When I look back on the ups and downs of my struggle with compulsive gambling, I sometimes think back to the first time I was bailed out of my debt. When my parents learned about my gambling problem, they asked how much I owed. They subsequently paid off my debts. While that solved the immediate anxiety I had about money, it did nothing to help me with a gambling problem I would struggle with for the next 20 years.
My compulsive gambling started after I went with my friends to casinos around 1990. This was when gambling became more available as casinos opened on reservations. It was probably about three years later that I started going to casinos for an escape and I started to gamble compulsively — though I didn’t…
