'I lost everything. Cars, family, house, career'
Osborne now treats addicted gamblers after having kicked it himself
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BALTIMORE - Michael Osborne once figured he could make a living by betting on sports.
“Winning 700, 800 bucks at 15 when I was working in the grocery store making $200 a week, I thought I was a big deal. It was nice walking around in high school with that wad in your pocket,” recalled Osborne, now 37. “That’s the hook, line and sinker. I’m thinking, 'This is easy. I know sports, I love sports. I might never have to work again.”’
He ended up $500,000 in debt, in legal trouble and ultimately, suicidal.
“I lost everything,” Osborne said. “Cars, family, house, career. There was nothing left for me to lose.”
With treatment, Osborne shed his gambling addiction. Now, instead of seeking to support himself by wagering on sports, he’s dedicated his life to helping others with the same misguided notion.
Osborne is owner and executive director of Baltimore-based Harbour Pointe, a residential treatment facility that is solely dedicated to curing addiction to gambling. Founded in 1985, Harbour Pointe treated 104 people last year, including women and CEOs.
“I’ve handled everyone from millionaires to people whose parents, uncles, brothers and friends chipped in to get them a month of care,” said Dr. Jack Vaeth, a board certified psychiatrist and a member of the Harbour Pointe medical staff.
The National Gambling Impact Study Commission estimates that each year an average of $230 billion is illegally wagered on sports in the United States. A study by the National Institute of Mental Health concluded 4.2 million Americans are addicted to gambling, 60 percent of whom have yearly incomes under $25,000.
“Gamblers are difficult to treat. People love to bet on football because they think they know the game and believe they can beat the odds,” said Jeffrey M. Beck, managerial assistant at the New Jersey-based Council of Compulsive Gambling.
Osborne’s first experience with Harbour Pointe came when he was 19. His parents bailed him out of a $6,000 debt to a bookie under the stipulation he receive treatment for his problem.
“They brought me here and dropped me off. But once the bookie was taken care of, I felt like I had learned my lesson,” Osborne said. “I told myself I would never get to that point again. I started calling in bets from here. I did what I needed to do to get through it and that was the end.”
Only it wasn’t. Osborne got a job in real estate and stole from customers’ escrow accounts to pay off debts to offshore bookmakers. In August 2003, facing jail time after violating probation, he was homeless and walking along the side of railroad tracks trying to decide what to do next.
“There was nothing else to live for,” he said. “It was either going to be death or one last-ditch effort of getting help and trying to come out of this.”
He returned to Harbour Pointe, finally righted himself and, in 2006, took control of the facility.
Osborne receives personal and vocational support from LeRoy Yegge, his best friend and Harbour Pointe’s business development manager. The 43-year-old Yegge has a story that’s very similar to Osborne’s.
“I started pitching coins at 7 years old after school. I was winning and feeling good about it,” Yegge said. “I went to the racetrack at 12 years old. Went with $20 and walked out with $180. It was the greatest thing I’d ever seen.”
He got a job at the track at 15, and in high school was booking bets for his teachers to feed his habit.
“I’d bet on sports, horses, cards,” Yegge recalled. “If there were two flies in a room, I’d bet on which one landed first.”
Yegge remained afloat until 2002, when he stole his wife’s identity and maxed out her credit cards to pay off his gambling tab. She threw him out of the house, and Yegge was living on the streets of Baltimore before he finally checked himself into Harbour Pointe.
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