I read another anecdote (in the same article, and this isn't humorous at all, really) about a women who won $3400 the first time she ever played a slot machine. Turned out it was the unluckiest day of her life, because over the next weeks, she lost over $100,000 and was finally arrested for child neglect because she'd left her children locked in the car while she played the slot machines in the casino.

Point being that there are some truly compulsive people out there that should be careful of a lot of different kinds of activities, gambling included.