|
ground-floor canopy at Harrah's hotel in the
gambling resort of
Reno, Nevada, last week." (Scottish Daily
Record, 11/6/99)
"The heart-stopping action in Manitoba's casinos
is about to be
halted. Heart attacks have become so frequent
among agitated and
excited patrons, Manitoba Lotteries is putting
money down on some
high-tech medical equipment to stem the
casualties…. At least
every other day emergency crews are called to a
casino, said
Inspector Stan Stone, with ambulance services in
Winnipeg. 'It's
mostly cardiac-related stuff,' Stone said."
(Toronto Star, 11/1/99)
A study done ten years ago by Donald R. Jason,
Chief Medical
Examiner, County of Atlantic, New Jersey and his
colleagues,
examined casino-related deaths in Atlantic City
from 1982-1986,
four years after the first legalized casino
opened (Jason, Taff, &
Boglioli, 1990). The authors concluded, "Our
results indicate that
gambling-related activities can be hazardous to
one's health,
especially among elderly cardiac patients." They
found that there
were 398 casino-related deaths, of which, 83%
were sudden
cardiac deaths of elderly white retired men.
They maintained that
their findings were consistent with another
study, which had found,
"mortality and morbidity appeared to be greater
among stricken
gamblers than among others with similar cardiac
attacks [not in
casinos] because surrounding patrons were
preoccupied with their
pursuit of profit, and therefore failed to
summon medical
assistance" (Jason et al., 1990, p.116).
Without any comparison groups, it is impossible
to determine the
rate of casino-related deaths. For example,
maybe more people die
after eating tainted lemon meringue pie at
church suppers.
Back to casino
news
|
