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Massachusetts Senate President Therese Murray has put her energies into a bill that focuses on big ticket health care cost control.  The purpose of the bill is to ensure small business health insurance premiums cost relief of between 10 and 15 percent.  The way the bill works is that it allows small businesses to join forces and leverage lower prices from insurers.

“I hope the House will act soon so that [small businesses] will get some relief,” said Senate President Murray.

However, as important as this bill sounds, there are few issues in the state as important as creating enough revenue to cut down the looming budget deficit.  That is the reason that House Speaker Robert DeLeo has set his focus on passing legislation to legalize slot machines.

However, Senate President Murray and Governor Deval Patrick are two of the biggest obstacles facing DeLeo’s bill.  Ironically, neither of them are against the legalization of slot machines.  Murray and Patrick simply do not think racinos, slot machines at racetracks, are the best thing for Massachusetts.  They would like to see brand new casinos built in the state.

It is possible that part of DeLeo’s motivation to get slot machines at the track is to get the machines up and running as quickly as possible.  It will take years before brand new casinos are built and their slot machines are generating revenue.  However, racetracks could, theoretically, have slot machines operating in months.  Several states in the region, such as New Hampshire, are also considering the legalization of slot machines.

I guess this is just how our country works but it seems like such a darn shame.  House Speaker Robert DeLeo has been fighting persistently to pass legislation that will legalize slot machines in the state of Massachusetts.  His efforts have been met with some success and some failure.  The bill, in its various forms thus far, has the ability to pass through the House of Representatives with no problem.  However, the Senate does not seem remotely friendly to the bill.  So as a bargaining chip, Speaker DeLeo has threatened to type up Senate President Therese Murray’s pet bill on health care cost control.

Both these issues are important.  Health care cost control is an issue that will directly impact the lives of Massachusetts residents, but so do slot machines.  The main reason for legalizing slot machines is to create an alternative source of revenue so that the state government does not have to increase personal taxes.

However, no matter how important these issues are, there just seems to be something very classless about politicians having to play political games to get their agendas across.  Ideally, we think of Senators and Congressman as a group of people put together to fight for the wishes of the state’s residents.  In reality they seem like nothing more than car sales men bartering and bargaining to get their agendas across.  It would be nice to see politicians voting on issues based on their belief of how it will affect the people of the state not just because they need to vote certain way to get enough votes for their personal projects.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo has shown once again that he will use every bit of influence in his grasp in order to get slot machines legalized in Massachusetts.  Speaker DeLeo has been pushing to pass a bill that would allow casinos and racinos in the state.  He has even allowed his bill to suffer huge cutbacks and compromises.  The bill that started out with a proposal of 17,000 slot machines spread out over 6 locations in the state has been reduced to 10,000 slot machines in only four locations in the state.  Recently the bill made its way safely through the House of Representatives only to be shot down in the Senate.

Now DeLeo is pulling out the big guns. Senate President Therese Murray’s prime policy hope for this current legislative session is health care cost control.  DeLeo has stated that he is just not sure that her policy will be addressed this session.  DeLeo says that the intricacies of reform are just too much to handle before the end of the formal session.  However, it is clear that DeLeo is using this as a bargaining chip to once again get his slots legislation through the senate.  DeLeo will do whatever it takes.

“I’m not so certain that we’re going to be able to tackle this before the end of this legislative session,” said DeLeo.

“But I think it’s good because of the fact that I think we’re preparing ourselves for the next legislative session [when] we are going to tackle it.”

It is a healthy addict that knows there is no one else to blame for their actions beyond themselves.  Michael Burke is living example of both how gambling addiction can ruin a persons life and how a person can rebuild even after falling into the pits of shame.  Michael Burke has a history of demons.  There are certain people who simply have addictive personalities.  For Burke his first battle was with alcohol, but then he transferred the addiction to casinos.  Neither was very good for his health.  Addicts will transfer their focus all the time.  A person addicted to slot machines today may find themselves with a drug addiction or even addicted to a religious faith.

Even after having spent three years in prison, Burke responsibly acknowledges that casinos are not to blame for his behavior.  As he puts it, no one put a gun to his head; except himself when he was finally exposed for stealing money from his clients.  That is where most protestors go wrong.  Most people do not become addicted to gambling, only a very small percentage of the population.  The average person visits casinos as a means of entertainment.  Activists should spend time making sure that gambling addicts get help, rather than trying to ban casinos.  A person with an addictive personality does not need slot machines to ruin their lives, they are likely to find something, anything to latch on to.  Burke has, since his high rolling days, become an author and donating the proceeds from the book to the clients he stole from.

Gambling addiction is not a condition to take lightly.  It is not likely that a person that is drawn to spend their life savings away so impulsively will be safe from other dangerously impulsive behavior.  Michael Burke tells the story of how he went from a lawyer, to a high roller, to spending three years in prison.  Prison is not the typical ending place for a compulsive gambler, but it is if that gambler funds their gambling habits with his client’s bank account like Burke.  Burke was not the kind of gambler that would dump money into slot machines.  He was seen as a high roller and became absolutely addicted to the glamorous lifestyle.

Things changed when a casino opened near his home.  He recalled leaving work, immediately hitting up several different banks, and finally arriving at the Windsor casino in Canada.  His lifestyle was very fast paced.  His world came crashing down around him when is client finally got wind of what he was doing an threatened to sue.

After that, Burke was tossed into a spiral of despair.  He attempted suicide twice.  The first time he held a cocked gun to his head.  The second time he sprinted back and forth across the yard with a barrel of trash hoping to induce a heart attack.  Neither attempt was successful.  He ended up serving three years in prison.  He vowed to reimburse his client with $1.6 million.  Burke ended up writing a book titled: Never Enough: One Lawyer’s True Story of How He Gambled His Career Away.

