THE EARLIER A PERSON STARTS GAMBLING THE GREATER THE RISK OF BECOMING A COMPULSIVE GAMBLER

Tuesday, 22. January 2013

 

 

The earlier a person starts gambling the greater the risk they will become an addicted gambler

 

 

Can your child become an addicted gambler ?

 

 

Based on the results of 14 studies of people with gambling problems, “young people suffer from disordered gambling at about two to three times the rates of adults.”
A Canadian survey of 1,471 college students found that nearly 27 percent of the pathological Gamblers among them didn’t just fantasize about killing themselves, but had actually attempted suicide.
Arnie Wexler, gambling treatment specialist:” We run this gambling hotline ( 888 LAST BET ) and in the last five years, one third of all the calls coming in are coming in are from poker players between the ages of 12 and 30, young kids or parents of these kids. I see these kids all the time who don’t want to go to college. They want to be a professional poker player.”

The following are some other personal stories I have heard from high school college students:

* Paying someone else to take exams or write papers so as not to interfere with time needed to gamble.

* Betting on games they were playing in.

*Gambling under age in legal gambling establishments

*Shaving points in High School while being looked at by Division I colleges.

* Robbing a convenience store and a bank for money with which to gamble.

* Using fake credit cards, bouncing checks and creating phony checking accounts to get money for gambling.

*Selling drugs and their bodies to pay gambling debts.

*Stealing objects and money from other students, or from college property.

*Selling or pawning property that belonged to the college they were attending.

*Running bookmaking rings, football pools or card games in college(in order to pay off gambling debts).

*Using tuition money for gambling.

*Using financial aid or other loans for gambling.

*Conning their parents to send additional money, which was used for gambling.

*Robbing 8 Banks, to support a gambling addiction.

*Stealing cars, items or money from employers for gambling.

*Selling personal property for money to gamble with.

 

One case , in particular, has had a lasting impression on me. This young man played college football, and even appeared in a Bowl game. He was also a track star for his college. His gambling started with a $5 football pool card and progressed to the point of embezzlement of $350,000 from his employer.

——————-

IS POKER A GAME OF SKILL OR CHANCE FOR MOST PEOPLE ??
FROM AN ARTICLE

26 May 2006

by Ed Vogel

Las Vegas Review Journal

Professional poker player and television commentator Howard Lederer said the charm of poker is that “people at home believe they can be part of it. Anyone can win. Occasionally you get a guy who has a lucky run.” Lederer maintained it would hard to become a compulsive poker player “based on the skill element. It is a skill-based game.”
“You may have the skills,” Wexler told Lederer.
“The kids all over America think they all can be professional poker players,” added Wexler, who called for television to start empathizing the potential problems of poker playing. I run a National helpline for gamblers
888 LAST BET and 1/3 of all the calls are coming from young people from age 12 – 30 or the parents of these young people.

These questions were prepared by:

Arnie and Sheila Wexler Associates

888-LAST BET

aswexler.com

YOUTH QUESTIONS

These questions may help you consider whether or not you have a gambling problem.

 

1. Do you find yourself gambling more frequently than you used to?

2. Has anyone ever suggested that you have a problem with gambling?

3. Did you ever gamble more than you intended to? (time or money)

4. Do you have a fantasy that gambling is going to make you rich?

5. Do you believe you have superior knowledge when you place a bet?

6. Do you lose time from school due to gambling?

7. Do you have intense interest in point spreads or odds?

8. Do you make frequent calls to sports phones or lotteries?

9. Have you ever bet with a bookmaker or used credit cards to gamble?

10. Have your grades dropped because of gambling?

11. Have you ever done anything illegal to finance your gambling?

12. Is gambling language or references part of your vocabulary?

13. Do you prefer to socialize with friends who gamble?

14. Does anyone in your family have an addiction?

15. Have you ever borrowed money to finance gambling?

16. Has anyone ever paid your gambling debts for you?

17. Does gambling give you a “rush or high ”?

18. Do you find yourself craving another gambling experience?

19. Do you find yourself “chasing: your losses?

20. Have you ever tried to stop or control your gambling?

21. Have you lied about your gambling to family and/or friends?

22. Are you spending more time on the internet?

23. Are you playing poker on the internet?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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DO COMPULSIVE GAMBLERS EVER MAKE $ GAMBLING !

