Fri, Mar 26, 2010 (3 a.m.)

For many sports fans, the best time of the year began last week and is continuing this weekend and next.
March Madness.

It’s the time of year for miracle three-pointers at the buzzer and college basketball teams from schools few people have ever heard of to have the chance to take down the powerhouses.

Because the NCAA tournament is an event stretched out over three weekends, there’s a greater effect than a single-day event such as the Super Bowl at Nevada’s sports books.

Nevada is the only state where legal wagering occurs. On opening weekend, when 64 teams in the tournament were playing, Las Vegas’ sports books were jammed with hoops fans making wagers.

Although March is a special time for Las Vegas, it unleashes a different kind of Madness for Arnie Wexler, who regularly lectures on the dangers of compulsive gambling, especially during the NCAA tournament and especially by college students.

“Because it’s stretched out over a long period, it’s the biggest gambling event of the year,” said Wexler, who says he placed his last bet April 10, 1968, and has been involved in helping compulsive gamblers for the past 40 years.

During March Madness, Wexler doubles his awareness efforts, claiming the big basketball tournament sucks in unsuspecting students who enjoy the thrill of winning a wager, then find themselves gambling money they once dedicated to educational expenses.

Wexler says the addictive gambling behavior has worsened with the growth of the Internet.

“We can’t stop it, and it’s getting worse,” he said. “Addiction is an impulse and with the Internet, you can jump on your computer in the middle of the night and lose thousands of dollars in no time.”

The NCAA and professional sports leagues have hypocritical stances on gambling, Wexler said.

He said he has tried to persuade the NCAA to act on growing evidence that gambling on college campuses is out of control. The organization pays him lip service and sends him on his way, he says. Its effort to combat gambling is to show student athletes a tired 20-minute film warning them not to associate with professional gamblers who may try to influence them to throw games, Wexler said.

The NCAA also provides a “gambling hotline” that rings into its office so that students can report illegal activity.
“What kid in his right mind is going to call the NCAA office?” Wexler said. “An athlete who did that would be barred from playing. What the NCAA needs is a real program that teaches about addiction.”

Professional leagues have their own problems, he said. Most have no problem talking about favorites and underdogs in their releases and broadcasts, and all operate their own “fantasy leagues” using statistics generated from games for fans to compete with one another for prizes.

Wexler had a few choice blasts for newspapers that publish gambling lines and point spreads.

“Why don’t they at least publish a phone number for people to call if they have gambling problem if they’re going to publish those lines?” he said. “I can’t even get the newspapers to do that. At least on cigarette packages, there are warnings that smoking is harmful to your health.”

Wexler wonders how much productivity has been lost in the American workplace this month with employees moving their attention from work to March Madness tournament brackets. He knows attention to academics is being diverted on college campuses across the country.

He said about one-third of the calls he received in the past three years on his gambling addiction hotline — 888-LAST BET — came from people from the age of 12 to 25. At the Comprehensive Addiction Rehabilitation Education center, C.A.R.E. Florida, near Wexler’s Boynton Beach, Fla., home, seven people are in treatment for gambling addictions. Five of them started gambling when they were in college.

“It’s completely out of control and it’s on college campuses everywhere,” he said.

The atmosphere at UNLV is a little different from other college campuses, since sports wagering is legal in Nevada for people 21 and older. But it’s just as pervasive.

Sage Sammons, sports editor of UNLV’ student newspaper The Rebel Yell, says the three questions that always come up in his circles are who’s playing, at what time and what’s the line.

Because sports wagering is legal, the gambling culture is more about social interaction than trying to beat the books.
“My friends usually bet anywhere from $10 to $150,” Sammons said. “The biggest bet one of my friends made was $100 on one game, and we were all looking at him like he was crazy.”

Sammons said he has seen some addictive gambling behavior in friends of friends.
“Some friends know a guy who gambled $1,000 at the opening of Aria,” he said. “A friend of a friend blew through $2,000 in one night, most of it on blackjack. Most of us can’t do that — that’s a semester’s worth of tuition.”

But he and his friends have seen some students move back in with their parents because they couldn’t handle the financial pressures, including gambling losses.

Although sports wagering is legal in Nevada, Sammons admits he has seen some instances where underage gamblers have convinced older fraternity brothers to place a bet for them.

“It’s like a rite of passage,” he said. “When I turned 21, one of the first things I did was get a beer at the sports book bar and place a bet.”

As sports editor, he has plenty of contact with student athletes and he said he has never seen or heard of any UNLV athletes betting on sports.

