Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and welcome back to Coast to Coast George Nori
Speaker 1: with you. After twenty five years of gambling, Howard reback
Speaker 1: overcame his own addiction and his living proof that an
Speaker 1: addiction can be cured quickly and permanently. Howard has built
Speaker 1: a new career as a counselor, television and radio personality,
Speaker 1: court appointed therapist for those in real financial trouble trying
Speaker 1: to avoid jail, for example, from fraudulent acts. Howard's experience
Speaker 1: led him to create a unique approach to creating compulsive
Speaker 1: gambling based on practical methods and proven results. His website,
Speaker 1: the rebakgroup dot com, is linked up at Coast to
Speaker 1: Coast am dot com. Howard, welcome back. How are you doing, George.
Speaker 1: I'm doing great. Thank you ever so much having me back.
Speaker 1: It really adnice to be here. Thank you. Looking forward
Speaker 1: to this. So you're in the States, You're Canada right
Speaker 1: about now? No, right now, I am in the Montreal,
Speaker 1: Canada home base. And it is a beautiful fifty two
Speaker 1: three degrees clear, but it's ten after three in the morning.
Speaker 1: That's the only difference. Wow, but you know how many
Speaker 1: millions of people are uppowered at this hour? Absolutely now,
Speaker 1: everything is going good. I want to first obviously thank
Speaker 1: you George for having me back. Let me wish you
Speaker 1: the whole Coast team. All of your listeners are very
Speaker 1: happy Ramadan, a very happy Easter, and of course a
Speaker 1: very happy Passover. And it's just nice to be here
Speaker 1: and to be able to be the voice for so many,
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of people that aren't as lucky as
Speaker 1: I that I get to talk about it and try
Speaker 1: and help others. Let's talk about this addiction for a moment,
Speaker 1: exactly what is the addiction and then tell us about
Speaker 1: the gambling addiction part of it. I'm not so sure
Speaker 1: that I'm smart enough to be able to delineate between
Speaker 1: what the difference may be. But in my case, when
Speaker 1: I found out what an actual casino was and what
Speaker 1: the world of gaming was all about, just like your
Speaker 1: intro song right after the news with Frank Sinatra, I
Speaker 1: fell in love with it and never in a million
Speaker 1: years that I ever think that it could turn into
Speaker 1: something that would literally change my life to the negative.
Speaker 1: Of course, for the first twenty three twenty four twenty
Speaker 1: five years, and it just somehow seeps into your blood.
Speaker 1: It becomes part of your DNA, and you literally literally
Speaker 1: you eat, sleep, drink and think about the world of
Speaker 1: gambling twenty five hours a day, not even twenty four.
Speaker 1: And it messed my life. It ruined my life. But
Speaker 1: as you said before, very lucky to be able to
Speaker 1: come out of the proverbial tunnel on the other end
Speaker 1: at the right old age in my early sixties and
Speaker 1: have turned things around. And and I really am the
Speaker 1: voice for those who just can't seem to get out
Speaker 1: of the grips of gambling, George. And there's a big frience, Howard,
Speaker 1: between those people want to go to Vegas or go
Speaker 1: to their local casino, have a little fun and come
Speaker 1: home and stuff like that. I want people to understand
Speaker 1: that not everybody's an addicted gambler, right, Oh, of course,
Speaker 1: of course, I was never big on numbers and stats,
Speaker 1: because everybody, you know, issue their own numbers. But the
Speaker 1: number I like to use that I'm comfortable with is
Speaker 1: that probably somewhere everythink four and six percent of those
Speaker 1: that gamble are pathological gamblers, which obviously means that ninety
Speaker 1: five aren't which is to your point exactly. Now tell
Speaker 1: us how do you hit the bottom and how you
Speaker 1: pulled yourself back up? Oh God, As I said last time,
Speaker 1: I think when I was on in October, it's only
Speaker 1: a two hour show. Can I Can I do all
Speaker 1: that plus you? Plus you get calls in there in
Speaker 1: In my case, it was not unique because now I
Speaker 1: do this for a living as you as you will
Speaker 1: know one. As you mentioned at the beginning of the show,
Speaker 1: I had a family intervention and in full transparency and disclosure.
Speaker 1: As you mentioned last time, you're friendly with my brother
Speaker 1: who was home listening in Los Angeles with like stim
Speaker 1: listening to you and I talk, and he's been there
Speaker 1: with me since since day one, and unbeknownst to me,
Speaker 1: I had a family intervention set up in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: actually in my brother's house. This goes back, you know,
Speaker 1: twenty plus years ago, and my family called me out
Speaker 1: on it. I lied, I told stories, which is line,
Speaker 1: and my whole demeanor as a married man had changed tremendously.
