InFocus featuring Peter Hall (Gambling Addiction & Education)

From the 22 News Plus Studio, this is 22 News In Focus with Patrick Berry. Hello everyone and welcome to this edition of In Focus. I am your host Patrick Berry. If you've been watching this show for the last year, I guess, you've probably seen some of my interviews with Dr. Rachel Volbert from the University of Massa up in Amherst. She is the preeminent brain on gambling. She and I talked about the history of gambling here in the United States and around the world and the growth of gambling, especially when it comes to MGM launching in Springfield a decade or so ago. Well, unbeknownst to me, those conversations have progressed into this conversation and I'm excited today because joining me across the desk is Peter Hall. He is a teacher at Springfield Central High School and Peter has a history with gambling, both from a personal experience as well as an educator experience. So we will talk about a little bit of everything. Peter, thank you so very much for joining me. I appreciate you coming in today to talk about this. Teaching our kids about gambling is sort of a new thing here in the state of Massachusetts and you're one of the first educators to get involved in a program to bring awareness of gambling to our kids. But you have a history with gambling. Tell me a little bit about that. Yeah, I think as every young kid, AC Ducey around the table, Bikino, all these little things that at the time, it's nickels and dimes, but it doesn't matter. You're playing blackjack with friends, whatever. Hanging out and then college comes around and you get meal money from the coaches. You're like, this is the most cash I've had in a few weeks. I played baseball in college, so we'd sit around in the airport and what do you do? We're seeing a group of guys around with a bunch of cash that haven't had in a while. Exactly. Some people, me included, gambling away our meal money for the week. But that was nothing compared to what it came into. But that's no different than thousands, if not millions of kids, boys and girls growing up. Right. And so what I've heard too, and I don't really know how I feel about it, just something that I heard was that gambling down in your basement with friends is way safer than drugs and alcohol out where the parents aren't around. It makes a lot of sense, but at the same time, it's still as deteriorating or can lead to other things because it's the same type of feeling you get from substance abuse or alcohol abuse. Right, you get that high. You get that high. And even though your parents think you're safe, now with the cell phones and everything like that, completely changes the game. Let me ask you, so how old are you, if you don't mind my asking? Yeah, 40. Okay, so you're 40. So the ease of gambling here in Western Mass is you were about 30, right? So when I first started gambling, for real, I had a bookie. Old school and you have to make the phone calls. Yeah, it was on the internet, not as cool as an app. It would shut down at certain times. So if you didn't get a bet in, there was no live betting. There was a little bit more of a hindrance than it was once the FanDuel and all that came up, but that's how it all started about $27, $28, $5 here, $25 there, World Cup, baseball games, nothing like you see on the amp up, this bet and the parlays. Completely different, right? It's funny, when I was younger, you actually got these little paper tickets. You kind of wrote on it. That in there too. Yeah, I bet on those. So there were some hindrance around it though, you didn't get to see the guy, the person doing it, you didn't get to bet. Then the cell phone is what got me into a lot of trouble with sports gambling. That's how it all started. Easier connection. Easier connection, allowing you to bet money you don't have, which I thought was wild. So I could upload money from an account. The plan for me was to win the bet, put it back into the account before the bank even knew that I withdrew too much money. That's how it all went downhill, because I was betting with money I didn't even have, putting it on the app, and then hopefully by Monday, I could win a bet and put it all back into the bank account by Sunday. By Monday, no one's the wiser. Yeah, no one knows anything. That's where it got dangerous, was I was playing with money I didn't have. So were these all $5 bets or $10? No, no. I would like to say it started that way, but then as it got worse, my dad passed away at the time when I started gambling the most. It was about five years. He left me a substantial amount of money, but I'm supposed to take care of my mom with that money. That's what hurts the most is that I was taking that money as ammunition to play with, but I would justify it like every degenerate gambler does. Compulsive gambler, we justify anything we're doing. Well, it's my money. It's no big deal. So what would happen is I would lose, never won, just so you know. I have no wins to talk about. So every time I'd lose, I didn't have the money in the account because I already told you I uploaded it. I would take money from that money that my dad left me, make my account in the black, at least, and then- For a few minutes. Yeah, and then tell my mom that she needs to stop taking money out of the account because it's going to run out. Blame it on her. That was my story. Luckily, moms are awesome. I haven't had in two and a half years