UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, October 16, 1996
5A
BUST:
A gambling addiction is like a drug addiction. The addict values the high of winning above all else and will do anything to sustain it.
Could you have a problem?
If you answer yes to seven or more questions,you might have a gambling problem.
GR Gordon-Ross / KANSAN
1) Have you ever missed work because of gambling?
2) Has gambling ever made your home life unhappy?
3) Has gambling affected your reputation?
4) Have you ever been remorseful after gambling?
5) Have you ever gambled to win money to pay bills or solve financial difficulties?
6) Has gambling caused a decrease in your ambition or efficiency?
7) After losing, have you had a strong urge to return immediately to recoup your losses?
8) After winning, have you had a strong urge to return to win more?
9) Have you often gambled until your last dollar is gone?
10) Have you ever borrowed to finance gambling?
11) Have you ever sold anything to finance gambling?
12) Have you been reluctant to use gambling money for normal expenditures?
15) Have you ever gambled to escape worry or trouble?
14) Have you ever gambled longer than you had planned?
13) Has gambling made you careless about the welfare of yourself and your family?
17) Has gambling caused you to have difficulty sleeping?
16) Have you ever committed, or considered committing, an illegal act to finance gambling?
18) Have arguments,
disappointments or frustrations created an urge
to gamble?
19) Have you ever had an urge to celebrate good fortune with a few hours of gambling?
20) Have you ever considered suicide?
Gambling, like drug usage, can become addictive easily. Continued from Page 14
Continued from Page 1A
"I go to the casino when I have time, an ample amount of money and when I feel lucky," Dolezal said. "I decide how much I am willing to lose and stop at that."
He describes himself as a streaky gambler, one who wins about as often as he loses. But he said he was ahead overall.
"The amount of money you win in a night is directly correlated to the amount of time you spend there," he said. "If you win in the first hour, get up and leave while you're ahead."
But walking away is not easy for Bud.
During spring semester, he went to a casino every day. He also placed bets on sporting events with local bookies. To support his habit, Bud bilked his friends and family.
"I'd call home and say that I needed more money for food or rent," he said. "I'd lie, cheat and steal. I'd do anything to get more money."
♠ ♠
Leslie Barewin, public relations director at Sam's Town casino, said Sam's Town does little to attract KU students.
"We never do anything to attract people under 21," she said. "We are into mass marketing only, and a lot of the student population is underage, so it's not worthwhile to promote for just a small portion of the student population."
Barewin said Sam's Town offered $1 alcohol drinks inside the casino and other drink specials in the sports bar.
Though Sam's Town and many other casinos do not intentionally draw students, the price is right for the collegiate budget. A 1990 study conducted by Michael Frank reported that the attraction of free or inexpensive drinks brought many college students to casinos — not the lure of bright lights. Underage student gamblers also like to think they are outsmarting casino security.
Boarding passes to gamble in all Kansas City casinos — Argosy, Harrah's, Sam's Town and the Flamingo — are free.
♠♠
Even though local casinos do not advertise on campus, a growing number of KU students make routine drives east on I-70 to hit the casinos.
Bud's gambling can be traced to his childhood.
But for student gamblers like Bud, it is a trip that began long ago.
"My dad used to bet me to do a lot of things, like running around the orchard in six minutes or that I wouldn't make a face at a lady," he said. "I've been betting on different things all my life."
Bud's family is upper-middle class. His father is an independent contractor, and his mother owns a travel agency.
Bud's first experience with casino gambling was on a Caribbean cruise ship when he was 14 years old. He won $30 playing slot machines.
"I was pretty excited that night and I wanted to go back," he said. "But security kept licking me out."
The thrill of gambling is too great for him to resist, Bud said.
"The rush I get is awesome," he said. "Seeing your money on the table and knowing you could be rich in a second draws me back every time."
Sheri Udisky is a coordinator of helpline services for the Problem Gamblers' Helpline in Texas, a nonprofit organization sponsored by Harrah's Entertainment Inc. She agrees that gamblers crave the rush.
"The main thing people tell us is that the high" leads them back to gambling," she said. "All they want is a big rush. It's not the money."
But for Bud. money was a factor.
"Id go back to try to get the money back that I lost the night before," Bud said. "Td usually be so pissed off that I lost, or so happy that I won, that I'd want to go back the next day."
The last time Bud gambled he lost $2,500 in one day. He said he had won as much as $1,500 in one day and estimated that he usually won about 25 percent of the time.
♠♠
Situations like Bud's raise the question of the morality in wagering one's life savings for an all-or-nothing chance at winning a fortune, said Dave Schneider, president of Kansans for Life at its Best, a lobbying group that is against gambling, abortion, drugs and pornography.
He also said casinos were posing a tremendous problem for today's college
GR Gordon-Ross / KANSAN
students.
The Flamingo Casino, 1800 E. Front St. in Kansas City, Mo., recently received the Missouri Gaming Commission's approval to open. Harrah's Casino, 203 Armour Road in Kansas City, Mo., features two boats and is the largest gambling complex in the Kansas City area.
students.
"This genera tion could be the most productive in history," he said. "But
casinos introduce the idea that you can get something for nothing, and college students may not work as hard. Basically, we're slashing our own throats by allowing gambling."
Schneider, who has lobbied in the state legislature against legalized gambling, places blame on the government.
"The only reason casino gambling is legal is because the government found a clever way to get more money out of the people," he said.
In 1974, $17 billion was wagered on legal gambling. In 1992, $330 billion was legally wagered. And in 1995, after riverboat casinos became widespread, $550 billion flowed out of gamblers' nockets.
Missouri collects 20 percent of the profits through gaming taxes from each of its nine riverboat casinos. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1996, the state collected about $107 million of theCasinos' $537 million profit. During that year, 22 million gamblers entered casinos. The 1995 census calculated Missouri's population at 5,323,523.
Ken Collier, assistant professor of political science, said the government had a substantial interest in opening more casinos.
"Casinos are a form of economic development," he said. "It is a way of attracting tourists to the city. They need to find some way of attracting tourists, and casinos do that. A city with no other attractions has one with a casino."
Collier said the positives of opening more casinos outweighed the negatives for the government. He said more jobs were created, and a portion of the money went to the state.
"The community is trying to remain viable and stay healthy," he said. "They are much more concerned with creating jobs and additional revenue than with the few negative consequences associated with gambling."
GR Gordon-Ross/KANSAN
GR Gordon-Ross/KANSAN Sam's Town, 6711 Northeast Birmingham Road, Kansas City, Mo., opened as Kansas City's third casino in September 1995.
Mike Carroll, director of
employee services at Harrah's St. Louis, said that although the casino's advertisements contained helpline phone numbers, it was not the casino's responsibility to provide counseling to addicted gamblers.
"You need to remember that casinos aren't physicians," he said.
♠ ♠ ♠
For those hurt most by gambling, Udisky says the road to recovery usually starts with a wake-up call.
"Something happens that makes them get help, such as a spouse saying that they'll leave, or the law or books may be after them," she said. "But there is a critical point that occurs which lets them see the problem."
Bud said that point had come the night he had lost the $2,500 — the last of his money. He was left with nothing: no money, no assets, no friends.
Bud is not enrolled in a gambling recovery program and is not seeking counseling. He can handle the problem himself, he says.
For now, Bud says he will never go back to a casino, but he admits that he would have trouble saving no to it.
"If I drove past the casino, I probably could not resist the temptation," he said. "I'd probably stop."
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