Gambling's addiction can lead to serious crimes, say experts
Joe Nelson, Staff Writersbsun.com
Created: 04/19/2012
Its grip is powerful - squeezing from any who fall victim to its clutch their money, self-restraint, and in some cases, their sanity.
Like many addictions, pathological gambling, or "problem gambling," can destroy families, drain bank accounts and prompt the afflicted into committing major crimes, experts say.
"Unfortunately, addictions don't come with a conscience," said Marilyn Lancelot, a recovering gambling addict and author of "Gripped by Gambling" and two other books on the subject. "When a person is addicted in any form, when they want that next fix, they're going to do anything to get it."
Lancelot knows first-hand the depths one will sink to feed their addiction. At age 61 she served 10 months of a 2-year sentence in an Arizona prison after her gambling addiction led her to embezzle $300,000 from the fertilizer company she worked at for seven years.
"I intended to pay every penny back," she said. "I truly believed I would win the big one. I really deluded myself."
The April 2 beating death of San Bernardino television and radio repairman John "Jack" Cone appears to probe the darkest recesses of a gambling addiction.
It was a crime police say was motivated by financial gain and perpetrated by Cone's estranged wife, Laurie Cone, and 29-year-old Gary Gallion and 39-year-old Shawna Bayless, all of San Bernardino.
Family members say Laurie Cone has suffered from a gambling addiction for years and that because of it John Cone was divorcing her after 29 years of marriage.
According to a police report, Laurie Cone and her daughter, Jackie Cone, returned to John Cone's business, DC Radio & Television Repair in San Bernardino, about 4:20 a.m. April 2 after a night of gambling at San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino. They found the security gate ajar and John Cone dead on his bedroom floor.
Jackie Cone lived at the business/residence with her father.
Two days later, police arrested the trio. Each is charged with first-degree murder, residential robbery and residential burglary. Laurie Cone also faces three charges of solicitation to commit murder. All three could face the death penalty if convicted.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled Friday in San Bernardino Superior court.
For those afflicted with the disease of pathological gambling, crime is its unfortunate by-product, said Dr. Timothy Fong, director of UCLA's Gambling Studies Program.
"It leads people to do things that are completely irrational and against their normal nature and character," Fong said. "That's why you hear about crimes of violence and embezzlement."
He said roughly 25 percent of pathological gamblers commit some sort of crime.
Lancelot said crimes perpetrated to support a gambling addiction appear to be proliferating at an alarming rate, as is the intensity of the crimes.
"They do awful things to support their habit," said Lancelot, who pioneered the Women Preferred group at Gambler's Anonymous upon her release from prison. There are now hundreds of such groups nationwide.
THE DISEASE
Pathological gambling is a recognized psychiatric disorder affecting the areas of the brain that control motivation and impulse control, i.e. the frontal lobe and midbrain regions, Fong said.
The impaired midbrain region that motivates individuals seeking reward could explain how some people afflicted by pathological gambling can spend hours, even days, sitting in front of a slot machine feeding it coins or dollar bills, Fong said.
"That part of the brain is really on hyperdrive," he said. "It's pedal to the metal."
Pathological gamblers, like most addicts, also lack impulse control to a severe fault, a character trait attributed to an impaired frontal lobe, the part of the brain that regulates impulse control, Fong said.
"It's the brakes on our brain. In this case, they're sheared off, they're worn down and not functional," he said. "You have problems with loss of control, impulses and cravings that wouldn't otherwise be there, and the inability to stop."
Unlike other psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, where the tell-tale signs are more obvious, the symptoms of a pathological gambler tend to go unnoticed until the damage has already been done, Fong said.
"Patients with gambling addictions don't go to the emergency room," he said. "They don't run naked in the streets."
In many cases, it is common for someone who suffers from one addiction to suffer at least one other addiction or psychiatric disorder, said Gary Lang, a psychologist who sits on the California Council on Problem Gambling's board of directors.
It is a criterion experts tend to agree on.
"We know for certain that anyone with a gambling addiction likely has another psychiatric disorder on top of that," Fong said.
Another problem plaguing the addict, said Lancelot, is trading one addiction for another, thinking they have made progress when really they have just exchanged one self-destructive character trait for another.
"The person who switches the addiction is so proud," she said. "They're so proud that they found something else. They never figure out what the underlying issue is as to why they are seeking an escape."
GETTING HELP
With the proliferation of card clubs and Indian casinos in the last decade, California now exceeds Nevada in gambling revenue. It also exceeds Nevada in the number of problem gamblers, Fong said.
Roughly 4 percent of the state's populace has a gambling addiction, double those suffering from schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder, Fong said.
In response, the state has partnered with gambling establishments to provide resources, mainly free counseling and treatment.
San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino has been a leader in the effort. Casino management began training in dealing with problem gamblers in 2003, but the casino stepped it up in 2007 when it began training all its nearly 3,000 employees on how to identify problem gamblers.
Signs emblazoned with the gambling hotline, 1-800-GAMBLER, are posted throughout the casino - even on the toilet paper dispensers. Brochures on gambling addiction, and containing the gambling hotline number, also are available.
San Manuel is one of the few casinos that trains its executive hosts, the ones responsible for catering to high rollers, on how to most effectively approach someone they believe is a problem gambler, said Marc Lefkowitz, who heads the problem-gambling training program at the casino and also is on the board of the California Council on Problem Gambling.
Casino management this year began evaluating the training program to gauge its effectiveness, Lefkowitz said.
One thing learned, he said, is that a culture of problem gambling awareness now permeates the casino.
Problem gamblers learn when calling the gambling hotline is that free therapy is available. They can get up to eight free counseling sessions, and the state also offers free residential treatment.
Problem gamblers can also participate in an intensive 30-day outpatient program in Los Angeles called Beit T'shuvah.
"They're given the name of a therapist and a phone number. They make an appointment and go see a therapist," Lefkowitz said. "And if they can't get to a therapist they can do it over the phone."
The state fully implemented its treatment services for problem gamblers in March 2011, said Terri Sue Canale, deputy director at the state Office of Problem Gambling.
"Since then we have seen more than 2,000 clients in the program," Canale said.
She said her office has 235 outpatient therapists specially trained to treat problem gamblers.
Patients are responsible for paying for their treatment after their free trial period ends.
"It gives them a jump start to get into treatment," said Canale.
She said the average stay for someone in the Beit T'shuvah program in Los Angeles is six months.
The Beit T'shuvah program, part of a 5-year pilot program, started with five beds last year. The program now funds 10 beds monthly, Canale said.
The state is gathering data to assess the effectiveness of the program and what the recidivism rates are, Canale said.
"It hasn't been a long enough period of time for us to look at the recidivism rates, but we are capturing that data," she said.
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