Confessions of a Slot Machine Queen

 The global economic crisis deepens by the day, yet the gambling  industry continues to rake in enormous profits as people everywhere pump  billions of dollars into slot machines in the hope of winning the ever  elusive jackpot. Sandra Adell' s Confessions of a Slot Machine Queen  offers an intimate look into problem and compulsive casino gambling and  the impact the casino industry is having on vulnerable communities,  especially poor and working class people, the disabled, communities of  color, and women the fastest growing population of problem gamblers in  the United States. Adell' s narrative of gambling and loss unfolds  against her history as an unwed and uneducated teen mother from Detroit  who beat the odds stacked against her and went on to earn a Ph.D. and a  coveted position as a literature professor in a major Midwestern  university. In a clear and unaffected prose style, Adell describes how  she went from having no interest in gambling to risking everything she  had worked for after playing the slots and winning a small jackpot. We  watch as she struggles against the lure of the slots only to get seduced  time and again until she finally spirals out of control and is forced  to confront the demons that lay beneath the surface of her professional  persona. Confessions of a Slot Machine Queen is as much a story of  redemption as it is a critical examination of the casino gambling  industry and the potential dangers of this new and high-tech form of  entertainment.  $23.95