Latest news with #gamblingaddiction
CBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Regina couple's app teaches mindfulness to break the cycle of addiction
It began with moments of personal reflection. Adam Geiger had been battling a gambling addiction since he was a teenager. "I think it started innocently enough, with things like video games and whatnot," Geiger said. "Looking back, I remember myself being very anxious, always really trapped in my mind thinking of what other people thought of me." After decades of struggle, mindfulness and meditation helped him shift gears, allowing him to explore not just his behaviour, but the thoughts beneath it. "Looking at the nature of thought and what was going on, sort of beneath the surface level stuff," he said. In 2024, he and his partner Chelsea Galloway two decided to build a digital tool to support others facing similar struggles. "I think Adam and I both had this opportunity at the time to really be able to put ourselves into something that mattered to us personally," Galloway said. A year and a half later, their vision became reality with the launch of AlchemistOne, a mindfulness-focused recovery app designed to support people dealing with addictions. A shared mission born from experience Geiger's journey to AlchemistOne began decades ago, when an innocent love of video games and sports grew to compulsive gambling. "I made my first sports bet when I was 13 or 14," he said. "All those thoughts went away and it was very easy for me to escape into gambling." Temporary relief came with long-term consequences. Geiger said he spent more 20 years locked in a cycle of gambling addiction. Once he finally broke that cycle, the app seemed like a perfect opportunity to help others do the same. Galloway, the company's COO, brought both personal insight and business expertise to the project. "Addiction was just something that was really present in our lives," she said. "Adam had a really strong tech background. I had a pretty strong business background. So we came together to build the company." The pair spent months designing what would become AlchemistOne. What started as a two-person initiative now includes six full-time team members and a growing community of close to 6,000 downloads worldwide. A 3-pillar approach Geiger said that at its core, AlchemistOne is built around three key pillars of recovery: Mindfulness and meditation. Active reflection. Physical movement. Users can access a library of audio content, including guided meditations, podcast-style interviews and personal stories from people around the world who are in recovery. Geiger acknowledged an irony in people using the same phone or tablet that accessed gambling sites, social media or other addictive content as a tool for recovery. Instead of turning to a casino app or a harmful distraction, users can open AlchemistOne and engage in a quick mindfulness session. "I think often our phones and our computers are the things that we use to escape into and keeps us a lot of trouble," he said. "We definitely wanted to build that daily companion that lived in that same space that you maybe had some trouble before." Since the launch in April 2025, the response has been swift and steady the pair says. "It's really exciting that we see new members every five or 10 minutes jumping into the app and signing up," Galloway said. For both founders, the real win isn't downloads, it's impact. "We're getting that feedback from people who are saying, you know, this is resonating with me," Galloway said. "It's complicated, it's complex. And if we can just bring something to the table that helps people get through their day and potentially helps long lasting recovery, that's really the end goal."
News.com.au
4 days ago
- Sport
- News.com.au
Mark Kempster had a problem one in four young blokes are going through, now he's waging war against Australia's fastest growing crisis
The day of the 2020 AFL Grand Final was a special treat for sports betting enthusiasts. The Cox Plate had collided with the MCG showdown in a punter's dream. It was also a bookmaker's dream. Untold millions would flow into the pockets of Australia's biggest sports betting enterprises as thousands loaded up multis and trifectas. For Mark Kempster, it was a day that changed him forever. Not solely because he lost $5,000, but because it became the catalyst for a change he knew was needed to keep his life from totally falling apart. That night, his partner scrolled through his phone and saw the full extent of his addiction. 'It was my rock bottom,' Kempster told 'I was a shell of myself. Angry, bitter. I'd gone from a young bloke who loved sport, loved life, to someone who hated himself. And I still couldn't stop.' He hasn't placed a single bet since that night. But he knows plenty of men in Australia are stuck in the same dark and seemingly inescapable pit he was in just five years ago. 