You go, 60 Minutes! - for a brilliant expose of slot machine addiction

I haven't watched television in thirty years, but I watched 60 Minutes The Big Gamble on-line last night and imagined tens of thousands of gambling addicts and/or their families getting the information and insights they would need to address a deadly addiction. Please see for yourself.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/07/60minutes/main7223329.shtml

When you watch Lesley Stahl hang Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell out to dry, remind yourself that proximity is related to the establishment and maintenance of gambling addiction. Gambling is often a question of poor impulse control The quicker and easier a slot gambler can get to a machine, the faster the addicted brain chemistry kicks in. When I was gambling addictively, there were a few times when twenty miles into the 40 mile drive to the casino, I was able to talk myself out of the trip. If all I had to do was walk across the living room, sit down and log on, I can't imagine the disaster that would ensue. The legalization of on-line gambling needs to be examined as thoroughly as 60 Minutes dissected slot machine addiction and states gaining revenue from human misery.

I'm proud to have been part of this program.

Here is a brilliant addition to the program, in a comment from Carole Seeley, gambling addiction counselor in coastal Oregon:

I am a gambling counselor. I have taken helpline calls and worked with gambling addicts whose lives have been destroyed by gambling and whose only desire is to quit. This segment on 60 Minutes only touched the surface of what is quickly becoming a national epidemic and, understandably, did not have time to present all the information. It is not the video slot machines that are addictive; rather, it is the chemicals that are released by the activity on the screens that are addictive. For those people who are predisposed to addiction, the release of those chemicals – endorphins, dopamine, norepinephrine, and adrenaline – trigger all their addictive responses in the same way that a hit of meth or a bottle of Jack would. A good many gambling addicts are recovering alcoholics or drug addicts who never realized that going into a casino for some fun and entertainment would drive them down the same deadly road again. These are not bad people. They are people who have made poor choices as a result of living with the disease called addiction. They are accountable for their actions and choices and, in the moments when they are clear-headed and the chemicals levels have dropped, they know that. They struggle with the overwhelming need for a “fix” hour by hour, as they cope with withdrawal from the chemical highs or escape that playing the video slots provides them. It is a disease that progresses as quickly as many other aggressive chronic diseases and the prognosis can be just as lethal. The suicide rate for gamblers is higher than for alcoholics and drug addicts COMBINED. These are people who have, in many cases, lost everything – their families, jobs, homes, cars – and see no way out. The hardest part of this addiction is that there is so little public awareness around the fact that it’s not a matter of gamblers having no willpower or self-control, it’s about chemical addiction. They do not wake up in the morning thinking, “Today, I’m going to [insert any or all of the following] withdraw every penny from my kids’ college fund, take out an equity loan on my house, hock my wife’s jewelry, steal the money from the pension fund where I work… and lose it all at the casino.” But sometimes, that’s what happens.

Whatever you do, please do not assume that installing video slot machines or opening more casinos is going to ensure that YOUR state gets the money the gambler would go somewhere else to spend. Your state may get the money, but it will also get the increased medical costs, crime rates, domestic violence cases, welfare recipients, mental health care costs, bankruptcies, foreclosures, child protective services cases, lost job productivity, and more. Gambling does not solve any problems. It only makes more.

Most of all, these are people who need help, because it’s almost impossible to stop without it. What gambling addicts and their families need to know is that there IS help, and there is hope. There are gambling treatment programs to help them understand their addictions, how to deal with their triggers, how to live with people who have gambling addictions and not enable them in their behaviors, and how to get their lives back. I am fortunate to live in a state that has made the commitment to use a small percentage of the revenue from the state lottery to offer free gambling treatment. Unfortunately, not all states have programs like this, but anyone can contact the National Council on Problem Gambling in Washington, DC, or call 1-800-522-4700 to get information about what is available in his or her area. There are also Gamblers Anonymous programs all around the country. To find out more, call the GA national hotline at 888-GA-HELPS (888-424-3577) or go to the online state-by-state directory at http://www.gamblersanonymous.org/mtgdirTOP.html.

I am a gambling counselor. I have taken helpline calls and worked with gambling addicts whose lives have been destroyed by gambling and whose only desire is to quit. This segment on 60 Minutes only touched the surface of what is quickly becoming a national epidemic and, understandably, did not have time to present all the information. It is not the video slot machines that are addictive; rather, it is the chemicals that are released by the activity on the screens that are addictive. For those people who are predisposed to addiction, the release of those chemicals – endorphins, dopamine, norepinephrine, and adrenaline – trigger all their addictive responses in the same way that a hit of meth or a bottle of Jack would. A good many gambling addicts are recovering alcoholics or drug addicts who never realized that going into a casino for some fun and entertainment would drive them down the same deadly road again. These are not bad people. They are people who have made poor choices as a result of living with the disease called addiction. They are accountable for their actions and choices and, in the moments when they are clear-headed and the chemicals levels have dropped, they know that. They struggle with the overwhelming need for a “fix” hour by hour, as they cope with withdrawal from the chemical highs or escape that playing the video slots provides them. It is a disease that progresses as quickly as many other aggressive chronic diseases and the prognosis can be just as lethal. The suicide rate for gamblers is higher than for alcoholics and drug addicts COMBINED. These are people who have, in many cases, lost everything – their families, jobs, homes, cars – and see no way out. The hardest part of this addiction is that there is so little public awareness around the fact that it’s not a matter of gamblers having no willpower or self-control, it’s about chemical addiction. They do not wake up in the morning thinking, “Today, I’m going to [insert any or all of the following] withdraw every penny from my kids’ college fund, take out an equity loan on my house, hock my wife’s jewelry, steal the money from the pension fund where I work… and lose it all at the casino.” But sometimes, that’s what happens.

Whatever you do, please do not assume that installing video slot machines or opening more casinos is going to ensure that YOUR state gets the money the gambler would go somewhere else to spend. Your state may get the money, but it will also get the increased medical costs, crime rates, domestic violence cases, welfare recipients, mental health care costs, bankruptcies, foreclosures, child protective services cases, lost job productivity, and more. Gambling does not solve any problems. It only makes more.

Most of all, these are people who need help, because it’s almost impossible to stop without it. What gambling addicts and their families need to know is that there IS help, and there is hope. There are gambling treatment programs to help them understand their addictions, how to deal with their triggers, how to live with people who have gambling addictions and not enable them in their behaviors, and how to get their lives back. I am fortunate to live in a state that has made the commitment to use a small percentage of the revenue from the state lottery to offer free gambling treatment. Unfortunately, not all states have programs like this, but anyone can contact the National Council on Problem Gambling in Washington, DC, or call 1-800-522-4700 to get information about what is available in his or her area. There are also Gamblers Anonymous programs all around the country. To find out more, call the GA national hotline at 888-GA-HELPS (888-424-3577) or go to the online state-by-state directory at http://www.gamblersanonymous.org/mtgdirTOP.html.