gambling friend or foe

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Recommended: Positive and negative effects of gambling

It was a frigid Sunday afternoon in January, when I boarded the shuttle to the casinos in Black Hawk and Central City. Two towns nestled in the foothills above Golden, Colorado. Gambling came to the two mountain communities in 1991.
As I settled, back into my seat all was quiet with the exception of the purring engine of the bus. My thoughts drifted to a story told by my father’s uncle about Aunt Mac. As the story goes:
It was early one morning and the year was 1949, when the citizens were shocked, and the whole mountain community shook. Many of its prominent citizens and business people who ordinarily had nothing to fear found themselves being served with criminal warrants. The charges included gambling, and the ownership of “slot machines”. It was the action of the Justice of the Peace; he had taken it upon himself to end gambling in Central City. Uncle George Ramstetter, and Aunt Mac were also charged because they owned one slot machine.
Thirty citizens in all served with criminal warrants. The District Attorney had to come to Central City from Golden to do the paperwork for each person to post bond until trial. Aunt Mac was the last person to be processed; however, she refused to sign the paperwork. The District Attorney insisted that she sign the papers, she still refused. Then the District Attorney embarrassingly told Aunt Mac she would have to go to jail, so she did.
Central City had a one-room jail with no eating facilities, so the Sheriff had to take Aunt Mac to the restaurant she owned three times a day.
The first Sunday Aunt Mac was in jail, the Catholic Priest rudely awakened the Sheriff. The Priest demanded Aunt Mac’s release, as she was the church organist, and without her, there would be no music...

... middle of paper ...

... Works Cited
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic Statistical Manual, 5th edition. N.p.: n.p.,n.d. N pag. Web, 14 Feb 2014
Casino Watch.org.Exposing the Dark Side of Gambling N.p.n.p.N pag Web. 12 Feb 2014
Harvard Mental Health, Problem Gambling, N.p. Harvard mental Health, 2004. N. pag. Web 12 Feb 2014
Haerens, Margaret.Gambling. Greenhaven Press,N.p. 2012 . N pag.Print
Isaccs, Neil, David.You Bet Your Life: Burdens of Gambling.University Press of Kentucky 2001.Ebsco E Book collection, Web 12 Feb 2014
MayoClinic. Compulsive gambling. N.p. n.p. n.p. N.pag “Web” 13 Feb 2014
Medicine net. On Health.com Gambling Addiction “Medicine net. 2010. N pag. Web 12 Feb 2014“
Ramstetter, Jim. Life in the Early Days N.p. n.p. 1-2 Print
The Bible. N.p. n.p. n.d. N,pag Print
Yung, John. News feature, News America Media , 2008. N pag, Web 12 Feb 2014

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