Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City): Gambling addiction in OK expected to grow along with casinos

The state's voters overwhelmingly supported the expansion of gambling through the approval of a lottery and slot machines at horse racing tracks, but the state is just now working to prepare for a possible increase in the number of gamblers in need of addiction treatment.

Dr. Mike Smith, executive director of the Oklahoma Association of Problem and Com-pulsive Gambling Inc., told members of the House Health and Human Services Committee that Oklahoma was lacking in treatment services for gamblers. He said the state was behind the curve in the training of counselors to assist with addiction problems.

At this time, there's not one certified gambling counselor in the state of Oklahoma, Smith said.

Smith said his organization was in the process of training and certifying gambling counselors to enhance the availability and quality of treatment services for problem gamblers and their families. He said the mission of the organization is to increase public awareness of gambling problems and to ensure quality education programs, which will include a gambling addiction hotline.

Michele Beck, the recently hired coordinator of problem and compulsive gambling services for the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, said the agency will use the $250,000 in state revenues for gambling addiction treatment toward prevention and treatment for problem gambling.

Beck said it was important that a comprehensive statewide plan be put together to understand the number of gamblers with problems and how severe the problem will be. As many as 50,000 Oklahomans could be pathological gamblers while as many as 76,000 could qualify as problem gamblers.

Gambling addiction treatment officials from other states weighed in on what had taken place in their states. Dewey Price, director of the Missouri Department of Mental Health Services, said the services began with voluntary funding from riverboat communities, but had evolved into more than $450,000 that was appropriated by the state during the last fiscal year.

One of the elements of the Missouri program is an exclusion contract that more than a thousand problem gamblers had signed up for that puts a lifetime ban on them from going into casinos and seeking cash advances. Price said one problem in Missouri had been retention of counselors.

Gary Hanson, executive director of the Washington State Council on Problem Gambling, said his organization was in charge of a pilot program in 2002 that helped 226 problem gamblers. However, he said the program now involved the state mental health agency taking over the services due to a legislative change.

We don't know why they've gone this direction, Hanson said.

Washington differed from Missouri in that tribal casinos existed in that state. Hanson said that about one-third of the 20 tribes offering gambling had been willing to help fund problem gambling services prior to the legislative change but he noted that with no regulatory authority, the state faced an uphill battle in continuing to receive those revenues.

State Rep. Lance Cargill, R-Harrah, proposed the interim study that led to the review of gambling treatment services in Oklahoma, and said that the potential for large numbers of problem gamblers could be in the state now with little to no help available. One spouse of a man with gambling problems identified only as Nila said this was something that could happen to anyone at any time and the only available services were limited and scattered.