For the Smart Money Cookie

The Helen Duncan story is one that is both fantastic and sadly,
very tragic. She was born in Scotland in 1898. Her greatest
period of popularity was during the 1930’s and 1940’s when the
was most in demand as a psychic. What she was most known for was
holding séances in people’s homes where she would supposedly
contact family members who had long gone to their graves.

In 1933 Duncan was accused of fraud when a policewoman
successfully grabbed a vest that was supposed to be Helen’s
spirit child helper. She was found guilty of fraud and fined ten
pounds. In spite of this scandal, she continued to hold her
séances until 1944 when one of them was raided by the police. A
police officer tried to grab the ectoplasm that was coming from
the medium, thinking it was just a white sheet, but he was
unable to grab a hold of it. No sheet was actually found when
other officers went through the room. Even though no evidence of
fraud was discovered, Duncan and three others were ordered to
appear at Portsmouth magistrates’ court. They were all charged
with conspiracy.

They were refused bail, and Duncan spent four days in a British
prison. The case was sent to the central criminal court at the
Old Bailey. There, many charges were brought against her which
included vagrancy and conspiracy, and believe it or not, the
Witchcraft Act of 1735. This absolutely caused an uproar with
Spiritualists. The trial lasted seven days. During that time
many people testified on Duncan’s behalf. They each recalled
many feats she performed. Duncan told one of her visitors that a
family member had just died, and later it was confirmed that
this person had died just two hours before the meeting. Many
other claims were made to verify that Duncan was indeed
legitimate.

Even though many attempts were made to prove Duncan’s ability,
she was eventually sentenced to nine months in jail. After she
finished serving her sentence, she returned to do her spiritual
work. There were many accounts of her work as a medium. Many of
the reports told of the actual appearances of those who had
passed away.

In 1951, the Witchcraft Act of 1735 was finally done away with
and in its place was put the Fraudulent Mediums Act. In 1956,
the police raided one of Helen’s séances in Nottingham. They
claimed to be searching for props and interrupted a séance right
in the middle. Supposedly this interruption caused a great shock
to Duncan by having the ectoplasm return to her body too
quickly. A doctor was called to examine her. She became so ill
that she had to return to Scotland to be with her family. In
just five weeks after the raid she died. Many believe the raid
to be the cause.

There are no definite conclusions to this very sad and tragic
story. If she was the talented medium that many claimed she was
then she did herself no good by adding fraudulent activities to
her gifts. The truth is, we will never really know if she was a
gifted psychic or just another con artist.

Many people believe that gambling and health have a negative
correlation; that is to say the more one gambles, the more
health problems she can expect to encounter. It seems like the
newspapers are always full of stories about down on their luck
gamblers committing suicide, depressed gamblers, etc. The list
goes on and on. In fact, studies have proven that gambling leads
to poor health among teens and young adults. As the baby boom
generation gets older, psychologists are becoming interested in
studying the health correlates of gambling among adults ages 65
and over. Are the typical stereotypes true? Do older age
gamblers experience negative health measures?

In September the American Journal of Psychiatry published an
article titled: Health Correlates of Recreational Gambling in
Older Adults. Shortly after ABCNews.com ran an article titled:
Survey Surprise: Recreational Gambling Linked to Good Health in
Older Americans. Just reading the title of the article leads one
to assume that older adults who gamble would be in better health
than their peers who do not partake in recreational gambling.

This is not what one would originally assume, but surprisingly
the study contradicts previous research about gamblers; finding
that older adults who engage in recreational gambling seem to be
in better health than older adults who do not gamble. The study,
which consisted of a telephone survey of 2,417 adults used
alcohol and drug use / dependence, depression, mental health
treatment, subjective general health, incarceration, and
bankruptcy to measure the overall health of both the gamblers
and the non-gamblers. Not surprisingly however older gamblers
did report higher alcohol use than non-gamblers. Comparing the
results to those of younger adults they found that recreational
gambling in older adults is not associated with negative
measures of health and well-being like it is in their younger
counterparts. (Desai 2004)

Just how reliable is this study? Even the authors agree that
more research than a telephone interview needs to be done, as
many people who are involved in the treatment of gamblers have
been skeptical to the study’s results. Desai, the study’s main
author, suggests that perhaps the social aspect of gambling is
responsible for the decreased health problems of older gamblers.
(Survey Suprise 2004)

“It may get them out, but the socialization isn’t that much
because they sit in front of machines, interacting with them”,
says psychologist Elizabeth Stirling in the ABC news article
(2004), “I guess if you can keep it at a limit spend $20 and go
once a week there’s no harm to it, but a benefit I can’t see.”
According to the article, many other psychologists agree with
her.

So why then did many older gamblers say they were in better
health than their non-gambling counterparts? The first thing
that sticks out in the mind of the skeptics is the fact that
correlation is not causation. That is to say, just because two
things are related does not mean that one caused the other or
vice versa. There are many other factors to take into account
when studying older people.

Firstly, most elderly people that are in bad health can’t make
it out to the casino on a regular basis, if at all. Many adults
over the age of 65 reside in nursing homes, rely on breathing
machines, are confined to wheelchairs, do not drive, and perhaps
most importantly have a fixed income such as social security
that they cannot afford to gamble away. Those that are still in
good health may simply gamble out of boredom. Many older adults
may spend their days at the casino out of boredom because they
have no job to go to or family left at home to care for.

Secondly, many chronic gamblers simply do not make it to age 65.
Whether they have gambled away their medication money, developed
a cognitive impairment from years of gambling, succumbed to
depression or substance abuse, or pulled a “Leaving Las Vegas”
and committed suicide, many gamblers may not live to see the age
of 65; especially those that have a health problem of any sort.

As the amount of cities with casinos grows and the amount of
Americans over the age of 65 become an increasingly larger
percentage of the population, more studies on the health affects
of gambling are needed. While the act of throwing away one’s
savings may provide valuable mental exercise, increase brain
activity, and even help fend off Alzheimer’s disease, there are
still many reasons to be skeptical of this study.

There is no hard evidence that links recreational gambling to
good health in adults over 65. Gamblers, however, have also been
known to bluff; and without the hard science to back it up, this
study many only prove what many people already know to be true:
Gamblers have a penchant for delusion.