DAve Yeager didn’t join the US military to become a pathological gambler. But after reenlisting as a food inspection specialist in the aftermath of September 11, Yeager arrived at his base hotel in Seoul, Korea, feeling overwhelmed and restless. “I walk around and find a casino-style slot machine room,” says the 57-year-old former sergeant. “As soon as I sat down, the first thing I noticed was that my shoulders started to relax. Then I won, and it was like a dopamine hit. In that moment, all the fear, anger and stress I felt just disappeared.”
Suddenly and without warning, a night of gambling here and there became a seven-day-a-week addiction – one that had him calling home for more money, pawning personal belongings and stealing from his unit. When a demotion in rank failed to curb Yeager’s reckless behavior, his bosses threw up their hands.
“My commander, a colonel I really respect, actually said in few words, ‘We have no idea what to do with you because you are such a great artist,’” he recalled of the come-to-Jesus meeting which preceded his transfer. to an American base. “No one has ever used the word gamble. It was ‘this problem you have’.”
While the boom unleashed by the legalization of sports betting in 2018 raised fears of an emerging addiction crisis, this institutional problem — which lies at the heart of the U.S. military — can be traced back decades to rooms like the one where Yeager resides ventured into Korea.
In 1951, Congress banned slot machines from US military bases. In the 1970s, the Army and Air Force removed them from foreign bases, only to slowly bring them back in the 1980s — with the idea that this would keep troops off base from getting into trouble.
Currently, the U.S. military operates more than 3,000 slot machines at bases in 12 countries — up from 8,000 slot machines in 94 countries in 1999, according to the Pentagon. This is in addition to the other games of chance that the army sponsors on bases, in which soldiers aged 18 and over can participate.
The remaining slot machines alone bring in more than $100 million annually, money that each branch sends to groups that support “morale, welfare and recreation” initiatives at all locations, such as movie theaters and golf courses. None of that money, Yeager notes, goes to education, screening or prevention. “If you get into a gambling problem,” he says, “it’s not treated as a mental health problem or an addiction. It is being treated as a money issue and a disciplinary issue.”
All the while, the service members are going deeper and deeper into the hole. a Analysis of patient charts from 2003 A Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center found that of the patient population who had attempted suicide, 64% blamed gambling-related harm for pushing them to the brink. Three years later, the suicide death of a decorated army helicopter pilot forced the general public to do so take some into account the military’s gambling problem.
a 2016 survey among war veterans in Iraq concluded that 4.2% had become risky gamblers after their bet. According to the National Council on Problem Gambling, an estimated 56,000 active duty service members may meet the criteria for a gambling disorder – which more broadly impacts gambling addiction. an estimated 1% of Americans – about the same percentage of the adult population currently on active duty. Both demographics are heavily male.
In a 2021 Rutgers University study on gambling in the military, researcher Mark van der Maas concluded that active and retired military personnel were more than twice as likely to become problem gamblers than the general population — and even that may underestimate the true numbers. by a decent margin. “People tend not to think of the different things they do as gambling with capital money, because that is such a morally charged term,” says van der Maas. “For example, a sports gambler may not think he is gambling because he has put so much time and research into it.”
Van der Maas’ research suggests a link between military service and poor mental outcomes for women, a less studied gambling cohort compared to men. “In general, there are fewer women with a gambling disorder than men,” he says. “But when we talk about the reasons why people gamble, women are more likely to say that they gamble to help cope with a negative emotional state.
“In both the US and Canada, women in military service and law enforcement are exposed to sexual harassment and assault in the workplace. Understanding how living in that emotionally stressful environment can potentially lead to gambling disorders in women is an area where we need to pay more attention.”
Even though gambling has been recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Medical Disorders since 1980, the military is no better at tackling the problem than other U.S. institutions that do not equate gambling with drug or alcohol addiction. (Some insurance companies are just beginning to cover treatment for problem gambling.)
Only since 2019 has the Department of Defense mandated annual screenings for gambling disorders as part of military personnel’s overall health assessment, in addition to conducting random surveys of active-duty soldiers. “Early detection and treatment of gambling disorders and other health-related behavioral problems is critical to maintaining the overall well-being and operational effectiveness of our armed forces,” a Defense Department spokesperson said. Before this statement, neither the Department of Defense nor the VA had publicly commented on efforts to curb problem gambling within their ranks.
Still, the military’s periodic checks on gambling are not as stringent as those on drug abuse or physical fitness. “In fact, only three short questions are needed to indicate whether someone needs more follow-up,” says van der Maas.
This relaxed attitude makes soldiers particularly vulnerable to gambling addiction. “If you think about military personnel, they are very connected,” says Heather Chapman, a psychologist who runs the gambling program at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA, one of the few residential facilities in the country that focuses on the disorder. “It almost becomes a family, and what you see is that behavior becomes integrated into the family structure, something they can do when they don’t have time – whether it’s slots or a Texas hold ’em tournament. It doesn’t have the immediate problematic issues that drugs and alcohol can have. There is no clear screen for gambling, other than financial issues, which could impact a person’s approval if they have significant debt or are going bankrupt.”
Gambling can seem like an especially attractive escape in a high-stress environment that conditions employees to accept risk, bottle up individual problems, and finish the jobs they start. “You learn from day one to leave your problems at the door; you have a mission to do,” Yeager says. “The problem is that even if they become addicted, the mentality is ‘me.’ to have to solve this yourself. I to have to keep this to myself. I can’t leave before I to win.‘
“One of the principles of gambling addiction is the pursuit of losses. Add to that the warrior mentality and you basically have a gambling addiction to steroids.”
Yeager’s addiction resulted in the breakup of his young family, the end of his military career and debt in the high five figures. (“The only thing I didn’t do was borrow from my subordinates,” he says.)
After a decade-long nosedive, including a two-week stay in a civilian psychiatric hospital, Yeager remembers the bewildered counselor at his local VA handing him a package for the VA gambling program in Cleveland. It was only after making that pilgrimage and speaking to veterans in the same foxhole that Yeager turned his life around. Now remarried, reconciled with his family and out of debt, he is raising awareness about problem gambling in the military, touring the country and promoting a book about his recovery.
He hopes to be a light to the military. As gambling becomes more ubiquitous and accessible, in some ways it is even more vulnerable to addiction. “Just having gambling in your pocket now changes everything,” says Chapman. “We won’t really know for another five or six years what the real impact will be if things really boil over.”
Some federal lawmakers have shown a willingness to work together in the interest of preventing disasters. In 2017, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Steve Daines introduced a bipartisan bill that would force the Department of Defense to track gambling disorder in its health assessments and develop policies and programs around treatment and prevention.
Earlier this year, Congresswoman Andrea Salinas teamed with Senator Richard Blumenthal on a bill that would, among other things, direct half of federal taxes on gambling operators to national treatment and research programs. But both measures have struggled to gain traction within a divided Congress.
The inaction only increases the sense of fear within the military’s precincts on the front lines of the gambling problem – not least Yeager, who shudders at the thought of the potential risks to national security if the military’s gambling problem continues unchecked .
“I’m telling you now, it’s only a matter of time before you see stories about the major who lost his commission, or the sergeant who committed treason because of his gambling addiction,” he says. “There is still so much we need to do. And that is why I will not remain silent.”
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In the US, you can call the National Council on Problem Gambling at 800-GAMBLER or text 800GAM. In the UK, support for problem gambling can be found through the NHS National Problem Gambling Clinic on 020 7381 7722, or GamCare on 0808 8020 133. In Australia, Gambling Help Online is available on 1800 858 858 and the National Debt Helpline on 1800. 007 007 .