Gambling Addiction

Dealing with gambling addiction

No more family, no more job, no more money; most of us know that's what drug and alcohol addiction can lead to, but you may not realize gambling addiction can have the same devastating impact.

Arkansas' year old lottery is providing thousands of college students with scholarships, but the number of people seeking help for gambling is increasing too.

Two years ago, something terrible changed Stacy Kelly’s life forever.

"It was so overwhelming I couldn't cope in a healthy manner,” says Stacy.

Stacy loves three things, the outdoors, animals and her family. Naturally, the last is the most important for the mother of four. But when her 5-year-old son died in may 2008, she turned to drugs and alcohol to ease the pain. When the lottery came along, she found a new escape.

"I get excited. I see motorcycles on some or lucky charms on another and I get overwhelmed. I want to purchase them,” says Stacy. “I felt like if I purchased the lottery tickets, it would be ok if I didn't have money to pay for certain things, so I would sacrifice things."

She sacrificed necessities like bills and food.

"I was just at my rock bottom. I wasn't able to pay my bills. People that I love were coming and confronting me,” says Stacy.

But she kept going. Soon her family cut her off and the Department of Human Services put her children in foster care because of her combined addictions.

"It cost me everything,” says Stacy.

"It triggers a lot of excitement in our brain," says Dr. Bill Wilson with Lakewood Behavioral Health.

Dr. Bill Wilson treats gambling addiction and says it's common to see patients with other addictions as well since gambling offers a high just like drugs or alcohol.

"They keep chasing after the money with the false belief that they can win and don't,” says Dr. Wilson.

Gambling is not new to Arkansas. Horses and dogs have raced for decades, we have casinos in border states, and internet gambling knows no bounds.

But after the lottery came along, the number of people seeking help for addiction did go up. In the nine months before the lottery, 139 people called the state gambling hotline for help. In the nine months afterward, 247 have called.

But Arkansas lawmakers have made sure there is money to deal with it. The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery gives $200,000 a year to 11 clinics around the state for training and treatment to help people fight addictions.

"All gambling has a downside," says lawmaker Julie Baldridge. "Those people who can't control their impulses to spend more money than they should on any endeavor have an issue that needs to be addressed. We want them to seek help and we don't want their money."

Dr. Wilson treats the problem by getting addicts to adjust their unrealistic expectations about winning. That takes lots of counseling at places like The Freedom House in Russellville. It's one of the locations receiving funding and training therapists. In fact, Arkansas has more than a dozen gambling addiction experts now compared to just two before lottery funding came along.

"It’s a very difficult addiction to treat. But there is help and people do get well and do get sober," says Stacy.

The Freedom House is where Stacy Kelly stayed for a month and a half getting help for her gambling addiction. But not everyone takes the same step. In fact of the 30 people who call the hotline looking for help with their addictions each month, only two or three actually follow through.

Stacy has a message for all the others.

"There is hope for them, this is a very serious problem and it can't be arrested without help."

Because Stacy got help she now has custody of one of her children and she's working to get them all back, rebuilding the thing she loves the most, her family.

If you're jeopardizing your finances to gamble, if you're only happy when you're gambling or thinking about it, or if it starts to become more important to you than work or family, you may be a gambling addict.

You can call 1-800-522-4700 to be connected to a confidential, 24-hour, problem gambling hotline.

Warning signs of gambling addiction include:

•Feel the need to be secretive about your gambling.
•Have trouble controlling your gambling.
•Gamble even when you don’t have the money.
•Family and friends are worried about you.