Newspaper article: Tough Odds for Gambling Addicts
As casinos have multiplied all over (California), so has the number of people who can't stop - and help for them has not kept up
12/25/07 - This is a good article from the San Francisco Chronicle about gambling addiction and treatment (or the lack of treatment) in California.
Quotes: "... at any given time, only 3 percent to 10 percent of problem gamblers are willing to go into treatment," so it's not like all 1.2 million (in California)need to be rushed into counseling at once. However, 3 percent alone represents 36,000 people - still far more than the current resources can handle. (Steve Hedrick, director of the California Office of Problem Gambling)
"The trouble is that when you are a problem gambler, you're not going to spend your money on a counselor," said Marc Lefkowitz, training director for the nonprofit California Council on Problem Gambling, which runs the state's 1-800 help line. "You have to hit rock bottom first." And that, several studies say, takes between two and five years. "That's when we come in," Lefkowitz said
The lesson we must learn from other states, and from what addiction specialists know about the nature of pathological gamblers and their resistance to treatment, is that free programs must be available for gambling addicts.
Those who support casinos, from a local Middleboro one to several statewide, are accepting a serious trade-off in the decision to gain revenue for public services from an industry that has the negative consequence of increasing a destructive addiction.
This town may have opened the door to the casino when they didn't vote for a proposition 2 1/2 override. There is no way to determine whether the pro-casino vote would have gone the other way if the override had passed.
I wish the decision was a clear cut one not involving the pain of addiction, for example just between losing part of the rural character of our town and gaining revenue.
Personally I believe that, because of the need for funds for education and social programs in Middleboro, this is the greatest good for the greatest number. I think having the casino revenue outweighs the downside of the "greatest bad" for a much smaller number. This is more than an academic exercise. These are real people, some of whom will be helped significantly through better town services and employment opportunities by the casino, and some of whom will be hurt by addiction.
I couldn't support this unless I believed gambling addiction* can be treated, and that in my own small way I can be an advocate on the pro-casino side for gambling addiction treatment, and as well as for pathological gambling research, and of course for an aggressive education program.
*(For those who haven't kept up with this thread, I am a psychotherapist but I am not a specialist on any kind of addiction and I do not treat addicts.)
12/18/07 - An article in today's Brockton Enterprise confirms the article from Dec. 13, 2007 below and reinforces the belief that the Mashpee will be able to open a Middleboro casino with class II gambling. It still insn't clear what the status of bingoslot machines will be. These are a casino's biggest revenue maker when regular slots aren't allowed. This depends on the ruling about bingo slots from the Indian Gaming Commission, and whether they are deemed not allowed in states where regular slots machines are illegal (as they currently are in Massachusetts). It would seem that if the gaming commission rules against bingo slots, the tribes that count of them in their casinos will take the ruling to court if they are able to do so.
This is from The Enterprise article:
"If the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe continues along the federal route, there will be no stopping a casino because the “door is already open” to Class III gaming, according to the U.S. Department of Interior.
Because the state allows Class III gaming with casino nights, then the tribe can have a Class III casino, said Gary Garrison, a spokesman for the federal Office of Indian Affairs."
The following is also very relevant:
"Should the tribe and state fail to negotiate the Class III compact, according to the application, the Mashpee tribe will seek a U.S. District Court appointed mediator who is authorized to finalize an agreement."
"...a local compact is not required, but there is no problem with Middleboro's agreement."
Continued here
Class II may not be as second class as many thought:
Tribe signals intentions about type of gambling
12/13/07 -- Regardless of state laws about gambling, once the Mashpee's property in Middleboro goes into federal trust, they can operate any kind gambling in their casino which is legal under Massachusetts law
Currently that is what is known as class II gaming, as opposed to full class III gaming of the kind in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. However single night "Las Vegas nights" are also legal, and the tribe is interpreting that to mean that they can essentially offer Las Vegas style games such as blackjack and roulette all of the time.
The Cape Cod Times quotes Gary Garrission, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as saying that since Massachusetts allows casino nights for charities that apply for single-day licenses, according to the state Lottery Web site, the tribe isn't restricted by the single-day licenses and would be allowed to offer any games allowed at those events. He said that tribes are not subject to the rest of the law, and that "they're only subject to what's allowed and what's not allowed".
We have reported previouly on what the Seminole have done with class II gaming in Florida, and about their recent settlement with the state. Now the Cape Cod Times reports that the tribe is looking at some kinds of gambling, which has usually been considered class III gaming, as being permissible regardless of what the state authorizes:
"In gaming regulations submitted with their application, the tribe asserts its right to open a Class III gaming casino, with so-called Las Vegas-style games like blackjack and roulette, because the state allows casino nights and off-shore casino cruises."
The National Indian Gaming Commission (also reported on here) wants to change the regulations on the bingo slot machines which were used to great success with the Seminole casinos in Florida. They want to classify them as class III slot machines. If this happens and Massachusetts doesn't auhorize class II gamblng, the Mashpee would have to be creative in developing a variety of games of chance that fell within the definitions of legal gambling in Massachusetts.
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