Women and Problem Gambling

Therapeutic insights into understanding addiction and treatment

Liz Karter

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136746871
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Addiction is much misunderstood. Women and addictive gambling even more so, and for many years women have suffered in silence. This book explores how lonely, troubled lives and damaging relationships lead to the trap of problem gambling, the anxiety and chaos whilst locked inside, and then offers realistic hope of a way out.

With the significant increase in women gambling problematically, Women and Problem Gambling aims to answer the often asked question 'who is to blame?' the text covers:

• the role of the gambling industry

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• the role of society

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• women's relationships with others and themselves

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• what ' hitting rock bottom ' truly is

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Case studies illustrate how gambling begins as harmless escapism and how stressful and sometimes painful lives, combined with spiralling debts, lead to desperation to avoid thoughts, feelings and the reality of life in chaos. Women can, and do, stop gambling, and the author shares anecdotes from patients, and discusses therapeutic models and practical strategies to demonstrate how this is possible.

Women and Problem Gambling is based on the author's research and theories developed throughout her extensive practice. The insights will be of value to anyone wanting to understand or work with problem gambling in women; from a woman with a problem herself, thorough to family, friends and any healthcare professionals or therapists involved in her care and treatment.

Chapter 1

Growing the problem

If we read newspapers and magazines, if we watch television or listen to the radio, we do not now have to try very hard to come across a subject that until recently was relatively unheard of: that of women with gambling addiction. We read sensational stories of women heavily in debt, children neglected, theft committed and even prison sentences served. We read the surface story perhaps with dark interest and confusion as to how the woman could allow herself to get into such a dire situation. Some ask incredulously, ‘Why doesn’t she just stop gambling?’ In the first chapter of this book we will begin to read between the lines, and to understand that there is a story behind the media accounts we now hear with increasing frequency.

In the ten years in which I have been practising as a psychotherapist working exclusively in the field of problem gambling, with all its related issues, I have always known that many women have gambled socially and, if they can gamble socially, they can of course gamble problematically. Anything we do that we enjoy, and is recreational and pleasurable, ultimately has that potential to get a little out of hand. It is after all a part of our human nature that if something makes us feel good we want to repeat the experience.

Those of us who gamble socially do so for various reasons but primarily for reasons of entertainment. For some, it is because we enjoy the excitement associated with the activity, lifting us out of what can be mundane day-to-day life. Others of us might like to challenge ourselves mentally, trying to work out a system, developing skills to try to beat the odds. We can also experience a sense of relaxation when gambling – focusing on something that absorbs us to the extent that we are not thinking about our life problems for a while. We enjoy switching off from stresses and anxieties.

In a health and safety conscious culture where we are urged to be cautious at all times, it is easy to forget that it can be fun and healthy, if not essential to our overall well-being to take a little risk. Gambling offers us an element of risk.

Whatever our own particular experience, if we are social or regular gamblers, the activity offers us a form of entertainment and therefore, as with all forms of entertainment, an element of escapism. For the majority of the population, gambling is just a good source of fun.

The third British Gambling Prevalence Survey (BGPS) 2010 built on the two previous gambling prevalence surveys published in 2000 and 2007. The key aims of the BGPS were to:

• measure prevalence of participation in all forms of commercial and private gambling;

• estimate prevalence of problem gambling;

• investigate sociodemographic factors associated with problem gambling;

• explore attitudes to gambling;

• provide comparisons between pre- and post-implementation of the Gambling Act 2005 (Gambling Commission, 2010).

The survey found that nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) of adults in Britain gambled (rising from 68 per cent in 2007), the vast majority saying they gambled for fun and the chance of winning money.

The proportion of problem gamblers increased from 0.5 per cent of the adult population in 2007 to 0.7 per cent in 2010, and the BGPS (2010) indicated a significant rise in female problem gambling from 0.2 per cent in 2007 to 0.3 per cent in 2010.

Most of us keep a healthy balance between the things that make us feel good and offer escapism, and our day-to-day responsibilities. It is only when that balance tips that problems start, and we may develop what is termed an addiction, a dependency or a problem. Depending on clinical background and preferred model of problem gambling treatment, there will be a ‘label of choice’ to refer to problem gambling. For the purpose of this book, and not wishing to get bogged down in debating terminology, I will use the term ‘problem gambling’ to cover the spectrum of gambling activity that is recognised as out-of-control behaviour.

So, what is it that has caused the balance to tip from social or regular gambling to problem or pathological gambling for so many more women in the last few years? The media is one area that has been whipped into a frenzy of curiosity as to what has caused this sudden phenomenon.

In my role specialising in women and problem gambling, I have many times been asked by the media to comment on whether:

1. I think that the gambling industry has cleverly used an advertising campaign to ‘lure’ women into a gambling habit;

2. I think the gambling industry is causing a vulnerable group to develop problems.

To the first question I tend to answer that I think yes, clearly the gambling industry has launched an advertising campaign aimed at women because there is now such a vast range of female-friendly products that they are promoting. The gambling industry is an entertainment industry and its intention is to promote its business, as any other business might.

