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Las Vegas Seniors Vulnerable to Gambling Addiction

It's another dog day of summer in Las Vegas. The July heat pours down onto the city, making anything beyond taking a few steps outside pure sweat-drawing torture.

For 83-year-old Josephine DeLuca, the weather is almost too much to bear, even after 22 summers in this desert city. On this particular day, as the temperature pushes 110, DeLuca waits in the air conditioned refuge of Arizona Charlie's, a locals casino, waiting for the 3 p.m. bingo game to start.

Three to four times a week, several hours a day, DeLuca said she can be found here. For her, it offers a way to get out of the house, to be among people, to avoid the heat.

"I came out because of the weather, because I'm dying out there," DeLuca said. "I like to be out. Here, you can be amongst people and not have to entertain them. You can leave when you want.

"If I have company, I have to sit there and play cards until they leave."

DeLuca is hardly alone among Las Vegas seniors and retirees, a new study has found. The survey, conducted by a local problem gambling center and University of Nevada-Las Vegas Professor Fred Preston, found that nearly 60 percent of Clark County residents older than 55 gamble, while 30 percent do so at least once a week.

The study also indicated gambling is quite important to many seniors -- nearly one in four of the seniors surveyed said one reason they moved to Las Vegas was the opportunity to gamble, while 25 percent called gambling a "significant part of their recreational activity."

Problem signs

Troubling to researchers was that a portion of these seniors showed symptoms and indications of problem or pathological gambling.

About 2 percent of all seniors surveyed by phone showed signs of current problem gambling, while another 1.8 percent had indications of pathological gambling. Just under 3 percent of seniors had problems with gambling at some point in their lives, while another 2.4 percent had signs of pathological gambling in the past.

By contrast, a national survey by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission found that 0.4 percent of Americans qualified as current problem gamblers, and 0.1 percent qualified as current pathological gamblers. Over their lifetimes, the NGISC found, 1.3 percent were problem gamblers, and an additional 0.8 percent pathological.

The UNLV researchers also found that 20 percent of those seniors who gambled said they knew at least one person with a gambling problem.

The difference between problem and pathological gambling is determined by a problem gambler's score on addiction tests used by therapists and researchers. A "problem gambler" will score in the range considered on the threshold of addiction, with three to four symptoms of gambling addiction. Pathological gamblers are considered to have an obvious addiction, with five or more symptoms.

The survey was conducted in June by UNLV's Howard Cannon Center for Survey Research through phone interviews with 449 local residents age 55 or older. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percent.

The numbers may be similar to the proportion of problem gamblers among other segments of the population, one of the study's authors said, but he insisted that isn't a reason for complacency.

"This indicates these folks (seniors with gambling problems) are very much out there, and in very large numbers," said Bo Bernhard, director of operations at Problem Gambling Consultants, a nonprofit problem gambling treatment center in Las Vegas that conducted the survey with UNLV. "(Less than 4 percent) may not seem that significant, but when you project that onto the populous (of Clark County), you're talking about more than 10,000 people.

"It shows that while there's not evidence they're extremely prone (to problem gambling), they're not immune to it either."

Though many seniors gamble quite frequently, Bernhard cautioned against equating frequency with problem gambling.

"You can't equate frequency with pathology," Bernhard said. "There are some people that play every day and are fine, and we have some in treatment that gamble every other month, but the damage they do is profound."

Gaming affinity

Experts, senior gamblers and casino workers say the reasons behind seniors' affinity for casinos, whether they have problems or not, are associated with the issues of retirement -- a lack of alternative activities, and a need for human contact.

"Most of these people play the same session every day," said Mary Sandlin, lead bingo supervisor at Arizona Charlie's. "A lot of these people don't have anybody else, so it's kind of like their extended family. This is what their life is."

Ron Lurie, general manager of Arizona Charlie's, said the property's draw to seniors goes beyond just its gaming activities.

"The people we talk to don't say, 'Let's go gamble,"' Lurie said. "They say, let's go to Arizona Charlie's, because they have a special (on dinner). When they're finished, they say, 'We have a couple of hours left here, let's go play the machines.'

"I don't know too many people that go out just to gamble. They look for another excuse to go into a casino, to enjoy themselves and have some value for their dollar. Then they'll gamble with the disposable income they have left."

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