Tuesday, 22. January 2013

 

What is Compulsive Gambling?

BY ARNIE WEXLER CCGC

Compulsive gambling is a progressive disease, much like an addiction to alcohol or drugs. In many cases, the gambling addiction is hidden until the gambler becomes unable to function without gambling, and he or she begins to exclude all other activities from their lives. Inability to stop gambling often results in financial devastation, broken homes, employment problems, criminal acts and suicide attempts.

The gambler is eventually able to remove themselves from reality to the point of being totally obsessed with gambling. Eventually, they will do anything to get the money with which to stay in “action”. They will spend all their time and energy developing schemes in order to get the money to continue gambling. Lying becomes a way of life for the gambler.

They will try to convince others and themselves that their lies are actually truths and they will believe there own lies.

After they hit a real bottom they will have to do something if they want to try to recover. Most gamblers at that point will want to stop but can’t (they wont be able toMost even at that point will keep gambling some will end up in jail some will attempt suicide some will die from their addiction as they will not take care of their health or the stress will kill them.

And a small group of addicted gamblers will seek and find real help but the real trick is to get in to real recovery. Not just abstinence. By the time the gambler comes for help they have broken brains (Meaning their brains don’t work like they used to when they were not in there addiction).They are mentally ill.

To get real recovery the gambler needs to work on them self’s one day at a time and get someone to do there thinking for them who has been in recovery some time and has there brains are working right (a sponsor) After some time in recovery there brains will start to work again. They will become productive on there job and become a good father and husband. Recover is a process and does not happen with out a lot of work on your self . and making a moral and financial inventory. But people can recover and do.

============

 

DO COMPULSIVE GAMBLERS EVER MAKE MONEY GAMBLING ? BY ARNIE WEXLER CCGC

Compulsive gamblers sometimes show a profit from a single session but in the end they cannot keep it. They will lose it all and more because of their addiction.
A win is never big enough so they keep playing and dream that this time they will get the “Big Win” they crave. When it does ( sometimes it does ) it is still not enough so they keep gambling and lose more.
Just like “normal people” who win and buy something with the money, the compulsive gambler will only see a win as a sign that they are now on a winning streak so they risk more. They cannot stop the chase to win more and more. The human drama continues when they lose and chase the losses with even more money. The cycle continues.

 

