Gambling problems: Not just for men anymore

Gambling problems: Not just for men anymore
By: Tammy Swift, INFORUM

Several years ago, director Lisa Vig noticed a change in the demographics of the Gamblers’ Choice program. Men used to easily outnumber women two to one. But the number of women seeking help started to rival the number of men in the Lutheran Social Services-run gambling program.

“Over the last two to three years, I would say there’s been a 10 to 20 percent increase in women every year,” says Vig.

More often than not, the women seeking help are married mothers in their 50s and 60s.

Nationally, more men than women suffer from pathological gambling, although women are developing this disorder at higher rates – now making up as much as 25 percent of individuals with compulsive gambling problems, according to Medinenet.com.

Some women want to fill the void created when their children left the nest, Vig says. Others look to escape from the pressures of caring for everyone else.

“A casino is a place to not have all those responsibilities anymore. There are no expectations,” Vig says. “I’m no one’s grandma, wife, mother. I’m my own person, doing this for myself.”

Although the core reasons for addiction are treated the same, Vig says there are some gender-specific differences.

One is that female gamblers will enter treatment sooner than their male counterparts. As a whole, they gamble for shorter stretches of time and owe less money than men do before seeking help.

Vig says women also tend to view their addiction as proof that they are bad people.

“Men have egos. Women have so much shame,” Vig says.