Man jumps from Greektown Casino garage, dies

[Retroit]

At least he had the presence of mind to call West Bloomfield PD and not just dial 911.

[EastsideAl]

Sorry to hear that Bryan. I've lost so many of my Detroit-area friends, family, and acquaintances to suicide or suicidal hard living that I'm afraid to count them. Always very sad, and seemingly preventable, if only... but of course that sort of hindsight [[which is often wishful thinking anyways) is almost always too late.

Sometimes I think this city eats people.

[Gannon]

We don't own suicide...

[pffft]

Nothing compares to the number of people who jump off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. So does SF "eat people"?
They don't report it in the SF papers anymore, because they feel it encourages people.

[jackie5275]

Wasn't there another suicide jumper at Greektown less than a month ago?

It was about 2 wks ago. I have an acquaintance who works in the WCS administration building across the street from the Greektown parking structure. She told me about this one on Thursday afternoon & said it was the 2nd one in 2 weeks. Her office window looks right out at the parking garage. She can see all the activity out of that window. She said the most recent guy jumped from the parking garage & landed on a parked car.

[grumpyoldlady]

Distraught gamblers at the casinos are one reason most casino hotels here in Minnesota now have windows in the rooms that can not be opened. I hate this! I like to open the window in winter to get the room nice and cool for great sleeping.

[agirlintheD]

Was discussing this with friends in Petoskey tonight and when I referred to it as suicide, I was corrected and informed that it's now being called "econocide". Hmmm.

[gopher]

you cant open the windows in most hotels

[DetroitTeacher]

Re casinos, heard yesterday about a West Bloomfield man who lost $400,000 at the Motor City Casino and is suing under some arcane law, that you can sue if you lose in a legal or illegal "gaming" scheme. The idea of risking and losing that much money is just so alien to me...

The idea of HAVING that much money is alien to me...

[Lowell]

You took the words out of my mouth DetroitTeacher.

While I haven't read of a motive being determined for this suicide, studies have shown that 1 of 5 pathologically addicted gamblers attempt suicide. 1% of the population are 'pathological' gamblers and 2-3% are problem gamblers. 600K attempts, spread across the years, is a lot. I also read that 65% of the pathologicals commit a crime to support their habit. I am wondering if that includes stealing money from mom or friends and relatives that would go unreported. Problem gamblers have twice the divorce rate of those not.

It is a huge social cost and it is spread evenly across all social classes. There is a big myth that poor people have more of this problem than those well off.

In view of this I wonder why the casino properties haven't been suicide-proofed their plants, both for legal and PR protection and, oh yeah, for the victims. Maybe they can't stop someone from doing it, but it seems like they could do a lot to remove immediate options. Having unrestrained access to jumping is akin to having a loaded guns lying around the parking lot.

[Gannon]

It is a huge social cost and it is spread evenly across all social classes. There is a big myth that poor people have more of this problem than those well off.

I remember back when Michael Jordan gave a press interview after some gambling issue...where he said, 'my wife can buy groceries and the family has a roof, I don't have a problem with gambling'.


I thought...if that were the case buddy, the ORDER of MAGNITUDE of your gambling problem would be stupendous.



I wonder how many major wars were merely from leaders having gambling issues! It seems the same...only betting lives and empires...

[Msjayo5]

I worked with this man and he was a really nice guy and full of life. This is such a tragedy and my prayers goes out to his family.RIP MG you will be truly missed.