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 “It’s riskier than a lot of people think,” said Keith Whyte,
executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling,
sponsoring Problem Gambling Awareness Month, now underway. “The guy
sitting down the hall could have lost hundreds of thousands of
dollars gambling. For him, this could be devastating.”
The FBI estimates that more than $2.5 billion is wagered illegally
each year on March Madness, a time in which calls to the Council’s
helpline spike. “This has become a national gambling holiday,” Whyte
said.
According to sports analyst Danny Sheridan, the “Madness” of the
tournament isn’t the basketball, but the bets. While the buy-in for
small office pools may be only one or two hundred dollars, the cost
to enter contests in Wall Street workplaces easily approaches seven
figures. “It gets bigger and bigger each year,” Sheridan said.
But among many - primarily novice - gamblers entering the action,
the first bets may trigger dangerous biological and psychological
responses.
“No one starts out to be a problem gambler. All gambling starts out
recreationally,” Whyte said. In problem gamblers, he warns, wagering
rewards the same pleasure pathways activated by illegal drugs.
Tampa-based psychotherapist and certified gambling counselor Damon
Dye points out that many who develop compulsive tendencies do so if
they are feeling disconnected in personal relationships, isolated or
bored. Employers can be challenged in identifying workers
struggling, as problem gamblers are often skilled at hiding their
addictions.
“These are high-functioning, successful, respected people, who do
very well financially and that we look up to,” Dye said. Among the
most prone are those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD), or who are comfortable with risk taking, and who have
experienced some sort of “big win.”
For Arnie Wexler, that win was $54 at a racetrack when he was 17.
His “chase” to replicate that one small success set off a decade and
a half of gambling that eventually bankrupted his family. Wexler
admits stealing from employers to pay off debts and wishing that
either he or his family would die, so he wouldn’t have to tell them
the truth.
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“I thought about killing myself every day, but I didn’t have enough
guts,” said Wexler, now a certified gambling counselor and author of
the newly-released autobiography, All Bets Are Off: Losers, Liars
and Recovery from Gambling.
“I would gamble on two cockroaches coming out of the carpet, which
would come closer,” Wexler said. “That’s what a sick gambler does.”
Sports betting consumed the Brooklyn native. “There were times when
I had sex with my wife, and she would say, ‘I think I hear a ball
game.’ But even though I would tell her she was crazy, I had a ball
game on the transistor radio under her pillow.”
Wexler maintains that if he were still gambling, he would be in
prison; with the availability of credit cards and ATMs, money is
easier to come by.
And this time of year, the circumstances are just too tempting, he
said. Gamblers who are addicted, who haven’t gotten help yet, “will
hear March Madness promotions and the odds and lines, and that
juices them up,” he said.
Social pressure is also at play, according to Dye. If a colleague
doesn’t want to participate, don’t push.
“For problem gamblers, the gambling urge is setting in, and they’re
caught thinking they can’t say anything to get support, so they’re
relying on strong will,” he said. “They go along with the bracket,
because they don’t want to feel awkward.”
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