“There’s too much at stake for them,” he said. “They’d have their scholarships revoked, and they would be in trouble for a long time. I would be 100 percent shocked if there are any athletes at UNLV that gamble.”

It was a rainy  Friday afternoon in 1983. The late Dr. Robert L. Custer , whom was the “father” of treatment for compulsive gambling, asked me to drive him to Long Island, N. Y , to visit one of his patients. This patient had entered an in-patient treatment center for compulsive gambling. As we drove along the bumpy Long Island Expressway, I  had no idea  whom we were going to visit. It didn’t matter to me, as I would have done anything for Dr. Custer, since  by now we had become personal friends.  As a compulsive gambler , in recovery for about 15 years, I had learned the only way I could keep my recovery was to reach out to another  suffering compulsive gambler. Even though it was a long time ago, I  could still remember  the pain that gambling caused me and my family and friends. I always loved the time I spent with Dr. Custer , but this particular time was really special, since most of the discussion focused on recovery  from compulsive gambling.

We arrived at the treatment center and went to see Dr. Bob’s patient. We talked for about an hour. He was a young man, about 21 years old and very handsome. He had the body of an athlete, seemed very intelligent and appeared to have quite a lot of potential. Yet, there was no doubt that he was a compulsive gambler and already had many losses including his career being in jeopardy. He was very likable and we hit it off immediately. For the next couple of weeks many of the conversations I had with Dr. Custer were about this patient. About three months later, in Bethesda Maryland, in the home of Dr. Custer,we met again. In the following year we met and spoke on the phone frequently. It seemed to me that we were becoming good friends. Even though he relapsed a few times over the next few years, we still kept in touch, often. During that time he still had the ability to perform  in his career but his employers were afraid that the gambling addiction might interfere. Unlike alcoholics and drug addict, who get second chances, it is more difficult for compulsive gamblers to get second chances . In the meantime, the young man got married and got a job in another field. He had his own radio show, and as most compulsive gamblers , he was able to succeed at this new endeavor. However, recovery continued to elude him. His pain was getting greater and greater. He wanted to stop, but couldn’t. The need to gamble was stronger than his power to stop by himself.  No compulsive gambler can stop on his or her own. He needed the help of other recovering people, but he was still struggling with this concept. The addiction had him by the throat and was destroying him little by little .

The death of Dr. Custer (in the mid 80’s) was a terrible loss to me and I know it had to be a tremendous loss for this patient. A few years later,  his wife gave birth to their first daughter. Now they had become a family. Over the next few years we were still having contact over the phone.  Often he would talk about his wife and his daughter  and how much he loved them

Last year, before the Super Bowl, I was a guest on his radio show. The discussion was about compulsive gambling.  Even though he  hadn’t stopped gambling  himself, he was still eager to carry the message about the devastation of compulsive  gambling to his audience. Shortly thereafter he took a “geographical cure” and moved to Las Vegas,  the Mecca of gambling in America. For most gamblers this town is Heaven, but for compulsive gamblers it’s Hell. Again he was a host of a successful radio show.

With all the phone calls over the years, we had not seen each other for about five years. Last week was the first time I saw him, again. I was on one side of a glass partition, he was on the other. The visit took place in the North Las Vegas Correctional Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. As with all compulsive gamblers they will pursue their gambling into the gates of prison, insanity or death. As we talked over the prison phone, my life, prior to recovery, flashed before my eyes. Thank God I had stopped when I did or I could have been on the other side of the partition. At this time I am fortunate enough to have had recovery for  twenty-six years, one day at a time. My friend  told me that he had eight nine days without a bet. He said that now he believes he can stop and he wants to. That’s how recovery can begin. You admit you are a compulsive gambler and you have the desire to stop.

The next day I saw him in Court for sentencing on the charge of bank fraud. I had the privilege to be asked by him and his attorney to explain the issue of compulsive gambling to the court. Not in my wildest dreams could I have believed  that in my recovery I, or anyone else would ever be asked to speak in a Federal court about compulsive gambling.

With a room full of reporters, a family member, friends and some recovering compulsive gamblers, the Judge sentenced him to twenty-four months in jail. When I heard the sentence I got a pain in my stomach, my hands started to sweat and I could feel his pain. When the defendant stood in front of the Judge, his only request was to serve his sentence  in a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, so he could be closer to his wife and his two children.

Although we have come a long way in the area of compulsive gambling awareness, there is still virtually no help in the Federal correctional system. It seems to me that it would be very difficult for a compulsive gambler to find recovery or stay in recovery in this type of setting. I believe the federal correctional system should provide some of the following services: counseling services, Gamblers Anonymous meetings within the facility,and education and  reading materials on compulsive gambling and it’s recovery. I believe strongly, that  incarceration time should be reduced in lieu of alternatives like halfway houses or in-patient treatment facilities. In addition I think that sentencing should include making full restitution(within a realistic budget), community service, continued attendance at Gamblers  Anonymous and on-going counseling services

It is ironic that he was sentenced two days before the Super Bowl because if not for the fact that he is a compulsive gambler  ART SCHLICHTER  might have been the starting Quarterback in the game.

It was Memorial Day 1951. He was a 14-year-old Brooklyn boy earning four bits an hour in an after-school job when he made his first score gambling at Roosevelt Raceway in Westbury: $54 cash — genuine folding green.

“It changed my life,” he says in a nasal voice like one of the kids from “Welcome Back Kotter.” “I thought in that moment, that day, what a euphoria, what a high, what an easy way to make money. And what a schmuck I was working for 50 cents an hour.”

By 17, when most kids were hustling to buy their first car, Wexler had his own bookmaker. By 18, he was winning and losing thousands.
When it came to sports betting, he didn’t discriminate. He bet hockey without knowing what a puck was. He bet horses daily, sometimes gambling away his bankroll before he was able to play the mob’s fixed race of the day.

“I’d bet on a cock-a-roach race,” he says. “I bet everything and anything.”
It was December 1967 when he learned the bottom line from Matty, his North Bergen, N.J., bookmaker, about the incredible popularity of football with the betting public. On that day, Arnie could have told you the stats for the starting lineups of the American League, but he couldn’t have named five NFL players.

Soon he was gambling way over his head on football. He was on his way to losing his career, his friends and his family. While earning $125 a week, he once called in a $10,800 bet. “And if I lose the 10 cents in the phone booth, I can’t call the man back.”

He doesn’t blame Las Vegas. Without setting foot in a casino, he gambled with bookmakers, in backroom card games, and at the racetrack.
He won a lot — and always lost more.

His life eventually got better  when he found recovery and  he began to learn about the nature of addiction. Ever a man with a head for numbers, Arnie reminds me he placed his last bet on April 10, 1968.

Today, Wexler and his wife, Sheila, are two of the nation’s most vocal advocates of a greater understanding of gambling addiction. Today, on Super Bowl Sunday in a nation that worships sports and the betting that is an integral part of its reason for being, the Wexlers are lone voices drowned out by the roaring crowd.

When I ask his opinion of the importance of betting to the NFL and the Super Bowl, he doesn’t miss a beat.

“Take away the gambling from football,” he says, “and you’ve got soccer.”
Allow gambling on high school football, he adds, and watch the grandstands fill.

The Super Bowl is not only the biggest betting day of the year for the Las Vegas sports book fraternity, it is the one game on which just about everyone from Seattle to Sarasota has a little action. Wexler appreciates the excitement, but thinks the NFL and the legal gambling industry are hypocrites for not taking a stronger stance on the issue of addiction.
“I’m not a prohibitionist,” he says. “I’m a recovering compulsive gambler. Compulsive gamblers cannot walk out with the money. It’s not about the money that you win. It’s about being in action. That’s the sickness.”

What does a recovering compulsive gambler do on the biggest betting day of the year?

“We’re probably going to go out to dinner with my father-in-law and his girlfriend,” Wexler says. “After that, I’ll probably end up at some kind of meeting.”

Old gambling stories aside, that’s what keeps him money ahead in real life.
John L. Smith’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.

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 to).

Most 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).

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.

It is difficult to spot a compulsive gambler, because, unlike other addictions, it is a hidden and invisible disease. For millions of people, gambling offers a harmless and entertaining diversion from everyday life. Whether playing bingo or baccarat, these people are participating in a legitimate and time-honored recreational activity by taking a chance on an unpredictable event in the hope of winning. For others, however, the simple act of placing a bet is a vastly different experience. What seems a moment of elation or excitement for some gamblers is in reality a moment of overwhelming compulsion- a moment in which these people have lost the ability to control their gambling behavior. These individuals cannot resist the impulse to gamble- they are compulsive gamblers.

