Editorial: When gaming is a problem

Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2006 | 7:36 a.m.

A UNLV professor's study of area detention center inmates shows that 10 percent could be considered pathological gamblers and one in six were less severe "problem" gamblers.

According to a recent story by the Las Vegas Sun, the 2002 research by Richard McCorkle, a criminal justice professor, shows a connection between crime and those who gamble at problematic levels.

Of the pathological gamblers - those who had lost more than $1,000 a day - about half said they had committed property crimes to obtain gambling money, while a third said they had committed robbery. More than 25 percent said their gambling had contributed to assaults they had committed. And 90 percent had been arrested multiple times, the Sun reports.

Gambling, McCorkle concluded, "is directly or indirectly a motivation or cause of a significant proportion" of the crimes that those with gambling disorders commit. They run the gamut, from robberies and floating bad checks to running complex online money transfer and credit schemes. When the costs to crime victims and criminal prosecution costs are factored in, these gambling disorders carry a stiff societal price.

The American Gaming Association, a casino industry group, estimates that 1 percent of Americans have major gambling problems, compared to the 2 percent to 3 percent - or 6 million to 9 million - of American adults cited by the National Council on Problem Gambling. Not only do the figures conflict, as another Sun story noted earlier this year, but they also are based on research from the 1990s. That makes them virtually worthless today.

We need better - and more recent - figures if we are to get a handle on this problem. McCorkle's 2002 research, along with another UNLV professor's 2002 survey of those attending local Gamblers Anonymous meetings, suggests that UNLV has experts who are interested in conducting such research. And Las Vegas certainly has the environment to make such studies meaningful.

The Nevada Legislature created a grant last year funded by slot machine taxes that is to pay for gambling addiction treatment and education. But it is difficult to determine where to spend such money without current data on the problem. The Legislature should establish funding for biennial studies on problem gambling. And the logical place for such research is UNLV - a university that sits in the middle of a city that is built on the games people play and is plagued by the crimes they commit.