekly, January 27, 2006
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1 On Jan 9th, 2007, at 5:02pm, Carrie Walsh wrote:
My children’s father, the man I loved, Aaron Walsh, committed suicide on September 23rd, 2006. There was none of the promised help for him after his release from the military. The local casino Hollywood Slots in Bangor, Maine had there piece of him before the end; and they offered no assistance either. He could not afford treatment as he wasn’t able to keep a job for any length of time. Please keep telling people the truth about gambling. Thank you.