Updated July 2016: 

Hi good people. After more than a year away from my work as a gambling therapist I am slowing restarting to connect again..

I plan on adding some new features here including some gambling addiction discussions that I will record and post here in a few months.

I have also added my first attempt at recording a video for posting here.. I am asking for topics that you want regarding gambling addiction, if you have a topic that you want me to respond via a video please use the contact Dr geffner and be as detailed and specific question you would like me to address. 

A lot of my older youtube videos (on the topic but not ones that have me speaking in them) have been pulled off for one reason or another over the past decade, so I have deleted them from this list...Using youtube and searching gambling addiction will bring up so many good ones and more current offerings so it might be best to just hunt around on your own rather than having an outdated list here.. but I have just started to update my list (late Jan 2016) in the meantime do poke around on your own...

First up we have One Last Bet. I updated (1/20/16) this link so that it is one link instead of four 15 minute links

IMPORTANT!!!!!!!

PLEASE if you think watching a video that shows people gambling will trigger you to want to gamble or create an urge I would suggest not watching ANY of the videos on this page except ones that I have posted featuring myself talking about gambling addiction (which so far is very limited as I am just now working on this project

One Last Bet

One Last Bet is a video that I have been using for many years in my treatment of gambling addiction and educating the public on the addiction. It is VERY dated now, but still a very helpful overview of the addiction. I really suggest watching it to better understand the addiction. I ask my patients to watch this and to try and spot similar thinking that they have currently or in the past. It is also find it useful to demonstrate the progressive nature of the disease and how severe it can get. Each case vignette is progressively deeper in the disease.

The first case is a female slot machine gambler named Mary Lou who appears to be in denial of her addiction and is only showing very small signs of the disease. Her minimization of "lying about her gambling" is the clue that something is wrong, her using gambling as a way to get out of the house, her attempts to read books on it to control it, gambling when she was depressed, trying to manage it on her own... these are really common issues for someone who is in an earlier stage for the disorder, she also uses a common rationalization that she is not missing work or not embezzling.. this approach is the "Im not so bad" mentality seen in early stages.. Finally she  expresses an unwillingness to stop, almost a fear of even thinking of stopping. One of the other main issues she shows is that she does not stop after a win, she will keep on gambling till the money is gone. To me, this the one of the hallmarks of all addictions: continuing the behavior when most people would be satiated. In addition, we see how the credit card industry is also feeding off of her problem. A few years ago I contacted Mary Lou and she reported that she no longer gambles.

The first more indepth case study is so tragic, actually of these are, but this one shows a lady who looks like she could be someone's grandmother a person who was a good employee but eventually embezzles from her job to gamble. In the years I have done this work, I have seen many cases where honest and good people are twisted by the addiction to the point of committing illegal acts that they never otherwise would have.  She clearly shows how the disease progresses over a period of time.The issue of honestly is a critical one in gambling addiction treatment, it is the source of pain for spouses. Most, but not all of my patients are lying only when they are in their addictions and otherwise would be honest people. Gambling addiction recovery requires a willingness to become rigorous honest and open. The majority of women who become addicted to gambling do so with either on slots or video poker, she this example of a female blackjack gambler is somewhat unusual. Being unable to leave without putting winnnings back into more gambling especially after a win is very common. I would have to say that nearly all of my patients tell me that they win, often big, but are unable to leave when they do.  After  these first venettes you will hear a few experts discuss the types of people who are most vunerable, and impact of the expansion of gambling.  The Third case is Kenneth MacGreggor and starts at minute 15. About 15% of my patients have drug or alcohol problems, the rest usually would not ever abuse drugs or alcohol and do not relate to those problems. Kenneth shows how very successful in business many of my patients are also how knowing about one type of addiction and being in recovery from it does not do much to help with gambling addiction. This shows the progress from social gambling to pathological gambling. I love the way he speaks about his delusional thinking the rush he felt when gambling, as well as the ego involvement he expereinced. Helping my patients to learn about the neuological basis for the "rush" and the need to not seek this experience and let the brain is essential to help them recovery, as is their often subjective experience of bordeom.  

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This 60 minutes episode on Slot Machines is highly recommended

60 Minutes

Here is my first video, it is rough and topic is on anxiety not gambling.. I will probably delete this one as it is just a test run and start to add in gambling videos but I need your help, please send me a note with a question regarding gambling that you would like me to address here.... 

Frontline documentary on Fantasy Sports

This new documentary (Feb 2016) is problematic, it shows, in my view a bit too much emphasis on a "successful" fantasy gambler. I put the word successful in quotation marks because it's really too soon to say. Although the person featured is clearly earning money in fantasy football at this juncture only time will tell how that transpires over the next few years for him and the cost of putting so much energy and effort into this activity that could be easily changed by regulation or other industry changes to the exclusion of developing other career paths must be considered as what we call opportunity costs of his behavior. In addition, this video may trigger sports betting gamblers and should not be watched by anybody who is feeling vulnerable and that it might be better not to watch a video that might cause them to want to engage in this behavior if they're trying not to. The issue fantasy sports is very controversial in the world of gambling addiction recovery. Initially a few years ago it was not considered to be as big of a problem as it is now with the new formats and the rapid daily gambling activity that is now available. 

Dr. Geffner on Anxiety This is just an initial video that I made it's not very well produced I'm just trying to get comfortable with creating videos for this website so this video is just regarding anxiety and not gambling addiction.

I PROMISE TO START RECORDING NEW GAMBLING VIDEOS SOON BE PATIENT AND CONTINUE TO CHECK BACK MONTHLY FOR THEM IT IS A BIG PRIORITY AND I AM JUST TRYING TO GET TO IT, I HAVE TO FIND EDITING SOFTWARE THAT IS COMPATIBLE ALSO FIRST

I just heard (june 2016) that gamblers anonymous has a few things posted I searched you tube under gamblers anonymous meetings (also speakers) and found several please try for yourself but be careful there are some fake ones trying to fool people...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNA3AgTsNGI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCW0-RDUY3A