Industry sign banking new jersey living will free
you you you all right can everybody hear me out there okay I think I have everybody unmuted but I'm gonna mute you as we get started you you you you you you you you microphone check you you you you you you you you you all right so I've got 11 o'clock let's go ahead and get started I appreciate everyone who is here thank you very much today we are going to talk about responsible gambling so without any further ado let's get started talking about responsible gambling so the first thing I want to call your attention to is the very top it now says responsible gaming what's up with that so for this presentation responsible gaming responsible gambling and responsible play will be used interchangeably for me gaming usually means video gaming but the industry of the casino industry often uses the term gaming to mean gambling but for our presentation gaming play and gambling will be used interchangeably there are some people out there that use responsible gaming or the idea of responsible gaming as it's just the casinos responsibility to protect their customers there are some people that think it's just up to the players to protect themselves but it's really a shared responsibility between not just both but all the stakeholders that are you know it's up to the government also to regulate the industry it's up to people like me counselors to look out for other for the players it's up to the entire society to ensure that they're socially responsible that all the stakeholders are protected and that it remains a fun endeavor for everybody involved so who is 800 gambler 800 gambler is one of the things that the council on compulsive gambling of New Jersey does the council on compulsive gambling of New Jersey is a nonprofit organization that's funded through casino licenses a portion of each casino license fee is set aside and given to the division of mental health and addiction services that's the agency in New Jersey that oversees in licenses addiction treatment so a portion of each casino license fee is given to them and they oversee what we do one of the things that we do is we operate this 800 gambler hotline and gamblers or family members of gamblers or people who care about gamblers can call into this hotline they usually call in after a big loss are usually in crisis and they can call in to this hotline and we can typically talk them down from crisis a little bit we can refer them to a mutual aid or self-help meeting a typical referral is to Gamblers Anonymous for the gambler or to gam-anon for the family member or someone who cares about a gambler those are 12-step meetings but we might refer them also to celebrate recovery or reformers unanimous which are Bible based meetings we can refer them to refuge recovery which is Buddhism based meeting we could refer them to smart recovery which is a science or psychology based meeting we can't make them go we can just tell them where they are and tell them what to expect those are just some of the meetings that we could refer people to but we also operate a network of treatment providers in New Jersey there are between 45 and 50 we're trying to expand that network of therapists and counselors where we can send a family member someone who cares about a gambler or a gambler themselves for an assessment and sure you know an assessment is a whole bunch of questions that for a gambler falls into nine categories and at the end of the questions the therapist or counselor can determine whether treatment is warranted or not if the gambler can't afford to pay or doesn't have insurance that can pay if the therapist or counselor is in our treatment network they can send us a bill we are a funding source for gambling treatment many states have funded treatment not every state has funded treatment but many states do and if you think about on it it makes sense a disordered gambler if they had money for treatment they would very likely spend that money gambling thinking that that would be the way out of their gambling problem more gambling to turn that money into a bigger win if treatment was warranted we can pay for up to 26 sessions in a 12-month period so every other week for a year of treatment our office is just outside of Trenton in Hamilton or Hamilton New Jersey I am Ken Litwack I'm an addiction counselor who specializes in gambling and trauma people are sometimes surprised to find that we are not against gambling we are not a lobbying organization we are neutral on legal gambling we are against illegal gambling so underage gambling or dog fights were against that kind of stuff but as far as legal gambling goes we're neutral which allows us to partner with the industry on some occasions we do internet customer service agent training we do responsible gambling training with managers and executives at the casinos sometimes we sit in on in-house trainings and sometimes we even critique their training we work with therapists we train therapists we go to schools and senior centers we go to conferences and we really go anywhere people will allow us to talk about problem and disordered gambling so that's kind of who is eight hundred gambler who is the council and Who am I today we are going to talk about problem and disordered gambling so right there we need to stop for a little more clarification disordered gambling is the clinical term the actual diagnosis for gambling addiction you already heard me talk about compulsive gambling you've probably heard the term pathological gambling those are sub clinical terms at one time they were the die noses but today they no longer are the only clinical diagnosis is disordered gambling it's been that way since 2013 problem gambling is a blanket term that means I can accomplish