Todays Agenda

1
Todays Agenda

Born to Lose Book Emersion Group Question
Creation Experience of Play PPT Break Movie
One Last Bet
2
Born to Lose Memoirs of a Compulsives Gambler
Bills Demographics

• Females under-represented in GA membership
• A Great deal members commit crimes to continue to
  gamble or get back what was lost
• Gambling addiction harder to kick than heroin or
  crack
• Frequent death of members
• Gambling destroys marriages, families.

3
Bills Demographics

• Wives of problem gamblers 3X more likely to
  commit suicide than the general population.
• Compulsive gamblers are adept, smart, but actions
  override skills.
• Hitting bottom for a compulsive gambler validates
  their sense of low self esteem, and all negative
  messages from childhood are affirmed/magnified.
• Compulsive gamblers also have a stalled emotional
  maturity thus making it hard as an adult to take
  responsibility and deal with life's issues.

4
Dark Legacy Theme 1

• Generations of gambling in Bills past / 3
  generations.
• Cursed by gambling demon
• Believes father inherited disease

5
Bills Psychodynamics Theme 2

• Infused or introjected anxiety about
• Money
• Poor
• Can't afford
• This may have created loading for pursuit of
  money Bill states
• By the time I became an adult I was obsessed with
  money. I defined and validated myself based on
  how much money I earned and by my material
  possessions.

6
Bills Psychodynamics

• Coupled with not being wanted and trauma in the
  womb, which left Bill with congenital defects, he
  was
• BORN TO LOSE
• Also, his need to be superior appears to have
  fuelled his gambling addiction.

7
Childhood More Loading Theme 3

• Sexual abuse
• No trust or holding in family (beatings by
  brother)
• Mother was distant and had mental health issues
• Parentified children

8
Bills Aetiology Theme 4

• Gambling was a sanctuary, even the concrete
  jungle failed to provide a facilitating
  environment
• Thus, gambling was a place of psychological
  safety

9
Exposure to Gambling as Child Even More
Loading Theme 5

• Dad brought Bill to gambling parlours
• Bill felt special because of this
• Not to mention provided him with a breeding
  ground to become an adept gambler
• Any theories as to what this might do to a young
  psyche?

10
Early Addiction and Chasing Losses Theme 6

• Flicking cards
• Became an obsession, progressive, even at age 9
  Bill was chasing his losses and experiencing
• Dysphoria / Euphoria Cycle
• Coupled with humiliating defeats and the dream of
  cleaning out others, a cold hearted gambler was
  born.

11
A Flurry of Gambling Adolescence Theme 7

• Dares
• Water droplet races
• Pedestrian races
• Gas Pump games
• Watching Person(s) games

12
Fallout from the Game Guts Theme 8

• First big loss
• First outstanding IOU
• First admonition of problem
• First Bailout (DSM)
• First failed attempt at being a big dog

13
Stock-Market Gambler and Gangbanger Theme 9

• Searching for Respect Lost and Found
• Surrogate Family
• Crawl out of Dads Shadow
• Split Life College Student by Day Thug by
  Night
• Enters worlds biggest casino (physiological
  reaction similar to casino)
• Gateway drug
• Another bailout take to casino to take risks
  see cash in action

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The Experience of Play

• Reith brings our attention to the fact that our
  experiences of something arise from our
  perceptions.
• These perceptions are mediated by consciouness,
  thus allowing many worlds of consciouness to
  pervade human experience.
• Hence, each gambler will perceive himself/herself
  in many ways which is mediated by the gambling
  arena and the idea of play itself.

15
The Experience of Play

• In essence, the author wants us to look at
  gambling as having its own mode of being.
• In this sense, we need to delve into the
  subjective states of the gambler.
• Ultimately, Reith wants us to see gambling
  through the eyes of those who have been gamblers
  and try to interpret gambling through their mode
  of conceptualizing gaming and how this relates to
  their being in the world.

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Theme One Excitement

• Adventure Dream State
• For some gamblers entering into the gambling
  arena temporarily allows them to
  (consciously/unconsciously) step out of the real
  world.
• This has been termed
• Dissociation
• Trance phenomena
• Pathological dreaming

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Enter Dostoevsky The Gambler

• Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote one of the first
  phenomenological novels about gambling.
• The novel reflects Dostoevsky's own addiction to
  roulette, which was in more ways than one the
  inspiration for the book.
• Dostoevsky completed the novel under a strict
  deadline so he could pay off gambling debts.

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Dostoevsky the Phenomenologist

• On gambling...
• "When once anyone is started upon that road, it
  is like a man in a sledge flying down a snow
  mountain more and more swiftly.

