Sharon Tirabassi’s $10 Million Win and Loss

I’m a big fan of Dr. Boyce Watkins and “Your Black World.” I admire his courage to speak out about social and economic issues that are particularly affecting our black communities. But considering that his areas of expertise are economics and finance, I am somewhat disappointed that he seems to have little to say about gambling. After he posted a link to an article about Sharon Tirabassi who won $10 million in a Canadian lottery and is now broke, I wrote the following comment, which I am re-posting here.

What’s missing from the discussion about how someone can go broke after having won $10, million in a lottery, and something I hope one day Dr. Boyce Watkins will address, is the problem of legalized gambling.Yes, it’s truly mind boggling to read about someone who won $10 million and then lost it all. But it’s important to keep in mind also that in order for her to win that much money, hard working people, Canadians in this instance, had to lose millions of dollars.

Even more pernicious than the lottery is the Casino industry. Slot machine gambling in particular is the fastest form of gambling on the planet and people in the U.S. and Canada and just about everywhere else are being encouraged to gamble and lose money so that our governments can generate new revenue.

Gambling has always been a sucker’s game. Legalizing it hasn’t changed that. I really would like to see Dr. Watkins address this. It’s urgent to talk about the negative economic effects of gambling  when you consider that casinos continue to be built in our communities and that the likelihood of ordinary citizens like Sharon Tirabassi winning millions of dollars are few and far between. Most of them are going broke instead.

Also, there is a larger story here. For one thing, I would like to know how much money Sharon spent on lottery tickets and other gambling before she won the big one. And more important, what’s happening to her now. What kind of help is she receiving so that she can recover from this really  hard to comprehend story and go on with her life? How is she doing now? Has she come to grips with what for most of us is so hard to imagine? Does she still gamble?

Sandra Adell, Author: CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR

The Internet as the New Gambling Frontier

No matter how loud we holler, those of us who oppose gambling have still been unable to convince our elected officials that legalized gambling to help raise revenue is a really bad idea. Now some  of them are clamoring to legalize internet gambling. That’s going to be disastrous for millions of people in this country. They won’t have to leave the comfort of their favorite easy chair to lose the millions (maybe billions) of dollars our leaders hope to collect in new revenue.

Once this floodgate is opened, there will be no turning back. As I have stated in other blog posts and during readings and lectures about my book, Confessions of a Slot Machine Queen: A Memoir, gambling is not a harmless activity. It already is  having very devastating effects on millions of people.

A recent article in U.S. News & World Report by Daniel Bortz is yet another attempt to raise public awareness about the negative effects of gambling on people who have no idea that it can be deadly addictive. Fortunately, I found my way out of the labyrinth that is gambling addiction before it was too late. But what about the millions of  people who will get caught up in and lose everything to gambling once it become just a keystroke away?

Sandra Adell, Author, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR.

The longest Casino Winning Streaks, Brought to you by Toyota.

In one of the upbeat and informative Toyota sponsored “Who Knew?” videos titled  Casino Winners: What is the Longest Winning Streak, we learn that a gambler named Archie Karas started with a $50 bet in 1992 and had won over 40 million dollars at the craps and baccarat tables by 1995. Then he lost his millions in a mere three weeks.

There were stories about a couple of other big winners mentioned in “Who Knew,” including Patricia Demauro, who declined to say how much she won or lost. I’ll bet she lost a whole lot of money before she won.

The narrator of this video remarks that “Casino Gamblers are smiling, unless they lose.” What he doesn’t say is that as a group they are losing big time. At the beginning of the video, the narrator gives us an important fact that we need to keep in mind before we let the lure of this video entice us to try our luck. In 2011, casinos world-wide took in $144 billion in revenues. That means that gamblers LOST $144 billion.

So far, the Toyota Sponsored video has received over a million and a half views. I wonder how many of the people who watched it caught the irony of the video.  The narrator tells us that “Casino Gamblers are smiling, unless they lose.” Take a look around you the next time you go to a casino and count the number of smiley faces you see. I bet you won’t find many.

