LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Gambling: Gamblers
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Michael Stone, the executive director of the Kentucky Council on Problem Gambling reported this week that nearly 4 percent of US teenaged gamblers are compulsive gamblers. Experts have previously reported that the risk of addictive habits developing are greater in players who win rewards whilst young, especially teenagers.
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[G]ambling bounced back and expanded. Pari-mutuel betting on races was legalized in 1927. Policy, popular among African Americans, grew as they were forced into segregated neighborhoods in the early twentieth century. Black gamblers contributed to Bronzeville churches and charities and invested in its businesses. Bingo became popular, and during the Great Depression churches and charities sponsored it to raise funds, drawing many women as players. Meanwhile telephones facilitated the gradual decline of the male-dominated horse parlor.
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During the desperation phase, there is a marked increase in the time spent gambling. This is accompanied by remorse, blaming others and alienating family and friends. Eventually, the gamblers may engage in illegal acts to finance their gambling. They may experience hopelessness, suicidal thoughts and attempts, arrests, divorce, alcohol and/or other drug abuse, or an emotional breakdown.
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Video lottery terminals (VLTs) have been called the crack-cocaine of gambling. Indeed, electronic gaming machines (EGMs) may be the most addictive form of gambling ever invented. Their colours, lights and sounds can drive normal gamblers to bet faster and faster until they become obsessed. It takes only a year to get hooked on VLTs, while it takes almost four years to become addicted to other forms of gambling such as horses, sports betting and blackjack.
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The biggest gamblers, led by Mike McDonald, were important political contributors, and officials were reluctant to enforce laws against gambling. Police were often personally sympathetic to gambling, and many accepted payoffs. But campaigns against gambling found a few eager allies among politicians, and even the tolerant mayor Carter H. Harrison was pressured into crackdowns on the more open forms of gambling.
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A study of America's 11- to 18-year-olds showed that 4 percent to 7 percent had demonstrated problem gambling behaviors. And mountains of debt and ruined credit are not the worst results. The National Council on Problem Gambling reports that one in five pathological gamblers attempts suicide, a rate higher than for any other addictive disorder.
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