by Jeanne Sones

Created on: July 10, 2007   Last Updated: May 12, 2010

Gambling will destroy your life if you let it. It might start out small and seem like fun but in the end it can grab you and take everything you have, your home, your car, your savings, even your retirement. The worst part about an addictive habit like gambling is you don't know you are bad off until you really have lost everything! You can also lose your family, friends, and it just goes on and on.

In our family, gambling was not really mentioned. One time my dad came home and I was playing penny poker with friends and he was very upset and asked the friends to leave. He did not like us gambling even it was just for pennies. I never thought of a casino, or a slot machine, almost believing it was something from the dark side of life, it was for people who had no morals or didn't care about important things in life like family, God, work, etc.

At some point in time, later in my life, the gambling became a family problem however. Most of my immediate family has done it or is still gambling on a boat about an hour outside of town. Some of my family are addicted, and can't go long without going again. It doesn't seem to just be young people either, grandmothers are addicted, old and young alike.

No one in our family is wealthy or does not have to work, or can afford to lose any money, nonetheless money is lost to gambling. I've read books on the casinos and find they are actually set up for you to lose, no kidding, and machines are actually set in certain positions and computerized to hit after so many people lose there money, then someone might win, but the chance of that person winning big is about 1:665,000 spins on the slot machine. So approximately 664,000 people put their hard earned money in the machine and you just sit down and take one or two spins and win all their money, on your one dollar bill, it just doesn't seem right does it? You could get lucky though, sit all day and end up winning, but most of the time when my family members win they just sit again and put it all back in. And even though they won in that time to the casino, they really lost again, because they take home nothing.

Now some say its entertainment, to gamble, they enjoy the thrill and all, but if you get hooked, and have to go and spend money you don't have or can't afford to lose or maybe lose your car, house or worse case scenario, your family, boy that's some thrill isn't it? There is a senior bus that takes seniors back and forth to the casino everyday of the week for only $1.

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