This story is a collaboration between Illinois Answers Project and Capitol News Illinois.
Compulsive gamblers are dreamers. They dream of winning big, buying houses and cars and new clothes for their family, paying back everyone they’ve borrowed and stolen from and living in penthouses.
Around the corner is always a win that will undo the harm they wrought. It will let them repay the early withdrawals they’ve pulled from retirement accounts or replenish money they’ve taken from shared savings accounts with family members.
They will lie, steal and scam the people closest to them to finance their gambling.
They are ruled by an ego that leads them to believe that they know better, that only they have the special keys to buck the odds, beat the bots and close out with a jackpot that will solve all of their problems.
But the jackpot will never arrive or it will never be big enough.
Ultimately, their inability to step away from the game will lead them the to depths of despair, to contemplate suicide or worse.
In Illinois, 1 million people are estimated to be compulsive gamblers or at risk of becoming one.
These are their stories.
Editor’s note: This story is based on interviews with more than a dozen compulsive gamblers in recovery. Their identities have been omitted to allow them to speak openly about their lives. Quotes are edited for clarity and brevity.