Michael Burke lives in Howell, Michigan.  He has a history of addiction to both alcohol and gambling.  Burke battled with his alcoholism in younger married life.  Gambling addiction did not become a problem until much later when he was building a small-town law practice.  Burke discovered that gambling satisfied a craving in him that he had not known since his days as a drinking man.  As an attorney with full access to the bank accounts of his clients, Burke found it very easy to fuel his gambling habits and the amount of money available to him created a self image that became very dangerous.

Burke had established himself a high roller.  High rollers are not the type that comes to casinos to drop a few dollars in the slot machines.  High rollers typically find themselves playing table games and for large sums of money, winning big and losing big.  Casinos are very appreciative of their high rollers and will often cater to them by awarding them annual trips to the casino with flights, hotel rooms, food, and entertainment all thrown in as free perks.  This was the lifestyle that hooked Burke.

“I knew I had found my calling in life,” he said.

With the ability to win back his loses by the end of the year, Burke was able to convince himself that gambling the money of his clients was not stealing.  Everything went south for Burke when a casino opened within a short drive of his home.  His gambling habits reached the point of obsession and he lost control over his spending.

Gambling addiction is a serious problem; however it is a problem that will persist regardless of the existence of casinos and slot machines.  A compulsive gambler is likely to manifest his behavior at some point in time regardless of whether casino are legalized in his or her state.  A study from the Michigan Department of Community Health revealed that gambling addiction is actually a rare occurrence. In 2006, only 2 percent of the population admitted to having a gambling addiction.

The very same study showed that most of the people with a gambling addiction were addicted to the state lottery.  This is an interesting statistic as it is not often that you see a lot of protest surrounding a state lottery.  This may be due to the fact that gambling on the lottery is not as glamorous as casino gambling and there for does not receive nearly as much attention.  It is also possible for families to lose thousands of dollars in one passing at a casino whereas the typical behavior at a state lottery is the loss of a lot of money over a long period of time.  If a family spends between five and ten dollars buying lottery tickets every week, that will quickly amount to thousands of dollars over a couple of years.

The National Gambling Impact Study Commission of 1999 also revealed that the percent of problem and pathological gamblers tends to double within 50 miles of casinos and slots parlors.  This would also account for why slot machines and casino get more negative press than state lotteries.

As sure as gravity will take hold of a falling object, it is certain that whenever a new casino is being erected or a state explores the possibility of expanding gambling with slot machines the antigambling crowd will come out and warn of the dangers of gambling addiction.  Gambling addiction is a legitimate concern and a very real problem for many people.  However, the facts of gambling addiction are very easily skewed for the sake of a political agenda.  This is a fact that is very unfortunate.  Anything that can be so devastating to a personal life should not be wielded as a political tool.

The way that gambling addiction is most commonly misrepresented is in its frequency.  Gambling addiction is actually a rare occurrence in most people. According to the 2006 Michigan Department of Community Health survey in the state of Michigan only about 2 percent of the population reported having a gambling problem.  Only 4 percent reported having had a problem at some time in the past.  However, it is true that occurrences of gambling addictions have been known to increase in areas where new casinos are erected.  For some people it is the convenience of having slot machines so close that sets of unhealthy gambling habit in them.  A local woman from the Battle Creek, Michigan area confessed that to be her problem with once the FireKeepers casino opened.  She noticed she was making more and more stops at the casino when she would go into Battle Creek for shopping.

It has not yet been one year since the FireKeepers casino has opened in Battle Creek, Michigan.  The casino will celebrate its first anniversary at the end of the summer in August.  However, since the casino was established the number of admitted gambling addicts has increased.  Slot machines and other forms of gambling are simply forms of entertainment; however there are some personality types to which the games can be very dangerous.  It is hard to know if a person will turn out to be a gambling addict and in some cases it may even be harder for a person to admit to themselves they have a gambling addiction.  A person may find that though they have always gambled responsibly in the past when traveling to distant casinos; have slot machines only a few minutes from their home may prove too much to resist.

Michael Burke is a local man from the Battle Creek area.  He sends a warning to gamblers that even when displaying the behavior of a gambling addict it may be difficult to admit to oneself; this may prove especially true for those that have a lot of money.  During the most expensive portions of his struggle with gambling addiction, Burke’s job as an attorney gave him full access to his client’s bank accounts.  He claims it took him years before he finally had to realize that he had a serious problem.  Burke’s father was once the state liquor control commission manager.  Burke hopes his story will help gambling addicts identify that they need help.

It is pretty obvious, I should hope, that you can consider this site pro gambling.  However, that does not mean we are insensitive to the realities and hardships of compulsive gambling.  Gambling addiction is a very real problem in the United States.  Whenever a new casino is erected, there is a chance that the convenience of slot machines and table games appearing in the wrong persons neighborhood will bring out a very expensive character trait that even they may not have realized they had in them.

Such is the case of a woman from the Battle Creek, Michigan area.  This woman confesses to be a gambling addict, but wishes to remain anonymous as she has not yet described her woes to her closest friends and families.  She claims that ever since the opening of FireKeepers Casino only about 20 minutes away from her home the tempting sirens call has been too great for her to resist.

“My addiction came on fast and furious and I still don’t understand why,” said the woman.  She is currently seeking treatment gambling addiction.

Though she is not sure why her addiction came on so intensely, she is certain it has something to do with the proximity of the casino to her home.  In the past she claims she has always enjoyed gambling as a form of entertainment.  She went on trips with friends and would spend money on slot machines but she would responsibly establish a spending limit and call it quits once that limit was reached.