The Green Bay-based Wisconsin Council on Problem Gambling received 12,674 calls for help last year, officials said. Individuals who phoned the hotline are $34,078 in debt on average. Executive Director Rose Blozinski said callers max-out credit cards, drain savings and checking accounts, seek payday loans, borrow from relatives and friends, steal from employers, write bad checks and occasionally rob banks.
Blozinski added the large financial losses lead to other serious problems, such as considering or attempting suicide, bankruptcy and falling significantly behind on house and utility payments. Blozinski gamblers reach the limit on multiple credit cards and don’t have the funds to make regular payments.
“It starts out gradually, just like any addiction. As it progresses, they need more and more money to get that addiction high. Things will get bad for them. It kind of escalates and balloons at one time. They don’t really know how much debt they’re in at first. They don’t make the connection with credit cards. The amount is often higher in six months,” Blozinski said.
The Wisconsin Council on Problem Gambling focuses on adults but also has developed an outreach program for high school students. The program targets individuals with an interest in gambling at a young age. Outreach Coordinator Sara Hungerford said 550 students had been through the program as of March 1 and last year 12,330 were exposed to it. She said teenagers make “personal bets” and also wager on video games plus poker. Hungerford said one of her main concerns about teen betting “is that it continues into adulthood and becomes a bigger problem.”
