Our comprehensive report this week on video gambling [see “A gambling mecca,” by Bruce Rushton, p. 12] includes the fact that Springfield is leading the state in the number of machines. Aren’t we proud! In the past two years since the machines have been legal, Springfield and Sangamon County gamblers have lost about $18 million in the machines. It is unclear how many mortgages have gone unpaid or children unfed in that time. There are signs that the city and county are near to being saturated with the machines, but it takes awhile for addiction to develop, so the losses may continue to grow. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher
This article appears in Apr 3-9, 2014.