'A casino in your pocket' To say sports betting in Australia has exploded over the past decade would be an understatement. In just five years, the number of Australians betting on sports has more than doubled, from about 7 per cent before the pandemic to 15.5 per cent by March 2024. Among young men, the numbers are even higher. One in four men aged 18–24 is now a regular punter, despite the crippling cost of living crisis that's hitting them hard. In the 25–34 bracket, it's one in three. Nearly 18 per cent of that cohort are classified as problem gamblers, meaning those who show a tendency to choose gambling over necessities like food and rent. While civil libertarians may argue gambling comes under the same umbrella as entertainment, and that a very small percentage of the pool of active gamblers are actually ruining their lives, the reality is that we're in uncharted waters when compared to the history of punting. It's is an entirely new breed of gambling built for the smartphone era. 'When I started, it was just a couple of us at the pub after footy,' Kempster says. 'But once gambling apps landed on our phones, it was over. I had 10 or 12 apps in the first year. Suddenly you could bet anywhere, anytime. No one saw it, no one knew. It just snowballed.' Sports betting among young adults is rising at an annual growth rate of forty per cent, according to the Alliance for Gambling Reform's CEO Martin Thomas. 'What we finding is there is a massive surge in sports betting, using your phone,' he told 'All the advertising is trying to make it part of your peer group and socially acceptable. I think that's probably driving the growth. 'Roy Morgan did some research that looked at the rate of online sports betting among 18- to 24-year-olds and it showed that already out of those people like one in four would be developing a gambling problem from sports betting, and the rate of sports betting growth is something like 40 per cent year on year. 'Poker machine growth is around 6 per cent year on year, so it's taking off with a rocket and I think some of the implications of that people potentially aren't going to casinos as much because they're sitting around a pub, betting with mates on their phone. 'Everyone really carries a casino around in their pocket.' Australia's hidden addiction Unlike the pokies, sports betting doesn't have the same visible shame. Any one of your mates could be struggling to fight their urges and plonk their pay cheque down every month. But unless they come to you for help, it's likely you'd never have a clue just how deep they've gone. 'There's a stigma around gambling addiction, but it's worse with sports betting because it's invisible,' Mark Kempster says. 'You can sit in your bedroom on your phone, betting on horses, on the footy, and no one knows. There's no physical change like with drugs or alcohol. You just become this … robot. 'It was comforting, in a weird way. I'd look forward to Saturday all week. I'd plan my whole day around it. Noon to six, the house was mine, my partner was working, my son was little. I'd shut everyone out. Just me, the races, the multis. It was the only thing I cared about.' Even when Mark knew he was addicted, he justified it by resigning to the fact that it was 'just who I was'. 'I'd tell myself, 'This is my money, I work hard, I deserve this.' But towards the end, I wasn't even enjoying it. It was just who I was. I thought I'd never get out.' 'Can't just watch a game anymore' Kempster says the embedding of gambling culture into Australia's youth is taken for granted. As a nation, we have simply become accustomed to putting on the footy and seeing a barrage of messages encouraging you to punt. 'You can't just watch a game anymore without being told you should bet on it,' Kempster says. 'That's what really got me. I loved sport. But over time, I felt like I had to bet on it. I couldn't just enjoy it.' Now, five years clean, the Tasmanian local speaks publicly and lobbies Parliament to rein in the industry. He's also sponsoring dozens of young men who reached out after hearing his story. 'They message me saying, 'That's me. I can't stop.' I know exactly how they feel. I had no one to relate to when I was going through it, so I talk. I say yes to every interview. If my voice stops even one bloke from going down the same road, it's worth it.' Australia is inching toward reform with talk of stricter ad bans, penalties for influencers promoting offshore bookmakers are climbing into the millions. But for now, the taps are still open, and the money is still flowing. 'There's definitely a place for gambling in Australia. But not like this,' Kempster said. 'Not where it's in your face 24/7, not where an entire generation of young blokes think they can't just watch sport anymore without a punt. 'That's how it gets you. Not all at once. Bit by bit, until you don't even recognise yourself.'
