“It puts people at risk, even people who are not predisposed to addiction,” she said.

Addiction counseling for problem gamblers is already a growth industry in Ontario, Ashabo said.

“It’s like wildfire right now.”

The false god of gambling Written by Catholic Register Staff The 1997 Catechism of the Catholic Church bases its lone paragraph (2413) concerning gambling on the seventh commandment — “Thou shalt not steal.” Gambling becomes morally unacceptable when it deprives someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others, according to the official guide to the Church’s moral thinking. However, every addiction counsellor who spoke to The Catholic Register said the Church ought to look at gambling in terms of the first commandment — “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Problem gamblers are engaged in a form of idolatry, said Southdown Institute addiction and relapse prevention therapist Christiana Ashabo. “They are depending on this thing as a god, a little idol,” Ashabo said. This is as true for gambling addictions as it is for any other addiction, she said. “When you are an addict, there’s a depth of your soul that has been affected, like it or not,” said Ashabo. “(Gambling) takes all those thought processes, all of those goals, and focusses our minds entirely on money and greed and all the things that are supposed to be purchasable — respect, comfort and security,” said clinical therapist and problem gambling specialist Mike Buckley from Halifax. “Respect, comfort and security are supposed to be provided, and I believe are provided, within our relationship to God. It is pulling people away from even considering what faith should be to them.” Gambling addicts enter a kind of altered consciousness that mimics mystical experience, said addictions counsellor Laura Hakala of the Sr. Margaret Smith Centre in Thunder Bay, Ont. “There’s mysticism in terms of bringing talismans to the casino that allow me to feel I have control over my environment,” she said. “The omnipotent cognitive distortion — lady luck. I control. I am God, because I control what happens, the play on making a bet. There’s that omnipotent, powerful feeling.”

The privacy and ease of access to online gaming makes it a particular danger for young people, she said. Though most of Ashabo’s work at the Aurora, Ont., Church-affiliated Southdown Institute is with clergy and religious, she also has also counseled addicts in private practice and in other addiction recovery programs.

“In the next five years we’re going to have a real problem with kids,” said Ashabo.

A 2006 study into gambling addictions for the Responsible Gambling Council of Ontario found Internet gambling nearly tripled between 2001 and 2005. But when it came to 18- to 24-year-old poker players, online gambling had increased 392 per cent over four years.

The study found that almost 50 per cent of Internet gamblers gamble every day. For all forms of gambling, the study found 78,110 severe problem gamblers in Ontario in 2005, with another 253,857 with moderate problems.

But the biggest addict may be the government itself, which now relies on gambling revenues rather than taxes to finance many social services, including addiction recovery services.

“They are addicted and they’re not going to be able to give it up,” said Mike Buckley, problem gambling specialist with the Capital District Health Authority in Halifax.

One therapist who spoke to The Catholic Register asked that we not name her after she said, “It’s absolutely atrocious that the province generally funds its not-for-profit social services through the proceeds of gambling.” Her agency needs such grants.

Is that money tainted? “Absolutely,” she said.

When gambling is not just approved but sponsored by the state it’s hard to convince people it might be either dangerous or morally doubtful, said Buckley.

A third of Ontario’s gambling revenues come from just five per cent of gamblers.

The fallout in broken families, poverty, crime, other addictions and suicide is not minor, said Ashabo.

“People do die from it, just like any other addiction,” she said. “And particularly because of the hidden nature. That’s my concern about this online thing.”

In Thunder Bay the Sr. Margaret Smith Centre, part of the St. Joseph’s Care Group of the Sisters of St. Joseph, is using spirituality to battle addictions, including problem gambling.

“Addiction is a spiritual crisis. Spirituality must be part of the treatment,” said addiction counselor Laura Hakala.

From journaling to a daily examination of consciousness, which the centre calls “Greet the Day,” the centre treats gambling addictions by trying to reconnect people with God. A spiritual advisor has a leading role with each group that goes through its four-week recovery program.

“We teach a lot of cognitive behavioural therapy and we teach a lot about changing thinking,” said Hakala.