Growing with the world of addiction

Growing with the world of addiction
By Dave Gathman

Gambling addiction

When the Grand Victoria Casino became Elgin’s biggest tourist attraction overnight in the mid-1990s, everyone recognized the potential for an increase in gambling addiction. So using money donated by the casino and passed through the city government, Renz Center began working with gambling addicts.

“It’s a little different than alcohol or drugs because you’re not injecting a chemical. But researchers have found that the changes that take place in the brain while gambling are very similar,” Howe said.

Jim Renz noted in 1981 that “nobody ever walks willingly through our doors the first time. They come to get someone off their back.” For many alcoholics in 2011, that someone is not the boss but a criminal court judge, after a conviction for driving under the influence.