THE COUNCIL WELCOMES SCOTT MELISSA

by Scott Melissa, Human Resources and Workforce Development Manager

Hello all. This is Scott Melissa, I have recently started working at the Council in their Human Resources department. I am also the Workforce Development Manager.

PUMPED to be here, and pleased to have this opportunity to contribute to my first blog!!!

I possess extensive relationship building and business development experience; with six years of experience working directly in nonprofit. I am excited to bring my unique blend of skills to this position. My background in business development will be instrumental in creating our partnerships and programs. I look forward to applying my knowledge in employee relations, recruitment, communication, and management in various Human Resources roles.

I have been a supporter of the Mass Council for over 5 years, and have helped out whenever possible through a variety programs. I personally believe problem gambling is overlooked in Massachusetts and the repercussions can be irreversible. Though I come from a biology background, my calling in life is to motivate people. The Mass Council has provided me with an opportunity to incorporate my passion with my beliefs, and give back to society.

Some Thoughts on Internet Gambling

by Sasha C. Russell, M.A., Program Specialist, Communications, The Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling

 

 

 

It’s 2013, and our lives continue to be inundated with technological advances nearly every day. The world is connected through computers and the ever growing World Wide Web. We can “1-click” shop not only through our computers at home, but the phones in our hand. We can talk to people we haven’t seen in 20 years, who were once only a distant memory, on Facebook, and even download and listen to music in an instant – the world is at our finger tips. People are becoming intertwined easier and, I have to say, in some cases, it’s a little scary.

For some, all this technology is hard to adjust to. As a 29 year old, I like to think I am pretty adept when it comes to technology, however, there are many times I ended up calling my 15 year old brother to help me fix whatever computer problem I am having. My younger siblings are miles ahead of me when it comes to using technology. This is part of what scares me when I think about the legalization of online gambling – how easy it will be for the younger generations. Dr. Mark Griffiths, a renowned psychologist who specializes in addiction and obsessive behavior, did a study (presented here) in the United Kingdom and found the majority of online gamblers are age 34 and younger – that was 55% of the study participants. This makes perfects sense, considering it seems that the older one is, the less technologically savvy they are (e.g. the example above about myself and my younger brother). Only 1 in 5 people over the age of 45 participated in online gambling.

So, what does this mean for Massachusetts? After strongly opposing the Reid-Kyl bill to make online poker legalized, Mass State Treasurer Steve Grossman is all for expanding the Mass Lottery into cyber space. This would allow people to buy Powerball and MegaMillions (just two examples) tickets on their computer or even on their smart phones with a credit card. During an interview on January 9^th on Boston’s NPR station, WBUR, (listen here) Grossman said he wants to open this avenue up to get more young, technologically advanced people interested in the lottery. One caller into the show was appalled by this. She questioned why Grossman would want to get younger people more interested in gambling, knowing the dangers it can pose. The caller angrily accused Grossman of just being a money maker, implying he had no concern about the younger population in this State. Grossman argued that the lottery needs to keep up with the times and grow as society is growing in regards to technology. He vowed to not let the 7,400 lottery retailers lose their revenue.

Both Grossman and the caller make valid points. According to Treasurer Grossman’s Online Products Task Force Final Report (read it here), on average people spend $720 per capita a year on the lottery. With private gambling companies trying to pass laws for legalized online gambling, Grossman is trying to nip that in the bud before some other gaming industry makes money off of Massachusetts residents. Kimberly Young, the director and founder of the Center for Internet Addiction and editor of “Internet Addiction: A Handbook and Guide to Evaluation and Treatment” said she understands the want to move forward technologically speaking – the concern then comes for people who may become addicted to gambling online, as many people are addicted to the internet in general. Like most people experiencing problems with gambling, online addiction is about escapism and anonymity. Both lead people to feel disconnected with the word around them, and in regards to online gambling this may cause people to feel disconnected to the money they are spending. While there is some level of that when using chips at a casino table or credit at a slot machine, it can be worse for online gambling because there will be no physical exchange of anything – next thing you know the bill shows up and you’re clueless to how much you have spent.

Recently, I upgraded my phone to an iPhone 5 and there is a wonderful app called “Passbook.” This app has helped me spend lots of money on Starbucks, without even realizing how much I spent! I was able to download my Starbucks card on to the app with the option to load manually or have automatic re-loading of money on the card. I am thankful I chose manual. For the first couple of weeks that I had the phone, I would go to Starbucks, order my drink, they would scan my phone and I’d wait for my drink and go on about my day. For some strange reason, I felt I could suddenly afford Starbucks every day. I was thrilled. It wasn’t until my 3^rd $20 reload in two weeks that I took a step back and realized I can’t afford that much Starbucks every week and my bank account was depleting! That’s when I truly understood the danger that online gambling could pose for people. I had no connection whatsoever to the money I was spending with my Starbucks phone app. Young argues that this feeling could cause accelerated rates of people experiencing problems with gambling if gambling should be legalized online.

