High Stakes: The Rising Cost of America's Gambling Addiction

by Sam Skolnik

What the explosive growth of legalized gambling means socially, politically, and economically for America.

Forty years ago, casinos were legal in just one state. Today, legalized gambling has morphed into a $119 billion industry established in all but two states. As elected officials are urging voters to expand gambling’s reach, the industry’s supporters and their impassioned detractors are squaring off in prolonged state-by-state battles. Millions of Americans are being asked to are the benefits worth the costs?
 
With a blend of investigative journalism and poignant narratives of gambling addiction, award-winning journalist Sam Skolnik provides an in-depth exploration of the consequences of this national phenomenon. In  High Stakes , we meet politicians eager to promote legalized gambling as an economic cure-all, scientists wrestling with the meaning of gambling addiction, and players so caught up in the chase that they’ve lost their livelihoods and their minds.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Sam Skolnik began his journalism career as a news aide and freelance writer for the Washington Post. He went on to report for the Legal Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and Las Vegas Sun. He's won several national journalism awards and was selected to be a Knight-Wallace journalism fellow for 2007-08.

Reviews

[Nancy Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extremely well-researched and reported book about the gambling life and the toll it takes on individuals and on society. The author examines not only the end result of gambling, but also its roots, the reason games of chance appeal to the human psyche.

Mr. Skolnik delves deeply into facets of gambling that I've never seen addressed before; for example, the particular allure of gambling in Asian cultures. He interviews dozens of people, gamblers themselves as well as those involved in both promoting and regulating the gambling industry. His narrative is enlivened by these insightful conversations.

I looked in vain, though, for a chapter on gambling and the elderly. Living as close to Atlantic City as I do, I find it puzzling and sad that those who can least afford to gamble -- the elderly who live mostly on Social Security and Medicaid -- flock to casinos that cold-heartedly take their food, utility and rent money, luring them there with shuttle buses and free buffet tickets. My spouse's elderly aunt kept a shelf full of "lucky" elephants that she took on her trips to the casinos. She bragged about wins that were obviously fictitious, given her living situation. It makes me angry even today.

The author also undercuts his arguments against gambling by confessing his own penchant for poker. While he recognizes in his head the dangers of high-stakes poker, and admits the money he has lost to it, the aversion hasn't taken hold in his heart. His continuing fascination for the game is obvious, and to me, equally as sad as any of the other stories he tells in this book. "For what it's worth, I was ranked by the site [a poker industry website] to be among the top 4,100 poker tournament players in the world." What is that worth, Mr. Skolnik? I'd love to read more of this author's personal story when he finally does fold.

[Karina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very helpful information about the ills of gambling on individuals, families and communities.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skolnik's book taps into a lot of research and, most important, explores the links between gambling research funding by the gambling industry and types of research that get funded and how it is used, and potentially abused. At the same time he presents the research fairly and honestly. This analysis alone makes this book highly valuable. The issues related to online gambling will remain a moving target, but the information he provides is an excellent starting point. But another value to the book is its deft juggling of personal stories with statistical information -- faces are given to the problems the numbers delineate. He also explains his own position as an problem gambler, to make it clear how that underlies both his interest in the subject and his perspective on it.

[Andy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book felt incomplete and unevenly researched. Unfortunate perhaps that the chapter on internet poker was written immediately before Black Friday, a keystone event in the history and future of internet gambling. Nonetheless, overall an ok introduction to many of the issues involved and a jumping off place for further research.