From bingo to the internet and beyond...
If you have a gambling problem call this helpline:
1 (877) 2 STOP NOW.
That's probably the most important thing I can share.
I talked to Jeffrey Marotta, Ph.D. with the state. He's a gambling addiction expert who knows his stuff inside and out. I asked him who went into treatment more-- men or women. He said 10 years ago more men had a problem with gambling.. now that's changed so that in recovery programs they tend to see a 50/50 mix. I overheard that all of the people at the Salem center are women, but that may just be by chance.
He also said that of the people who develop a problem the vast majority are addicted to video poker (in the high 70% range). That has to do with how easily accessible it is. 18% are casino gamblers and the remaining 2% are equally split between things like Bingo and internet gambling.
Couple of points: the closer you get to a casino, the percentages flip flop.. so about 80% of the people entering treatment near a casino will have gambled there. Basically, it all boils down to what's close.
He also thinks the internet doesn't have a larger chunk of people with gambling problems because people aren't comfortable with the internet.... yet. He says in Europe people have a different level of comfort so you see a lot more people using the internet to gamble which then leads to a higher percentage of problem gamblers there.
Response time: Joe made this joke about the "fat/thin" blog: I'm not sure about Mom = thin, Dad = fat, I'm curious about...
My personal (non scientific) research has concluded:
Watching too much Food Network = Fat
And Mark LOVED the maggot video and plans of showing it to his daughter who he says will think it's cool, too... GROSS you guys.. Gross. :-)
Email me anytime!! sstricklen@kgw.com