One reader left a comment on WBUR’s site saying part of the problem with paying by credit card is that it is hard to identify who is actually behind the card – making it harder to enforce age restrictions. Another concern with credit cards is what limitations will there be. As mentioned before the average person spends about $720 a year on lottery numbers – will access on smart phones increase that? In Iowa the online spending cut-off is $100 a day… So, the maximum a person can spend is about $52,000 a year – on one credit card? What if they have multiple cards?

In recent times studies have been done based on video game and general online addictions. Both addictions hold similar traits to that of a gambling addiction as it is, will online gambling intensify the problem for people that may now be crossing over through the different addictions?

What the actual outcome will be for now is unknown. Only time will tell how this may change the nature of gambling, addiction and the lottery. However, it is important to raise awareness. The Mass Council will be holding a public forum on February 7^th for anyone interested in discussing internet gambling and expressing thoughts and concerns. If you are interested in the forum, please contact us at 617.426.4554.

New Year, New You

by Sasha C. Russell, M.A., Program Specialist, Communications, The Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling

For most people, ringing in the New Year is a time of reflection and resolutions on how to make the upcoming year better than the year before. For many people in recovery, not only is this a time of reflection, but a time of strength. Another year, another day… it all adds up and each day you grow stronger. It is definitely not an easy process, so here are some ideas to keep you busy during the year and help the time go by.

Pick a new hobby or activity. I know that this is sometimes a scary commitment because some hobbies and activities can be quite pricey, but there are plenty of them that have no cost. One activity I have decided to do more is meditate. There are plenty of free apps for smart phones to help you, as well as websites and YouTube videos. I found this Guide to Meditation for the Rest of Us to be very helpful for the everyday person, like myself. Just taking 5 minute for yourself to sit back, close your eyes and empty your head can make all the difference.

Though it’s cold outside, it’s also good to make an attempt to go outside for at leave 10 minutes a day. This will be enough time to get a decent amount of Vitamin D in your system and naturally improve your mood. Pinterest is another great way to look for crafts that you can do using common items around the house.

Join or start a club or group. Going along with the common 12-step program theme of fellowship, making connections is a great way to build your strength and help pass time. Maybe you like to play kickball or really enjoy sci-fi books, why not join a team or start a book club? MeetUp is a great site to find others in your area who have similar interests and take part in activities you might enjoy.

Volunteer. Volunteering is good for the mind, body and soul. Many organizations look for volunteers year round. You can help people, animals or even offer to do some gardening or you can find places to volunteer whatever other skills you might have. I’ve often volunteered at local food pantries, when I was younger I baked muffins and cookies for hospital patients. There are plenty of ways to give back to the community and feel good about yourself, and create a stronger bond with your community as well.

As always, you should make sure that you are your number one priority. While committing to various activities and volunteer jobs, it’s important to have some “Me time.” Mediation is a good way, but also taking time out of your busy day to read a couple pages of a book or go for a walk – even if it’s around the block.

Setting weekly or monthly goals for you will help you take the next steps in your recovery process. If you give yourself something to aim for each week or month, you will feel accomplished when you finish. Goals could be as simple as, “I am going to email an old friend who I haven’t talked to in years.” Last year one of the Council members set himself a goal to write a handwritten notecard and snail mail it to someone every day of the year. Did he manage 365 days? No… but that’s ok, life happens. He did, however, send about 275 cards out – quite an accomplishment!

Keeping your goals and commitments realistic will help you keep motivated and moving forward.

Have a Happy and Healthy 2013!

THE COUNCIL WELCOMES PHIL KOPEL

by Phil S. Kopel, Research and Data Director

 

 

 

Hi, I am Phil Kopel, the new Research and Data Director for the Council.  While I am new to the Council, I have been involved in the gambling industry for over 27 years.  I started in the industry as Manager of Marketing Research for lottery supplier, GTECH Corporation. After that, I was the President of Kopel Research Group, Inc., a marketing research firm that conducted lottery game research and player behavior studies for many governmental lotteries and their suppliers and advertising agencies.  Finally, for the past three years I was the Director of Marketing Research for the CT Lottery Corporation.

I prefaced my comments with my background, to illustrate that my knowledge of the gambling industry comes from that of the industry itself, not as a clinical researcher working with problem gamblers.  My research objective has always been to provide my clients and employers with honest information to help them optimize lottery games so that they provide their players with products that they would most want to try, and continue to play.  Clearly the lotteries have been very successful at selling their products.  Last year, annual lottery sales in the United States totaled about $60 billion, and sales were over $4.7 billion in Massachusetts, a state with just 6.6 million people.