The American Psychiatric Association (since 1980) has defined the disorder using the following criteria:

Diagnostic criteria for 312.31 Pathological Gambling

DSM-IV

Persistent and recurrent maladaptive gambling behavior as indicated by at least five of the following:

1. Is preoccupied with gambling (e.g., preoccupied with reliving past gambling experiences, handicapping or planning the next venture, or thinking of ways to get money with which to gamble)
2. Needs to gamble with increasing amounts of money in order to achieve the desired excitement
3. Has repeated unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop gambling
4. Is restless or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop gambling
5. Gambles as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving a dysphoric mood (e.g., feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, and depression.
6. After losing money gambling, often returns another day in order to get even (“chasing” one’s losses)
7. Lies to family members, therapist, or others to conceal the extent of involvement with gambling
8. Has committed illegal acts, such as forgery, fraud, theft, or embezzlement, in order to finance gambling
9. Has jeopardized or lost a significant relationship, job, or educational or career opportunity because of gambling
10. Relies on others to provide money to relieve a desperate financial situation caused by gambling

It is important to note that this is a treatable illness and a person can lead a productive life after finding help and recovery.

The American Medical Association adopted a resolution ( Resolution 430 in 1995) citing “the addictive potential of gambling”, suggesting that their member physicians “advise their patients of the addictive potential of gambling”.

When I was the Executive Director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of NJ, 8% of our calls to the hot line, came from casino employees. Since 1994, we have trained over 35,000 casino workers, nationwide. Raising the awareness of employees through training on the subject of compulsive gambling is sometimes the catalyst for the employee to seek help. Every time we do casino worker  training, some workers, who have a gambling problem, themselves, or have a family member with the problem, approach us for help. Often we receive phone calls from employees, several months after they hear our presentation. Many of these people find it difficult to come forward with the problem, fearing that exposure will affect their chances for advancement with the company. Supervisors who recognize an employee who has a serious gambling problem also often approach us.

The problem exists at all levels of employment. Workers have approached us from housekeepers to executives of casino companies. There was a housekeeper who revealed that she stole items from guest’s rooms in order to support her gambling addiction. A casino limousine driver called us and was planning to kill himself as the result of his gambling problem. There was a pit boss that let dead-beat gamblers sign markers and then got a pay off from the gambler. A racetrack announcer called me for help after trying to fix races in order to get money to gamble with. We received a call for help from an employee on the hotel side, who was using customers’ credit cards to access gambling money for his gambling. A legal counsel to a casino company, asked for our help in getting him excluded from gambling in casinos in his state. A woman who worked in credit came forward to ask for help as she was in jeopardy of losing her marriage and children.We have even worked to help a man who was the CEO of a major casino and now is in recovery.

As the problem or compulsive gambler becomes more and more pre-occupied with their gambling they will eventually effect their company and their job performance. Some areas include erratic work performance, inconsiderate treatment of customers, borrowing money from coworkers or customers, absenteeism, tardiness, theft, embezzlement, affecting the integrity of the game they are dealing or by being coerced to fix games by bookmakers or loan sharks whom they may owe money to, and increased health care costs for them and their affected families.

It would be beneficial and good prudent, business judgment, if gaming companies helped their employees who had a gambling problem, rather than terminating them. Employees are their most valuable asset as they are often, in the front line with their customers Employers and supervisors need to realize that compulsive gambling is an addiction, similar to alcoholism and drug addiction.

Many companies already have health benefits that include treatment for other addictions. These benefits should also include treatment for compulsive gambling for employees and their families, paid for by the employer. Employers can also make available a room for an in house Gamblers Anonymous meeting. Human Resource and EAP personnel should have training on the subject of compulsive gambling. Brochures and information regarding help for a gambling problem, should be made available to all employees.

Another area that employers may want to consider is the legal ramifications of not taking action if they recognize that their employee has a gambling problem. They may be held accountable by the regulatory body in their state, for continuing to employ someone who has a compulsive gambling problem and is currently gambling. On the other hand, employers should have documented information before approaching a worker who is suspected of having a gambling problem.

Early detection of this hidden illness may result in the employee getting help before he or she reaches the desperation phase of compulsive gambling. With recovery, both the employee and the employer will benefit.

We are encouraged to see that some gaming companies have come a long way, in the last few years, by addressing this issue. They have developed training programs and responsible gaming programs and policies that have helped their employees who have a gambling problem.

‘TAKE AWAY gambling from the National Football League and you’ve got soccer,” Arnie Wexler grumbles, knowing he’s got your attention now, without resorting to a 2-by-4 upside your head.

“When I was betting, and I haven’t made a bet since April 10, 1968, it was ‘win-or-lose.’ Now, it’s ‘over/under’ and 200 different proposition bets. Playoff games and the Super Bowl are to the compulsive gambler what New Year’s Eve is to an alcoholic.”

You can bet on the coin toss at the Super Bowl, heads or tails, but you have to wager $55 to win $50 on what is essentially a 50-50 proposition. That’s called vigorish, the house advantage, the built-in edge that helped create the glitzy casino skyline in Las Vegas (take away gambling from Vegas and you have cactus).