Speaker 1: I had made the cardinal sin by borrowing money from
Speaker 1: the wrong people, and that just devastated me and worried.
Speaker 1: The The Gebs have obviously on a on a daily basis,
Speaker 1: and I became a different person. And my family is
Speaker 1: filled with very bright people, and they cut onto me.
Speaker 1: And like I said, I had an intervention in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: and I thought I was going there for a few
Speaker 1: days to hang out with my brother and had in
Speaker 1: and out burgers. But that's not the case. And at
Speaker 1: a certain point, George in his home, in his home,
Speaker 1: I could picture the share that I was sitting there
Speaker 1: along with a couple of cousins and Billy. They called
Speaker 1: me out on it, and I just gave up. I
Speaker 1: gave in, and thank god I did. Thank god they did,
Speaker 1: and thank God that they knew what they were doing.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if I could have lasted George
Speaker 1: much longer. Howard, deep deep down inside, did you know
Speaker 1: you had a problem? Oh? Absolutely absolutely. I used to
Speaker 1: have what I call the three o'clock sweats, when you
Speaker 1: wake up three o'clock in the morning sweating about the
Speaker 1: money you owe, and how sick it was in my brain,
Speaker 1: how sick it was to actually worry about the money
Speaker 1: that I owed, in addition to worrying about where I'll
Speaker 1: get the next chunk of change to go back and play.
Speaker 1: How crazy. Is that? I mean, I'm I didn't go
Speaker 1: to Yale or Harvard, but I still went to college.
Speaker 1: I'd like to think that I'm above average intelligence, but
Speaker 1: it completely takes over every aspect of your life, including
Speaker 1: the thinking process, which I didn't have at a whole.
Speaker 1: Imagine to know you owe so much and still look
Speaker 1: where you can get The next six it was to
Speaker 1: say awful with the understatement of the year. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: assuming that you lost a lot. What if you had won?
Speaker 1: What would have changed? It's a great it's a great question,
Speaker 1: you know. When I was on a roll winning, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, again in full disclosure, full transparency, it
Speaker 1: doesn't happen for very long if you're a sick damit.
Speaker 1: Like I was a good roll, and a good span
Speaker 1: could be a couple of days, certainly not more than
Speaker 1: a week. So when things went well, they went fantastically well.
Speaker 1: And it's the old it's the old theory. When you win,
Speaker 1: you think that you have your system in place and
Speaker 1: that you know better than everybody else, which of course
Speaker 1: is complete nonsense because the only ones that win are
Speaker 1: the casino operators and or the government that owns the casino.
Speaker 1: Vegas was not built by winners, that's for sure, well said,
Speaker 1: exactly well said. And when I was on a losing streak,
Speaker 1: which would be um most of the time, it was horrific.
Speaker 1: But what we do as as and I don't want
Speaker 1: to keep using the term sit gamblers, because I think
Speaker 1: everybody can be fixed. And that's that's my motives operandian
Speaker 1: life right now. To help everybody, estectually of those that
Speaker 1: think they can get help, is to change the mode
Speaker 1: of thinking that you cannot win, and I repeat, unless
Speaker 1: you're the owner of the casino, nothing goes on forever. Obviously,
Speaker 1: it's all luck. There are no systems, and the only
Speaker 1: way to really win is not gamble. That's it. It's
Speaker 1: really simple. But while you're in the throes of gambling,
Speaker 1: it's very tough to get out because we chase the
Speaker 1: money that we lost, which can never happen. You can
Speaker 1: never get it back, it doesn't happen. I'm act this
Speaker 1: for forty plus years, George, on both sides of the game,
Speaker 1: and I've never seen it happen yet. And the only
Speaker 1: way out of the grips of the gambling world is
Speaker 1: to quickness. That's it. Now, stuff put the Brakes on
Speaker 1: what is the definition of an addicted gambler? Is that
Speaker 1: somebody who loses more than they have. I mean, what
Speaker 1: if what if you're Jeff Bezos and you've got billions
Speaker 1: of dollars and so he goes to Vegas, gambles a million,
Speaker 1: loses it and says and says, well, I got two
Speaker 1: hundred million left or two hundred billion? Does that make
Speaker 1: him an addicted gambler? It's it's it's a great question.
