Letter: Gaming’s plan is self-serving

Friday, Aug. 17, 2001 | 4:34 a.m.

Kudos to your legitimate concerns expressed in your Aug. 10 editorial on gambling and math.

I personally attended the panel discussion at Sam's Town hotel-casino sponsored in conjunction with the American Gaming Association's Responsible Gaming Education Week. The crux of this presentation was teaching students how to figure out the actual odds associated with gambling.

I almost fell prey to the gambling industry's continued marketing ploys, thinking that they were actually concerned with the well-being of the youth of Las Vegas. But, once again, in listening intently to their goals to introduce such a program entitled "Understanding the Odds" to the school district, supposedly for the sake of providing awareness about problem gambling, their real purpose stuck out like the Luxor's awesome beacon in the night.

While masterfully conceived to look benevolent to the public, the "education" program's real efforts are directed to provide students with enough skills and knowledge on the basic odds of gambling to increase their desire to try out the slots, thinking they could become rich. Such an act would enable Nevada to maintain its recognition for the country's highest student dropout rate. The entire program is targeted to stimulate the gambling behavior of human beings, first as youth and then as adults to ensure long-term revenues for the industry.

If I'm not mistaken, the well-subsidized gambling industry's researcher at Harvard Medical School who created this gambling curriculum at the industry's bidding, simply used the same instructional gambling material provided for tourists in their casino suites. Regrettably, the industry once again facing a potential difficult economy has put its own priorities for money and power ahead of the well-being of Nevada's families.

EDWARD M. ATCHISON Editor's note: The writer is the former interim executive director of the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling.