A gambling addiction cost him an estimated $500,000, but now Sean Fournia is using past heartache in his fight to help problem gamblers amid America’s boom in gambling and online sports betting.

In her Wall Street Journal article, ‘He lost $500,000 Gambling. Now He Helps Others Who Can’t Stop,’ Katherine Sayre explores Fournia’s personal journey from financial ruin to spiritual abundance. The article takes a deep dive into the past and present of Fournia, while also examining how Virginia is tackling problem gambling.

From desperation to a flicker of hope

Sean Fournia is now a gambling recovery counsellor. In 2021, he put an end to his gambling habit after it led to financial ruin and personal suffering. The article highlights he is now involved in combating addiction in response to the surge in America’s gambling industry.

Fournia became addicted to scratch-off lottery tickets. He says his obsession was so extreme silver dust from the tickets covered his floors. Once a racetrack opened outside of Richmond, Virginia, years later, he became ensnared by illegal bookmakers and turned to crime through a reliance on drugs and alcohol.

According to the article, Fournia spent two years in recovery, but in 2018, relapsed and began scratching lottery tickets again. To make matters worse, during the global pandemic, he became homeless and blew cash playing historical horse racing machines, which Virginia legalised in 2018. Sayre points out that these machines ‘give the experience of playing slots but are based on the results of past races.’

Things became so awful, Fournia confessed that he ‘no longer wanted to live.’ This was the trigger to returning to recovery, where he quit gambling in June 2021. Fournia says “I should be long dead or locked away in a prison as a direct result of my problem gambling.”

Virginia’s explosion in gambling and online sports betting

Virginia has seen a skyrocketing number of people seeking help for gambling addiction. Sayre notes that gambling addiction receives no dedicated federal funding, unlike substance abuse, for example. The article highlights that a mere 2.5 percent of the tax revenue generated from sports betting is specifically designated by the state for a fund aimed at addressing problem gambling, with casinos contributing 0.8 percent.

Virginia state Senator Bryce Reeves, who fought efforts to legalise gambling, said “Gambling came too quickly without really looking at how we wanted to establish it and set it up.” The article estimates that sports betting revenue increased to around $560 million in 2023.

In 2019, 989 calls came in to Virginia’s problem gambling helpline. It received 10,608 calls in 2023. Of those people, 898 moved forward with screenings for gambling addiction or problems in 2023, up from 311 in 2019. State lawmakers are attempting to create a gaming commission to regulate gambling, but this could take two years.

Miracles that are making a difference

Fournia says “We are miracles that are making a difference by recovering from gambling today!” he said. “No bet, no spin, no scratch, no whammies, no losses.”

Today, he counsels over a hundred struggling gamblers on his caseload. “I see the despair, the desperation, the financial disaster. I see the marriages and the kids get split up.”

Fournia claims he sends a daily text message to 150 of his closest contacts and is proud of the programmes’ early signs of success. Guided by his spirituality, Fournia encourages his caseload to treat setbacks as learning opportunities. Of the participants the programme could reach, 95 percent reported they had either decreased or quit gambling.

Sayes leaves the last word to Sen. Reeves, who asserts, “We have got to take care of the least, the last and the lost among us in this industry.”

You can read the full article here.

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