Taking a chance - Aging gamblers are on a roll at burgeoning casinos -- fun for most, a problem for some.
The bus is still a half-hour away from the casino, but onboard, the action is already hot and cash is changing hands. Of the nearly 50 people riding from San Bernardino to Fantasy Springs Casino near Indio, almost all are senior citizens. Most riders have at least one bingo card stuck into the seatback in front of them. A few have as many as three, scanning quickly from one to the next as a woman in a sequined top calls out letters and numbers. One multi-tasking retiree uses a handheld electronic game to bone up on her video poker skills in between bingo games. Others spend the breaks talking about past slot-machine winnings and the jackpots they hope to take home today. "The fun is just beginning," says 83-year-old Shirley Richcreek when the bus finally stops in front of the casino. "This is why we ride all this way." Idle chit-chat ends abruptly. Canes, walkers and electric scooters are unloaded as the riders queue up to collect a free $10 voucher good for play on the machines inside. Richcreek and her fellow riders are part of what experts say is a growing group in the United States in general and Southern California in particular: seniors who gamble. The weekday scene on the Turnpike Tours bus is repeated hundreds of times a week as similar companies drop off busloads of retirees at casinos from Coachella to Temecula. A study published in the January issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry found that nearly 70 percent of the 843 seniors surveyed reported gambling at least once in the past year. Of those, about 11 percent were considered "at risk" gamblers -- people who bet more than they can afford to lose. The phenomenon has some experts worried. They say gambling can become an addiction that ends up consuming some seniors' Social Security and pension checks along with most of their spare time.

No Problem For Most
But many senior gamblers, supported by a recent Yale University study, say that getting out into the stimulating environment of a casino is good for people who might otherwise sit at home. Richcreek said she makes the trip from a parking lot near her Highland home to a casino every week to play bingo, blackjack and the slot machines. "I like being with other people," she said. "If you stay home, what do you do, listen to the boob tube? Good grief! That's pretty dull." Richcreek said she's won up to $1,200 playing bingo and a couple of hundred dollars one time playing the slots. But she admits that she usually takes home less cash than she brought. "When I'm losing, I quit playing and then I watch other people lose," she said. Most seniors who gamble are like Richcreek, said Bruce Roberts, president of the California Council on Problem Gambling. They gamble as a form of entertainment and do not wager more than they can afford to lose. But just like any other segment of the population, Roberts said about 5 percent of seniors are prone to compulsive gambling that can lead to the loss of everything, including savings and possessions acquired over a lifetime.

Casinos Close to Home
Like numbers on an electronic keno game, casinos have been popping up across California since the landmark 1987 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that affirmed Indian tribes' right to conduct gaming on Indian land. Now area seniors who once had to travel to Las Vegas to play the slots find themselves within a short drive of one of the Inland region's 11 casinos -- including six located in the low desert retirement mecca of the Coachella Valley. A 1999 report released by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, an independent commission created by the U.S. Congress to study gambling's social and economic impacts, found that people who live within 50 miles of a casino are twice as likely to develop a gambling problem. Roberts said the Palm Springs-based Council on Problem Gaming has documented consistent increases in the number of calls to its crisis hot line. That includes a 28 percent increase in calls from seniors in 2003 over 2002. "That's really the only way we can measure significant changes," Roberts said. The chairman of the California Indian Gaming Association, a trade group that represents tribes in the gambling business, said tribal casinos do recognize seniors as an essential part of their customer base. Anthony Miranda, a member of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians that operates the Pechanga Resort & Casino near Temecula, said gaming tribes also recognize that gambling can be a problem for some seniors just as it is for some gamblers in other age groups. He said the tribes train casino workers to help them spot gamblers who are out of control and provide a toll-free number where they can get help. Miranda said casinos can and have banned problem gamblers from playing if they believe the problem is severe. The tribes also provide $3 million a year to help fund programs such as the California Council on Problem Gaming.

