NELSON ACQUILANO: Gambling has disastrous payoff

By Nelson Acquilano Posted Oct. 30, 2013 @ 2:01 am

Canandaigua, N.Y.

Gambling is a toxic and predatory industry that preys upon the most vulnerable of our citizens. A state study found that there are 660,000 problem gamblers in New York, and up to 20 percent of youth either have — or are at-risk of developing — a gambling problem.

The New York State Research Institute on Addictions reported that problem gambling is considerably more common than alcohol dependence. A recent study by Dr. Stephen Q. Shafer further reported that with the addition of up to seven new casinos, New York may experience an additional 82,000 pathological gamblers and an additional 202,000 new problem gamblers in the state! According to Shafer, "The quantifiable socioeconomic costs related to (only) new gambling addicts and problem gamblers are eightfold more than the tax revenues raised from the new casinos."

Again, 5 to 7 percent of gamblers are caught up in an addiction every bit as powerful as drug addiction. With the further legalization of gambling, tens-of-thousands of our families will further suffer from the throes of gambling addiction.

Gambling is one of the most destructive dynamics that can be introduced into a community, and when it is introduced, it spreads like a cancer — like an epidemic, leaving broken lives, broken families and broken communities in its path. All states that have legalized gambling have found subsequent dramatic increases in the incidence of compulsive gamblers and in crime, family dysfunction, divorce, bankruptcy and mental illness. But by then it’s too late. Once legalized, communities cannot reverse the trend and control the increase in the gambling or negative consequences.

Compulsive gambling leads to many thousands of personal and family bankruptcies each year. Gambling leads to lost homes, broken families, lost savings accounts and to a dramatic increase in crime, including embezzlement at business and industry. It is strongly correlated with mental illness, and it seriously affects family and friends. Some states reported that divorce tripled after the introduction of casinos. Others reported an explosion in domestic violence. The National Council on Problem Gambling reports that one-in-five pathological gamblers attempts suicide.

The ultimate cost in broken families and disintegrated communities from gambling never even comes close to justifying it as a means to raise revenue. For every dollar that gambling contributes in taxes, it usually costs taxpayers over $3 for increases in the welfare system, mental health system, and the criminal justice system.

In fact, the National Gambling Impact Commission, in their definitive study, recommended a moratorium on the expansion of gambling. But no one is listening, and gambling is exploding across America. Let's not feed Albany’s gambling fever. Our children deserve better.

Nelson Acquilano is executive director of the Council on Alcoholism and Addictions of the Finger Lakes, Inc.

 http://www.gateschilipost.com/article/20131030/OPINION/131039995/10088/OPINION