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Catch gambling addicts early Jim Craven photo Video poker machines account for the lion's share of gambling addictions in Oregon, which afflict 2.3 percent of the adult population. The state Department of Human Resources hopes to reach gambling addicts earlier and more effectively with a new $6.2 million program announced today in Medford. Program earmarks $6.2 million for treatment of early-stage gamblers Warning signs of problem gambling Person is preoccupied with gambling. Person is unable to stop gambling. Person brags and boasts about gambling and exaggerates wins. Person minimizes losses. Person increases the size of bets. Person has unexplained financial resources. Person is restless or irritable with severe mood swings when not gambling. Person gambles to feel better. Person centers all recreational activities around gambling. Questions to ask: Is gambling making home life unhappy? Are you reluctant to use "gambling money" for normal expenditures? Do you ever feel remorse after gambling? After losing, do you feel you must return as soon as possible and win back your losses? Do you gamble to escape worry or trouble? Does gambling keep you from sleeping? Do arguments, disappointments or frustrations create an urge to gamble? Does gambling make you careless about your welfare or that of your family? Do you gamble longer than you had planned? Do you gamble until your last dollar is gone? Do you gamble to get money with which to pay debts or otherwise solve financial difficulties? Do you borrow to finance your gambling? Call for help:1-800-233-8479 in Oregon, 1-877-891-5112, Gamblers Anonymous of Southern Oregon By JONEL ALECCIA The trouble with most problem gamblers is, they don't think they have a problem, says Oregon's expert on the issue. Even if they spend more time playing video poker than playing with their kids. Even if their waking thoughts are dominated by slot machines. Even if they lie, cheat and embezzle from their employers for a chance at the next big win. Perhaps more than alcoholics or other substance addicts, people hooked on gambling cling to a particularly tenacious brand of denial, says Jeffrey Marotta, gambling program manager for the state Department of Human Services. That's especially true if the addiction is in its earlier stages. "They still have money in the bank, they pay their bills. They don't identify as having a gambling problem," Marotta says. "Currently, our system is not even geared for those folks." But starting this summer, a shift in philosophy, structure and service will alter treatment of Oregon's growing number of problem gamblers. At a conference today in Medford, Marotta will introduce a new $6.2 million, two-year program aimed at reaching gambling addicts earlier and more effectively. Funded through mandated proceeds from the Oregon Lottery, the new program will expand a 24-hour gambling addiction hotline; provide "home-based intervention" services to less severely addicted gamblers; increase funding to county governments for prevention, outreach and treatment; and boost a $600,000 "Play Responsibly" gambling awareness advertising campaign. "We're now looking at problem gambling from a public health perspective," Marotta says. "We want to cast a wider net of services to reach people at a less severe stage to serve (them) with their gambling problem before it develops into something that is harder to recover from." An estimated 50,000 Oregonians - 2.3 percent of the adult population - are addicted to gambling, Marotta says. In Jackson and Josephine counties, that amounts to about 4,200 gambling addicts. Over the past five years, Oregon has seen an 18 percent increase annually in problem gamblers entering treatment, Marotta says. Of those gamblers, more than 75 percent say they're addicted to video poker, which accounts for 80 percent of the Oregon Lottery's revenues. By contrast, 9 percent say they're hooked on slot machines, Marotta says. Overall, Oregon spends 91 cents per capita annually on problem gambling, the highest rate in the nation. The next closest state in spending is Iowa, which devotes 71 cents per capita annually to the problem. Helping problem gamblers break their addiction is very difficult, say treatment providers and clients alike. "It's so hard to keep them engaged," says Jean Linck, one of two gambling treatment counselors with Josephine County Mental Health, which provides services in Josephine and Jackson counties. Last year, 170 gamblers enrolled in treatment; 40 completed it. "You know how people with alcohol or drugs hit bottom? With gamblers, I've heard it called a 'rubber bottom' because they just keep bouncing back," she says. That's as true for women as for men, Linck says. Addictive gambling claims both genders but for different reasons. "Men start the addictive process after they have the big win. They discover it as a way to feed their egos," she says. "Women get hooked around mid-life when they have an absent husband and an empty nest." However they start playing, nearly all find it nearly impossible to stop, says one Grants Pass man who gambled for more than 50 years. "We're stone sober from alcohol and drugs; all we're doing is functioning with our mind that says that with the next bet or the next pony, you could win it all," says the man, now in his mid-60s, who has not placed a bet - or wanted to - for 18 months. Like all members of Gamblers Anonymous, the man requested anonymity. He believes the stigma attached to gambling is greater than that surrounding alcohol or drug abuse and he contends it's a chief reason more people don't get help. "The compulsive gambler is a thief, a cheat, a liar and very secretive," he says. "It's hard to come out of that." Oregon's new treatment model aims to make access easier for problem gamblers through self-referral, self-assessment and help offered through workbooks, by telephone and through the Internet, as well as in groups of varying intensities. "It really tries to decrease the number of treatment barriers," Marotta says. "A lot of these folks, they're very strong-willed. They would prefer to do things on their own." Reach reporter JoNel Aleccia at 776-4465, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.