By the way, what you really need to know is that, according to the late great statistician, Thomas Cover, the odds of having a winning streak or “run” like the one Archie Karas had is 1 in 1. 5 million.

Why are Black Women so Broke?

In the months since I last posted comments on my blog, I’ve been working on a couple of new book projects that have nothing to do with gambling. They’re about African American women theater artists. I also spent time in Morocco in an intensive course in Arabic, a language for which I have a real passion.

But the problems that have been unleashed with the legalization and expansion of casino gambling are never far from my mind. In fact, just four days after I returned from spending six weeks in Fes, Morocco, on July 14, I presented my first professional paper at the National Conference on Gambling Problems in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

It was an eye-opening experience.  Most of the presenters and participants were researchers or clinicians specializing in the treatment of gambling problems. Among the things I learned was how difficult it is to get anyone, not to mention African Americans and other people of color, to participate in the surveys researchers need in order to do the work they do, work that might one day affect policy decisions related to the expansion of gambling, especially internet gambling.

They remain hidden behind headlines such as two that recently caught my attention: the great Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps might have a bit of a gambling problem; black women are flat broke.

As I have mentioned previously when the rich and famous, including Gladys Knight, make headlines about their gambling problems, they can fall back on their money or their talent. Michael Phelps is already wealthy and will make millions more in endorsements.

But the people who are at most risk of losing everything at the gambling tables and slot machines, like the low-wage earning women of color who are the subject of the black-women-going-bankrupt headlines that are spreading around the blogosphere like a virus, rarely raise alarm.

I don’t want to make the mistake of attributing the appalling lack of wealth among African American women to gambling. The Women of Color Policy Network, which in August 2010, presented a paper titled “Disparities for Women of Color in Retirement,” to the U.S. Department of Labor, has very cogently argued that the lack of any kind of wealth among women of color has more to do with systemic inequalities of opportunity than anything else.

However, our politicians need to take a careful look at that report before they grant any more licenses to billionaire investors to build more casinos in our backyards.  They also need to hear from some of the African American women who now make up the fastest growing population of problem gamblers.  Maybe the women’s stories will help to persuade our politicians that we are now at a point of saturation with gambling in this country and that it’s causing more harm than good.

Sandra Adell, Author, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR

More on the Alabama Gambling Corruption Trial

It seems as if some of the people who were involved with gambling corruption in Alabama knew no limits when it came to sleeze.

According to Philip Rawls, a journalist covering the trial, a casino developer, Ronnie Gilley, suggested that a lobbyist, Jennifer Pouncy, expose her breasts to a state senator whose vote she was trying to get.

Rawls filed the article under the title, “Lobbyist Weeps over Call in Alabama Gambling Trial.”

I don’t want to even suggest that this behavior is typical of casino developers and their supporters, but it does not paint a very pretty picture of the gambling industry.

Sandra Adell, Author, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR.

RACE, POLITICS, AND CASINO GAMBLING

Since I began writing this blog in April, 2009, I have benefited greatly from the efforts of Diane Berlin to keep those of us who are deeply concerned about the negative impacts of casino gambling on this country informed.

Diane Berlin headed a coalition of anti-casino activists that fought long and hard to keep casinos out of Pennsylvania. As Diane Berlin stated in June, 2006, during a rally to repeal the unconstitutional casino licensing law that allowed the expansion of gambling in the state, many of the deals that are being made to bring casinos into our communities are undemocratic. They are being done without community input.

Diane and her group did not succeed in keeping casinos out of Philadelphia.They simply didn’t have the financial means and a strong and informed community to fight against their local and state elected officials, powerful lobbyists, and greedy billionaire entrepreneurs who made their case (and won) that casino gambling would be good for the City of Philadelphia, the State of Pennsylvania and the U.S. of A.

