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| Image from Compass Mark's Newsletter - December 2024 |
Good afternoon beautiful people - and Happy First Friday.
This morning I attended an insightful event on gambling addiction and I wanted to share some takeaways with you.
If you have been here for a hot minute, you know that I have been doing a deep dive into the world of addiction & psychopharmacology for the last year (check out this page I created here on the blog, dedicated to addiction related content).
Most of the material has touched on alcohol and drugs in relation to addiction. Today I would like to introduce another form of addiction - gambling - as I share about the event I attended. Please note that this post is a summary of the event, and will only give surface information on gambling addiction. I will work on a comprehensive post on the topic at a later date.
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| Problem Gambling Resource Guide by Compass Mark - December 2024 |
The event was hosted by Compass Mark - who are in the addiction prevention space (mentioned them this Spring when sharing highlights of their virtual Positive Change Conference 2024). The 1.5 hour event started off with a panel discussion, followed by Q& A and group discussions on gambling.
The panel had three speakers:
1. Eric Webber - A Senior Behavioral Health Therapist at Caron Treatment Center shared some Pennsylvania related statistics, highlighting that the tax revenue from gambling is around $2B, and is expected to increase as modes of gambling/access to it increase/morph (move away from physical casinos to online ones and slots at local stores).
He also showed that despite the growing number, only 1.4% of those suffering reach out for help.
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| Eric Webber's Slide with PA Stats - December, 2024 |
2. Abby Peters - A Licensed Professional Counselor and Owner of SHHARP Counseling mentioned that there are very few service providers who specialize in gambling addiction, and not as many gambling anonymous meetings as there are narcotics or alcoholic anonymous meetings.
She also stressed the need for service providers to ask questions during the intake process and frame those questions in ways that people can easily understand, and feel comfortable to open up.
An interesting resource she mentioned was GamFin which provides linkages to financial advisors for those struggling.
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| Eric Webber's Slide with on co-occurence stats - December, 2024 |
3. Dr Harry Levant - Director of Gambling Policy with Public Health Advocacy talked about gambling from a public health perspective and from his lived experience. He worked as a lawyer for 20 or so years, then got into gambling, was arraigned in court and long story short that's how he got into this line of work - he is currently practicing as a therapist.
He pointed out that what people call revenue from gambling is actually public loss that not only affects the person but so many others in their sphere. Based on his experience, he also touched a little on the co-occurrence with suicidal ideations/attempts.
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| Eric Webber's Slide on advertising - December 2024 |
After the panel presentations, we had a Q&A session before moving to group discussions where we addressed:
1. how much community members know about gambling - what it is, its causes and consequences
2. how to communicate risks of gambling with patients, and share available resources
In response to these questions, I must confess that I know bits and pieces about gambling - which is not enough to make a solid argument for or against anything.
An observation I can share—as a football fan (go Arsenal)—is how the sports betting side of gambling has been 'made' to feel like part of the fanfare/pre-match routine. Then there are all these commercials - for some reason it feels like Kevin Hart is in all of them - that make it 'look' like a way to 'earn money'. Back home the same can be said about 'influencers' working as ambassadors for betting organizations, and trying to show it (betting) as a source of additional income.
Today’s session sparked my curiosity, and I am already asking myself - Are these commercials and collaborations, subtle components of the normalization of an issue no one is looking into? I do not know, but the researcher in me is excited about the possibility of a new project.
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| Eric's slide on how much is spent on advertising - December 2024 |
Until then, have a lovely weekend...and try not to bet (at least until we do this deep dive together).
Sending love and light,
Sitawa
