Do you often gamble until your last dollar is gone? Do you ever borrow money or hit the ATM to finance your gambling? After a win, do you have a strong urge to return and win more? After losing, do you feel you must come back as soon as possible and win back your loses? We all do this now and then, but if you find yourself doing it most of the time, you may have a problem - a serious one. You may be addicted to gambling.
For most of us, casino gaming is something we can take or leave. Sure it’s fun, but if we find ourselves in a pinch because of unexpected expenses, we can easily go on hiatus for a month or two until we’ve got our finances under control again. We all know we should never gamble money we can’t afford to lose. Gambling has to come out of our entertainment budget - not out of money we need for household expenses, or the kids’ education, or our retirement savings. If there’s some left over after all the bills are paid, that’s great. We can have a little fun with the surplus. But we should never, never risk more than we can afford to lose.
We should also never gamble when we are drunk, drugged, depressed, or desperate. We’ll likely gamble more recklessly and dig our hole even deeper. We’ll make mistakes when we are not emotionally and mentally in control, and this will cause us to lose even more and feel even more hopeless.
Some people don’t have the self-control to stay away from the slots or the tables. Winning makes them want to play longer and win more. Losing makes them desperate to gamble on and make even bigger bets to recoup their losses. Gambling is not a social game for these people. It’s an addiction, no different than an addiction to alcohol, or drugs, or sugar, or anything else we think we can’t live without. If you have a problem, you know it. You know all the signs. You just don’t know what to do about it.
Sometimes compulsive gamblers without the self-control to stay away find the only solution to overcoming their illness is to ban themselves from the casinos altogether. California and many other states have programs where a problem gambler can self-ban himself from one or more problem venues for one year or for five years or for a lifetime.
Casino staff will help. They will take the gambler’s picture and a copy of his driver’s license and they'll have him sign a form to choose the time period for the ban. These forms can be filled out at the casino, which will submit it to the state, or you can mail one to the Bureau of Gaming Control. (This sounds so much like what was done to the seat switchers in the earlier post. I wonder if they signed self-ban forms without knowing what they were doing.)
Self-exclusion is a voluntary program, but the lifetime ban is irrevocable, so it should not be entered into lightly. Gamblers who self-exclude are prohibited from ever entering the premises of these gaming establishments, and they will not be paid any winnings if they violate the prohibition. Additionally they will be treated as trespassing, and they’ll be arrested. There could be a fine and even jail time. (I was at a casino recently when a patron was arrested - none of the staff would tell me why. Perhaps someone banned tried to play?)
The addicted gambler can also choose self-restriction, which is baring himself from specific games such as poker or blackjack, or from specific casino services such as check cashing, rather than from all casino activity. If you have a loved one such as a spouse, or parent, or child with a gambling problem, you can also request “third-party exclusion.”
Even though they have asked to be excluded from a casino, the urge to gamble in the addicted is sometimes too hard to resist. Enforcement is spotty. Usually the staff does not checked IDs, and if they do, it’s just to make sure young people are old enough to go in. If you visit the player’s club or gamble with a player’s card, their computers will probably detect if you are an excluded player. Some casinos are now implementing facial recognition programs. The casinos check their exclusion lists before paying out jackpots requiring W2Gs, and this is where banned gamblers are frequently caught. But security is a double-edged sword. Sometimes the excitement and extra danger of maybe getting caught fuels the drive to gamble even more. And if you have a gambling addiction, being banned at one casino will just make you more likely to gamble at another one.
Self-exclusion is something to consider if you have a serious problem you can’t control yourself. But there are other less drastic measures you can turn to for help as well, such as Gamblers Anonymous (for the gambler), Game-Anon (for the gambler’s family), the CA Council on Problem Gambling, and the CA Bureau of Gaming Control among others. If you need someone to talk to, call 1-800-GAMBLER.
I’m sure none of you readers have gambling addiction problems, but maybe you know someone who does. If so, now you know how to help him.
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