Study pinpoints prevalence of problem gambling

David Strow

Monday, May 24, 1999 | 11:44 a.m.

New research at UNLV indicates 6.6 percent of Clark County residents are pathological or problem gamblers, and more than half of those living here know at least one person with a gambling problem.

And there's more evidence that problem gambling is taking its financial toll in Las Vegas. The top local executive for Consumer Credit Counseling Services said that 13 percent of bankruptcy petitions she reviewed last August listed gambling debts.

The UNLV study, derived from 15 years of polling conducted by the school's Center for Survey Research, also showed that about 20 percent of county residents said they had at least one family member afflicted with problem gambling.

Though widespread, the study found that these numbers have remained fairly consistent over the past two decades.

"In every fifth house on the street, someone in there is struggling with this problem," said Las Vegas psychologist Robert Hunter, who has studied problem gambling in Nevada for nearly 15 years. "And in every fifth one of those, someone is contemplating suicide tonight."

Estimates of the extent of problem gambling have varied widely, and no recent study has definitively estimated its extent in Las Vegas. One widely cited 1997 study, conducted by the Harvard School of Medicine and funded by the gaming industry, said the rate was 1.14 percent among all American adults.

But gambling industry opponents cite studies indicating 13.2 percent of people who gamble exhibit symptoms of problem gambling.

"There's been some misleading information ... (the gaming industry) is being told, 'Don't worry, it's only 1 percent,' " Hunter said. "I don't think it's on its way to 60 percent, but we need to take it seriously."

Hunter, UNLV researcher Bo Bernhard, Las Vegas social worker Gary Dymek and CCCS President and CEO Michele Johnson presented their findings at a meeting last week of the Las Vegas chapter of the Nevada Society for Certified Public Accountants.

Bernhard, a UNLV doctoral candidate, is currently finishing the university-funded study, which he is conducting for his dissertation. In a number of surveys, 52 percent of respondents said a co-worker was a problem gambler. About 40 percent said a close friend had a gambling problem.

Bernhard acknowledged that the actual number of problem gamblers may well exceed the 6.6 percent indicated by the study, because the surveys only accounted for those who admitted having a problem.

The results were taken from Las Vegas Polls, conducted by the UNLV Howard Cannon Center for Survey Research from 1984 to 1998. Each poll covered 500 to 1,000 Clark County adults selected through random-digit dialing. The study averages out years of polling, giving more reliable data than a poll in a single year.

The polls carry a margin of error of 2.5 percent. The studies were led by UNLV Professor Fred Preston.

Stunning resultsBernhard, a fourth-generation Las Vegan, was stunned by the results.

"We always believed if you live here, you don't gamble," Bernhard said. "That was what I expected to find when I started, but the numbers blew me away. This is a significant problem affecting my hometown."

The results will be officially published in national science journals in July.

Hunter maintains that problem gambling is a neurological disorder as opposed to simply indicating a lack of self-control. Recent medical studies, he said, showed neurological fingerprints in pathological gamblers, similar to those seen in alcoholics.

To feed that addiction, most problem gamblers turn to video poker. More than 90 percent of women, and about two-thirds of men, in treatment for problem gambling are heavy video poker players, Hunter estimates. For problem gamblers, video poker carries a heavy financial price as well; a typical compulsive video poker player takes only about two or three years to bottom out -- or reach the point where the cost of continued gambling becomes overwhelming, Hunter said. By comparison, problem players of other games can take 20 years or longer to reach that point, he said.

That's because video poker has addictive qualities: an immediate payoff; the ability to increase the amount of one's play indefinitely, in both in time and money; the perception of skill making a difference in the outcome; and the ability to immerse oneself in the game.

"It is the distilled essence of gambling," Hunter said.

The emotional toll of problem gambling, such as the destruction of friendships and families, is well documented. But problem gambling takes a considerable financial toll as well.

Financial tollIn an informal survey of its own, CCCS found that counties with legalized gaming had a bankruptcy rate one-third higher than gambling-free counties. Counties that had more than five casinos had bankruptcy rates 24 percent higher than those with four or less, CCCS said.

That contradicts industry research; a study by the National Opinion Research Center said legalized gambling generally had no effect on local bankruptcy rates. The study was conducted on behalf of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission.

But in Clark County, 17 out of 131 bankruptcy petitions reviewed last August listed one or more casinos as creditors, CCCS' Johnson said.

She didn't indicate, however, how many of the petitions cited gambling debt as their primary liability. Nor is it clear how many more bankruptcies were filed by problem gamblers who did not list casinos as creditors.

Nevada had 15,708 bankruptcies in 1998, one for every 39 households in the state. That's the highest per-capita rate in the nation, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute. Nationally, the per-household bankruptcy rate was one in 68 in 1998.

Bankruptcy ratesNevada's bankruptcy rate rose 17 percent in 1998, compared to 2.7 percent for the nation as a whole.

The gaming industry maintains that's largely the result of Nevada's explosive growth. From 1997 to 1998, Nevada added an estimated 68,207 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That's a 4.1 percent one-year growth rate, more than double the growth rate of any other state.

"The (problem gambling) figures might be even higher than Dr. Hunter and his associates believe it to be," Johnson said.

The financial cost of their habit can be deduced from a look at typical casino credit transactions. In one casino, CCCS found the average checking account withdrawal was $217, while the average credit card cash advance was $1,082. And one casino reported $945,000 in credit transactions in one hour at an average of $560 per transaction.

Still, a prominent report in March downplayed the financial impact of problem gambling. In its March report, the National Gambling Impact Study Commission said problem gambling had a $5 billion per year cost in legal fees, court and jail costs, bankruptcies and lost wages. By comparison, motor vehicle accidents have a $71 billion annual cost, smoking $72 billion and alcohol abuse $166 billion, the commission said.

The commission said 5 million Americans were problem or pathological gamblers, and another 15 million were "at risk."

Information brochuresTo help get information to problem gamblers, the state Gaming Control Board recently started requiring operators of retail gaming machines to put information brochures and stickers with help line numbers on their machines. That initiative was led by the Nevada Retail Gaming Association, whose members began voluntarily placing that information on their machines in late 1998. The association accounts for 96 percent of all retail gaming machines in Nevada.

Other proposals to control the problem have included banning ATMs from casino floors, mandating casino employee training in compulsive gambling behavior and restricting the extension of credit to casino patrons.

About 20 percent of problem gamblers attempt suicide at one point, Dymek said, and an overwhelming 98 percent harbor thoughts of inflicting harm on themselves.

Hunter and his associates insisted their research shouldn't be considered an attack on the gaming industry, but rather a wake-up call.

Hunter said studies into the disorder wouldn't be as advanced as they are today without the industry's financial support, which now totals millions of dollars.

"We're the furthest thing from hysterics," Hunter said. "I am not running around screaming that the sky is falling.

"This is a serious societal issue in the valley, and together (with the gaming industry), we can moderate its impact."

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