In answer to the second question, I think that women are as vulnerable to advertisements for gambling as they are to advertisements for alcohol, cigarettes, comfort food and shopping … whatever is pleasurable and offers a little time out from day-to-day life. That does not mean to say that every woman who plays a game of bingo online will inevitably become a problem gambler, any more than a woman who has a glass of alcohol that is sold as particularly attractive to her gender will become an alcoholic, or the woman who buys a tub of seductively marketed ice cream will develop an addiction to comfort eating. However, in all these areas some women will develop problems and professional experience has taught me that the woman who develops a problem does so because she had what she feels to be intolerable life problems anyway. The reasons women develop gambling problems are much more complex than just being attracted like moths to a flame of advertising, as we shall explore. Gambling becomes out of control often as a response to feeling psychologically overwhelmed and emotionally out of control.

The advertising of gambling products that appeal to women, and the advertising of gambling activities in general, have increased. The Gambling Act 2005, which came into effect in 2007, allowed the responsible advertising of gambling, and, for the first time, introduced licensing of online gambling (Gambling Commission, 2005).

There is as yet no statistical evidence to support the notion that there has been a rise in online gambling since 2007. Online gambling has, however, been the focus of media speculation as to whether it is a cause of more women than ever before being attracted to gambling and therefore potentially developing problems. Glamorously glossy advertisements invite women to try out new games that they might never have played before in the privacy of their own homes, and away from any embarrassment of learning to play an unfamiliar game in front of more experienced gamblers in a land-based casino.

The latest Commerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCogra) study of almost 11,000 online players from 96 countries found the average online casino player was female with 54.8 per cent of online casino games players women (eCogra, 2010).

Online bingo sites send a digital invitation for a night out with the girls – without having to make the effort of choosing an outfit, leaving the home in the cold and the dark, attending a venue alone and meeting new people – to women whose social lives may be lacking.

Online gambling has attracted a younger female player, perhaps because of the ease with which younger people use digital technology as a part of day-to-day life. It is now even possible to gamble on a smartphone, making gambling available 24 hours a day.

In July 2011 the RCA Trust logged a 15 per cent increase in women of all ages getting into debt through internet poker and bingo sites. (Caernarfon Denbigh Herald, 2011).

In recent years, the image of more established forms of gambling has undergone a dramatic makeover too. Land-based bingo halls are no longer perceived as the exclusive domain of senior citizens. Modern advertising has attracted a younger female clientele, who now view bingo as a fun night out with the girls.

Rank Group, owners of Mecca Bingo, reported a 40 per cent increase in under-35s playing bingo (Thomas, 2012).

The bookmakers’ shops of the past conjured images of smoke-filled ‘dens of iniquity’, a very male territory, the interior of which most women might only imagine, as few would dare, or wish, to venture inside. Nowadays, bookmakers are permitted to open shops in prominent positions on the high street. Gone are the covered windows concealing uninviting, dingy rooms. We can look in on brightly lit spaces, decorated in the familiar colours of fast-food restaurants, where we can sit comfortably over coffee, if we so wish. Fixed Odds Betting Terminals, reminiscent in appearance of traditional slot machines, offer us digital casino games if we are not tempted to place traditional bets.

Casinos traditionally trigger the image of James Bond, the stereotypical ‘alpha male’, with the only place for a woman in the casino perhaps on his arm, standing like ‘Lady Luck’ at his side. Women now go to a casino for a night out with friends or dinner with a partner, and they have become much more comfortable with being an active participant in playing table games and slot machines.

Horse racing … Almost every significant race meeting on the calendar now advertises its ‘Ladies’ Day’ via radio and newsprint. The invitation to dress glamorously, wear a hat, drink a glass or two of champagne amid stunning countryside views is appealing enough in itself. Add to that the thrill of watching magnificent animals race to the finish with maybe the added excitement of having a little money on the race. It is no wonder now that it is not at all unusual to see parties exclusively of women attending race meetings, for a day out.

Even an evening at the dog track no longer has the image of men in cloth caps standing in the drizzling rain, but is now potentially a more polished social event – an evening out to dinner with the option of placing bets without needing to leave your table.

Slot machine arcades have traditionally had a family-friendly, seaside holiday image. Tea and coffee are offered to regular customers, greeted as friends. We will explore both the environment of the amusement arcade, and the world of online gambling in more detail in later chapters.

So we can see that gambling as a recreational activity and a social event has become increasingly appealing to, and normalised for, women. Perhaps this process of the increase in social gambling for women really began with the advent of the UK National Lottery in 1994 (BBC, 1994). Suddenly, advertising began to normalise gambling, people who had never gambled before bought tickets and gambling began to be socially acceptable. After all, buying a lottery ticket at the supermarket suddenly cut out the stigma attached to being a woman who gambles. So too, when in 1995 scratchcards were launched (National Lottery, 2012). What could feel more normal and socially acceptable than doing the weekly supermarket shop? Therefore, if we pick up our scratchcards along with our trolley full of groceries, perhaps that makes the process an even more acceptable part of day-to-day living. Advertisements for online gambling sites viewed before our favourite TV soap again give the sense of gambling being an established part of everyday life. What can feel more reassuringly established than the soap we have watched on the same day, at the same time, for years?