and slowly paying my mom back. I only got a little ways to go, but luckily my mom stood by me. Like I said, moms are awesome. She loves me still. Looking back now, how do you feel about the type of person you were through that period of time of gambling? Oh my gosh. So everyone that I am close with knows what I went through and knows what I went through. I made those immediate amends. So it all started, my wife and my mom cornered me. They're the ones that said, something's going on. We don't know what it is. We just know there's a bunch of money missing from your mom's account. So that night, I went to, again, it was an anonymous meeting. That's how it all started. It was that night. My wife has stayed by me, which she was worried. What did I do to the kids? Did I use their social security number to take out credit cards? How bad is this? So when I tell people, there's been worse situations to me. Families have left. They've ruined their child's future with monetary value. Parents have not forgiven them. I've been very fortunate. I have friends who I gamble with. Don't gamble around me. Don't entertain it. I don't know what it would look like if I was to sit around a poker table playing with my buddies. I don't know how it would go, but I do know it's not worth trying right now. But I have to imagine that's similar to being an alcoholic and hanging around friends. You can't have it accessible because you don't know what will happen. The worst, best, the next one. You never know what it could lead to. I would love to think like it'd be okay, but I don't know what would happen when everyone goes to bed. Do I get on my phone? Do I download an app that no one knows about and start adding accounts? It's not worth it to me right now at this point in time. But as it pertains to relationships, the person that I was was not a good person. I was mean at work, mean to coworkers, mean to kids, short, tempered. I was basing my day off what my bank account looked like the morning I woke up from placing a bet at two o'clock in the morning. Did that bet hit? And then if I was in a good mood, everyone else is in a good mood. But if I was in a bad mood, everyone knew about it, but no one knew why. I don't know how my wife put up with it, but it lasted. I was not getting any sleep. It got progressively worse, and then it just got to the point where I'm staying up till three o'clock in the morning betting on sports I don't know anything about, whatever's going on, waking up in the morning, going to work, trying to make my money back while kids... And this is where it started for me. I need to make amends to students that I no longer have. So this is the way I'm giving back. We'll get into that in a little bit, I'm guessing. But I would sit there on my phone playing online something to try to make my bank account into the black. So when I think back of what I'm doing now, that's the moment where I'm like, I need to make amends to students, even though the students that I was hurting aren't there anymore. That is the only way that I can make amends with the students that are in front of me now. But I've spoken to all my coworkers who I've had to out-raise my voice to or whatever and explain to them that this is who I was. It's not who I am anymore. It's going to take some time, but they have all been very supportive and I couldn't be more thankful for that. But me as a person, I was not. The last thing I'll say is I remember my mom sitting down at the Thanksgiving table, we're watching football. You've got one thing on your mind. One thing on my mind. And my mom talked about how she ate too much and how she's so sick of being unhealthy. And I just looked at her and I said, I'm the most unhealthiest person that you and because I knew it. And that was November. I was caught in February. Thank goodness. So that was four months later. Who knows where to have gone to? I would have drained my mom's account. Great story. We've got plenty more to talk about when we come back and how Peter has taken his life and is now helping younger kids. Stay with us. We're back in just this is 22 news in focus with Patrick Berry. This is 22 news in focus with Patrick Berry. Welcome back everyone to this edition of in focus. I am your host, Patrick Berry sitting across the desk from me today is Peter Hall. He is a, a, a recovering. Yeah. Gambler in recovery, a gambler in recovery. But what's, what's most exciting about this conversation is he's taking his own personal life experiences and has gotten involved in a statewide organization that is helping educate kids kind of, so they don't go through what you went through. Tell me about this, this group that you're involved with that is, you know, the history of it and where you are today as far as a cohesive organization to educate kids. So when I went through my story and I knew that I needed to get a curriculum involved into the Springfield public school system or into my high school, at least where I am the department chair as well. So I started off by reaching out downtown, ask if there was anything that they offer for educating youth and gambler got a email back from a lady downtown. Her name's Priscilla. She as a central alum, she had, she does this group leadership with the youth in Springfield. Once the casino came in and they have a bunch of anti gambling information. She created two lessons for us that we could implement right into the substance abuse