Peace and Power Counseling
Appointments are available 402-515-7412.
  • Home
  • Our Services
    • Gambling Addiction
    • Other Treatment
  • Our Counselors
  • Our Blog
  • Contact Us
  • Resources
    • More
    • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
    • Youth Gambling

National Problem Gambling Awareness Week March 7-13, 2010

3/2/2010

 
FATHERS OF DEAD SONS URGE NATION TO STAY SAFE
DURING MARCH MADNESS
  “March Madness” Coincides with National Problem Gambling
Awareness Week, March 7-13, 2010
In light of recent events among Washington Wizards pro basketball players, when teammates brandished guns over a gambling dispute, Bill Swanson and Robert McGuigan remind the nation that sports betting can turn deadly. “Before this happened to our sons, we didn’t know that gambling can be addictive,” says Bill Swanson. His son, Dan, was in the wrong place at the wrong time in June 2003 when a 19-year-old snuck into the apartment where Dan was staying and shot and killed him and another guest as they slept. The killer—Meng-Ju “Mark” Wu, a college student who’d lost thousands of dollars to sports bets—waited for his young bookie, Jason McGuigan, to return home. Wu later shot and killed McGuigan, too. In his cell the day before his trial was to begin, Wu committed suicide.

Today, Robert McGuigan, Jason’s father, visits high school and college classrooms to caution teens and young adults that gambling can be addictive. “Problem gambling changes people. It takes them down an unhealthy road,” says McGuigan, cautioning that gambling addiction can progress over time. As a boy, Jason had been gentle and caring. By his late teens, he was obsessed with gambling. Rather than attend college, Jason became a bookmaker and con artist to support his own gambling addiction. Documented in an ESPN special called “Outside the Lines,” the tragedy united Jason and Dan’s fathers against gambling addiction and put the dads in poor humor when the locker room skirmish involving guns erupted among Washington Wizards basketball players. Although the triple homicide that killed their sons is extreme, problem gambling devastates thousands of individuals and families in many other ways in every American state, including states where gambling is prohibited. Internet gambling—generally illegal throughout the U.S.—makes it possible to gamble anywhere. Common symptoms and consequences of gambling addiction include extreme debt, lying, borrowing and/or stealing, agitation when not gambling, stress, aggression, broken relationships, depression, and suicide. “Gambling can be as addictive as any drug,” Bill Swanson cautions. “Everyone in America needs to know.”
National Problem Gambling Awareness Week is March 7-13. For more information, visit www.npgaw.org. For help with a gambling problem, call 1.800.522.4700.

    Owner

    Gina Fricke is the owner/therapist at Peace and Power Counseling LLC.

    Archives

    May 2018
    March 2016
    September 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    July 2013
    October 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    November 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009

    Categories

    All
    Accomplishments
    Addictive Gambling
    Adolescent Gambling
    Adults
    Affordable Grief Counseling
    Available Appointments
    Bethany Hughes
    Ceus
    Children Gambling
    College Gambling
    Compulisve Gambling
    Compulsive
    Compulsive Eating
    Concerned Other
    Coping Skills
    Council Bluffs
    Counseling
    Counseling Group
    Counselor
    Couple
    Couple Counseling
    Cox Channel 22
    Creative Wellness
    Death
    Decrease Stress
    Depression
    Distance Treatment
    Divorce
    Early Recovery
    Evening
    Exercise Program
    Families
    Family
    Family Member
    Family Member Of Gambler
    Family Problems
    Family Treatment
    Financial
    Financial Problems
    Free
    Free Ceu
    Free Ceu For Ladc
    Free Class
    Free Information
    Free Presentation
    Free Training
    Gambling
    Gambling Addiction
    Gambling Addiction Training
    Gambling Article
    Gambling Counseling
    Gambling Help
    Gambling Money
    Gambling Presentation
    Gambling Problem
    Gambling Problems
    Gambling Problems And The Military
    Gambling Therapy
    Gambling Treatment
    Gambling Video
    Gambling Workbook
    God In My Corner
    Grief
    Grief Counseling
    Grief Group
    Grief Help
    Grief Recovery
    Grief Recovery Outreach Group
    Group
    Group Counseling
    Group Therapy
    Group Treatment
    Guest Speaker
    Help
    Help With Gambling
    Holidays
    Hope
    Individual Counseling
    Information
    Intensive Outpatient Treatment
    Interview
    July 1
    Kentucky Derby
    Kids And Gambling
    Kids Gambling
    Lifestyle Coach
    Listening
    Loneliness
    Lose Money
    Losing
    Loss
    Loss Of Trust
    Love
    Low Cost Counseling
    Low Cost Grief Group
    March Maddness
    Marital
    Marriage
    Mental Health Counseling
    Military Gambling Addiction
    More Information
    National Problem Gambling Awareness Month
    Omaha
    Online Poker
    Pathological Gambling
    Point Spread
    Poker Websites
    Problem Gambling
    Problem Gambling Awareness Week
    Protect Money
    Realtionships
    Recovery
    Relapse Prevention
    Relationship
    Relationship Counseling
    Relationship Problems
    Relationships
    Responsible Gaming
    Responsible Gaming Education Week
    Sad
    Seniors
    Shopping Help
    Shopping Problem
    Spending
    Sports
    Sports Betting
    Sports Gambling
    Stop Gambling
    Stress
    Student
    Success
    Superbowl Gambling?
    Tax Return
    Teen Gambling
    The Biggest Loser
    The Power Of Thought
    Therapist
    Therapy
    Training
    Treatment
    Treatment Group
    Trust
    Tv
    Valentines
    Weight Loss
    Winning
    Youth Gambling

    RSS Feed

Ready to experience hope and healing? Call us today! 402 515-7412
2024 Peace and Power Counseling, LLC. All rights reserved.