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<\/p>\nWASHINGTON (TNND) \u2014 It can simultaneously bring a halt to boredom, a huge adrenaline rush and once in a while, a financial payout.<\/p>\n
That concerning combination was enough to reel in Army Staff Sergeant Dave Yaeger, deployed to Korea shortly after the terror attacks of 9-11, leaving his wife and two young children behind.<\/p>\n
In a recent interview with Sinclair, he shared his story.<\/p>\n
They put me up on the base. I’m walking around the hotel and happened to notice a casino-style slot room, so I walked in. I took a couple hundred bucks out. I decided to play, and I think that’s where the seed was planted. Because I won, all of the stress I was feeling and all the strain I was feeling just washed away in that moment.”<\/p>\n
FILE – A spectator places a bet before the 148th running of the Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs Saturday, May 7, 2022, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo\/Charlie Riedel, File)<\/p>\n
That moment is familiar to many in the military.<\/p>\n
On the 12 U.S overseas bases, there are more than <\/a>3,100 slot machines which brought more than $91 million in 2024 alone. <\/p>\n It’s all part of a campaign to boost morale and provide recreation.<\/p>\n A September 2025 Government Accountability Office (GAO) Report<\/a> found that there were 185 active-duty service members with a gambling-related diagnosis in fiscal year 2024.<\/p>\n According to their findings, more clarity is needed to promote more responsible gambling.<\/p>\n “By issuing guidance with clear requirements for responsible gaming practices at overseas installations, the military services could help prevent or respond to problem gambling by users of their recreational gaming machines.”<\/p>\n While not permitted on bases inside the country, Yeager says they\u2019re easy to find, which he believes is intentional.<\/p>\n It’s a guaranteed income. It’s a ready-made guaranteed income with a crowd that’s ready to be advertised to.”<\/p>\n That crowd was central to the GAO Report, which found “Demographic risk factors include being younger and having a higher propensity for risk-taking.”<\/p>\n They are risks which, for Yeager, almost cost him everything, as he details in his book, Fall In: A Veteran with a Gambling Addiction.<\/a><\/p>\n “So, within that six years, I was divorced. I lost contact with my children for two years. I had four suicide attempts. Basically wiped out any savings that I had,” he said<\/p>\n Eventually, though, Yeager was able to turn his life around with his now grown children back in his life and a new marriage.<\/p>\n Much of his life is now devoted to spreading the word on problem gambling.<\/p>\n