Gambling #2

In today's research I read through one my sources in depth from Gale Virtual Library about all the background behind gambling and the lottery. Within this database it linked me up to another article that was very interesting about a personal story from Tony McDew where gambling took over his life. McDew was a technician who was doing pretty well bringing in income, but he always felt that he needed to make more money to buy things for his girlfriend and have more spending money. This was when he turned to gambling as another hopeful source of income. As he first experienced playing on the slot machines he made some money, hearing the lights go off and goes spill down into his pocket. This glimpse of victory was only a bad turning point in his life as Tony became very addicted to this game and didn't want to stop playing. McDew never had any drug problems, but he explained the exhilaration of winning by saying, "it's like you're getting high" and this addictive lifestyle took over for him. He even went far enough to compare himself to a crack addict cause it was something he couldn't stop. He kept losing thousands of dollars playing these games and he had to make excuses to his wife as if he was jumped and robbed and that's why he never had any money as he was taking his paychecks straight to the casinos. Overall he lost over $35,000 and he is a prime example of the basis of the pathological gamblers he get addictive to this game and take a very negative turn in their lives. Though this billion dollar industry is helping the government in some ways with having more spending money, it is ruining the lives of many citizens lives in terms not allowing them to consume in the economy.