Gambling Addiction - Best of Coast to Coast AM - 4/11/23

to avoid jail, for example, from fraudulent acts. Howard's experience led him to create a unique approach to creating compulsive gambling based on practical methods and proven results. His website, the rebakgroup dot com, is linked up at Coast to Coast am dot com. Howard, welcome back. How are you doing, George. I'm doing great. Thank you ever so much having me back. It really adnice to be here. Thank you. Looking forward to this. So you're in the States, You're Canada right

about now? No, right now, I am in the Montreal, Canada home base. And it is a beautiful fifty two three degrees clear, but it's ten after three in the morning. That's the only difference. Wow, but you know how many millions of people are uppowered at this hour? Absolutely now, everything is going good. I want to first obviously thank you George for having me back. Let me wish you the whole Coast team. All of your listeners are very happy Ramadan, a very happy Easter, and of course a

very happy Passover. And it's just nice to be here and to be able to be the voice for so many, hundreds of thousands of people that aren't as lucky as I that I get to talk about it and try and help others. Let's talk about this addiction for a moment, exactly what is the addiction and then tell us about the gambling addiction part of it. I'm not so sure that I'm smart enough to be able to delineate between

what the difference may be. But in my case, when I found out what an actual casino was and what the world of gaming was all about, just like your intro song right after the news with Frank Sinatra, I fell in love with it and never in a million years that I ever think that it could turn into something that would literally change my life to the negative. Of course, for the first twenty three twenty four twenty five years, and it just somehow seeps into your blood.

It becomes part of your DNA, and you literally literally you eat, sleep, drink and think about the world of gambling twenty five hours a day, not even twenty four. And it messed my life. It ruined my life. But as you said before, very lucky to be able to come out of the proverbial tunnel on the other end at the right old age in my early sixties and have turned things around. And and I really am the voice for those who just can't seem to get out

of the grips of gambling, George. And there's a big frience, Howard, between those people want to go to Vegas or go to their local casino, have a little fun and come home and stuff like that. I want people to understand that not everybody's an addicted gambler, right, Oh, of course, of course, I was never big on numbers and stats,

because everybody, you know, issue their own numbers. But the number I like to use that I'm comfortable with is that probably somewhere everythink four and six percent of those that gamble are pathological gamblers, which obviously means that ninety five aren't which is to your point exactly. Now tell us how do you hit the bottom and how you pulled yourself back up? Oh God, As I said last time, I think when I was on in October, it's only a two hour show. Can I Can I do all

that plus you? Plus you get calls in there in In my case, it was not unique because now I do this for a living as you as you will know one. As you mentioned at the beginning of the show, I had a family intervention and in full transparency and disclosure.

As you mentioned last time, you're friendly with my brother who was home listening in Los Angeles with like stim listening to you and I talk, and he's been there with me since since day one, and unbeknownst to me, I had a family intervention set up in Los Angeles, actually in my brother's house. This goes back, you know, twenty plus years ago, and my family called me out on it. I lied, I told stories, which is line, and my whole demeanor as a married man had changed tremendously.

I had made the cardinal sin by borrowing money from the wrong people, and that just devastated me and worried. The The Gebs have obviously on a on a daily basis, and I became a different person. And my family is filled with very bright people, and they cut onto me. And like I said, I had an intervention in Los Angeles, and I thought I was going there for a few days to hang out with my brother and had in

and out burgers. But that's not the case. And at a certain point, George in his home, in his home, I could picture the share that I was sitting there along with a couple of cousins and Billy. They called me out on it, and I just gave up. I gave in, and thank god I did. Thank god they did, and thank God that they knew what they were doing. And I don't know if I could have lasted George much longer. Howard, deep deep down inside, did you know

you had a problem? Oh? Absolutely absolutely. I used to have what I call the three o'clock sweats, when you wake up three o'clock in the morning sweating about the money you owe, and how sick it was in my brain, how sick it was to actually worry about the money that I owed, in addition to worrying about where I'll get the next chunk of change to go back and play. How crazy. Is that? I mean, I'm I didn't go to Yale or Harvard, but I still went to college.

