Americans seem to admire the big-stakes gambler-hero in movies, the guy who risks and wins thousands on the turn of a card. In real life, compulsive gamblers who risk all, despite the odds, are pitied. They are losers, not heroes. Because they cannot stop, they often are broke, in debt, and “borrowing” or stealing money to gamble. Their families are desperate.

In 1991, Parade surveyed men and women chosen at random in the United States to learn how Americans view and use money. Two key questions we asked were these:

• Do you gamble with more money than you can afford to lose?

•   Do you bet on something whenever you can?

Of the 900 respondents, 2 percent replied “almost always” to both. We identified them as being in trouble over gambling. Projected nationally, this would indicate that the United States has 3.5 million adult compulsive gamblers. In addition, say other estimates, 1 million high school students and 650,000 college students are also compulsive gamblers.

Of our respondents, 20 percent said they gamble recklessly “often.” Projected nationally, this 20 percent represents the approximately 35 million adults who probably account for most of the 290 billion dollars spent on gambling in the United States last year. Gambling is legal in 48 states. In the more than 30 states with lotteries, 20.8 billion dollars is being spent a year on tickets.

Preventing pathological gambling is difficult in the face of seductive ads promising untold wealth. Lottery posters and TV ads in New York, for example, tempt and urge bettors, saying, “It only takes a dollar and a dream.”

Chances of winning are minuscule, even with casino odds, which take “only” 3 to 5 percent for the house. No system beats the house in the long run. Sure, someone hits the10 million dollars lottery or the 1 million dollars slot-machine jackpot. But for the overwhelming majority who never win, the big win is a carefully nurtured fantasy.

By my projections, gamblers – legal and illegal – are 200 billion dollars in debt. And gambling is growing. There are new casinos in Nevada, Maryland, Atlantic City, and on Indian reservations. As gambling becomes legal in more places, the number of problem gamblers rises proportionally. Americans in 1996 wager twice what they bet in 1982.

Dr. Sheila B. Blume of the South Oaks Hospital psychiatric treatment center in Amityville, New York, has studied compulsive gamblers. “Most are never recognized or treated,” Dr. Blume says. “The sad fact is that we have elderly women playing bingo 7 days a week with money they cannot afford to lose.”

Compulsive gamblers pile up huge debts, according to Valerie C. Lorenz, executive director of the private National Center for Pathological Gambling in Baltimore. She surveyed members of Gamblers Anonymous (GA), a program modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous. The study found that the average gambler owed 75,000 dollars.

Ms. Lorenz also found that, in Maryland, gamblers’ losses for 1990 totaled 4 billion dollars. National gambling costs – for losses, wagering dollars “borrowed” or stolen, treatment and missed work – neared 80 billion dollars a year.

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GENERAL HEALTH