Some soldiers are getting hooked on military run slot machines |
Loading ...Most readers know I’m in favor of responsible, recreational gambling. I believe both federal and state governments should legalize online gambling, tax it and use the money to make the schools and roads better and reduce the burdensome national debt.
It seems hypocritical to me that the federal government which runs the military is running casinos for soldiers and at the same time creating federal laws that ban internet gambling. What do you think? And of course there are going to be stories about problem gambling like this:
Carrie Walsh’s husband was a decorated Apache helicopter pilot for the U.S. Army. But years ago, Aaron Walsh started playing slot machines on military bases. He became a gambling addict. It eventually ruined his military career.
As the article continues on, a final gambling binge drove Mr. Walsh to suicide.
Gambling does create very real social problems for some gamblers like Mr. Walsh succumbed to and yes, it’s sad. I understand the strong belief some have who say more gambling would be bad but what I see in our surrounding area are the indian casinos growing larger and larger. We already have a situation of more gambling, it’s just growing in areas where taxation could occur. Almost every time we visit one of the local indian casinos they’ve expanded a new area, added more machines and are growing the business.
Many of these casinos are supporting legislators who are against opening gambling to businesses outside the tribal lands. So riddle me this batman, how can gambling be ok and controlled on tribal lands but not ok at the non-tribal tavern or internet?
There aren’t going to be slot machines in every grocery store and next to schools. Local zoning can deal with situations like that just like they’ve dealt with bars. Telling the bar owner he can’t have any slot machines but can have pull tabs is weak.
Add to this the convoluted message that it sends for military-run casinos and there is a lot of pot, kettle, black situations — or at least the strong appearance thereof. What’s going on here?
Let’s not forget the government not following the WTO ruling regarding Antigua-based online casinos as outlined by Techdirt yesterday. Is the government just confused, wishy-washy or some combination of both?
Although I’m a bit surprised to learn the military was doing this, I don’t mind it. I would like to think as part of the extended basic training the military is working with soldiers on self-discipline and control. Two traits that are important for a soldier brandishing a weapon.
Did you realize the military was doing this? Your thoughts?
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What makes me go hmmm is when an addiction is still looked at as a problem of “self-discipline and control”. Aaron, prior to becoming addicted to the slot machines, was the absolute top of his class and of his military company. He was highly decorated, and looked up to by his peers. For example, Aaron graduated #1 in the Flight School XXI school for the AH-64D Longbow Apache Helicopter. This is the aircraft that is generally considered to be the most difficult to learn how to pilot (with the exception of the space shuttle). If you think that was just intelligence, and does not show self-discipline or control, you have very little real knowledge of the military. After graduating the FSXXI as #1, Aaron went on to graduate officer school in the top slot. The issue with legalized (in this case military promoted) gambling, is the absolute lack of treatment for those who become addicted. Any military member who would be terribly offended by the removal of slot machines from overseas bases may already have an addiction.
Comment by Carrie Walsh — May 25, 2007 @ 8:33 pm PST
My apologies for the loss of your husband, Carrie.
I lost my mother to an addiction (alcohol), so I understand what it’s like to love somebody who can’t stop doing something that is destructive. The difference is the stuff she was putting into her body was the direct result of her death (cheap wine), which completely eroded her physical health and essentially pickled her liver. No matter what anybody in our family did, we couldn’t get her to stop. We tried all sorts of method and she went through treatment but she would always go back to the bottle for answers that weren’t there. I share your pain and loss as someone who lost somebody they love to an addiction. There rarely is a day that goes by that I don’t think about the situation and wish things had gone differently.
Do I blame the stores that sold her the wine or think all wine is bad? No. Alcohol in moderation is good for our health, it’s been proven. I blame my mother for not having the self-control and discipline to beat her addiction. I’m angry that she couldn’t stop hurting the rest of the family with her own self-destructive behavior.
You wrote: “The issue with legalized (in this case military promoted) gambling, is the absolute lack of treatment for those who become addicted.”
The military offers no sort of help whatsoever for those with gambling problems? No treatment? They didn’t have any system of banning from the casinos like they do with cheaters? To me it’s criminal — and there should be some sort of penalty or fine — when the people (in this case, the military) running the gambling machines know for certain the person has a problem and they continue to take the money. If that’s what you’re saying happened here, they definitely participated in a negative way to Aaron’s gambling problem.
With that said, I don’t know much about the military, that I’ll concede. Although people in our family have been in the military (my grandfather flew B-17 bombers in WWII, my uncle was in Vietnam, my dad was in Korea), I never went into the military. As distasteful as this might sound, I still don’t have a problem with the military offering soldiers gambling, cigarettes, alcohol and for that matter prostitutes if they want them. It isn’t reasonable or fair in a democratic society (and our democracy is what our brave men and women soldiers are fighting to protect) to punish the soldiers who can control and moderate these vices because there are a percentage of those who cannot. And we both know prohibition doesn’t work. It’s not working with internet gambling, it didn’t work with alcohol, it’s not working with drugs. The people with problems will just go off base and find the slots elsewhere. Perhaps machines that aren’t regulated and payback a fair percentage.
Instead, we need to legalize, regulate, tax and then use these additional monies to properly zone where the gaming activity occurs and determine who the problem gamblers are and try to better educate ourselves about the addictions and successful treatment options. Nobody can help people with addictions if these people first don’t find a way to help themselves.
