We Got A Problem Here?

We all make mistakes. Gambling away more money than you had planned doesn't make you a problem gambler, and we need to stop conflating the two.

Apologies to my paid subscribers who received this post twice. There was a glitch that prevented it from being sent to everyone.

When it comes to problem gambling, everyone wants to help. Everyone has good intentions, and there are a lot of ideas floating around. Some are good, some are untested, and some are plain bad.

The bad ideas stem from one of the big misconceptions in the space, that a questionnaire or a specific assortment of betting behaviors can spot gambling disorders. Those things are certainly helpful, but it’s way more complicated than that.

First, it’s hard to differentiate between someone dealing with an ongoing addiction and someone blowing off some steam or having a bad night, week, or month. There are plenty of people who look and act like problem gamblers who simply aren’t.

For example, every poker player would score very high on a problem gambling checklist.

Second, one of the hallmarks of any addiction is what makes it so difficult to spot: secrecy.  As I noted on X, “Most problem gamblers can hide it from their closest friends and family members for years.”

Problematic play doesn’t always equal a problem gambler. I coined the term Problem Gambling Werewolves in my X thread, describing them as people who gamble 6x what they wanted to on a random Saturday night and simply return to their normal (life and gambling) behavior for six months or more.

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The Right Messenger

One idea that came up in a recent Ohio Casino Control Commission meeting was to train social service workers, primary care physicians, and other public servants to identify problem gaming signs in citizens they're serving.

As I said on X, good luck with that.

If you want to exacerbate a problem or give someone a reason to hide their vices, start having random people poke around at their gambling behaviors unsolicited and judge them for it. If you want to know how this will go, approach a random teenager and start lecturing them about their excessive phone usage and suggest a treatment plan.

Or perhaps approach someone at a bar who you feel has had too much to drink. Or mention to someone at the supermarket that they have a lot of sugary snacks in their cart.

Those are jobs for a bartender and a doctor, respectively. And even they are likely to get pushback for pointing it out. And, to top it off, it might not signal a problem. A friend of mine was hilariously cut off at a bar when he tripped on a step going up to the bar – he had zero drinks in him. The cartful of sugary snacks might be for a party.

I don’t believe the answer is to cast a wide net and interrogate anyone who does x, y, and z, or even just x, y, or z, and then play some strange game of “spot the problem gambler.” Sometimes, we need to let people set some money on fire.

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We All Exhibit Problematic Behavior

There are many times I've splurged on something and briefly regretted it. Gambling is no different.

Is it any different from someone who goes way above their budget on an expensive watch, car, power tools, or Taylor Swift tickets? Or someone who burns through a thousand dollars at a strip club, on bottle service, or renting a high-end sportscar?