Healthy Entertainment?
Sitting quietly at an idle slot machine, Elodia Gaytan said she comes to Fantasy Springs at least twice a month. The 74-year-old retired nursing assistant from Indio said she once won a $3,000 jackpot.  On this day, she has lost the $25 that she usually brings to the casino for gambling. Despite her losing day, Gaytan had a smile on her face and said she would come more often if she could.  "When I'm sad, I come here and I forget everything about my troubles," she said. "I feel better."  The Yale University study supported the idea that seniors like Gaytan who gamble regularly and recreationally have fewer health complaints than their peers who do not gamble.  Dennis McNeilly, a psychiatry professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center who specializes in geriatrics and gambling, said the Yale study was flawed because it relied on a relatively small sample and excluded problem gamblers.  But McNeilly added it is possible that seniors who gamble recreationally have fewer health problems than their peers who don't gamble.  "There might be some benefits in terms of stimulation and socialization. But those would occur on the way to the casino," he said. "If you look at people at slot machines, they're not being particularly social."  He said a recent poll of about 7,000 people at senior and retirement centers in the Omaha area revealed that out of a list of about a dozen different outings, including going to the theater and the library, playing bingo came in number one, followed closely by a trip to a casino.

No Gamble For Casinos
McNeilly said seniors today are part of a generation that has seen gambling go from a vice to mainstream entertainment. "All you have to do is go to any casino on any weekday," McNeilly said. "The majority of the people there are going to be older adults." No one has conducted a comprehensive study on the number of seniors who gamble, but the promotions offered by casinos to attract seniors are proof that they are an increasingly important part of the gambling industry's customer base, McNeilly said. "One local casino here offered a 50 percent discount on prescriptions. Others have given away free flu shots," McNeilly said. "One casino down in the San Diego area was even offering free oxygen tank refills." McNeilly said its smart marketing, given that the population in the United States is growing older as the baby boom generation approaches retirement. In addition to offering special promotions, McNeilly said casinos make seniors feel welcome in other ways. "Part of the attraction for older adults is that casinos are very friendly, they're very safe and very accessible," he said. "If you have a wheelchair or need a walker or an oxygen tank, it's not a problem. It's one of the few places older adults can go where their age isn't a problem." Seniors make up about 90 percent of the 3,000 gamblers who come by chartered bus to the Pechanga Resort and Casino near Temecula each week, group sales manager Tom Trump said. "I think every casino would agree that they are a very important part of the business because they do come in, even in softer times," Trump said. "When the younger people are at work, they (seniors) have the time to come in and spend their money." To encourage senior gamblers to come, Trump said the casino will often pay the cost of sending a bus out to pick them up. "We've done day runs from as far away as Oxnard," he said. In addition to the free ride, the gambler also gets a voucher, good for gambling cash. In exchange, the group agrees to spend at least five hours at the casino, a practice Trump and others in the industry say is common. "We feel that five hours makes for a nice afternoon but not too long of a day," he said. Trump added the subsidized trips are a good deal for seniors and for the casinos. "We fortunately can do tracking and it is definitely worthwhile for us to continue offering these programs," he said.

What's The Attraction?
Gary Lange, a licensed marriage and family therapist and state-certified gambling counselor in Palm Springs, said about half of the problem gamblers he treats are senior citizens. Lange said for some seniors, gambling is a way to deal with loneliness, boredom and depression. "I had a senior one time who said the biggest gamble he'd ever taken was retirement," Lange said. "Some older people think, 'I might as well enjoy my money now, because I don't know how long I'm going to be around.' " Richcreek said her children don't mind that she gambles -- but quickly added that it wouldn't matter if they did. "My kids have no right to an inheritance. It's my money," she said. "As long as food is on the table, what does it matter where I spend my money?" McNeilly said because most senior gamblers don't have a problem, friends and relatives must be thoughtful when they discuss the issue. "You can't assume that people because they are older, they don't have right to make decisions about how they entertain themselves or spend their money," he said.

Entertainment Bargain
As for seniors who gamble, they say a casino trip is just another form of entertainment that is not necessarily any more expensive than a more conventional destination. At the Janet Goeske Center in Riverside, the chartered casino bus rides are among the senior center's most popular activities, outstripping trips to the Lawrence Welk Resort near Escondido and other outings, tour director Lillian Satterfield said. Taking a break from a card game in the center's dining room, Lena Wilburn said a day at the casino is relatively inexpensive. "I went to Disneyland recently with my grandkids and it cost me $65 just to get in there," the 77-year-old said. "And then you have to buy lunch." At a nearby table, Larry R. Wilson, 64, of Riverside said he likes the good deals the casinos offer on food, especially the Pechanga casino's buffet. He said the trick is to only take cash and leave when that is gone. "What's the difference if you lose it in a slot machine?" he asked. "Or you give it to Lawrence Welk."