Cajun Casino Gambling

McCain is a high-stakes craps player who loves the pure, adrenalin-pumping, rush of the game. Obama is an exceedingly low-stakes poker player who sizes up his odds methodically and rarely loses money.

It’s a great insight into the two personalities. And there’s an even better scoop a little further down. While I knew most of the details of Obama’s poker-playing, I had no idea McCain was such a hard-core gambler:

In the past decade, [McCain] has played on Mississippi riverboats, on Indian land, in Caribbean craps pits and along the length of the Las Vegas Strip. Back in 2005 he joined a group of journalists at a magazine-industry conference in Puerto Rico, offering betting strategy on request. “Enjoying craps opens up a window on a central thread constant in John’s life,” says John Weaver, McCain’s former chief strategist, who followed him to many a casino. “Taking a chance, playing against the odds.” Aides say McCain tends to play for a few thousand dollars at a time and avoids taking markers, or loans, from the casinos, which he has helped regulate in Congress. “He never, ever plays on the house,” says Mark Salter, a McCain adviser. The goal, say several people familiar with his habit, is never financial. He loves the thrill of winning and the camaraderie at the table.

Only recently have McCain’s aides urged him to pull back from the pastime. In the heat of the G.O.P. primary fight last spring, he announced on a visit to the Vegas Strip that he was going to the casino floor. When his aides stopped him, fearing a public relations disaster, McCain suggested that they ask the casino to take a craps table to a private room, a high-roller privilege McCain had indulged in before. His aides, with alarm bells ringing, refused again, according to two accounts of the discussion.

“He clearly knows that this is on the borderline of what is acceptable for him to be doing,” says a Republican who has watched McCain play. “And he just sort of revels in it.” [emphasis added].

A few thousand dollars at a time?* Wow. That’s more than borderline unseemly, I’d say–easily several hundred thousand dollars over a period of 5-10 years if McCain plays regularly. It’s certainly a far cry from the $1-ante games Obama played in Springfield.

At the end of the piece, a former Obama colleague, refering to Obama’s contemplative gambling style, tells Time, “If he runs his presidency the way he plays poker, I’ll sleep good at night.” I think the converse is true of McCain–I’d sleep pretty poorly if he were to run his presidency the way he plays craps. (And I think the odds are high that he would. He certainly seems to run his campaign that way…)

*Of course, if by “a few thousand dollars at a time” Scherer and Weisskopf mean “a few thousand dollars a roll,” then we’re potentially talking millions of dollars over a period of several years, not hundreds of thousands. We’d be in real pathological territory–nothing particularly borderline about it.
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/07/06/john-mccain-s-gambling-problem.aspx

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Two Kentucky women tell their stories of how gambling impacted their families.

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http://www.gamblinghelper.com
Prior to this era of high technology, who would have thought there could be something more addictive than tobacco, alcohol, or even heroin? This addiction is not ingested, leaves no odors or visible signs, yet, despite all efforts by its victims to abstain, leaves them powerless. It is called a Video Lottery Terminal (VLT). Even more surprising is the fact that this devastating piece of equipment is owned, operated, and regulated by our government. The basic difference between a VLT and a slot machine, which can be found only in casinos, is the easy access one has to discover the VLT, and the ability to slip in and out of the 3 828 licensed establishments around the province, where these machines can be played. One can play them on their lunch hour, coffee break, on the way to or from work without having to make a trip to the casino. The VLT has broken the gender barrier as well, in that women previously would not go into a bar unescorted, but it is viewed as being normal for a woman to play the VLTs. If the government had its way, with no criticism from consumer protectors like myself and others, the machines would also be in convenience stores, service stations, etc. in the community. After all, the Ninetendo, Genesis, Playstation generation are natural targets for this type of activity. There will always be unscrupulous bar owners who look the other way while minors try to beat the electronic monster. When the smoke clears at the end of each day, the government pulls 1.895 million dollars out of the marketplace and into general revenue. We are expected to believe that our communities benefit from this, of course, because our government provides the greatest healthcare system and the highest quality educational institutions in the country. Every month welfare and old age pension cheques get recycled in the 14 713 VLTs around our province. One needs only to look at all the empty stores that used to be viable businesses. The quickest growing industries today seem to be pawn shops and cheque cashing agencies.
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http://www.justbewell.com/compulsive_gambling_hypnotherapy_nlp_help_london.html

