DailySusan Humor Blog

‘WHAT WE’RE INVITING IN’
(Fourth in a special series on gambling this week. Please forward this story and direct people to www.DailySusan.blogspot.com for more. Thanks!)

Omahan Howard Berger used to be a compulsive gambler in Las Vegas and Reno. That was a long time ago. He’s now a successful husband, father and corporate employee. But he’s concerned about what will happen if Nebraska voters approve casinos next Tuesday.

“What two cities lead the nation in divorces, bankruptcies and suicides, per capita?” Berger asks. “Reno and Atlantic City.

“That’s what we’re inviting in.’’

He said, “When people do something obsessively, it affects their money, their marriage, their emotional state . . . it’s all intertwined.’’

The spinoff effect of one pathological gambler is enormous, he said.

Even if you think you and your loved ones would be immune to getting hooked on casino gambling, if it comes to Nebraska you still will be hurt by it, guaranteed, Berger predicted. It will affect friends, neighbors, coworkers, bosses . . . everyone.

“Gamblers are just going to do nasty things. I heard about insurance agents who never turn in the premium money that people pay; they use it for their own gambling. Then, when something happens to the customer, they find out they were never insured. Their money is gone. Their agent lost it, gambling.’’

Another scam: a supermarket manager used his own money to build an extra checkstand. Most of the time, it stood empty. When the store got real busy, occasionally, he would open it and man it himself. Then he would pocket the receipts. The home office expected daily receipts from 12 registers, so the 13th didn’t even, excuse the expression, register. So he got away with it. He got gambling cash by embezzling from his employers and their customers. We all know that employee dishonesty is often the reason for price increases, over time. So we all pay for that sort of thing.

Berger said, “At some point, every addict is going to steal. They never see it as stealing, though the rest of us do. They see it as borrowing until they win and can pay it back. Of course, that rarely happens.’’

What’s also chilling is that fewer than 10 percent of problem gamblers ever seek help, Berger said. He worked as a gambling addiction counselor for nine years. He knows first-hand how tough life gets, fast, and how hard it is to quit.

The No. 1 reason gamblers don’t seek help to quit? They don’t WANT to quit.

So everybody else has to suffer in the meantime.

The No. 1 reason it’s dangerous to open more casinos and put slot machines all across Nebraska? Access. The more opportunity people have to be tempted, the more ‘’enabled’’’ their addiction will be.

‘’I’m not necessarily anti-gambling,’’ Berger says. “I’m just anti-excessive everything. The problem is, casino gambling is just strongly addictive. Some people, when introduced to it, will just immediately be addicted.

‘’The costs to industry and the social costs will be far more than the gains we might make financially.’’


Prayer request: Father, a lot of people are for gambling because they think it will help fund government services and give them tax relief. Oh, Lord, direct people’s attention to facts such as these from my good friend Michelle, a mom in west Omaha who is greatly looked up to, and using her influence to defeat these gambling proposals: (1) Since casinos have opened in Council Bluffs they have raised taxes three times (property taxes twice and 1 percent sales tax hike). (2) In 2004, the Bluffs region experienced the highest growth in bankruptcies in the U.S. (3) Bankruptcy rates in counties with casinos are 18% higher than those without casinos. (4) Economists conclude that casino gambling creates $3 in social costs for every $1 in tax revenue generated. (5) Three years after casinos opened, Council Bluffs experienced the highest crime rates in Iowa. Bless Michelle for sharing Your wisdom on this matter, Father. (Psalm 51:6)