curriculum. That's where we implemented our mental health, depending on which teacher was teaching it. So that's kind of how it all started that same year. That was the fall semester of 2025 or 2024, somewhere around there. That's how it all started. Unbeknownst to me, there's stuff going on, the attorney general's office, all this stuff. And I get an email, I get an email that just, it was forwarded to me from an assistant principal who said, I think knowing what you've gone through, I think this would be an amazing opportunity. And it was the email from the gambling youth coalition and he forwarded to me. And that's kind of how I got hooked up with them. They designed a four lesson curriculum designed by them for us to present. And at the time, two years ago, it was only five people in the room. And this past year we had 26, I believe, educators in the state of Massachusetts teaching it. So this really is in its infancy. It's still in kind of a beta form. Yeah. It's still, everything is pilot. That's what they're calling it. Even though it's the second year, it's still pilot because they're trying to collect data, what they're noticing. I mean, we've made some changes from the first year to the second year. This year was a hundred percent better than last year. And we're going to continue to keep growing and getting better at the information we're giving out. And this came down from attorney general Campbell's office? Yeah. From my understanding, I would definitely want to check that. But from my understanding, because I'm way down low and it was just given to me and I jumped at the opportunity. And so I was like, this is my way to make amends with the thousands of students that have gone through my classroom when I wasn't paying attention. So this is what I can do to help. So when this was initiated a couple of years ago, the program continually gets better. What is the program? What are you sharing or teaching our kids? So it's four lessons. The first lesson is an overview of gambling. The second are the warning signs. And this all sounds familiar because this is just like how you would teach substance abuse or mental health or alcohol abuse. The third is media. So I remember being in school and you're getting the media of how Budweiser and all these things are, it's the same thing, but how it's a people on the TV, the announcers are just talking openly about gambling. It's part of the show now. Like, hey, what's the fan duel? Better the game. It's just part of the show. And then the fourth one is financial literacy. It's funny because I think of some sports, hockey, I think more so than some of the others. They got DraftKings logos on their helmets. There's advertising in the arena. And you're right. The announcers talk about these. So it used to just be on billboards and signage. Now, the way that they, it's just part of the conversation. It's a normal thing. Everyone should be on DraftKings right now. Put this bet in, you'll be a winner. It doesn't bode well for the future, in my opinion. That's why I took this on, to just teach the warning signs. And my biggest concern, and I mentioned this before, I do not want this to be the dare program where, don't do this. So then when you get older, you want to give it a shot. It's just making them aware. And if you can just know, the financial literacy part, I believe is very important where you just know like, hey, I do have $200 in spare cash that I, but if it does get out of hand, I got to be able to reel it in. And I don't want to just say, don't do it. Because not everyone is like me. You have to give real life examples, which you are doing, which is I think helpful, but I just don't want to say, don't do this. And then the first thing they do is like, I want to go download this cool app that I would just learn about in school. Do you have those moments when you're talking to the kids where you just, you sort of see something in their head. I mean, you see it as a teacher normally, but through this program, when it just sort of clicks, where all of a sudden, you talk about the media side of it. Hey, listen to the way they announce this. And do you ever see that with a student where all of a sudden they go, oh, wow. Yeah. The first time I heard that expression was, oh, shoot. Coach Hall is really talking about this right now. That's why I thought from my place would hold more weight for them because we knew each other. We developed a rapport throughout health class. So when I first dropped that bomb, it's like, okay, keep going. And then when it comes to how young, they got the, oh, wow, moment of how young kids are starting to gamble and of how many are gambling according to the data we collected last year. I don't have the numbers off the top of my head, but in all there. And for the most part, and if you read the article that was from the common, they talk about boys and gambling way more prominent. Obviously they're, the girls are, we're kind of like, but we don't everybody's doing it, but the sports gambling specifically, right. The guys know a lot about sports and I'm going to bet the over, I know this team, the girls hear it a lot, but they don't really partake in the sports, but there's other forms. Yes. Yes. Real estate or not real estate stocks and all that stuff, even though it's stocks, it's gambling. It's gambling. We are up on our second commercial break. Stay with us. Plenty more to talk about after this. This