You can learn to stop compulsive gambling and you can do so however chronic or extreme the problem has been. Excessive gambling can ruin lives, but you probably dont need us to tell you that but there is a cure. The powerful and direct treatments we give people using the best from the fields of NLP and hypnosis, have proven to be effective in helping people to overcome problem gambling.
This is not counselling or therapy, these are pragmatic techniques that are built from studying how the gambler thinks, and how to train their mind to think differently. It is more like reconditioning and training than therapy. We dont want you to talk for hours about how difficult things have been for you, we just want to get on with getting you over the addiction, fast.
All addictions have some factors in common. The person thinks about what they are addicted to, they get a good feeling, then they carry out the behaviour. Do this enough times and it becomes automatic, a learned way of being, a habit. However big the habit, or pattern of thinking, it can be changed. In our experience all habits can be changed and often much faster than people expect.
So get in touch with one of us. JustBeWell has clinics worldwide and may well be able to help you to stop compulsive gambling for good.

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http://www.gamblinghelper.com
“Whether it’s in a casino or online, poker and other games of chance are becoming increasingly popular. It’s not just men who are addicted, a growing number of women are becoming compulsive gamblers, too. Early Show correspondent Hattie Kauffman takes a closer look at the troubling trend,” news anchor.

“The reality is the longer you gamble compulsively, which is what I was doing, the more you become a compulsive liar,” Melanie Morgan, former gambling addict.

“In the 1980s Melanie Morgan was a successful television anchor until her gambling addiction cost her, her job and nearly destroyed her marriage,” Hattie Kauffman, CBS national correspondent.

“I would lie about where I was going, what I was doing, who I was with, how much money I was spending,” Melanie Morgan.

“Even her pregnancy did not stop Melanie from gambling,” Hattie Kauffman.

“Of course I was in a terrible environment, smoke-filled rooms, hardly taking care of myself. I was gambling until an hour before I gave birth,” Melanie Morgan.

“After her son was born, she often left the infant with an assortment of babysitters,” Kauffman.

“I remember packing up the baby one day and driving around to each of the card rooms where I thought she might be and finally locating her and taking the baby in its carrier and putting the baby in the middle of the poker table and saying, ‘You got a choice. You want to play cards or you want to be a Mom?’” Jack Morgan, Melanie’s husband.

“I knew at that point I was in desperate trouble and I knew I was sick, sick, and needed help. And I still didn’t want to stop,” Melanie Morgan.

“You might think the opportunity to gamble non-stop would be limited to a trip to Las Vegas or Atlantic City, but the temptation is everywhere. Visit here in Phoenix and you’ll be greeted with the Arizona Casino guide, listing 22 casinos, dog racing, horse racing, bingo and more,” Kauffman.

“I won $10,000 playing bingo. It just hooks you right in,” former compulsive gambler.

“Slot machines,” another compulsive gambler.

“Mine wasn’t slots, it was draw poker,” another compulsive gambler.

“I sat down with three women in recovery from compulsive gambling: Shannon, Freda, and Vicki,”

“Do you have any idea how much you’ve lost to gambling?” Kauffman.

“I’ve lost $300,000. It was all of my retirement money,” Vicki.

“I have thought it was around $35,000 but my husband has stated that it’s around $50,000,” Shannon.

“It was around $115,000 to $200,000,” Freda.

“But Freda lost a lot more than that. She lost a year of her life when she went to prison after stealing cash to gamble,” Kauffman.

“The sick compulsive gambler will do whatever they have to do to gamble,” Freda.

“It makes me think about a drug addict who steals to get the drugs,” Kauffman.

“It’s an addiction. It is an addiction,” Freda.

“Psychologist Paul Good says that it used to be women used to gamble to escape their every day life, but now more are being lured simply by the action,” Kauffman.

“A sense of excitement, of being on the edge. You are literally holding your fate in your own hands at a poker table. For a women, that could be a powerful riveting experience,” Paul Good, psychologist.

“Is it a high? Is it a euphoria?” Kauffman.

“Oh yes. Oh yes it is. It’s like a drug,” Freda.

“Especially when you hear the bells ringing,” background voice.

“According to the National Council on Problem Gambling, in the 1980s just a handful of women sought treatment for gambling addiction. Today, almost half of those seeking help for gambling addiction are female,” Kauffman.

“You are going to see gambling take its place alongside alcoholism and drug abuse as being one of the most significant addictions of our time,” Paul Good, Psychologist.

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