As I take on this new role, I have a lot to learn about compulsive gambling, and am looking forward to learning from the best.  Some may think I am changing sides, becoming anti-gambling.  However, the reality is that the Council is neutral about gambling.  Its goal is limited toward the prevention of compulsive gambling and to help current problem gamblers find effective resources to aid in their recovery. Toward those goals, the Mass Lottery and Council are actually partners, since eliminating compulsive gambling is in everyone’s interest.

As a researcher, I am very excited to apply my lottery industry and market research expertise to compulsive gambling issues. 

For many lottery players, buying lottery tickets with “disposable money” (money used for discretionary use after all of the bills are paid) can be fun, like going on a ride at an amusement park.  However, for those who have addictive behavior and gamble compulsively the result can be heartbreaking and devastating.  Money that should be used to pay for needed products and services such as: food, housing, clothing and health care is instead spent on scratch tickets comprised of shiny paper with predetermined outcomes and cash register receipts for games with drawings. 

Games are designed so that most players will occasionally win “your money back” type prizes, creating an incentive for the player to keep playing.  While a few well publicized players do win big, typically the more players play, the more they lose.  That is the only way the system can work.  Here’s why:

For every dollar a player spends to buy a lottery ticket, about 70 cents is returned into the prize pool, 25 cents goes to the state treasury (after all, that is the reason for the lottery) and about 5 cents is used to cover administrative costs. 

Much of the money that goes back to prizes fuels top “promotable” prizes, while the majority of tickets are losing tickets, “win your money back” tickets and some minimal “small tell your friends you won” type prizes. 

For those who find fun in these games, the lottery has succeeded in meeting its objective. The lottery wants you to have fun and play for entertainment value... while it takes your money. They also couch their message by saying, “play responsibly;” meaning do not spend more than you can afford to lose, because that is the likely outcome. However, for those who cannot play just for fun and are experiencing gambling issues, the Mass Council on Compulsive Gambling understands the problem and they can help.

Prevention Comes First

by Sasha C. Russell, M.A., Program Specialist, Communications, The Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling

  

  

On Monday December 10^th, several Council members traveled to Shrewsbury, Massachusetts to attend Council Consultant Jim Wuelfing’s training, “Prevention of Problem Gambling: What Every Preventionist Needs to Know.” Nearly 30 people from all over the state and varying organizations and fields were there to either get an introduction to prevention and problem gambling or expand the knowledge they already have on the topic.  The training took place from 9am – 4pm and there was a lot of opportunity, not only for learning, but networking as well. The morning’s introductions helped everyone in the room know at what level of understanding each person was.

Prevention is something that is unfortunately not always addressed in our society. We tend to be a society that takes action AFTER an event, rather than taking measures to prevent certain actions from happening in the first place. An important lesson to learn from this that Jim said during the training is that “no progress has ever been made against any epidemic by treating only the casualties. We’d simply replace them with more.” Program Specialist Jodie explains Jim’s point, “If we do not enhance, increase, [and] enable our prevention efforts, the progress [made to help] decrease problem gambling will never go forward. [It] will never progress to the point where the negative consequences of the gambler, their families and communities can lessen. This one of the key missions of the Council… like Mother Teresa did: help heal those in pain.”

For all situations in society, especially physical or mental illness, prevention is a key point in progressing forward and creating overall understanding of the issue. In regards to problem gambling, prevention and research, the Council’s Research and Data Director Phil, believes strongly in efforts toward more research on prevention. According to Phil. Prevention is important because it “is the active process of creating an environment which lowers the probability that those starting out as social gamblers will eventually become problem and compulsive gamblers… I learned that real prevention requires raising protective factors and lowering risk factors.”

The information covered was insightful. Especially with the holidays coming up, many children receive scratch tickets as a “fun” and “special gift for the holidays (read more about it here). With the average age of onset being between 9 and 11 years old, it’s important that prevention start at the home. Protective factors, as Phil mentioned, are factors that decrease the chances of someone (or a community) developing health and behavioral problems. Having multiple protective factors can override risk factors, which are factors that increase the chances of someone (or a community) developing health and behavioral problems. Jim and a study done on youth gambling, “Youth Gambling Problems: The Identification of Risk and Protective Factors,” have laid the following out as protective factors:

