Gambling addicts warn state gaming panel about predatory casinos
Gamblers shoot craps at a casino in Atlantic City, N.J. Testimony from recovering gamblers was a highlight of a forum on Monday sponsored by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to address potential negative effects of the state's newly expanded gaming law.AP
June 26, 2012
The state gaming commission heard testimony Monday that casino operators manipulate problem gamblers by offering cushy suites, free food and free drinks to keep big spenders coming back.
"They bring you anything you want, feeding that ego, as long as you keep feeding dollar bills or in my case $100 bills into slot machines," Jodie Nealley, a recovering gambling addict, said at a forum Monday at North Shore Community College in Lynn sponsored by the gaming commission.
Nealley spent two years in jail after stealing from her company. She lost her marriage, her job and her house as her gambling losses piled up to more than $500,000 in one year. The commission heard from her as well as other compulsive gamblers, the counselors who treat them, academics who study the issue and public policy experts.
The forum, which was broadcast on the commission's website, was to help commissioners identify problem gambling and ways to prevent and treat gambling addicts once full-fledged casinos begin operation. It was the fourth in a series held by the commission in recent weeks aimed at helping to get the fledgling industry up and running in the Bay State.
The Massachusetts legislation that authorizes three resort casinos and a single slot parlor requires the five-member gaming panel to provide safeguards for compulsive gamblers, including on-site counseling.
"Addressing the potentially negative effects of the expanded gaming law is really at the top of its priorities," commissioner Enrique Zuniga said.
Recovering gamblers provided what commission Chairman Stephen Crosby called "powerful" testimony about the industry's complicity in targeting problem gamblers.
Scott Seeley, an addict who estimated he lost more than $1.5 million at a Connecticut casino in a year, told the commission he hit rock bottom in a swirl of credit card debt and writing bad checks.
"I ended up in my backyard with a pistol to my head," he said.
Things for him started with an initial big win of $4,500. Like other addicts, he continued to chase the high of that next jackpot while the casinos encouraged him to spend beyond his means — cashing checks even after he bounced others.
"The casino knew I was in way over my head," Seeley said. "All I had to do was pick up the phone and, voila, I had a suite."
Studies show that the proximity of casinos does increase the number of problem gamblers early on, Debi LaPlante, a research director on addiction at Harvard Medical School, said.
Eventually that levels off as the population adapts, experts agreed.
Gambling, like drugs and alcohol, triggers the reward part of a person's brain, LaPlante said.
The commission was applauded by public policy experts in other parts of the country for starting the process of dealing with compulsive gambling early.
Kevin Mullally, general counsel and director of government affairs of Gaming Laboratories International and former executive director of the Missouri Gaming Commission, urged the commission to create a self-exclusion process that looks to help the addicted gambler rather than attempting to control the behavior.
Casinos should be prohibited from sending invitations to gamblers who put themselves on the self-exclusion list, he said. Those gamblers should be restricted from a facility's loyalty club, from cashing checks inside the casino and from collecting on big wins, Mullally said. At the same time, those who put themselves on the self-exclusion list should be pointed toward the counseling they need, he said.
"When self-excluders sign up, they need to make sure it's crystal clear that it's their responsibility to stay away," Mullally said.
Mark Vander Linden, executive officer of Iowa's Office of Problem Gambling Treatment and Prevention, said the Iowa Department of Public Health has found investing in television, newspaper and billboard ads has built strong awareness of the state's gambling hotline.
Educating people up front about the risky behavior of gambling is the best way to minimize the impact, Rachel Volberg, president of Gemini Research, said.
"The idea is that you inoculate people in advance of the availability of expanded gambling," she said.
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