• On being...
• Man is a mystery. It must be brought to light,
  and, if one puzzles over it all one's life, let
  it not be said that one is wasting one's time. I
  am studying this mystery, for I wish to be a man.

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Dostoevsky and the Dream State

• Speaking about the dream state Dostoevsky
  remarks
• I lost track of the amount and order of my
  stakes. I only remember as if in a dream

20
Trance States

• Other gamblers report the dream state as being
  like this
• It became something else that I cant really
  explain. It wasnt even winning, like, well it
  was, I dont know, I really dont know how to
  explain that to you. It was winning and also
  having that space. That space, Yeah very
  peaceful. Yeah, but I would also think about
  those problems. . . But they didnt bother me.
  But if I was at work and if I thought about my
  life problems, I was just, I made it worse.
  Because I wasnt enjoying myself at work and I
  would get doubled depressed. When I had that
  clear sense on that machine I could think how of
  ways to change those things. Eventually I came
  home from the rigs and I went to the gambling
  machines and I couldnt afford my rent. So it
  wasnt that peaceful after awhile, cause it was
  wrecking my life, so that peaceful place was so
  still peaceful, but it wasnt, I dont know it is
  weird, its very hard to explain.

21
Trance States

• Another gambler had this to say about his trance
  state
• I think it was more, it was like, it was unreal.
  Like I was okay, I was stepping outside my own
  body and I was watching myself walk into this
  bar, and Im watching myself throw money in this
  machine. And its like, its not really
  happening, right. It was, I dont know how you
  would actually describe something like that. I
  was actually down here in the safe-way parking
  lot. Because we were living just down on ah, off
  of thirteen street and eighth avenue. So I was
  down there, just walking up from the grocery
  store, and ended up instead of walking to the
  grocery store I walked into the bar and threw
  money into the machines. It was like, I zoned out
  there for a second. It was like I partitioned my
  mind. One part of my mind said, I cant believe
  Im doing this, and the other part, Doesnt
  really give a shit, and I going to go do it
  anyway, right.

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Thrill of the Play

• One of the most striking aspects of the
  experience of gambling is the tension or thrill
  of the game.
• The apex of the gambling experience is the moment
  when excitement peaks and gamblers are gripped by
  the fever of play, playing on and on, oblivious
  to their surroundings, to their losses, to the
  passage of time.
• In this state, the gambler becomes a creature of
  sensation seeing, but not really being aware of
  their surroundings perceiving, but not truly
  cognizant of what is going on.

23
Phenomenological experiences of the thrill.

• And when we were down in Reno, they had been down
  their before and they would drop me off at one
  of the casinos and go shopping and not come back
  for five or six hours. It was fascinating,
  because I mean, cause when you did win it would
  come out, and you put it right back in. So the
  first day they dropped me off about four o-clock
  and they didnt pick me up until midnight. And I
  had pots and pots of money but I didnt want to
  cash them in, I wanted to take them back to the
  hotel. It was a real high Im telling you. You
  get excited that you get that amount of money and
  the adrenaline in there and you get back to the
  hotel and you cant get to sleep cause those
  machines are right there, you just want to play
  them. But my friends wanted to go to sleep, but I
  was all jazzed up, I wanted to play, I wasnt
  going to go and sleep.

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Phenomenological experiences of the thrill.

• Just constantly playing and when you run out of
  money, well then I didnt want to go home before
  he went to bed or before he went to work, so I
  would stay out until then, then come home then,
  many times slept in the car just so I wouldnt
  have to face him. It was, I did that many, many
  nights. I just had such an overwhelming feeling
  that I was going to win it big, which I did at
  different times, I mean large amounts, one
  night at the , I won twenty-two-hundred
  dollars and then I stayed at a motel and hid the
  money under the mattress and I was back there
  first thing in the morning. I mean it was, it
  was the action and it was about the rush. So my
  mind was total preoccupied even when I was at
  home, how you were going to get money to go back
  there the next day, so as far as why I played, it
  was a combination of things.

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The Alteration of Identity

• The third quality of play inherent to gambling is
  the altering of identity through game playing.
• This gambling identity is one in which the
  everyday self is left behind and another persona,
  is adopted.
• In this way gambling provides the opportunity to
  present an idealized identity to oneself and
  others.
• Here the gambler can affirm their self-worth,
  making gambling a site in which ones existence
  can be confirmed.

