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NEW YORK POST, SUNDAY, MARCH 26, 1961

i The Biggest Bet |
Of Them All |

By PETE HAMILL

One at a time, the men arrived at the room on 48th St. off

adway, Some were dressed like Madison Av, executives.
Others wore tight pegged pants and diamond pinky rings.

All shook hands with those already there and sat down.
After a while the aqua walls of the room were obscured by thick
clots of cigar and cigaret smoke. The men talked quietly. ‘They
all called each other by their first names.

All of them were gamblers.

Finally a man in a green satin shirt started the night's
acti

“My name is Harry,” he said, “and I am a compulsive

gambler.”
* This was at the weekly Friday night meeting of a group
known as Gamblers Anonymous. The meetings are held at the
Fraternal Clubhouse, 110 W. 48th St., and the only requirement
for membership is a desire to stop gambling.

“I had a great feeling this week,” said Harry. “All of us
here know how imps e week was—the Big A and the trots
opened up. Me, I got the tingle, the rumble, the feeling of excite.
ment. I knew the track was open. I wanted to get out there, get
a piece of the action. pull down a score. But this year, I didn't
go. This year was different.”

applauded and Harry sat down. A second man
got up, introduced himself as Mike, and said that he, too, was
a compulsive gambler.
he said, “I was a successful stockbroker. I was
ith the SEC the year my oldest son was born. I had
king for me. You know what I have now? I don't
It's like having an armory full of old twodollar

registered
150 men we
have to tell you
stubs.”

GA, like Alcholies Anonymous, works on a self-help basis.
‘The techniques are similar: The phone call to a friend when the
desire hits, the regular mectings, group therapy with a psychia-
trist.. ‘The New York group has been in operation for about a
year, and has 80 member’.

‘“y was a man riding the tiger’s back,” Mike went on. His
face was calm but the wrinkles of worry creased his forehead.

“Since 1 joine¢ up I have beaten the hockey season, the
football season,-and the basketball season. This week I baat the
opening of the Tracing season. Now if I can get past the opening
of the baseball season, I'll be home free.”

‘Another man said that the first time he started gambling
was under a streetlamp in Brooklyn when his father tossed him
the dice ina crap game. “I made nine straight passes. I was
only 13, but those nine straight passes ruined my life

‘There is a woman's group affiliated with GA called Gamanon,
made up, not of gambling women, but of gambler's wives.

“We have our troubles,” said a guy named Charlie, “Me
and my wife are married 18 years. For 17 years I gambled every
day, on anything, the color of the socks on the next guy comin
Sroun' the corner. And for 17 years I had the shorts. Now I
give it up, and the wife is on mé like I took up mountain climbin’.
She ain't used to it. Wives, you can't figure out.

11 night Jong, thé gamblers told their stories, There were
Peecianiesiaa ote torokess, attorneys and Jongshoremen in the
group. Some told their stories bitterly, others with a shrug an
a laugh.

At the ena of the night, the
lit street. Some met their wives.
night slone. :

“You know,” one gambler said in parting. ‘This was a Mig
week, ‘The Big A gave us the jitters. But It looks like at 0st
eee of us are jearning to handle this thing, You don't lax the
first bet, it's 8105 you don't Jay the hundredth.

men filed out into the brightly
Others disappeared into the

NEW YORK MIRROR,

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SUNDAY, APRIL 2, 1961

Bill Slocum
EVERYWHERE

drug to cure their malady.

Sounds confusing. And in
many ways it was terribly con-
fusing, And terribly frighten-
ing. Sad _be-
yond descrip-
tion, But, {n
all, a refresh:
ing experi
ence.

It was a
meeting of
Gamblers Ano.
nymous and
all the trite
jokes about

ttors “blow-
ing the rent
money” lost
any “humor
that they
might have
had when you
sat and listened to these fellows
talk, They hadn't blown th
rent money.

They had blown their lives.

NOW THEY WERE fighting
desperately to regain the dig-
nity of living normal lives. They
were trying to start al
again. ‘Trying to start 1
45, trying to meet thi
children, ‘trying to. pay
wives and mothers for decades
of humiliation,

As we sat in a musty meeting
hall on 48th St, they were suc-
ceeding, No guarantees about to-
morrow. But, as of that moment,
not one of them had made a bet
for tomorrow. But, as of that
moment, not one f' them had a
bet for’ periods running from
two to 45 weeks.

‘The important thing to realize
about Gamblers Anonymous Is
that It has absolutely nothing to
do with the fellow who loses
more than he can afford when
he sits down to a card game or
goes to the track, It is concerned
with the compulsive gambler,
the man who must bet and If he
must steal to get the money to
het, then he steals,

Just like a hopeless hop-head.
Ora gutter drunk.

‘These men talked among
themselves for the dual purpose
of self-purging and encouragi
others, They had all stolen in one
form or another, A soft-spoken
businessman had actually walk.
ed Into a bank and tried to stick
ft up.

‘That any man would try to

Bill Slocum

stick up a bank fs astonishing.
‘That this bald, dignified, Ameri-
can businessman would attempt
It was unbelievable to me, E:
cept I knew he had done it.

HE HAD GONE slightly mad
from the fantastic pressures

Only willpower could cure them.
any will-power, they wouldn't be sick.

These Men Stake Their Lives

There were about 20 of them, they were all in their
40s, they were desperately sick and there is no wonder

And if they had

that n his soul by
debts, Debts to banks, debts to

iends, debts to loan companies,
debts to loan sharks. And debts
to his wife

He knows now that he didn't

alk into a bank to stick {t up.
He walked into a bank to get
shot in the head. Get {t over
with

But the other night he spoke
of the affair in well-formed, al-
most unemotional sentences. He
had got help from a’ lot of
people, including his GA col-
leagues, and was rebuilding =
life he’ subconsciously tried to
end a few short months ago.

Another man spoke of a terri-
ble problem in his own home.
In black and white it sounds

iculous, It was very believa-
ble when he talked of it. It's the
problem of NOT looking at a
‘TV show. And the TV show is
the Wednesday night telecast
of the trotting races.

He had almost destroyed
life at trot He knew
this as well ashe knew his name
Ani knew that he was
in mortal danger if he so much

looked at a trotting race—
even—in his own home.

GAMBLERS I HAVE known

. Glib, fast,

. Gamblers

Anonymous is virtually humor-

less. “A couple of low, under

z les were the ex:

ter.

fellow was

arable need

ipped him,

ning for a change,

“Every raco I bet

turned out good. I got scared. I

didn't wants my bookie to get
sore at me.”

Nobody laughed. He went on,
“T had heard of bookles refus:
Ing action to players who beat
them good. So, I lost a few bets
on purpose. You see, I knew I
didn’t have to win my bets, But
I did have to bet. I couldn't live
then If I didn’t bet.”

‘The idea of showing an:
mercy to a bookmaker was hi
larious to me. But not to the
GA members. ‘That's because I
bet to win. Most t
they bet to lose. I'd like to ex:

telling of

course, was
other was to pi
number in case
wants their help. M
Any time, day or night