Arab News
4 days ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Philippines' Marcos moves to address online gambling crisis amid calls for ban
MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will examine policy options to address the online gambling crisis gripping the nation, his office said on Saturday, as calls mount for the government to enact tighter regulations, or ban internet betting completely. Concerns are growing over the rising number of Filipinos battling addiction to online gambling, which has become more accessible through social media and e-wallet platforms. Marcos is planning to convene a conference of stakeholders to help develop a policy to tackle the crisis, the Presidential Communications Office said in a statement issued on Saturday. 'The president underscored the need to carefully examine policy options, saying an outright ban on online gambling is not (necessarily the) solution,' the statement read. Marcos recently told a media gathering that 'a ban will not take care of the problem,' adding that his administration seeks to identify its root cause. 'We really have this tendency sometimes, when there's a problem, we just ban it. It's not necessarily the solution,' Marcos said, according to a transcript supplied by his office. 'Maybe it is. Maybe after all the discussions, we'll conclude that a ban is necessary — then we'll implement a ban. But let's study it properly. Let's not jump into it impulsively. We have to be measured in our responses. If it comes down to a ban, then we will ban. But if there are better solutions than a ban, we will take those on.' Online gambling has been called a 'silent epidemic' in the Philippines, amid a surge in cases that have sometimes reportedly torn families apart, depleted savings and pushed students into financial ruin. While there is no official data on how many Filipinos are addicted to online gambling, a 2023 survey by Capstone-Intel found that 64 percent of the nation's 117 million-strong population had tried online betting. More than 80 gaming platforms run by local operators are legally registered with the government, and the revenue from e-games has also become a key source of government revenue. In the first half of 2025, the government's gaming regulator — the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation — recorded a gross gaming revenue of 114.83 billion pesos, (around $2 billion) from the e-gaming sector alone, accounting for more than 50 percent of the government's total gaming revenues over the same period. Last month, Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri filed a bill seeking to ban all forms of online gambling in the country, saying in a statement issued on July 4 that the practice was 'quietly harming' Filipinos, especially minors and the most vulnerable. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines has also called on the government to 'declare any type of online gambling illegal.' CBCP president Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David said in a pastoral letter: 'This is no longer a simple problem of individuals. It is now a public health crisis in our society, just like drug addiction, alcoholism and other types of addiction. It destroys not only the individual but also their families.' Others, like Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, are pushing for tighter regulations — including raising the minimum age of players from 18 to 21 and prohibiting e-wallets from providing direct links to online gambling platforms — rather than an outright ban. DigiPlus Interactive, which operates gaming sites BingoPlus, ArenaPlus and GameZone, has said that banning licensed platforms 'does not eliminate demand for online gaming, but merely shifts users to unregulated black markets,' and that it supports tighter regulation.
BBC News
25-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Newport: Accountant stole £2.4m to fund gambling addiction
An accountant stole more than £2.4m from companies she worked for in order to fund her gambling Lewis, 40, who was on a £200,000 salary, stole money from five businesses within the same family of companies, Newport Crown Court heard. Her actions caused considerable stress to other members of staff, causing one director to leave, another to lose out on his salary, and one woman unable to access her pension. Lewis, of Wolverhampton, pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud by abuse of position and was sentenced to five years in prison, with each charge to run concurrently. Her actions also meant that the companies, owned by James Davies, did not contribute enough Davies said Lewis was like a daughter to him, and felt like five companies she committed fraud against included Daisy Vale Limited, Charnwood Accounts, Edward Davies Construction and Fastnet Properties Orndal, prosecuting, told the court that Lewis began working for Mr Davies in 2007, first holding a role as a 2017 she was the accountant for the group of companies after she had her accountancy training funded by the company. However, when the company moved over to an online banking system financial problems began to arise. For the first time, the company began to see a substantial and unexplained downturn in suspicions were raised over an increase in third party payments, Lewis officially resigned in 2023 and a new accountant took Lewis contacted Mr Davies about her severance payment he noticed a link between her account details and a number of other payments on the account. 'Crypto companies' Mr Orndal said: "Instead of paying third party people she had been paying herself and disguising them as proper payments."Between 2018 and 2023, the total payments to her account exceeded £3.6m, with the total being more than £2.4m after her salary and other legitimate payments had been deducted. Mr Orndal said that £1.4m of this was sent to known gambling companies but this figure is likely to be higher as it is difficult to identify all gambling also spent £67,000 on crypto companies and £9,000 on FairFX, a bank which accepts payments in different already fraudulently stealing millions from the businesses, Lewis also asked Mr Davies to loan her £163,000 to help her buy a house, but the money was eventually repaid by her mother and a victim impact statement, Mr Davies said Lewis's crimes had "affected the lives of countless people" and she had also taken money from the Davies said one member of staff had been unable to withdraw her pension, despite working at the company for many years, because Lewis did not fund it a victim impact statement, former director Mark Cotter said that the stress on him had led to his GP making him take four to six weeks off work. "I felt forced to leave the company that I had spent a lot of my life trying to build," he added."I'm in disbelief that all of this happened because of Jemma Lewis."Neil Corre, for the defendant, said she was in this position due to her gambling said she did not gamble to win but to continue gambling, adding she had now been free of the addiction for more than a Corre said she hoped to use her experience to help others. "She has lost her job, her home and she may lose her liberty, but her moral compass has been restored," he Lewis, Judge Daniel Williams said: "You have been a gambler for years, since you were 18 and long before you were employed by James Davies. "Your upbringing was privileged but also blighted by trauma and sadness."
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Can gambling be ‘responsible' in Mass. and the US in the face of addiction?