I'd like to think that I'm above average intelligence, but it completely takes over every aspect of your life, including the thinking process, which I didn't have at a whole. Imagine to know you owe so much and still look where you can get The next six it was to say awful with the understatement of the year. Yeah, I'm assuming that you lost a lot. What if you had won? What would have changed? It's a great it's a great question,

you know. When I was on a roll winning, which, by the way, again in full disclosure, full transparency, it doesn't happen for very long if you're a sick damit. Like I was a good roll, and a good span could be a couple of days, certainly not more than a week. So when things went well, they went fantastically well.

And it's the old it's the old theory. When you win, you think that you have your system in place and that you know better than everybody else, which of course is complete nonsense because the only ones that win are the casino operators and or the government that owns the casino. Vegas was not built by winners, that's for sure, well said, exactly well said. And when I was on a losing streak, which would be um most of the time, it was horrific.

But what we do as as and I don't want to keep using the term sit gamblers, because I think everybody can be fixed. And that's that's my motives operandian life right now. To help everybody, estectually of those that think they can get help, is to change the mode of thinking that you cannot win, and I repeat, unless you're the owner of the casino, nothing goes on forever. Obviously, it's all luck. There are no systems, and the only way to really win is not gamble. That's it. It's

really simple. But while you're in the throes of gambling, it's very tough to get out because we chase the money that we lost, which can never happen. You can never get it back, it doesn't happen. I'm act this for forty plus years, George, on both sides of the game, and I've never seen it happen yet. And the only way out of the grips of the gambling world is to quickness. That's it. Now, stuff put the Brakes on what is the definition of an addicted gambler? Is that

somebody who loses more than they have. I mean, what if what if you're Jeff Bezos and you've got billions of dollars and so he goes to Vegas, gambles a million, loses it and says and says, well, I got two hundred million left or two hundred billion? Does that make him an addicted gambler? It's it's it's a great question. It's like a very skinny person going to a buffet and eating them out. You know, are they you know, are they expected eats? Well, the answer is yes. And

I like to you the example. And I don't want to throw names around, but it's it's public knowledge that mister Jordan of basketball fame is a crazed gambler, just like Barkley is. And I only say that because they go on National Phoebe and they talk about it. A matter of fact, Markley was unfound maybe but a month ago, and I saw the interview and I cringed. I was

embarrassed for him. He was laughing. He would say that he would go and again to your point, George, he would go to Vegas and he would lose two three millions to the weekend and you know, you know, go back Monday morning and say the food was great, really really, So the answer is whether you can afford it or not. Anybody that could costively go to Vegas to the weekend, lose two three four million dollars and come back and smile, I think is a very sick person. That's my opinion.

Only he probably would would would would argue with me, saying you're in trouble, Howard. I'm not. I can pay my bills. Yeah that might be true, but that doesn't mean that yambling three million every weekend because you can afford it doesn't make you sick. It does in my opinion. Can you spot an addicted gambler? That's my I love that question. That's my forte George. When when I go to the casino and people laugh. I spend more time in the casino now than I used to when I

was a gambler because I obviously worked there. Most of my cases take place in the casino, following husbands or wives or what have you. The answer is categorically yes, I could literally within fifteen minutes when I walk and I can spot I'm not going to say everybody. That would be a stretch and a lie. But I could spot easily ten fifteen people who really should be home watching television or more importantly, home listening to Coast to Coast,

because they should certainly not be in the casino. It's the body language of George, which I studied and I love. But the cop and sweating, the twitching, the nervousness, talking to themselves, talking to the machines, swearing at the machines, hitting the machines. You know, people played glad Jack who talk to the cards. Really? I mean I don't so so, yeah, I can. I can spot a pathological gambler a mile away. Absolutely. What creates the addiction for something like gambling? What are

they after? What are they missing in their life that they need to replace it with a gambling you know, again, again a great question, because I've always asked that of myself, George. And as I've mentioned, and I'll mention this publicly in front of millions of people, I laughed for nothing. M I come from a great middle class family in Montreal. Dad who was a lawyer, Mom had her own business. The greatest brother that any human being could possibly ask

for as you well know, full disclosure. You know who he is the greatest guy in the world I had and I left for a full disclosure. He's a very successful Hollywood writer for television shows. Okay, I don't want Billy's heads to swell while he's listening, But that's all true. I've had more Importanney. George just a great human being, a great family man, and helped me through thick and

