Gambling link to suicides refuted

David Strow

Tuesday, June 20, 2000 | 11:23 a.m.

Las Vegas may have one of the highest suicide rates in the nation, but that's not the fault of gambling, a new study found.

The study, conducted by Christian Marfels, an economics professor at Dalhousie University of Halifax, Nova Scotia, found only 3 percent of local resident suicides between 1990 and 1999 were primarily caused by gambling.

Marfels' study was presented last week at the International Conference On Gambling & Risk-Taking in Las Vegas.

It is the second study by Marfels that contradicts a long-held belief by many gambling opponents that gambling is the chief cause of Nevada's sky-high suicide rate. In 1998 Marfels found that only 6 percent of suicides among Las Vegas visitors were the result of gambling. The most recent study, Marfels said, had no funding link to the gaming industry.

Marfels said he was surprised by the low number of resident suicides, given how widespread gambling is throughout the city.

"The allegation goes, particularly here in Las Vegas ... that they have the highest suicide rate in the nation, and it's the gaming capital of the world, so (gambling and suicide are linked)," Marfels said. "(Gaming opponents) like to jump to those conclusions. They can do that, because no one has looked at the files.

"I expected a higher (gambling-related suicide) rate. But I put away any kind of feelings and expectations and simply looked at the (Clark County Coroner's Office) files."

The most prominent study supporting a link between gambling and suicide was authored by David Phillips, a professor of sociology at the University of California-San Diego, in late 1997. Using an examination of death certificates in Las Vegas, Reno and Atlantic City, Phillips concluded that these cities had a suicide rate four times the average of comparably sized cities where gambling was illegal.

Marfels said such studies sparked his interest in a study of his own -- and drove him to visit the Clark County Coroner's Office, where reports were kept on each suicide that had occurred in the county over the past decade.

Coroner's office records indicate that 2,123 Clark County residents committed suicide from 1990 to 1999 -- an annual rate of 22.91 per 100,000 residents, nearly twice the national average. Marfels selected 10 percent of these files randomly for his study.

Next, Marfels examined the investigator's reports, interviews with friends and relatives, and the suicide notes left behind. From this evidence, Marfels classified each suicide by its primary cause.

Though suicides were only attributed to one cause, Marfels said he erred on the side of gambling-related when files were ambiguous.

"There's usually a multitude of causes that may cause this decision to end your life ... it's very rarely one single cause," Marfels said. "Is your depressed mood because of gambling, or a break-up in a relationship? I had in my mind gambling specifically."

Of 213 files, Marfels said just seven -- about 3 percent -- fell under the heading of gambling problems. Two files that discussed gambling were not included because they mentioned many other problems, leading Marfels to believe a link to gambling was circumstantial at best.

By comparison, one-third of the suicides appeared to be the result of psychiatric problems, 21 percent relationship problems, and another 21 percent the result of health problems.

Based on this evidence, Marfels concluded that the true rate of gambling-related suicides in Clark County falls somewhere between 0.9 percent and 5.7 percent of all suicides -- or 19 to 121 over the last 10 years.

Marfels argued that there's other data to support the conclusion of little to link gambling and suicide -- according to the Centers for Disease Control, Atlantic City's resident suicide rate from 1990 to 1997 was 10.57 per 100,000, one of the lowest in the nation, and far below the national average.

"To establish an equation between Las Vegas' high suicide rate and the rich menu of gaming would be jumping to conclusions without proof," Marfels wrote.

What could cause Las Vegas' unusually high rate, if not gambling? Marfels believes the area's rapid growth may be more to blame.

Marfels notes Nevada's high rate is not unusual compared to the mountain states of Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho. These states, Marfels wrote, "have traditionally witnessed an influx of people from other parts of the nation, and nowhere was this trend more accentuated than in the Las Vegas Metro Area."

"These newcomers have no established roots in the new community, and more likely than not they may have arrived because of a job transfer or in order to find a new job. When they lose their job or do not find work to begin with, the ... scenario of loneliness is compounded by feelings of guilt and failure, which could eventually have fatal consequences."

Fifty-one of the 213 suicides were among those who were unemployed, while another 50 were either retired or disabled. Among the 96 classified as employed, 23 worked in the gaming industry.

Though Marfels said his study indicates 97 percent of Clark County suicides are not gambling-related, he still believes that 3 percent is too much -- and that the gaming industry should not grow complacent about the problem.

"It must be remembered that the tobacco industry lost its credibility when they denied the health risks of smoking," Marfels wrote. "And it must also be recognized that one gambling-related suicide is one too many."