Wexler lost too many win-or-lose bets. Wound up with nothing but lint in his pockets and thoughts of suicide raging inside his head. Fought his way back. Calls himself a recovering gambling addict, because that’s what he is.

Runs a counseling service with his wife, Sheila. Fights the good fight against the lotteries, against the casino tide, against sports betting.

“When they debated 24-hour casino gambling in New Jersey,” he recalls bitterly, “I testified at the hearings, hammered away at them, borrowing from the cigarette companies having to put a ‘hazardous to your health’ sticker on every pack. Finally, they agreed to offer a phone number to call ‘if you or someone you know has a gambling problem.’ ”

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem you can call 1-888-LAST BET, and Wexler will get back to you. He sees Pennsylvania approving casino table games and on-site credit and it makes him sick.

“More and more states approving gambling,” Wexler moans, “as an easy way to balance a budget, without caring about destroying the lives of some of its citizens.”

Wexler’s theory is raw. Make it easier to gamble and more people will gamble. Some of those people have the gene that predisposes them to compulsive gambling. Some of those people will become addicted, steal, abuse a spouse, shatter a marriage, commit suicide. He defines a compulsive gambler as “someone who lets the gambling control you, instead of you controlling the gambling.”

Says there are 5 million gambling addicts out there, with another 15 million at risk.

(Let the record show that the pie-in-the-sky forecasts of $250 million in table-game revenue going to the state include a $3 million set-aside to help addicted gamblers get treatment.)

He shares an e-mail from a judge in a city where gambling is legal, citing the dramatic increase in domestic-abuse incidents on Super Bowl weekend. (Let the record show that a survey a couple of years ago debunked this statistical trend as urban myth.)

He follows the Gilbert Arenas gun-toting mess with a jaundiced eye, knowing that it was triggered by a dispute over a gambling debt spawned by a high-stakes card game among teammates.

When a $12 million-a-year guy plays poker with a $1 million-a-year guy, the $12 million guy wins every time unless the $1 million guy has brought his own deck. Either way, feelings get bruised, bitterness follows.

In reaction to the Arenas mess, Lakers coach Phil Jackson has endorsed card games on charter flights. Nets president Rod Thorn has banned them.

“Ten years ago,” Wexler rasps, “I had a meeting with the NBA. They were concerned about gambling in the league. One of the things that came up was guys losing $30,000 to $50,000 playing cards on a flight from one city to another.

“We put together a set of questions for every player and my wife was going to evaluate the answers. We gave the league the questions and they never got back to us. They abandoned the idea, and the word was that the higher-ups were afraid of the media’s response.”

And now, between dealing with a rogue referee who bet on games he officiated and the Arenas mess, NBA commissioner David Stern ran the legal-gambling banner up the flagpole. Wexler did not salute. He threw rocks at it.

“Money,” he snorts. “Greed. The things that have motivated David Stern down through the years.”

They have a gadget in Vegas now that allows a gambler to place bets from anywhere in the hotel/casino. Can you imagine 6,000 people at Wachovia Center carrying a similar gadget? Elton Brand steps to the foul line and you can bet make-or-miss.

(Let’s say he’s shooting 77 percent from the foul line, you will still have to bet $100 to win $75, if you think he will make the shot. That old devil, vigorish, cackling in the background as a basketball game is transformed into dogfighting, you should excuse the expression.)

Wexler used to think gambling was recession-proof. Now he sees Atlantic City casinos going belly up and Vegas revenues shrinking and New England casinos up to their armpits in debt.

“I always wondered about saturation,” he confesses. “And now, with so many casinos out there, people are going to go broke, to tap out. The states counting on huge revenues will wind up disappointed. The average person, faced with daunting odds, is backing away. It’s the addicted gambler who continues to gamble.”

He will keep hammering away at states ignoring the social woes that come with increased legal gambling. He will keep yammering at casinos that get players drunk while approving six-figure “markers.” And he willingly, sadly, offers two more warnings.

“The big secret in the gambling industry,” he says, “is the increasing number of addicted workers in the industry. Sure, they can’t gamble where they work, but they go down the street, to gamble in a different casino.

“And then there’s the problem of all those slot machines on military bases abroad. More and more soldiers becoming addicts, more and more lives impacted.”

Wexler’s message is bleak as America gets ready to celebrate another Super Bowl. Meanwhile, avoid betting “over/under” on the length of the national anthem. It’s a sucker bet because the wiseguys have a “book” on the anthem singers, who’s slow, who’s quick, who makes “rockets’ red glare” last longer than a Charles Barkley New Year’s resolution.

Send e-mail to stanrhoch@comcast.net