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

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

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.

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

Also, I spent much of the summer traveling to New York, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, London and Wales attending theater events and a women’s theater festival. I’m thinking about adapting my book, CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR, for the stage, but not as a solo show.

I want to put some people on the stage in what I think will be more of an abstract rather than a realistic dramatization of my struggle with gambling addiction.

What I wasn’t able to write in my book, mainly because I had such trouble understanding this as an addiction and was in deep denial, was the therapeutic experience, that is, my sessions with a private therapist and the intensive group sessions I went through in the Fall of 2009, at Gateway Recovery in Madison, Wisconsin, after I was arrested for drunk driving on July 10, 2009, while I was trying to get to Ho Chunk Casino to finish myself off.

By the way, I ended up in group therapy for alcohol and drug addiction, mainly because there wasn’t a group program for addicted gamblers. As I have mentioned elsewhere in this blog, there are very few mental health professionals trained to deal with gambling addictions

I remember thinking that nearly disastrous night, “Why don’t I just go to Ho Chunk and gamble until I lose everything, so I can finish destroying myself?” That’s how crazy I was. I now realize that I was suffering a mental illness.

It was sheer craziness, that feeling that the labyrinth that is the casino (any casino), was hell and I deserved to be there, that I needed to be punished. But for what? Well that’s where the private therapist came in, to help me understand some things about myself, so that I could begin to change my behavior.

I was in personal therapy for about five years. I said goodby to the lovely lady who worked with me just a few months ago. Only then did I feel that I could go, travel and start other work, that I could trust myself to stay away from casinos and from alcohol. I don’t drink any alcohol or gamble anymore. It’s a very liberating experience to be so sober!

This is not to say that I don’t think about gambling. In fact, although I have no problems staying away from drinking alcohol, my experience getting arrested on July 10, 2009, and the realization that I could have injured or killed someone on the road to Ho Chunk is sobering in itself, I must very careful about things that trigger the impulse to gamble on slot machines.

I’m very careful about the kinds of images I allow myself to focus on. For example, I am getting to the point that when I drive to Chicago on interstate 90, I barely notice the big billboard advertising the Grand Victoria Riverboat Casino in Elgin, Illinois.

It wasn’t too long ago when that billboard would be the trigger that set me on a gambling binge despite my best intentions. I also am careful about spending too much time on the internet on websites that are active, with pulsing images and electronic sounds. They are triggers; mini slot machines right here on my computer, at least in my mind. Which brings me to something that I find very troubling.

I’m absolutely dismayed that a website, gamblingkingz.com, which is supposed to be offering “gambling therapy” also promotes gambling on its page. There are several advertisements right next to the text about online gambling therapy that are promoting gambling. I don’t see the point of this at all. What’s the difference between this and serving alcohol at an alcoholics anonymous meeting? It’s downright insidious.

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

Now, a group of students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Program on Documentaries and the Law, under the direction of Professor Regina Austin, has created an important and revealing documentary about what casino gambling is doing to black communities in Pennsylvania. It’s titled “Jackpot: The Legal and Social Implications of Gambling in the Black Community.”

Among the people interviewed is Dr. Deborah Haskins, one of only a very few African American psychologists specializing in gambling addictions among African Americans. The Reverend Jesse Brown, a local Philadelphia minister and community activist was also interviewed.

I hope other ministers will speak out about the negative effects casino gambling is having on the black community and take a stand against this encroachment of casinos into every nook and cranny of our country.

I thank the young men who produced and directed this very important documentary: Nathaniel Koonce, Wendell Holland, Andrew Pinkston, and Jerome Jordan. I am especially grateful for the important work Professor Regina Austin is doing as director of the Penn Program on Documentaries and the Law.

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

Chicago does not need a casino. This city for me is a second home. It’s where I come to be rejuvenated when I want to get away from Madison, Wisconsin, where I also live and teach. I come to Chicago to enjoy the many riches the city has to offer: great theater, wonderful art museums and galleries and restaurants, plenty of sports, Millennium Park, and music everywhere. That’s why tourists come to Chicago, to partake of its energy and cultural life.

I realize that the city has an enormous budget deficit, but a casino is not a remedy. If anything, it will change the city’s character. For one thing, many tourists will spend (or rather lose) their money at the slot machines and blackjack tables rather than in the restaurants, the museums, the stores. Keep in mind that people must lose millions of dollars in order for a casino to rake in the enormous sums of money that have made a few rich people even more wealthy.

Which brings me to another point: a Chicago casino will have a devastating effect on people in poor and working class communities. Granted, Chicago gamblers now go to Indiana or to casinos outside of the city, but it takes a bit of effort for them to get there. A Chicago casino will be a short CTA ride away and the people who can least afford to lose what little they have will risk it all for the elusive jackpot.

At the risk of being disrespectful, let me say that I find it absolutely irresponsible for you and all the other public officials who support a Chicago casino to unleash this insidious form of entertainment on the public.

In closing, Mr. Emanuel, please tell me if you plan to go and gamble? If so, how often will you put your money in the dollar gobbling slot machines or on a blackjack table so that the City can generate new revenue. How much money are you willing to bet AND LOSE?

