Transcription
0:00:08
Around the Towns this morning, 97 .3 WCBG, our once a month visit with the folks from the McCall Behavioral Health Network, who coincidentally we just heard from there. Our theme this month, if you’ve been hearing our messages from McCall, is about gambling and about keeping control of gambling and not letting it run your life. This morning, we want to welcome Mary Beth Tedesco. She is Clinical Program Director at McCall. Good morning.
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Good morning, Dale. How are you today?
0:00:35
I’m good. Thanks for joining us on the program. When we talk about Gambling Awareness Month this month of March, let’s define that. Let’s put it in bold type.
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Okay, bold type is. find in video games. It’s out there and it’s the hidden addiction. And they call it the hidden addiction because it doesn’t show physical signs like with substance abuse. And there’s a lot of shame attached to people with gambling problems.
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I think everybody, even though it is a hidden addiction, I think everybody knows somebody and it always stays on the down low, but everybody knows somebody who had been ruined financially and had relationships that had been ruined because of problem gambling. And sometimes it also makes national headlines when you, you know, find someone in authority who has gotten into a whole bunch of hot water because they have a gambling addiction and things have gone haywire. So let’s talk about this and, you know, to put a fine point on it, this is an expensive habit too. I guess there’s some dollars attached to that.
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Absolutely, absolutely. So um, you know, as you said, problem gambling, it affects not just the individual, but families do emotionally and financially and sometimes legally. So here’s some numbers I’m going to throw at you. Sure. Um, in last year, Americans wagered $148 billion just on sports.
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That’s with a B that’s with a B and 109 billion, um, on lottery tickets. That’s just last year. In across America, 2 .5 million adults have severe gambling problems. An additional 5 .8 million are mild to moderate. And then 20 million people report at least one indicator of harm from gambling.
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That’s a lot of people. That is a huge addiction. So you called it the hidden addiction, silent addiction, as it were. So what do you do? What are the warning signs?
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How do we identify this? Well, some of the common ones are spending more money than planned, hiding gambling or lying about losses, feeling restless or irritable when trying to cut back. There’s gambling to escape stress, depression, anxiety. People chase their losses and they try to win back that lost money. gambling that interferes, as you said, with work, school, relationships.
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And if we just notice a few of these signs, it may indicate someone needs support. Okay, if you’re just joining us this morning, Mary Beth Tedesco is Clinical Program Director at McCall BHN, and we’re talking about Gambling Awareness Month and problem gambling and how we can help get into trying to help folks that we think might be at risk.
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And this doesn’t affect adults, this hits younger people too, and that compounds the problem. Absolutely. Young adults are at extreme high risk. They have those tablets and cell phones attached to them, and they have access 24 -7 to these sites.
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They’re fast -paced, and they are heavily advertised, and they use celebrities, which normalizes the gambling, and it appears harmless, even when it becomes risky. You know, I’m reminded of an old commercial, and it was very powerful. And this was long before gambling got to the numbers that you just shared with us. But it was this television commercial of a young boy who was upstairs watching a ballgame on TV that I obviously had bet on. And the parents are downstairs, and they can hear the commotion. And obviously, the bet goes bad for the young person.
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And he decks the TV with a baseball bat.
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Yes. And the parents looked at each other like they didn’t know what to do. Like they didn’t know how to help him, which leads to our next question.
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How do we help? How do we? We’re going to approach that conversation with empathy and curiosity, not shame. You know, use supportive language like, hey, I’ve noticed you seem stressed. You want to talk about it? I’m here for you.
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I’m worried. I want to, you know, I want to see that you’re getting the help that you need. You know, with the gambling, there’s another element too that people forget about. The actual athletes, if it’s sports betting, they are so much pressure now on them because the gambler people are losing maybe that bet and now they’re taking it out in the stands on that athlete.
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There’s so many hidden things going on that people just aren’t aware of. Well, two professional athletes are currently under charges for throwing games because they’re aware of the betting and are trying to hit that margin so that the bettors get the payout that they expect in something like this. So when we talk to folks from McCollum, we talk about addiction and we talk about the ways in which people become addicted and why it’s so hard to kick.
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Is there something deeper going on in someone that may cause a gambling addiction similar to substance?
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Yes, yes. you hit it. Root causes. There, you know, underneath behavioral addiction, substance use, there are usually root causes. It’s an escape. So, with McCall, we have certified gambling counselors, we have problem gambling specialists, so they understand the gambling addiction and they have special knowledge, training, and experience.
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They can inform and motivate and guide, you know, to assist people with problem gambling. There’s unique problems associated with it. The community too plays a role, right? The community, states, nonprofits, and partners, they’re sharing resources and training. Industry leaders have committed over a million dollars to research and awareness. There’s self -exclusion now.
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I’m not sure if you’ve heard of that, where if you notice, hey, I’m seeing a problem with this gambling, you can self -exclude. You can opt out. You can go into a casino and fill out a form and say, don’t let me come in here for a year. You can go onto one of those sites where you’re gambling online and you could go to the support and say, I’m opting out for a year. I’m opting out forever. There’s numbers that you can call 24 seven free help calling 1 -800 -GAMBLER G -A -M -B -L -E -R in Connecticut.
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We have the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling and that phone number is 1 -888 -789 -777. No, treatment works, recovery is absolutely possible. If, you know, if gambling starts to feel less like entertainment and more like a burden, you’re not alone.
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And support’s available, and reaching out was that first step. Gambling Awareness Month is the month of March. Our guest this morning, Mary Beth Tedesco, she’s clinical program director at McCall Behavioral Health Network.
0:07:31
Some good advice here, and, you know, there are people out there, you’ve already cited the numbers, who are working through some real challenges and trying to get this monkey off their back and hopefully we’ve gave him some tips that can put him in the right position.
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Yeah, problem gambling is treatable and people do recover. Mary Beth, thanks for your time. Alright, enjoy the rest of the day and let’s bring on that warm weather Joe talked about. We’ll get back to the newsroom with Jeff next.