"This gambling addiction is already contributing to many new social problems in Indian country. Adults are spending their per capita payments, and their welfare and paychecks at the gaming tables. They are losing the money they should have used to buy school clothes for their children, to pay their rent or mortgage or to buy food to put on their tables. They are abandoning their children to babysitters or worse, leaving them at home alone, while they feed their gambling addiction at their reservation casinos.

Although the casinos have turned out to be the goose that laid the golden egg to many heretofore poverty stricken tribes, their very success has created a new generation of gambling addicts. It is a shame to see the casinos grow at the expense of tribal members. Those dedicated groups and organizations on the Indian reservations that have so successfully fought alcoholism and drug addiction now have a new battle on their hands."

Get the Story:
Tim Giago: A new addiction is sweeping Indian Country (The Native American Times 8/1)

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