Wednesday, October 29, 1987
With Atlantic City just a few hours away by bus, and an OTB just a short walk away, Canarsie has its share of gamblers.
And of course there are all the other kinds of gambling you can find anywhere — poker games, sports betting, perhaps even some video machines with cash payoffs for trusted regulars.
Gamblers Anonymous allows that some gambling is relatively harmless, distinguishing between “compulsive gambling” and “social gambling.”
But for the compulsive gambler, the organization takes a hard line: no form of gambling is safe, no matter what the stakes.
The organization’s manual describes the compulsive gambler as someone “in the grip of a progressive illness,” unable to gain lasting mastery over his or her betting. sinking gradually into “pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization.”
Such persons are hooked on a dream of sudden wealth, yet “pathetically…there never seems to be a big enough winning to make even the smallest dream come true.”
Gambling dominates their lives. Often, it destroys them.
Not very surprisingly, the Canarsie Courier had no trouble finding several people of that description at a local Off-Track Betting station — the one on Rockaway Parkway near Farragut Road.
What was surprising, the gamblers showed no reluctance about admitting their helplessness and unhappiness, even though they did so in a joking manner.
Occasionally one of them would interrupt his confession of misery to place a bet or — with sudden eagerness — to hear the results of a horse race.
Two young men insisted they are not compulsive gamblers, although one confessed he is having trouble stopping. Two older gamblers stated frankly that they are hopelessly addicted.,
They all spoke about the pleasure of gambling, but only the one on a winning streak — he had won about $800 that day — seemed to be having much of a good time. It was a mostly morose, silent crowd, standing among torn betting forms and watching the overhead race-results monitors. Most were dressed in plain or shabby clothes.
“That’s How I Could Be”
A 16-year old white male was especially articulate about his gambling — and what it could lead to.
“I wish I could stop,” he said. When he looks at some of the longtime gamblers at the OTB, “it gets me sick. That’s how I could be when I get older.”
He got started on betting when his father used to take him to the racetrack. He began with $2 bets, but now sometimes bets as much as $200 on a single race. He goes to the tracks twice a week and hangs out at the OTB about three days a week. His weekly losses average about $200.
His girlfriend dislikes it and his father “kills me over it.” So far, he estimates gambling has cost him about $10,000. For awhile he stopped spending money — it all went into gambling. “That’s when it gets bad,” he warned.
But now he’s trying to taper off. “I’ve got to quit,” he said. “I’m going to quit pretty soon.” He has begun spending money on himself and his girlfriend again, and thinks that’s a good sign.
“I think gambling’s a disease,” he said. “The more you win, the more you want to bet on the next race. I quit smoking pot last year. It’s harder to quit gambling.”
Can’t Get Out
A 46-year-old male, stubble-faced and sipping coffee from a paper cup, came right to the point.
“I’m a compulsive gambler, there’s no question about it,”he said. “I wish I could stop. I can’t ever get even now.”
He’s been betting on horses for 25 years, and comes to the OTB every day.
“If I had the money I’ve lost in this place, I could buy three houses and 10 cars. And I’m not exaggerating. I’m putting it lightly.”
Why does he do it, then?
“I must be a masochist,” was all he could offer.
Not a Problem
One 23-year-old said he can stop gambling anytime he wants to, and that he just doesn’t want to.
He’s the one who had won about $800 that day, and he was plainly excited. He said he has definite rules for himself: he doesn’t let himself bet away all of his winnings. He would go home that day with at least $650 of his winnings.
He spends some of what he wins, puts the rest in a bank. He gambles two or three times a week.
“Anyone can stop gambling at any given time,” he said.,
“Get Out Now”
A retired man who said he’s been gambling for 40 years said he is a “born loser.” If he had all the money he’s gambled away, he would have “a Cadillac out there and my own home.”
He has tried to quit, and can’t. “Once in a while I stop,” he said. “But I always come back again.”
Does he enjoy gambling? “Yes and no. When you come here, at least people know your name.”
He gambles “To keep active and do something — and the hope that you’ll win something some day and get ahead. But it never happens.”
Does he wish he’d never started?
“A truer word was never spoken. There are things you wanted in your life and now you’ll never have them.”
His advice to young people just getting involved in gambling is, “Get out now. You can’t beat them.”
CAPTION
Often Winning, Always Losing — Bettors at the Rockaway Parkway/Farragut Road Off-Track Betting facility watch a monitor for the latest racing results.