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st 1, 1960

Compulsive Bettors Aided
By AA-Type Organization

st people who gamble can take
are an estimated four mi

tho can’t
Shannon

it or leave it. But

set out to find what makes

what makes them sick, and whether there is any
they can be cured. His report starts today.

By ANTHONY SHANNO

“Gambling for me was like a cancer. I couldn't
I couldn't stop it from spreading.”

wife, my home and my job. But I kept

“I asked God to strike me dead, because I didn’t
the courage to take my own life.”
Yl eart-bi
fe openly
tion from:
orkers who have lied,
ated and stolen while nur-
disease which none recog:
nized or accepted until he had
plunged his life into such
depths of shame and degrada.

alt desperate gamblers uncon:
sclously seek

By their confessions, typi-
cal of the feelings hidden in
the inveterate

, they hope to help

and help each

other. And, above all, they

hope to save each other from
these pathetic pitfalls:

@ A 37ycar-old Queens
businessman, seized in a rob:
bery attempt a few weeks
ago, blamed ft alf on his gam
bling fever. bet on any-

Pathetic Pitfalls.
Today these men are plead-

h the help of
Anonymous—a re-
ounded organization
dedicated to
e gamblers
throwing away their

thing.” he said. “Baseball,
football, basketball, horses—
anything. Only I almost never
‘This is a symptom
to all compulsive
gamblers: there are few win-
ners.

@ A Yonkers bank teller is
being held today on charges
of staging 9 phony holdup to
cover nearly $60,000 in gam-
bling debts.

@ A 25-year-old man died
recently in a city hospital
from an overdose of sleeping
pills. The reason: gambling
losses had gone beyond his
control

might have been able
to do something for these
men,” said Danny, a member
of the New York GA board
of, directors. who once failed
at ‘suicide himself. It is quite
possible, however,
of these unfi gam.
bling victims ever heard o:
the local GA. For the group
has made no effort to recruit
members since it was founded
six months .ago.

“We wanted to have our
own feet planted firmly on
the ground before we tried to
help others,” Danny ex-
plained.

Today, GA believes t's
ready to lend a hand to the
thousands of compulsive gam:
blers groping blindly through
the street of New York.

Normal Pastime.

There are an estimated 50
million normal gamblers’ in
the country, people who can
wager anything from $1 to

$10, even more, wi
ing harm to themse

those who kn

But compu
there's an estimated f
lion or more of the
know when to stop. E
there is no tomorrow,
next week. It's NOW, this
very moment. And {t means
gamble, gamble, gamble until
everything is lost.

Never Enongh.

“Gamblers win two
they want four,
“They gét four,
eight.
to win. They want to lose.

“Whenever I’ get
track I lose all sense of
said Freddy, youngest of the
GA members, and holder of
one of the most respected
jobs in his community. “I'm
in a world by myself. I can't
wait to get inside those
gates.”

GA uses the time-tested
techniques of Alcoholics
Anonymous, hoping its mem.
bers will find an inner seren
ity and cease fighting what
they cannot control. GA
members stand ready any
time of day or night to help
those who want it. Most re-
formed gamblers look upon
GA as the “longest shot
they've every played. But in
this case the gamble is worth-
wh

There are on estimated oné
million more compulsive gam:
blers than alcoholics in the

more
han drug addict
‘Thousands of Dollars.
Comp:
throw
thousands of dolla

awa;
the race track, the ca
or a single
Lowest debt I
GA is $1200;
$250,000.
‘Most compulsiv
don’t realize
until they've

athletic

for years an
Jersey hors

the following week.
idn’t even see ti

that were taking my mone:

Joe said. By the time he was

$7000 in hock, his wife took

the children and

ing firml:

Tried to End It All.