disordered gambling but it is often used to mean someone who does not quite meet full diagnostic criteria so they are starting to have interference in their life but maybe haven't had an assessment yet there's another term out there that you may have heard that I would ask you to never use and that is degenerate gambling I've heard that on ESPN I had someone actually walk up to me at an event and say that he was a degenerate gambler and I would ask you never to use that term that's a stigmatizing term and that would be best left in the past we're also going to compare internet gambling to brick-and-mortar gambling and talk about some of the unique aspects we're gonna discuss co-occurring disorders we're gonna talk about responsible gambling and some of the warning signs of gambling problems and how to refer or where to go for help so with responsible gambling it's important to keep in mind that most people can gamble and don't have a problem it really is only a small percentage of people that who gamble that will develop a gambling problem nationwide it's only about 2% of people who gamble that will develop a gambling disorder but when you think about it most people gamble and 2% of most people is millions of people and in New Jersey we developed a gambling disorder at about triple the national average about 6% and although 6% is not a huge percentage it is still a lot of people it's hundreds of thousands of people so online gambling why is it so popular well for one thing right now all the brick and mortar casinos are closed but it's also very easy to do I live about six miles from Atlantic City I can see Atlantic City from my home takes me about 10 to 15 minutes to get to Atlantic City which compared to how long it takes me to open my laptop no contest very easy to get online and gamble plus if you don't already know how to play again no contest if you were to try to learn to play in a casino by going up to a table game with people who know how to play and are playing for money and try to buy in you're gonna mess up their game if you're lucky they're gonna give you dirty looks they're probably going to give you negative feedback verbal feedback you're gonna hear about it from them they might even confront you it's much easier to learn step by step for free online it's a growing industry so they're doing a lot to promote that feel they have a large advertising budget they're doing deposit matches and a lot of loyalty programs and rewards right now it is much faster paced there are fewer breaks in the action there is at a brick-and-mortar casino if someone comes in and wants to buy in that's a break in the action at a brick-and-mortar casino when a dealer needs a break a new dealer has to come in that's a break in the action at the end of a dealer a new new dealer comes in another break in the action that doesn't happen with online play in fact with online play you can enable your spacebar to place a bet every time you hit your spacebar that's much much faster play which actually brings us to a comparison of brick-and-mortar play and when you compare brick-and-mortar to online play the service offered by online gambling just lines up very neatly to someone with gambling disorder that's not a criticism it's just an observation that someone who has a gambling disorder is going to gravitate towards online play and you'll see what I mean as we go through this oftentimes when people begin to gamble they go to a casino with friends and an early indication of developing a gambling problem is that the friends will be ready to leave and someone who's developing a gambling problem doesn't want to leave by the time they have a gambling problem it's no longer a social engagement they're isolating they're playing by themselves when you play online you can't help but play by yourself the reason that a brick-and-mortar casino that make you buy chips is there studies that people spend more money when they play with chips psychologically it's a step removed from playing with cash when you're playing online electronic transactions are a step even further removed from chips how far removed is that space bar from Cash when you go to a physical casino there's a sense of reality there you can hear the casino you can see the lights you can hear the machines hear the talk on the tables you can smell they smoked in there for 27 years online it's a sense of fantasy you can imagine yourself as a better player than you really are we already really talked about the ease of access and driving distance comparison but there really is no contest and stigma versus hidden now there are professions and people who just wouldn't want to be seen going into a casino maybe a religious leader or a schoolteacher or a politician or even somebody with a job like mine wouldn't want to be seen playing in a casino whether they have a problem or not any of those people could have a gambling problem and be playing online and nobody would ever know because it's hidden so let's compare lottery versus casino style know there's of course draw lottery drawings and lottery scratch offs if you were to sit in a parking lot of a convenience store you might see somebody buy scratch offs go to their car go back back into the convenience store buy some more scratch offs go to their car go back in this is pretty common with lottery there's less of the big man on campus personality the big personality the quarterback of the football team personality which we'll talk more about chasing losses is a bit less prevalent in lottery gamblers there is a hoarding task force in Atlantic County where the casinos are where I live and I've talked with some members of this task force and they've told me that on occasion they've run into a situation where they