The document provides information and guidance for counselors to support clients in making changes to their gambling behaviors and decreasing risks, including discussing what constitutes gambling, types of gamblers, risk factors, seeking support, harm reduction strategies, and the problem gambling services offered by Homewood Community Addiction Services including assessment, counseling, education, support groups, and outpatient treatment programs.

1. From Theory to Practice
How to use knowledge to support clients to make changes in their gambling
and decrease the risks.
Sylvie Smith, BA, ICADC
Problem Gambling/Addictions Counsellor
Homewood Community Addiction Services (CADS)

2. Is this Gambling?

3. What is Gambling?
• Wildman (1997) has suggested that the important
thing to remember about gambling is that it is “a
conscious, deliberate effort to stake valuables,
usually but not always currency, on how some
event happens to turn out.”
• “…risking something of value upon the outcome of
a contest of chance or a future contingent event not
under his control or influence, upon an agreement
or understanding that he or someone else will
receive something of value in the event of a certain
outcome.“ Maine poker law: section 952(4)

4. Interfering With Life…Maybe?

5. The Big Change
1. Long ago, most gambling had religious
and ceremonial functions.
2. Later, gambling became a recreational
activity played among individuals.
3. Most recently, gambling has become
a business.
Taken from Stacked Deck, Williams R & Wood, R

6. The House Edge: What it Means
• U.S. citizens lost $92
billion to the gambling
industry in 2007.
• Canadians lost $14
billion to gambling in
2008.
Taken from Stacked Deck, Williams R & Wood, R

7. Types of Gamblers
Continuum perspective:

8. Gambling and the Brain
• Dopamine is the chemical messenger/
neurotransmitter in our brains that is responsible
for feelings such as pleasure and excitement.
• With repeated gambling the body increasingly
relies on this stimulus to maintain rewarding
feelings, which in turn causes unpleasantness
when in withdrawal.
• It is said that the release during gambling is 3-4x
that of natural rewards such as food or sex
(Mirenowicz & Schultz, 1994). (like a “high”) After
sometime, this decreases, causing the person to
gamble more and perhaps spend more to get the
dopamine rush.
• This is why you may hear: “It’s not about the
money”.

9. Various Risk Factors
• being young (teens to mid-20s) and/or male
• gambling at an early age
• having close access to gambling opportunities
• having friends who gamble
• having parents who are heavy gamblers or problem gamblers
• having other addictions
• having an early big win
• not understanding gambling fallacies
• playing rapid forms of gambling with a high frequency of betting
(for example, slots and other EGMs)
• having difficulty controlling impulses
• mental health issues

10. A Comprehensive Review of Problem Gambling Self-Assessment
Tools for Use on an Internet Platform funded by the OPGRC
Internet Gambling Risks
• Easy of access
Internet Gambling Risks
• Availability
• E-commerce
• Gambling under the influence
• Underage
• Solitary play
• Anonymity
Dr. Chris Perlman, PhD, University of Waterloo
Michelle Nogueira, RSSW, CAC II, CPGC, Homewood Community Addiction Services
Sylvie Smith, BA, ICADC, Homewood Community Addiction Services
Suzanne Rath, BA, MSc Candidate, University of Guelph

11. When do people seek support?
• When the gambling is an interfering or
predominant issue and is leading to other
consequences.
• It is usually financial, legal or familial issues
that facilitate problem gamblers to seek
support.
• Unlike substance use, there are no physical
signs of problem gambling in a family. That’s
why problem gambling is sometimes
described as the “invisible addiction”.

12. Problem Gamblers and
Harm Reduction

13. Harm Reduction and Gambling
• Individuals who gamble can be support using
the Stages of Change
• Precontemplators seek support due to
external consequences, such as court order,
work place, family and/or bankruptcy
• Important to be non-judgemental and help
individuals by educating them about gambling
in a neutral manner.

14. Harm Reduction and Gambling
• Set limits with money
• Pay attention to physical needs
• Use only allocated money
• Set time limits for play
• If a problem is identified, Self-Exclusion can
be a way to reduce harm.

15. Low Risk Gambling Guidelines?
Using National Population Data to Develop Low-risk
Gambling Guidelines, Shawn Currie, PHD., C., Psych,
Funded by the Alberta Gaming Research Institute, 2004
Frequency: 2-3 times per month
Duration: 60 minutes per session
Dollars: $75 per month
Percent Income: 2% monthly income

16. Gambling and Gaming
This is the first generation of youth
to grow up in a culture where gambling is:
• Aggressively promoted
• Legalized
• Socially accepted
• Accessible (internet)

17. Remind You of Something?

18. Harm Reduction: Teens Who Gamble/Game
•Balance your activities. (Have more than one
thing you do for fun!)
•Set a time limit.
•Take a break.
•Stop if its interfering with important things in
your life.
•Talk to someone if you have trouble stopping
when you want to.

19. If Abstinence is the Choice…
• Clients can remain abstinent from the
game(s) they are seeking support with and
set limits around other forms of gambling.

20. (CADS) Problem Gambling Services
Assessment
(family/friends as well as individuals
who have issues with gambling)
• Individual Counselling
• Education
• Case Management
• Referrals to treatment or other community agencies
• Follow up/Aftercare
Educational/Support Groups
• Nature Walk
• Horticulture Therapy sessions
• “Bored” Games
• Night of Inspiration
• Family and Friends Session
• Stressed Spelled Backwards is
Desserts: Coping with the Holidays
COMING SOON…Concurrent Disorders and Gambling Group

21. Problem Gambling Services Offered
ADAPT Problem Gambling Out-Patient Treatment Program
• A five-day intensive day program offered semi-annually in partnership with
ADAPT (Halton Alcohol, Drug and Problem Gambling Assessment,
Prevention and Treatment)
Gambling Craving Helpline: 519-824-1010 ext. COPE (2673)
Off-Site Self-Exclusion
• Flamborough Downs Security officers attend once a
month to offer self-exclusion at the CADS office
Sylvie Smith, B.A., I.C.A.D.C. 519-836-5733 ext 2344
smitsylv@homewood.org

22. Change is the essence of life.
Be willing to surrender what you are for
what you could become.