Former addict helps problem gamblers break habit
Saturday, 15. March 2014
Former addict helps problem gamblers break habit
Written by
Russ Pulliam
Indianapoils Star
The Institute for American Values in a new study outlines the tragedy: Casinos have become senior citizen centers.
The report suggests that problem gambling is growing among senior citizens who play slot machines and other games in casinos. Casino advertising promotes images of smiling faces, but the study’s author, Amy Ziettlow, found another story, with many older Americans depressingly glued to the machines.
“The mesmerizing design of the ubiquitous electronic gambling machine absorbs the time and money of many seniors, while exploiting their loneliness, idleness, and boredom,” she writes. “Sitting at a slot machine felt like being stranded in the ocean in a small inner-tube, trying to connect to other isolated swimmers against the persistent undertow.”
Against that bleak backdrop, Arnie Wexler provides a more hopeful perspective, one based on 45 years of freedom from a gambling addiction.
Wexler continues to rescue victims from their addiction to slot machines. He came to Indy for a recent seminar for the MidCentral Alliance on Problem Gambling. He started with a sports betting habit that grew out of control in his home state of New Jersey. He placed his last bet in 1968.
That was before casinos came to Atlantic City, along with state lotteries, off-track betting and Indian casinos.
Wexler stayed out of political debates over gambling, focusing instead on helping victims. Yet for years the gambling industry saw him as an enemy because his stories about people wrecked by their addiction indicate that for some gambling can be as harmful as illegal drugs.
Eventually, however, executives in the casino industry realized he could help train employees to spot problem gamblers, just as a responsible bartender stops serving drinks to customers who’ve had enough. Casino managers also appreciate Wexler for helping them with their own employees who struggle with gambling problems.
“The problem is bigger behind the table than in front of the table,” he said. “There are so many workers in the industry that have a gambling addiction. I’ve helped people from housekeepers to presidents of casinos.”
The heart of his work is 12-step programs. The average of success is not high, and some addicts relapse after years of freedom.
Wexler persists because he wants to help others avoid the suffering he endured. “The greatest joy you can have is seeing a person free, after three months, and then six months, and then a year,” he said. “The highest high I get today is my wife and kids and grandkids, and then seeing new people come for help and see their growth and recovery down the road.”