Danny, a gambler for 40 of

his 55 years, tried to end it
all with a pI ba

OMORROW

always

‘GA must be the answer

August 2, 1960

The Long
Road to
Ruin or GA

Most people who gamble
can take it or leave it, But
there are an estimated 4 mil
lion Americans — compulsive
gamblers —wko can’t quit.
They dring ruin on them:
selves and thoir famities be-
pause they can’t, World-Tele-
gram Staff Writer Anthony
Shannon is reporting on their
world.

By ANTHONY SHANNON,
Werld-relegram Sta/f Writer,
Joe and Freddy have
much in common. They
are college graduates and
have highly respectable,
well paid jobs. Both are
married and have families.
Both have lied, cheated
and stolen to feed an un-
natural urge to gamble.
They have often taken an
entire week’s pay and
squandered it at the race
track while their families

went without food.

Less than six months ago,
Joe, a slender man in his late
40s, was peering gravely from
a high, open window of a mid-
town hotel, intent on commit:
ting suicide. He'd written let-
ters to his estranged wife and
children. Nothing remained
but to end a wretched life that
had wrecked the lives of
others.

“E fell

on my knees that
night," Joe said, “and asked
God ‘to strike me dead. I
didn't have the guts to do it
myself.”

‘No Place to Gamble’

Freddy never thought of
suicide. He bought a plane
ticket to another country
using a bad check. His plan
was simple: He'd run away
and start: anew. He owed
$7000 to bookies, loan com-
panies and banks, and didn't
have the price of « quart of
milk for his youngest child.
But be never left “for fear
there'd be no place to gamble
when I got there.”

Joe and Freddy are com-
pulsive gamblers—two men
out of an estimated four or
more million Americans who
must wager everything until
all is lost... until they have
alienated themselves from
family, friends, and relatives
until they have “hit rock

bottom” and can turn to no
one but other gamblers for
help.

They met through the New
York chapter of Gamblers
Anonymous, a _ little-known
organization which _ strives
desperately to mend the shat
tered lives of men like Joe
and Freddy.

Most Precious Possessions.

What makes a man gamble
away his most precious pos:
sessions and still be unable to
stop? What makes one man a
compulsive gambler, while
another cay wager with en-
joyment and quit when it's
time to quit?

Freddy, a short, stocky man
in his early 30s, gambled be-
fore he understood the mean-
ing of the word. As a child
he'd Jack penny after penny
into a candy machine trying
to win a 5.cent prize.

"I'd break into a cold sweat
watching those penies work
for me,” he said.

In grade school he played
cards and rolled dice with
other youngsters in the
streets ‘of New York. But
Freddy was different. When
the others had enough for one
night, he begged them to stay
on for one more hand, one
more game.

“I could never get enough

action,” he says. “Years' later
when I was hooked by, the
horses, I couldn't wait to get
to the track. I was in another
world, I lost all sense of time
and values.”

Always Compulsive Gambler.

Freddy knows he's always
been a compulstve gambler.
He feels his mother’s ove:
protectiveness was a major
source of his undoing. Freddy
could tell his mother anything
and she'd believe it. She al-
ways was around to lend a
hand, to console, when he
was in trouble. He resented
this kindness but took ad-
vantage of it.

“L'd tell her I was going to
Jail if I didn'nt have $500 to
meet a debt, “She'd get me
@ loan in her own name, and
I'd blow it the same day at
the track.”

Freddy had many clever de-
celts for raising money. He'd
tell a loan company his
mother had cancer, or his
wife and children were in the
hospital. One time he needed

$200 to help a “bankrupt”
brother, and the finance
agent: “Boy, I wish I had a
swell brother like you,”
Freddy would say the first
thing that came to mind,

‘when $3 was needed for

‘a doctor's bill, I never had
it” he says. “But, when I
necd&d $100 for the track, I
always got It—somehow-
‘rouble In College.

He was nearly tossed out
of college for being caught in
a raided horseroom. His wife
paid the fine and cried in the
police station, hoping to
shame her husband into
changing his ways. Freddy
shamed easily, all right. But
he didn't change.