found years and decades worth of lottery tickets and a disordered gambler people will sometimes described them as gambling to lose and this is not quite accurate but they are not necessarily gambling to win either they're gambling to stay in play and it's kind of like video games the idea behind a video games to keep your character alive as long and as possible and it's kind of true with gambling till you want to keep your money alive as long as possible and with lottery you can keep in play for a longer period of time you may buy a lottery ticket on a Monday for a Wednesday drawing so it's something to consider also very long odds with lottery it's difficult for humans to really comprehend the vastness of the odds and lottery and one way that I think is a good way to look at it is if you consider a soccer field now a soccer field a professional soccer field is bigger than a professional American football field so if I walked out to a soccer field and I picked a particular blade of grass and then I at the stadium and you came in behind me and tried to pick what blade of grass I chose that's about the same odds of choosing the numbers in Lottery so pretty long odds there is actually such a thing as lottery lottery strategy if somebody is talking about all the significant numbers in their life that's not responsible play but if somebody is talking about higher order math and they're talking about a small lottery of maybe one or two million dollars that has rolled over not had a winner maybe once or twice maybe that is someone who's talking about lottery strategy because that is a real strategy but that again now we're getting a little bit outside the scope of this presentation people who play lottery can sometimes be susceptible to advertising also we know some famous groundhogs who play lottery so let's talk about the phases of problem gambling this is not the phases of gambling this is the phases of problem gambling so it may seem a bit counterintuitive but in order to develop a gambling problem you have to start out winning and sort of makes sense when you really think about it because if you began gambling and all you did was lose lose lose it's very difficult to get hooked on that so I'm going to show you this list in a different format we're gonna kind of walk through it a little bit more carefully I'm gonna zoom in on this a little bit and we're gonna walk through through this if you only occasionally went to a casino and we're gambling but actually we're winning fairly frequently what would you do you would be very excited and you would probably gamble more often you would also probably increase the amount of money you were playing with and start having fantasies about going yacht shopping or new car shopping or whatever it is that you would get excited about what you were gonna do with your winnings probably play more often also if you then had a big win and big is subjective you know it could be $300 $500 $5,000 you know whatever enough to buy a car whatever enough to get you excited and keep you going that's the winning stage and you would be telling people about it you know you would be happy for yourself you would think you are good at it that would be the winning stage now it's important to remember that in modern gambling none of the odds are in the favor of the player all of the games in a casino the odds are in the favor of the house that's how they make their money so over time as someone continues to play it becomes a statistical impossibility for the player to walk away with money but as they continue to play they begin to does pendulum swings the of their way and they begin to have prolonged losing episodes and people don't really want to say yeah I'm taking a beating I'm losing now and maybe they start covering up and maybe lying about it this might be where a good time to talk about the most common explanation for how they did if somebody says hey how'd you do at the casino the most common answer is I broke even the reason people say that is if they say I won then they say oh well you know break me off something give me you know give me something if they say they lost then they open themselves up for negative feedback you know you shouldn't have played you know that was our bill money you know or you could have done something good with that you could have given that to charity whatever it is so the most common response is I broke either but anyway so the pendulum has swung the other way they're in prolonged losing episodes and so now there starting to isolate a little bit of thinking more about their gambling they're trying to get back to their winning ways but they're losing so maybe they're starting to take a little bit of money from places that they really shouldn't be maybe their bill money maybe they're starting
to delay paying their bills thinking that they'll take the electric bill money play with that win some pay the electric bill a few days late and keep it going and maybe doing that kind of stuff is making them irritable restless and seems to cause some personality changes they're delaying paying their debts they're irritable so their home life is becoming unhappy maybe they're borrowing money from friends or borrowing money from work maybe legally or illegally maybe they borrowed money from their electric bill and didn't win enough to pay it back and so they're unable to pay their debts which is affecting their reputation maybe they're getting to the point where they're asking for a bailout and a bailout is trying to get somebody else to pay your gambling debts so now gambling is taking up a significant part of their time because it's weighing on their mind they're going to bed thinking about the money they owe they're waking up thinking about the money