Panelists agree: Gambling addiction problem growing

Friday, June 18, 1999 | 10:24 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- They had deep differences about the benefits of gambling, but the members of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission shared concerns about those addicted to games of chance.

All of the nine members were given an opportunity to attach a two-page statement to the commission's report. Most took advantage of the offer to talk about problem gambling.

Commissioner James Dobson, gaming's harshest critic on the panel, said in his statement that it was time to "sound the alarm" about the dangers of gambling.

"The very appeal of gambling belies the claims of the gambling industry, which is sown in greed and the exploitation of human weakness," Dobson said. "It robs from the poor and exploits the most vulnerable. It undermines the ethic of work, sacrifice and personal responsibility that exemplify the best qualities of American society."

Dobson said the commission's greatest legacy will be to change the way Americans think about the ills associated with gambling.

"We must reject the fantasy that wagering is innocuous entertainment and deal earnestly with the destruction and pain that it causes to individuals, families and society," he said.

Commissioner Terry Lanni, chairman of MGM Grand Inc., though disagreeing with Dobson about the dangers of gambling, said he "strongly endorsed" the commission's recommendations encouraging the industry to heighten awareness about problem gambling.

"The research clearly shows that the vast majority of Americans who gamble do so for entertainment and with no measurable negative side effects related to their gambling," Lanni said. "Unfortunately, some individuals gamble in ways that harm themselves or their families."

Lanni said many of the recommendations were based on measures already undertaken by the casino industry.

"I also believe that more needs to be done and that all segments of the legalized gaming industry, including lotteries, convenience gambling, charitable gaming, tribal gaming and parimutuels, should join the work in which we are currently engaged to help those who are in need."

Commissioner John Wilhelm, international president of the Culinary Union, which represents casino workers in Nevada, praised his colleagues for "spotlighting" problem gambling.

"The gaming industry has a moral obligation to provide the primary response to this growing problem," Wilhelm said.

At the same time, Wilhelm said, the casino industry demonstrated during the two-year study that it provides "secure, family-friendly jobs with good benefits" to hundreds of thousands of people across the country.

"Those who opposed legal gambling," he added, "have a moral obligation to answer: If they would deny a good union job to a family trapped in poverty because they oppose gambling, what alternative will they offer the family?"

Commissioner Bill Bible, former chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, said it was his "earnest hope" that the commission's legacy will be its call for more treatment of problem gamblers.

"The recommendations that deal with the identification and treatment of problem and pathological gamblers, who are a small percentage of the population, but a large number of troubled people, address a societal problem that has gone unrecognized and neglected for far too long," he said.

Commissioner Richard Leone, a former New Jersey treasurer, said the commission's work was "far from perfect" and none of the commissioners were completely satisfied.

"Still," he said, "we have made an important start in the process of reassessing and, I hope, reforming the nation's policies toward gambling."

Leone added: "Our system can be marvelously responsive to the public will when that will is informed and manifest. But the public needs help. It needs the media to report more than jackpots, and it needs leaders of every type -- conservative and liberal, business and non-profit -- to join hands in a public education effort."

Commissioner Leo McCarthy, an ex-lieutenant governor of California, said the commission's recommendations, if acted upon, could "effectively address the downside" of gambling in America.

"I don't want my eight grandchildren to grow up in a society in which gambling advertising reinforces the notion that upward mobility is more likely to be achieved by random chance than by diligent study and hard work," McCarthy added.