The Chance to Win

My last blog entry [Walk Away Now!, 10/29/10] has gotten more "hits" than any other one to date. The reactions that people have had to the topic of gambling have been interesting and illuminating. I just finished a massive paper on gambling and older adults and during the course of my research, read more journal articles on the topic than I ever imagined I would. The latest national studies have estimated a lifetime prevalance of problem gambling in the U.S. of between .6%-2.6% (*1,*2).   The 2.6% is for adolescents and young adults; the .6% is for all adults.  I'd be willing to bet it's higher.

I saw a friend on Monday. I asked her what she did for her weekend. She blushed and inserted a book between her face and me. "I don't want to tell you," she said. "It involved a casino, didn't it?" I said, knowing without knowing. "Did you win?" Of course not. Curious, I asked, "Did you read my blog?" "Of course," she said. Then in one breath she told me the Friday night before right after work, she'd taken the subway as far north as it will go in the Bronx, then caught a bus to Yonkers and Empire Casino. She'd only intended to stay an hour, but she hadn't actually left until 11 p.m. In the next breath, she told me she'd gone alone and that she doesn't have a problem. OK.

The same day I was told about a person who works where I do -- that person had lost the equivalent of three paychecks (that's 6 weeks worth of work) at the casino recently and had to borrow money to pay the mortgage. My heart skipped some beats.

The stories continued.

"I have to stay away from blackjack. Just put me near a table and it's like a magnet."

"My ex-husband gambles -- he plays poker. But he's good at it."

"So & So is a really heavy card player. She's been doing it for years."

My "heart mother" told me about someone she'd known many years ago who was addicted to gambling and that he'd told her it was the worst of all addictions. She hadn't believed it then but she does now.  

After I had my first casino experience with my dad and sister, for quite a while I itched to go back. I saw a little tabletop slot machine in some catalog and looked at it more than once, considering. My attraction to repetitive motion was making me vulnerable. However, I eventually decided it was not a good idea. Not because I was afraid of developing a problem, but because I thought - what's the point? All you can win is your own money. That's no fun. 

While writing my paper, I searched the internet to find free on-line slots (I had no budget for research, LOL).  I experimented, opening one web site and trying several games, one right after another, to see what they were about. I was paying close attention to my thoughts and feelings. I quickly lost interest. I didn't feel much of anything in this process - unless you count exhausted - but my mind was busy. I didn't believe my spin results were truly random, and, more importantly, I thought I can't win any money. That's no fun.  [Now of course, I realize that one can pay to gamble on line. And then there is a chance to win. I realized in this experiment that it wasn't just the repetitive motion, it was the chance to win that was key.]

During my research, I read disagreements about the addictive power of a slot machine. Some call it the crack-cocaine of gambling and others say poppycock. Those others are mostly casino stakeholders. The study that made me the angriest was the one that asserted that older female gamblers were an untapped source of revenue for casinos and then went on the "prove" that as a group they were not particularly vulnerable to developing a problem with gambling (*3).

The bad news is that the study - as are many of them - is seriously flawed. The good news is that I think I found my dissertation topic.

*1 Kessler, R. C., Hwang, I., LaBrie, R., Petukhova, M., Sampson, N. A., Winters, K. C., et al. (2008). DSM-IV pathological gambling in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Psychological Medicine, 38(9), 1351-1360.
*2 Welte, J. W.,  Barnes, G. M., Tidwell, M. O., & Hoffman, J. H. (2008). The prevalence of problem gambling among U.S. adolescents and young adults: Results from a national survey. Journal of Gambling Studies, 24, 119–133.

*3 Taras, J., Singh, A.J., & Moufakkir, O. (2000). The profile and motivations of elderly women gamblers. Gaming Research & Review Journal, 5,(1).