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What happens when casino gambling gets out of control?
Jane played her first slot machine shortly after her mother's unexpected death. The rush she felt from gambling helped her escape the pain of grieving.
"I was out of my mind with depression", Jane said.
Jane is a 48-year-old northern Michigan woman who requested that her real name not be used. Her gambling consumed her thoughts for 20 years and cost her tens of thousands of dollars.
"Losing $80 was a bad night in the beginning", she said. "In the end, I wouldn't leave until I had lost $4,500 or $5,500".
She is one of well over 200,000 Michigan residents who have had a gambling problem, according to estimates by the Michigan Department of Community Health. As the number of casinos increases, the count of problem gamblers is bound to go up also, said Bob Baker, an addictions counselor at Munson Medical Center's Behavioral Health Department.
"In the old days in northern Michigan, it was hard to gamble", he said.
Now, just about every state has several kinds of gambling. There are numerous opportunities on the Internet - not to mention in our own backyard.
"The availability has just exploded", he said.
"Grief, like Jane was experiencing, can be a trigger for having it get out of control", Baker said.
"So can loneliness, depression or boredom", he added. "Just like doing drugs, it becomes a kind of escape for any painful emotion".
Laura, a Traverse City woman who like Jane has also sought help from Gamblers Anonymous, said that she doesn't believe she would have had a gambling addiction without the accessibility of casinos.
"I don't blame the casinos", said Laura, also 48 and wanting to remain anonymous. "They don't put a gun at your head and tell you to gamble".
"But of course it's the convenience".
Leelanau Sands ushered in the era of legal, American Indian-owned casinos in the region when it opened a modest bingo hall in 1984.
As a rule, those early, bare-bones establishments resembled VFW or church halls. They had little or none of the mini-Vegas glitz common in casinos that have come along since, like Victories Casino in Petoskey, Little River Casino in Manistee and Turtle Creek Casino in Williamsburg. They've also expanded into blackjack, slot machines, poker, craps and other games.
Source: BonusGambler.com Editors' Choice
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