In one hand, 24-year-old Josh Croucher, a delivery boy, holds the remote control towards the big game. In his other, he anxiously fans out a wad of twenties, ready to throw it all on the line. This is a typical Sunday for Croucher, who admits to spending nearly $500 a week on sports betting.
Gambling is often portrayed on TV and in movies as glamorous and daring, but it is rarely mentioned that pathological gambling is a real addiction that more than 2 million U.S. adults suffer from, according to the Gambling Clinic at The University of Memphis.
"To bet the highest wager on a game makes me feel superior over my friends," Croucher said.
Croucher began gambling at age 13.
"We would sit around the lunch table and mix these grotesque concoctions of our leftover food. Depending on the severity of the ‘murder meal,' we would bet anything from one dollar to an entire week of lunch money that one another would not eat it," he said.
So how does schoolyard betting lead to the loss of hundreds or even thousands?
According to the Gambling Clinic, a low-cost outpatient clinic located in the psychology building at The University of Memphis, 85 percent of high school students have reported gambling at least once during their lifetimes. Gambling usually begins between the ages of 11 and 13 years old.
Meredith Ginley, a doctorial student and gambling researcher at The University of Memphis, places an emphasis on society's need to realize that gambling is done in places other than just the casinos.
"Gambling is considered to be anything in which money or valuables are placed on uncertain odds," Ginley said.
Ginley names everything from "heads or tails," drinking games and sports betting to "guessing where the cow will poop" as everyday activities that are recognized as gambling.
"When an individual experiences a win in gambling, it triggers the release of dopamine in the brain as a drug substance would," said Emily Philips-Roth, a gambling researcher at The University of Memphis. "To a pathological gambler, the feeling of a win is like nothing else."
According to Ginley, "most gamblers do it strictly for fun" and have no problem with the activity.
For those who started gambling strictly for fun but now think they may have a problem, psychologists refer to the Lie-Bet scale. This tool uses two simple questions to put a person's level of gambling into perspective. The scale asks, "Have you ever felt the need to bet more and more money?" and "Have you ever had to lie to people important to you about how much you gambled?"
When Croucher was asked about the scale, he replied "yes" to both questions, but said, "My bills get paid on time. There is no problem here."
To diagnose someone with a gambling addiction, the Diagnostic Statistical Manual requires that one must meet five of 10 criteria. Examples of these criteria are "preoccupied with gambling," "needs to gamble with increasing amounts of money in order to achieve the desired excitement," and "has jeopardized or lost a significant relationship, job or educational or career opportunity because of gambling."
Like substance addiction, gambling has a negative effect on an individual's personal life. The Gambling Clinic has determined that persistent gambling results in financial, emotional, marital, legal and psychological problems. The clinic's research also shows that children with parents who gamble are at greater risk for becoming a problem or pathological gambler in the future.
Though money is a major factor in gambling, the loss of monetary resources does not have to be a problem.
"Gambling at times is not detrimental until someone mixes up their priorities," Philips-Roth explains. "If a wealthy person is gambling $200 bi-weekly, it is not a problem until they begin to neglect family time."
People who gamble in any form are at risk for becoming problem or pathological gamblers at some point in their lives. Those with the most risk typically gamble during adolescence, have parents who gamble, are an ethnic minority and are male, according to research.
If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, Ginley says not to lose hope.
"People can change and can get better," she said. "It is not a death sentence and we have seen great success in rehab."
The Gambling Clinic's Center for Self Change can be contacted at (901)-678-STOP.
