DailySusan Humor Blog

‘IT WRECKED MY CHILDHOOD’
(Fifth in a special series on gambling this week. Please forward this story and direct people to www.DailySusan.blogspot.com for more. Thanks!)

She’s a pretty young wife and mother, dealing with her baby son’s teething woes, finishing college, and working full time. Her life is full. You’d never guess how empty she often feels inside, and how much pain she has already suffered . . . because of gambling.

Her father was a compulsive gambler who did prison time. It was right when this young Nebraskan was hitting puberty, and needing a dad in her life more than ever. Instead, gambling took him away.

The prospect of casino gambling and slots across the state frightens her. She knows it would make highly-addictive gambling much more accessible to so many more people, and provoke so much more bad behavior than what’s already here. She hopes people will vote ‘’no’’ on the gambling issues on Tuesday’s ballot, recognizing the harm that would be done, to children especially.

‘‘Gambling makes victims,’’ Lynn* said. ‘’It poisons people. It wrecked my childhood, basically. I don’t ever want that to happen to anybody else.’’

First, Lynn’s father lost his job because of gambling. The addiction consumed him. “I remember trying to show him pictures I'd drawn or poems I'd written, and he would shoo me away because I was interrupting a sporting event he'd placed a bet on,’’ she said.

The marriage came under attack. ‘’My parents’ relationship was strained as long as I can remember,’’ she said. ‘’I remember seeing my mother sitting at the kitchen table, head in hands, bills scattered in front of her, crying because she had to figure out how to make the money stretch.
There was a lot of yelling, screaming, and walking on eggshells. Our house was always tense. My siblings and I all looked for escapes when we were old enough to rebel.’’

The oldest one got into drugs and wound up in foster care. The younger two got failing grades, and started drinking and smoking. ‘’We were all very talented in one way or another,’’ Lynn said, ‘’but all of us let our talents go to the wayside because our energy was spent fighting to survive the depressing conditions we had to live in. We didn’t have unity, communication, and close bonds within the family. Those are all things that gambling destroys.’’

The parents’ relationship has never recovered, she said. ‘’My mother remains bitter at the loss of their savings, retirement, and the life we all could have had without the gambling sickness that ate it all away like moths with wool. My father has to live with the sorrow of missing the childhood of his kids, something he can never get back.’’

She feels sad about that, and regrets that her children will never have the happy, healthy extended family that should have been their birthright.

If casinos are authorized in Nebraska, how will she feel?

“Terrible. Just terrible,” Lynn said. “I hope people will think hard and long about what this will mean to children, and put what’s best for them ahead of what they think might be fun on an occasional night out. There are lots and lots of other things to do with your extra time and money that don’t hurt people, especially kids.”

• Not her real name.


Prayer request: Lord, we pray that people who are thinking about voting for the gambling proposals, or are undecided, will think first about what’s right and what’s best for the children of this state. Teach them that Your blessings flow most powerfully and directly to the children of those who follow Your principles for living, which do not include gambling. (Psalm 103:17)