they owe they're stressed out they're alienated from their friends and family there may be remorseful and panicking so I can give you an example of what remorseful and panicking might look like maybe an older person who has sold their home and has moved into a senior living facility and you know has to pay monthly rent but has gone through their life savings and now thanks oh my goodness how am I gonna pay this monthly rent at the Senior Center I'm gonna be in my 70s and homeless another example that I can give you is blaming others this is somebody I talked with somebody bit younger had been taking credit card advances to pay gambling debts and was looking for bailouts from family members and was getting bailouts from family members and this is what's dangerous with bailouts is they got back to zero the gambler was back to zero and thinking okay well now I can keep gambling and was getting back into debt looking for more bailouts the family was doing it and at some point the family said that's it we're done with with the bailouts and so the gambler says listen if you don't give me money then you're gonna affect my credit rating it's not my gambling that's the problem it's not my credit card advances that's the problem it is that you are not giving me money that's gonna affect my credit rating so blaming others is that's a pretty good example so things are getting pretty desperate desperate and illegal acts start to seem like a good idea so I'm gonna back it up a little bit cuz when I zoomed in and cut off this blue box this blue box I call the crossroads but to give full credit this chart was designed by Bob Custer Bob Custer is sort of the Johnny Appleseed Johnny Appleseed of problem gambling recovery so in this blue box it's sort of the crossroads people are hopeless they are suicidal they might get arrested they're alcohol or substance use has really escalated they're really in trouble they're either gonna get into recovery or they're gonna kill themselves and gambling has the highest suicide rate of any addiction the council on compulsive gambling puts a number of one in five disordered gamblers will attempt suicide out there we get that number because GA gamblers anonymous says about 13% of disordered or 13% of their members will attempt suicide but not all disordered gamblers will join gamblers anonymous the American Psychiatric Association says about 17 percent will attempt suicide mark Potenza of Harvard University has research that says 21 percent of disordered gamblers who visit Las Vegas will attempt suicide so the number that the council puts on it is about one in five so about 20% of disordered gamblers will attempt suicide and you know that's roughly the number of people with heroin addiction who will overdose so those are mostly accidents and suicide is mostly intentional so you know of course suicide is intentional but I also think that even as high as those numbers are that might even be a bit unreported or underreported suicide sometimes not always recognized as suicide Richard Rosenthal who helped write the dsm-4 criteria for gambling pathological gambling can be seen on YouTube describing the continuum of suicide and talks about how sometimes a suicide attempt might just be closing your eyes while driving on the way home from a casino not really recognized as a suicide attempt and if that suicide attempt was completed might not be recognized as a suicide might not even be recognized as related to gambling so perhaps even that 20% is a little bit low but anyway if suicide isn't the option that's chosen maybe recovery is chosen and hopefully it is let's talk a little bit about that we're not gonna get into great detail on recovery because that's a bit outside the scope of today but it is worth talking about people who who are working in recovery do have an honest desire for help once they get a little time away from their drug of choice whether substance are gambling the brain begins to heal a little bit they're able to start thinking a little bit more clearly solve some problems and make some better decisions sometimes disordered gamblers are no longer working and they may not be working because of some action that they took in the workplace maybe stealing money maybe not being able to report to work maybe gambling at work maybe they had a win and they thought they would be able to turn that win into you know keep it going and continue to be a professional gambler when a gambler who's out of work returns to work that's a very good sign in recovery it can mean that a you know have rejoined society that they're not looking for that shortcut of a big win anymore that they're going to achieve their goals through hard work and that can be a really good sign but also that means that they've developed goals and new interests and that means that they're in the rebuilding stage also a good sign people in early recovery are just starting recovery are often only too happy to tell you about their weaknesses when they start talking about their strengths that's a good sign reconnecting with family not just immediate family but sometimes extended family can be a very good sign in recovery less irritation also not just with family but even with the counselor or therapist can be a good sign less irritation with people in general while driving or while shopping that can be a good sign preoccupation with gambling like instead of watching the games on the weekend and not just during quarantine but you know cleaning out the garage or raking leaves that can be a good sign too so sacrificing for others in this growth stage this area is where if sponsorship is gonna going to occur they might reach out down to somebody who's in this area and try to help out somebody who's just getting into