He owed $7000 just five

months ago when he learned
that Gamblers Anonymous
had formed a New York
chapter. He had one major
fear atiending his first meet-
ing: That he was too far
gone to be helped. He was al-
most right

'd_ been in GA two
weeks,” he recalls, “but didn't
think I could hold out an-
other day. I had to get to the
track or I'd die.”

Then Joe telephoned and
for an hour told Freddy the
struggle all the members
were having. He told Freddy

he was no different. That
each had to find some inner
strength in the other to stay
away from gambling. Freddy
got hold of himself. He
hasn't made a bet since he’s
been under the GA wing.

Joe, like Freddy, gambled
from childhood. His father, a
compulsive gambler, often
took him to the race track
for luck. Joe would pick the
horses by their colors.

“I used to hate my father
for losing all our money,” he
said. “It wasn't until recently
I began to understand him.

When Joe landed his first
job, he ran bets for other
men in the office, always
making a aide wager for him-
self. He seldom won.

“I got my brains knocked
out, but I kept going back,”
he said.

He lost one job after an-
other and owed more than
$2000 before he was 25. But
he was young, and the girl
he'd married three years be-
fore felt he'd soon settle dow:
to the business of raising
family. Joe, like Freddy, was
not ready for change.

Pay—or Else,

A talented man in his field,
he was earning $20,000 with a
Madison Avenue firm when
his wife took their children
and Ieft him after more than
20 years of marriage, Every-
thing they owned was mort-
gaged. Joe ran around town
“like & maniac” trying to bor-

row from friends and rela.
tives.

‘The bookies ordered him to

pay up—ot else
‘py this time, I didn't care
if 1 was beaten or killed,”
he sald. It was then he
thought of suicide.
Joe had chances to get

even, One day his boss took
him aside, sald he'd been a

compulsive gambler and un
derstood Joe's problem. He
agreed to pay all Joe's obli-
gations if Joe stayed away
from the horses. Joe agreed
and did—for one week.

Joe would never admit how
badly he needed to gamble.
He'd never admit he was
deathly sick. It wasn't until
after he'd found Gamblers
‘Anonymous that he realized
hiding, a racing form under
the car scat was not exactly
normal behavior, that run-
ning to a horseroom every
payday was not ‘the wisest
way to spend his salary

Hasn't Missed a Meeting.

Joe is a charter member
of New York's GA. He hasn't
missed a meeting, hasn't laid
down a bet in almost aix
months. Today he wouldn't
toss a coin for a cup of

coffee.
He visits his wife and chil
dren each weekend, hopes

desperately for a reconcilia
tion. When the family vaca-
tioned together this summer,
it marked the first time in
20 years Joe ieft town with.
out owing his boss money.

“GA has straightened me

* he says. “For'the first
time in my life, I'm facing
Teality.”

But there are parts of the
grim past Joe never will for
get—like listening to his
youngest daughter say or
night: “Daddy, won't this
ever be a happy home?

————_———_

TOMORROW:

The wife of a compul-
sive gambler tells of the
hell her husband's sick-
ness with bookies made
her life.

En Newyork Che
HO0-G¢7S@0e OR
OoRITE lo ERic
Po Box “you NYS:
Ew a Wwe
Cfo Po Bok 17/73

Koa Onjtlo Cath 7007
‘GA Saved

Bookie
Urged Death
For Mate

Approximately 4 million
Americans are compulsive
gamblers. They can’t quit
gambling short of, bringing
ruin on themselves and their
families, Here is one wife's
story of life with a compul-
sive gambler as told to
World-Telegram Staff Writer
Anthony Shannon, who has
deen reporting on their world
and the hope offered to it by
Gamblers Anonymous.

How would you like to
hear a cheap bookmaker
say to you: “Why don’t
you buy your husband a
gun and let him shoot
himself? Then we can
split the insurance
money.”

I heard these words less
than six mnths ago. I
shudder with fear every
time I think of it. That
bookie was talking about
my husband—the man I
married 12 years ago, the
father of my children, ‘the
man I love.