·         A relationship with a caring adult role model

·         Having an opportunity to contribute and be seen as a resource

·         Effectiveness in work, play and relationships

·         Healthy expectations and a positive outlook

·         Self-esteem and an internal locus of control

·         Self-discipline

·         Problem solving and critical thinking skills

·         A sense of humor

·         Family cohesion/connectedness

·         School/community connectedness

·         Designing school-based prevention programs that seek to develop student’s attachment, trust, and identification with larger groups (e.g. school clubs and sports teams, Scouts or Guides)

Something I always teach my sociology students about society is that people tend to be less destructive towards themselves and others if they are able to feel a connection to their family, friends, and community around them. Prevention is not only important for problem gambling, but for all possible health and behavioral problems. We should keep this in mind and close with us especially during the holiday season, when many people might have heightened feelings of detachment. Be kind to your neighbor, even sometimes a simple smile and nod “Hello” can change someone’s outlook for the day.

All in all, Jim’s training was very balanced training, Program Specialist Amanda felt, filled with information for peoples of all levels. Not only were we able to cover prevention basics, but we were able to focus on special populations such as children, college students and older adults. Though prevention can start when one is young, it is something that needs to be practiced during all stages of life.

THE COUNCIL WELCOMES JODIE NEALLEY

by Jodie Nealley, M.S., Program Specialist. Jodie is shown here outside the house made famous by the TV show Charmed. It was important for Jodie to visit this house because she believes in "the magic of compassion, the magic of change, the magic of recovery, the magic of the moment, [and] the miracles that happen."

Greetings! I am Jodie. I have officially joined the Council as an employee after doing some volunteer work for the organization.

Fulfilling is the word that I choose as I begin my work here. Foremost of which, is to improve and expand the Council’s 24/7 Helpline in order to better serve the needs of problem gamblers, their families and the health care practitioners and providers who support them. The Helpline is one of the backbones of the Council. It gives substance to its slogan – “We understand the problem. We can help.” Through the Helpline people experiencing problems with gambling and their family members can talk to a person about issues surrounding their own or their loved one’s gambling.

One of the hardest issues those with a gambling disorders deal with is feeling that they are alone in their problems. They are not. You are not. I am not. At the Council, we have many resources that we can send out to people and resources we can direct people to that can help them to know that they are not alone in the problem. The visual image that I have is the problem gamblers standing there and a crowd of people behind him like in the popular cell phone provider ad. “Are you there?” the problem gambler asks; and the Council – the crowd- says “Yes – we hear you loud and clear and are here to help.”

As a graduate of St Lawrence University and Indiana University, I have experience in both the academic world and the school of hard knocks (most self-inflicted).  I spent over 30 years working in Higher Education and am currently working toward my license in Addiction Counseling.

By nature I am an optimist who believes that we, to some extent, create our reality by thinking clearly and positively about what it is we want out of life. One of my favorite illustrations of this idea is the scene in Star Wars V when Luke is training with Yoda in the swamp. He cannot believe in the power of the force and when asked to lift a star fighter out of the swamp, he tries and fails. As we see mighty Yoda do it, Luke says ‘I don’t believe it’. Yoda turns and says, ‘that is why you failed.’ Luke did not see in his heart that he had the power to do what Yoda asked. He could not visualize success.

I have been lucky and I have helped make my own luck. A lot has to do with positive thinking and faith. Faith that things will work out. Faith that believing is better than not believing, that moving forward – however slowly- is better than standing still, that the glass is half full.  It takes no more energy to think an optimistic thought rather than a pessimistic thought. It takes faith I suppose that thinking positively pays off but really why choose the alternative.

Abraham Lincoln said, “People are about as happy as they make themselves out to be.” I know in reality this line of thinking is simplistic and does not – cannot work for everyone – but it works for me and I believe very strongly in its power for good.

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THE COUNCIL WELCOMES RACHEL FLAHERTY

by Rachel Flaherty, Program Specialist

Hello all – My name is Rachel Flaherty, and I am just thrilled to be an employee of the Mass Council.  I come from the west coast, with my young childhood years being in Southern California and my teen & early adulthood years in Washington State, then relocating to Massachusetts in 2004.

I received a BA in Human Services from Western Washington University, in Washington State.  In most recent years, I have worked for the council on special events as a Contingent Employee, been a member on the Council’s “Recovery Advisory Board”, completed the “Recovery Coach Academy” training, as well as, attended and participated in various addiction and/or recovery based meetings and events.  I am excited to bring to the Council, a level of empathy and understanding, coupled with motivation and drive to make a difference in the lives of those affected by the illness of compulsive gambling. 

I look forward to gaining additional knowledge, which I have already begun to receive, efforts in increasing public awareness by representing this wonderful organization at community meetings, conferences, etc., having a role in the development and/or implementation of tasks that will increase Massachusetts capacity to provide efficient and effective services to individuals, families, employers, communities, etc.