California's exploding gambling industry overlooks binge bettors

04 August 2004

As reported by: The Associated Press
Addicts are being overlooked by officials coordinating California's gambling industry as Indian casinos, the lottery, racetracks and card rooms expand statewide.

As many as a million Californians may be addicted to gambling, national studies show, but the state's Office of Problem Gambling, created six years ago, was only funded last year with $3 million in tribal casino money. And even now, it has no full-time staff and no plan of action.

Studies show gambling addiction often leads to bankruptcy, broken homes, increased crime and occasionally suicide, but state officials simply don't care about the social impact, said former Democratic Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, a national expert on gambling.

"The people at the top are ignoring a very significant problem. You have a politically powerful industry and you have a lot of ignorance from elected officials," McCarthy said.

Meanwhile, Indian tribes are signing agreements with the state for unlimited casino expansion, a panel set up by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants California to join a multistate lottery to boost ticket sales and two November ballot initiatives could expand casino, card room and racetrack gambling.

"The wreckage from gambling is unbelievable, and there has to be some resources out there for treatment," gambling addiction counselor Eric Geffner said. "That needs to be a priority, but right now the priorities are different."

Amid the gambling expansion, the state hasn't spent any taxpayer money on gambling addiction.

The Office of Problem Gambling has $2.9 million in the bank and an additional $3 million on the way this year, all donated from Indian tribes. Officials expect the office eventually will employ three or four people.

"It's a start," said Richard J. Rosenthal, a Beverly Hills psychiatrist who has been treating compulsive gamblers for 25 years. "Do you know how many years we have been trying to get the state to recognize the problem and contribute anything?"

Pathological gambling addiction is considered a lifelong affliction that in some cases should be treated with extensive therapy.

Experts are concerned about the growing number of teenage gamblers enticed by TV shows such as "Vegas" and by the California State Poker Championship, which featured actor and winner Ben Affleck.

"Tribal governments should not be the only source of funds for that program," said Jacob Coin, executive director of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association. "You have got card rooms and racetracks who are as much a part of that industry as anyone else."

Until recently, the state's commitment to gambling addiction has come from the California Lottery, which this year increased it's annual $65,000 grant to $85,000 for the California Council on Problem Gambling.

Most of the money pays for a Chicago-based telephone hot line that refers people to addiction counselors and collects addresses so the council can mail brochures to potential addicts. Over three years, operators assisted 939 lottery addicts and mailed 237 information packets.

A 1999 report by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission estimated that about 3 million people nationwide have been pathological gamblers at some time in their lives.

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