LV seniors vulnerable to gambling addiction

By David Strow

LAS VEGAS SUN, July 31, 2000

Survey: 30 percent gamble weekly

It's another dog day of summer in Las Vegas. The July heat pours down onto the city, making anything beyond taking a few steps outside pure sweat-drawing torture.

For 83-year-old Josephine DeLuca, the weather is almost too much to bear, even after 22 summers in this desert city. On this particular day, as the temperature pushes 110, DeLuca waits in the air conditioned refuge of Arizona Charlie's, a locals casino, waiting for the 3 p.m. bingo game to start.

Three to four times a week, several hours a day, DeLuca said she can be found here. For her, it offers a way to get out of the house, to be among people, to avoid the heat.

"I came out because of the weather, because I'm dying out there," DeLuca said. "I like to be out. Here, you can be amongst people and not have to entertain them. You can leave when you want.

"If I have company, I have to sit there and play cards until they leave."

DeLuca is hardly alone among Las Vegas seniors and retirees, a new study has found. The survey, conducted by a local problem gambling center and UNLV Professor Fred Preston, found that nearly 60 percent of Clark County residents older than 55 gamble, while 30 percent do so at least once a week.

The study also indicated gambling is quite important to many seniors -- nearly one in four of the seniors surveyed said one reason they moved to Las Vegas was the opportunity to gamble, while 25 percent called gambling a "significant part of their recreational activity."

Problem signs

Troubling to researchers was that a portion of these seniors showed symptoms and indications of problem or pathological gambling.

About 2 percent of all seniors surveyed by phone showed signs of current problem gambling, while another 1.8 percent had indications of pathological gambling. Just under 3 percent of seniors had problems with gambling at some point in their lives, while another 2.4 percent had signs of pathological gambling in the past.

By contrast, a national survey by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission found that 0.4 percent of Americans qualified as current problem gamblers, and 0.1 percent qualified as current pathological gamblers. Over their lifetimes, the NGISC found, 1.3 percent were problem gamblers, and an additional 0.8 percent pathological.

The UNLV researchers also found that 20 percent of those seniors who gambled said they knew at least one person with a gambling problem.

The difference between problem and pathological gambling is determined by a problem gambler's score on addiction tests used by therapists and researchers. A "problem gambler" will score in the range considered on the threshold of addiction, with three to four symptoms of gambling addiction. Pathological gamblers are considered to have an obvious addiction, with five or more symptoms.

The survey was conducted in June by UNLV's Howard Cannon Center for Survey Research through phone interviews with 449 local residents age 55 or older. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percent.

The numbers may be similar to the proportion of problem gamblers among other segments of the population, one of the study's authors said, but he insisted that isn't a reason for complacency.

"This indicates these folks (seniors with gambling problems) are very much out there, and in very large numbers," said Bo Bernhard, director of operations at Problem Gambling Consultants, a nonprofit problem gambling treatment center in Las Vegas that conducted the survey with UNLV. "(Less than 4 percent) may not seem that significant, but when you project that onto the populous (of Clark County), you're talking about more than 10,000 people.

"It shows that while there's not evidence they're extremely prone (to problem gambling), they're not immune to it either."

Though many seniors gamble quite frequently, Bernhard cautioned against equating frequency with problem gambling.

"You can't equate frequency with pathology," Bernhard said. "There are some people that play every day and are fine, and we have some in treatment that gamble every other month, but the damage they do is profound."

Gaming affinity

Experts, senior gamblers and casino workers say the reasons behind seniors' affinity for casinos, whether they have problems or not, are associated with the issues of retirement -- a lack of alternative activities, and a need for human contact.

"Most of these people play the same session every day," said Mary Sandlin, lead bingo supervisor at Arizona Charlie's. "A lot of these people don't have anybody else, so it's kind of like their extended family. This is what their life is."

Ron Lurie, general manager of Arizona Charlie's, said the property's draw to seniors goes beyond just its gaming activities.

