Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Isabel Byon (00:00):
The New York State Office of Addiction Services and
Supports, or OASAS, providesthis podcast as a public service
.
Jerry Gretzinger (00:21):
Once again everybody.
Jerry Gretzinger, your host forAddiction: The Next Step and
you know that's the podcastbeing brought to you by the New
York State Offices of AddictionServices and Supports.
And today, you know, if you'rewatching the podcast you can
tell we're not in our usualstudio, we're actually out on
location and we are talkingabout something that's really
important, something we're doinga very big campaign about right
(00:42):
now, and that's problemgambling.
And we are doing quite a bitabout it because, as you know,
there are so many differentavenues for gambling available
in New York State and around theworld today.
We want to make sure that weare providing the services and
the avenues to get those topeople, certainly throughout the
state of New York, and I've gota couple of guests here today
who are going to talk to usabout what's going on and a
really interesting and newopportunity for people that they
(01:06):
can find through our website.
We'll get to that in a minute,but our guests are Rebecca
Cooper she's with from us hereat New York State OASAS.
She's the Bureau Director forProblem Gambling and also Jim
Huh, sitting immediately to myleft, the Senior Vice President
of Sales and Customer Success atGamFin, and that's what we're
going to talk about today, right, Jim?
Yes, thanks for having us All,right, thank you.
Thank you for sitting in withus today, and so let me start
(01:29):
first.
I talked about us being onlocation and, Rebecca, I'm going
to start with you.
We talk about the importance ofhaving the conversation about
problem gambling, and that'swhat's happening right here,
where we are today.
Let's tell the people who arelistening or watching what's
going on.
Rebecca Cooper (01:51):
Yeah, so we are here kicking off the 30th
anniversary of the New YorkCouncil on Problem Gambling, and
their annual conference hasstarted this afternoon and we'll
be here for the next two and ahalf days, and it's a great way
to bring together professionalsand those with lived experience
and those that want to learnmore, to be able to advance the
supports and services that wehave for those affected by
gambling harms in New York.
Jerry Gretzinger (02:08):
Yeah, so 30 years.
And I think sometimes peoplemight think to themselves oh wow
, 30 years, that's not very long.
But then some people would sayoh wow, they've been doing this
for 30 years.
So which of those camps are youin?
Rebecca Cooper (02:19):
I'm in.
I've been doing it for 30 years, so it's been nice to see it
evolve though.
Jerry Gretzinger (02:25):
Yeah, and you talk about evolving, and that
kind of brings us to some ofwhat we'll talk about in this
episode.
We have a major campaign thatis out there across the state of
New York and it's Take a Pause.
We want people to be encouragedto take a pause, take a step
back if they're getting caughtup in mobile sports wagering or
any other kind of wagering, sothat they can think about how
much they're spending, how muchtime they're putting into it,
(02:47):
and we want them to go to ourwebsite and seek out services
and supports that are available.
And one of those things that'snew this year, in 2025, is what
Jim is here to talk about, andthat's a partnership we have
with GamFin.
So, Jim, I'm going to go rightto you now and say people are
here at GamFin.
What's GamFin?
Tell us what is GamFin.
Jim Huh (03:07):
So we provide financial counseling for people
experiencing harm from gamblingbehavior.
It could be the people that arearound you or the person doing
the gambling.
It is a free service that'savailable to anyone in New York
State that is experiencing anykind of harm from gambling
behavior, and it's thanks toRebecca and her team that we are
able to offer this free ofcharge to the end client.
Jerry Gretzinger (03:28):
Okay, so I want you to walk somebody
through this, all right.
So we say, hey, this is free,it's you know, you can have some
consultation with people.
Someone either sees our ad oris on our website and sees this
thing about gamfin and says, oh,okay, I can, I can get somebody
to offer me a little bit ofsupport and advice.
Walk them through the process,right, so they click on the link
and it takes them to it andwhere do they go next?
Jim Huh (03:48):
They come to our website and basically it'll say
book a session.
They'll talk a little bit aboutwhat we do and then they will
see bios of all our financialcounselors and they're all
professionals.
They're all accredited.
We don't sell anything, sothey're not pushed to sell you
an insurance policy or tell youthat you have to refinance your
debt or anything like that.
It is strictly a neutral,objective, holistic approach to
(04:08):
manage your finances.
