The Gamblers Anonymous
Solution
For longer than he cared to admit, Jim W. had directed all his energies toward getting something for nothing. He nearly died from pneumonia when he was only six because he heard about the pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow. His childish mind intrigued by the possibility of instant wealth, he struck out late one rainy afternoon to seek his fortune. A few hours later his parents rushed the frail little boy, soaked to the skin and trembling with cold, to a Los Angeles hospital.
First for Matches, Then for Pennies
In elementary school, Jim and his brothers played cards first for matches, then for pennies, then for higher stakes. By the time he got to high school he was recognized as a formidable poker player. By age 21 he managed a reasonably good living at the card table. Then came the war, and with it a long hitch in the military and expanded opportunities for additional income. Jim capitalized on the many long evenings in the barracks by
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matching cards with fellow soldiers who seemed to have no urgent need for their regular paychecks.
Jim's return to civilian life coincided with the opening of Santa Anita Racetrack in 1946, and he got a good start in his new civilian profession by winning big in his first wager on the horses. At the same time he made new discoveries in the anesthetic usefulness of booze.
After winning a bundle, Jim celebrated his good fortune by buying drinks for everyone at the lounge nearest the racetrack. After a loss, he consoled himself in a quiet corner with a series of double martinis. When there was no money to bet, he found relief from boredom and depression by lifting a few glasses with the boys at a neighborhood watering hole.
A series of disastrous gambling losses resulted in sorrow-drowning binges that drove Jim to the realization his drinking had become a problem. Frightened, he took his concern to an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting in Los Angeles and through the 12 steps of AA managed to bring his drinking under control. There he also met Sybil, and soon Jim made her his wife.
Life Is a Gamble and Everyone Does It
A full decade passed, however, before he recognized that his gambling habit was as destructive as his drinking had been. "What is wrong with placing a bet," he had reasoned, "since all of life is a gamble, and everyone gambles one way or another?" But the further he extended this line of reasoning, the more clearly Jim saw certain facts about himself he had preferred to ignore. What was "wrong" with his gambling was that it was out of control — and had been, in fact for years.
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He was gambling now only to survive. The more he gambled, the more frenzied became that survival instinct. Life was rapidly losing any identifiable meaning. His desperate wagers produced ruinous financial losses devastating to Sybil. Yet, on the other hand, not gambling offered unbearable boredom and restlessness.
In 1954, Jim told his wife he wanted to stop gambling, but that served only to bring a frightened awareness of the strangle hold betting had on him. A conflict arose between the part of him that recognized the destructive nature of his habit and the inner person who had depended for such a long time on the excitement of the games. Looking back years later, Jim described the painful void in his life on the rare occasions when he did manage to refrain from placing bets: "Each day seemed empty. I just had to endure from one hour to the next, because without something to bet on life had little of value to offer."
A Final Fling
Jim's final fling came at the Boulder Club in downtown Las Vegas. He had driven across the desert from Los Angeles, savoring a delicious dream of a future with all his debts paid off, eliminating at last his need to gamble. He had devised what seemed a foolproof system for the crap table. From a new source of credit, he had put together a stake big enough to test and prove his sure-fire scheme. At last he would regain the uncounted thousands of dollars he had lost through the years!
As he walked confidently across the casino floor, Jim listened with relish to the clatter of the slot machines and the familiar chant of the stick men: "Bet the six and
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eight while you wait . . . double up and catch up . . . bet the lucky field . . . ah, yes, a new lucky shooter coming up!" It was the world he loved, the world in which he belonged and the world which soon would bow at his feet, coveting his skill.
But two hours later Jim felt only the emptiness a gambler knows so well when he senses the end is near. Nothing was working the way it was expected to work. The pit boss was not sweating with anxiety before the threat of Jim's devastating new strategy. He seemed blissfully unaware, in fact, that Jim was even there among all the other losers. The indomitable victor had been reduced to yet another cringing victim of a mercilessly impersonal tyrant — an industry which shrugs off with a Mona Lisa smile all the "systems" that seek to dent its armor, accepting without so much as a "thank you" all offerings laid at its feet.
Down to $1 Bets
Jim had stooped to the ignominity of $1 bets, and his supply of silver dollars was dangerously low. In fact he had exactly 25 of them in his hands and none in his pockets, and as he counted them one more time his thoughts went somehow to Sybil. It had been so long since his patient wife had seen a paycheck that $25 would seem a godsend. But what would a mere $25 solve? Handled the right way, it could prove a respectable stake to launch him on that long-hoped-for winning streak.
By some strange twisting of logic, gambling addicts often feel they would be traitors to other players if they left the table with money in their hands or pockets. Real gamblers,
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they have come to believe, never forsake a game until they are totally broke or until they have cleaned out the other participants. "If you can't pay, don't play," the unwritten law of gamblers reminds them.