Diane Berlin continues to advocate against gambling by, among other things, regularly compiling articles and essays about gambling which she sends out to her e-mail lists. Two recent articles caught my attention. They have to do with race, politics, casinos, and African Americans. One was written by William Reed for the Memphis, Tennessee, based Tri-State Defender, which promotes itself as “one of the longest, continuously-published African American papers in the United States.

Titled “Is Gambling an OK Tool for Making Economic Development ‘luck’?”, William Reed states in his opening paragraph that “African Americans have little impact on gaming except as employees.”

He goes on to cite statistics on the gambling industry’s estimated revenues for 2011: it’s more than $92.27 billion. However, what he fails to deal with are the social and economic costs of gambling on African American and other vulnerable communities.

Instead he holds up the late Don Barden as the only African American entrepreneur who made it big in gambling. His point is that this is an industry that has closed its doors tight against African Americans (unless you are among the industry’s millions of losers) and that we need to see this as a viable opportunity for economic growth.

What William Reed failed to mention is that Don Barden was a compulsive gambler who lost millions of dollars and was deeply in debt, which is why he lost his license to build a casino in Philadelphia. Also, one of Barden’s casinos, the Majestic Star riverboat casino in Gary, Indiana, is nothing to boast about. It is nasty and stinky and contributes absolutely nothing to the economic growth of its host city, Gary, Indiana.

In his closing statement, William Reed writes, “African American political, civic and church leaders have to admit that gambling can be a powerful economic development tool.” As an African American woman who has struggled with an addiction to slot machine addictions, I want to say loudly and clearly, “NO THEY DON’T.”

Because the African American community is struggling mightily to retain whatever foot hold we have on the economic ladder, if anything, our leaders and legislators, and especially our church leaders need to say, as Diane Berlin and other anti-gambling activists throughout the country have said over and over again, “ENOUGH, ALREADY!”

The other article that Diane Berlin sent has to do with some political maneuverings by Alabama State Senators that was revealed during an Alabama trial on gambling corruption. It shows that for the GOP defendants in the trial, the state’s black voters are nothing but pawns in a vicious money-grubbing game. According to the prosecutors, an investigation into the dealings of certain unnamed Republican state senators caught them on tape explaining why they were trying to keep a gambling bill off the ballots (Click here for the complete article.)

“In the tape, the GOP senators talk about how they need to defeat gambling legislation because it will go on the November 2010 ballot if they let it pass the Legislature. They said having the issue on the ballot would bring out more black voters, which would hurt Republican candidates’ chances of getting elected.”

“Every black in this state will be bused to the polls,” one senator said.

“They are going to be bused on HUD-financed buses,” another replied.

“That’s right. That’s right,” a third senator said.

“It’s pretty hateful stuff, isn’t it?” the prosecutor asked casino developer Ronnie Gilley, who was on the witness stand.

“It’s nauseating,” Gilley replied.

Day did not identify who made each comment, but he said senators in the meeting were Beason, Ben Brooks, Larry Dixon, Jabo Waggoner, Rusty Glover and Paul Sanford.”

The message in this article is clear. These senators don’t want anything on the ballot that just might get black people out to vote. This is the kind of stuff the public needs to know. Especially for African Americans, since casinos are being built in or near urban areas, it’s important that we be informed about how they are impacting our communities.

Diane Berlin is doing her best, but we need more people to intervene in public discourse about the pros and cons of the continuing expansion of gambling in this country.

Sandra Adell, Author, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR.

GLADYS KNIGHT and SANDY ADELL: TWO SISTERS FROM DETROIT and GAMBLING ADDICTION

We’re both from Detroit. We both used our talent, motivation and sheer will to do something out of the ordinary. Gladys is world renowned as a singer and entertainer. Her voice is thrilling, a Motown Sound unlike any other. I became a university professor. I’m not famous, though. Nobody knows me beyond the cloistered world of academe, and I can’t carry a tune in a bucket.

