Gambling can be destructive addiction

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Gambling, whether at a bingo hall or with a lottery ticket, is something most of us have done at one time or another. It is estimated that 93 per cent of Alberta's adult population has tried gambling in one of its various forms.

For most of us it is nothing more than an occasional, relatively harmless form of recreation. Unfortunately, for many people it becomes a debilitating addiction every bit as destructive as an addiction to drugs and alcohol.

It has been nearly two years since Mike last gambled. It is still difficult for him to discuss the pain his addiction inflicted on his family and next to impossible for him to calculate how much money he lost.

The final straw came when he dragged his nine-year-old son with him to the horse races and his son began to cry.

"All at once I realized - right in the middle of the Northlands parking lot - what it was doing to him and I knew I had to do something," he recalls.

Mike shared his story during a recent forum on problem gambling hosted by the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission in Edmonton. The two-day conference allowed delegates working in the field of addiction counselling to share ideas and research and to attend sessions put on by some of North America's leading addiction experts and by recovering gamblers like Mike.

The introduction of Video Lottery Terminals into Alberta two years ago focused new attention on the issue of addictive gambling. Last year, a study commissioned by Alberta Lotteries and Gaming found that 5.4 per cent of the province's adult population can be classified as problem gamblers. Of that number, 1.4 per cent, or between 16,500 and 35,000 adults, are considered pathological gamblers for whom "gambling has caused serious emotional and financial trauma."

Even for those who are considered pathological, gambling is often considered to be an invisible illness, because it is misunderstood or denied by both the addicts and their families. It is also not uncommon for a gambling addiction to co-exist with alcohol or drug addictions, and to be overlooked during treatment.

As a result of the information gathered in the study, earlier this year the Alberta government initiated an education, prevention and treatment program to deal with the problem. The program will be administered through AADAC and will be funded through the province's lottery revenues.

It's a move praised by addiction experts like Dr. Durand Jacobs of California's Loma Linda University, who spoke at the AADAC conference. Dr. Jacobs believes that governments who promote gambling have a responsibility to provide services to those who become addicted.

"As a rule, the gaming industry is second only to the tobacco industry in their denial of responsibility," he says.

Although he is impressed with the efforts of the Alberta government, he would like to see governments study the potential for harm before promoting gambling.

"Usually you have to do an environmental impact assessment when building plants or mills or dumps, but few governments ever do a social impact study to access the potential problems that come from gambling."