The Benefits of Gambling?

My dad struggled with addiction all his life; he was a workaholic, an alcoholic, and (after quitting alcohol), a gambler. For all of his failings, he really loved my mom and was thinking of her when he humbled himself enough to tell us that he was facing serious consequences for gambling, which included potentially losing the house they'd lived in for more than 30 years. Fortunately, given that there are nine of us siblings, we were able to help repair things with the IRS, and they were able to keep the house. Months later, Dad discovered he had acute myeloid leukemia and passed away five days later. When the casino sent a big bouquet of flowers to the funeral home, some of us were really ticked off; it was a reminder of the pain our family had suffered.

Today I learned that a local tribe wants to open a new casino with 3100 slot machines and the rest of what goes along with them. Projected revenue from this casino would be $454,052,349.  Seriously?! What good could possibly come that would outweigh the societal cost of such an operation? Our governor shared this information in an email, and I appreciate it. Although I don't really want to read political stuff, I'm usually glad when I do take the time to find out what's going on these days. 

How about you? Do you keep up with what's going on in your state? Do you have any thoughts/opinions on the presence of casinos in your part of the world?