In this episode of The Collector’s Compass, Alyx sits down with the Problem Gambling Coalition of Colorado (PGCC), alongside Chigbo Nzoiwu and Jamie Glick, for a thoughtful, grounded conversation about where gambling harm, collecting, and modern behavior patterns increasingly intersect—and how education and harm reduction can keep pace without jumping to conclusions.

Chigbo and Jamie bring a frontline public-health perspective shaped by years of prevention, education, and recovery work at the state level. Together, they explore how PGCC defines gambling harm, what has changed in recent years, and why many people now enter support systems without ever identifying as “gamblers.” Rather than forcing conclusions, the conversation stays rooted in observation, lived experience, and the ways harm often shows up before language catches up.

A central theme is the growing overlap between traditional gambling dynamics and newer environments—including collecting spaces—where speed, frequency, access, and normalization have shifted dramatically. Collecting itself isn’t framed as the problem. Instead, the focus is on when familiar psychological patterns begin to reappear in new contexts, especially when wrapped in hobby language, nostalgia, or community-driven formats.

The episode also explores PGCC’s partnership with Collectors MD through Unboxed, reflecting on what becomes possible when people are given neutral, non-judgmental spaces to talk openly. Chigbo and Jamie share what they’ve noticed since working more closely with collectors, including how people describe their experiences before they ever say they’re struggling—and why tone matters so much in keeping doors open.

The conversation also touches on youth exposure, early conditioning, and prevention, emphasizing guardrails over fear or moral panic. It closes by looking ahead at what responsible collaboration between advocacy groups and collecting communities can look like—and why naming risk doesn’t have to mean taking sides.

Topics covered include:

• How PGCC defines and approaches gambling harm

• Emerging patterns and new entry points into risk

• Overlap between gambling dynamics and collecting environments

• Language, neutrality, and why framing matters

• Youth exposure, prevention, and early guardrails

• Collaboration, education, and harm reduction without blame

If you’ve ever felt uncertainty about where the line is, noticed patterns that don’t fit old labels, or wondered how support systems adapt as behavior evolves, this episode offers clarity without condemnation.

The goal isn’t to police the hobby. It’s to understand change early enough to reduce harm—and to keep people connected, informed, and supported.

Subscribe, share, and join the conversation around healthier participation.

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Website: cogamblerhelp.org

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YT: ⁨‪@cogamblerhelp‬

IG: @pgcc_colorado01

Help for Problem Gambling: Call or Text 800-GAMBLER

#CollectorsMD | #PGCC | #RipResponsibly | #CollectResponsibly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2NqCd5AFzE

Published December 12, 2025 | By Alyx E, Founder of Collectors MD

Over the past year, I’ve sat in dozens of calls and meetings with councils, coalitions, recovery organizations, treatment centers, technology platforms, and national helplines—1-800-GAMBLER, Gamblers Anonymous, PGCC, NCPG, Right Choice Recovery, Birches Health, OpenRecovery, Evive, Gamban, GamFin, and many more. Across all of them, one pattern keeps surfacing with increasing urgency. More and more people are reaching out for help because of gambling-related harm—but not from traditional casinos or sports betting alone.

The stories sound familiar. Loss of control. Escalating spending. Secrecy. Shame. Emotional volatility. Financial stress. Relationship damage. The difference is where these behaviors are showing up. High-velocity digital marketplaces. Gamified purchasing systems. Live selling. Loot-style mechanics. Collectibles. Apps and environments that don’t call themselves gambling—but functionally behave like it. The harm doesn’t care what we label the activity. The nervous system responds the same.

What’s become impossible to ignore is that the recovery and addiction-support ecosystem is being asked to respond to something new, fast-moving, and undefined. Hotlines are fielding calls that don’t fit neatly into old scripts. Counselors are hearing stories that don’t match the traditional frameworks they were trained on. This isn’t a failure of the people seeking help—it’s a signal that the landscape has changed.

This is about building infrastructure, not just awareness. Collectors MD is working toward becoming a one-stop ecosystem for gambling-related harm across every vertical—combining peer support, education, resources, referrals, and training into a model that actually reflects how harm shows up today.

That’s where the work ahead matters. We can’t just tell people to “stop” without understanding what they’re trying to stop, why it pulled them in, and how the systems around them were designed to accelerate harm. Over the coming weeks and months, you’ll begin to see tangible changes across these industries—driven in large part by the consulting, education, training, and collaborative initiatives Collectors MD is actively leading to equip professionals with better tools, clearer language, and modern resources. So they can help us help the people who are already asking for support.

This is not something any one organization can solve alone. It never was. As we say often: this is a team effort. It takes a village. It takes recovery professionals willing to evolve, platforms willing to listen, advocates willing to speak up, and communities willing to show up for one another without judgment. Progress doesn’t come from pointing fingers—it comes from shared responsibility.

If this movement has taught me anything, it’s this: people are not broken. Systems are outdated. And when we update the systems—with intention, humility, and collaboration—we give people a real chance to heal.

#CollectorsMD
When the problem evolves, so must the way we respond—together, not in silos.

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