Wednesday, Sept. 3, 1997 | 9:54 a.m.
When you have an overpowering, compulsive urge to gamble -- when you can feel the cards slick against your fingertips or the slot machine handle hard and round in your palm -- where can you turn for help?
For 40 years this month, the main answer has been Gamblers Anonymous. Begun in Los Angeles and modeled on the 12-step recovery program of Alcoholics Anonymous, the organization has spread to 2,000 chapters nationwide.
The Las Vegas chapter has been active for 26 years, said Carol O'Hare, executive director of the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling, a treatment-referral agency. Because of its anonymous, egalitarian nature, GA doesn't have its own spokespeople.
"In Southern Nevada," O'Hare said, "which includes Laughlin and Pahrump and Henderson as well as Las Vegas, there are currently more than 60 meetings a week being held."
Attendance ranges from a dozen to more than 40 per meeting, she said, but, again, because of the group's emphasis on anonymity and the shifting nature of addiction, it's impossible to know how many people are active in GA at any one time.
In the gatherings, members share horror stories about uncontrollable gambling and try to prop each other up to face another week in a city where even a trip to 7-Eleven is an exercise in temptation-resistance.
"We get people from all walks of life," O'Hare said. "We've seen people who weren't old enough to gamble legally. We've seen retired people. We see single, married, all ethnic backgrounds. And women. Women are one of the faster-growing segments."
Nationally, the organization is gaining numbers thanks to the explosion of gambling into America's heartland. The 2,000 existing chapters equal four times the number only eight years ago.
For many years, casino gambling was considered the province of Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Today, 26 states allow casinos and 37 hold state-operated lotteries.
For every riverboat, lottery or casino opening, a Gamblers Anonymous chapter sprouts right behind it, trying to pick up the pieces of lives shattered by betting.
"The No. 1 referral is to Gamblers Anonymous," said Ed Looney, executive director of the Council of Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey. "And we just see that growing by leaps and bounds."
The continued success of Gamblers Anonymous is attributed to its existence as the only long-term treatment program for gambling addiction. Many states offer professional counseling for gamblers, some for up to three years. But gamblers say betting is a lifetime addiction and Gamblers Anonymous comes at the right price -- free.
"It's a resources problem," said Chris Reilly, executive director of the National Center for Responsible Gaming, an arm of the casino industry created to study gambling addiction. "People's insurance doesn't cover it and these are people who are least able to pay for it."
Gamblers Anonymous was founded in 1957 in Los Angeles by Jim Willis, an alcoholic who used the 12-step recovery program of Alcoholics Anonymous as the foundation for his gambling fellowship, which now boasts 18,000 members.
In the years since, compulsive gambling has only become more of a problem.
"It's getting much bigger," said Joe "Big Joe" Myers, who operates Gamblers Anonymous meetings in northern Illinois and Indiana and serves as a national trustee to the group. "The riverboats are bringing people in."
Many of the states that allow casino gaming are using proceeds to link gambling addicts with professional counseling. And those mental-health centers still quickly match clients to Gamblers Anonymous.
"We value Gamblers Anonymous to such an extent that we require our providers to have a linkage to them," said Tom Rich, assistant deputy director for Indiana's Division of Mental Health.
How fruitful Gamblers Anonymous has been over the past 40 years is still questioned because of the group's foundation on anonymity. Some chapter leaders like Myers estimate that no more than 2 percent of members have successfully kicked the betting habit.
"More people come to their first meeting than their second," O'Hare said. "Sometimes it takes repeated attempts before a person can get any assistance from the program." They need to reach a higher level of discomfort, she said.
The organization is growing on new fronts, attracting members from new demographics. In the last three years alone, the number of GA meetings in Connecticut has doubled from 12 to 24, with the addition of slot machines to Indian reservation casinos. And as gambling spreads, so does the addiction.
"Since we've had casinos, the makeup of Gamblers Anonymous has changed," said Chris Armentano, director of Connecticut's Compulsive Gambling Treatment Program. "It's gone from middle-aged men to middle-aged women members."
Experts estimate that it takes about two to four years for addiction problems to infiltrate a region. Scott Procopio, a 33-year-old meat-packing plant worker, recently opened a chapter in Evansville, Ind., which got its first riverboat casino a year ago. Like most Gamblers Anonymous leaders, Procopio doesn't spend his time espousing the evils of gaming.
"I don't have anything against it," said Procopio, who said he has maxed out 44 credit cards on dog tracks, horses and keno. "I just can't control it, so I have a room for people who want to stop gambling."
THE ASSOCIATED Press contributed to this report.
archive
