Gambling treatment officials meet, search for solutions

Thursday, June 22, 2000 | 1:41 a.m.

How to cope with society's increasing gambling opportunities is the subject of a nationwide conference opening Thursday in Boston, where officials from addiction treatment programs in 13 states are gathering for the first time to compare notes.

"It really isn't known what the state of gambling treatment throughout the country is. Nobody can tell you what it looks like, tastes like, smells like, feels like," said Kathleen Scanlan, executive director of the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling.

The conference at a downtown hotel was to include discussion of a report, based on a survey of the 13 state programs, on the quality of gambling addiction treatment nationwide.

Scanlan, whose organization provides education, information, advocacy and referral to treatment, said state-funded gambling treatment is offered at 17 locations around Massachusetts.

Gambling addiction specialists are concerned about the rise of gambling opportunities, not only through the expansion of traditional venues such as lotteries, casinos and racetracks, but also through new Internet gambling sites.

Some experts estimate that at least five million Americans have experienced negative impacts from problem gambling.

Besides those from Massachusetts, officials were expected from the following states: Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, South Dakota.