Sean Fournier, a gambling addiction recovery counselor in Virginia, texts his 150 closest contacts almost every day.
“It is a miracle that we are recovering from gambling today and making a difference!” he said. “No bets, no spins, no scratches, no hits, no losses.”
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Fournier, 53, stopped gambling three years ago after decades of financial ruin and personal pain. Now he’s on the front lines of fighting addiction, a pernicious aspect of America’s booming gambling industry.
He has counseled more than 100 people with gambling habits in Virginia, where gambling is rapidly increasing. online sports bettingCasino resorts and gambling halls with machines similar to slots have all become federally legal in the past six years.
Virginia’s recent expansion of gambling legalization has been the fastest of any state and is part of a nationwide expansion. Explosion due to gambling and online sports betting. As we grow, so does the number of people seeking help. gambling addictionsome point out that this fight, unlike substance abuse, does not receive dedicated federal funding.
Virginia allocates 2.5% of its sports betting tax revenue to a problem gambling fund and 0.8% to casinos.
Virginia Sen. Bryce Reeves, who largely opposes gambling legalization efforts, said, “Gambling has been done too quickly without really thinking through how we want to establish and configure it.” and is helping lead bipartisan efforts to strengthen regulation.
Sports betting revenue in Virginia has doubled since sports betting began in January 2021, to about $560 million last year, according to consulting firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming.
A state coalition that includes the Virginia Council on Problem Gambling, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the state Department of Behavioral Health trained and placed five people in recovery from various addictions, including Fornia, as peer recovery support specialists.
These counselors will guide Gambling Hotline callers toward mental health treatment and recovery, and provide formal support for those who participate in the program for up to a year. More than 100 mental health clinicians have been trained to treat gambling problems through this program.
Calls to Virginia’s problem gambling helpline increased from 989 in 2019 to 10,608 in 2023. These numbers also include calls not related to gambling problems. During this period, the number of people undergoing counseling for gambling problems increased from 311 to 898.
“I should have been dead long ago.”
Fournier, who began his career as a network engineer in the 2000s, estimates he has burned through about $500,000 gambling. Now, he’s seeing a steady influx of people struggling to find their own way to quit.
His addiction mirrors Virginia’s addiction to gambling. When he turned 18, the Commonwealth of Nations had just launched its lottery, and he said his childhood thrill-seeking nature, including outdoor sports, drew him to the unlikely chance of winning big. .
He said the scratch-off lottery tickets quickly caught on and the floor was covered in silver dust from tickets. A few years later, a racetrack opened outside Richmond, and he began betting on horses. He became involved with illegal book sellers, dabbled in drugs and alcohol, and committed a series of nonviolent felonies, including theft and forgery.
He had been in recovery from substance abuse for about two years and worked at a recovery center, but in 2018 he started hurting the lottery again. During the pandemic, he found himself homeless, living in a tent in the woods and occasionally in a hotel room, begging to support his drug abuse and gambling habits.
He started spending money on historic horse racing machines, a form of gambling that was legalized in Virginia in 2018. The machine offers an experience of playing slots, but it is based on the results of past races.
He and his fiancée were living off donations from strangers. By 2021, Fornia no longer wanted to live. He returned to the recovery center where he had previously received support and stopped gambling on June 18, 2021.
“As a direct result of my gambling problem, I should have died or been locked up in prison a long time ago,” Fornia said.
Currently, Fournier has about 120 people on his formal caseload, and he keeps in touch with them in group meetings and one-on-one conversations over the phone and Zoom. As football season gets underway, he’s hearing from people who are struggling with online sports betting.
“I see hopelessness, hopelessness, economic devastation. I see marriages and children leaving.”
Fournier said spirituality helped guide her recovery, and she tries to help those she counsels by encouraging them to embrace activities from a young age and telling them that setbacks are learning opportunities. he said.
“The least, the last, the lost.”
The program is showing early signs of success. From July 2023, when peer counselors were hired on staff, to early September 2023, more than half of the 677 people referred to the program progressed into continuing treatment or peer recovery services.
Program leaders compared this to a 2022 study in Canada, which found that only 7.7% of problem gamblers ever received treatment.
“It’s important to help callers get treatment right away,” said Carolyn Hawley, president of the nonprofit Virginia Council on Problem Gambling and director of the program. I know it’s there,” he said. This is because “it may take a long time for the caller to contact us.”
After one year, 95% of the program’s participants said they had reduced or stopped gambling.
Rob Neese, 43, first started gambling while playing slot machines on a military base while serving in the Army in Japan, but later developed a life-changing addiction.
Nice connected with Fournier last year, has since quit gambling, and helped establish weekly in-person Gamblers Anonymous meetings in Richmond. “He knew what he had to say to me, but he also knew he had to take it in pieces,” Nice said.
Meanwhile, the state Legislature is seeking to create the Virginia Gaming Commission to regulate gambling in the commonwealth, a process expected to take two years. Gambling is currently regulated by three different organizations.
“We have to take care of the least, the last and the lost in this industry,” Reeves said.
Email Katherine Sayre at [email protected].
