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Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Man, welcome back to Coast to Coast George Noriy with you,

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Speaker 2: Howard reback back with us gaming and gambling therapist who

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Speaker 2: has had a gambling addiction himself go from almost ruining

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Speaker 2: his life to helping him turn things around and dedicate

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Speaker 2: his life to all those not as lucky as he

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Speaker 2: has been. One of his books includes Dear Gambling, I

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Speaker 2: forgive you Howard, welcome back.

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Speaker 3: Have you been hey, George, I'm doing gray. What about you?

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Speaker 2: All good? I bet you've been having a great couple

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Speaker 2: of years, haven't you.

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Speaker 3: It's been unfortunately, you know, I feel like a funel director.

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Speaker 3: Sometimes it may be good for me, but it's not

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Speaker 3: good for society. I have to tell you the truth.

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Speaker 3: It's not good at.

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Speaker 2: All, Howard, for the benefit of brand new listeners. What

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Speaker 2: the heck happened to you?

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Speaker 3: Don't we only have two hours or we have a couple.

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Speaker 2: Of weeks to talk about Well, you can always come

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Speaker 2: back again.

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Speaker 3: There we go. Thank you so much. What happened to

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Speaker 3: me was I became I'm a sick gambler and I

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Speaker 3: just loved going to casinos. I loved the allure of

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Speaker 3: what a casino was all about. I loved the game

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Speaker 3: of blackjack, and not really this may sound funny, but

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Speaker 3: not really for the money. I just love the map

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Speaker 3: behind the game of blackjack. And then, of course things spiraled,

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Speaker 3: not just out of control, way way out of control,

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Speaker 3: and it hit a point in my life that I

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Speaker 3: wanted to play blackjack as long as I was up

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Speaker 3: and I could breathe. And that was about twelve thirteen years,

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Speaker 3: which seemed like more than a lifetime to me. Luckily,

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Speaker 3: that was more than a couple of decades ago, so

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Speaker 3: that's the good news. But no, George, I fell into

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Speaker 3: a horrible hole of gambling troubles, an abyss that I

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Speaker 3: thought would never end, and my family came to save me.

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Speaker 3: And again, that was more than twenty years ago, and

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Speaker 3: not a day goes by that I don't think about

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Speaker 3: what I did, how remorseful I am for what I did,

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Speaker 3: But at the same time, I'm very proud of what

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Speaker 3: I did after to dig myself out of the hole

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Speaker 3: and be where I am today.

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Speaker 2: Truly remarkable to be sure, Now, were you compulsive during

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Speaker 2: your childhood?

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Speaker 3: It's a great question. I don't think I was compulsive. No,

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Speaker 3: I wouldn't. I wouldn't say so at all. The compulsion

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Speaker 3: really began just with the world of gambling, and that

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Speaker 3: happened roughly in my mid twenties. And I'll be sixty

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Speaker 3: six in a month and a half towards, so that

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Speaker 3: was a long long time ago, a lifetime ago, actually.

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Speaker 2: Fascinating, Howard, Now, what are the common signs that somebody

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Speaker 2: may look at for themselves or family members might look

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Speaker 2: at somebody and say that person's got a gambling problem.

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Speaker 3: Usually it did start with the borrowing of money, bills

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Speaker 3: in the household, not being paid of people's mood often

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Speaker 3: changes asking asking for and changing their schedule and their

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Speaker 3: daily routine and their life, affecting work, affecting friends, affecting

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Speaker 3: their family relationships, and just seeing somebody sort of drift

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Speaker 3: off into a into a different state from what they

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Speaker 3: were in. And all you could do when you're when

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Speaker 3: you're a gamming addict, much like being a drug addict

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Speaker 3: or or an alcoholic I assume, because those are not

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Speaker 3: my areas of expertise at all. You just want to

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Speaker 3: do what it is the mind and body tells you

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Speaker 3: to do. Every waking hour, and I think when when

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Speaker 3: when somebody's life starts to spiral out of control, that's

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Speaker 3: when the family and friends, I would assume, would notice

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Speaker 3: what's going on, and they they jump into help. And

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Speaker 3: I was lucky that my support system did. But at church, unfortuately,

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Speaker 3: many people aren't as lucky as I was.

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Speaker 2: Howard, casinos are popping up all over the United States.

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Speaker 2: I know you're in Canada right now. Las Vegas is

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Speaker 2: a fun place to go to. There's nothing wrong with

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Speaker 2: doing some recreational gambling, is there.

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Speaker 3: I completely completely agree with you, George, and I have

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Speaker 3: this take and this banter back and forth with a

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Speaker 3: few colleagues of mine. I completely agree with what you said.

