LAST week I wrote about behavior associated with gambling addiction, and cited some examples of how they can be treated in a professional facility.
Junjun and Ces Gonzales, the couple running The One Algon Place in Cabuyao, Laguna (licensed as both a drug abuse and psychiatric rehabilitation facility), share more of their experiences in helping patients diagnosed to have some form of gambling addiction—an impulse control disorder.
It often starts innocently—one is not a big gambler right away. For instance, one of their patients started out by going to cockfighting events, which do not take place every day.
The excitement grew with each winning, however, so that the weekly “sabong” no longer sufficed.
This particular patient was not some bum. He was a mechanical engineer, from a well-to-do family, who later on confessed he felt unenthusiastic about his career. Much later, through the center’s art therapy, he discovered he really wanted to pursue a different career.
Then again, addiction is not limited to the moneyed. The tragedy is that even those who have less in life can still find themselves hooked on gambling.
Ces talks about a mother who played tong-its the whole day. “She would look for places where there are wakes, and she would camp out and play.” Alas, it was this woman’s seven-year-old daughter who stepped up to the role her mother neglected, scavenging just so she could eat something.
It was a social worker who brought the matter to the attention of The One Algon Place, which provides one “scholarship” slot for every 25 paying patients they have in their facility.
“We have to remember, you can get addicted not only to substances,” Ces says. “We say it is an impulse control disorder because you can no longer control yourself.”
And indeed it is unfortunate when human beings, imbued with a sense of free will and self-determination, are no longer able to master their desires. Instead, it is the desires that control them and lead them to do things that a rational person would not do.
And just like in any addiction, it is the family who feels the effects and bears the burden of the gambling addiction of their loved one.
The children, for instance, suffer because the money that is supposed to go to their food or education goes instead to the gambling establishments. Parents suffer because of the frustration of not seeing their children as productive, responsible, functioning citizens however much they invested in their education. Addicts, like the Gonzaleses’ many patients, go to such depths as stealing from their parents and compromising family resources.
In the case of Jessie Carlos, the man who burned casino tables at Resorts World Manila earlier this month, killing 37 people, and who killed himself, it was his estranged wife who had asked that he be kept away from gambling establishments because he had owed so much money already.
It is not a surprise then that it is the family who proves instrumental in rehabilitating the gambling addict. It is they who, after acknowledging that love does not mean giving in to what their family member wants, makes the painful decision of committing him or her to the establishment despite protestations. And these protests can be loud. “They cry, bang their heads against the wall, curse or threaten our staff,” says Ces.
It is they who determine that therapy takes a long time and is not an instant solution, because the causes are deeply rooted in the first place. It is the family who will learn to keep watch, no matter how draining it is, whether rehabilitation has indeed taken place or not.
Finally, it is the family who will ensure that no such loss of control over behavior happens again in other kin. They will instill values in their impressionable young members so that when they go out into the world, they will be able to say no to temptations, however lucrative they might present themselves to be.
It is indeed difficult to counter addiction in a place where the culture permits, even encourages it, says Junjun. Casinos, for one, reserve the best suites—and everything else—for their high rollers. There is an incentive for being a big winner, and when you are losing, your desire to turn things around is magnified.
Junjun also says casinos should keep track of who among their customers are losing big already. When they identify who they are, their participation must be capped so that they incur no further losses.
“But what happens? You have financiers—loan sharks—on standby, ready to provide instant credit to whoever needs it.”
Indeed it’s a profit-driven industry. Winner takes all. And what of the losers? Woe to those who find themselves unable to control their impulses and gamble their possessions—their future, their dignity—away.
