Leslie "Set it Off"

I first met Leslie when I was teaching a graduate level research course. She was a very bright, precocious young graduate student. She was eager to learn and to apply the concepts we were learning to her teaching. She was an elementary school teacher like her mother, and like her mother, she wanted to eventually become a principal. She worked very hard.
She must have made an impression on me, because I discussed her with another colleague who taught a course on math manipulatives. We both had a very favorable impression of Leslie, and shared the belief that she was indeed going places. We just didn't know where.
Leslie made it through her Master's program in record speed and I soon lost touch with her. She did keep in contact with my friend though, and I got occasional reports. Whenever I thought about Leslie, I would remember our spirited conversations about music and movies - she loved both. I didn't like R&B or action flicks and she did. I remember discussing one movie in particular, Set It Off. It was a movie with Queen Latifah about a group of young women who robbed banks. I didn't like the film (partly because I was not that enamored with Queen Latifah) but Leslie loved it. It was one of many artistic subjects we did not agree upon, however I enjoyed the exchange and so did she.
Nearly eight years after I had met Leslie, our mutual friend burst into my office with a very flushed face sighing "you won't believe this." She handed me the following news brief:

DETROIT, Michigan – As reported by the Detroit News: "Leslie C. Washington, a 27-year-old elementary school teacher from suburban Cleveland, is not a typical bank robber.

"After racking up large losses while gambling at Detroit casinos with a man she met there, the teacher declared bankruptcy.

"…Washington bought a $30 gun and masks like those from the movie "Scream." She went with her boyfriend and another man to the Key Bank on Telegraph Road in Brownstown Township last summer.

" The trio was nabbed by police with $11,151 from the bank after Washington, driving a Ford Explorer, led officers on a 15-mile chase that topped 110 mph.

"The young educator is among a growing number of criminals goaded into theft by casino-gambling losses, authorities say. At least five people in Michigan have robbed banks in the past year to settle casino gambling debts, the FBI reports."

I have read quite a bit about gambling addictions since that moment. I never realized the extent of the problem in our culture. Of the many troubling statistics I have discovered, the following is particularly disturbing - More than 50% of admitted gambling addicts write bad checks to cover their debts, and 25% of them embezzle funds from their employers. Wow!
Subsequently, I don't respond well to political ads arguing the benefits of opening a new casio or betting lounge in the area. For me, gambling is like drinking and the Koran speaks very elegantly about the nature of alcohol - in my words: why indulge a practice that has minimal benefits but enormous destructive potential? I am sure Leslie has had time to consider this.