Book Review: Gripped by Gambling

By Jodie Nealley, Program Specialist, The Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling

 

 

 

 

 

 

In an effort for Council staff members to continue educating ourselves on problem gambling, each member chose a book on the topic to read and review. This week’s review comes from Council Program Specialist, Jodie Nealley.

Jodie chose the book: Gripped by Gambling.

 

 

Gripped by Gambling is the autobiography of Marilyn Lancelot, a woman who has everything, then loses it. She gets caught up in a “late in life” gambling addiction, and at 65 years old is sentenced to two years in prison for embezzlement. This is her story. This is my story. This is the story of many compulsive gamblers, and it is all the more moving and effective because of it.

 

Gripped by Gambling moves through the author’s imprisonment and her stories about incarceration, to the life that led up to the gambling that consumed her to the point from which she stole from her employer. At the end of the book there is an appendix with definitions, Gamblers Anonymous (GA) information, and short articles from both counselors and gamblers.

 

The story is relevant to our work at the Mass. Council. It tells in detail the horrors of prison – separation from your loved ones being the worst horror of them all. She tells about her lying, stealing and putting her loved ones to the side to engage in a compulsive behavior that destroys her world.

 

For those who are not compulsive gamblers it illustrates the irrationality of the disease. How can she have done that? Didn’t she see she would eventually get caught? We know intellectually that compulsive gambling is a disease in which cognitive distortion erases the concept of rationality but this book tells it to us in a narrative so honest –and even more effective because it is true – that hopefully that irrationality can be understood a little better.

 

Because our mission is to help problem gamblers and their loved ones, and because all problem gamblers lie, cheat and steal, this book is a must read. While not all problem gamblers are incarcerated, many recovering compulsive gamblers will say it’s only because they did not get caught.

 

This book is especially unique because it is told from an older women’s point of view. I highly recommend this book to all working in this field.

 

More about the author:

 

You can read more about Marilyn Lancelot at her website: grippedbygambling.com.

 

After her experiences, Lancelot started a women’s GA group in her home state of Arizona. Her group also started a newsletter, which can be found online, Women Helping Women. This newsletter included the articles from the book, and the website offers interactive commenting on newsletter articles.

 

Citation:

 

Lancelot, Marilyn. (2007) Gripped by Gambling. Wheatmark.