Gambling establishments continue to negatively affect our community by taking needed resources for personal gain. Since legalizing gambling, our society is addicted in one form or another.

The following has situations have occurred since legalizing gambling:

1) Illegal gambling increases even though gambling has been legalized.

2) Gambling addiction is escalating with no end in site.

3) Gambling addiction rates are double for those living near a gambling establishment.

4) Personal bankruptcy rates are higher in countries that have gambling establishment.

5) Crime rates are on the rise due to desperate individuals who are trying to recover gambling loses.

6) Fraud and embezzlement become common among formerly hard-working and highly trusted people.

7) Suicide rates among addicted gamblers are greater then any other addiction.

Local businesses have lost revenues and or have gone bankrupt

9) Families lost all their resources due to a spouse having a gambling addiction.

With every day that passes more and more people realize someone around them lost their savings at the gambling establishment.
My town is twenty nine miles from the nearest gambling establishment. On my block alone more then fifty percent of the people know some one who lost their life savings. On the same block only twenty percent know someone close who has a drug addiction.

As you educate yourself you start to realize there is a problem and something needs to be done before it gets out of control.

Governments need to take the time to realize that gambling addiction is a silent addiction and the negative affects are never felt in the short run. It’s up to them to implement procedures to halt this addiction if it’s not too late.

Mr. Howard Keith has an extensive background in dealing with compulsive gamblers, relatives and friends of gamblers and teenage gamblers. Mr. Keith believes there are many alternatives to aid in the recovery of a gambling addiction verses a twelve step program. A large percentage of his emails were from compulsive gamblers looking for an alternative to Gamblers Anonymous and twelve step programs. Gamblers Anonymous also helps a significant number of people each year but there is a large percentage that they are unable to reach.

Problem or compulsive gambling as some call it, has always been an issue among the adult population. The availability of Internet gambling and online betting sites has served to exacerbate the problem. But even of more concern, is that teenage gambling, once a minor problem for parents, is today a growing phenomena. Unfortunately, it is not unusual today to hear about teens who have become addicted to gambling online.

In a review of 1,300 calls to the National Problem Gambling Helpline for immediate help, 106 clients (8%) reported that their primary problem was internet gambling. The predominant age of these individuals was aged 18-25. Furthermore, a recent study by the Annenberg Foundation found that almost 600,000 youth (aged 14-22) reported gambling on the Internet on a weekly basis.

These numbers are concerning, but not surprising.

Why is it dangerous?

Children and teens are more susceptible to addiction. So exposure to gambling at a young age is particularly risky.
A gambling addiction is not different from an addiction to drugs and alcohol. The potential destructive effects can be devastating to the individual and the family as well as lead to other compulsive behaviors.
The popularity of online poker and the glamorization around it have contributed to making gambling more acceptable and mainstream. Gambling today is normal behavior, even among teens.
20% of problem gamblers try to commit suicide at some point.
Signs of a problem
Experiencing a big win can lead to continued gambling. Keep an eye out.
They spend more and more time gambling in place of other entertainment or hobbies.
There is a change in their academic performance.
They need to borrow money frequently and/or start to exhibit pressure about finances.
You find that money is missing from the house or your wallet.
They start buying new, expensive items without reasonable explanations of the source of the money.
Irritable behavior and mood swings.
Solutions
Even if you think it is under control, if your child is gambling, talk to them about it. Open communication is the best way to know what is happening and to prevent problems.
If you suspect your teen is hiding an online gambling problem, you can look at their computer and see what sites they are visiting online.
If you decide that your teen should not be permitted to gamble online, you may want to enforce certain Internet rules by installing a Parental Control software.
If you suspect a serious problem, consult with a professional.
If your teen admits to a problem, you use a software solution, such as a web filter to block gambling sites and simply prevent access. In many cases, eliminating the access will be enough to eliminate the problem.

It’s a question that’s come up repeatedly for discussion in Congress, and things are serious enough that legislation is actually being considered to legalize Class III gambling, the kind that they usually like for online gambling outlets – poker, blackjack, betting and roulette. Of course, lots of people are really encouraged by where this is heading – they love gambling, and they wonder why the government should stand in the way of people being able to run a little organized entertainment. And they hope that the government could get off their back once and for all. Those who are against this move sees the very involvement that the government has in the problem to be a sign that gambling is not entertainment – that it is an activity that comes with considerable baggage of social harm.

As minor a kind of gambling activity as these games seem to be, you do have to admit that no one mostly ever tries to kill themselves over non-gambling debts, or tries to run away from town or steal from their company. These happen so very often with debts that come out of online gambling, that one is forced to wonder whether this might be an activity that is irretrievably mired in something much worse than entertainment. The truth is, gambling is an activity that attracts terribly addicted people; other forms of personal entertainment usually do not land one in terrible debt. You may certainly consider online gambling a right to freedom of expression you hold that shouldn’t be tampered with. If really online gambling were just one more kind of entertainment, wouldn’t it be worth it to keep it away from the country simply for the several lives it would save, and the families it could keep together?

It is difficult to comprehend how online gambling can actually be be this dangerous; the fact is, when you have it on offer all the time in your own home, the ability to get addicted and to game yourself out of house and home is an ever present threat, and it can turn into the worst kind of gambling ever – even more serious than heading out to Atlantic City every weekend.

The problem with online gambling over the real world equivalent of it is, there is hardly any way that these businesses can be supervised by the government for fairplay. You could not leave it to the gambling website owners of course, because they could easily profit from defrauding the player. And most of the time, these websites are all in specific foreign countries where there are no laws that govern this kind of thing. But do you know what – Doyle Brunson one of the world’s biggest stars in poker, in his book, says that even the highest level of poker professional goes completely broke several times in his career. It’s just a part of the lifestyle. You have to realize that the gambling industry is one that deals in $400 billion in turnover worldwide. You wouldn’t want half of that to go out of the country if online gambling were legalized, now would you?