CHICAGO - He had a wife, a good job and a $355,000 home in the suburbs. Then Bob Sexton had a love affair - with video poker.
He loved the speed, the cards flashing rapid-fire onto computer-like screens, the feel of easy money and the chance to hit a whopping jackpot.
"It was instant seduction, instant gratification," he says.
But he couldn't stop. Monthly casino visits became weekly, then daily. Soon he was furiously ramming money into the machines around the clock.
He lost his wife and his home in Downers Grove over the lies he told to cover his addiction. He landed in bankruptcy court with 26 maxed out credit cards.
"I would leave for the office and not go to work. I'd go straight to the boats," says the 55-year-old Sexton. "It was a nightmare."
Gambling critics claim that nightmare would be multiplied many times over under legislation being fashioned in the Illinois House that would legalize video poker in bars and restaurants statewide.
The microchip-controlled machines, which have largely replaced the pull-type slot devices, are nothing new in Illinois.
The Illinois Gaming Board says 9,500 such machines are running legally aboard the nine riverboat gambling casinos the agency regulates. The machines are legal elsewhere but only if they are used "for amusement only," not gambling.
But experts say thousands have been running illegally for years in bars, restaurants and fraternal lodges, often placed by organized crime.
State Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat, says his bill would allow an estimated 47,000 legal machines and place them under Gaming Board regulation, allowing each establishment a maximum of three such devices.
"We have only two ways to go on video gaming," Lang said. "We can legalize it or we can enforce the law, because this is going on today."
At least with his bill, he said, the state would get some tax revenue.
But critics say the benefit to the state is outweighed by the danger of video poker, which they call one of the most addictive forms of gambling. They point to U.S. Education Secretary William Bennett, author of the bestseller "The Book of Virtues," who reportedly dropped millions on video poker machines in casinos. He now says he has sworn off gambling.
"Paychecks are going to get swallowed," said the Rev. Tom Grey, executive director of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling.
A handful of states have already legalized video poker. But South Carolina officials, calling it "the crack cocaine of gambling," pulled the plug on 22,000 machines three years ago. And faced with an influx, Georgia then banned them from the state.
Faced with an estimated $5 billion state budget deficit, however, Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, has said lawmakers should take a look at the proposal.
Two weeks ago, supporters of video poker, led by the Illinois Coin Machine Operators Association, were among the gambling and other interests who turned up for Madigan's annual spring fund-raiser at the Island Bay Yacht Club on Lake Springfield.
According to a spokesman for the group, Rick Davis, they gave "no more than $5,000" to Madigan's campaign fund.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, said he has grave reservations about legalizing video poker, saying the proposal "seems kind of slimy and kind of sleazy."
Still, he isn't ruling the idea out, given the state's budget woes.
The Illinois Department of Revenue says most of the 85,000 coin machine decals it sells annually are for video poker, roulette and slots.
Experts say most of them are paying off illegally, typically with bartenders slipping cash under the table when patrons hit the jackpot.
More often, though, patrons get skinned.
"We get many complaints from wives who say their husbands are losing their paychecks at the corner bar playing video poker machines," said Bill Cunningham, an aide to Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheehan.
Sheriff's police have confiscated and destroyed as many as 2,000 illegal video poker machines in the last 10 years, Cunningham estimated.
He also cited a 1997 Chicago Crime Commission report saying video poker has become a lucrative source of income for organized crime.
Federal prosecutors in Chicago over the last two years won convictions against a suburban mayor, police chief and two officers who took payoffs to look the other way. Four alleged mobsters went to prison in the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Levine told the court that in the 1980s and 1990s a ring headed by mob boss Tony Centracchio squeezed $22 million out of the video poker machines in three small Western suburbs. Centracchio died before coming to trial.
Legalization supporters wince at the underworld image.
"Those people are not members of our association," said Ray Shroyer, head of the Coin Machine Operators Association's video poker committee.
He is finding influential allies such as The American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 31, representing 75,000 government workers, which wants the revenue for public employee raises.
"We may have to have video poker if we want the money to provide decent services for the mentally ill and the disabled and good public safety," said Henry Bayer, Council 31 executive director.
"Video poker exists now and is used for gambling purposes now," said Bayer. "The problem is Illinois isn't getting any revenue out of it."
Some people say there's no point in getting overly worried about the evils of video poker when it has been operating openly for years.
"My little hometown of Toulon has two taverns and can barely support one, because this isn't much of a drinking town," said author and former Republican state Rep. Jim Nowlan. "And each of the taverns has eight to 12 machines in it. In effect, the state has already legalized video poker."
Such sentiments go down hard on the front lines of the addiction war.
