Gaming Thoughts

Today was "sportsathon" day at my son's pre-school and one of the positive about my current situation is I am able to attend this wonderful events. I was able to watch my son run and cycle ten laps and then he jumped 53 times. He had the most laps in running and cycling and he came in third in jumping; he was so proud of himself and I am always proud of him. I was able to spend two hours with my son at his pre-school this morning and it was so nice to see him behaving oh so well with the other children. He really is a great child and another one of my blessings!!

I was able to take him from his pre-school this morning to my daughter's class where they were celebrating a "Thanksgiving Feast". In the past I would have not made these events because I was too important to miss work or so I thought, my how wrong I was. I am not important my family is important and this is what really matters in my life. The "feast" at my daughter's school was very nice and the children really enjoyed themselves.

I take a look back at my previous life and wonder how I could have thought the things I did. The world doesn't revolve around me and there is no need to take unnecessary risks. Eight months ago I removed gambling from my life and it has helped me really see the true me. Gambling clouded everything I did from interacting to my family to interacting at my previous employment; I was foolish but I have so many things in my life to be thankful for and I cherish all of these things each and every day.

At the end of the "feast" a few of the mothers and the teachers got on the topic of poker and how one their ten year old son's was teaching their 6 year old daughter how to play Texas Hold'em. Unfortunately or fortunately I did not hear this conversation my wife told me about it after it happened. One of the mother's went on to comment yes, my son and his friend's play poker in our basement for $1 (they are 10 years old) and I am so happy because I know where they are. My wife bit her tongue through the conversation but she did let the teacher know I am a compulsive gambler and the conversation soon stopped.

I have nothing against gambling because it provided a great living for me and my family for many years; however; I never thought of myself as a compulsive gambler during this entire time. Now I am and will always be a compulsive gambler and think the best approach to young people gambling is EDUCATION. We educate our children on drugs and to some extent alcohol why don't we do the same for gambling? I have written about this before and I will say it again; the younger people are exposed to gambling the more likely they will become problem gamblers later in life. If there is a poker table filled with 10 12 year old boys and girls chances are very good one of them will become a problem gambler. You may not think one is significant but that is 10% so for every 100 10 will become problem gamblers. Say we have 1,000,000 12 year old boys and girls playing Texas Hold'em this means 100,000 have a very good chance at being problem gamblers later in life. I think this is a significant number.

Through education and awareness this number can be decreased. Look what alcohol has done with the designated driver program and the DUI laws; the number of DUI's has come done significantly. Maybe the casinos should implement a designated gambler program where one person shoulders the burden for 10 people; oh wait they already have this program and it is called the High Limit Room, sorry about that I couldn't resist. Seriously, education and awareness needs to be done at a young age or there will be significant rise in compulsive gamblers in the next five years. I think we are already there but it is never too late to start anything.

In December I have been invited to attend the National Council on Responsible Gaming Conference. This conference is put on by the Harvard Medical School Addiction Division. There will be many scholarly people in attendance (how I got invited I'll never know!!) and I am interested to hear their perspective on problem gambling and especially what is being done in the field. It should be an eye opening conference. Hopefully it won't come across as a "dog and pony show" for the gaming corporations because they are major donors for the National Conference on Responsible Gaming organization. I have been speaking with many of the presenters at this conference over the past eight months and it will be good to put a face with their voice. Yes, my life does go on and yes, it life is very different now but it is certainly better now than it has ever been at any other point in my life because the lies have stopped.