Page 20 - Flathead Beacon // 4.22.15

20 | APRIL 22, 2015
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FLATHEADBEACON.COM
Gambling Revenues on the Rise
$1,319,851
14%
$2,455,041
Overall revenues from gambling tax collections distributed to Flathead County from October 2014 to March 2015
Revenues from gambling tax collections distributed to Kalispell since October
$335,395
10%
Gambling revenues distributed to Columbia Falls in the last six months
$250,396
Gambling revenues distributed to Whitefish in the last six months
$250,396
54%
$58.45 million
Dollars collected in taxes from gambling revenues across Montana over the last 12 months. The state receives 15% of the gross income from gaming machines.
Source: Montana Department of Justice Gambling Control Division
$549,399
Gambling revenues distributed to other cities in Flathead County
Gambling revenues distributed to Whitefish in the last six months
22%
“Our program has worked well. It’s a very, very small percentage of folks that get into problems with gambling,” Peterson said, citing research that estimates 5-7 percent of gamblers nationwide have some level of gambling addiction.
“But if it’s one person and one family, that’s a sig- nificant problem. I’m not trying to minimalize it at all. Folks get in trouble and by the time their friends and family realize they have a problem, they are in pretty dire financial straits.”
Peterson said the industry continues to encourage casinos to be responsible operators and pay attention to their customer’s potentially unhealthy habits.
Both Ask and Peterson believe Montana has responsi- ble gambling regulations compared to surrounding states that permit blackjack and other games allowing the casi- nos to act as banks, meaning the house has an advantage.
The state requires all machines to have a minimum payback of 80 percent on credits won versus credits played over time, Ask said. There are also $2 bet limits on all machines and the maximum payout that can be won at one machine is $800.
With these regulations in place, “It’s much harder to lose a lot of money,” Ask said. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t people who don’t lose a lot of money. But it’s hard- er to do that at $2 a time than in Vegas.”
“Gambling is an entertainment activity. It’s enjoyed by a lot of folks and it’s done with disposable income, hopefully,” Peterson said. “There are a lot of people who hunt and enjoy hunting. I enjoy playing golf. Everybody has their entertainment. Unfortunately some folks just don’t believe gambling is good across the board. I hap- pen to disagree with that.”
THERE APPEARS TO BE A LACK OF STATEWIDE
resources, though. In the Flathead Valley, there is only one licensed professional addiction counselor certified through the Montana Council on Problem Gambling.
But in recent months that lone counselor, Vim Tesar, has been in Texas receiving medical treatment, leaving the valley without a sanctioned source of professional help.
Tesar has worked as a counselor for over 15 years,
leading free sessions with Flathead Valley residents. She has worked with a steady stream of people seeking help for a gambling addiction. She has heard harrowing stories of people gambling away everything while pursuing their “fantasies,” whether it’s gaining approval as a successful person or avoiding a painful reality at home.
“They’ve taught me a great deal,” she said recently from Texas.
“I will tell you, as an addiction counselor who has worked with a lot of people, gambling actually ruins more lives in my opinion than alcoholism,” she said. “And that’s because of the financial concerns.”
According to national studies, gambling tends to prey on lower-income families, senior citizens and Native Americans more than other demographics. Another study, conducted by the state’s Gaming Commission, estimated that gamblers are more likely to be divorced or separated and experience more than double the average rate of bankruptcies. It also found that gamblers were far more likely to resort to illegal means to support their addiction.
In Tesar’s absence, a new group has organized in Kalispell to help problem gamblers.
Nearly two months ago, a pair of middle-aged wom- en gathered on a Friday evening at the Alano Club, a self-described recovery site inside an old-fashioned brick building in downtown Kalispell. The tightly packed space is a regular host of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, which draw large crowds of men and women coping with addiction.
Sherry, who asked to be identified by only her first name, has spearheaded what is now the one and only Gamblers Anonymous group in the valley.
She herself is a recovering addict.
“I was in my 40s when I first walked into a casino,” she said. “I walked in with a dollar with no idea that I would ever become addicted.”
She returned several weeks later and put $20 in a machine. From there it slowly progressed and she de- veloped a habit. Her routine didn’t change until she was involved in a serious vehicle accident and was diag- nosed with cancer shortly afterward.
“I started gambling to find an escape,” she said.
Sitting in front of a video gaming machine inside dimly lit casinos became her preferred source of self- medication during her recovery. Except it became un- healthy. In less than one month, she estimates she went through almost $4,000. Instead of recovering, she felt herself fall into a tailspin of depression and depen- dence. Thoughts of suicide crept into her mind.
“You don’t think about who you’re hurting, like your family and your friends and yourself,” she said. “It’s very hurtful to a lot of people, and it costs thousands.”
Sherry reached a crossroads and decided she need- ed to make a change. She left Kalispell and fled to New Mexico to live with a friend of hers, who was a recov- ering compulsive gambler. She studied the 12 steps of recovery laid out in Gamblers Anonymous, a program similar to Alcoholics Anonymous.
After a few months, Sherry had tackled her addic- tion and returned to Kalispell hoping to help others. The word has slowly spread throughout the valley that a recovery group is available for problem gamblers and there are now five to seven people who regularly meet weekly in the Alano Club on Friday evenings to share their stories and provide support for each other. The participants include men and women ranging in ages. Almost everyone has stayed away from gambling for fewer than 90 days.
“To me gambling is a hidden disease,” Sherry said. “It could happen to anybody without them even realiz- ing it.”
Tesar, the counselor, is happy to see others step up in her absence and take on a “serious situation” by forming a Gamblers Anonymous program. She said she hopes the group will raise awareness within the com- munity and show that there can be another, uglier side to the mainstream popularity of gambling.
“We have casinos on nearly every street corner in the major thoroughfare in Kalispell. These are trig- gers for gamblers,” she said. “When you’re not a gam- bler, which I am not, you don’t notice it. But if you take a hard look, in our community, we’re surrounded by invi- tations to gamble.”
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