==================
BY  Arnie and Sheila Wexler
Why gamblers dont want to stop
1. The big win is just around the corner with the next bet I make. 2. I can get even again, then I will stop gambling. 3. I am not like drug addicts or alcoholics. 4. I can stop anytime I want. I just don’t want to stop. 5. I am too young to be a gambling addict. 6. If I had more money I know I could win. 7. I am smarter than the rest of the gamblers. 8. The losses are not my fault right now because I’m having bad luck.
“What gets a gambling addict into treatment? Pain.
They lose everything. And intervention. The wife has to say something like ‘I’m putting the house in my name, or I’m leaving.’ The gambler must understand he has an addiction. He must
be willin
g to attend Gamblers Anonymous and seek professional help. By the time a gambler is ready to get help, he has no more money, for the most part. And their family is sick and tired of bailing him out.” Sometimes pathological gamblers quit only when they are seized by despair after a lifetime of denying the problem. They even attempt suicide
We now are a nation of gamblers with 48 states promoting and heavily advertising gambling in order to get their piece of the action. The states are lapping up money from lotteries, scratch offs and casinos and using peoples losses to augment normal state taxes. States project how much income they will receive from gambling revenue, in their budgets, and when that projection falls short; where will the money come from? How about the fact that the federal government makes billions of dollars on taxing the winnings of the gambler?
Billions and billions are bet each year legally and illegally.
For an addicted gambler every time they purchases a stock in a company they are placing a bet; who knows what the future price will be when you need to sell?
Arnie Wexler, gambling treatment specialist: This addiction is a little different than alcohol and drugs. There’s no track marks, no dilated pupils, no smell. It’s invisible. If I came here and told you I was an alcoholic and hadn’t drank in 44 years, but then I had a drink, you’d know it right away. You smell it, you see it. But if I just came from the casino, or called my bookmaker, or bought a hundred lottery tickets 10 minutes ago, you wouldn’t know. Problem gamblers have shame and guilt. Unlike alcoholics who might go around saying, “I’m an alcoholic.” It’s very rare to get gamblers to admit they have a problem. They’re embarrassed. They’re afraid. Your drug dealer is not sending a limo for you.
Sheila Wexler, gambling treatment specialist: Gamblers go further, longer, and they don’t pass out. So they usually don’t get intervened as soon as someone with a drug or an 200 alcohol problem. And the more you can bet, the more excitement you have. But when you can’t make that bet, any level of bet will do. With alcoholism, there’s a point where reverse tolerance takes place, where the little amount kills you or certainly makes you pass out. With gambling, you could go out there forever and ever. There’s no change. There may be more excitement if you could bet more money. They put everything in jeopardy. It doesn’t matter. Your wife doesn’t matter. The kids don’t matter. The job doesn’t matter.
Questions from gamblers anonymous—
1. Did you ever lose time from work or school due to gambling? Yes No
2. Has gambling ever made your home life unhappy? Yes No
3. Did gambling affect your reputation? Yes No
4. Have you ever felt remorse after gambling? Yes No
5. Did you ever gamble to get money with which to pay debts or otherwise solve financial difficulties? Yes No
6. Did gambling cause a decrease in your ambition or efficiency? Yes No
7. After losing did you feel you must return as soon as possible and win back your losses? Yes No
8. After a win did you have a strong urge to return and win more? Yes No
9. Did you often gamble until your last dollar was gone? Yes No
10. Did you ever borrow to finance your gambling? Yes No
11. Have you ever sold anything to finance gambling? Yes No
12. Were you reluctant to use “gambling money” for normal expenditures? Yes No
13. Did gambling make you careless of the welfare of yourself or your family? Yes No
14. Did you ever gamble longer than you had planned? Yes No
15. Have you ever gambled to escape worry, trouble, boredom or loneliness? Yes No
16. Have you ever committed, or considered committing, an illegal act to finance gambling? Yes No
17. Did gambling cause you to have difficulty in sleeping? Yes No
18. Do arguments, disappointments or frustrations create within you an urge to gamble? Yes No
19. Did you ever have an urge to celebrate any good fortune by a few hours of gambling? Yes No
20. Have you ever considered self-destruction or suicide as a result of your gambling? Yes No

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The number of problem gamblers now exceeds the number of persons with alcohol dependence,

