Columnist Jeff German: Problem gambling costs us all

Wednesday, April 2, 2003 | 10:56 a.m.

In a state regarded as the gambling capital of the world, it's hard to believe that no public funds are set aside to help addicted gamblers.

Amid the convoluted debate over raising as much as $1 billion in new taxes to keep Nevada afloat, the Legislature is considering a bill that would allocate $250,000 from the state's general fund to help treat addicts.

The Legislature killed a similar bill in 2001, but the casino industry is backing the latest measure, which means there's a good chance it will pass this time.

Even if it passes, however, $250,000 is a fraction of the millions of dollars in social costs -- including bankruptcies and unemployment benefits -- that gambling creates each year.

And $250,000 doesn't measure up to what other states, which have nowhere near the number of casinos as Nevada, are spending to help addicted gamblers.

Indiana, for example, which has only 10 casinos, spent $1.8 million on treatment and prevention of pathological gambling last year.

Bill Bible, president of the Nevada Resort Association, the industry's local lobby, said Nevada has an obligation to provide the same kind of treatment for problem gamblers as it does for drug addicts and alcoholics.

"It is very unfortunate that the state does not recognize and take care of the problem," he said.

Bible and the industry, however, haven't exactly volunteered to help the state find a way to pay for more than $250,000.

That's not to say the industry on a national level hasn't taken steps on its own to address problem gambling.

Over the past eight years, it has donated more than $6 million to scientific research across the country and has worked to heighten awareness.

Yet at home, while gaming supports the legislative effort to bring help to problem gamblers, it is taking great pains to discredit a just-released UNLV study that concluded addicts cost the Southern Nevada community a whopping $300 million to $470 million a year. The study was co-authored by UNLV professors Keith Schwer and Bill Thompson, who contend they have no political agenda.

The Resort Association, which has a political agenda, paid Georgia economics professor Douglas Walker $2,000 to rip apart their methodology and pare down the annual social costs to $12 million. This week another gaming-friendly professor, Bill Eadington of Reno, backed up Walker.

Gaming's own $12 million figure, however, still is much more than what lawmakers are thinking about throwing at problem gambling.

With a $704 million budget shortfall over the next two years, this may be a bad time for Nevada to set aside money to fix social ills.

But as gambling receives more and more national scrutiny, it's also a good time for the gambling capital of the world to at long last recognize its social obligations to those who have fallen prey to its No. 1 cash cow.

Spending $250,000 on problem gambling is a nice start.

Wouldn't it be nicer -- and more responsible -- if the casino industry encouraged lawmakers to spend even more money?