Sucking $$$$ from the poor!

My View: Gambling addicts not getting the help they deserve



Amazed at all the video slot parlors springing up in Winnebago County? Don’t be. It’s almost a license to mint money. The owners take a good portion after paying off the winners. I am surprised that some of the worst bars on 7th Street got permission for video slots. There’s enough fights already! As for a money maker, the county seems to have lost as much in sales tax revenue as they’ve gained.

The biggest losers are the 3 to 4 percent of our friends who can’t control themselves and pour their paychecks, bank accounts and savings into those machines. Out of a population of 250,000, that means 7,500 lives may be destroyed. Studies show that as more gambling becomes available, more people will fall victim. They are victims because it is a disease like alcoholism. It affects our biology in different ways for different people.

Those who are heartless will say, “too bad they can’t control themselves,” and those who are mercenary will actually entice our friends, neighbors and relatives into dropping their cash into their machines.

“Damn the man who buys a drunk a drink.”

I tried to find some local counselors and experts who could explain how to overcome gambling addiction. But for all the ballyhoo about helping the addict, it really is difficult to find support in this community. Rosecrance, which helps so many through alcohol and drug addictions, had to look through its files and apparently still is looking with no results so far.

Where can a family go when one of their own robs them and dumps the money in the neighborhood “slots?” So I have invited Melynda Litchfield, a nurse who has been fighting her addiction for the last two years, to come to Rockford at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday for a program at JustGoods, 201 Seventh Street.

She will talk about how difficult it is to find treatment and to stay in recovery and how society can help those who can’t seem to help themselves. The program, of course, is free and open to the public, and if you know of any resources, please let Rockford Urban Ministries know at 815-964-7111.

I had the pleasure to testify before the Illinois House hearing on their new proposals for casinos. It was an all-day hearing and had panels of experts, mayors and race-track operators giving positive endorsement of the legislation. Even the Illinois Arts Council was there with their hand out asking for 3 percent of the “take.” I appeared right after six mayors, including our own Larry Morrissey. They attested to their cities’ great need for casino licenses. I was part of the last group given a chance to speak (we were the only ones allowed that were against the legislation), and in my “five minutes of fame” (or infamy) I reminded the politicians that Winnebago County, when given a chance, voted against new forms of gambling: a 1990s referendum supported having a say by 70 percent; Dave Syversen was elected initially on an anti-gambling stance; and Morrissey trounced Doug Scott on the casino question.

The committee members were unimpressed, but they did perk up their ears at a suggestion that Illinois had reached its limit and maybe the market was “over-saturated” with gambling opportunities. As the financial burden grows and affects families, churches and social service agencies, unless addicts are better cared for, there will be a backlash to push gambling out of the public sector.

Stanley Campbell is executive director of Rockford Urban Ministries

Read more: http://www.rrstar.com/article/20140510/Opinion/140519921#ixzz31S3VJczU