'High Stakes: Gambling Addiction, Beyond Borders' is a three-part series by New England Public Media looking at the public health movement to address gambling in Massachusetts and the United States, and what can be learned from two countries with very different models of gambling regulation: Norway and the United Kingdom. This is part three of that series. A few hundred feet into the MGM Springfield casino floor, visitors can find the 'GameSense' office, where, amid the loud clanging of slot machines and table games, an employee often stands alone at a desk. They offer swag to get people to stop by — tissue boxes, luggage tags — and are happy to explain how gambling odds work. If anyone feels they need help reining in their gambling, brochures with the state's helpline number are stacked on the counter. The GameSense program has been a centerpiece of Massachusetts' approach to reducing gambling problems, along with Play My Way, a program that allows people to set their own time and money limits in the state's casinos and with online sportsbooks. The programs focus on the 10% of the population that researchers at UMass Amherst estimate either has a gambling disorder or is at risk of one. But with no national commission on gambling nor nationwide gambling policy, Massachusetts — like every state — is on its own to come up with ways to curb gambling disorders. And many addiction experts think the states could do better. A growing number of health and policy makers say it's time to take bolder — and more unified — action, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized sports betting in 2018 and unleashed an aggressive new industry, now legal in 39 states. (Forty-eight states have legalized at least some form of gambling, including lotteries.) 'All (addictions) except gambling have some kind of intervention by the government to impose some constraints and provide some protection,' Democratic U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said. 'The sophistication and complexity of betting has become staggering. And that's why we need … protections that will enable an individual to say no.' Blumenthal and U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, a New York Democrat, have filed the Safe Bet Act, legislation that would impose federal standards on all sports betting companies. Among those regulations: no advertising during live sporting events, mandatory 'affordability checks' on high-spending customers, limits on VIP schemes, a ban on A.I. tracking for marketing and the creation of a national 'self-exclusion' database. 'Gambling is a nationwide activity. States are unable to protect their consumers from the promotions and pitches, the excessive and abusive offers — and sometimes misleading pitches — to gamblers from out of state,' Blumenthal said. 'And [states] simply don't have the resources or the jurisdiction legally to provide the full protection that's necessary.' The fallout, according to Jonathan Cohen, author of the book 'Losing Big: America's Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling,' is putting new generations at risk. 'The landmines are placed in front of young people,' Cohen said, 'and if they don't know any better … they step on gambling as a landmine and it just blows up in their face and they don't even know what happened to them.' The gambling industry has come out strongly against the Safe Bet Act. Joe Maloney, a spokesperson for the American Gaming Association, calls the very concept of federal gambling standards a 'slap in the face' to state regulators across the country. 'You have the potential to just dramatically, one, usurp the states' authority and then, two, freeze the industry in place,' he said. Maloney said the industry acknowledges that gambling is addictive for some people, but he said it has already developed its own solutions through a model called 'responsible gaming.' That includes messages warning people to stop playing when it's no longer fun and entertaining, public education about the low odds of striking it rich and supporting access to treatment for those with gambling disorders. Maloney said there is no need for new federal rules on how companies can offer or advertise their products online or in casinos, which he said would only benefit the unregulated, illegal gambling market. 'There are certain stakeholders that are pretending to represent a certain type of player as a rationale for a one-size-fits-all protection,' Maloney said. But proponents of the Safe Bet Act say the industry's 'responsible gaming' model has failed. Harry Levant, the director of gambling policy at the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University in Boston, calls the model 'ethically and scientifically flawed.' He said it puts all the blame and responsibility on individuals with a gambling disorder. Levant, who helped write the Safe Bet Act, was addicted to gambling himself. A former lawyer, he was convicted in 2015 for stealing clients' money to fund his betting habit. He is also an addiction therapist. He explained that you can't just tell a person struggling with addiction, 'Just don't do that anymore.' 'You need regulation when the industry has shown an inability and unwillingness to police itself,' Levant said. 'It's the moral equivalent of Big Tobacco saying, 'Let us do whatever we want for our cigarettes, as long as we pay for chemotherapy and hospice.' We wouldn't tolerate it with tobacco. We don't tolerate it with alcohol.' Public Health Advocacy Institute Executive Director Mark Gottlieb said 'responsible gaming' targets people who have already suffered great harm, while a public health approach, such as limiting what products can be offered and how, is 'preventing people from experiencing that harm in the first place.' But Gottlieb acknowledged that new federal regulations could be a hard sell in today's political climate. If the Safe Bet Act doesn't pass under this Congress, he is hoping states choose to take strong action on their own. Massachusetts gambling regulators declined to comment on any legislation — neither the Safe Bet Act nor a pending state bill that would limit gambling options. But they say they have come a long