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Gambling a ‘disease’
Problem won’t disappear by itself
By Joeth Zucco
Senior Editor ____
It can start out with the innocent
purchase of a pickle card. Then it
can progress to a weekly bet of $20
or $25 on a favorite football team.
Then it can become a bad habit.
Compulsive gambling is a dis
ease much like alcoholism or over
eating. It’s an addiction like smok
ing or drugs.
Deb H., a recovering compul
sive gambler, started betting in
1979 when she first moved to Lin
coln. She said she started gambling
because she was bored.
Sports -- football, baseball and
basketball -- were her weaknesses.
She said that football was a big
thing in her family when she was
growing up and thus her familiarity
with the sport.
“I started out with little bets and
won a bit,” she said. “Then it was a
high just to place them.”
Deb said that she was placing
bets every dav. especially during
the United States Football League
season, noting that there were only
two weeks during the year when
there weren’t any professional
sports in progress.
Deb said there are three phases
of gambling: winning, losing and
desperation. During ner first year
of betting, she said that she won a
lot of the time. She said that the
bets varied from $100 to $500,
sometimes higher.
“Within a year, I was out of
control,” she said. “I couldn’t
sleep. I was starting to lie to cover
up the money. 1 would bet some
times as high as $2,500 and had no
idea where 1 was going to get the
money if I lost it.
“A compulsive gambler is the
best liar, manipulator and con art
ist. They will say or do anything
just to get their hands on money.”
Deb said that by the end of 1985
she was in debt $40,000 and that it
was all borrowed money. She said
that she borrowed money from
anyone who would help her:
banks, financial institutions, credit
cards, old business acquaintances,
friends and family.
“The availability of credit is
numerous in this city,” she said.
“You can apply for credit cards and
get cash advances.”
She said that she always paid
her bookies off, even in instance*
of being charged 2A percent inter
est.
“It’s a never-ending game,” sh<
said. “I bet through several book
ies, not just one. That’s how com
pulsive I was. I figured if I bet
through one I could pay back
another.”
Toward the end of her down
ward spiral, Deb said, she was near
suicide — a common thought for
compulsive gamblers. But, she
said, it’s not a solution.
“I would often drive out to a
lake and visualize what it would be
like to drive into a lake and see my
husband and children taken care,
of by my insurance,” she said.
She said she placed her last bet
on Jan. 12, 1986. She went to her
first Gamblers Anonymous meet
ing the same month.
“1 went there on my own,” Deb
said. “Things were bad at home to
the point that 1 was lying so much
my nusband had no idea we were
on the verge of losing everything
we had.”
Before she decided to go to a
meeting, she called the Gamblers
Anonymous Hotline.
“There were two women who
«_• _ __LI__4
WCIC vAJIII|JUK>IVC aiiyj.
they gave me enough encourage
ment to go to a meeting. They told
me I wasn’t alone, that similar sto
ries were heard in the past, so I
went to my first meeting.”
She said that she decided to go
to the meeting because she was
working full time with two part
time jobs so she could start paying
back the people she had borrowed
from.
“I’m nowhere near done,” she
said. "I’ve got another four or five
years left of payment.”
Deb isbeginning her fourth year
as a member of Gamblers Anony
mous. The group meets twice a
week and has a support group for
family and friends called Gam
Anon. Deb is the chairperson of
the Trusted Servants Committee --
she counsels people on an individ
ual basis who don’t want to reveal
their problems in the group meet
ings.
At the first meeting, she said, she
told her story as a gambler. She
then received feedback and ideas
and suggestions on how the cope.
“You learn that others can’t
Solve problems for you,” she said.
"You solve the problem. Others
give you alternatives to solving
; them.”
She said that most of the prob
lems a compulsive gambler face
: involve marital disputes, legal
problems and debt. She said that
the financial end is the easiest to
solve, while the character patterns
are the most difficult.
"I practically destroyed my mar
riage. My children were resentful. I
was lying and cheating and had no
money. It surely put a lot of undue
stress that didn’t need to be there.’’
Deb said that most compulsive
gamblers are hyperactive, nave a
high energy level, are workaholics,
have above average intelligence
and are perfectionists. She said that
they have to change all of it and
learn to become more patient,
honest and gain a positive way of
thinking.
“One stops gambling through
bringing about a progressive char
acter change in oneself,” she said
“The key to this recovery is hon
esty, open-mindedness and will
ingness to recover.”
Deb said that she’s learned a lot
through attending the Gamblers
Anonymous meetings.
“I learned I had to admit I was
out of control and my life had
become unmanageable,” she said.
“Gambling was something I wasn’t
going to be able to do on the social
“When you become a member
of Gamblers Anonymous you have
to analyze everything you’ve done
to people and make amends. It’s
not an easy thing to do. It takes a
long time, but if you work, you’ll
progressively do it.”
One of the steps to recovery is
writing letters of apology to the
people who have been hurt. Deb
said that she recently sent outsome
letters.
"It’s taken me a long time,” she
said. “I learned my family was the
most important thing in my life.
When I was gambling they were
second.
"You learn new behavioral
problems. You get your self-re
spect back. You learn how to help
somebody else and now you face
problems openly. You gel all the
facts and handle them and that’s
one day at a time.”
Deb said that the first two years
of recovery are the hardest. She
said that she couldn’t watch foot
ball games and she had to learn not
to read the sports page.
"I didn’t attend a couple years of
university football games,” she
said.
Deb said she still is wary even
today. She said that she had to take
her name off her joint checking
account with her husband; she
now gets an allowance from him
and gets uncomfortable with
money because she doesn’t want
to lose anyone’s trust.
“Having the cash flow we have
here at the office is scary,” Deb, a
marketing company partner, said.
“If I would have been in this situ
ation seven or eight years ago, I’d
have lost it.
“I’d have gambled it all away.”
Deb said that gambling, as a
disease, is coming out of the closet.
She said that it’s an addiction that
needs some acknowledgement -
like education - from the state of
Nebraska.
‘The Pete Rose problem did the
best thing for GA by making it
nationwide,” she said. "He’s,
strictly in my opinion, in (the)
denial (stage).”
Like alcoholism, gambling is
incurable. Anyone who feels they
have a problem with gambling
should call the Gamblers Anony
mous Hotline.
“That’s the only way to recover
from it.”
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