The Social Cost Of Gambling

In Canada, as gambling has quadrupled in the past decade, groups are now asking lawmakers to study the social costs.

"The Canada Safety Council, an independent charitable organization, calls addictive gambling a public-health crisis, saying it accounts for 200 to 360 suicides a year. In a letter to Prime Minister Paul Martin urging him to undertake a study, the Safety Council cites a range of growing social problems in addition to gambling-related deaths: an increase in bankruptcies, family break-ups, domestic abuse, as well as other forms of violence and crimes like loan-sharking."

Full Story: http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0124/p06s01-woam.html?s=hns