"I can't understand that," said Sexton, who is still struggling to put his life back together and fights the urge to go to the boats just one more time. "Why don't they just legalize heroin? The principle is the same."
http://www.dailyherald.com/news_story.asp?intid=3775946
He loved the speed, the cards flashing rapid-fire onto computer-like screens, the feel of easy money and the chance to hit a whopping jackpot.
"It was instant seduction, instant gratification," he says.
But he couldn't stop. Monthly casino visits became weekly, then daily. Soon he was furiously ramming money into the machines around the clock.
He lost his wife and his home in Downers Grove over the lies he told to cover his addiction. He landed in bankruptcy court with 26 maxed out credit cards.
"I would leave for the office and not go to work. I'd go straight to the boats," says the 55-year-old Sexton. "It was a nightmare."
Gambling critics claim that nightmare would be multiplied many times over under legislation being fashioned in the Illinois House that would legalize video poker in bars and restaurants statewide.
The microchip-controlled machines, which have largely replaced the pull-type slot devices, are nothing new in Illinois.
The Illinois Gaming Board says 9,500 such machines are running legally aboard the nine riverboat gambling casinos the agency regulates. The machines are legal elsewhere but only if they are used "for amusement only," not gambling.
But experts say thousands have been running illegally for years in bars, restaurants and fraternal lodges, often placed by organized crime.
State Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat, says his bill would allow an estimated 47,000 legal machines and place them under Gaming Board regulation, allowing each establishment a maximum of three such devices.
"We have only two ways to go on video gaming," Lang said. "We can legalize it or we can enforce the law, because this is going on today."
At least with his bill, he said, the state would get some tax revenue.
But critics say the benefit to the state is outweighed by the danger of video poker, which they call one of the most addictive forms of gambling. They point to U.S. Education Secretary William Bennett, author of the bestseller "The Book of Virtues," who reportedly dropped millions on video poker machines in casinos. He now says he has sworn off gambling.
"Paychecks are going to get swallowed," said the Rev. Tom Grey, executive director of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling.
A handful of states have already legalized video poker. But South Carolina officials, calling it "the crack cocaine of gambling," pulled the plug on 22,000 machines three years ago. And faced with an influx, Georgia then banned them from the state.
Faced with an estimated $5 billion state budget deficit, however, Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, has said lawmakers should take a look at the proposal.
Two weeks ago, supporters of video poker, led by the Illinois Coin Machine Operators Association, were among the gambling and other interests who turned up for Madigan's annual spring fund-raiser at the Island Bay Yacht Club on Lake Springfield.
According to a spokesman for the group, Rick Davis, they gave "no more than $5,000" to Madigan's campaign fund.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, said he has grave reservations about legalizing video poker, saying the proposal "seems kind of slimy and kind of sleazy."
Still, he isn't ruling the idea out, given the state's budget woes.
The Illinois Department of Revenue says most of the 85,000 coin machine decals it sells annually are for video poker, roulette and slots.
Experts say most of them are paying off illegally, typically with bartenders slipping cash under the table when patrons hit the jackpot.
More often, though, patrons get skinned.
"We get many complaints from wives who say their husbands are losing their paychecks at the corner bar playing video poker machines," said Bill Cunningham, an aide to Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheehan.
Sheriff's police have confiscated and destroyed as many as 2,000 illegal video poker machines in the last 10 years, Cunningham estimated.
He also cited a 1997 Chicago Crime Commission report saying video poker has become a lucrative source of income for organized crime.
Federal prosecutors in Chicago over the last two years won convictions against a suburban mayor, police chief and two officers who took payoffs to look the other way. Four alleged mobsters went to prison in the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Levine told the court that in the 1980s and 1990s a ring headed by mob boss Tony Centracchio squeezed $22 million out of the video poker machines in three small Western suburbs. Centracchio died before coming to trial.
Legalization supporters wince at the underworld image.
"Those people are not members of our association," said Ray Shroyer, head of the Coin Machine Operators Association's video poker committee.
He is finding influential allies such as The American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 31, representing 75,000 government workers, which wants the revenue for public employee raises.
"We may have to have video poker if we want the money to provide decent services for the mentally ill and the disabled and good public safety," said Henry Bayer, Council 31 executive director.
"Video poker exists now and is used for gambling purposes now," said Bayer. "The problem is Illinois isn't getting any revenue out of it."
Some people say there's no point in getting overly worried about the evils of video poker when it has been operating openly for years.
"My little hometown of Toulon has two taverns and can barely support one, because this isn't much of a drinking town," said author and former Republican state Rep. Jim Nowlan. "And each of the taverns has eight to 12 machines in it. In effect, the state has already legalized video poker."
Such sentiments go down hard on the front lines of the addiction war.
"I can't understand that," said Sexton, who is still struggling to put his life back together and fights the urge to go to the boats just one more time. "Why don't they just legalize heroin? The principle is the same."
http://www.dailyherald.com/news_story.asp?intid=3775946
