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High Stakes: The Rising Cost of America's Gambling Addiction, by Sam Skolnik
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What the explosive growth of legalized gambling means socially, politically, and economically for America.
Forty years ago, casinos were legal in just one state. Today, legalized gambling has morphed into a $119 billion industry established in all but two states. As elected officials are urging voters to expand gambling’s reach, the industry’s supporters and their impassioned detractors are squaring off in prolonged state-by-state battles. Millions of Americans are being asked to decide: are the benefits worth the costs?
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With a blend of investigative journalism and poignant narratives of gambling addiction, award-winning journalist Sam Skolnik provides an in-depth exploration of the consequences of this national phenomenon. In�High Stakes, we meet politicians eager to promote legalized gambling as an economic cure-all, scientists wrestling with the meaning of gambling addiction, and players so caught up in the chase that they’ve lost their livelihoods and their minds.
From the Hardcover edition.
- Sales Rank: #293812 in Books
- Published on: 2015-06-16
- Released on: 2015-06-16
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x .50" w x 6.00" l, .81 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 248 pages
Most helpful customer reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Illuminating look into America's gambling addiction
By Alan A. Elsner
Sam Skolnik makes an admission right upfront in this penetrating look into America's gambling habit: he himself has been grappling with a gambling addiction for the past 10 years.It has not killed him or driven him into bankruptcy or to suicide or to drugs or crime -- but it has degraded his performance as a human being and a responsible citizen. He has left bills unpaid, borrowed irresponsibly, neglected his career and allowed important personal relationships to wither.
Skolnik's point is well-taken. What has happened to him on a personal level is happening to the whole country. Gambling is not killing America -- but it is subtly degrading its performance, making us a worse country, morally, economically and socially.
This is a well-researched and well-written book, full of sad personal histories. Skolnik makes the point that gambling is at its heart a giant system for redistributing wealth away from the poor who can least afford it and into the pocket of powerful lobbies and corporations. Just as individuals become hooked on gambling, states, cities and communities become hooked on the taxes they gather from the industry -- which do not cover the social costs that gambling creates. Cities and states may resist allowing casinos to establish themselves -- but the gambling industry can lose vote after vote -- until they finally win one. Once they win, they are in -- and they're never going away.
Gambling, in the words of one economist quoted here, is a "sterile transfer of money, creating no new value." Like prisons, it brings low-paid jobs into communities that need them -- but it sucks money from the weakest members of society.
Skolink's portrait of Las Vegas is particularly chilling. Far from the glitzy casinos full of high rollers, he shows a city that preys most of all on its own most vulnerable citizens. The suicide is roughly double the national average and the highest in the country; Nevada also leads the nation in bankruptcy filings, it leads in six different crime categories including murder and rape, it leads in home deliquencies, divorce and homelessness.
My one criticism of this book is that the author doesn't really prescribe solutions to this problem. But perhaps as one who combats his own addiction every day, he knows there are no magic bullets. Some individuals, we are told, may have a predetermined propensity to embrace addictive lifestyles. Perhaps what is true for individuals is also true for nations.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Amazing insight
By Tory
I have never gambled in my life. Ever, yet this was an engaging book to read. First, the introduction is heartbreaking. Even though the author perhaps wasn't as bad off as some people with gambling addictions, it was still hard to read about his struggles. "It's not easy to write these things. There's a certain shame attached to confessing a gambling addiction in our culture, even more so than copping to being an alcoholic or a cocaine addict. Many still believe that people gamble excessively because of a lack of willpower or because they're simply immoral. these antiquated beliefs are beginning to fad, as doctors, scientists, and researchers are increasingly concluding that pathological gambling is a behavioral addiction that affects the brain in much the same way as substance dependencies."
But this isn't just a memoir about the author's struggle with addiction, though that component adds so much to this book! The statistics, insights, and way he writes about it makes this book a worthy and compelling read. I learned so much, and I learned to have compassion on the people yet recognize the harmful attributes of gambling, both in personal lives, and in communities,
If you are addicted to gambling, or know people who are, or just want to gather more facts and perspective on gambling, I highly recommend this well-researched book. One could argue that he's biased due to his struggle, but his perspective makes it even more of a reason to read this book and consider these things. Add to that, the style of writing, tone of this book is one that draws you into what (for some) could be perceived as a boring subject. This is not a boring subject; it is one that each of us should be aware of and learn more about. I'm grateful for the opportunity to have read this book and I hope it makes an impact on others who read it.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
The stakes are high and getting higher
By N. B. Kennedy
This is an extremely well-researched and reported book about the gambling life and the toll it takes on individuals and on society. The author examines not only the end result of gambling, but also its roots, the reason games of chance appeal to the human psyche.
Mr. Skolnik delves deeply into facets of gambling that I've never seen addressed before; for example, the particular allure of gambling in Asian cultures. He interviews dozens of people, gamblers themselves as well as those involved in both promoting and regulating the gambling industry. His narrative is enlivened by these insightful conversations.
I looked in vain, though, for a chapter on gambling and the elderly. Living as close to Atlantic City as I do, I find it puzzling and sad that those who can least afford to gamble -- the elderly who live mostly on Social Security and Medicaid -- flock to casinos that cold-heartedly take their food, utility and rent money, luring them there with shuttle buses and free buffet tickets. My spouse's elderly aunt kept a shelf full of "lucky" elephants that she took on her trips to the casinos. She bragged about wins that were obviously fictitious, given her living situation. It makes me angry even today.
The author also undercuts his arguments against gambling by confessing his own penchant for poker. While he recognizes in his head the dangers of high-stakes poker, and admits the money he has lost to it, the aversion hasn't taken hold in his heart. His continuing fascination for the game is obvious, and to me, equally as sad as any of the other stories he tells in this book. "For what it's worth, I was ranked by the site [a poker industry website] to be among the top 4,100 poker tournament players in the world." What is that worth, Mr. Skolnik? I'd love to read more of this author's personal story when he finally does fold.
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