Saturday, 19. January 2013

Is gambling spreading faster then other addictions ? You can bet it is

Lake Worth, FL
Tuesday, January 22, 2013

THERE ARE more active gambling addicts in America today then ever before
Why is insurance not mandated to cover gambling addiction
SOME OF THESE STATMENTS COME FROM THE WONDERFUL BOOK Recover to Live: Kick Any Habit, Manage Any ADDICTION…
Christopher Kennedy Lawford
 Researchers at
the University of Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions reported survey results in 2011
showing that the number of problem gamblers now exceeds the number of persons with alcohol
dependence.
Skepticism was initially expressed by longtime addictions specialists.
Combining data from two U.S. national surveys in which a total of about 5,000 people
were interviewed, age patterns for gambling and alcohol involvement were compared. What
emerged was the finding that after 21 years of age, alcohol abuse dropped off and gambling
problems multiplied until, from ages 31 through 40, gambling was a bigger problem than alcohol
abuse. “I didn’t expect problem gambling to be more common than alcohol dependence for such
a wide age range,” commented John Welte, the institute’s chief investigator of the study, which
was published in the Journal of Gambling Studies (March 2011).
Despite the skepticism voiced by some in the treatment field regarding the survey results,
other indicators support the view that gambling and the social ills generated by it may be a toxic
trend we will have to reckon with for decades to come.
Arnie Wexler CCGC said States, churches, synagogues, charities, they’ve all gotten into the gambling business and
helped to make it socially acceptable and available virtually everywhere in this country
There
may be 11 million or more problem gamblers in the United States and less than one in 10 of
them ever seeks treatment, probably because of the shame, guilt, and stigma associated with
being identified as having this disorder.
According to the National Gambling Study Commission, there are 5 million compulsive gamblers and 15 million at risk in the U.S.
“We know gambling is a genetic disease. There are biological factors passed on from
father to son and mother to son that create vulnerabilities. It’s a disease that starts early in life.
We know that the brains of people with gambling addiction are functioning differently and are
built differently from those who don’t have gambling addiction.”
Arnie Wexler called compulsive gambling “a progressive disease, much
like an addiction to alcohol or drugs. In many cases, the gambling addiction is hidden until the
gambler becomes unable to function without gambling. Lying becomes a way of life. They will
try to convince others and themselves that their lies are truths and they will believe their own
lies. Inability to stop gambling often results in financial devastation, broken homes, employment
problems, criminal acts and suicide attempts.”
“The brains of
pathological gamblers are very different than those who do not have a gambling addiction,”
Sheila Wexler, gambling treatment specialist: More than 50 percent of the people
we see for treatment are women. A large percentage of them play slot machines. They got
addicted later in life. They don’t have this pumped-up ego thing that male gamblers have.
They’re kind of meek and maybe uncomfortable with themselves and something happens in their
life—a divorce, the children leave home, they’re lonely—and they become escape gamblers.
With slot machines you don’t have to be educated in gambling, unlike with blackjack and other
card games. You just stick your money in the machine and you have this oblivion for whatever
length of time you can sit at that machine. I had a lady that came to me for help, a 73-year-old
woman, who lost a quarter of a million dollars in slot machines. I have female clients who have
embezzled money to support their gambling habit.

Arnie Wexler, Said one of the last cases i was in court for an African-American lady, 42 years old, a
very religious lady who went to church every Sunday, got hooked on slot machines and
embezzled a million and a half dollars from the county she worked for. She lost it all in slot
machines. She got a 17-year jail sentence. SOME KILLERS DONT GET 17 YEARS IN JAIL
This might be a help to understand gambling addiction.
Parkinson’s Drugs and Restless Leg Syndrome Drugs Triggering Gambling Addiction.
In a paper just published in the Journal of Gambling Studies, they urge that all Parkinson’s patients now be screened for possible gambling problems, and monitored through the course of their treatment.
Scientists theorize that the problem is caused by drugs that counter the shortage of dopamine in Parkinson’s patients’ brains, the main cause of their symptoms. As well as managing movement and balance, the chemical influences the pleasure and reward centers of the brain, perhaps encouraging such compulsive behaviour as gambling.A popular medication used to control tremors associated with Parkinson’s Disease and Restless Leg Syndrome has caused people to get addicted to gambling addiction.

IF YOU WANT TO TALK TO ARNIE WEXLER
561 2490922 CELL 954 5015270
WE RUN A NATIONAL HELPLINE FOR GAMBLERS 888 LAST BET

Arnie Wexler
Arnie & Sheila Wexler Associates
Lake Worth, FL
561-249-0922 CELL 954 501 5270

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This book is the best book even written on addiction but more important about how people can RECOVER.