But transcending all that, on that fateful day at the Boulder Club, Jim shuddered as he thought of the mess he had made of their lives since Sybil placed her confidence in a recovered alcoholic and made him her man.
One Step at a Time
In a rare display of resolution, he dropped the silver dollars in his pockets and turned quickly toward the nearest exit. One step at a time, he moved deliberately away from the tables and the action. He placed one foot in front of the other, shutting out the sights and sounds of the casino floor. The money in his pockets, he kept telling himself, was theirs, not his. "Small change" though it was, it could be the first installment on a life of freedom from the bondage that held him in its grip for so many wasted years.
Making it safely to the parking lot, he slipped behind the wheel of his car and headed west toward Los Angeles and home.
Time for the Healing Potential
Jim was ready at last. It was time now for the healing potential of that fellowship with others who shared his compulsion. His efforts to stabilize his life and gain strength from other gamblers — in a strategy similar to that of AA — brought him in touch with Tex, Timmy,
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Curt, Rocky, Johnny, Red, Art and Bob. Not all of them stuck it out, but the synergism was there. In regular meetings, they talked about their victories and defeats, sharing candidly their hopes and their fears. Valuable publicity came through the Fred Shields talk show on KFI in Los Angeles, and the size of the meetings grew. It was Shields who tagged the group — probably tongue in cheek — as "Gamblers Anonymous."
From that modest beginning, GA has grown to include more than 15,000 self-proclaimed "sick, compulsive gamblers" in nearly 400 American and Canadian groups, plus another 100 groups overseas. With state lotteries proliferating, the number of chapters is increasing rapidly.
For their organization's twenty-fifth anniversary, GA published a limited edition book, 25 Years of Hope, Security, Growth. In this book, GA states that its program "is a philosophy of living which directs this individual to look within himself for the answers to his dilemma . . . It has proven to be the only known hope for those individuals who are caught up in that baffling, insidious addition known as compulsive gambling.1
Only One Thing in Common
Because the organization reaches into all walks of life, participants may find their identification as "sick, compulsive gamblers" the only thing they have in common, but that appears to be all they need. "The individual usually finds himself in a melting pot of doctors, lawyers, cabdrivers and dishwashers," declares the 25 Years. "He finds a multitude of different religious beliefs and finds there are those who do not believe at all. Yet, in spite
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of all these differences, he can attempt his recovery, and either by accident or design, assist in the recovery of others."2
Gamblers Anonymous is not a Christian ministry. It does urge a dependence upon God, but the concept of God is undefined and unrelated to biblical truth. The four "spiritual steps" in the GA program are described in this way:
1. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to a normal way of thinking and living.
2. Made a decision to turn our wills and our lives over to the care of this power of our own understanding.
3. Humbly ask God (of our understanding) to remove our shortcomings.
4. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand him, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out.3
Six Basic Truths
Gamblers Anonymous does not impose a regimented philosophy upon its participants, but it does require complete acceptance of six basic truths concerning the nature of gambling addiction:
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1. Gambling is a progressive illness.
2. It always gets worse, but never better.
3. It can only be arrested and may never be cured, regardless of the time of abstinence.
4. It can only be arrested through total abstinence.
5. It is a baffling, insidious, compulsive addiction.
6. In its worst form, it can very easily lead to demoralization, insanity and death.
In the first of three steps of admittance, the candidate must confess what previously may have been obvious to everyone but himself: that his life has become unmanageable. Mounting indebtedness, serious marital problems and tensions at work usually make that conclusion not difficult to come by.
A Disease Difficult to Diagnose
Diagnosing a gambling psychosis, like diagnosing alcoholism, is seldom an exact science. the power of gambling over an individual's life has many shades and degrees, and not every victim fits a specific profile. What at first may have been a purely recreational indulgence may suddenly be seen as an illness in need of therapy. Fortunately, formulas had been devised by which that fact usually can be determined. That diagnosis of
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dependency, however, may not lead to a solution unless the victim himself or herself accepts without reservation the humbling classification of "addict." Through the combined experiences of its participants, GA has developed a list of 20 questions that probe deeply into the minds of those who find themselves wondering. Should you, by chance, be wondering, you might try them on for size:
1. Did you ever lose time from work due to gambling?
2. Has gambling ever made your home life unhappy?
3. Did gambling affect your reputation?
4. Have you ever felt remorse after gambling?
5. Did you ever gamble to get money with which to pay debts or otherwise solve financial difficulties?
6. Did gambling cause a decrease in your ambition or efficiency?
7. After losing, did you feel you must return as soon as possible and win back your losses?
8. After a win, did you have a strong urge to return and win more?
9. Did you often gamble until your last dollar was gone?
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10. Did you ever borrow to finance your gambling?
