State’s all-in gambling expansion offers new temptation for those struggling to stay out

They’re pharmacists and nurses, doctors and dentists, lawyers and laborers, retirees and millennials.

Some have master’s degrees. Others dropped out of high school.

They come from 38 states, with more than 1,000 calling Chicago home. Each one has a game of choice, be it blackjack or bingo, that has contributed to personal losses.

Those financial hits range from a few hundred dollars to more than $1 million.

And the 13,584 people registered as of this week in Illinois’ voluntary casino Self-Exclusion Program represent only a small fraction of the number of gambling addicts in the state, gaming opponents say.

“That’s just the tip of the iceberg,” says Les Bernal, national director of the Stop Predatory Gambling advocacy group. “Most people who have a problem never come forward.”

Those compulsive gamblers who do try to ban themselves by signing up for the confidential list — which has been maintained by the Illinois Gaming Board since 2002 — aren’t barred from entering any of the state’s 10 existing casinos.

Instead, self-excluders who try to collect their winnings at casinos are forced to surrender their chips or tokens, to be donated to a selection of nonprofit groups that help problem gamblers. After that, anyone on the list who re-enters a casino “faces the distinct possibility” of being arrested for trespassing, according to the gaming board, which notes on its website the program “was created to help problem gamblers help themselves.”

That list is expected to grow in the coming months along with the massive expansion of gambling, including six new land-based casinos across the state and the advent of legal sports betting, according to gaming board spokesman Gene O’Shea, who also directs the Self-Exclusion Program.

The new gambling legislation, expected to be signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker by the end of the month, includes a provision for people to exclude themselves from opening a sports wagering account.

But there still is no self-exclusion program at any state racetracks, nor any effort to keep problem gamblers from using any of the more than 30,000 video gaming terminals set up at 6,773 establishments across the state — a potentially more addictive temptation that leads some gambling opponents to dismiss the existing program as little more than a gimmick.

“It puts the onus on people who can’t control themselves and who often have threadbare support networks,” says Bernal, who estimates the 9,224 Illinoisans in the program represent about 5% of the state’s gambling addicts. That figure would put the total at more than 184,000 — or about one of every 68 Illinois residents.

Anita Bedell — executive director of Illinois Church Action on Alcohol and Addiction Problems, who was one of the few voices in Springfield against gambling during the spring legislative session — says self-excluding works for some. But her organization also hears from addicts who have claimed casinos still took their money despite signing up for the list.

“It’s not a foolproof system. They don’t have facial recognition technology or anything like that,” Bedell says.

Seth Perlman/AP

In recent months, the gaming board has researched video gaming exclusion program possibilities that could involve requiring gamblers to scan driver’s licenses to access gaming machines, O’Shea says.

But since no exclusion program was included in the 2009 law that legalized video gambling in Illinois, officials will have to go through a rule-making process that could drag on for months to implement — well after this year’s legislation brings gambling to new corners of the state.

“There’s going to be no getting away from it,” Bedell says. “Video gambling is already everywhere. This is going to lure even more people.”

Numbers provided by the gaming board offer a snapshot of the 13,584 people who want to be kept out of Illinois’ casinos, including the 207 who have signed up since the start of this year.

Participants are not required to answer all background questions, but seven people said when they signed up that they had lost more than $1 million by gambling over the previous year. Nine gamblers estimated they’d lost between $500,000 and $1 million; another 28 put their yearly loss between $250,000 and $500,000.

The average respondent had lost more than $10,600 over the previous year, and more than $20,600 over the last three years by the time they’d signed up. Twenty-three people pegged their three-year losses at over $1 million.

Nearly half of those on the list — 6,766 — are between 45 and 65 years old. People between 31 and 44, plus those over 65, make up the bulk of the other half. Another 603 excluded gamblers are between 21 and 30.

Illinois residents make up about two-thirds of the list, but they also come from dozens of states spanning the continent from Alaska to Maine, plus one Canadian.

Residents from states bordering Illinois are next highest on the list, including 3,006 Missourians, 690 Iowans, 153 Indianans, 120 Wisconsinites, 146 Kentuckians and 31 Michiganders.

AP Photo/Seth Perlman

Chicagoans account for 1,038 of the participants, including 25 who have signed up so far this year.

Most self-excluders — 8,669 — are white; 2,439 identify as African-American; 1,526 as Asian or Pacific Islander; 648 as Hispanic; and 26 as Native American.

And the addicts have come from different socioeconomic spheres, with 774 respondents listing their personal income at $75,000 or more. Just over 1,000 said they made between $50,000 and $74,999. About 2,000 estimated their income between $10,000 and $40,000.

Of the respondents, 1,480 identified as high school graduates, and 1,141 said they earned a bachelor’s degree. Another 282 earned master’s degrees, and 83 said they went on to advanced degrees.

The games that most recently drove their addiction? Slot machines were the culprit for 4,162 respondents, while 2,219 identified blackjack as their problem game; 1,534 listed video poker; 329 listed sports betting; and 326 listed horse racing.

Another 406 respondents said bingo was their problem game, and 140 blamed the stock market.

More than 1,300 people said they were addicted to playing the lottery. The Illinois Lottery has its own self-exclusion program, for which just 18 people were enrolled as of this week.

For more information on the casino Self-Exclusion Program, visit the Illinois Gaming Board’s website or call 1-877-YOU-QUIT.