As reported by: The Day
The Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling is taking aim at a new group: Asian gamblers.
The council said it is dedicating $100,000 - new funding from the state Lottery - to the effort, the largest amount of funding it has ever allocated at one time to a single demographic group.

“Over the years, we've seen a need to provide services to serve the Asian community,” executive director Kathleen Scanlon said. “Anyone who knows the community says it's a big problem.”

On Tuesday, a small task force made up of council members, social workers, students and a representative from the State Treasurer's office, which runs the Lottery, assembled for the first time to discuss how the money should be spent.

The council plans to hire a Mandarin-speaking employee to coordinate the project, which will focus primarily on the Chinese communities in Boston and Quincy. Since the council doesn't have any in-house treatment providers or any employees who speak Asian languages, one of the biggest tasks will be to train social workers at other agencies to treat Asian problem gamblers.

Officials plan to place bilingual advertisements in the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority subway cars and buses, Registry of Motor Vehicles offices and in Chinese newspapers. They will also translate their guidebooks and Web site into Chinese and produce a video to play on buses that bring Asian gamblers to casinos.

“A lot of people needed help, they just didn't know where to go,” said Ming Chang, who worked as an addiction counselor in Quincy for seven years. She said that many Asian gambling addicts turn to friends or family before seeking professional help.

“They think, 'Why do I have to talk to a stranger?' The people I worked with had burned most of their bridges in the community already,” she said.


Article By: The Day