The Economist: London
Americans as a whole are wagering nearly $600 billion a year on lotteries, horse racing, casino gambling and bingo - more than they spend on groceries, and 50% more than they gambled in 1993. Up to 3% of the population may be compulsive gamblers as defined by American Psychiatric Association.
HOW times change. In 1972, a Catholic priest was arrested in Dubuque, Iowa, for sponsoring a bingo game. Twenty-five years later, Iowa has nine riverboat casinos, three Indian casinos and three race tracks with slot machines. Iowans mirror the nation in two respects: they are betting more than ever, and many of them can't stop.
A 1995 study conducted by the Iowa Department of Human Resources found that 5.4% of the state's population had a gambling problem, up from 1.7% before the state introduced riverboat gambling. Americans as a whole are wagering nearly $600 billion a year on lotteries, horse racing, casino gambling and bingo-more than they spend on groceries, and 50% more than they gambled in 1993. Experts reckon that problem gambling is growing, too. Video poker and keno have earned a reputation as the "crack cocaine of gambling" because they are faster and more addictive than traditional table games such as blackjack.
Experts haggle over the numbers, but up to 3% of the population may be compulsive gamblers as defined by the American Psychiatric Association. Another 1-2% may have serious gambling problems. (The distinction between compulsive gambling and problem gambling is similar to the distinction between alcoholism and problem drinking.) Compulsive gamblers wager to the point of ruin. In 1996, the 26,000 callers to the New Jersey gamblers' helpline reported average gambling debts of more than $31,000. Gambling has become the fastest-growing cause of personal bankruptcy, and 28 states now have help programmes for compulsive gamblers.
According to a report just released by Havard Medical School (a review by Howard Shaffer, a psychologist, of 120 gambling studies conducted over 20 years), the number of Americans with severe gambling disorders has increased by 55% over the past two decades. Meanwhile, the number of "problem" gamblers-those who have lied, cheated, stolen, or suffered anxiety attacks as a result of gambling-has climbed from 4% of the adult population to 7%.
Most addicts go bust in the end, some more spectacularly than others. In Laplace, Louisiana, a car mechanic confessed in November to six murders, including the bludgeoning to death of an elderly couple. The man allegedly stole $200,00 to feed an addiction to slot machines and video poker. Police say he had "a quest for the big win and a lust for a piece of the American dream". Most of his victims were found in their homes with their pockets turned inside-out.
Copyright Economist Newspaper Group, Incorporated Dec 13, 1997
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