One of the nation's top law schools has published an ongoing series of articles by respected scholars and attorneys in the University of Illinois Law Review.
Les Bernal of Stop Predatory Gambling says the industry is making a major impact on the country, and not in a good way.
"It's dramatically hurting public health," he asserts. "You have probably more than 15 million citizens today who have gotten addicted to gambling. Every year the American people are losing more than $120 billion of personal wealth to commercialized gambling."
Over the next eight years, that will amount to a trillion dollars of personal wealth squandered. But the negative impact is not only a financial issue; the loss of income often leads to divorces.
"It's been an epic failure, and the only reason why it's avoided the spotlight is because the gambling industry, along with state governments who are profiting from this exploitive industry, they're in the driver's seat," Bernal laments. "No one is challenging this except for everyday citizens."
Research for the nine articles was conducted independent of the industry and of the government.