is 22 news in focus with Patrick Berry. Welcome back everyone to this edition of in focus. I am your host, Patrick Berry. Today, we are talking about gambling, problem gambling, the addiction to gambling, but most importantly, educating our students in our school districts around the state and here in the Pioneer Valley about the risks and the effects of gambling. I'm excited today because joining me across the desk is Peter Hall. He is a Springfield, a teacher of Springfield Central High School. He has a personal history with gambling, but what he has done also is he's become part of a coalition that is really in the pilot stages of creating programs to educate our kids, we talked about just before the most recent commercial break. The pilot program has been in existence a couple of years. What's next? What would you like to see next as we start teaching our kids? I'm not the only one involved in this. There are 25 other educators who the coalition trained this past spring and were able to implement it right away. What we're doing is collecting all the data and seeing where the changes need to be made, leave the same. There's not much. I think it's a really solid program. What I want to see and I think what a lot of everyone wants to see is the coalition asking teachers what would make this better. They've been on their own for two years. The trainers, as we're called, had a lot to say this past time because we're all educators now. The first year they did it, it was just five people with me being the only educator, which is still whatever. Thank you for that. Then with all these educators in the room, there were so many ideas. The coalition's trying to roll this out in three weeks and we can't make all these changes now. Everyone's got to teach the same because we need to collect the data if we want to keep the program going. The only thing that I would just ask or request is that we have more of a say in how this information is coming across because us being in the trenches know, I think, better. I am not at all trying to take away from all the work that they have been doing because they have given us a great structure for how this is going to roll out in the future. Let me ask you, are you the only former gambler involved in this or are there others who have gone through the same experiences as you that are now doing the education side of it? If there are, I'm unaware of it. I'm the only one that speaks about it, but there definitely could be someone out there. It is what it is, but I do not know the answer to that. If somebody's watching this now, maybe because you're at Springfield Central High School, maybe it's a kid up in Amherst or a parent up in Amherst or a parent in Greenfield, Westfield, pick your town. What should they be doing? Should they recognize the warning signs? Should they be contacting their school district to find out more about how can my kid get involved in the program? In my opinion, what worked for me was I needed to help myself before I could help other people. The first thing, if you are struggling with gambling, is I would suggest going to a Gambler's Anonymous room immediately. You're going to find 20 other people just like you. It was very helpful for me the first year. Have someone who I can relate to and people who can explain, it will get better. That was the big help. Once I helped myself, then it was, like I said, I'm not trying to help everybody. I just want them to know the information. Just like how I used to do with cigarette smokes, tell my uncle, like, hey, you shouldn't be doing this. I'm not trying to make everyone scared and afraid. The good thing is there are hotlines out there. There's even a teen-to-teen hotline so you can talk to a peer. All this stuff, once again, I don't have all the information on me. If you don't want to talk to an adult, if you don't think Gambler's Anonymous, I'm not this old guy who plays the ponies down the street. I want to talk to someone my own age. There are teen-to-teen hotlines. They're not as available as they are, but they are out there. That peer-to-peer seems like the most important part. I think it's very important. I just don't know why it's not as accessible or why it's not everywhere, especially in Springfield being a casino city, how it's not everywhere. I don't know. I'm not the media expert, so I don't know what they're trying to play, but if you search on the internet, you will find that peer-to-peer hotline. I think that is huge. As it pertains to if I'm a parent, my kids are down in the basement, just check in on them. Just don't think because they're home, they're safe, especially with the cell phones when it comes to gambling. There's just so many of them and so easily accessible that just because they're at your house in the basement doesn't mean they're necessarily taking care of themselves 100%. Great way to end. Peter, I can't thank you enough for giving me some of your time today. Kudos to you for getting on the other side of this gambling addiction issue, but even more importantly, thank you for stepping up and helping to educate our kids. It's so important that our kids get this knowledge because without guys and women like you, we're just breeding another set of gambling addicts. Thank you so very much for all you're doing. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it. This is 22 News In Focus with Patrick Berry. Per contact. Okay. Perfect. Before I forget.