Casino giants’ problem gambling efforts are shoddy
Thursday, 3. April 2014
If you remember the ceos of big tobacco in front of congress swearing that the product they are selling is not addictive ( were they told this by the tobacco instutie ?) and the next year or so all the fedreal and state lawsuits popping up costing them millions +
Is the gaming industry being lead down the same road ??
Iets look at what some of the gaming people are saying and doing or not doing with
Casino giants’ problem gambling efforts are shoddy – Monday, April 25, 2011 | 2 a.m. – Las Vegas Sun
· · Casino giants’ problem gambling efforts are shoddy
The responsible gaming page on the Luxor website.
Monday, April 25, 2011 | 2 a.m.
Sun Coverage
· Headlines from the Las Vegas gaming industry
That encounter sprang to mind this month after I strayed accidentally into the “responsible gaming” section of the Monte Carlo website, was quite appalled, and then took an extensive and damning inventory of how major casinos handle this matter online. Then, I watched with sadness as some of the Strip’s mouthpieces went into damage-control mode rather than soul-searching mode upon the April 14 release of a credible $3 million study that found gambling addiction is twice as common as alcoholism.
This is an era in which gambling — casino or otherwise — has never been easier. The shutdown in recent days in the U.S. of the world’s biggest poker websites amid a federal indictment will make playing online temporarily more challenging, but there’s also legislation in Carson City to allow mobile gaming devices to be taken to private places such as hotel rooms. So I find the industry’s sincerity questionable. They point to the “When the Fun Stops” brochures near the ATMs and the dough they give Harvard for addiction research, but for proof to how serious they are, consider what I found online:
• Click on the “responsible gaming” (RG) tab for Monte Carlo and you’re greeted with a headline that reads, “HIT THE CASINO.” There’s also a sexy video of hot babes winning at craps. Beneath all that is a copy block emphasizing how fantastic MGM Resorts is for training employees to spot problem gambling. Near the end is a hotline number.
• The “responsible gaming” sections of the Luxor and Mandalay Bay show hot blondes having fun.
• The Excalibur, Tropicana and Stratosphere’s “responsible gaming” sites show images of jackpot-hitting slots, a roulette ball landing on green, card players peeking at great hands. All Caesars Entertainment resorts feed to the same page showing, among other things, a royal flush.
• Both Caesars and Boyd Gaming force you to find their responsible gaming links in tiny print at the very bottom of each resort’s websites.
Theoretically, this material is on these sites so someone who thinks they’re an addict — or even someone who never thought of it before — can get help. Instead, in almost every case, the badly written information is surrounded by distraction and titillation, with links to the rest of the casino’s offerings. Would a site for potential alcoholics sport images of happy, sexy drinkers and links to the nearest saloon? Would a site on compulsive eating disorders boast pictures of hot fudge sundaes and jelly beans?
Only one company, in my judgment, does it right, and it surprised me: Las Vegas Sands. CEO Sheldon Adelson once told me gambling addiction doesn’t exist in Asia, but nonetheless each of the Las Vegas Sands sites links to a totally separate responsible gaming page where the hotline number stares you in the face. No alluring links compete for your attention; there’s a left rail providing several ways to find help and information. And the image atop the page is that of a despondent fellow in front of a blur of slot machines. You don’t want to be that guy.
It’s not that I hold casino owners responsible for eradicating compulsive gambling, but they’re out there tooting their horns about how terrific they are. Rather than patting themselves on the back for mandating wristbands one week a year, Strip resorts can actually make a difference by making the information they provide online easy to find, straightforward and devoid of both temptation and self-congratulations.
That’s when we’ll know they’re serious.
Steve Friess’ column first appeared in this week’s issue of Las Vegas Weekly, a sister publication of the Sun.
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Study finds compulsive gambling more prevalent than alcoholism
After age 21, gambling problems are more common than alcoholism, the University of Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions found in analyzing data from two national studies.
By Liz Benston (contact)
Thursday 14 April 2011 2:01 a
Tony McDew not only recognized that he had a gambling problem, but set out to document it with his own video camera, hoping that sharing his experience could help others. When the jackpot hits, “It feels like you’re getting high.” And when it doesn’t? “You want to crucify yourself.”
Thursday 14 April 2011 2:01 a
For decades, researchers have said that alcoholism is more common in the U.S. adult population than compulsive gambling.
But last month the University of Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions published a surprising report concluding just the opposite.
After age 21, gambling problems are more common than booze dependence, the institute found in analyzing data from two national studies.
The study included all forms of gambling, such as lotteries, office pools, charity bingo, Internet gambling and raffles.
The results have drawn skepticism from some treatment experts in light of long accepted research that drinking problems are at least twice as common as gambling problems. Even the institute’s chief investigator, John Welte, was surprised by the results.
“I didn’t expect problem gambling to be more common than alcohol dependence for such a wide age range,” he said.
What might otherwise be an academic debate could have bigger consequences for the gaming industry, which has long fought criticism that gambling creates social ills that go unaccounted for in official statistics. Casinos are subject to high “sin” taxes in states where they are granted monopolies, with some tax money diverted to help problem gamblers. There’s still relatively little money for problem gambling treatment in the United States, in part because it has been viewed by academics and industry officials as rare.
Welte’s research found that the prevalence of alcohol problems peaks at a younger age and drops off significantly after age 21, a similar trend found elsewhere and possibly explained by the fact that young people tend to engage in risky behavior more than adults.