Speaker 1: It's like a very skinny person going to a buffet
Speaker 1: and eating them out. You know, are they you know,
Speaker 1: are they expected eats? Well, the answer is yes. And
Speaker 1: I like to you the example. And I don't want
Speaker 1: to throw names around, but it's it's public knowledge that
Speaker 1: mister Jordan of basketball fame is a crazed gambler, just
Speaker 1: like Barkley is. And I only say that because they
Speaker 1: go on National Phoebe and they talk about it. A
Speaker 1: matter of fact, Markley was unfound maybe but a month ago,
Speaker 1: and I saw the interview and I cringed. I was
Speaker 1: embarrassed for him. He was laughing. He would say that
Speaker 1: he would go and again to your point, George, he
Speaker 1: would go to Vegas and he would lose two three
Speaker 1: millions to the weekend and you know, you know, go
Speaker 1: back Monday morning and say the food was great, really really,
Speaker 1: So the answer is whether you can afford it or not.
Speaker 1: Anybody that could costively go to Vegas to the weekend,
Speaker 1: lose two three four million dollars and come back and smile,
Speaker 1: I think is a very sick person. That's my opinion.
Speaker 1: Only he probably would would would would argue with me,
Speaker 1: saying you're in trouble, Howard. I'm not. I can pay
Speaker 1: my bills. Yeah that might be true, but that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that yambling three million every weekend because you can
Speaker 1: afford it doesn't make you sick. It does in my opinion.
Speaker 1: Can you spot an addicted gambler? That's my I love
Speaker 1: that question. That's my forte George. When when I go
Speaker 1: to the casino and people laugh. I spend more time
Speaker 1: in the casino now than I used to when I
Speaker 1: was a gambler because I obviously worked there. Most of
Speaker 1: my cases take place in the casino, following husbands or
Speaker 1: wives or what have you. The answer is categorically yes,
Speaker 1: I could literally within fifteen minutes when I walk and
Speaker 1: I can spot I'm not going to say everybody. That
Speaker 1: would be a stretch and a lie. But I could
Speaker 1: spot easily ten fifteen people who really should be home
Speaker 1: watching television or more importantly, home listening to Coast to Coast,
Speaker 1: because they should certainly not be in the casino. It's
Speaker 1: the body language of George, which I studied and I love.
Speaker 1: But the cop and sweating, the twitching, the nervousness, talking
Speaker 1: to themselves, talking to the machines, swearing at the machines,
Speaker 1: hitting the machines. You know, people played glad Jack who
Speaker 1: talk to the cards. Really? I mean I don't so so, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can. I can spot a pathological gambler a mile away. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: What creates the addiction for something like gambling? What are
Speaker 1: they after? What are they missing in their life that
Speaker 1: they need to replace it with a gambling you know, again,
Speaker 1: again a great question, because I've always asked that of myself, George.
Speaker 1: And as I've mentioned, and I'll mention this publicly in
Speaker 1: front of millions of people, I laughed for nothing. M
Speaker 1: I come from a great middle class family in Montreal.
Speaker 1: Dad who was a lawyer, Mom had her own business.
Speaker 1: The greatest brother that any human being could possibly ask
Speaker 1: for as you well know, full disclosure. You know who
Speaker 1: he is the greatest guy in the world I had
Speaker 1: and I left for a full disclosure. He's a very
Speaker 1: successful Hollywood writer for television shows. Okay, I don't want
Speaker 1: Billy's heads to swell while he's listening, But that's all true.
Speaker 1: I've had more Importanney. George just a great human being,
Speaker 1: a great family man, and helped me through thick and
Speaker 1: Finn through help. But yes, so's that's my brother and he,
Speaker 1: even though he moved away forty plus years ago to
Speaker 1: New York in LA we still speak these days since
Speaker 1: our parents are gone. We probably speak five to seven
Speaker 1: times a week, sometimes twice in a day, texting all
Speaker 1: the time. He just wished me good luck before I
Speaker 1: came on the air a little while ago. And I
Speaker 1: had a sister who unfortunately passed away at fifty two,
Speaker 1: and she was the greatest woman in the world too,
Speaker 1: Cornell University grad a genius. So all that to say
Speaker 1: is that my background I lacked for nothing. I wanted
Speaker 1: to be a pilot, and my dad made sure that
Speaker 1: I went to flight school while I was going to university,
Speaker 1: and I did beat my dream and I did become
Speaker 1: a pilot, so I really have no complaints. So all
Speaker 1: that to say, why did I become addicted to gambling?