‘My husband was a compul-
sive gambler. He was the
kind of man who'd take every
cent we had and bet it on
horses, cards or dice until
everything was gone. I could
not talk to him or reason with
him. I couldn't tell him he
was ruining his life and
wrecking our marriage.

‘Sick With Gambling.”

He's only in his late 30s, but
he's been sick with this gam-
bling disease most of his life.
It wasn't until he found Gam-
bles Anonymous four
months ago that he began
acting like a normal human
being again.

For the first time, he real-
ized that he was sick—and
that there were even sicker
gamblers running around this
city. For the first time, he
realized he wasn't alone with
his problem,

My husband has his own
business and can make better
than $20,000 a year. But,
when this bookie told me to
buy the gun, we owed more
than $20,000 and every stick
of furniture we had was
mortgaged,

August 3,

1960

Husband’s Life’

Photo by Palumbo.

Compulsive gambling is a sickness which shatters the life not only of the
gambler, but also the lives of his family, Here, a troubled wife tries to bring
reason and consolation to a husband pressed by creditor bookies.

We were at rock bottom.
For two people who'd started
out with so much to live for,
we'd reached the stage where
living was sheer hell. The
bookies were pressuring my
husband to pay up—or else.
‘They threatened him in his
own office, and he was death-
ly afraid.

I lived with this compulsive
gambler for 10 years before
I realized he was deathly Ill.
But I didn't know which way
to turn. Who could help him?
He went to a psychiatrist
twice, then quit. I felt he was
deliberately trying to hurt me
and the children.

We were married after he
got out of the Army. I knew
he'd gambled for a long time.
But I was certain he'd quit
and concentrate on raising his
family. I never realized how
bad things were until our
joint bank account—$2000—
was gone and he started sell-
ing or pawning our wedding
gifts.

‘Like » Crazy Woman’

He was passing bad checks,
then racing around trying to
get the money to cover them.
I thought I'd go out of my
mind. I was afraid to let him
use the phone, thinking it
was to place a bet.

Iwas shouting at my friends
+.» slapping my children for

no reason . . . acting like g
crazy woman. I wanted to run
away. I was humiliated. 1
couldn't even turn to my par-
ents. How do you tell your
family you picked a lousy
husband? I'd save every dime
I could lay my hands on,
never knowing where the
next dime was coming from.

I went outjand told all his
bookies he was sick and
they'd have to wait for their
money. That's when one of
them told me to buy the gun.
And I knew he wasn’t kid-
ding.

Every night he was out late
I'd think he was lying shot to
death in some gutter.

Along with all this we owed
the government more than
$5000 in back taxes and it
(the government) was taking
his salary every second week.

My husband gambled more
than ever, digging the hole
deeper. The few nights he
was home he'd just sit and
sulk, If I had friends around,
he'd ignore them, All he
would think about was gam-

bling, how much he wanted
to get even.
Gamblers Anonymous,

Td heard somewhere about
Gamblers Anonymous start-
ing in New York, but my hus-
band wanted no part of It. He
still thought there was noth-
ing wrong with him.

Then one Friday night he
said he was going to a GA
meeting just to see what it
was like. I was afraid to let
him out of the house. I was
sure he was heading for the
race track. Thank God, he
went to the meeting.

My husband hasn't gambled
in the four months he's been
in GA. He's worked out an
agreement with his creditors
and we actually have a home
life again. We talk to each
other like normal people, He's
80 different today from the
night of his first GA meeting,
4t’s almost like living with
another man

GA saved
It probabl

y husband’s life.
saved mine, too.

TOMORROW

Is there any cure for
the compulsive gambler?

New Group

Helps Those
Near Ruin

By ANTHONY SHANNON,

Four million or more Amer-
icans are compulsive gam
dlors, who can’t stop detting
until they have brought.ruin
on themselves and their fam:
ilies. Today, World-Telegram
Staff Writer Anthony Shan
non concludes his report on
them and on an organization,
Gamblers Anonymous, which
offers hope of a return to
decent normat tife.

