Gamblers no longer need to trek to Las Vegas or Atlantic City to find the action they so badly crave. It is available today in their own hometowns. Legalized gambling is one of the fastest growing industries in the United States. Gambling's tremendous popularity is evident in the recent increase in the number of off-track betting parlors (OTB's) and riverboat casinos that dot the midwest and the Mississippi Delta. Billboards on major highways depict the action and excitement available at such facilities.

For most of the industry's patrons, gambling is fun and a form of harmless entertainment. For the four to six percent of gamblers who become problem or pathological (compulsive) gamblers, however, it can be a devastating illness that negatively affects every aspect of their lives. I'm worried that the more legalized gambling "havens" that open up, the more problems we can expect as a result of them.

The greatest social cost of legalized gambling is the probable increase in problem and pathological gambling. In Connecticut for example, the Foxwoods Resort Casino opened up in 1995 and the number of pathological gamblers sky-rocketed. In 1994, there were 235 calls to the

Authorities and experts who have studied these issues have clearly documented the problems presented by gambling casinos. It seems that no one really benefits from gambling establishments, while many, many people are hurt or negatively affected. With all of the bad outweighing the good, I think it's time that gambling casinos become a thing of the past

Besides the negative effects that gambling can have directly on an individual, there are overwhelming economic and social costs of widespread casino gaming that many states (particularly the ones which allow legalized gambling) have to deal with. In 1996, Professors William N. Thompson and Ricardo C. Gazel of the University of Nevada Las Vegas conducted a BGA (Better Government Association) study on the effects of riverboat gambling on the state of Illinois. Thompson and Gazel found that the social costs of one pathological gambler is $10,000 a year, this includes the economic cost of debt, insurance, crime, incarceration, and clinical treatment.

The gambling addict is basically a "slave" to the habit. He needs the stimulation that winning money creates and this possibility keeps him going. The underlining problem is a self-image of himself as a failure and this destroys his self esteem. Many of them have been laid off work or ousted from a relationship and gambling tends

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Approximate Word count = 907
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)