way since the state legalized casinos in 2011, when the approach to problem gambling was 'much more about making sure that there are brochures that are available that explained the odds of whatever game it was,' according to Mark Vander Linden, who runs the responsible gaming division of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. The commission says 64,000 people are currently signed up for a Play My Way account, though only a small percentage choose to set personal limits on time and money spent gambling. About 2,300 people have put themselves on a statewide 'self-exclusion' list that bans them from one or all forms of legalized betting for a period of time. Vander Linden said his office is now adapting to the new risks of online sports betting, which lawmakers legalized in Massachusetts in 2022. His team is seeking technology that gives gamblers more ways to curb their play, including software that disables gambling apps on phones and methods to track any uptick in gambling habits. He said they are also designing research to learn 'the science of being able to identify triggers or patterns of risky gambling behavior,' as well as which interventions would change that behavior. State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, D-Northampton, wants to give regulators even more tools. Sabodosa is co-sponsor of the Bettor Health Act, which, like the federal Safe Bet Act, would require affordability checks and advertising limits. It would tax gambling companies at a higher rate and direct additional money to the Massachusetts' public health trust fund for treatment and prevention. The law would also ban 'prop' bets, which are wagers placed during a game on a variety of game-related events — who makes the first shot in basketball, for example, or who hits the first home run in baseball. 'It's encouraging excessive gambling,' Sabadosa said. 'You can win and lose, like, from one second to the next.' Sabadosa also thinks affordability checks, like those that exist in the United Kingdom, can act as a financial safety net. 'If you're only allowed to have two drinks, we know that you're not going to get drunk, right?' she said. 'If you're only allowed to gamble $100 a day because that's an affordable amount, you're not going to go broke.' The American Gaming Association declined to give its position on affordability checks but did say it opposes a ban on prop bets. 'A prop bet is a very, very popular form of betting. It provides for an increased level of engagement,' Maloney, the American Gaming Association spokesperson, said. 'If you suddenly start to pick and choose what can be legal or banned … you're driving bettors out of the legal market and into the illegal market.' Sabadosa doesn't accept that position. 'We've heard that argument from the cannabis industry, too. 'Don't regulate us because then people will go to the black market,'' Sabadosa said. 'But at the end of the day, if you're going to have a legal market, it does need to be protected. That is the whole point of having this legal market.' She added that the goal is not to stop gambling entirely. 'It's to stop the worst excesses of online sports betting.' Many public health advocates say passing any legislation that restricts the growth of gambling won't be easy — not least due to industry lobbying. The watchdog organization OpenSecrets reports gambling companies spent almost $40 million nationally on lobbying in 2024. In Massachusetts, 30 gaming-related companies spent a combined $2.7 million lobbying state lawmakers last year, according to state lobbying disclosures. 'The sportsbooks really benefited from the diffuse nature of sports betting and from the fact that we have 50 states and 50 laws about gambling,' Cohen said, 'because they were able to show up at every different legislature and sort of run roughshod over them with their money, their lobbying, to get the sort of laws they wanted on the books.' At the same time, many state legislators are tempted by the promise of new revenue from expanded gambling, said Harry Levant of the Public Health Advocacy Institute. He's concerned that could launch the 'i-gaming' industry — online roulette, blackjack and other casino-style games — which is currently legal in only seven states. 'We have empathy for how hard it is for states to balance their budgets in this current political environment,' he said, 'but states are starting to recognize the answer to that problem is not to further push a known addictive product.' What could convince lawmakers to restrain the gambling market, Mark Gottlieb said, is a groundswell of advocacy from friends and family of people with gambling addiction, the same way that Mothers Against Drunk Driving pushed for blood alcohol limits on the road. 'That is really the thing that has been missing from this movement,' Gottlieb said. Meanwhile, industry critics are not waiting for legislation to pass; they are also turning to the courts. In June, the Public Health Advocacy Institute sued Caesars Online Casino and Harrah's Philadelphia casino over what it calls a 'predatory' promotion designed to 'snare' consumers into more gambling. The city of Baltimore is suing several sportsbooks for their aggressive marketing practices. And Cohen said simply publicizing the risks of gambling — in a way that young people will notice — can work too. 'So whatever sort of counter programming that can be provided to Jamie Foxx playing piano and telling you that gambling is cool, I think that would be the place to start,' Cohen said. 'We don't have to wait for government to do that.' This project was supported by a grant from the Association of Health Care Journalists, with funding from The Commonwealth Fund. It was edited by Dusty Christensen, with help from Elizabeth Román. Red Sox rain delay: Sudden monsoon in DC causes stoppage in 2nd inning Sunday MLB insider tabs 'Rafael Devers duplicate' as perfect fit for Red Sox in free agency Funeral info announced for woman killed in Wrentham single-car crash MLB insider connects ex-Red Sox outfielder to NL West contender 'Our final song': Legendary metal singer plays final epic show amid health issues Read the original article on MassLive.
