A recent study conducted for the state estimated that 47,200 Oregon adults are suffering from gambling addiction. And calls to the state's gambling hot line have risen to more than 5,200 a year. A building boom is going on along the South Carolina border. Along the North Carolina line, casino operators are turning tiny mill towns like McColl and Pageland into low-rent versions of the Las Vegas strip. Here in Grover, a village straddling the border near Interstate 85, casinos crowding the South Carolina side of the state line are new and busy.
Bulldozers work daily to clear land for five more.
Sercovich mortgaged as many as 46 Pleasant Ridge lots to raise money. And within retail establishments, the Commission will restrict gambling to alcoves physically separated from the rest of the store, and will prohibit cash machines from being placed near gambling machines. Charles Bidwill III, the president of Sportsman's, is a part-owner of the Casino Queen riverboat in East St. Louis. Ed Duffy, the president of Specialty Events, is a consultant for Sportsman's and the Casino Queen. Belletire and Gaming Board Chairman J. Thomas Johnson said the new job does not conflict with the board's code of conduct, which prohibits members or employees from working for or representing a riverboat licensee or applicant within a year of leaving the board.