New York , big in
everything, has literal
thousands of compulsive
gamblers — men who will
risk everything they own
(and more) on the turn of
a card, the tumble of dice,
the hooves of a horse.

These men are different
from others who gamble,

jose who can take gam-
bling or leave it. The com-
pulsive gambler sim ply
can’t stop until ruin or,
perhaps, new, belated help
is the end of the road.

You sce the compulsive
gamblers at the race track,
cursing a horse that’s ,ru
out of the money. Y:
them at baseball games,
basketbay games, football

mes—shouting, almost cry-

ig, for “their” teams to win.
You see them at social events,
unable to tear themselves
away from the 5.and-10-cent
games of chance

They'll beg, borrow, and
steal to feed this unnatural
urge to gamble. And, when

last dollar is lost — and
y worry about
e wife at home without
money to buy food, the chil-
juently loathe
r father for his weakness.
Unbellevable Lengths.
men are sick. They’
unbelievable
i some action.”

taking a
break for food or drink. They
live only to gamble.
ble that Gam-
nous would come
to New as it must come
to all cities where this disease
s taken a stranglehold on
the lives of men.
embers of New York's
GA are trying to solve their
problem with the earnestness
of schoolboys tackling a diffl-

4, 1960

tlon. By multiplying
here, they hope

nt answer, But

like all things complicated,
this too will take time and
Jerry, & long, lean serious
man who has gambled stead

ly most of his 445 years,
bought a copy of Freud; hop
ing to find some solution to
his social behavior, He tells
other GA members ‘how he's
slowly going through the
book, underlining the words
he doesn’t understand,
Almost Pathetic.

His childlike gropings
are almost pathetic, But he's
trying—trying hard to put an
end to the evil that wrecked
his life,

Most of these reformed
gamblers believe gambling is
a substitute for something
they missed in childhood — a
happy home, loving parents,
security, Many in the group

come from broken homes and
were boarded out with
strangers.

“I used to run away from
that place every chance I
got,” said one GA member,
who spent a good part of his
childhood in a boarding house.

Another member tells how
he always picked up the tab
when out with friends, trying
to play the big shot. There
never was much money in his
home as a child. After the
first GA mecting, In fact, the
men had coffee sent in and
everyone made a dive for the
bill

“I always thought there
was something wrong with
people who brought their
lunches to work,” said Ban-
ny, a GA officer and one of
the older men in the group.
‘Now I realize it's they who
have their feet on the
ground.”

Wry Humor, Too.

Most of the stories told
each Friday night when GA
meets are filled with tragedy.
But there are those with a
wry humor, too.

Danny tells how he was in

a raided trap game an hour
before he was to be married.
Trying to elude the police
he climbed a barbed wire
fence at the rear of the raid
ed building, ripping his
wedding clothes and severely
cutting both hands.

He made the wedding, all
right, with borrowed clothes
and hands bandaged to the
wrist.

And this was the outcome
of Tommy's first visit to a
psychiatrist

My mind got so clear
listening to this guy talk, I
knew I'd have better luck
doping out the scratch sheet
the next day.’

Many of the GA members
were at rock bottom when
they attended their first
meeting. They had little to
lose, except time, which,
otherwise, would have been
spent at the race track.

A Good Reason,

But Danny was an excep-
tion. He'd quit gambling two
months before the New York
GA was organized last Jan:
uary. And for a good reason.
A friend had asked him to

fake part in an armed rob-
bery.

“At that moment, I realized
how low I'd sunk,” he said.
couldn't believe anyone would
have the nerve to ask such &
thing.”

Although a new and small
organization, New York's
Gamblers Anonymous has

big. long-range plans. It
hopes that the movement
will spread to each of the
five boroughs, and that inde-
pendent chapters will be
established.

“We wanted to be sure
we'd helped ourselves before
trying to help others,” Dan-
ny said, “Now I think we're
ready to go ahead.