Keno Should Come With More Help For Gambling Addiction
7:17 p.m. EDT, June 4, 2013
Connecticut can't stop its addiction to gambling. The legislature is adding keno to a mix that includes lotteries, scratch games and off-track betting, not to mention the many offerings of mega-casinos Foxwoods and the Mohegan Sun.
Though this page has long opposed gambling as a government-enrichment scheme, we recognize that it's irresistible to a state facing an enormous budget hole and desperate for new ways to pay the bills.
If there must be keno, let there at least be antidotes to the pathologies it creates. No additional money has been budgeted for addiction programs, however.
Keno, a form of electronic bingo, will bring gambling into bars, clubs and even family restaurants, where children are naturally going to want to play. Its instantaneous results make it highly addictive, especially when alcohol is involved. The state should prepare for the social costs. They will be compounded by three new casinos coming to Massachusetts.
Keno was shunned by the Connecticut legislature just three years ago, but is welcome now because of the new competition on the casino front that will cut further into the state's shrinking take from slots at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun. The state is betting keno will contribute up to $27 million annually.
Altogether, the state collected nearly $659 million in 2012 from casinos, off-track betting and lotteries, the Associated Press has reported. Yet problem gambling services got just $1.9 million. That amount hasn't changed in close to a decade.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy had recommended last year devoting 1 percent of revenue from new gaming ventures toward fighting problem gambling. That would be a very small start.
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-ed-keno-gambling-addiction-20130604,0,632309.story
Though this page has long opposed gambling as a government-enrichment scheme, we recognize that it's irresistible to a state facing an enormous budget hole and desperate for new ways to pay the bills.
If there must be keno, let there at least be antidotes to the pathologies it creates. No additional money has been budgeted for addiction programs, however.
Keno, a form of electronic bingo, will bring gambling into bars, clubs and even family restaurants, where children are naturally going to want to play. Its instantaneous results make it highly addictive, especially when alcohol is involved. The state should prepare for the social costs. They will be compounded by three new casinos coming to Massachusetts.
Keno was shunned by the Connecticut legislature just three years ago, but is welcome now because of the new competition on the casino front that will cut further into the state's shrinking take from slots at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun. The state is betting keno will contribute up to $27 million annually.
Altogether, the state collected nearly $659 million in 2012 from casinos, off-track betting and lotteries, the Associated Press has reported. Yet problem gambling services got just $1.9 million. That amount hasn't changed in close to a decade.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy had recommended last year devoting 1 percent of revenue from new gaming ventures toward fighting problem gambling. That would be a very small start.
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-ed-keno-gambling-addiction-20130604,0,632309.story
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