Gambling Addiction and Children

Bill Kearney

Massachusetts ‘Gaming’ Future

The Morning Call - April 25, 2013 - It’s Official: Gambling is an Addiction

When 34-year-old Yulissa Troncoso pled guilty earlier this month to leaving her five kids—aged 10 months to 12 years—alone in a car while she gambled at the Sands Casino in Bethlehem, her defense attorney called her a “good mom” who’d made a mistake.
...
Many others, however, were incredulous, wondering, “How does a woman leave a baby and four other kids in a car so she can go play the slots?”

While I can’t answer that question, I can relate to her actions.

My grandfather was a problem gambler. Though he died of a heart attack long before I was born, I grew up hearing so many stories about him that I feel as if I really knew him. For instance, the night before a family vacation, my grandfather announced that he was going out “for a pack of smokes.” He returned at 4 a.m. after gambling away all the money my grandmother had saved for the vacation. The family unpacked their suitcases the following morning without ever stepping foot out of the apartment.

My grandfather also stole his son’s prized silver dollar collection one day and lost every cent of it at a horse track.

Read more: http://blogs.mcall.com/health/2013/04/its-official-gambling-is-an-addiction.htmlSee More

In some ways, he was a loving father, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t seem to stop himself from betting on horses.

During my childhood, my mother bad-mouthed gambling on a regular basis. Who could blame her? As a result I grew up thinking that any game of chance, including Bingo, had the potential to rot the good right out of me.

But then, when I was in my 20s, my mother and I took a ferry from Canada to the US, and this ferry happened to have a casino on board. The ferry trip was many hours long. Once we exhausted all our reading material and ran out of things to talk about, I convinced Mom to check out the casino.
I promised that we could waste my money and not hers.

“What could go wrong?” I said. “It’s just fun. It’s better than sitting here bored, right?”
I cashed $40 into chips and gave my mom half. Within what seemed like five minutes, I ran out of chips and went to find my mother. That’s when I caught her stealing chips from someone else’s stash.

“What are you doing?” I asked. “Those aren’t yours!”

“They were just sitting here,” said the woman who’d raised me never to lie and never to steal—the very woman who’d once took me back to a grocery store and made me return a pack of gum I’d smuggled out under my shirt.

That day I took my mother by the wrist and I dragged her from the casino.

An hour later, after the thrill of the chase had eased, she was floored by what had happened, and so was I. The woman who didn’t even believe in betting on things for charity had become so caught up in the slots that she’d pilfered someone else’s unattended chips. On the other hand, I’d experienced no such temptation. Once I’d wasted my money, I was done. I felt no drive to gamble away more.

It was clear that my mother’s brain was more prone to gambling addiction than my own.
And I should note that she has not set foot in a casino since.

My grandfather, however, had no such willpower. His addiction not only put his family in a financial bind, it nearly ended his career. It also landed him in jail and, at times, even put the family in danger from bookies who were trying to collect. Not only did he suffer a gambling addiction, he was also severely depressed and was addicted to both uppers and downers. In fact, his premature death was probably at least, in part, caused by those drugs.

My grandfather was a textbook gambling addict. Ninety six percent of pathological gamblers have an underlying psychiatric disorder such as depression and 64 percent have three or more psychiatric disorders.

Problem gambling is not a character flaw. It’s a mental illness. The latest version of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental Disorders (DCM-5) now classifies gambling as an addiction. This may pave the way for more funding for gambling treatment and may eventually get insurance companies to cover treatment costs.

Sure, some people might argue that gambling away one’s paycheck while one’s kids are sitting in the car on a hot day is just wrong. But arguing that it’s wrong won’t solve the problem and it won’t stop people from feeling compelled to do this very thing. It also doesn’t stop gamblers from ruining their lives and the lives of those close to them. Treatment is needed, and that treatment needs to be both affordable and accessible.

For now, problem gamblers can register for a “self exclusion” with the state Gaming Control Board.

A gambler with a“self-exclusion” admits he or she has a problem and requests to be banned from all legalized gaming facilities. Gaming facilities are required to deny chips, winnings, and even complimentary food and drinks to self-excluded gamblers. The facilities are also not allowed to solicit these gamers with mailings, telemarketing and other enticements. Gamers can even be arrested for trespassing if they step inside a casino, and some have.

It’s a start, but it’s not nearly enough as Troncoso’s story shows all too well.