Video Poker 247
- Video Poker Addiction Levels Rising
After Hurricane Katrina, the state of Louisiana had seen an incredible
growth in their video poker and gambling dollars. They had a lot of
migrant workers and construction personnel coming in with their
paychecks and they were spending them on the ever present video poker
machines and then the casinos when they were opened up again.
However, now it seems that those numbers may have been leading to the
downfall of those that were making them. The National Council on
Problem Gambling says that they have now seen a spike in compulsive
gambling in the area, as has the Louisiana Association on Compulsive
Gambling. They say that they think that not only are those people who
came to help getting addicted to video poker, but so are those who are
already beset by problems related to the hurricane.
They report that out of those initial dollars coming in from the video
poker machines, probably 95% of it was people just having fun.
However, another 5% of those people were developing a problem. They
say that since Katrina they have seen an increase in calls from people
of all walks of life. They say that compulsive gambling does not pick
an age, race, creed, etc. it simply chooses those with a propensity
for gambling.
However, they do say that they had an increase in those using the
foreign language lines – especially Spanish and Asian, which tells you
that these are not the same people calling in. They have a whole new
group that are now addicted to video poker and gambling, and they say
that if it continues the way it has they could be looking at a real
epidemic. With video poker machines being pretty much everywhere you
look; more are addicted to that than anything else.
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November 2007 Archive