Saturday, 19. January 2013

 

 

 

This book is the best book even written on addiction but more important about how people can RECOVER.

Arnie Wexler CCGC

NEED HELP FOR GAMBLING ADDICTION CALL ME 888 LAST BET
Treatment expert Arnie Wexler called compulsive gambling “a progressive disease, much like an addiction to alcohol or drugs. In many cases, the gambling addiction is hidden until the gambler becomes unable to function without gambling. Lying becomes a way of life. They will try to convince others and themselves that their lies are truths and they will believe their own lies. Inability to stop gambling often results in financial devastation, broken homes, employment problems, criminal acts and suicide attempts.”
A Gambling Treatment Expert Conquers His Own Addiction From Arnie Wexler, certified compulsive gambling counselor and former executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey: My first big win was Memorial Day, 1951. I’m at Roosevelt Raceway in New York. I’m making 50 cents an hour after school in the garment center carrying boxes. And I go to the racetrack and it’s a Friday night and I come out of the track with $54 and I’m 14 years old. And I say to myself, “Wow! I could be a millionaire from gambling. Why am I wasting my time working for 50 cents an hour?” I became the plant manager working in a company supervising 400 to 500 people. It was the biggest dress company in America at the time. And I’m stealing every day to support my gambling addiction. The only things I didn’t do were to get a gun, mess around with counterfeit money, or mess around with illegal drugs—only because I didn’t know where to get them. That’s what this addiction does to you. But problem gamblers never believe they’re stealing. You believe you’re borrowing it, and you’re going to put it back when you have the big win. I would bet thousands of dollars in my early years of gambling when Sheila and I first got married. I’m betting thousands of dollars on baseball games. And then I’m sitting in a poker game with little old ladies and Sheila and me, and the most you could win is $2. Two-dollars per game and you know what, I got almost everybody’s money and I’m as excited with that game as I am with the thousand dollars that I bet on the baseball game. So I know the disease is not about winning money. It’s not always about money. It’s not about losing or winning. It’s about action. Once I got a call from a bookmaker on a Monday: “You can’t bet tonight because you owe me $500.” So I take my car and I sell it to a neighbor for $500 and paid the bookmaker and 198 left Sheila without a car for a few years. And then I decide we’re going to move near my fatherin- law because he works and doesn’t have a car that he takes to work. So she uses his car. That’s what gambling does to you. That’s all that matters. I couldn’t care about my family, my wife, and my kids. A family will never ever again be the same once they have a gambler. There is damage to the family. On February 2, 1968, Sheila was having a miscarriage. I called my boss at nine o’clock in the morning and said, “I can’t come to work. My wife’s in the hospital. She’s sick.” Then I went to a racetrack for the day. At five o’clock I came to visit her in the hospital. My boss came to me and said, “Arnie, we know you’re stealing from the company.” He told me I was going to be arrested if I didn’t get help. So I walked into a Gamblers Anonymous meeting. When I finally stopped gambling, I owed 32 people money. They were relatives, friends, ex-bosses, companies I worked for. Today I can’t even watch a horserace on the news at night. You got to respect the power of the disease. That’s important. <==================
From Arnie Wexler, gambling treatment specialist: This addiction is a little different than alcohol and drugs. There’s no track marks, no dilated pupils, no smell. It’s invisible. If I came here and told you I was an alcoholic and hadn’t drank in 43 years, but then I had a drink, you’d know it right away. You smell it, you see it. But if I just came from the casino, or called my bookmaker, or bought a hundred lottery tickets 10 minutes ago, you wouldn’t know. Problem gamblers have shame and guilt. Unlike alcoholics who might go around saying, “I’m an alcoholic.” It’s very rare to get gamblers to admit they have a problem. They’re embarrassed. They’re afraid. Your drug dealer is not sending a limo for you. A casino is sending a limo. They’re giving you free rooms and meals. They’re giving you a feeling, a