Word: gambler
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...does more legalization mean more compulsive gamblers who become problems? "The problem gambler has all the opportunity he needs right now," says Ritchie. "I'm not promoting legalized gambling. But the argument that legalized gambling will create problem gamblers is false." Nonetheless, a number of psychologists and sociologists emphasize the need for a vigorous educational program to inform the public ?particularly adolescents?about the risks that are as much a part of gambling as its potential profits and pleasures. Dr. Sirgay Sanger, for example, director of the Parent-Child Interaction Program at St. Luke's Hospital in Manhattan believes...
...nation to date has virtually ignored the problem of the compulsive gambler. The only federal funds allotted to treatment of the hopelessly addicted bettor are some $330,000 a year spent by the Veterans Administration. Dr. Robert Custer, who as chief of the VA's mental-services division has made a close study of the subject, points out that there is now no funding whatever for research into gambling addiction, as there is for alcoholism. He suggests that psychological research and treatment of the obsessive gambler could be financed by a small portion?say, .5%?of the revenue that...
...gamblers at G.A. meetings come from a variety of social and economic backgrounds. Says Dr. Robert L. Custer, a psychiatrist with the Veterans Administration in Washington and an expert on gambling, alcohol and drug abuse: "The compulsive gamblers don't follow any pattern. The only similarity is the addiction." Custer has termed compulsive gambling a "progressive behavior disorder," and points out that whereas the casual gambler goes to the track or casino with friends, the compulsive one usually goes alone...
After studying 50 cases in a special treatment program at the VA Hospital in Brecksville, Ohio, in 1972, Custer and two associates produced a composite picture of a compulsive gambler in an advanced stage. The portrait, in part: he is a male in his 30s, without any financial resources; he sleeps poorly and is indifferent toward sex; he drinks a good deal; he is tense and irritable; he has thought of suicide; he thinks about gambling constantly...
...self in the description. He confesses: "When I was gambling, my wife could have been home dying from cancer, and I could not have cared less." G.A. Member Myron R. of New York City actually stole money from his four-year-old to go to the track. One possessed gambler even admits to digging up and selling coffins to get cash...