Lottery reminding public gambling can mean trouble

Lottery reminding public gambling can mean trouble
By Brian Hallenbeck

Publication: The Day


Agency using TV spots, popular names to get its message across

Hartford - Connecticut might be hooked on the revenue it derives from legalized gambling, but it's also committed to alerting the public to the dangers of gambling addiction and the toll it can take on families, state lawmakers and officials said Wednesday.

The Connecticut Lottery Corp., the quasi-public agency that operates the state's lottery, affirmed that commitment at an afternoon news conference at the Legislative Office Building, unveiling two new public-service announcements aimed at parents and college-age adults and bearing the message: "Gambling Is Not Child's Play."

The lottery has pulled its advertising for the games it offers in order to make way for the 30-second spots - a television announcement featuring former New England Patriots lineman John Hannah and a radio announcement in which Geno Auriemma, the University of Connecticut women's basketball coach, reminds listeners that "card games, lottery tickets and sports betting" are "out of bounds" for kids.

In the TV spot, a mother expresses the hope that her son "has some luck with his lottery ticket" on his 16th birthday, whereupon the hulking Hannah, an NFL Hall of Famer, appears and cautions: "Lottery tickets are not the right kind of gift for kids."

Cashman + Katz, a Glastonbury agency, produced the TV spot.

Lottery officials have long discouraged the giving of lottery tickets as gifts to underage youths, a practice that tends to occur most often around the holidays. It is unlawful for those under 18 to purchase a lottery ticket or to redeem winning tickets for prizes, Anne Noble, president and chief executive officer of the Connecticut Lottery Corp., noted.

Noble said the lottery and the Connecticut Partnership for Responsible Gambling, whose members include the lottery, the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling and the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, are working with Youth Rights Media, a New Haven-based nonprofit, on producing a third public-service announcement intended solely for the Internet.

"It's so important to speak to parents, but this is kids talking to kids, and we're very excited about that," Noble said of the lottery's collaboration with Youth Rights Media, which engages young people in video media and community organizing.

The lottery, which provided $1.9 million to the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services' Chronic Gamblers Treatment and Rehabilitation Fund in the 2009-10 fiscal year, has funded the production of all three public-service announcements, according to Diane Patterson, a lottery spokeswoman.

State Sen. Andrea Stillman, D-Waterford, opened Wednesday's news conference, timed to coincide with the 9th Annual National Problem Gambling Awareness Week, by noting that "no particular form of wagering and no specific game of chance is any more or any less responsible for problem gambling even though the matter has gained prominence with the proliferation of so many new options."

The senator, known for her pragmatic approach to legalized gambling despite her unwillingness to support attempts to expand it, said there has been an "undeniable upside to gambling in our state" in terms of the billions of dollars in revenue and thousands of jobs it has created.

"Still," she said, "we cannot and we must not let down our guard with regard to problem gambling."

Marvin Steinberg, executive director of the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling, warned that problem gambling among young people can be slow to develop and hard to detect because of their relatively limited resources. He said the council is focused on reaching out to young people with problems through a chat line on the council's website.

Patricia Rehmer, commissioner of the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, said parents should be aware that those with gambling addictions may also develop substance-abuse problems and other mental-health disorders at the same time - and that all such issues are treatable.

"We hear from parents who say that having their kids play poker on Friday nights is better than having them go to a beer party," Rehmer said. "But developing a gambling problem at a young age can create a lifetime problem, too."