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Phenomenological experiences of altering ones
identity

• Its really all about identity. You know what,
  when I have money in my pocket, Im the greatest
  looking guy there is, I dont care what people
  think about me. But when Im in a bit of bind, I
  am opening doors for people, and if I won. . . I
  would go into the lounge and brag about it. I
  would go, I just won five grand! And the ladies
  would go, Really! It worked for them. . . I
  would buy drinks and then after they would go
  home... And the best looking guy would be sitting
  there alone again. But, I would wake up with
  2,500 dollars in my pocket, and go gamble
  again.

27
Phenomenological experiences of altering ones
identity

• We played roulette for a couple of hours and then
  I was consistently back there, bringing my
  friends back there. And we would go every
  weekend. This might sound really bad, butI have
  to tell you. Good looking blonde girls, you know,
  playing the scene. And having a great time,
  wearing the clothes, playing the part, like a big
  shot, this sounds really bad, cause Im not
  really like that anymore, but I look back, oh I
  was such a bitch. I was playing the role, I was,
  ah, oh yeah, I was getting a name, I ended up
  getting a name, I was the roulette Queen.
  Because there were some points, because I won so
  much money at roulette that people could not
  believe it. It was like who wants to marry a
  millionaire. I could have been you know, I could
  have been throwing money up in the air going holy
  shit. I won six thousand three hundred one
  night. You know it pushed away the old image I
  had in my head, you know. A little bit more
  insight here, insecurity. I was always told by
  my mother, and I dont think Im an ugly person,
  but I was always told by my mother that I was
  built like a brick shit house. That I was never
  going to amount to anything, so all of those
  things added up. To give me the, I needed to
  re-invent myself and being the roulette queen
  made me feel like I was somebody.

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Boredom

• Stepping outside the gambling arena, players find
  the world unutterably dull in comparison to the
  one they have just left.
• Seeking a release from monotony, gamblers plunge
  into the tension of the game, only to come face
  to face with the everyday world and all its
  attendant tedium when they remerge from play.

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Phenomenology of Boredom

• One gambler stated
• Well at home my husband was always working and
  then he goes to sleep earlier and I was bored.
  So I started to go to bingo and then I found that
  it was boring after a couple years and then I
  started to play VLTs. Let me tell you their
  fast money, Oooo, yeah, and then I guess I wasnt
  bored anymore. . . But a few years later, I had
  some big problems.

30
Repetition

• Because of gambling fleeting nature, especially
  VLTs, there is a vacillation between excitement
  and boredom, making repetition an intrinsic
  feature with respect to games of chance.
• Hence, the gambler can be said to play in order
  to experience the tension and expectation of a
  game.
• But because it is over almost as soon as it
  begins, it must be repeated continually.

31
Repetition

• The renown cultural theorist and philosopher,
  Jean Baudrillard had this to say about
  repetition
• The desire to know the result of the next round,
  to put ones fate to the test once more entices
  the gambler to play on, and so creates the
  vertigo of seduction.

32
Phenomenology of Repetition

• One gambler describes repetition in this way
• I had one trip to Vegas. I stayed up, I
  remember being sober up to my elbows, I played
  the machines all night. Way after my husband
  went to bed, like I played them all night. I
  didnt remember winning or losing, I had so much
  money I didnt care. I was doing great! Other
  than the fact I was a raving addict! (laughing).
  Yup, I, everything was tense for me, everything,
  my life was always on full speed. I just played
  and played, just waiting for the big hit and then
  you would win and they you would wait for the
  next hit. Oh yeah, it was a real zinger.

33
Categories of Play

• In the arena of play/gambling we are led to the
  conclusion that inner and outer experience
  undergo a transformation.
• The first transformation or transmutation is
  time.
• Time can be said to have an active and affective
  components.

34
TIME

• We all have experienced the quickening and
  slowing of time.
• For the gambler the perception of time is a
  constant repetition of a fleeting present.
• The field of gamblers attention is defined by
  the unfolding event on which they have their
  stake.

35
Time

• Hence, in an instant, the uncertain becomes
  known the future becomes the present.
• In this frozen instance, in which the gambler
  lives only for the moment, time has lost its
  articulation.
• In this place, time can be said to be a gamblers
  narcotic.

36
Phenomenology of a gamblers time.

• I went to a ringette tournament with my daughter
  it was over at ten o-oclock. Her equipment was
  in the trunk of my Supra. We had to two vehicles
  I said, Al, drive her home I have got to do
  something. Well I went right to the ,
  right at ten oclock when the lights go on, and
  she had another game at one-thirty. Well, he
  shows up at the just after her game
  started, his face is all red. I hid my car up the
  alley so he wouldnt find it, and he said, Your
  kid is standing outside the crying, because
  her mother is off gambling somewhere and you got
  her equipment. Well, I remember sitting back
  being pissed off, get out of here. I felt
  little bit guilty, but, heres the keys, get
  lost. I did care, but not enough to get off my
  machine until 300 in the morning. By that time
  nothing could tear me away. I dont know if it
  would have mattered if one of them would have
  been hit by a car.