recovery all right so let's move on and let's talk about the types of gamblers that there are probably most of us are social gamblers most people will buy a lottery ticket once in a while or go to a casino and have dinner or see a show and stay and put a few dollars into a slot machine or play a few hands of blackjack but we're still able to pay our bills and it doesn't interfere in our life some people are serious gamblers we all have hobbies some people ride bikes other people garden some people play video games some people gamble but we're still able to pay our bills it doesn't interfere in our life you know that's a serious gambler someone who it's a hobby it's one of their coping mechanisms but it doesn't interfere in their life a professional gambler you know there are many more people out there who say they are professional gamblers then who really are there are some professional gamblers out there and they are characterized by being very disciplined very disciplined for time and very disciplined for money but to me it's very interesting that a professional gambler may may be very disciplined in his particular area but not so disciplined in another area and what I mean by that is it may be a professional poker player and very disciplined for time and money as a poker player but not so much as a sports gambler so a problem gambling so a problem gambler is starting to show signs of developing a gambling problem in order to have the diagnosis for a gambling problem there are nine diagnostic criteria you have to have at least four so a problem gambler may have two or three they're on that slippery slope don't quite meet full diagnostic criteria but it's starting to interfere in their life a disordered gambler is out of control it's interfering in their life they probably can't pay their debts they probably are letting it interfere with their relationships they probably have missed educational opportunities or missed out on work opportunities or career opportunities because of it it really has interfered in their life an antisocial gambler is just not playing by the same rules as the rest of us I a pretty good way to describe or an example of an anti-social gambler or someone who's gambling online with a credit card and has maxed out that credit card and it's starting to put in numbers that are similar just trying to get a card to go through so they can just keep playing that's a pretty good example it's antisocial behavior in gambling so what our damn blur is like Oh gamblers typically are sharp they're bright they have a lot of personality they can be very competitive they can have high highs and low lows highs when they're winning lows when they're losing it does seem to be a lens through which they see the whole world again bling can be very progressive there are penny slots nickel slots quarter slots half dollars launched Dollar slots five-dollar slots $10 slots you know there's a hundred dollar slot machines do you think someone who plays hundred dollar slot machines will be getting much out of a penny slot the more you play the more you need to put I in order to get that same feeling and that's progression so first drink first win we talked about how important that big early win is and blackouts and brownouts people with a gambling disorder will talk about they went to a casino they remember you know walking in the door or starting to play and the rest is a blur or even worse they don't even remember anything after that and we've already talked about a bailout as what you know trying to get someone else to pay your gambling debts labeling is a little bit different it's more of a long-term sort of a family situation and I think a good way to describe enabling is to imagine the cartoon family The Simpsons now Homer is not a gambler Homer has an alcohol use disorder and he goes to work and he goes to Moe's and he comes home and Moses a bar if you're not familiar and that's really all he Marge keeps the family going she takes to get the kids to the doctor she prepares to me ill she takes care of the house she really keeps everything going so that Homer can just go to work go to the bar and come home and drink and that's kind of what a gambling family looks like very similar you know so that's an enabling situation so I'm gonna compare a male gamblers to female gamblers now and this is less true than it used to be but it's true enough that it's a good foundation for us to discuss so men tend to be action gamblers they gambled for competition and excitement and they typically enjoy skilled gambling like sports gambling and table games they are more likely to begin gambling under age and they typically have a longer progression years sometimes decades from early play to developing a gambling problem there is something to consider that we won't know what happens for some time there was a time not long ago when sports gambling was betting on the outcome of a game and sports gambling has evolved now within play sports gambling there are dozens if not hundreds if not thousands of opportunities to gamble within each and every sports game so the progression may change from years even decades to years months of a gambling problem it's too early to tell but it's definitely something to keep our eye on I want to talk about responsible gambling men are more likely to present with narcissistic traits or anti social issues so female 10 females tend to be escape gamblers they tend to gamble for relief or escape from daily life stress or trauma they are more likely to have depression or gamble to escape from depression or dysthymia which is kind of a pervasive lower-grade just depression women typically engage in luck forms of gambling like slot machines bingo or lottery and they typically do not start