Study: Casino workers at risk of gambling

Kevin Ferguson

Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2001 | 9:42 a.m.

Casino workers are at greater risk than most people of developing disorders related to gambling, alcohol, smoking and depression, said a Harvard Medical School professor.

Casino employees that are most at risk of becoming pathological gamblers are those that show other addictive behavior, said Dr. Howard Shaffer, director of the medical school's Division on Addiction.

For example, casino employees with alcohol problems are 3.5 times more likely to be pathological gamblers than those with no alcohol problems, he said.

And employees that reported being depressed for more than two weeks in the past six months were 3.3 times more likely to be pathological gamblers, he said.

"Gamblers usually have symptoms, such as depression, anxiety and hyperactivity," he said Tuesday during a seminar at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas.

It is uncertain which of the four disorders -- gambling, alcoholism, smoking or depression -- serve as the catalyst and which are the effects, he said.

This data came from a survey of nearly 4,000 casino workers in four different geographic sites. Specific locations were not released to provide anonymity to the participants.

Prompting the study was other research that showed medical personnel and pharmacists with ready access to psychoactive drugs had a higher than average rate of substance abuse, he said.

Therefore the theory should likely extend to gambling disorders, he said.

"If gambling causes a disorder for some people, than those closest to the industry should be most affected," Shaffer said.

The survey showed that 2.1 percent of casino workers were pathological gamblers, defined as exhibiting five or more symptoms of problem gambling.

By comparison, only 1.1 percent of the U.S. adult population is categorized as pathological gamblers, Shaffer said.

He said more than 87 percent of those who responded to the survey showed no gambling related problems.

Having alcohol problems, being depressed for as long as two weeks, and having a long history of employment with casinos increased the likelihood of identifying a pathological gambler.

Shaffer said casinos need to develop better screening processes to help identify employees who are at high risk of being pathological gamblers. But he added that more research needs to be done.

"(No employer) needs a pathological gambler because you're going to have more lawsuits and more problems," he said.