Researchers See Growth In Gambling Problems
Experts In State For 2-Day Meeting

October 19, 2004
By RICK GREEN, Courant Staff Writer

GROTON -- The boom in casino gambling, instant lottery tickets and other forms of gambling is causing more people to suffer severe problems, international researchers assembled here for a two-day meeting said Monday.

"If you live within 10 miles of a casino, you have twice the chance of being a problem gambler than if you don't," University of Buffalo researcher John Welte said in a presentation at the International Symposium on Problem Gambling and Co-Occurring Disorders meeting.

The gambling industry has long argued that gambling is a relatively benign form of entertainment, and that the percentage of people who develop a serious problem is small and unchanging.

In general, most people do gamble without a problem. But the debate over the number who may be vulnerable has intensified, particularly as gambling becomes more commonplace.

The National Research Council has estimated the median number of problem gamblers at about 1.5 percent of the population. Welte's estimate is nearly 5 percent.

Welte said Monday his research shows that the poor and less affluent are more susceptible to gambling problems. He said people suffering from alcohol and drug abuse also are much more vulnerable.

Naomi Greer, a spokeswoman for the American Gaming Association, said there is no evidence that gambling problems afflict more than a small element of the population. For severely afflicted gamblers, this number is about 1 percent of the overall population and is a figure that has not changed, she said.

"We point to all of the studies that have been done in the U.S. and internationally," said Greer, who spoke in a telephone interview and was not at the Mystic conference.

Connecticut, like many other areas of the country, has seen substantial growth in gambling over the past decade, with the expansion of casino gambling, the pervasive presence of state-sponsored lottery scratch tickets and the growing presence of online wagering. While Connecticut receives more than $650 million in gambling revenue annually, it spends just a few million dollars annually on treatment and education programs.

"When we make it easier, we get more plain-folks people in pathological gambling," Welte said.

"As you make gambling more available ... there is going to be more pathological gambling."

George Meldrum, special projects director for the Delaware Council on Gambling Problems, said annual surveys in his state show that children are increasingly aware of - and involved in - gambling activity.

"Thirty-five percent of our fifth-graders report gambling on video games," said Meldrum, one of about 275 people attending the meeting.

"We don't know what that means, but what it suggests is quite interesting."

The costs of problem gambling extend from domestic abuse to financial ruin, said Henry Lesieur, a leading researcher from Rhode Island and president of the Institute for Problem Gambling, based in Middletown.

For example, he said, "Problem gamblers are 10 times more likely to be involved in a hospital emergency room [for treatment] than non-gamblers."

The conference represents a milestone for Connecticut, organizers said, attracting some of the world's most prominent researchers to a state where gambling activity has surged. Increasingly, counselors, therapists and medical doctors are looking for gambling problems as they treat patients and clients, said Christopher Armentano, director of problem gambling services for the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services "Unless you are looking for it and unless you ask questions, you are not going to see it," Armentano said.

Sponsored by the department and the Institute for Problem Gambling, the conference is examining the need to treat problem gamblers who suffer from other disorders, such alcohol or substance abuse, depression and mental illness. The gathering will conclude today.

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