Gamblers Anonymous Available To Help

Gamblers Anonymous, state hotline available for casino patrons who want help
By EDWARD HUSAR
Herald-Whig Staff Writer

A spokesman for a Gamblers Anonymous chapter serving the Quincy area says he hasn't seen a big surge of people seeking help for gambling issues directly associated with Mark Twain Casino since it opened 10 years ago.

But he has seen some.

"One young lady talks to me once every two or three months," said the man, who didn't want his real name used. He will be called Bob for purposes of this story.

"She realizes she has a problem and is slowly going broke," Bob said. "She has a good job. She had some savings, but she's really struggling because she can't quit going over there. She's over there at least three or four times a week and just can't seem to stay away."

Bob said that over the years, he has encountered other compulsive gamblers whose problems have become worse since the LaGrange casino opened.

Bob said he has nothing personal against the casino.

"It's not all bad," he said. "It's a business. They make money. They do some good for the community as far as tax revenue, creation of jobs, etc., but I know there are people out there who shouldn't be on the boat."

Gamblers Anonymous tries to help compulsive gamblers by giving them an outlet to talk to others who understand what they are going through.

"A compulsive gambler would definitely understand another compulsive gambler, regardless of what type of gambling it was," Bob said. "You understand where they're coming from. It's just like Alcoholics Anonymous. Nobody understands an alcoholic like another alcoholic."

Bob says he's fortunate he took steps to give up gambling a year before Mark Twain Casino opened.

"I was extremely grateful," he said. "I got some help about 11 years ago, and I've been clean ever since."

Bob was an inveterate gambler who couldn't stay away from casinos and couldn't stop buying lottery tickets even after he faced big losses.

"I would drive to St. Louis. I would drive to Peoria. I would go up to the Chicago area. I would go to Burlington (Iowa). I would go wherever there was a boat," he said. "Plus, I did lottery tickets and every other thing for gambling when I didn't go to the boat."

Bob will never forget the time he was ahead $12,000 at a blackjack table and wouldn't get up and walk away. Instead, he sat there "and continued to play until I lost it all."

He also lost the $2,000 that he brought with him that day to play.

"Then regret and remorse would set in," he said.

Bob eventually decided he needed help and reached out to a counselor. He also became involved in running the Quincy chapter of Gamblers Anonymous, which has started up and fallen by the wayside a number of times over the years.

Bob said the Quincy chapter went out of service for a while, but it started up again about six months ago. The group meets from 7 to 8:30 a.m. every Sunday in the auditorium at Blessing Hospital's 11th Street campus. The meeting is open to anyone who walks in. Confidentiality is observed.

In Missouri, calls from around the state to a gambling hotline (888-BETSOFF) jumped in the 2010 calendar year to 2,740 -- up from 2,263 in 2009, according to the Missouri Alliance to Curb Problem Gambling. The number of calls originating from Northeast Missouri was not readily available.

In 2001 -- the same year that Mark Twain Casino opened -- the number of calls to the hotline reached 2,846. After that, calls steadily rose to a peak of 3,527 in 2004 before the number started falling back, reaching a low of 1,682 in 2007.

A recent statewide survey sponsored by the alliance showed 0.4 percent of Missourians said they gambled and ran into financial problems because of that gambling. The same percentage was reported the last time the question was asked in a 2007 survey.