Researcher: Scientific data important piece of gambling addiction puzzle

By Liz Benston

Monday, Dec. 8, 2003 | 11:02 a.m.

A prominent gambling addiction researcher kicked off the country's largest-ever problem gambling conference Sunday by advising casino and gambling treatment representatives to establish a "commitment to the scientific method" and to shun the "considerable amount of pseudo- and junk science" surfacing as gambling spreads nationwide.

Scientific research sometimes produces elusive or even contradictory results, which may not be politically expedient for either gambling supporters or foes, Howard Shaffer, associate professor and director of the Division on Addictions at Harvard Medical School, said at the fourth annual National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) conference in Las Vegas.

State policymakers grappling with gambling addiction and casino regulation must weigh both the costs and benefits of gambling and must also analyze scientific research available on gambling problems, said Shaffer, whose research on alcoholism later led to one of the first studies on the prevalence of gambling addicts in the United States.

"Public health perspectives are balanced," he said. "We have to look at the costs and benefits (and ask whether) the benefits exceed the costs."

The Regulating Addiction conference, which runs through Tuesday at the MGM Grand resort, is the largest of its kind to discuss gambling addiction and is the first to gather a wide array of regulators, scientists, casino executives and treatment providers to discuss how governments manage the problem.

The NCRG was established in 1996 by the American Gaming Association, the casino industry's federal lobbying arm, to own up to gambling addiction and develop programs addressing the problem. In 2000, the NCRG awarded a contract to Harvard Medical School's Division on Addictions to establish the Institute for Research on Pathological Gambling and Related Disorders. The institute awards research grants to educational institutions studying compulsive gambling.

The funding has enabled several peer-reviewed academic studies on gambling problems over the years but also has drawn criticism from gambling foes who contend that Shaffer and Harvard are pandering to casino interests, a claim he has vigorously denied.

At the conference, Shaffer said he has refused to offer his opinion on gambling and gambling addiction when testifying before government agencies. He also warned policymakers and others to avoid taking sides in the problem gambling debate.

Advocates "risk substituting politics for theory-driven research," while researchers who become advocates risk developing studies in which the "ends justify the means," Shaffer said.

Science hasn't yet determined whether the availability of more gambling necessarily leads to a greater percentage of addicted gamblers, he said.

Initial research indicates that while more people have experienced gambling, they "aren't doing it with any remarkable consistency," he said.

Studies have largely reached the same conclusion -- that about 1 percent U.S. adults are "pathological" gamblers and about 2 percent more have a less-severe form of gambling problem. That may indicate some kind of biological pre-disposition to the problem and not just a function of being exposed to more gambling, he said.

Preliminary studies on exposure to gambling show mixed results, he said.

A recent study in Iowa, for example, showed that people who lived closer to casinos were more likely to seek help through gambling hotlines. However, the results don't rule out the possibility that the people who lived near casinos were somehow predisposed to gambling problems.

Another study found that while people in Florida are nine times less likely to be exposed to casino gambling as people in Nevada, Floridians showed a higher rate of more serious forms of compulsive gambling behavior than Nevadans.

Another Nevada study showed that the rates of problem gambling among young people in the state were among the lowest nationwide. The study, authored by the same researcher who conducted Nevada's first state-funded problem gambling survey, found that young people didn't gamble at a lower age and exhibited fewer signs of gambling addiction.

"It suggests maybe there's an adaptation process at work" in gambling zones like Nevada, he said.

Meanwhile, states appear to be adopting "public health" regulations and programs that may be shaped more by perception than reality, he said.

Australia has implemented restrictive gambling laws fueled largely by political pressure resulting from negative media coverage, Vicki Flannery, executive director of the Australian Gaming Council, said at Sunday's conference.

The restrictions have been "fairly ad hoc" and include everything from banning gambling advertising in certain areas to slot machine caps and mandatory shutdown periods. Several other restrictions are under consideration, including slowing down the speed of play on slot machines, removing bill acceptors and limiting maximum bets.

Research has shown that such intrusive measures are unlikely to stop addictive behavior, she said.

"The player actually adapts their behavior and more regulation is needed to fill in the gaps," she said.

The Gaming Council was formed in 2000 by Australia's gambling companies to address problem gambling.

In Canada, "people tend to accept (gambling) but not support it," said Jon Kelley, chief executive officer of the Responsible Gambling Council. The Ontario, Canada nonprofit was established by the government, which runs casinos and other gambling venues, to train casino workers and educate gamblers. People overwhelmingly "support prevention programs to help people avoid gambling problems," Kelly said.

"We cannot control, prohibit or save people," he said. "What we must do is inform, shape, influence and help people."

In Sweden, where a national lottery agency runs lotteries as well as slot machines called "video lottery terminals" (VLTs), the government has ordered manufacturers to create more mundane containers for the games so that they aren't as flashy as Las Vegas machines.

After the government legalized VLTs in 1996, it conducted a study showing that up to 2 percent of people had some form of gambling problem -- a result that led to a public outcry and the creation of a problem gambling task force and a national helpline.

State-controlled casinos were legalized in 1999 and feature self-exclusion programs for people who believe they have a gambling problem. The government has conducted interviews with excluded customers to determine whether they are at risk of exhibiting gambling problems.

Goren Wessberg, a gaming research director for the Svenska Spel national lottery in Sweden, said the agency has initiated its own problem gambling research, sponsored outside research and conducted seminars on the subject in order to "take a national lead on the issue."

More research is needed so the government can make informed decisions and not rely on inferior studies, Wessberg said. Public criticism of the gambling issue still abounds in Sweden, which produces more studies on the subject than many other European countries, he said.

"The more you do (to combat problem gambling) the more criticism you receive," he said.