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Let me tell you a story about one of them. A few
years ago, a young woman named Deborah
gained widespread attention in New Jersey and
even nationally. Her story and her picture were
featured in quite a number of newspapers across
the state, and she made the evening news in New
York and Philadelphia.
But Debbie's few minutes of fame were not what
any of us would wish for ourselves or, heaven
forbid, our children. And that's what Debbie was
- a child, still in high school. The terrible
problem that landed her in the paper was not
kid's stuff. Debbie was in real grownup trouble.
She
was a compulsive gambler.
That year, Debbie was one of the thousands of
kids pulled off the casino floors in Atlantic
City.
Last year, an astonishing 160,000 teenagers were
stopped at the doors. Another 39,000 made it to
the floor, but were removed. Who knows how many
thousands never were recognized as children
and started on the road to problem gambling?
And it isn't just the youngsters who can get to
a casino who gamble. Just like the adults, they
bet
at the card table, the racetrack and the lottery
machine.
And just like adults, they lose control of their
gambling and begin to experience real trouble.
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