With that said and I do not mean this dispassionately or disrespectfully, it wasn’t the slot machines themselves that killed — they are just machines that take more of our money than they give back by design, it was a weapon and Aaron’s own hand. Not committing suicide, facing your own demons, is the greatest form of self-discipline and control that I can think of in life. What greater form of self-discipline and control is there?
I believe if he had come home and tried to deal with these problems he could have beaten them. I realize that at the time he might have felt the odds were against him and that he’d let everybody he loved down and death was the only way out, but that’s not the case. Love can triumph over addiction. It doesn’t always, sadly, but I believe love is a much stronger emotion than hate. Because Aaron and my mother didn’t embrace the love that surrounded them and use that power to fight their addictions, doesn’t mean that others cannot and will not in the future.
Again I regret your loss and my heart goes out to you and the rest of your family.
Comment by TDavid — May 26, 2007 @ 5:55 am PST
From your statement above “we need to legalize, regulate, tax and then use these additional monies to properly zone where the gaming activity occurs and determine who the problem gamblers are and try to better educate ourselves about the addictions and successful treatment options. Nobody can help people with addictions if these people first don’t find a way to help themselves.”
This was never done in any of the Army’s gambling establishments in South Korea. In fact, its downright illegal that the Army looks the other way when it comes to who is gambling on their installations. Especially for security reasons as any civilan Koreans can still pay there way on post to gamble illegally. And by also seeing the addicted soldiers gambling every available minute without any intervention. I know first hand, as I worked in these establishements for several months and witnessed all the illegal activities that the Army just looks away from. I could stop a soldier from drinking too much and bar him from buying more alcohol, but I had to mind my own business when it came to checking id’s (for SOFA status) of the civilians, or stopping the addicts from continuing to gamble there. You know who is addicted as you see these soldiers and civilians gambling there 7 days a week for most hours of the day. In addition I was told by MWR to mind my own business about the illegal loan sharking, “Korean Won” money transfers and transportation of unauthorized Koreans to come on post to gamble. Just at the one club I was repsonsible for, we averaged $10,000 a night on our 56 slot machines. The Army says its for recreation only, but its definitely for profit.
Seeing all of this first hand didn’t stop me from my gambling addiction. I served 19 years, 9 months in the US Army (17.5 years on Fort Bragg). When I arrived to Korea, the first place you go to is the Dragon Hill Lodge where on the 1st floor they have slot machine gambling rooms. I was immediately hooked, spent all of my paychecks, maxed the credit cards, and when that ran out, I borrowed, committed fraud, and wrote thousands of dollars in bad checks, anything to feed these machines. I admit I have no control when it came to gambling, I needed help, and there was none to be found. I went to Mental Health, but they said they only treat drug addictions so they referred me to ADAPC (Army Drug and Alcohol Program), but they said they didnt treat gambling addiction and sent me back to Mental Health. There was no Gamblers Anonymous there, so no one could help me. I had 2 separate Court Martials one for the fraud in which I was given a 4 month sentence and one for the bad checks in which I was given 8 years, 4 months (Gratefully, I had a 24 month pretrial agreement). I served a total of 14 months incarceration.
I understand that gamblers will still find somehwere to gamble, but that still doesnt help the fact that there is no treatment for gambling in place for the solders, and the Army is promoting gambling. At least the state casino’s and state run lotteries put money aside to help problem gamblers. The Army made $109 million last year on their slot machines, not once cent went to any help program in Korea and I doubt anywhere else either. If there was something in place there to help the soldiers from gambling addiction, it could not only save their family and their career, but it could save their lives.
Its shameful that nothing is done to help soldiers and airman addicted to gambling. If we were addicted to cocaine or marijuana, there are all kinds of help available, but for gambling addiction there is none. With allthe millions that the Army is making on the slot machines, Why couldnt they have a health professional not only on base but on the peninsula to help people us.
Even the Army’s last study said only 3% of the military will be problem gamblers, so that is saying in Korea, if 20K soldiers there, its ok for 600 soldiers destroy themselves because of the gambling addiction. My career is over, but I want to stop future soldiers from becoming addicted, even more so that the Army could be the one that got some of these soldiers first introduced to gambling.
So here I am, no retirement and a Bad Conduct Discharge. And I was asking for help before I commited my crimes. The crimes I did are no excuse but the money went right to the Army. I wish the retirement I won’t receive could pay for a gamblers help program to be in place in Korea.
I am an active member in GA- Fayetteville Chapter, I just hit my one year mark on May 25th, and I tell my story to the many soldiers and Airman from Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base that come in seeking help. They are afraid toask for help on post as it could have repurcussions on their careers. I’m trying to help others from this addiction.
Comment by Frank Del-Grosso — May 27, 2007 @ 3:13 pm PST
Wow, Frank, keep telling your story and thank you for sharing it here. I totally agree if that’s how things are still happening in the military run casino operations that change is in order.
Comment by TDavid — May 27, 2007 @ 3:23 pm PST
Carrie and Aaron were once a huge part of my family until his entrance into Warrant Officer School and we lost contact. Aaron was a fine man, good husband and overall good guy, however, the military DOES have mental health counselors available to treat and help all types of addictions, including gambling. This is a personal issue that needed to be admitted to and that was probably the hardest step for him, asking for help. I still have nothing but love in my heart for Carrie, Mia and AJ and hope that they are doing well, but I disagree with the removal of slots from MWR facilities. Why not take away the credit cards, coffee, television, video games and pizza too?
Deb
Comment by DebCarbone — December 15, 2007 @ 2:55 pm PST