Speaker 1: I can't tell you. I don't want to make up
Speaker 1: an answer, and I've been thinking about that three years
Speaker 1: and years. I don't know. I think I just loved
Speaker 1: the excitement of being in a casino. Oh yeah, but
Speaker 1: couldn't you have done that without being addicted? Probably? But
Speaker 1: my problem was, as I remember it only going back
Speaker 1: forty plus years, is when I first began gambling. We
Speaker 1: have to remember that gambling really was only in the
Speaker 1: form of an actual casino. Let's turn the clock back
Speaker 1: forty plus years, right, So at that time there were
Speaker 1: no casinos in Canada. As a matter of fact, the
Speaker 1: first casino in Canada or here in Montreal, opened up
Speaker 1: in October of ninety three. It's going to be thirty
Speaker 1: years this October that the Montreal Casino exists, meaning for
Speaker 1: the ten years prior to that, the only gambling I
Speaker 1: did was driving down to Atlantic City with my wife
Speaker 1: and or my folks, or on my own, or taking
Speaker 1: a trip down to Vegas, and I just literally ate
Speaker 1: it up. I loved it. I'm pretty good in math.
Speaker 1: I must say I sort of found out that I
Speaker 1: could not count cards, but some type of photographic memory
Speaker 1: when I was in flight school. So that helped me
Speaker 1: play blackjack. But again, forty plus years, who am I kidding?
Speaker 1: How much did it help? I ruined my life, So
Speaker 1: I suppose my counting was not that great and my
Speaker 1: math was not good enough. It's difficult. I know a
Speaker 1: lot of Hollywood people who love Vegas, but I would
Speaker 1: not call them addicted. They just go and have fun
Speaker 1: and they come back and they do their thing. I
Speaker 1: used to have a rule. I used to have a
Speaker 1: rule to take as much as you could lose, and
Speaker 1: that's it. And if you lose it, you lose it
Speaker 1: one hundred percent, George, And that's that's a great mantres
Speaker 1: to go by. The problem is nowadays, of course, with
Speaker 1: the access of everybody having credit cards and debit cards
Speaker 1: and what have you, people can get money from from
Speaker 1: from all different places when they're away, and it's always
Speaker 1: you know that one more, want more, one more. But
Speaker 1: you're right. Ninety five percent of those that gamble do
Speaker 1: not have the problem, and they do go and they
Speaker 1: have fun, they see a show, they dine with their
Speaker 1: partner or their family. They enjoy themselves to sit by
Speaker 1: the pool in Vegas when the weather is suitable, and
Speaker 1: they just enjoy annoy the people, the people watching. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: in those days, I could not care less about the food.
Speaker 1: I could not care less about the pool. I could
Speaker 1: not care less about people watching. All I wanted to
Speaker 1: do was sit at a blackjack table, and the faster
Speaker 1: dealers the deal the happier I was, which was completely
Speaker 1: ludicrits because another little stat obviously they're going to win,
Speaker 1: which means the fast that the more you're gonna lose,
Speaker 1: the faster you're gonna lose, and the more depressed you're
Speaker 1: gonna be. I did nothing right except stopping. And there's
Speaker 1: nothing worse than getting a dealer who has no personality.
Speaker 1: Oh my, they sapped you, They sapped the table. Oh absolutely.
Speaker 1: There's a great story that I didn't tell when I
Speaker 1: was on the airback in October. The great story, and
Speaker 1: I could say it publicly because it's not Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: something wrong with the story. I was playing blackjack with
Speaker 1: Aaron Spelling at Caesar's and I didn't really know who
Speaker 1: he was until somebody said, you know who sitting next
Speaker 1: to you great producers. One of the greatest, absolutely, and
Speaker 1: this has to make you laugh. In contrast to talking
Speaker 1: about Jordan and Berkeley, it was him and I playing,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to lie. I don't remember. I
Speaker 1: was probably playing twenty five or fifty dollars a hand
Speaker 1: blackjack George Coast to Coast listeners, Mister Spelling was playing
Speaker 1: two dollars a hand. You're going back thirty plus years,
Speaker 1: and they had black jack for two dollars and five
Speaker 1: dollars a hand, two dollars a hand. The dealer had
Speaker 1: an ace and he literally stopped the game, looked at
Speaker 1: me and said, just a minute, sir, And he was
Speaker 1: thinking if we should take insurance for a dollar. So
Speaker 1: there you go. That that just goes to show about
Speaker 1: like my late aunt used to say, that's why Hinz
Speaker 1: makes fifty seven varieties, all kinds of people. And he
Speaker 1: lost about a hundred bucks and he was not a
Speaker 1: happy happy probably, and that was probably the apex of
Speaker 1: his career when like every second show on television was
Speaker 1: his love for a buck. I remember saying, mister Spelling,
Speaker 1: here's a white ship. Can we please continue playing? Listen
Speaker 1: to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at one
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