37
Time (contd).

• The constant cycle of the ever-same implies a
  cycle of no real change.
• In the end, the gambling arena can close players
  off from the outside world and from themselves.
• Thus, they are frozen in the present, but without
  any no real change, one is led into an empty
  hell.

38
Phenomenology of a empty hell.

• It was all the game! It really didnt matter who
  was around, or what was around me I really didnt
  (pause) care. I would go out gambling and all I
  cared about was the gambling. It was just about
  the game. If I would just kept on playing the
  game forever, as in, because its unlike anything
  I have tried, alcohol, you to still have your
  emotions when you smoke pot, when your gambling
  you have nothing but the game. The game
  completely um, is everything, like its, its,
  the world completely revolves around the game and
  your really not thinking about anything except
  for the gambling itself, and its the life to be
  in, right.

39
Money

• According to Reith, most gamblers do not in fact,
  usually play to win.
• She suggests that most play to simply experience
  the excitement of the game or to have an
  indefinite continuation of play.
• Despite this premise, Reith holds that the
  presence of money in play is nevertheless
  important.

40
The phenomenology of money and the gambler

• It had nothing to do with the money, absolutely
  nothing to do with the money, accept with having
  to deal with all my creditors, because at that
  point money wasnt even real. The money you put
  into the VLTS wasnt real, the credits werent
  real, the money you get back isnt real, none of
  that is the issue. What the issue was, what the
  whole thing was about was playing the VLTS.

41
The Importance of Money

• For money brings about meaning and this is the
  medium by which players are brought to the game.
• Reith holds that in modern gambling, money is
  both a means of communication and a tangible
  symbol of the players presence.
• Thus it creates the affective tension the
  excitement and it also talks for the gambler
  symbolically.

42
The Importance of Money

• By symbolic we mean the gamblers opinion and
  judgment and along with a show of ones identity.
  
• Here Reith, like Goffman, suggests that the
  placement of a monetary bet sets the stage for
  the gambler to become vicariously involved in the
  game.
• The fate of their wagers become a test of
  character, and players who manage to shrug of
  their losses demonstrate a strength of will or
  face.

43
The phenomenology of money and the gambler

• Yeah it was the excitement, about playing, going
  and watching the flashing lights, good chance to
  win some money. But it wasnt the money, it was,
  its hard to explain what it was. Just me
  against the machines I guess. I Just wanted to
  beat the machines.

44
The Importance of Money

• In all, money comes assume magical properties,
  but it still remains an insubstantial chimera
  that contributes to the sense of unreality and
  the affective tension experienced by gamblers
  during play.

45
Playing-in-Itself

• Our last theme that Reith brings to light, one
  that she has hinted at for the entire article,
  which is playing for the sake of playing.
• For Gadmer, the famous phenomenologist, win or
  lose, play is all it is an end in itself.
• And so the goal of a game is not so important as
  the possibility of its being brought to a
  conclusion.

46
Playing-in-Itself

• In summation, the gambler who is caught in the
  demise of play, forever, pursuing the fleeting
  sensations of play, is caught in what
  Schopenhauer describes as
• A state of becoming and never being.

47
A final phenomenological report on becoming and
never being while gambling. . . One gambler
stated
So today, to maintain my abstinence from a
horribly insidious addiction, that 99 of we
gamblers dont understand, I have to pay close
attention, and I also stand in the mirror every
morning and say, I love you too much to gamble.
Like how can flipping a pop can make me insane. .
. I remember sitting on the couch saying to
myself, well its only free pop, and then I
said, Well am I going to threaten my
abstinence. I mean that is how insane this
addiction is, eh, and if it hadnt been for my,
and Im not bragging, if hadnt been for the
grace of God and a tonnes of support from program
members and friends, I cant even tell you Jason
where I would be right now. So, today, I feel
pretty good, you know. . . I felt tormented for a
long time and remember writing about it, because
what it really comes down is that you really need
to want to quit, cause if you really dont want
to quit, if you really havent had enough action,
nothing can convince you otherwise, you know.

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Video Questions to Ponder... One Last Bet

• Etiology ?
• Commonalities between pathological gamblers?
• Similarities with Bill Lee?
• How would help these folks ?
• Links and association to experience of play
  phenomena?
• Are these folks pathological gamblers or is their
  a better explanation for their behavior?
• Significance of Video Title?