You’re spending more and more time hitting the casinos and online sports betting sites.

You’re letting go of responsibilities at home and at work.

You’re blowing through your reserves of cash and credit, and then lying to others about where all the money went.

If this sounds familiar, it’s a good bet you’re a compulsive gambler.

Donald Crowder hopes to provide answers and a way out for those who are in trouble due to their gambling. It’s a serious societal problem, he said, and people who struggle with this issue need help.

“We see that gambling can trigger a number of mental illnesses, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression or forms of anxiety. It can cause suicidal thoughts and disrupt families,” said Crowder, director of the Advanced Gambling Therapy Program at Shunga Creek Mental Health Services in Topeka.

“It compromises people’s trust in you, which is the basis for relationships. Compulsive gamblers make promises: ‘Yes, I’ll quit.’ But then they’ll find themselves drawn back to the casino.”

On the rise

Crowder launched the gambling therapy program April 1 at Shunga Creek Mental Health Services, which is an association of independent mental health providers.

He is a licensed specialist clinical social worker and has 60 hours of training with the Kansas Association of Addiction Professionals, making him a Kansas-certified gambling counselor.

So far, about a dozen people have entered the Topeka program to seek individualized therapy for compulsive gambling. The majority of the patients are in their 30s to 50s and are struggling with gambling at area casinos, according to Crowder.

The patients typically fall into two camps: “action gamblers” who go to casinos for the thrill and atmosphere, and “escape gamblers” who visit casinos to get their minds off their troubles.

But Crowder is starting to see a new population of gamblers: older teens.

“They’re computer-savvy, and with the availability of credit cards, these folks can gamble online,” he said. “It’s pretty dramatic.”

Online sports betting is especially popular with youths, Crowder said. If teen-agers have their own credit cards  or have access to parents’ credit cards  they can open an account with an online broker and start betting.

The extent of problem gambling in America adds up, he said.

“There are estimates that 1 to 2 percent of people who gamble become compulsive  those who can’t stop even if they try,” Crowder said. “An estimated 4 to 7 percent of those who gamble are problem gamblers, people who are disrupting their social and vocational lives.”

Those percentages translate to 3 million to 6 million compulsive gamblers, and more than 12 million problem gamblers in the United States.

Getting better

It’s difficult to know how many students at Kansas University have problems with gambling, according to Frank DeSalvo Jr., director of the school’s Counseling and Psychological Services.

Few students come in to the service seeking help for gambling-related problems, he said. But that’s common for this age group, which is typically just getting started with gambling.

“The folks who do present (themselves) at our agency are usually male students and are involved with gambling around sports events,” DeSalvo said. “The ones who do come in  that’s a very small number  are usually in the last phase of gambling, the desperation phase.

“They’re feeling hopeless, they’ve experienced a number of gambling losses and are trying to figure out how to pay their debts.”

National trends show gambling is on the rise, DeSalvo said, especially due to the popularity of online betting and gaming.

But there is hope for compulsive gamblers, Crowder said.

“The first part is to get the education about the triggers that set off your urge to gamble,” he said. “Set up a support system of people to help you get past that urge, and have a list of alternative activities to gambling.”