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Gambling Facts and Fictions
344 Pages
Desciption
This Anti-Gambling Handbook is designed for teenagers and adults to stop gambling, quit gambling or never start gambling. The book is a complete guide to understanding the real world of gambling and its consequences. Can be of enormous help and benefit for all kinds of gamblers or potential gamblers. Provides knowledge and guidance to teach teenagers and adults how to end or never begin a gambling experience. Once the information is fully understood, the reader should never want to participate in gambling activities or be a customer of any gambling business. The book is written by an American author. There are sections which specifically address gambling in the United States. But the ideas are still helpful for people in all countries where gambling exists.
www.gamblingfactsandfictions.com
Losing Mariposa: The Memoir of a Compulsive Gambler
Doug Little
Paperback, 458 pages (2002)
Description:
Doug Little was a highly respected Ontario citizen and community leader who had the responsibility for organizing charity casinos and local festivals. He was also instrumental in obtaining a world-class casino in his community. Yet his own gambling addiction led him to theft and fraud and, ultimately, led to national front page headlines.
Losing Mariposa is a very unusual book both in its style and its content. Within the framework of a detailed description of his thoughts and actions on Oct. 22, 1996 from the hours of 3:00 a.m. until midnight), Doug Little manages to convey the horrors of his gambling addiction and its consequences. At the same time, he investigates some of the issues in his life that seem to have contributed to his becoming a gambler.
The book is exceptional in that he had such a high profile in the community, and yet after his “house of cards” came crashing down he chose to stay in the public eye by writing this book. Particularly striking were his descriptions of the frantic compulsion to get to play, and the frenzy of rushing from game to game or from venue to venue. His depictions of the lying, and cheating, and desperately juggling bank accounts to maintain deceptions will ring true for every gambler. Most poignant of all were the times when he began to realize that the only reason he wanted to go to the Casino was to hide --- to finally, for the last time, not have to face his life.
Doug Little has provided the gambler and the professionals who work in this field with excellent insight as how this addiction can take over and destroy a life. His ability to provide background information (both historical and personal), his vivid descriptions of his gambling sessions, and his relentless honesty combine to make this a must-read. I continue to recommend it highly to my colleagues and my clients.
Available from Viva Consulting for $20.00 (plus shipping & handling)
Similarities Across Addictive Behaviours, Including Implications for Treatment
Dr. Durand F. Jacobs, Ph.D.
video 70 minutes
Gambling, Addiction, Counselling, Recovery, Treatment, Psychology
Description:
This video, recorded before a live audience of health care professionals, presents a rare opportunity to see and hear Dr. Jacobs discuss his innovative theory on addictive behaviours and the significance of the "altered state of consciousness" that the gambling addict experiences when playing.
Dr. Jacobs is a pioneer in the research and treatment of addictive behaviours and the training of professionals in this field. He was instrumental in establishing the first in-patient treatment program for compulsive gamblers (1972).
He is a recipient of the Herman Goldman Foundation Award: "In recognition of your dedication, support, and continuing research efforts highlighting the consequences of compulsive gambling on families and youth" as well as an award from Harvard University, Division of Addictions, for "Lifelong contributions to the Study of Youth Gambling". Dr. Jacobs continues to be an active participant in research and conferences throughout the world.
Available for $129.95 plus shipping and handling (Cdn.funds)
(Proceeds from the sale of this video will help enable Viva Consulting to continue its mission of providing affordable public awareness and education concerning problem gambling.)
Diary of a Powerful Addiction
Alexandra King
Paperback, 237 pages (1999)
Description:
Alexandra King, a Canadian writer who divorced her first husband after fourteen years of marriage because of his gambling addiction, speaks out on her own subsequent and totally unexpected addiction to Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs), otherwise known as "slot machines" or "one-armed bandits". This startling first-hand diary and documentary depicts her agonizing experience with the gambling addiction that led to her financial and emotional ruin. She says, "It felt like a part of me was possessed by an alien force that had penetrated my mind stripping me of my logic, my values, my self-esteem, and my finances – everything that had previously been the very essence of my existence".
Diary of a Powerful Addiction is an intimately personal depiction of Alexandra King’s life, her recovery process, and her opinions regarding VLT gambling. Written as a self-help memoir, it offers insight both for the VLT-addicted gambler and for others affected by the addiction.
In poignant detail the author exposes the rawest, roughest truths about herself as she allows us to accompany her in her struggle through the VLT addiction and her recovery. This book graphically provides a much-needed public awareness of gambling addiction and the problems that gambling creates every day for individuals, for their families, and for future generations.
Other VLT gambling addicts read King’s Diary of a Powerful Addiction for the first time and frequently say in shock, "My God! Was she following me around? This is my story!
To understand the devastating effect this addiction can have on others, one only has to read the poem written by her daughter, Nadine King, entitled A Child’s Voice (pages 156-157).
Don’t miss this truly remarkable book !
$25.00 plus shipping and handling
Video Gambling Addiction: What is it? How does it happen? What can you do about it?
Yair Reznik Ph.D.
Paperback, 70 pages (1998)
Also Available in French:
Loteries Vidéo: Passion/Compulsion
by Yair Reznik and Serge Drolet.
Description:
"Good things come in small packages", it is said. This small book (less than 80 pages in total) confirms the truth of the saying. In concise form Dr. Reznik provides a comprehensive analysis of video gambling addiction, and a treatment plan based on his many years of successful clinical practice. It discusses the fiscal, economic, human, and social costs of high-loss gambling. It is intended for
problem and pathological gamblers, those indirectly affected by problem gambling, and
professionals in the field of gambling addiction.
Finally, a David to fight the Goliath of Video Lottery Terminal Addiction !
$10.00 plus shipping and handling
(proceeds to The Society of People Against Casinos and Video Lottery Terminals, Nova Scotia)
In the Shadow of Chance: The Pathological Gambler
Julian I. Taber, Ph.D.
Paperback, 410 pages (2001)
Description:
Dr. Taber, who has worked in the field of gambling addiction counselling and treatment since the late 1980’s, has written this book as a “fictionalized” personal experience: the characters and the situations he describes are composites of the people he has known and their actual experiences. His primary intended audience is those pathological and problem gamblers who with to abstain and to build meaningful lives free of gambling. It is also intended for the families and friends who are struggling to understand and support the gambler in recovery. However, it is of equal interest to mental health professionals, politicians and policy makers, personnel in the gambling industry, and the concerned general reader.
The book is actually divided into two parts. In Part I (pages 3-230) he deals with what he calls “The Gambler’s Delusion”. In those eleven chapters he leads the reader on a journey with many of the gamblers he has known and the devices, ruses, and manipulations by which they have deceived themselves in order to continue playing. In Part II (pages 233-410) he deals with the difficult tasks of “Recovery and Redemption”.
Dr. Taber has had an illustrious career in the field of gambling addiction, from the time he began as coordinator of Dr. Robert Custer’s Gambling Treatment Program (Brecksville, Ohio: 1978) to the time he retired after serving as Chief of the Addictions Disorders Treatment Program in Nevada. He was a recipient of the Herman Goldman Award in 1986.
The true measure of his nature is illustrated in the dedication of this book:
This work is dedicated to the men and women of Gamblers Anonymous and Gam-Anon. None have paid more for lessons learned, and none have been more generous in sharing their experience, strength, and hope. They continue to be a constant inspiration for the author.
Available from Viva Consulting for $ 25.00 plus shipping and handling.