But I share with Gladys Knight the experience of becoming addicted to gambling and a desire to share my story with others, especially black women, in an effort to get people in the black community to come forth and let the policy makers who think gambling is good for us know how devastating it really is, even to someone as wealthy and famous as Gladys Knight.

From time to time, someone who has read my memoir, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN, will say to me, “but you weren’t that bad. I know people who lost everything, their homes, their families, everything. You weren’t all that bad.”

I certainly didn’t lose the mind-boggling sums of money Gladys Knight did at the blackjack tables. But then, I’m not a famous entertainer with a beautiful voice working in Las Vegas making millions, like Gladys Knight.

In a Biography Close-up, Gladys says about her gambling, “I knew I had a problem. I knew I had a problem. I lost Gladys.”

That’s what happened to me when I became addicted to slot machine gambling. “I lost myself. I lost Sandy.”

Sandra Adell, Author, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR

DETROIT: THE CITY CASINOS COULDN’T SAVE

When Michigan residents voted to allow casino gambling in Detroit almost two decades ago, they did so because of the really big promises that were made to them. They were told that casino gambling would bring much needed new revenue to the city so that services provided by the police and fire department would be vastly improved and their garbage would be collected each week and public transportation would be improved so that people who had jobs could get to them on time.

They were told that people would come from all over the country to gamble in the three casinos that now hover over the city’s cultural area, throwing their shadows across the ever growing expanse of deserted neighborhoods where some of the poorest residents reside.

It did not happen. The new and high tech gold rush that promised to spill its riches onto the streets of Detroit could not save the city. Detroit is going broke.

As experts like John Kindt and Earl Grinols have shown again and again, putting casinos in cities that are already struggling as a result of population loss, the decline of manufacturing jobs, failing schools, and other urban infrastructure problems too numerous to list here, does not bring economic development.

Of course, it would be foolish to attribute the fact that Detroit is broke to gambling. In a special report for WTVS-Detroit, Desiree Cooper showed how badly things are in Detroit and how some communities are trying to cope.

But every time I visit the city of my birth, I hear stories about people, most of them black women, who have lost what little they had in the casinos in the hope that they would get a little something back.

It’s too late to turn things around in Detroit and elsewhere in the country where casino gambling has been touted as the cure all for failing economies. But as more and more public officials across this country keep singing the same song about how gambling will create new jobs and improve their local and state economies, it’s important to keep in mind that for that to happen, ordinary, hardworking citizens must lose millions of dollars.

Back in the days when it was illegal, gambling was considered a really dumb way to try and “make” some money to pay our bills. It still is, despite what our politicians tell us as they sell us down the river.

Sandra Adell, Author, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR

Jack Abramoff, Leslie Stahl, the Indian Casino Deals and the Unfortunate Nun

On November 6, 2011, the intrepid 60 Minutes correspondent, Leslie Stahl, sat down with Jack Abramoff, to talk about how he bought off a whole bunch of people in Washington, D.C. and bilked Indian tribes out of millions of dollars with trumped up casino gambling deals. The title of the program was THE LOBBYIST’S PLAYBOOK. And you guessed it! Abramoff is writing a book about his corrupt career and what Washington needs to do to clean up its act!

Abramoff’s arrogant attitude during the interview was a bit disgusting to me. Although he admitted that he’s ashamed of his behavior, which brought him millions of dollars, he frequently commented about how broken the congressional system is and how easy it is to bribe some people with expensive gifts while bilking other people, like the Indian Tribes and their casinos, out of millions of dollars and do it legally.

Since he has such an insider’s view on corrupt lobbyists, Abramoff probably at some point in the near future will get his own TV talk show and get on the lecture circuit where he will make $10,000 or more each time he tells his story and gives advice about what needs to be fixed so that crooks like him won’t get away so easily. Of course, he has to pay restitution, but being the really smart guy that he is, I’m sure he’s got some money, and lots of it, stashed away somewhere on the planet.