"The people we talk to don't say, 'Let's go gamble,"' Lurie said. "They say, let's go to Arizona Charlie's, because they have a special (on dinner). When they're finished, they say, 'We have a couple of hours left here, let's go play the machines.'

"I don't know too many people that go out just to gamble. They look for another excuse to go into a casino, to enjoy themselves and have some value for their dollar. Then they'll gamble with the disposable income they have left."

A lack of other activities is the reason Helen and Richard Koch of Sun City Summerlin frequent Arizona Charlie's at least four times a week. The two moved to Las Vegas about a year ago from Florida to be near their children and grandchildren.

"Outside of our family, we don't really know anybody here (in Las Vegas)," Helen Koch said while her husband played the slots. "People are friendly here. They talk to you, help you out."

Nearby, 70-year-old Bill Byrne and his wife, 57-year-old Darlene, indulged their Friday tradition of playing video poker. Bill Byrne said he used to play golf, until a bad shoulder forced him to give it up. Now, he said, a weekly casino visit can be a relaxing activity -- though he said he and his wife are careful to ensure that the trips don't become too costly.

"If you see it as a pastime, rather than a way to make a profit, you'll have more fun," Byrne said. "Once we found Arizona Charlie's, we found a place that at least gives us a chance at breaking even. It's a way of passing time, hopefully pleasantly."

And what makes it fun? Byrne pointed to his wife's machine.

"We were losing badly until she hit four aces," Byrne said. "That makes it fun again."

Though the Byrnes said they were careful to budget their gambling funds, they said they do know people with problems.

"One couple we know has blown a lot of money," Byrne said. "Sometimes they go every day. If they have money in their pocket, they'll go three, four, five times a week.

"They'll always tell you when they hit it big, never when they lose."

Carol O'Hare, executive director of the Nevada Council for Problem Gambling, has heard more extreme cases. During a recent visit to Sun City Summerlin, O'Hare said, a group of seniors told her about a couple in their neighborhood who lost their home as the result of a gambling addiction.

Helping seniors

O'Hare believes one of the most important steps in controlling problem gambling is education -- and believes nowhere is that more true than among seniors. Seniors, she said, can be far more vulnerable to the negative ramifications of problem gambling, since most live on fixed incomes.

"What we need to do is to find a way to speak to seniors in their world, to tell them, 'here are the warning signs,"' O'Hare said. "We need to help them understand that there are factors in their lives ... that could create a great degree of devastation for them."

But O'Hare doesn't believe casinos are solely to blame for problem gambling among seniors.

"If the only outlet they have for recreation is gambling, then we should encourage them to build another network of options," O'Hare said. "Seniors need good support and the same opportunities for quality of life that everyone else enjoys. Are we providing all of the opportunities for seniors that we could?

"We need to make sure that they have an environment that meets those needs so they don't rely solely on what is, for some people, a very high risk activity."

Lurie said Arizona Charlie's takes measures to ensure that seniors are aware that there are places to get help, through signs posted at cages, change booths and ATM machines.

"We all recognize the fact that it's not only seniors, but that other people have the same kind of problem," Lurie said. "Anyone that wants help, we're there to make sure they get it."

However, Bernhard said, one problem does remain -- convincing seniors that problem gambling is a treatable medical condition, not just a human weakness. Bernhard said his center has treated seniors with problems, but not in proportion to their numbers in the city.

"Seniors may be more reluctant to admit they have a problem," Bernhard said. "They've been around the block, and they feel they know how to handle their money, but find that now they've not only lost their nest egg, but are in debt. So they go to their children for bail-outs, reversing the role they've held for their entire lives.

"Seniors are hesitant to embrace a concept of addiction developed a generation after them, and they're resistant to some degree to accept that this is a legitimate affliction. Seniors do very well in treatment, but they're underrepresented."

DeLuca has seen the damage gambling problems can cause. Before Social Security checks were sent through direct deposit, DeLuca said, many seniors would show up in casinos with their Social Security checks in hand.

"They would just cash those at a casino and just blow it," DeLuca said. "People think twice when writing their own check before they cash it."