To get a snapshot of where youare right now and where you want
to be.
Most of the people that we see,if you were on a financial
wellness scale, are, from youknow, on a zero to 10, they're a
zero or a one.
We're trying to get them to atwo or a three.
We're not doing investmentadvice.
We're not doing any type ofretirement planning.
This is about people that arereally struggling and in a
(04:30):
crisis moment and we want togive them a source to go and
have a conversation about how doI get out of this.
Once they take a look at ourfinancial counselors and we have
everybody on the basic level orthe entry level as an
accredited financial counselor.
Then we have CFPs and we haveseveral people with PhDs that
are providing financialcounseling free of charge to the
(04:51):
end client.
So once they've identified aperson, a financial counselor,
that they can relate to, theysimply click on book a time and
they'll pull up a schedule andthey just click it and then it
takes place over Zoom.
They get all the confirmations.
If they are in therapy, we canwork with them and their
therapist.
We are HIPAA compliant acrossall our platforms, so we're very
cognizant of the safety ofpersonal information and it's a
(05:15):
really simple process.
And then they have multiplesessions to work on what's going
on in their financial world.
Jerry Gretzinger (05:19):
And so I think you mentioned this when you
first started describing theservice available.
This can be for someone who isactively involved in gambling.
It could be for somebody whomaybe lives with someone or is
aware of someone who may havethis sort of situation to talk
with them about.
How can I help?
How can I make a difference?
Jim Huh (05:39):
Well, if it's the person that is engaging in the
behavior, it may be that theywant to reduce it.
We look at it as gamblingshould be entertainment.
We're not pro or against it.
It's about entertainment and ifyou wouldn't spend $1,000 on
dinner, you probably shouldn'tspend $1,000 on gambling, and
that's the reality of it.
So it can be that we can puttogether a budget and put it in
(06:00):
perspective and teach you aboutthe relationship with the money
that you have, instead of justsaying I'm placing a wager.
For those affected.
We get a lot of family membersthat call in and say you know,
for example and more commonsituation that you might think
is somebody calls and says Ijust found out my house is for
sale.
Jerry Gretzinger (06:17):
Oh wow.
Jim Huh (06:18):
Or that I was denied credit for my car because I
didn't know we had all thesegambling debts.
Jerry Gretzinger (06:22):
So these are stories you actually hear.
Jim Huh (06:24):
These are things that we hear every day, and what we
tell them is we can teach youhow to put in safety guardrails,
money guardrails to protectyourself from the person who may
be engaged in gambling.
We can also show you how totake over control of those
finances so you can reduce thatharm.
Moving forward, and then alsotalked about how do you have a
(06:45):
conversation with somebody inthis situation.
Now, I have lived experience.
I am somebody in recovery froma gambling problem, so I know
firsthand what somebody iscapable of doing while actively
engaged in gambling behavior.
Jerry Gretzinger (06:58):
So you yourself were involved in this
and went through some processyourself, I'm sure.
Jim Huh (07:04):
Yes.
Jerry Gretzinger (07:07):
Was that once GAMFIN was already a thing, or
did that help kind of grow thisinto what it is today?
Jim Huh (07:14):
I haven't gambled in a while.
This was long before Iencountered Alex, who was my CEO
and sitting in the room with us.
But no, this is something I, aswe say in GA I have 21, not yet
22 years of recovery.
Jerry Gretzinger (07:30):
Good for you.
That's terrific and hopefullyyou know that's a message that
people will hear as well, thatthis can be done.
Because I think sometimes youknow if someone's right in the
thick of it, right, and they'relike I don't know what I would
do, I don't know what the wayout is, and certainly we want to
let them know, the first thingyou can do is have a
conversation, right, and yousaid something interesting, Jim.
You said you know we're notgoing to say right away you need
(08:00):
to stop, you need to stop.
It's let's talk about whatsituation you're in.
It might be how to, like yousaid, put like spending guard
rails in place.
And, Rebecca, let me ask you tojust chime in here now too.
That is something that we'realways trying to encourage as
well.
You know we're not coming outsaying don't do it, don't do it,
but we want people to do itappropriately.
Rebecca Cooper (08:11):
Right, yeah, for sure.
