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Gambling started as fun, but then she got caught up in the poker craze sweeping the nation.
Soon her heroes were guys she saw playing poker on TV.
In two years, she blew through a fortune playing poker in casinos in Oklahoma and in illegal games in private homes around Wichita.
"Poker took over my whole life. My family didn't matter," says the Wichita woman in her 40s. She didn't want to give her name.
On one binge, she started playing poker in a casino on Friday night and didn't leave the table until Monday morning.
"It takes over your lifestyle. You live for it, you eat for it," she says.
She got the papers to voluntarily ban herself from casinos in Oklahoma, but they sat in her vehicle for weeks before she acted.
It was like volunteering to stop breathing.
Now more than 20 months into a recovery from her addiction, thanks to Gamblers Anonymous and a Wichita counselor, the woman agreed to share her story last week as part of National Problem Gambling Awareness Week. It's a week that may resonate more as Kansas gets further into the casino business.
Only one of four possible state-owned casinos is operating so far. Since the Boot Hill Casino Resort opened in Dodge City three months ago, five people have signed up for the voluntary self-exclusion program administered by the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission.
"No one's been beating down our doors," says Kevin Ford, a certified counselor at New Chance, a treatment clinic in Dodge City.
But the city and county are preparing for more problems.
"I don't think it's going to be doom and gloom, or that it's going to be devastating by any means," Ford says. "But there's going to be a portion of people who have a problem with that."
Patricia Fields, a counselor in Wichita, says she hasn't seen anybody from Boot Hill yet, but that others have. She believes the problem is growing.
"We know the increase is there," she says. "We can't say it's directly attributable to the new casino in Dodge. It could be due to public awareness."
Wichita counselors say they treat people who visit the tribal casinos in Oklahoma, or who gamble in private homes or on the Internet.
A test case
Because casinos in Wyandotte and Sumner counties haven't been built yet, Dodge City and Boot Hill are serving as a test case for dealing with problem gambling.
"We tell them it's sort of like having your first child. You get to practice on the first one," says Jean Holthaus, problem gambling services coordinator for the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.
New Chance has three trained gambling addiction counselors, Ford says. The mental health center, community corrections facility and youth center in Dodge City have one each.
A Ford County task force, consisting of representatives from social services, schools, corrections, mental health, and other groups, meets monthly to discuss education and awareness.
State officials and counselors have made presentations to local organizations, and more are planned.
"They're really bringing a lot of folks to the table," Holthaus says.
Boot Hill, which was required to have a responsible-gambling plan in place prior to opening, has trained its 260 employees to identify the signs and symptoms of problem gamblers. The casino's slot machines show a problem-gambling message every 70 seconds via an electronic slide on each machine.
The state has started a community readiness program in Wyandotte County, where a state-owned casino is scheduled to open at the Kansas Speedway in 2012. Dodge City's task force would help by providing a list of what works and what doesn't.
The best efforts in both communities would be replicated in the south-central zone when Sumner County's casino opens, Holthaus says.
"Hopefully, by the time we get to Sumner we'll all be experts," she says.
Funding for treatment
More than 60 counselors around the state are certified to treat problem gamblers, including seven in Wichita. Those numbers have grown since state-owned casinos were created by the expanded gambling law in 2007.
Charles Thach of Preferred Family Healthcare in Wichita got his license to treat gamblers last year.
"I figured it was going to end up as a problem in the Wichita area, so I wanted to be ready for it so it could meet the needs of my clients when it arose," he says. "If you're addicted to one thing, it's not that hard to gateway into a different form of addiction."
Most of his clients are either going to Oklahoma or participating in illegal sports betting, he says.
Boot Hill opened too recently for those gamblers to show up for treatment yet, he said.
People with gambling addiction, a disease hidden from others because it doesn't have physical symptoms, usually don't seek help until they have hit bottom.
"There usually has to be a major upheaval in their life," Thach says. "They're all trying to get that one big score."
The state's expanded gambling law mandates that two percent of gaming revenue at each state-owned casino goes into a fund for problem gambling and other addictions.
The fund could swell into several million dollars if and when all four casinos open and slot machines go into the state's racetracks as provided by the law. The fourth casino zone, in southeast Kansas, has yet to receive a successful bid.
Through February, Boot Hill already had provided $164,724 for the fund. In the past, the state received a total of $100,000 a year from the Kansas Lottery to deal with the problem.
Kansas is developing a long-range plan for the fund and considering a formula that would provide 30 percent for problem gambling, 50 percent for other addictions, and 20 percent for things that would benefit both areas, such as an updated data collection system, Holthaus says.
As part of the national awareness week, the Kansas Responsible Gambling Alliance introduced a new television ad and web site, ksgamblinghelp.com, to raise public awareness of gambling addictions.
It also offers a helpline, 800-522-4700.
The alliance includes the Lottery, racing and gaming commission, SRS and other state agencies, Boot Hill and the Dodge City community.
Carol Spiker, responsible-gambling coordinator for the racing and gaming commission, says the state still is learning what to do.
With casino gambling growing, she says, "The over-arching goal is that everybody's having a good time and able to do that responsibly."
'A silver lining'
The Wichita woman in recovery is attending college to become a counselor so she can help people like her.
Three years ago she was financially set for life. Now, she works at a retail store to get by.
Stopping her habit made her physically ill and left her addled by obsession, unable to think clearly, she says.
It had been the "high" of the action that she'd craved, not money. Money was just the tool. She'd win big, lose big. By the end, losing $20,000 or more in a night wasn't unusual for her.
"You're riding this crazy chaos, and you're sitting there going, how do you make this stop?" she says.
Her advice to those still asking that question: Call the helpline, follow the Gamblers Anonymous program, go to the meetings, stick with the 12 steps, understand that you're not the only person who's been through it and hope your family sticks by you the way hers did for her.
"There is a silver lining," she said. "You got to find it."
