Confessions of a Gambling Addiction Therapist

Meet Michael Osborne. He's a former gambling addict who now treats gambling addictions in Baltimore. He is profiled in this month's Baltimore Magazine. It's a must read that highlights the evils of gambling addiction.

The woman from Connecticut contacted Michael Osborne desperate for help. Her boyfriend, a 63-year old retired Fed-Ex employee, had been ruining his life and destroying relationships for years. Despite having a good pension, he borrowed constantly to make rent, wearing out those around him with deceits and lies because of his casino gambling. She didn't know where else to turn.

Two days later, a family called, pleading for intervention assistance with their father, a former attorney deep into sports betting with local bookies. Osborne flew out to Palm Beach to help. As soon as Osborne returned home that Sunday evening, a Silver Spring wife called at 10:30 p.m. begging for aid with her 57-year-old husband, who was completely addicted to online poker.

"I get between 10 and 15 calls a day from people in trouble or their families," says Osborne, the executive director of Baltimore's Harbour Pointe, the oldest and one of the only residential treatment facilities in the country solely dedicated to treating compulsive gamblers.

Gambling addictions don't just hurt the addict - they tear families apart. The article continues:

He understands the pain of families with senior parents hooked on the Delaware and Charles Town slots and others with college sons forced to quit school because of their online Texas Hold 'Em debts. He knows the denial of the compulsive gambler as well because Osborne is a gambling addict himself.

To satisfy his nearly two-decade long compulsive sports betting, Osborne once unwrapped his children's presents three days before Christmas, returning them for store refunds to make a wager. The rush from the action, he says, was a thousand times greater than anything he'd ever experienced with alcohol or drugs. At his worst, he was $500,000 in debt to loan sharks, bookies, and offshore Internet accounts in Antigua and Belize.

"I'm seeing people come in everyday with nothing left to lose," he says. "It's like I'm looking at myself. The same hopelessness."

The truth is, we already have gambling addicts in Maryland. But, if we amend our Constitution to legalize slots, the problem will only get worse and more families will be torn apart by gambling addictions. The article continues:

According to the National Council on Problem Gambling, an estimated two million adults in the United States meet the criteria for "pathological gambling," and another four to six million are considered problem gamblers. A University of Illinois study found that at least one in five compulsive gamblers file for bankruptcy after they have exhausted multiple credit cards and other credit lines, often putting their families in financial risk.

In too many circumstances, the consequences are more serious than a bad credit score. A study by University of California sociology professor David Phillips found that the increase in legalized gambling in the U.S. is likely linked to dramatically higher suicide rates in cities with major casinos.

And although Osborne doesn't take a position on the November slots referendum, when asked what the addition of 15,000 legalized gambling devices across Maryland will mean if approved, he doesn't equivocate. "The cost of more gambling is that domestic violence will go up, crime will go up, prostitution will go up, foreclosures will go up, bankruptcy will go up. And suicide will go up," says Osborne, who once considered taking his life. "Gambling addiction suicide rates are much higher than for alcoholism and drug addiction."

Domestic Violence. Crime. Prostitution. Foreclosures. Bankruptcy. Alcoholism. Drug addiction. This is coming from a man who was a former gambling addict and the Executive Director of Maryland's oldest residential treatment facilities for problem gamblers. He knows gambling, and, he knows the consequences Maryland faces if we legalize slots.

The article goes on to highlight Michael's personal story. It's a story all too common and it spirals out of control. But, it doesn't just affect Michael, if affected his wife and his young children:

While a senior in high school, Osborne met his future wife Heather, two years his junior. She worked at the same neighborhood grocery store for a year before they started to date. She always knew he gambled.

"After we were together, he would call in bets with me right there and I also knew he went to pool halls and bet on the games he played, but I didn't know enough to think that there was a problem," Heather says. "I knew a lot of people gambled, but I didn't know it could become an addiction. His friends gambled, too, so I thought it was just a fun thing they liked to do."

However, Osborne became more and more secretive about his gambling, hiding his loses and the impending financial doom.

Inevitably, the addiction caught up with his home life after the couple got married and had their first child.

"I finally realized that he had a problem when his real estate clients were calling the house saying he owed them large sums of money," his wife says. Heather took the kids and left on several occasions. They lost their house. Both cars were repossessed.

In the worst incident, several bookies broke into the house while Heather was playing with the children—aged two, four, and five at the time—and threatened her at gun point.

Make sure to read the whole article and email it to your friends and family.

As with so many addictions, there's no cure for gambling addictions. And, the more gambling is available, the more difficult it is for addicts to say no.

In November, voters will make a choice whether to exacerbate the problem of gambling addiction and broken families - or reject it. For the sake of our families, we strongly urge Marylanders to vote no.