Recovering gambling addict: Casinos a bad bet

Recovering gambling addict: Casinos a bad bet
By Casey Toner

It’s easy to envision a casino and imagine the flashing lights, ringing bells and the clicking sounds of a hundred slot machine arms, all generating huge payouts.

State lawmakers are betting that the glitz and glamour of five new casinos in Illinois, including possible locations in the south suburbs and Chicago, will create millions of dollars in tax revenue and thousands of jobs.

A measure pending in the Illinois House also would allow slot machines at both Chicago airports, the Illinois State Fairgrounds and racetracks — turning them into “racinos.” The legislation could be voted on today.

While the proposal has garnered the support of politicians such as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, not everyone is on board.

“It would be a devastatingly bad idea, a mistake for already impoverished areas,” Daniel Stribling said. “Even if there is high unemployment, it still wouldn’t benefit the residents. People are looking for the end of the rainbow quickly and it doesn’t work like that.”

Stribling, the clinical director at the Elite Treatment Center in Chicago Heights, lost two houses, $50,000 and nearly his marriage to his gambling addiction. The center treats substance abuse.

The 63-year-old resident of Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood got his first taste of gambling when he was 18 at a casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. A blackjack player, Stribling won $2,000 his first time out.

“That solidified the nature of the beast, the reward and adrenaline rush,” he said. “I enjoyed the feeling, the emotional highs.”

Stribling, who quit heroin in 1972 and alcohol in 1984, said gambling filled the void created by the absence of other drugs.

He recalled visiting a casino on a Friday with plans to come home on Saturday, only to return on Monday. Stribling would bring a couple hundred dollars to the casino and end up spending thousands.

“You’re doing something you know you shouldn’t be doing, and you’re getting away with it,” he said. “The endorphins kick in and you feel like you’re getting away with something. Especially when you win.”

Stribling quit the addiction in 1978 after his wife promised to leave him if he continued. He sought treatment through Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous and has been in recovery since. He has relapsed, but said the last time he gambled was in 2002.

He is not alone in fighting the addiction. A total of 8,202 people have volunteered to ban themselves from all Illinois casinos since 2002 by putting themselves on the Illinois Gaming Board’s self-exclusion list.

No one on the list is legally allowed to enter a casino. Those who try anyway can be kicked off the premises or charged with trespassing, and all of their winnings must be turned over to one of three gambling recovery organizations.

According to records kept by the Illinois Gaming Board, municipalities with casinos tend to have more people on the list than those that don’t.

A total 202 people from Joliet have joined the list, as have 211 people from Aurora, and 218 people from Elgin. Orland Park, which is about 17 miles away from Joliet, has 48 people on the list.

Peter Bradley, the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery corporate services clinician at Ingalls Hospital in Harvey, said he has read studies linking an increase in suicide rates and other gambling-related problems to the opening of a gambling boat in Biloxi, Miss.

Stribling said this is exactly the problem. Although he hasn’t played Blackjack for almost a decade, he can still easily recall the ups and downs of casino life with a cautious flicker in his eyes.

“You’re completely disoriented as time passes,” he said. “It’s always the next hand. You’ll leave the casino after the next hand.”