Problem gambling questions raised

Laurence Arnold

Wednesday, June 13, 2001 | 9:59 a.m.

NEW YORK -- With casino industry representatives watching warily, experts in the science of addiction grappled to describe why some bettors cannot control themselves -- and what that means for the nationwide spread of gambling.

Recent research establishes a strong relationship between compulsive gambling and the use of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs, scientists agreed during a conference Tuesday hosted by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

Just last month, a team of investigators reported that parts of the brain that respond to prospects of winning and losing money while gambling are the same parts that appear to respond to cocaine and morphine.

How that finding might affect the legalized gambling is a matter of dispute. All but three states allow some form of gambling.

Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., who lobbies for casinos as president of the American Gaming Association, said the findings show compulsive gambling is too complex to be blamed on the industry alone.

"You're not just treating gambling," Fahrenkopf said. "You have to think about substance abuse, depression, etc."

Still, several conference participants suggested steps that casinos and state lotteries could take to minimize the impact on addicted gamblers.

Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, said at least 23 states distribute lottery tickets through unattended vending machines despite laws against underage gambling. Research shows young people who gamble are much more likely to become problem gamblers as adults.

Joseph Califano Jr., chairman and president of the center that hosted the event, questioned the practice of casinos in some states like Nevada of giving free drinks to gamblers. Califano served as U.S. secretary of health, education and welfare under President Jimmy Carter.

The looming prospect of gambling via the Internet is particularly bad news for compulsive gambling, said Mark Griffiths, research coordinator in psychology at The Nottignham-Trent University in England.

Companies based outside U.S. jurisdiction already run such sites; last week, the Nevada Legislature passed a measure that opens the door for regulators there to license Web casinos.

Some 4.4 million Americans are pathological gamblers, said Howard Shaffer, director of the division on addictions at Harvard Medical School. Some gambling opponents say several million additional people have a gambling problem that falls short of that diagnosis.

Work remains to be done on questions like whether people are more likely to gamble when under the effects of drugs, said Steven Hyman, director of the National Institute of Mental Health.

"We're just beginning to dig in this area," Hyman said.

Hosting the conference along with the Columbia University center was the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Mental Health.

Funding and other support was provided by The Century Foundation. Its president, Richard Leone, is a former New Jersey state treasurer who, in the 1970s, opposed the ultimately successful movement to legalize casinos in Atlantic City.

As a member of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, which spent two years studying America's betting boom, Leone accused state governments of becoming addicted to revenue from legal gambling without fully examining its costs on society.

"The astonishing thing to me about the spread of gambling is the extent to which it occurred in a period of great ignorance," Leone said Tuesday. "The reason is because state governments led the way, on their own behalf. They found the money irresistible."