By contrast, the prevalence of gambling problems increases after 21, peaking at ages 31 through 40 and declining slowly until later adulthood, when it falls off significantly, the study found.
Welte’s findings show a significantly lower rate of alcohol dependence than previous studies, although his evidence that problem and pathological gamblers combined make up from 1 to 5 percent of the over-21 population is within the range of previously reported figures.
A state-funded study in 2002 found that from 2.1 to 6.4 percent of Nevada adults are problem gamblers or “probable” pathological gamblers likely to develop a problem — at least 75 percent higher than results for the rest of the country. That study hasn’t been replicated to determine whether the problem has worsened as the population and available gambling opportunities have grown, even as some locals with gambling problems stop or curb their gambling over time.
To compare gambling and drinking problems, Welte’s study ranked the percentage of survey respondents who answered “yes” to at least three questions on gambling addiction against the percentage who answered “yes” to at least three questions on alcohol dependence. The questions, which include whether a person has ever lied or stolen to feed his addiction, are taken from standard diagnostic manuals.
The study combined results from two national telephone polls conducted by the institute, including a survey of adults ages 18 and over in 1999 and 2000 and a survey of youth ages 14 to 21 from 2005 through 2007. All told, Welte’s group surveyed nearly 5,000 people in one of the largest research projects of its kind.
Welte found the greatest discrepancy between gambling and drinking problems from ages 31 to 40, with gambling problems peaking at about 5 percent of the population and at three times the rate of alcohol problems.
Robert Hunter runs the only nonprofit problem gambling treatment clinic serving the Las Vegas Valley. He’s one of the study’s skeptics.
Problem gambling is probably higher in Southern Nevada than it is elsewhere because of widespread gambling options, Hunter said. But drinking problems are believed to be more common because of the greater availability and consumption of alcohol, including in the home, he said.
That may be changing, Hunter said, as casino and Internet gambling spread nationwide.
“Conventional wisdom says you can get alcohol everywhere,” he said. “Theoretically, you can get gambling everywhere, too.”
Most of the Problem Gambling Center’s patients are 31 to 60, with the number of people in each decade about equally represented, he added.
Dr. Mel Pohl, medical director of the Las Vegas Recovery Center for the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction, is also not sold on the study’s findings.
Addiction experts generally believe that people who abuse alcohol make up 9 to 10 percent of the population, Pohl said. By contrast, Welte’s research found that up to 3 percent of adults have a drinking problem.
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Social and economic impacts of gambling
By Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press – HALIFAX — A draft report on the social and economic impacts of gambling that was shelved about 18 months ago by the Nova Scotia government should be released, says the province’s freedom of information review officer.
The government refused to provide the document a year ago, saying it wasn’t being released because of problems with its research techniques. The Canadian Press and an anti-gambling group appealed to the review officer in a bid to get the report released by the Department of Labour and Advanced Education.
In her report, Dulcie McCallum recommends the release of the full draft report.
She rejects the province’s argument that the document is exempted under the freedom of information law because it might provide advice, recommendations or draft regulations to a cabinet minister or public body.
The final draft of the report was submitted by a consultant in September 2009, a couple of months before his contract was terminated under the direction of the province’s NDP government. It was expected to delve into the costs to society of gambling addiction tied to video lottery terminals.
The consultant who wrote the report, Mark Anielski, has rejected criticisms of his methods, saying he suspects the study was killed because it focused on social problems linked to the use of VLTs and casino slot machines.
The province has said about $99.5 million of its $146 million in gambling revenues in 2009-10 came from VLTs.
McCallum says in her report that the province interfered with the rights of the applicants to information under the freedom of information act.
And the six weeks it took Labour to confirm that it had custody and control of the report slowed down the process, even though McCallum says her office had formally informed the province that the file should be “expedited” due to public interest.
She says the delays meant she couldn’t begin working on the final review until April 1, about a week after the province held a news conference announcing its plans for a new gaming strategy.
“The timing may be circumstantial but my observation is that as a result of the delay the applicants’ right to access information and to fully participate in policy formulation, government decision-making and being allowed to air divergent views, was interfered with and at odds with the purposes of the act,” wrote McCallum.
A spokeswoman for the Labour Department said in an email that the province is reviewing McCallum’s report and won’t comment until its formal response. The province has until May 8 to respond and after that it has 30 days to appeal the matter to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.
In her report, McCallum rejects the government’s public statements that the document couldn’t be released because of errors in methodology.
“With respect, as I stated in a previous review, applicants are perfectly capable of discerning inaccurate information. If a public body believes information may be misleading, rather than withhold the record, under the duty to assist in the act, a public body should provide the record along with a further explanation.”
In the legislature on Wednesday, Liberal Leo Glavine asked Labour Minister
Marilyn More if she would table the report.
“This needs to be made public now. It should have been there before the most recent (gambling) strategy was put forward,” he said.
More said she will consider the recommendations and respond formally.
The province announced its new gambling strategy last month and maintained a moratorium on new VLTs. The original moratorium was introduced in 2005 by the previous Conservative government as part of a strategy that removed 1,000 machines across the province.
Nova Scotia regulates 2,200 VLTs, while about 600 more are operated through agreements with First Nations bands.
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books coming out this year
SAM SKOLNIK
High Stakes: The Rising Cost of America’s Gambling Addiction
This title will be released on July 5, 2011.
Natasha Dow Schüll
. ADDICTION BY DESIGN: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas, will be published by Princeton University Press in the fall of 2011.
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