Example of how NOT to write a story about problem gambling

[Mousey]

I have inserted comments in RED.

More Seniors Found With Gambling Problems
Casinos Offer Plenty Of Incentives

POSTED: 8:47 am PDT July 25, 2007


BOSTON -- Imagine gambling away everything, even your retirement nest egg.

Experts said they are seeing more senior citizens with compulsive gambling problems, Boston television station WCVB reported. (More? More than what? More than before? More than younger people?)

According to one study, 70 percent of older Americans said they participate in some kind of gambling each year. (And?? How many of those buy 2 $1 lottery tickets a year? Or how many gamble themselves into the poorhouse? Is this more or less than the national average?)


One reason is that casinos offer plenty of incentives to come and play, such as free transportation, free meals, live entertainment and the company of others, something that many lonely seniors crave.

"What's happening is it's an escape mechanism, where they have these negative feelings and it could be loneliness, it could be boredom, it could be depression, and once they get to these places, all those problems go away for that period of time. They disappear," said Al Gesregan, a therapist who counsels gamblers.

Therapists said older women seem to be particularly at risk.

"It affected me emotionally. She's so ashamed of it that she'll just lie to tell you that she's doing something else when she's actually going to the casino. And she'll make up anything, and it just makes it a culture of distrust in the family," said Zach Bridge, whose mother gambles.
(Are we talking problem gambling? Or kids that don't want granny to gamble away their inheritance? )

This article has absolutely no information in it whatever.

[ace4suited]

I do think that part of the problem with regulating gambling is that there is no meeting of minds between people who understand gambling and people who view it as a "sin/ terrible vice" etc as a result we get a bizzare mismatch of compromised rules that were forumalated by people who do not understand gambling, diluted by pressure groups and then put to be passed without real understanding.

There are areas in terms of gambling that merit (to some degree) regulation and control but the people wanting the changes do not really understand what gambling is, why people gamble and what it is all about. Ultimately this article is seeming to have the presumptions that every gambler is a problem gambler and that gambling is wrong.

[silcnlayc]

My husband and I both enjoy a trip or two a year and we also love the ponies and the online slots. We are gamblers and nearing retirement age....but yet, our bills get paid first, and our grown kids still get surprises (in cash and trips from us) and our grand kids are spoiled rotten...whatever we have left over, and any overtime we put in to have that little "extra" for our fun money is just that, extra "fun" money.

How ridiculous it sounds that seniors are always put into this catagory when speaking of gambling problems..what is truly funny is all my co workers know when I am headed out of town for a little visit to the nearest casino..I tell them a week ahead of time ...no hiding it here..! My boss has even given me a bonus or two when he says I have worked extra hard and here is a something little (over a thousand every time) to go have fun with, knowing full well where it is going!

I have never known why people are too embarrased to say they like gambling..when someone asks me what I get out of throwing my money away in this fashion, I reply, " you see at as throwing money away and I see it as a chance for something great to happen all the while having some super fun the way I like to.

"I ask them, whats your excuse with eating out every night at $75 a pop? You eat and you get no return except for a loss out the other end in 24 hours ,where's the investement in that and at $75 a pop to boot?

They have no response to this..I always crack up at the look at their faces when they realize, they blow more in dinners and movies out than I do when I gamble and they get no return on their investment of thier type of fun vs having fun like we do..go figure!

I did explain about the nice free rooms, food , shows and every other perk that you get during these investments ..

If more people would let it be known how they spend their time when they gamble..it wouldn't be such an unknown to others and frowned upon in the long run.

Since I started at my job a few years ago..even my boss started to travel to Vegas and Atlantic City with his wife a few times a year and he is sooo proud of his pictures from there! He has said he has had more fun traveling now, since I started working there than ever before...go figure..

I aim to please !!