11. Have you ever sold anything to finance gambling?
12. Were you reluctant to use "gambling money" for normal expenditures?
13. Did gambling make you careless of the welfare of your family?
14. Did you ever gamble longer than you had planned?
15. Have you ever gambled to escape worry or trouble?
16. Have you ever committed, or considered committing, an illegal act to finance gambling?
17. Did gambling cause you to have difficulty in sleeping?
18. Do arguments, disappointments or frustrations create within you an urge to gamble?
19. Did you ever have an urge to celebrate good fortune by a few hours of gambling?
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20. Have you ever considered self-destruction as a result of your gambling?4
A yes answer to as few as seven of these 20 questions might serve as a warning that experienced counseling now could save you untold agony in years to come.
A World of Plenty and Largesse
The GA program addresses a dream world common to all compulsive gamblers — a world composed of all the great and wonderful things they are going to do when they make that big win. Gamblers generally see themselves as philanthropic and quite charming people. They picture themselves as inhabiting a world of plenty and largesse, made possible by the huge sums of money to be handed them when their "system" begins to work or when their luck changes. Luxuries that challenge the imagination lie just beyond their reach — luxuries to be shared gladly and generously with those long-neglected love ones and friends who deserve much better treatment than they have received.
Ironically, even winning does not make those dreams come true. When compulsive gamblers do win, they almost invariably gamble again to weave even grander dreams — obsessed by the idea that Lady Luck finally is smiling and that the time for the big kill has come. If they lose again, they gamble on in reckless determination to get it all back, and more.
As Mickey Rooney has allegedly described his own half-century of betting: "When I was just a kid, I lost two dollars in a crap game, and I've lost over a million dollars
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since then trying to get those two dollars back!"
Unfathomable to the Nongambler
The depth of the compulsive gambler's misery is unfathomable to the nongambler because it lies in territory uncharted by the rational mind. Again and again, the addict's dream world comes crashing down, making his innocent loved ones unwilling victims of his folly. After each reversal, he struggles back, dreams more dreams and loses yet another time. Many compulsive gamblers could testify to their identification with the First Murderer in MacBeth, who mourns:
So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune;
That I would set my life on any chance,
To mend it or be rid on't.5
The compulsive gambler must continue to dream, and he must continue to believe his dreams soon will come true. No amount of logic can convince him that his grand schemes will not someday transport him in to the realm of lasting prosperity — place him for all the world to see and admire in a permanent winner's circle. All trust seems wrapped in that overpowering expectation. Without that dream and without that hope, life as he as come to define it simply would not be worth the struggle or the suspense. And so, unless something, somewhere, somehow stops him in his tracks and brings him back to reality, the compulsive gambler goes on through life pursuing his unfilled dreams and those never-ending rainbows in his ceaseless quest for that nonexistent pot of gold.
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Points to Ponder
1. If you were a parent to Jim W. when he was a schoolboy, in what way might you have intervened in his life and prevented the gambling addiction that proved so devastating in later years? Do you feel his childish search for the pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow indicated he was predisposed to a lifelong search for "something for nothing"? How might a wise and spiritually discerning parent have channeled that tendency into something constructive?
2. To quote Jim's question, "What is wrong with placing a bet, since all of life is a gamble and everyone gambles one way or another?" Thoughtful Christians have asked why buying life insurance or stock shares shouldn't be classified also as gambling. Do you see a difference between those activities and betting on a horse or playing poker for a quarter?
3. In view of Jim's lack of willpower for so many years, what do you think happened that enabled him to walk away from that casino, take his money home to his wife and eventually found Gambler's Anonymous? Though nothing is said in GA about Christian commitment, do you feel God was involved in Jim's sudden and miraculous recovery? If so, can you support that idea with a Bible verse?
4. Do the four "spiritual steps" of Gambler's Anonymous resemble in any way the commitment we believe necessary for a person to receive Christ as Saviour? What about the six basic truths each GA member must acknowledge? Do these, plus the confession
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that life has become unmanageable, suggest a "religious" aspect to the GA program?
5. If you "like to do a little gambling yourself now and then," have you checked yourself out with the 20 questions Gamblers Anonymous has developed to help people face up to the reality of their own addiction? Remember that yes to as few as seven of those questions suggests the possibility of a problem of compulsion!
Notes
1. Gamblers Anonymous, 25 Years of Hope, Security, Growth (Los Angeles: Gamblers Anonymous Publishing Inc., 1982).
2. Ibid.
3. Gamblers Anonymous, Combined Pamphlet (Los Angeles: Gamblers Anonymous Publishing Inc.).
4. Ibid., pp. 15-16. According to GA's National Executive Secretary, members refer to this small publication as the "combo book" and state that it is "like a bible to us."
5. William Shakespeare, Macbeth, i, 112. Quoted in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1980), p. 238.
Chapter Sixteen || Table of Contents