Soldier commits suicide, ban on military 'slots' considered...

[PCIntern]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/15/military.gambling/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A bill in Congress seeks to eliminate military slot machines overseas that take in $130 million a year, mostly from soldiers.


Aaron Walsh's addiction to military slot machines ruined his Army career and led to his suicide.

1 of 2 The bill's sponsor, Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tennessee, named the bill after Army Warrant Officer Aaron Walsh, a decorated Apache helicopter pilot who became addicted to gambling on military slot machines.

Walsh eventually was discharged from the Army. He committed suicide after several failed attempts to break his addiction. The Defense Department uses slot machine revenues to pay a small portion of its morale, welfare and recreation programs.

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It seems to me that these poor soldiers, who've been asked to fight and die for what virtually everyone admits either publicly or privately is a failed policy - if you want to call it that - some might prefer completely-fucked-up-catastrophe (but then again, it's 'just a matter of semantics") should have to fund their own morale programs via the sure-loser-proposition of slot machines.

The Ancient Greeks had no idea that when they coined the term 'irony', that it could possibly be this far developed. Next, they'll have a wood shop wherein they get to build their own caskets. Come on, declare victory and just COME HOME. Mr. President, you might get a chance to save your own Party, you know, the one who stood lockstep with your 'recount' and your declarations of war and higher Constitutional Privilege.

[Squatch]

1. Some people become addicted...others don't.

BAN IT!!!

[Angela Shelley]

5. DU is addicting too, BAN DU!

[marylanddem]

7. But DU doesn't destroy lives far as I know.

[Angela Shelley]

14. Only because people don´t talk about it ...

[hlthe2b]

2. I had no idea they had slot machines.... more exploitation for

the benefit of wealthy Repug corporatists, it seems.... Geez, soldiers have always gambled--poker and such-- but this is ridiculous. If it were meant to be simple entertainment, it would be penny slots, not the kind that would bankrupt an already struggling soldier.

[PCIntern]

4. I live near enough to Atlantic City

and have a summer place down there. I have seen more people go bankrupt over gambling than most people can imagine...these include everyone from high functioning owners of companies, managing partners of law firms, down to hourly wage folk. It is positively revolting.

and yes, I fell into the trap about 20 years ago...spent all my time first at the tables and then to the machines...it's positively intoxicating and relentlessly draining. I don't have time to discuss it today but suffice it to say that it the notion of intermittent reinforcement is the most powerful force in psychology. The manufacturers of the slots use it brilliantly.

[marylanddem]

6. well put. I had never heard of "intermittent reinforcement"

but that certainly makes sense Thanks for posting.

[SoCalDem]

10. Yep.. the way the wheels "almost line up" and the way the slots

do pay out every now and then, keeps people playing away, "knowing" that the BIG jackpot is sooooo close..

My friend and i used to have a little system.. we would wait until the wee hours when most of the machines are available..then walk down every row, putting ONE coin in each machine as we went.. whatever we got in "payouts" after we repaid ourselves, we split 50-50 and then played on that money..

sometimes we won big, and sometimes not.. but it was always amazing when thatn $1 put in a random machine on a row, paid a $300 jackpot or that 1 quarter put into a machine paid $50..you gotta know that many people put lots of money into those machines and quit, one play too soon :evilgrin:

[PCIntern]

23. it is most fascinating...

look it up in a psychology text or online. You will then understand how the advertising world works and how even love relationships fall into this category and why people get so effed up.

[hlthe2b]

13. I was offered a very good job years ago in Nevada...

but somehow, I couldn't get over the discomfort I felt at seeing the glazed over looks of people using the slots 24/7 in the damned grocery store, the airport, (and everywhere else you could think of). I wouldn't be surprised if they put them in the bathroom stalls by now.... As much as I love Lake Tahoe and many aspects of Nevada, this was a deal breaker for me...

[patrice]

3. Hope is a compelling experience, especially when there is so little.

Think, each time you pull that lever there's hope. Visions of the Matrix dancing through my head right now.

Great analog for how the U.S. get's from day to day in these times.

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Exactly

[BrotherBuzz]

8. I thought the military tossed the slots years ago

I witnessed the removal of slot machines from my EM/NCO club in the early seventies. I guess they sneaked back in.

[EFerrari]

11. Yeah, SLOT MACHINES are the problem.

:sarcasm:

[patrice]

15. Drug pushers ARE the problem.

What if someone fostered an environment in which your dependencies were accessible and then marketed to your weakness? How do you know they aren't?

[EFerrari]

18. Militarism is the problem.

These kids should be being kids somewhere. If they had that opportunity, they wouldn't need to self medicate. :shrug:

[patrice]

19. Amen to that!!

= a nearly universal addiction for our whole species, but especially 21st century Americans.

How do we get this monkey off our backs?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

12. Holy shit. In over a decade on active duty I never heard of this. How long has the

Dept. of Defense been running gambling operations?

And raking in 130 million off the service members and their families? Unconscionable in my opinion.

Why don't they run crack houses and brothels too? They could pay for the war that way. Don't tell me, that'll be next week's revelation...

[knitter4democracy]

17. This is ridiculous!

We don't need to pay the soldiers and then take their money back in the form of legalized gambling. Who the heck came up with that terrible idea?

[EFerrari]

22. No kidding. That's effin' next. n/t

[OzarkDem]

16. That's an outrage, why hasn't this been revealed before?

I can't think of anything worse for morale that getting soldiers addicted to gambling.

Not surprising considering so many GOP backers are big on legalized gambling.

[jmowreader]

20. Slot machines in overseas NCO clubs are nothing new

I was stationed in Seoul, Korea, from 1984 to 1985 and Berlin, Germany, from 1986 to 1992.

The clubs in both places had slot machines when I was there. I kinda figure they're still in the clubs in Seoul; Berlin no longer has an American military presence.

[dsc]

21. This is just plain outrageous

The $130 million they take in would be far less than 1/100 of the amount the Estate Tax takes in in one year.