Effort to expand Oregon lottery boosted by addiction report

Brad Cain

Thursday, March 15, 2001 | 10:46 a.m.

SALEM, Ore. -- The Oregon Lottery's move to add slot machine-style games to its video poker terminals got a political boost with the release of a report showing a drop in problem gambling in Oregon.

Gov. John Kitzhaber has told the state Lottery Commission he does not favor expanding lottery games to include slot machines if there are indications that Oregon's gambling addiction problems are growing worse.

But a report issued by a Massachusetts researcher last month indicates that isn't happening.

Rachel Volberg's report showed that about 2.3 percent of Oregonians are addicted to gambling or prone to addiction, compared with 3.3 percent in a similar survey taken in 1997. The report also found an overall drop in participation in gambling.

The Lottery Commission, which paid $76,000 for the study, is to decide soon whether to allow bars and taverns to offer slot games as a way to give more variety to players and help lottery retailers compete with tribal casinos that already offer video slots.

The conclusions in Volberg's report make it more likely lottery commissioners will give the OK for video slots, spokesman David Hooper said.

"It increases their comfort level to consider different types of games," Hooper said.

Kitzhaber's legal counsel, Chip Lazenby, said while his boss will let the commission make the final decision, Kitzhaber still is worried that video slots -- also known as line games -- will create more problem gamblers.

"The important piece is that there has been a decline in problem gambling, but it's probably because we have gone slow and haven't been eager to expand the mix of games," Lazenby said.

Volberg said her study, based on telephone interviews with 1,500 Oregonians last fall, found that gambling participation has dropped in general as the novelty of gambling at tribal casinos and lottery outlets has worn off.

The proportion of the Oregon population that gambles at least once a week has fallen from 18 percent in 1997 to 13 percent last year, she said.

She attributed the drop in the number of problem gamblers to the state's efforts to combat addiction. More than $3 million a year in state lottery revenue goes to support gambling addiction treatment efforts, and the Lottery spends $700,000 a year on efforts to raise people's awareness about the problem.

"Clearly, the decline is due at least partly to the extensive array of services for problem gamblers in Oregon," she said.

Asked whether she thought that adding video slots to the Lottery's mix of games could increase gambling addiction, Volberg said, "That's always possible. It's something that should be closely monitored."

Ellen Lowe, a social services advocate who has been a frequent critic of state-sponsored gambling, said it would be a mistake to approve video slots, even though there's been a drop in the number of people who are addicted to gambling or are headed in that direction.

"I fear it will attract more players, and lead to additional problem gamblers," Lowe said.