Jack Abramoff served a three and a half year term in a minimum security prison for his crimes, not a long time considering the magnitude of his rip-offs. Which brings me to the story of the Unfortunate Nun.

Sister Marie Thornton was the Vice President of Finance at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, when she fell victim to a serious addiction to slot machine gambling. She managed to embezzle a million dollars from the school before she was caught and arrested in 2009. Instead of serving a jail term, she was given three years probation and required to do 2,000 hours of community service. She also was committed to solitary confinement by her convent.

The New York Post recently published a very unsympathetic article about her under the title, “Twisted Sister in Nun Jail.”

An Op Ed by Monica Bugajski in an online journal titled Sympathico ca., while not as harshly worded as the Post article, argued that this punishment is too lenient for Sister Marie Thornton, since she violated the public’s trust.

So did Abramoff, and in a much more dramatic way, but he only served three years in prison and hardly seemed contrite about his actions, at least not on the 60 Minutes show.

Sister Marie Thornton is one of an increasing number of ordinary people who are committing crimes of theft and embezzlement as a result of the becoming addicted to the slot machines that now proliferate in every nook and cranny of this country.

I hope that as other victims of our country’s elected officials’ ill conceived ideas about generating more revenues by building more casinos and filling them with even more addictive slot machines, are brought before the criminal justice system, other judges will practice merciful sentencing and order rehabilitation rather than incarceration for people like the Unfortunate Sister Maria Thornton. That way we will have space to put the real crooks, like Jack Abramoff and his crew, in prison and keep them there a bit longer than three and a half years.

Sandra Adell, Author, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN.

Gordon Moody and a Real Online Gambling therapy Group

Last month, I mentioned that I found a site that offered gambling therapy online while it also actively promoted gambling. Well, as it turned out, that site, which really is a UK based gambling site, was doing what most casinos do: offering help to clean up the mess of gambling addictions after the damage has been done.

In the United States casinos are required to set aside a fixed amount of money to fund gambling hotlines and to post in the casinos and on their advertisements the number to call to get help. For most people, it is much too late. By the time they reach out for help, they are in deep financial trouble and emotional distress and usually don’t know where to turn, since there are so few facilities or counselors trained to deal with gambling addictions.

Recently, someone mentioned an online gambling therapy group that is not in cahoots with the gambling industry. This gambling therapy site is connected to the Gordon Moody Association, which provides residential treatment for compulsive gamblers. Gordon Moody is in the UK; the gambling therapy site is international and apparently is moderated by gambling addiction counselors.

I have just started checking in and reading some of the posts. A recent one was about relapse. I know that relapse is always a possibility when one has an addiction, but the stories about people who have relapsed are so sad.

I think that although these stories are reminders that people who are experiencing addictions are always a step away from sliding down the slippery slope, it also is really helpful and inspiring to hear from folks who are on the far side of recovery. That is, they are going on about their lives and not even thinking about gambling.

I wish I could say that about myself, but with the absolute saturation of advertising inviting us to come where the winners are and lose our souls, spirits, and lives, I’m always on alert.

Sometimes when I’m driving in my car and a commercial comes on the radio promising me and everyone else listening that Ho Chunk Casino is were the winners are and that all I have to do is come to the casino to win some money and some junk I don’t need, I have to turn it off! Not because I’m afraid that I will go back to gambling after having stopped more than two years ago, but because I don’t like to think of the struggle I had with myself as I was trying to break the hold that slot machines had on me.

Every time I think about the darkness of the abyss that was gambling for me, I remind myself about how good life is now. Even when things aren’t going the way I hope they might on a given day, I remind myself that I have come a long way into the light. Stepping into a casino for anything, including a stage show, would destroy this contentment I’m beginning to feel now. I have choices in this life and my choice is to stay far, far away from things that will cause me harm. I’m often asked if I still gamble. The answer is NO.

Sandra Adell, Author, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR