The Addiction Part I

Thursday April 26, 2007

Obviously I have not written in a while. You may have seen my story featured on A&E’s Intervention. My sister Daphne contacted the producers of the show and disclosed my deepest darkest secret. Suffice it to say that they were enthralled by my struggle and were quite anxious to feature my story on their program.

It started in the Spring of 1972. I was staying at the world famous Klondike Hotel just on the outskirts of Las Vegas. I was in Vegas for the thirty-second semi annual vinter’s convention. While killing time between seminars I sat down for a burger and fries and quite innocently picked 20 numbers for a quarter on the next upcoming Keno game.

As fate would have it, 10 of my numbers came up. For those of you who are not familiar with Keno, 10 numbers out of 36 is pretty darn good and resulted in a $16.00 win (minus the initial .25 bet of course) I was ecstatic. I immediately took the winnings and re-invested this time purchasing 64 $.25 games. I hit ten numbers on 40 of the games and 8 numbers on 4 resulting in a $704.00 win.

This process continued for the remainder of my trip which I extended for 3 weeks after the convention had ended. I left Vegas having lost $12,500. I actually had to go to the casino host for broke money to get a bus ticket home.

You would think that I would have learned my lesson but I did not. Upon arriving home I pawned every electronic device in my home, sold my car and boat and put my house up for sale. I headed back to Vegas where I checked back into the Klondike. Over the next two weeks I won $87,000 and had moved up from $.25 games to $1.00 games. I regained my presence of mind and went back home vowing never to play Keno again.

That presence of mind lasted only a day or so and upon my return home, I got hooked up with a Keno by phone game. I ended up losing the $75,000 profit from my previous binge, plus another $13,000. A word of advice, don’t waste your money on Phone Keno, it is rigged.

My every waking hour was consumed by thoughts of playing Keno. I would fall asleep each night trying to come up with the perfect strategy for picking the numbers. By 1987, I had won and lost more than 3 million dollars playing Keno. I was so consumed by Keno that I had to start taking an over the counter sleep aid just to try and stop the numbers from dominating my dreams.

My Keno obsession continued through the 90’s and into present day and wins and losses totaling tens of millions of dollars passed through my foolish hands until last year when I finally hit rock bottom.

I don’t really have any friends and all of my family is dead except for Daphne but luckily she was there to facilitate a much needed intervention.

My addiction was extreme according to the counselors at The Happy Way but nothing that a little time and determination could not cure. Of course the first step to a cure is admitting that there is a problem but for me, it took a pistol misfiring in my mouth to finally make me realize that my life was spinning out of control.

Once I came to terms with my inability to change my behavior on my own, I went through the withdrawal phase and it was a killer. I tossed and turned in my sleep, woke up in a cold sweat and many mornings found me hiding in the closet, in fetal position, wallowing in a puddle of my own excrement and vomit

Eventually the sickness passed and I was at a place where I could start to deal with the wreckage my addiction had left in its wake.

To be continued…

Copyright © 2007 Quaid Davis. All rights reserved.