And again, you know theservices we provide are on a
continuum, and you know harmreduction to treatment services
and recovery services, and soyou know we want to have
safeguards in place for peoplethat are, you know, maybe moving
towards potentially having aproblem or having some financial
difficulties, to those that arecurrently having a problem,
(08:32):
that are affected by financialharm.
So harm so that you know theyhave access to this service.
And one of the other thingsthat was important to us and in
providing this service is thatanybody that's affected by
gambling harms can participatein the service for free.
They don't have to be involvedin treatment, they don't have to
be in recovery, right.
So we wanted this to be apreventative, a harm reduction
(08:55):
strategy and also something thatwould help people get into
their own recovery.
Jerry Gretzinger (09:01):
And I think important for people to realize
too.
I mean no one, no one's goingto be on the other side of this
line saying shame on you, youshouldn't do this.
Yeah, and mean that's, that'scertainly not.
Rebecca Cooper (09:10):
And that's a philosophy you know, I think
that we have in providingaddiction services in general.
Like this is about the personthat is affected by gambling or
substances and we're here tohelp, and our community-based
services are here to walk thewalk with them and give them
whatever support they need.
And we know one of theuniquenesses of someone that has
a gambling challenge is thefinancial destruction that it
(09:32):
can cause and how quickly thatcan happen.
And Jim shared some stories andwhen I worked in a clinic, we
saw the same thing right, thefinancial devastation and the
surprise right, because it'seasy to hide gambling debt.
Jerry Gretzinger (09:46):
It's harder to see.
Rebecca Cooper (09:48):
It's not as visible.
You know people can take outcredit cards in their spouse's
name and open a post office box,and you know there's multiple
things that can happen, and sothat financial devastation
really is key to helping anyone.
Jerry Gretzinger (10:02):
Yeah, you know and as you talk about that, I
recall one of the podcastepisodes we'd done previously
and maybe we can include a linkto that in the notes for this
episode about a gentleman whohad a real significant issue
with gambling himself and hetold his whole story about you
know how much trouble he gotinto it.
But, like you're saying, Jim, hewas able to find a way through
(10:24):
it and today has been X numberof years I don't recall the
number right now but withoutgambling and he's doing well and
his wife, who when she foundout was displeased, now is his
biggest cheerleader because he'sdone so well afterwards.
So, you know, in a troublinglevel at this point to be able
to tell a similar story somedayand this is one of the ways that
(10:46):
we can help them get thereright.
We have the supports, the linksavailable on our website and,
Jim, I'm going to get back toyou one more time.
We do this.
You know, all this information,the consultation, the sessions
at no cost to the New Yorker whocomes on and says, yeah, I want
to see if this can help me.
Jim Huh (11:03):
Yes, that's correct, because we know that most of
them are feeling anxious abouttheir finances.
They may be financiallydevastated and they could not
afford to pay for services,whether it's to go to therapy
with a clinician or to getfinancial counseling.
So we need to make this serviceavailable and what we recognize
and Rebecca and her team.
Again, they had the foresightto say okay.
(11:24):
When people call in for help,they're typically calling about
financial issues.
They're not calling to say Ihave a gambling problem and I
want to see a therapist.
They say I'm in credit carddebt, I owe money all over the
place, I need help with myfinances.
So what we're trying to do nowis respond to what they're
asking for instead of tellingthem okay, you called me about
(11:45):
your finances, I'm going to tellyou to go to treatment.
So there's a disconnect thereand I think we lost some people.
So now we're trying to move upand be able to connect people
and say okay, we can help youwith that question that you may
have about your finances.
Right now, we can help you puttogether a plan, moving forward.
Meantime.
We're also, in most cases, weare encouraging people to get
treatment, to get supportservices, so they can really
(12:07):
move forward in their recoveryjourney or reduce the harm.
Rebecca Cooper (12:16):
Yeah, and I think that also speaks well.
You know at OASAS where wereally have that continuum of
care and you know that we wantto be person-centered and meet
people where they're at, andthat is one of the beauties of
offering GamFin, regardless ofwhether or not they're involved
in any of our other services,and we've trained all the GamFin
staff on the other servicesavailable in New York State.
So if at some point in timeduring the financial process and
(12:37):
counseling someone's like Ithink I might need some
additional support, I think Imight want to talk about some
recovery options or going intotreatment, and they are well
equipped to refer them to theHope Line or to a problem
gambling resource center intheir community to really help
them connect to additional typesof care, whether it's treatment
, recovery, whatever supportsthat they need.
Jerry Gretzinger (12:59):
Right, because we see that in a lot of
different areas too.
Right where someone comes infor X and then, as they meet
with someone, they're like, ohwell, I've got Y and Z also that
I could maybe help.
Rebecca Cooper (13:07):
Yeah, and I think, if you think about it in
anyone's lives, when you'reworried about money, it's really
hard to really focus onanything else, right?
If you're worried about howyou're going to pay your rent or
put food on the table, you knowthose are basic needs and again
, we do know financial crisis isvery common for those that are
affected by gambling harms.
Jerry Gretzinger (13:28):
All right.
So, as people are out thereeither watching or listening,
I'm going to try to sum it uphere.
If you find you're in asituation, you know where your
finances are up in the air,you're not sure what's going on
and maybe you're mobile sportswagering, otherwise gambling you
said you need to.
They don't always have a plan.
They need a plan.
So what we're doing right nowwith GamFin, this is like your
(13:50):
first step towards finding thatplan, figuring out that plan.
So we hope that you'll go tothe website oasas.
ny.
gov.
You can go to the problemgambling pages.
It's all there.
You can take a survey.
It'll tell you where yourproblem gambling may be, if it
is problematic, if it's not, andthen, of course, you'll have
the direct link to GamFin andthe plan can get started if you
do indeed need one.
(14:11):
Guys, thank you so much, JimRebecca, for sitting down with
us to talk about this today.
I uh, hopefully we've informedsome people about what we're
doing and how we're going tohelp them.
Rebecca Cooper (14:18):
Thanks for having us.
Jerry Gretzinger (14:19):
Thanks All right, all right.
So I already gave you the address, oasas.
ny.
gov.
I just gave it to you a secondtime.
See how I snuck that in there.
Also, we have a HOPEline.
You can reach out to877-8-HOPE-NY.
877-8-HOPE-NY, whether you wantto go online or on the phone.
Either way, we're there to helpevery step of the way.
Jerry Gretzinger, forAddiction: The Next Step.
(14:40):
Until next time, be well.
The New York State Office of Addiction Services and
Supports, or OASAS, providesthis podcast as a public service
.
Jerry Gretzinger (00:21):
Once again everybody.
Jerry Gretzinger, your host forAddiction: The Next Step and
you know that's the podcastbeing brought to you by the New
York State Offices of AddictionServices and Supports.
And today, you know, if you'rewatching the podcast you can
tell we're not in our usualstudio, we're actually out on
location and we are talkingabout something that's really
important, something we're doinga very big campaign about right
(00:42):
now, and that's problemgambling.
And we are doing quite a bitabout it because, as you know,
there are so many differentavenues for gambling available
in New York State and around theworld today.
We want to make sure that weare providing the services and
the avenues to get those topeople, certainly throughout the
state of New York, and I've gota couple of guests here today
who are going to talk to usabout what's going on and a
really interesting and newopportunity for people that they
(01:06):
can find through our website.
We'll get to that in a minute,but our guests are Rebecca
Cooper she's with from us hereat New York State OASAS.
She's the Bureau Director forProblem Gambling and also Jim
Huh, sitting immediately to myleft, the Senior Vice President
of Sales and Customer Success atGamFin, and that's what we're
going to talk about today, right, Jim?
Yes, thanks for having us All,right, thank you.
Thank you for sitting in withus today, and so let me start
(01:29):
first.
I talked about us being onlocation and, Rebecca, I'm going
to start with you.
We talk about the importance ofhaving the conversation about
problem gambling, and that'swhat's happening right here,
where we are today.
Let's tell the people who arelistening or watching what's
going on.
Rebecca Cooper (01:51):
Yeah, so we are here kicking off the 30th
anniversary of the New YorkCouncil on Problem Gambling, and
their annual conference hasstarted this afternoon and we'll
be here for the next two and ahalf days, and it's a great way
to bring together professionalsand those with lived experience
and those that want to learnmore, to be able to advance the
supports and services that wehave for those affected by
gambling harms in New York.
Jerry Gretzinger (02:08):
Yeah, so 30 years.
And I think sometimes peoplemight think to themselves oh wow
, 30 years, that's not very long.
But then some people would sayoh wow, they've been doing this
for 30 years.
So which of those camps are youin?
Rebecca Cooper (02:19):
I'm in.
I've been doing it for 30 years, so it's been nice to see it
evolve though.
Jerry Gretzinger (02:25):
Yeah, and you talk about evolving, and that
kind of brings us to some ofwhat we'll talk about in this
episode.
We have a major campaign thatis out there across the state of
New York and it's Take a Pause.
We want people to be encouragedto take a pause, take a step
back if they're getting caughtup in mobile sports wagering or
any other kind of wagering, sothat they can think about how
much they're spending, how muchtime they're putting into it,
(02:47):
and we want them to go to ourwebsite and seek out services
and supports that are available.
And one of those things that'snew this year, in 2025, is what
Jim is here to talk about, andthat's a partnership we have
with GamFin.
So, Jim, I'm going to go rightto you now and say people are
here at GamFin.
What's GamFin?
Tell us what is GamFin.
Jim Huh (03:07):
So we provide financial counseling for people
experiencing harm from gamblingbehavior.
It could be the people that arearound you or the person doing
the gambling.
It is a free service that'savailable to anyone in New York
State that is experiencing anykind of harm from gambling
behavior, and it's thanks toRebecca and her team that we are
able to offer this free ofcharge to the end client.
Jerry Gretzinger (03:28):
Okay, so I want you to walk somebody
through this, all right.
So we say, hey, this is free,it's you know, you can have some
consultation with people.
Someone either sees our ad oris on our website and sees this
thing about gamfin and says, oh,okay, I can, I can get somebody
to offer me a little bit ofsupport and advice.
Walk them through the process,right, so they click on the link
and it takes them to it andwhere do they go next?
Jim Huh (03:48):
They come to our website and basically it'll say
book a session.
They'll talk a little bit aboutwhat we do and then they will
see bios of all our financialcounselors and they're all
professionals.
They're all accredited.
We don't sell anything, sothey're not pushed to sell you
an insurance policy or tell youthat you have to refinance your
debt or anything like that.
It is strictly a neutral,objective, holistic approach to
(04:08):
manage your finances.
To get a snapshot of where youare right now and where you want
to be.
Most of the people that we see,if you were on a financial
wellness scale, are, from youknow, on a zero to 10, they're a
zero or a one.
We're trying to get them to atwo or a three.
We're not doing investmentadvice.
We're not doing any type ofretirement planning.
This is about people that arereally struggling and in a
(04:30):
crisis moment and we want togive them a source to go and
have a conversation about how doI get out of this.
Once they take a look at ourfinancial counselors and we have
everybody on the basic level orthe entry level as an
accredited financial counselor.
Then we have CFPs and we haveseveral people with PhDs that
are providing financialcounseling free of charge to the
(04:51):
end client.
So once they've identified aperson, a financial counselor,
that they can relate to, theysimply click on book a time and
they'll pull up a schedule andthey just click it and then it
takes place over Zoom.
They get all the confirmations.
If they are in therapy, we canwork with them and their
therapist.
We are HIPAA compliant acrossall our platforms, so we're very
cognizant of the safety ofpersonal information and it's a
(05:15):
really simple process.
And then they have multiplesessions to work on what's going
on in their financial world.
Jerry Gretzinger (05:19):
And so I think you mentioned this when you
first started describing theservice available.
This can be for someone who isactively involved in gambling.
It could be for somebody whomaybe lives with someone or is
aware of someone who may havethis sort of situation to talk
with them about.
How can I help?
How can I make a difference?
Jim Huh (05:39):
Well, if it's the person that is engaging in the
behavior, it may be that theywant to reduce it.
We look at it as gamblingshould be entertainment.
We're not pro or against it.
It's about entertainment and ifyou wouldn't spend $1,000 on
dinner, you probably shouldn'tspend $1,000 on gambling, and
that's the reality of it.
So it can be that we can puttogether a budget and put it in
(06:00):
perspective and teach you aboutthe relationship with the money
that you have, instead of justsaying I'm placing a wager.
For those affected.
We get a lot of family membersthat call in and say you know,
for example and more commonsituation that you might think
is somebody calls and says Ijust found out my house is for
sale.
Jerry Gretzinger (06:17):
Oh wow.
Jim Huh (06:18):
Or that I was denied credit for my car because I
didn't know we had all thesegambling debts.
Jerry Gretzinger (06:22):
So these are stories you actually hear.
Jim Huh (06:24):
These are things that we hear every day, and what we
tell them is we can teach youhow to put in safety guardrails,
money guardrails to protectyourself from the person who may
be engaged in gambling.
We can also show you how totake over control of those
finances so you can reduce thatharm.
Moving forward, and then alsotalked about how do you have a
(06:45):
conversation with somebody inthis situation.
Now, I have lived experience.
I am somebody in recovery froma gambling problem, so I know
firsthand what somebody iscapable of doing while actively
engaged in gambling behavior.
Jerry Gretzinger (06:58):
So you yourself were involved in this
and went through some processyourself, I'm sure.
Jim Huh (07:04):
Yes.
Jerry Gretzinger (07:07):
Was that once GAMFIN was already a thing, or
did that help kind of grow thisinto what it is today?
Jim Huh (07:14):
I haven't gambled in a while.
This was long before Iencountered Alex, who was my CEO
and sitting in the room with us.
But no, this is something I, aswe say in GA I have 21, not yet
22 years of recovery.
Jerry Gretzinger (07:30):
Good for you.
That's terrific and hopefullyyou know that's a message that
people will hear as well, thatthis can be done.
Because I think sometimes youknow if someone's right in the
thick of it, right, and they'relike I don't know what I would
do, I don't know what the wayout is, and certainly we want to
let them know, the first thingyou can do is have a
conversation, right, and yousaid something interesting, Jim.
You said you know we're notgoing to say right away you need
(08:00):
to stop, you need to stop.
It's let's talk about whatsituation you're in.
It might be how to, like yousaid, put like spending guard
rails in place.
And, Rebecca, let me ask you tojust chime in here now too.
That is something that we'realways trying to encourage as
well.
You know we're not coming outsaying don't do it, don't do it,
but we want people to do itappropriately.
Rebecca Cooper (08:11):
Right, yeah, for sure.
And again, you know theservices we provide are on a
continuum, and you know harmreduction to treatment services
and recovery services, and soyou know we want to have
safeguards in place for peoplethat are, you know, maybe moving
towards potentially having aproblem or having some financial
difficulties, to those that arecurrently having a problem,
(08:32):
that are affected by financialharm.
So harm so that you know theyhave access to this service.
And one of the other thingsthat was important to us and in
providing this service is thatanybody that's affected by
gambling harms can participatein the service for free.
They don't have to be involvedin treatment, they don't have to
be in recovery, right.
So we wanted this to be apreventative, a harm reduction
(08:55):
strategy and also something thatwould help people get into
their own recovery.
Jerry Gretzinger (09:01):
And I think important for people to realize
too.
I mean no one, no one's goingto be on the other side of this
line saying shame on you, youshouldn't do this.
Yeah, and mean that's, that'scertainly not.
Rebecca Cooper (09:10):
And that's a philosophy you know, I think
that we have in providingaddiction services in general.
Like this is about the personthat is affected by gambling or
substances and we're here tohelp, and our community-based
services are here to walk thewalk with them and give them
whatever support they need.
And we know one of theuniquenesses of someone that has
a gambling challenge is thefinancial destruction that it
(09:32):
can cause and how quickly thatcan happen.
And Jim shared some stories andwhen I worked in a clinic, we
saw the same thing right, thefinancial devastation and the
surprise right, because it'seasy to hide gambling debt.
Jerry Gretzinger (09:46):
It's harder to see.
Rebecca Cooper (09:48):
It's not as visible.
You know people can take outcredit cards in their spouse's
name and open a post office box,and you know there's multiple
things that can happen, and sothat financial devastation
really is key to helping anyone.
Jerry Gretzinger (10:02):
Yeah, you know and as you talk about that, I
recall one of the podcastepisodes we'd done previously
and maybe we can include a linkto that in the notes for this
episode about a gentleman whohad a real significant issue
with gambling himself and hetold his whole story about you
know how much trouble he gotinto it.
But, like you're saying, Jim, hewas able to find a way through
(10:24):
it and today has been X numberof years I don't recall the
number right now but withoutgambling and he's doing well and
his wife, who when she foundout was displeased, now is his
biggest cheerleader because he'sdone so well afterwards.
So, you know, in a troublinglevel at this point to be able
to tell a similar story somedayand this is one of the ways that
(10:46):
we can help them get thereright.
We have the supports, the linksavailable on our website and,
Jim, I'm going to get back toyou one more time.
We do this.
You know, all this information,the consultation, the sessions
at no cost to the New Yorker whocomes on and says, yeah, I want
to see if this can help me.
Jim Huh (11:03):
Yes, that's correct, because we know that most of
them are feeling anxious abouttheir finances.
They may be financiallydevastated and they could not
afford to pay for services,whether it's to go to therapy
with a clinician or to getfinancial counseling.
So we need to make this serviceavailable and what we recognize
and Rebecca and her team.
Again, they had the foresightto say okay.
(11:24):
When people call in for help,they're typically calling about
financial issues.
They're not calling to say Ihave a gambling problem and I
want to see a therapist.
They say I'm in credit carddebt, I owe money all over the
place, I need help with myfinances.
So what we're trying to do nowis respond to what they're
asking for instead of tellingthem okay, you called me about
(11:45):
your finances, I'm going to tellyou to go to treatment.
So there's a disconnect thereand I think we lost some people.
So now we're trying to move upand be able to connect people
and say okay, we can help youwith that question that you may
have about your finances.
Right now, we can help you puttogether a plan, moving forward.
Meantime.
We're also, in most cases, weare encouraging people to get
treatment, to get supportservices, so they can really
(12:07):
move forward in their recoveryjourney or reduce the harm.
Rebecca Cooper (12:16):
Yeah, and I think that also speaks well.
You know at OASAS where wereally have that continuum of
care and you know that we wantto be person-centered and meet
people where they're at, andthat is one of the beauties of
offering GamFin, regardless ofwhether or not they're involved
in any of our other services,and we've trained all the GamFin
staff on the other servicesavailable in New York State.
So if at some point in timeduring the financial process and
(12:37):
counseling someone's like Ithink I might need some
additional support, I think Imight want to talk about some
recovery options or going intotreatment, and they are well
equipped to refer them to theHope Line or to a problem
gambling resource center intheir community to really help
them connect to additional typesof care, whether it's treatment
, recovery, whatever supportsthat they need.
Jerry Gretzinger (12:59):
Right, because we see that in a lot of
different areas too.
Right where someone comes infor X and then, as they meet
with someone, they're like, ohwell, I've got Y and Z also that
I could maybe help.
Rebecca Cooper (13:07):
Yeah, and I think, if you think about it in
anyone's lives, when you'reworried about money, it's really
hard to really focus onanything else, right?
If you're worried about howyou're going to pay your rent or
put food on the table, you knowthose are basic needs and again
, we do know financial crisis isvery common for those that are
affected by gambling harms.
Jerry Gretzinger (13:28):
All right.
So, as people are out thereeither watching or listening,
I'm going to try to sum it uphere.
If you find you're in asituation, you know where your
finances are up in the air,you're not sure what's going on
and maybe you're mobile sportswagering, otherwise gambling you
said you need to.
They don't always have a plan.
They need a plan.
So what we're doing right nowwith GamFin, this is like your
(13:50):
first step towards finding thatplan, figuring out that plan.
So we hope that you'll go tothe website oasas.
ny.
gov.
You can go to the problemgambling pages.
It's all there.
You can take a survey.
It'll tell you where yourproblem gambling may be, if it
is problematic, if it's not, andthen, of course, you'll have
the direct link to GamFin andthe plan can get started if you
do indeed need one.
(14:11):
Guys, thank you so much, JimRebecca, for sitting down with
us to talk about this today.
I uh, hopefully we've informedsome people about what we're
doing and how we're going tohelp them.
Rebecca Cooper (14:18):
Thanks for having us.
Jerry Gretzinger (14:19):
Thanks All right, all right.
So I already gave you the address, oasas.
ny.
gov.
I just gave it to you a secondtime.
See how I snuck that in there.
Also, we have a HOPEline.
You can reach out to877-8-HOPE-NY.
877-8-HOPE-NY, whether you wantto go online or on the phone.
Either way, we're there to helpevery step of the way.
Jerry Gretzinger, forAddiction: The Next Step.
(14:40):
Until next time, be well.
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