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If you can answer “yes” to these two questions, a local compulsive-gambling expert says, it's time to rethink how much you're gambling:
1. Have you gambled more than you intended? (You took $40 to the casino but spent $80)
2. Have you lied to anyone about your gambling?
A newly released report from the Nebraska Gamblers Assistance Program lists the average gambling debt of 250 people who sought gambling-treatment services in the last fiscal year at nearly $27,000.
Jerry Bauerkemper, the executive director of the Bellevue-based Nebraska Council on Compulsive Gambling, said that figure excludes the assets the gamblers already have tapped — such as annuities or 401(k)s — before maxing out credit cards or borrowing from other sources.
“The vast majority have cashed out a lot of other funds and reduced their outlay of funds fairly significantly,” he said. “Many times, they will stop buying health insurance. They will reduce their amount of money going out and then gamble that. Then they use credit cards and gamble that.”
Recent economic conditions have reduced the average gambling debt, Bauerkemper said. “We've had years where people came in and the average person had $90,000 in debt,” he said.
The average problem gambler has taken between 18 months and two years to accumulate his or her debt, he said.
Bauerkemper's group operates a 24-hour gambler help line in Nebraska — 800-522-4700 — that logged more than 2,100 calls last year. About 55 percent of the people who call in are casino gamblers, he said. The remaining 45 percent are into sports betting, keno, scratch-off tickets, lottery tickets, pickle cards — “a variety of things,” he said.
“We naturally assume it's going to be casino debt. Not necessarily,” Bauerkemper said.
It doesn't cost anything to have a Council on Compulsive Gambling counselor assess one's gambling habits, he said. If the person needs gambling-related counseling, he said, the average cost is $5 per week.
“We know they can't afford it,” he said. “We will work with them on their budgets, help them pay off their creditors.”
The primary reason people don't get help for their gambling is shame, Bauerkemper said.
“It's a very impulsive, very destructive process,” he said.
Contact the writer:
444-1109, bob.glissmann@owh.com
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