Compulsive gambler disappointed at lack of resources in Nevada

Siobhan McDonough

Friday, Aug. 10, 2001 | 11:06 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Rex Williams knows all too well what it's like to gamble on his life's earnings, job and marriage -- to lose most of it while riding high in a casino.

"The adrenaline rush from the royal flush -- that's what we call it," said Williams, 46, who gambled compulsively for 20 years.

A recovering gambling addict, Williams said he knows the "hidden, dark side of gambling that no one wants to talk about."

"I was constantly out running around," he said. "I didn't come home. I started missing anniversaries and birthdays. And the bills began piling up. It's a tremendous stress financially, spiritually and morally."

There are as many as 20 million compulsive gamblers in the United States, including about 1.5 million teen-agers, according to Gambler's Anonymous.

Williams wants the state to help compulsive gamblers get the treatment they need.

"You can't tell people to get treatment and then not have funds for them to get treatment," said Williams, adding that the state has nothing on the books to deal with compulsive gamblers.

"They've lost their insurance policies, lost their money. How are they supposed to get treatment?" he said.

Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., who lobbies for casinos as president of the American Gaming Association, told a gathering of medical experts last month that research findings show compulsive gambling is too complex to be blamed on the industry alone.

"You're not just treating gambling," Fahrenkopf said. "You have to think about substance abuse, depression, etc."

Williams said his addiction is rooted in his childhood.

He remembers driving from his home in Sacramento, Calif., with his father, also a compulsive gambler, who'd leave him at the children's theater in the basement of the old Harold's Club in Reno while he spent several hours at the craps table on the second floor.

"He'd say, 'Do you want lunch now or later? If you want it now, you can have a burger. If you want it later it could be steak or nothing at all,"' recalls Williams. "You don't know how many times I ended up having spent 12 hours in that theater, my dad getting me, and the two of us driving a long way home on a lonely, two-lane road, -- feeling hungry, thirsty and tired."

"That's a problem for compulsive gamblers -- you can't keep food on the table, clothes on your back, gas in the car," he said. "You become spiritually and morally bankrupt."

Williams took his case to the 2001 Legislature, asking lawmakers to approve SB335, giving problem gamblers the same legal standing that alcoholics or drug addicts have in seeking access to sentencing alternatives -- providing they finish treatment programs.

The measure -- the first of its sort in Nevada -- died in the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno.

"I think it was incongruous that nearly every other state that has gaming has allotted state resources to help compulsive gamblers, yet Nevada -- the gaming capital of the world -- doesn't have anything," said Senate Judiciary Chairman Mark James, R-Las Vegas, sponsor of SB335.

"We benefit from gaming -- and we should also address the problems that arise with it," said James, adding that he will push for similar legislation next session.

"Like anything else, there are people who enjoy it and there are those who abuse it," he said. "They need help."

Rob Hunter, clinical psychologist at the charity-based Problem Gambling Center in Las Vegas, called the Legislature's lack of action ludicrous.

"Nevada is the only gambling state that has not addressed problem gambling as a public health problem," he said. "This is a really addictive disease. It's not a will power problem or character problem. It's very similar to a drug or alcohol problem."

As a member of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, which spent two years studying America's betting boom, Richard Leone accused state governments of becoming addicted to revenue from gambling without fully examining its costs on society.

"The astonishing thing to me about the spread of gambling is the extent to which it occurred in a period of great ignorance," said Leone, a former New Jersey state treasurer who, in the 1970s, opposed the ultimately successful movement to legalize casinos in Atlantic City. "The reason is because state governments led the way, on their own behalf. They found the money irresistible."

While the state lacks any treatment program for compulsive gamblers, a 12-step program modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous has helped people, including Williams, a member since 1992.

The program has worked for Williams, an insurance broker, a lay minister and counselor for other compulsive gamblers. He's been married for 22 years to the daughter of the late Raymond "Pappy" Smith who founded Harold's Club in Reno.

"It's a cancer of the mind," Williams said of his addiction to gambling. "I can keep it in remission as long as I go through the 12 steps and have prayer and meditation.

"We're never cured, we only keep it in remission, work hard and have to have a lot of discipline."