Crapped Out: How Gambling Ruins the Economy and Destroys Lives

Crapped Out: How Gambling Ruins the Economy and Destroys Lives, Jennifer Vogel (ed.), Common Courage Press, 1997

        "Gambling is bad" is an easy thing to say; this book goes into lots of detail as to why gambling is bad, not just for the individual, but for society in general.

        It usually starts with the state legislature. Any untapped source of revenue is looked at with great anticipation in these days of economic belt-tightening. Revenue from lotteries or casinos is usually intended, in the beginning, for a worthy cause like education or the environment. The money isn't an extra windfall for that department, it's money that the legislature can take from that department and use elsewhere. Usually, the money is quietly redirected, after a couple of years into the state's general fund.

        In economically depressed areas, casinos and riverboat gambling promise jobs and tourists and growth in the local economy. For every successful casino like Foxwoods in Connecticut, there is a riverboat casino somewhere in the Midwest where the only thing that has grown up around it is a parking lot, assuming that it is still open.

        Studies have shown that lotteries are simply another way of redistributing money from the poor to the rich; those in lower-class areas play the lottery more than those in upper-class areas.

        Anyone who has ever bet at a casino or played Lotto needs to read this book.