gambling underaged women typically start gambling later in life in fact the average age of a disordered female gambler is 46 so why do seniors turn to gambling well some seniors have money in the bank and not a lot to do other seniors don't have money in the bank and are looking to add to their income if you we're looking for a senior living facility and you go on their websites looking at places you might see that they offer mahjong tournaments and bingo tournaments and casino bus trips right on their websites so the opportunity is there and boredom sometimes seniors you know don't have the ability to ride a bike anymore go to the gym or you know garden that kind of thing so physically they don't have as much that they can do and these bottom two lines these major lifestyle mile posts are significant for addiction having lost the spouse or close friends or moved away from home or change jobs these major lifestyle changes are significant risk factors for developing addiction whether it's substance or gamble which brings us to a comparison of gambling and substance use disorder so preoccupation is a similarity between both substance use and gambling as is escape gambling and substance use are very good for escaping from daily life stress or trauma if you have a gambling or substance disorder and you try to stop often people develop intense cravings and tolerance the more you use the substance the more you gamble the more you need to in order to get the same feeling people with a gambling disorder or a substance use disorder often have difficulty recognizing that their behavior is related to the difficulties in their life and withdraw we all know about substance withdrawal but sometimes people don't realize that withdrawal is the opposite of what the substance does for people heroin withdrawal for example heroin takes away pain gives people euphoria and makes people constipated the opposite of that is gives people diarrhea unfortunately makes people depressed and does not take away pain makes everything hurt if you stub your toe feels like you broke your leg now for gambling gambling does one of two things for people for some people they get a rush from gambling for other people they're calmed by gambling the rhythm the numbers the thinking it through can be calming if people you know our in a disordered state and they're calmed by gambling and they try to stop they will get anxious if people get a rush from gambling and they're in a disordered state and they try to stop they'll get depressed and in talking with people they get irritable well they have trouble sleeping and they will report that they're even a little sweaty so that's gambling withdraw but there are some significant differences also they're not ingesting anything so you can't test for gambling there's no visible signs you can't look at somebody and say you look like you've been in a casino there are financial problems with substance addiction but they're heavier financial problems with gambling addiction still early on people with a gambling disorder don't think that they're addicted they think oh I can resolve this issue I just need some more money gambling does have a nickname its nickname is the hidden addiction and it's very difficult to diagnose the only way to diagnose it is through self-report and if you know anything about addiction which I'm sure you do it's that the hallmark of addiction is not honesty also it's really difficult to overcome it in treatment because the gambler believes that they'll be able to overcome their problem on their next win and there's a little bit of truth to that you know if they just had more money they would be able to keep playing and when some money back you know in a small sample size of the next clay anything could happen so some c
mmon protectors common things that people with a gambling disorder would say is I don't have a gambling problem I just ran out of money they would also say there's nothing wrong with it it's legal they would also compartmentalize and say I plenty of money I still have a job or I don't have a gambling problem my wife would have left me if I have a gambling problem or I don't have a gambling problem I'm too young to have a gambling problem or look at the job I have I don't I can't have a gambling problem or I'll get my money back on the next win there's no you know bar anywhere where somebody's saying this next shot of whiskey is gonna fix my marriage but that's the type of thinking that a disordered gambler has this next you know play will you know get my wife off my back or this next play could send my kid to college after all so how do you protect consumers or how to players protect themselves with limit setting you know you may be set your time limits maybe I'll just play once a week or maybe I'll just play you know for two hours a day or maybe I'll just play for you know a couple hours this weekend that kind of thing or maybe it's you know I'm only gonna play with this hundred dollars or I'm only gonna play a hundred dollars Friday a hundred dollars Saturday while I'm down for the weekend or maybe if you're playing online I'm only gonna deposit this fifty bucks and that's all I'm gonna play with or whatever the amount is and timeouts and self-exclusion they're related we're gonna talk more about self exclusion in a minute but timeouts are kind of when you tell an online operator hey keep me off that website for a period of time or you know tell a particular casino keep me out of your establishment for a period of time and self exclusion is when you ban yourself from all online play or all brick-and-mortar play for a period of time and like I said and talk more about that in a minute age verification checks I put that in there because I don't know or