First you lose your house and then your family, which includes the dogs. Then you get out of control and steal money from your church offering, and despite guilty feelings, you can’t stop yourself from “borrowing” money from anywhere and everywhere you can, with no means to pay it back. That is when you’ve really hit rock bottom and can’t get yourself out of this mess.
Profiting from addiction
First you lose your house and then your family, which includes the dogs. Then you get out of control and steal money from your church offering, and despite guilty feelings, you can’t stop yourself from “borrowing” money from anywhere and everywhere you can, with no means to pay it back. That is when you’ve really hit rock bottom and can’t get yourself out of this mess.
This may seem exaggerated, but quite frankly it is not unusual to see in the life of a gambling addict. And the sad truth is, our own state is guilty for being dependent on the revenue generated by these same gambling addicts that can relate to the example above.
On Nov. 15, The Oregonian reported the following: “More than half the money the lottery collects from video gambling¬—about $375 million last year—comes from a small number of Oregonians, many with big gambling problems.”
The article went on to state that these gamblers lose more than $500 dollars a month, every month. More so, they represent only 10 percent of Oregon’s video gamblers but account for 53 percent of the money lost, according to an analysis of three years’ worth of the lottery’s data obtained by The Oregonian under the state’s public records law.
Whether or not you believe that gambling is a choice, or whether people who gamble should be held accountable, that is up to you. But the sad truth is that some people really can’t control their gambling problems. They are only human. And even though there is help that gambling addicts can get, only 1 percent of the lottery profits cover all costs for all gamblers seeking state-funded treatment.
My question is, how could this possibly pay for all gambling addicts? In addition to that, I don’t think many people realize how big of a problem gambling is.
“We understand there is a portion of our players that have a problem with gambling,” said Carol Hardy, Oregon Lottery’s assistant marketing director, in a recent Oregonian article. “We try to educate them and their loved ones about what’s available to help them.”
And that’s the thing: 1 percent is what is available to them because if a gambling addict already lost everything, he or she can’t afford any treatment other than the state-funded option.
Unfortunately, the commercials and advertisements on TV are not enough either. We should increase the amount of the profit towards these programs so that these people can actually get their lives together.
Gambling, like alcohol or drugs, does not care if you are educated or uneducated, if you are white or black, if you are male or female, rich or poor, or if you have a job or are homeless. Gambling is an addiction, and anyone can be consumed by it. What is sad is that Oregon’s revenue is the misery of these people.
What do you think?
If gambling addiction is a major concern and our state depend on funds gained from lottery income, should we do something about it? Or is this a mere side effect of the lottery? Should we put forth greater efforts to aid gambling addicts in the state? Send a letter to the editor and tell us what you think. E-mail [email protected].
