"Imagine there's an industry in Connecticut that's generating money by the wheelbarrow-full for the state's tax coffers. But there's a hitch: The industry threatens the welfare of as many as half of the people who engage in it.

You'd expect the governor and General Assembly to be concerned enough to look into the problem, right?

Well, Connecticut has such an industry. It's called gambling. Since 1982, it has generated $9.3 billion in revenue for the state - more than a third of which has come from the two Indian casinos in just 14 years.

But that silver lining has a cloud. Depending on where they gambled, 15 to 51 percent of people who placed bets at facilities around the state in 1996 - casinos, jai alai frontons, dog tracks and off-track betting parlors - were pathological gamblers, according to a 10-year-old study."

Get the Story:
Authorize Study Of Gambling (The Hartford Courant 3/13)
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