The Epidemic--Part Two

I will every once in a while break off a dollar bill to play the lottery. But that’s it. I know the chances of me getting hit by lightning are better than winning a dime.

But as I revealed last Friday, we have a serious problem with gambling, right here in Fairfield and Wayne County. $30-million dollars a year going into video gambling machines. An average of $3,000 per man, woman and child in Fairfield---- this year alone--- was spent at the six different establishments within the city.

What’s going on here? We are not alone. In the seven-and-a-half years since video gambling went live in Illinois, some 30,000 video slot and poker machines have been installed at 6800 locations. That’s more than any other state. Gamblers here have lost over $5-billion dollars playing the machines described by some as “electronic morphine.”

The state hasn’t done enough to deal with an obvious gambling addiction that is, in my view, more destructive than drugs. And our legislature wants more.

The American Psychiatric Association has reclassified “gambling disorder” from a compulsion to an addiction. A study says those afflicted find themselves lying to loved ones, turning to crime to cover their losses or even becoming suicidal.

Thirty million dollars wagered in Wayne County in 2019.

 I’ll call it what it is….an epidemic.