Statement
I have been an avid gambler since I was fourteen years old..
Maybe the fact that I was born in Las Vegas is why I have gambling in my blood.
As a big fan of Las Vegas style games, I would go to the racetrack and bet on
the horses and to Las Vegas to gamble before I was eighteen years old. When I
was eighteen years old, which is the legal age to gamble in California, I would
visit the Indian reservations here in San Diego and play blackjack. The only
drawback was that it cost $.50 per hand to play, which is how the Indian tribes
made their money. I would go out there about once a week-sometimes once every
two weeks-and play. I would win money there about one out of every three times….which
kept me coming back for more action.
I was surfing the web one day back in '96 when I came across
an enticing banner ad for Intercasino.com that promised lots of winners and big
cash payoffs in its Las Vegas style casino. Intrigued, I clicked the banner
which brought me to their website. Fueled by my passion for Las Vegas games,
this is when my whole Internet gambling addiction began. I'll have to admit
that gambling for real money from the luxury and comfort of my own home was
quite an exhilarating rush. The first time I gambled online I won $400. I
thought to myself, "I just made $400 in two hours and didn't even have to
leave the house to do it! How cool!" In the months to follow, I would only
allocate $100 a month for gambling after making my payment to my one-and-only
credit card company at the time. For the next 12 months I only won money about
30% of the time and quit playing for many months to follow.
In the early months of 1999 my father, aware of my inability
to obtain a credit card due to a public tax lien, gave me his credit card to use
which had a $5000 credit line on it. He only authorized me to use the card for
emergencies only. Now I'm thinking to myself, "Here's a grand
opportunity for me to make some big bucks for myself!" Being the passionate
gambler that I am, was soon beckoned by my computer to gamble with the credit
card. It's as if the computer was calling me to go to it and play blackjack…..It
all went downhill from this point on. I have control of my gambling behavior,
but the presence of gambling on the Internet made it uncontrollable. It was just
too easy to do, and I couldn't stop. It got so bad that when I had my friends
over, I would sometimes hope that they would leave soon so I could indulge
myself in this masochistic behavior in privacy once again.
I would deposit $200 on my credit card, play it and lose it.
$100, play it and lose it. Even when I was up about $500 my bets would increase
in size to try to win back what I was down. The very last thing I wanted to
happen was to have my dad find out what I was doing with his credit card, so I
changed the billing address to my house in San Diego instead of his. You see,
the way these casinos work is they credit your credit card your winnings to
balance out the debits. The only time they would mail someone a check would be
if they deposited $100 and won money beyond their initial deposit, for they
credit the card just the amount of the initial deposit and send a check for the
rest. The more money I lost the more chips I would buy on the credit card to try
to win it back. I was chasing my losses….big time! Well, one thing led to
another and within a period of just three weeks I had maxed out my father's
$5000 credit card. I was so distraught and scared that he would flip his lid
when he found out that I thought about suicide as an escape route. I was
severely depressed, nervous, and suicidal.
When the "shit hit the fan" and my dad found out, I
just had to write him a letter explaining everything that happened to try to
save myself from his wrath. I'm lucky to have such a great father with a big
heart who understands that gambling is a serious disease and addiction. He was
mad, but very understanding and forgiving. He was also able to get the money
back that I lost since it was his card and not mine. Lucky for me.
For people out there like myself who have a gambling problem,
Internet gambling is dangerous. It's too easy to gamble online from the
comfort of your own home since all you need is a credit card, a computer, and
Internet access. Like I said, the convenience of online gambling brought out an
uncontrollable animal in me. I didn't know when to stop. I am not obsessive
compulsive by any means, but the Internet combined with my passion for gambling
made my behavior uncontrollable. I'm sure there are thousands of people in the
world who are gambling online with money they can't afford to lose and cannot
stop. Many people have or are losing tens of thousands of dollars online and are
either severely depressed or suicidal as a result. I am here today to tell my
story in hope that Congress will pass a bill making it illegal to gamble on the
Internet. Not too long ago, President Bill Clinton was trying to pass a law
making it illegal to gamble money over telephone lines. This bill was vetoed
with the introduction of DSL and other high speed Internet access companies
during this "dot.com" explosion. This could save the lives of
thousands of gamblers worldwide- even teenagers. This is a serious problem in
America today and is being completely ignored. Behind the glitter and glamour of
these Internet casinos lies pain, depression, regret, even suicidal thoughts.
Gambling is a serious disease that, combined with the Internet's easy
accessability, can bring financial ruin to the homes of thousands of people
worldwide -- even tragedy.