Finn through help. But yes, so's that's my brother and he, even though he moved away forty plus years ago to New York in LA we still speak these days since our parents are gone. We probably speak five to seven times a week, sometimes twice in a day, texting all the time. He just wished me good luck before I came on the air a little while ago. And I had a sister who unfortunately passed away at fifty two, and she was the greatest woman in the world too,

Cornell University grad a genius. So all that to say is that my background I lacked for nothing. I wanted to be a pilot, and my dad made sure that I went to flight school while I was going to university, and I did beat my dream and I did become a pilot, so I really have no complaints. So all that to say, why did I become addicted to gambling? I can't tell you. I don't want to make up an answer, and I've been thinking about that three years and years. I don't know. I think I just loved

the excitement of being in a casino. Oh yeah, but couldn't you have done that without being addicted? Probably? But my problem was, as I remember it only going back forty plus years, is when I first began gambling. We have to remember that gambling really was only in the form of an actual casino. Let's turn the clock back forty plus years, right, So at that time there were no casinos in Canada. As a matter of fact, the first casino in Canada or here in Montreal, opened up

in October of ninety three. It's going to be thirty years this October that the Montreal Casino exists, meaning for the ten years prior to that, the only gambling I did was driving down to Atlantic City with my wife and or my folks, or on my own, or taking a trip down to Vegas, and I just literally ate it up. I loved it. I'm pretty good in math. I must say I sort of found out that I could not count cards, but some type of photographic memory when I was in flight school. So that helped me

play blackjack. But again, forty plus years, who am I kidding? How much did it help? I ruined my life, So I suppose my counting was not that great and my math was not good enough. It's difficult. I know a lot of Hollywood people who love Vegas, but I would not call them addicted. They just go and have fun and they come back and they do their thing. I used to have a rule. I used to have a rule to take as much as you could lose, and

that's it. And if you lose it, you lose it one hundred percent, George, And that's that's a great mantres to go by. The problem is nowadays, of course, with the access of everybody having credit cards and debit cards and what have you, people can get money from from from all different places when they're away, and it's always you know that one more, want more, one more. But

you're right. Ninety five percent of those that gamble do not have the problem, and they do go and they have fun, they see a show, they dine with their partner or their family. They enjoy themselves to sit by the pool in Vegas when the weather is suitable, and they just enjoy annoy the people, the people watching. Absolutely, in those days, I could not care less about the food. I could not care less about the pool. I could

not care less about people watching. All I wanted to do was sit at a blackjack table, and the faster dealers the deal the happier I was, which was completely ludicrits because another little stat obviously they're going to win, which means the fast that the more you're gonna lose, the faster you're gonna lose, and the more depressed you're gonna be. I did nothing right except stopping. And there's nothing worse than getting a dealer who has no personality.

Oh my, they sapped you, They sapped the table. Oh absolutely. There's a great story that I didn't tell when I was on the airback in October. The great story, and I could say it publicly because it's not Yeah, there's something wrong with the story. I was playing blackjack with Aaron Spelling at Caesar's and I didn't really know who he was until somebody said, you know who sitting next to you great producers. One of the greatest, absolutely, and

this has to make you laugh. In contrast to talking about Jordan and Berkeley, it was him and I playing, and I don't want to lie. I don't remember. I was probably playing twenty five or fifty dollars a hand blackjack George Coast to Coast listeners, Mister Spelling was playing two dollars a hand. You're going back thirty plus years, and they had black jack for two dollars and five

dollars a hand, two dollars a hand. The dealer had an ace and he literally stopped the game, looked at me and said, just a minute, sir, And he was thinking if we should take insurance for a dollar. So there you go. That that just goes to show about like my late aunt used to say, that's why Hinz

makes fifty seven varieties, all kinds of people. And he lost about a hundred bucks and he was not a happy happy probably, and that was probably the apex of his career when like every second show on television was his love for a buck. I remember saying, mister Spelling, here's a white ship. Can we please continue playing? Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at one am Eastern and go to Coast to Coast am dot m for more