Tweet
Having recently celebrated my 21st birthday, my grandmother took me to a casino in Louisiana. I did fairly well, but during my stay I noticed a disturbing trend. The people I saw lined up on the slot machines at 5:30 PM were still there at 3:30 AM, and remained there until I left at approximately 2:00 PM.
I think gambling can be fun and relatively harmless if you know how and when to stop, but these people were pumping money into these machines at a rate of $10 a minute, minimum. Barring any bathroom breaks they may have taken, that's $600 an hour, which makes $12,000 in a 20-hour period. To make matters worse, the slots were very tight. They weren't paying out at all. I talked to a player at my table, and he said the majority of the slot players had been there for at least four or five days on end, with no food, no sleep and very little to drink. I shook my head and had to walk away from the table for a minute to wonder how this could happen.
So how does a person get so addicted to gambling, and is there any hope of helping them? Even if they hit the jackpot, it likely won't cover all the money they've spent trying for it. My cousin is a notorious lotto player. He's tried the gambling addict hotlines, and he claims they're no better than talking to a grade-school guidance counselor. I don't know, maybe it just hit home for me since I live in a family full of gamblers, but has anyone else faced anything like this?
I think gambling can be fun and relatively harmless if you know how and when to stop, but these people were pumping money into these machines at a rate of $10 a minute, minimum. Barring any bathroom breaks they may have taken, that's $600 an hour, which makes $12,000 in a 20-hour period. To make matters worse, the slots were very tight. They weren't paying out at all. I talked to a player at my table, and he said the majority of the slot players had been there for at least four or five days on end, with no food, no sleep and very little to drink. I shook my head and had to walk away from the table for a minute to wonder how this could happen.
So how does a person get so addicted to gambling, and is there any hope of helping them? Even if they hit the jackpot, it likely won't cover all the money they've spent trying for it. My cousin is a notorious lotto player. He's tried the gambling addict hotlines, and he claims they're no better than talking to a grade-school guidance counselor. I don't know, maybe it just hit home for me since I live in a family full of gamblers, but has anyone else faced anything like this?
Comment