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Speaker 3: But you know, this is where I get into trouble

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Speaker 3: in my field. I do believe that much like drinking

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Speaker 3: or gambling as we're talking about tonight this morning, that

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Speaker 3: done properly and properly is a massive word when it

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Speaker 3: comes to something that could turn into an addiction. Yes,

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Speaker 3: it can be done recreationally, it can be done just

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Speaker 3: for fun, and I still believe that the majority of people,

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Speaker 3: thank God, you know, ninety five percent of the people

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Speaker 3: who do gamble do do it for possibly, but I

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Speaker 3: take care of the three four five percent that don't

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Speaker 3: that let it get out of hand.

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Speaker 2: George, Well, we're talking to Howard reback about gambling. He

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Speaker 2: is a gambling and gaming therapist. Exactly what is that, Howard?

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Speaker 3: Well? What it is? I certainly believe and I don't

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Speaker 3: dish therapist at all, but I believe that I'm very

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Speaker 3: well positioned to help anybody that might have a gambling problem,

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Speaker 3: which is what I do, be lecturing, teaching, being at

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Speaker 3: one on one consulting for assorted casinos in Canada and

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Speaker 3: Upstate New York, which is what I do. I believe

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Speaker 3: that because of the life that I led and I

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Speaker 3: had the troubles that I did have many many years ago,

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Speaker 3: when somebody does come see me with a gambling problem,

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Speaker 3: I really believe that I can walk the walk and

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Speaker 3: talk to talk because I've been there, meaning that when

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Speaker 3: you have been in the trend, you can understand what

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Speaker 3: other soldiers are going through. I understand that many doctors

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Speaker 3: and therapists can be book smart and understand what goes

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Speaker 3: behind having an addiction, but I did have it. So

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Speaker 3: I think that, as I said before, I think I'm

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Speaker 3: well positioned to talk about this trade, this gambling addiction

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Speaker 3: practice that I run because I really understand what people

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Speaker 3: are going through, as I went through what they're going

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Speaker 3: through many many years ago. I understand the problem. George.

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Speaker 3: When you understand the problem, I think you're set a

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Speaker 3: little bit easier to handle the problem, Howard.

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Speaker 2: When somebody has an addiction, do they have addictions to

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Speaker 2: a lot of different things like as you mentioned, alcohol, gambling,

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Speaker 2: sex addictions and whatever.

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Speaker 3: Very often we talked about people having cross addictions, George,

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Speaker 3: meeting gambling and drinking, drinking and smoking, smoking and drugging

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Speaker 3: very often. The funny thing, and it's nice to use

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Speaker 3: the word funny on a serious topic like this. The

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Speaker 3: funny thing was, I had no other addiction. I at

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Speaker 3: sixty six years old. I don't drink at all. I've

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Speaker 3: never smoked. The idea of vaping makes me nauseous. I've

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Speaker 3: never held anything that was remotely like a drug. So

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Speaker 3: the only addiction I had was gambling. But yes, usually

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Speaker 3: people do have more than one addiction. Usually it's two

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Speaker 3: or three. And yes, it's called cross addiction.

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Speaker 2: Yes, how do you know that you're addicted to gambling?

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Speaker 2: How does somebody know that.

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Speaker 3: Well, I could tell you from my own experience is

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Speaker 3: that when my eyes open up in the morning, I

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Speaker 3: was already thinking of how I was going to go

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Speaker 3: to the casino, how I was going to play blackjack,

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Speaker 3: how much money I was going to go with, how

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Speaker 3: much money I was going to make, And of course

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Speaker 3: we all know how that went because, as you said

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Speaker 3: a few shows back towards Vegas wasn't built on winters,

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Speaker 3: so we all know how that goes, That's right, And

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Speaker 3: you just get into this cycle of you're always figuring

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Speaker 3: out where and how and when you're going to go

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Speaker 3: to a casino because again because what I did, when

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Speaker 3: I did it was so many years ago, we didn't

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Speaker 3: have the apps on the phone, or you couldn't go

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Speaker 3: to a casino on your cell phone or on your

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Speaker 3: laptop or a tablet. You physically had to go to

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Speaker 3: a land based, brick and mortar casino building at Montreal

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Speaker 3: only where I am now Montreal. We only got to

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Speaker 3: casino in ninety three, by the way, little bit of trivia,

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Speaker 3: the last time the Montreal Canadians won the Stanley Cup,

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Speaker 3: by the way, which is hard to believe. So growing

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Speaker 3: up when I got into that world of gambling. It

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Speaker 3: was either Las Vegas or Atlantic City. Those are the

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Speaker 3: only games in town that was it.

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