It might seem that, having said that I do not lay blame at the door of the gambling industry, I am now contradicting myself by giving evidence for the way in which women have been tempted into problem gambling. That is not what I am attempting to prove. What I aim to show is that gambling has been made more accessible to women and more fun for women, and that for the majority of women who enjoy gambling as entertainment and a bit of healthy escapism, that is absolutely okay.

To one extent or another we all use something to escape the pressures of day-to-day life, or sometimes perhaps to avoid being bothered by uncomfortable thoughts and feelings from our past or present: a stressful job or a painful relationship break-up, for example. Whether we read a book, watch a film, play a video game or go to the theatre, these are all ways of escape into another world where for a time it feels like nothing else matters. In healthy circumstances, after some time out we then re-enter our ‘real world’ to pick up our responsibilities, and we feel refreshed and better able to manage. Gambling will not become a problem for women who can use the escape that it offers healthily and in balance in this way. Contemporary life is hard at times. We have to work harder to keep our balance, and not favour escape over whatever is our ‘real life’.

The desire many women have to escape elements of modern Western society can in part be measured by the popularity of the book, and the film of the book Eat, Pray, Love, based on the real life experiences of the author Elizabeth Gilbert. We watch the lead character, Liz, becoming painfully conscious that the life she has been an active participant in creating does not feel authentically hers. She feels she is merely a physical presence in her marriage and is tired of feeling soulless and joyless, no longer alive but merely existing. She is tired of feeling guilt at the things that might bring her small delights, such as the pleasure of eating, because she has swallowed whole the Western obsession with physical perfection. She somehow finds the courage within herself to literally escape from her life, leaving the security of her marriage and home, and a successful career, to embark on a journey of self-discovery, finding authentic friendships and falling in love with life; learning the meaning of true intimacy in a new romantic relationship (Gilbert, 2006).

We watched Liz and were touched by her story, because perhaps her pain and frustration resonated with our own. We felt maybe similar desires within us to tear up the material of unsatisfactory lives, which somehow we had created, but now felt stuck in. We admired her courage and understood her procrastination because we know deep within us the scariness of leaving what we know, however dysfunctional it may be, just because it is what we know, and with it we feel safe. If we make a change, we do not know what will happen, and not knowing can be frightening. So Liz, and her experience, is a metaphor for the experience of so many women. Metaphor feels safe because it is one removed from ourselves. We can watch and feel and think, but not actively participate and risk any negative consequences. Some of us of course were perhaps so inspired by the film and other such stories, either true or fictional, that we did make the break for freedom, or at least make adjustments in life so that we felt a little less trapped, a little more like ourselves.

In the film, Liz, clearly, is relatively lucky. She has an independent financial income, no dependent children, a good support network of friends, physical health and comparative youth on her side.

What happens to the women who feel they cannot make the break for freedom? Who watch Liz and hear a quiet voice inside them begin to say ‘That’s me, that’s how I feel’, but do not, or feel they cannot, vacate their own lives, perhaps because they do not have enough money, they have too many responsibilities and others depending on them, or they do not have the physical strength as a result of chronic illness. Some may feel they do not yet have the emotional resources, or have good reason to be afraid for their safety if they took the risk. Those women hear the voice inside them getting louder and louder telling them ‘This is not what I wanted for my life’, ‘This is all too much, I’m exhausted’ until they end up silently screaming in the life in which they now feel trapped. They find a way to silence the voice when listening to it creates feelings that are just too painful. Some silence the voice by having another couple of glasses of wine, smoking a few more cigarettes, eating some more chocolate bars, pushing a few more coins into a fruit machine or switching on the computer and focusing on playing a game for a while – maybe a while too long; maybe buying a few more scratchcards than they can afford in the hope that a big win might be life changing. In extreme cases, they find themselves craving more and more of the escape they find in whatever way they find it, and less and less of real life. And that, in the simplest of terms, is how a gambling problem, a dependency, an addiction starts.

Addiction treatment agencies see the results of women who have the desire to escape, but do not, or feel they cannot, literally vacate or make adjustments in the problematic areas of their life. Many drug and alcohol treatment agencies have recently issued reports indicating that more and more women are coming forward seeking treatment for drug and alcohol problems. So, should we then really be surprised at the fact that there is an increase in women who have gambling problems too?

In February 2011 the Gambling Commission released the results of its latest prevalence survey into problem gambling in the British population. The survey had been conducted in 2010 using random samples of British households. All members of the selected household aged 18 years or above were asked to complete the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) problem gambling screen (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) using a laptop computer. The sample totalled 7,756 individuals.

The main findings of the 2010 problem gambling survey were as follows:

• Six p...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Growing the problem
• 2 Why take the risk?
• 3 Sliding into trouble
• 4 Escaping to a trap
• 5 Rock bottom
• 6 Assessing reality
• 7 Creating a therapeutic experience
• 8 Ambivalence
• 9 Understanding why
• 10 Relapse prevention
• 11 One woman’s story
• 12 Reflections on practice
• Referral organisations
• References
• Index