Respectfully:

Sandra Adell, Author: CONFESSIONS OF A SLOT MACHINE QUEEN: A MEMOIR (See also my blog: “A Black Woman’s Reflections on Casino Gambling” www.saadell.wordpress.com)

His was indeed a rags to riches story: he rose up from his early origins as a poor black boy from a large family to become part of an exclusive club of American millionaires. Don Barden was the quintessential self-made man. He made millions in real estate, the cable TV industry, and casino gambling.

As I mentioned in earlier posts about Don Barden, I wish that I could have celebrated rather than criticize this first, but considering the damage casino gambling does to the black community, especially a community as economically depressed as Gary, Indiana, I could not then or now.

Don Barden is gone; his casino empire is not doing well at all. But as a businessman, he had a mission: “to prove that a poor, young African American from a very large family, from humble beginnings, can rise to the top in America, in a free enterprise system.” He did that. May he now rest in PEACE.

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

In 2011 Representative Youngblood was appointed the Democratic Chairwoman of the Pennsylvania House Gaming Oversight Committee. I don’t know how many women in other states across the country hold such a high-ranking office. I bet that there aren’t many.

Representative Youngblood undoubtedly has made a really big crack in the government’s gaming glass ceiling, so I guess it’s naïve to expect her to take a stand and say NO MORE to efforts to bring more gambling to Philadelphia. In fact, in an April 6, 2011 article posted on philly.com, she’s calling for more gambling as a remedy to the city’s economic problems.

Representative Youngblood is not alone in this effort to fix local economic problems by legally robbing people who are already struggling to pay their bills. It’s happening everywhere. And most of the people who are promoting gambling at such high levels of government don’t gamble. They know it’s a really dumb way to dispose of their hard earned money.

What I find particularly troubling about Representative Youngblood is that she works closely with the communities she represents through her many outreach activities. I’m sure she knows that millions of people in Philadelphia are in pain regarding their economic situations. So why inflict more pain?

As I’ve said elsewhere in this blog, in order for casinos to generate the millions of dollars in wagering taxes that Representative Youngblood and other elected officials are salivating over, people have to lose millions of dollars. That’s why it just isn’t in the best interests of the citizens of Philadelphia to have yet another money grubbing casino in a city and state that’s already saturated with highly interactive and addictive slot machines.

Representative Rosita Youngblood has been critical of Pennsylvania’s new Governor, Tom Corbett, who she feels is putting the interests of big business before those of the State’s hard working, tax-paying, trying-to-make-ends-meet citizens with his new budget proposal.

Let me humbly submit that she’s doing the same thing by promoting more gambling, a really big business that benefits a few really rich people, in the City of Brotherly (and Sisterly) Love.

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

First, let me say that I wish I could consider myself “just” a person, but the conditions of race and racism in the country won’t allow it. I am identified as Black (or African American) by virtue of the amount of melanin I carry on my body.

Secondly, to ask “how is it relevant that you are black” is to assume a tremendous amount of arrogance (or maybe ignorance) about identity construction. My identity is formed by the rich intellectual heritage and traditions that constitute African American culture. I’m proud of that culture, a culture that continues to be very relevant in shaping American society.

In terms of the specific issues I address here, casino gambling as a predatory industry, it is especially relevant that I’m a Black woman, because I’m trying to draw attention to the negative effects casinos are having on African American communities as they continue to expand into urban areas, often right into neighborhoods populated by poor African Americans and other disenfranchised people, including the elderly and the disabled.

On March 17, 2011, at the National Council for Black Studies Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, I was joined by three other Black women, Shirley Stewart, Denise Philips, and Dr. Deborah Haskins on a panel I organized titled “Robbin’ The Hood: Casino Gambling and the Economic Disempowerment of African Americans.” This was the first time such a panel discussion was convened by Black women at a national conference. We were very relevant, especially when you consider that Ohio will soon have four casinos, one in each of the major cities with large black populations: Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo.

An outcome we hope to achieve as we continue to collaborate and give presentations about casino gambling is more serious study of the industry that might make our elected officials take notice and perhaps put the brakes on their rush to generate new revenue by “any means necessary,” in this case by legitimizing dollar gobbling video gambling devices, i.e., slot machines, in every nook and cranny of our cities, as local and state legislators are trying to do in Illinois.

There are a few astute scholars who are trying to bring a bit of sober thought to this insane rush to generate new revenue by unleashing the scourge of gambling on us. Some of them have been mentioned in earlier posts. I would now like to draw your attention to some other scholars whose voices need to be heard.

One is Fred Gottheil, a professor of Economics at the University of Illinois, whose editorial about casinos need to be required reading for the folks up in Springfield, Illinois, who keep tampering with a forty year ban on electronic gambling devices in bars, restaurants and taverns in Illinois.

The other scholars/researchers are Sam Magavern and Elaina Mule. They recently released a study of poverty and casinos in Buffalo, New York. What they describe is very relevant to other black communities such as Detroit, with its three big casinos.

The bottom line is that despite all advertising showing glamorous people having great fun in casinos, the reality is quite different. The casinos are harming the very people to whom, our elected officials want us to believe, they are supposed to be providing economic relief.

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