I don't really think that enough credit is given to the online operators for knowing their customer they they do go through a lot of effort to make sure that kids are not allowed on their sites that kids are not opening up accounts online to to gamble now they can't stop parents from leaving their laptops open in the house or leaving their phones laying around but they they do work pretty hard to make sure that kids aren't opening up accounts so there are other there's research out there that says just giving players rules of the game can insulate players from developing a gambling problem sending responsible gambling information to players or having it available in casinos can insulate them from developing a gambling problem certainly giving instructions on how to play can help people from having a gambling problem and having access to help maybe having kiosks or having ambassadors in casinos or having clickable links on online pages so you can refer to 800 gambler org to the National Council on problem gambling or to the National Council on responsible gaming which is an industry site all of these are manned by people that absolutely would be happy to help out and let's talk a little bit about self exclusion so self-exclusion allows a person to be banned from all legal gaming activities it's a good program it's not a perfect program so in New Jersey you can request to be banned for one year five years or lifetime at the end of one year or five years you do not automatically come off the list you have to petition to come off the list you can't do it by accident I have had people tell me that they were put on that list by accident that's not true it's not easy to get on the self exclusion list I believe it's like a four step process so don't buy it I know in some states you have to actually show proof that you have been through treatment to come off the list if you are on the self exclusion list you can actually get a ticket for trespassing if you go to a casino if you're on the self exclusion list casinos are prohibited from sending advertising literature to you at your home now if you and your spouse went to casinos and we're both getting literature sent to the home and only you self excluded your spouse can continue to get literature so not a perfect program but a good program and you cannot self exclude someone else you can't self exclude your adult child or your spouse or your ex spouse or your parent if you lose like if you're on the list and you go there anyway and nobody catches you you don't get a ticket and you lose you cannot sue the casino and get the money back people have tried if you win you have to show your ID to collect your winnings they will check the list to be sure that you're not on the self exclusion list and if you are they won't give you your winnings you also cannot receive comps a big part of the value of the self exclusion list is that at least in at some point a disordered gambler has said I can't control myself I need help and that's the first of the 12 steps you know is that I need help I can't control myself now for right now all the physical locations so in order to self exclude and brick and mortar casinos you need to go to either four racetracks one of four race tracks or the DGE offices in Atlantic City or Trenton those all four of those are closed right now along with the casinos so until April 1st you cannot go there and self exclude you can self exclude online but normally that only would self exclude you online right now nobody can come off the self exclusion list until April 1st if someone is sitting around waiting to come off the self exclusion list and is eagerly anticipating coming off the self exclusion list maybe it's not a good idea to come off that list so I had a colleague who is not in the gambling field but knew that I am knew what I did his wife we're coming to Atlantic City and he contacted me and he said I'm coming through Atlantic City for the weekend what should I do and this is what I told him I said make a budget for your gambling and stick to it but make a budget for how much you're going to spend all weekend and stick to and that's true for any gambling weekend not just for Atlantic City when you're coming to gamble it's not cheap you're gonna have to pay to park you're gonna to pay for your hotel pay for entertainment pay to tip people pay for food and make a budget for gambling you're making that when you're clear-headed if you get here Friday afternoon and by Friday night you've already gone through your gambling budget don't tap into your entertainment and food budget stop gambling walk on the boardwalk entertain yourself but by the same token if it gets to be Sunday night and you are up you're winning money don't call outta work Monday go home take your winnings and get out there but also play knowing that you're likely to lose that's probably what's gonna happen you're gonna go there and spend money to be entertained while gambling we have a little bit of time so I'm gonna tell you a story about myself when I go to the movies I like to go first class I go the night the movie comes out I like to go to the IMAX 3d movie with the glasses I like to I don't sneak in snacks I paid for the $4 bottle of water I get the $6 bag of candy the $8 tub of popcorn whoever I'm going with they do the same thing we know we're not getting out of there without spending fifty to seventy-five bucks but that's okay we're going for entertainment we know that that's what we're gonna spend we're not going there hoping that the person who went and sat in the seat before us dropped their wallet under the seat we know that we're gonna spend money and if you go there with that idea go to a casino with that idea that we're gonna spend money and be entertained then you're gonna be okay it's the cost of entertainment also make informed decisions about your gambling the odds all of the odds of all of the games are in the favor of the house but not all the odds are the same there are some games that are better odds than others and if you win remember that V chart that Bob Custer made you may never win again enjoy that win but don't let it start you on the road to a gambling problem now if you or someone you know has a gambling problem feel free to call 800 gamblin we're out there ready to help even at this time of quarantine and this is my contact information this is actually my own cell phone number and my email I'm happy to help even today I'm not in private practice I will refer someone to another counselor but I would be glad to help out let's see if I can stop and see if there's any questions out there what do I have out there looks like we do have some attendees you you you you you all right so um maybe typing questions might be the best option I'm not a pro at the webinar at this point but are there any questions you or comment you you you you see a hand raised now I'm just trying to see how to raise that allow that hand to talk sorry guys hello can you hear me I can't hear you Oh wonderful long ago I started racing my hair and send a question to either Lisa saline and phone in New Jersey yeah I happy in middle of the training program for obtained certificate and I have being interesting about finishing because this situation comes mid office so I just wonder she's you guys open now have this kind of format to to do the seminar is that also going to be how these kind of format for Cheney so we can initiate that certificate requirement so I think your question is are we going to have more of the 30 hour training so you can finish that to work towards the ICGC certification yes okay we actually suspended our 30 our trainings because of the quarantine so we don't know when we're going to offer another training although you know we are very interested in doing more trainings we're trying to expand our network so did you get our newsletter that came out last week about I got a news that a police one is simply I guess I own you yeah if you got our newsletter that means you're on our mailing list so if you got that you will get notification when we offer our next training okay so you are we have nothing scheduled now but if you're getting the newsletter you'll get the notification okay yeah I just wonder whether you guys gonna use in this woman because it seems it's gonna be a wire like these yeah it's gonna be well we're actually taking the time right now to rework our training to tweak it a little bit so hopefully we'll have something a little bit little shinier and fancier yeah I do have a couple other questions on here so okay move on thank you all right so my questions go I have there I saw Maria had a question so I should have memorized that question before I let it get away okay so Maria wants to know are there certain precautions the center is making during the Cova 19 quarantine to help people in recovery there are in our newsletter we sent out some ideas that gamblers could do to protect themselves at this time like go to a meeting and online meetings and we also have stuff on our website 800 gambler daughter so there definitely are some options there are more telephone meetings there's a ga phone meeting every Wednesday night and that has been expanded also and all that stuff is on the website 800 gambler org so I hope that answers your question the next question is from Maria says thank you Linda is gambling a worse problem than drug addiction that's a tough one to answer and I guess probably the answer to that is it depends on who you ask and it depends on what you consider worse and I don't I don't think there's a right answer to that honestly you know gambling affects 10 to 15 people around the gambler you know gambling can affect people's health related to stress but you know someone who has a you know crystal meth problem really you know often will have worse teeth then a gambler you know physical health problems can really be affected by you know substance use you know substance use withdrawal can can honestly be life-threatening for alcohol and for you know uh some other substances you know I'm drawing a blank right now because I'm really really racking those files in my mind you know trying to compare the two so I don't think the answer is you know that one's worse than the other I think that there's they're different you know there are similarities and differences between gambling and substance use but I think the similarities also have some differences I think the differences are also somewhat similar so yeah I think there's there's a lot to compare between the two but they're both they're both bad addiction is bad you know I think that's the probably the right answer addiction is bad it's loss of control it hurts people around around the people who are addicted so thank you for asking that question and another question is can we please have 30 our trainings online you know that's something that we have been talking about doing a lot at the council I know that's something that we want to do and so I think that is in our future I don't know when that's going to happen so keep your eyes on the prize and you know watch this box and perhaps that you know will happen at some point in our future so yeah I think I think you're thinking correctly head in there so any other questions if not I think we'll go ahead and and end the meeting I really appreciate everybody who hung in there with me and everybody who tuned in today so thank you very much I'm gonna end the meeting enjoy the rest of your day enjoy enjoy your weekend
