Gambling participation rates among older adults (65+ years) have been increasing in recent years. Very few studies have compared older and younger gamblers on gambling motivation and problem gambling. This study compared 41 male and 63 female older gamblers (66–87 years; median 73) to 20 male and 85 female younger gamblers (17–34 years; median 20) in New Zealand on gambling.

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Gambling and disordered gambling facts: older adults Founded in 1983, the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling is a private, non-profit public health agency dedicated to reducing the social, financial, and emotional costs of gambling-related problems.
However, the NCPG reports that some older adults develop a gambling problem that seriously impacts their financial well-being. The NCPG, whose mission statement says they are 'neither for or against legalized gambling,' seeks to 'improve health and wellness by reducing the personal, social and economic costs of problem gambling.'

March/April 2009 Issue

High Risk Recreation — Problem Gambling In Older Adults
By David Surface
Social Work Today
Vol. 9 No. 2 P. 18

Busloads of elders commute daily to the casinos. For some, it is harmless fun; for others, it is an invitation for trouble.

For many decades, the stereotypical concept of what a gambler looked like has been dominated by images culled from movies and television: the swaggering tough guy in a tuxedo at the blackjack table, the middle-aged man with a cigar in his mouth at the racetrack. As gambling has become more accessible and acceptable in our culture, our awareness of who gamblers really are has also broadened to include young and old alike.

A 2008 study conducted at Wayne State University examining the motivations among older adults for participating in casino gambling reveals that they gamble for both extrinsic and intrinsic reasons. While extrinsic reasons include winning money and supplementing income, intrinsic reasons include entertainment, being around other people, distraction from everyday problems such as loneliness and boredom, and escaping feelings of grief and loss associated with the death of a loved one or close friend.

People are more likely to develop a gambling problem when they’re coping with major life changes or losses. The sudden social isolation that can come with retirement, the increased awareness of physical limitations that accompany aging, and the grief after the death of loved ones constitutes an overwhelming number of difficult life transitions that make older adults particularly vulnerable to developing gambling problems. In addition, many older adults may hide their gambling problem due to shame and social stigma, while reduced contact with friends, family, and coworkers can make the signs of problem gambling hard to spot, creating the ingredients for a formidable issue that social workers working with elders must address.

Casinos: The New Senior Centers?
Fayetta Martin, MLS, MSW, DL, is an assistant professor at Wayne State University whose current research focuses on women’s gambling behavior and treatment barriers for older women with disabilities. She is also interested in older women with and without disabilities who gamble and how gambling addiction is associated with other mental health and substance use disorders among older Americans.

Martin first became interested in problem gambling among older adults in 2004 during her postdoctoral work, which was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. What surprised Martin was not merely how many older adults have an addictive relationship with gambling but the extent to which the gambling industry appeared to enable the problem.

“During my research and visits to the casinos, I noticed that the casino was supplying older adults with scooters and wheelchairs,” Martin recalls. “Many even provided oxygen. In the bathroom, there were boxes for diabetics to dispose needles. Older adults told me stories of how the casinos always remember their birthday, and if they stayed away too long, the casino would send them a card saying that they were missed.”

Of course, casinos are not the only businesses that make a conscious effort to market gambling to elders. Today, older adults can find plentiful opportunities to gamble in senior centers and retirement homes where bingo nights and poker clubs are often part of standard activities.

While gambling’s temptation can have a powerful effect, gambling alone doesn’t draw older adults to the casinos; as with other addictive behaviors, the social experience can exert an equally strong attraction.

Lia Nower, JD, PhD, an associate professor and the director of the Center for Gambling Studies at the School of Social Work at Rutgers University in New Jersey, points out how shame is not the only motivating factor for older adults who hide their gambling problem. “For those in senior centers who have bus trips to the casino, poker clubs, and bingo nights, one reason for them to hide their problem is because this is their social outlet,” Nower explains. “They’re lonely and isolated, and this provides some element of camaraderie.”

Nower describes a phenomenon that may also attract older adults to gambling. “Some elders say that when they’re gambling, they don’t notice their pain,” says Nower. “This is something that’s been said to me by a lot of treatment providers who specialize in older adults, that they are not as preoccupied with their physical discomfort when their minds are disengaged that way.”

“At any given hour at the casino, you find older adults,” says Martin. “Just this past weekend I was at the MGM [Grand Casino] in Detroit counting the number of people who appeared to be over 60 who were on the slot machines at 2 in the morning. I would say five out of 10 were older adults, mostly women. One lady who was in a wheelchair told me that the casino for her was a safe place, and when she was at the casino, nobody noticed the fact that she was in a wheelchair.”

Risks for Older Adults
In some ways, the risks of problem gambling for older adults are the same as those faced by younger gamblers—a sudden, devastating loss of financial security and accompanying legal troubles. But older adults with gambling problems also have unique risks. Reduced cognitive capacity among some elders can make it difficult for them to make sound decisions. Also, older adults living on a fixed income with limited savings can’t necessarily afford the financial drain of a gambling disorder.

Nower describes a related problem that should concern social workers. “The law limits the ‘look back’ period for qualifying financially for a Medicaid bed in a nursing home,” Nower explains, “Though rules vary by state, if you’ve divested yourself of a sizeable portion of your assets within the last five years, you may not be eligible for Medicaid. And the law doesn’t distinguish between gifts to relatives and gambling losses. Imagine an older adult who loses their savings and yet they can’t qualify for a Medicaid bed.”

In a recently published study, Nower and her colleagues found that older adults were most likely to ban themselves from casinos because of their fear of suicide.

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“When you’re younger, maybe you’re $100,000 in debt, but you’ve got your spouse, you’ve got your children, your job; you still have some reason to get up in the morning,” Nower says. Vocacional 2 carreras. “If y

Gambling Problems In Older Adults