fantasy. That doesn’t happen in other addictions. From Sheila Wexler, gambling treatment specialist: Gamblers go further, longer, and they don’t pass out. So they usually don’t get intervened as soon as someone with a drug or an 200 alcohol problem. And the more you can bet, the more excitement you have. But when you can’t make that bet, any level of bet will do. With alcoholism, there’s a point where reverse tolerance takes place, where the little amount kills you or certainly makes you pass out. With gambling, you could go out there forever and ever. There’s no change. There may be more excitement if you could bet more money. They put everything in jeopardy. It doesn’t matter. Your wife doesn’t matter. The kids don’t matter. The job doesn’t matter.
===================
Nine gambling myths From Arnie and Sheila Wexler, who present workshops and seminars on compulsive gambling addiction and run a national hotline for problem gamblers: 888-LAST BET: 1. The big win is just around the corner with the next bet I make. 2. I can get even again, then I will stop gambling. 3. I am not like drug addicts or alcoholics. 4. I can stop anytime I want. I just don’t want to stop. 201 5. I am too young to be a gambling addict. 6. If I had more money I know I could win. 7. I am smarter than the rest of the gamblers. 8. The losses are not my fault right now because I’m having bad luck. 9. I know I can beat this game. ================
After four decades of working with problem gamblers, Arnie Wexler evolved his own unique take on what motivates people to quit: “What gets a gambling addict into treatment? Pain. They lose everything. And intervention. The wife has to say something like ‘I’m putting the house in my name, or I’m leaving.’ The gambler must understand he has an addiction. He must 202 be willing to attend Gamblers Anonymous and seek professional help. By the time a gambler is ready to get help, he has no more money, for the most part. And their family is sick and tired of bailing him out.”Sometimes pathological gamblers quit only when they are seized by despair after a lifetime of denying the problem. They even attempt suicide. ====================
From Sheila Wexler, gambling treatment specialist: More than 50 percent of the people we see for treatment are women. A large percentage of them play slot machines. They got addicted later in life. They don’t have this pumped-up ego thing that male gamblers have. They’re kind of meek and maybe uncomfortable with themselves and something happens in their life—a divorce, the children leave home, they’re lonely—and they become escape gamblers. With slot machines you don’t have to be educated in gambling, unlike with blackjack and other card games. You just stick your money in the machine and you have this oblivion for whatever length of time you can sit at that machine. I had a lady that came to me for help, a 73-year-old woman, who lost a quarter of a million dollars in slot machines. I have female clients who have embezzled money to support their gambling habit. One African-American lady, 42 years old, a very religious lady who went to church every Sunday, got hooked on slot machines and embezzled a million and a half dollars from the county she worked for. She lost it all in slot machines. She got a 17-year jail sentence. From Arnie Wexler, gambling treatment specialist: We run this gambling hotline and in the last three years, one third of all the calls coming in are coming in are from poker players between the ages of 12 and 30, young kids or parents of these kids. I see these kids all the time who don’t want to go to college. They’re going to be professional poker players. 207

 

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Nine gambling myths THAT KEEP THE GAMBLER GAMBLING

Friday, 11. January 2013

Nine gambling myths THAT KEEP THE GAMBLER GAMBLING From Arnie and Sheila Wexler, who present workshops and seminars on compulsive gambling addiction and run a national hotline for problem gamblers:
888-LAST BET: 1. The big win is just around the corner with the next bet I make. 2. I can get even again, then I will stop gambling. 3. I am not like drug addicts or alcoholics. 4. I can stop anytime I want. I just don’t want to stop. 5. I am too young to be a gambling addict. 6. If I had more money I know I could win. 7. I am smarter than the rest of the gamblers. 8. The losses are not my fault right now because I’m having bad luck. 9. I know I can beat this game.

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