Contact: Dacia Morris
(212) 543-5421
morrisd@pi.cpmc.columbia.edu

SUPER BOWL SEASON IS HERE. COMPULSIVE GAMBLERS BEWARE

New York, NY (January 24, 2005)—Super Bowl XXXIX is February 6, and serious or compulsive gamblers may very well lose more than money when they place their bets on the outcome of this annual hallmark of football tradition.

Pathological gambling is a crippling problem with serious negative consequences for the individual and his/her family. Private and professional partnerships dissolve because of this addiction and careers can be irreparably damaged.

Dr. Carlos Blanco, a psychiatrist and researcher in the Anxiety Disorders Clinic at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Director of Columbia University Medical Center’s Gambling Clinic, says “Gambling addiction is characterized by a chronic and progressive inability to resist impulses to gamble.”

More than 250,000 people in New York gamble compulsively and for those living in Manhattan, Dr. Blanco’s clinic is the only free option for treatment. Treatment may include medication and behavioral therapy, which includes avoiding the company of other gamblers and carrying the minimum amount of money needed for the day.