Army worried about rise in gambling

[unhappycamper]

A soldier tries his luck at a slot machine at an Army base in Germany. The U.S. Army Garrison Grafenwöhr commander says that use in slot machines has increased at his bases since 172nd Infantry Brigade soldiers returned from Iraq late last year.


Army worried about rise in gambling
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, March 11, 2009

VILSECK, Germany — An increase in gambling at U.S. Army Garrison Grafenwöhr suggests that some 172nd Infantry Brigade soldiers and families members could develop gambling addictions related to stressful deployments, according to a top Army official in the area.

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The garrison is home to more than 20,000 soldiers and family members.

Sorenson, a former Green Beret, suggested some soldiers develop gambling addiction after returning from a stressful deployment, and some wives of deployed soldiers use gambling as a way to cope while their husband is away.

"It is a stress release, and then it becomes addictive," he said in an interview with Stars and Stripes. "Then credit cards go dry. Soldiers come back from downrange and there is no money."

Annual revenue from on-post slot machines at USAG Grafenwöhr increased to $251,011 in fiscal 2008 from $195,887 in fiscal 2007, according to William Bradner, the Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation deputy public affairs officer. Some of the increase, however, can be attributed to an influx of thousands of 172nd Infantry Brigade families last summer. MWR did not provide data for the current financial year, which has seen the return of thousands of 2nd Cavalry soldiers to Vilseck from a 15-month deployment to Iraq.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=61255



uhc comment: This camper never got into slots. I used to spend some of my off-duty time playing pinochle and cribbage.