March  2 0 0 2 

COLUMNS

Nevada, we have a problem

By Charles Anderer, Publisher

When Arthur Andersen’s Enron Squad got its hands caught in the shredding machine, the New Jersey Casino Control Commission took notice. Hearings were promptly held, a 5-0 vote resulted, and Andersen, which had plausibly argued that the actions of a few “rogues” in Texas shouldn’t cost 320 innocent, hard-working people their jobs, is out of the casino industry in New Jersey.

A little harsh? Perhaps. But this decision points to a central factor in the industry’s climb toward respectability and success.

For more than two decades, the issue of crime has been steadily moved off the table of issues to be exploited by a hostile opposition. No elected official would ever want to be perceived as countenancing even the slightest potential for corruption at a gaming establishment. Strict adherence to the rules by the industry is a prerequisite for political support. That’s why seemingly well-reasoned calls for the relaxation of the licensing process have repeatedly been resisted. Regulators realize they have to go the extra mile because, if they don’t, the worst will always be assumed.

The casino industry clearly has the ability to be scrupulous. This character trait must now be tapped to fight another battle, which is a far more serious threat than the Myth of the Mobocracy. The issue is problem gambling.

Gemini Research’s findings on problem and probable pathological gaming in the state of Nevada need to be viewed as a wake-up call — whatever one thinks of the methodology.

The Gemini report, which placed the number of people in Nevada who display problem gambling behavior at 63,900, or 6.4 percent, has come in for a barrage of criticism from gaming professionals. Some of this, including from other respected problem gambling experts, is well-reasoned. But, just like those appeals to ease up on the licensing process, they miss the point.

If the casino industry is going to exert more energy on arcane intra-industry research methodology arguments than on the business of doing what it can to clean up what is presently a dangerously uneven approach to the issue of problem gambling, it is sadly mistaken. Might as well gift-wrap this one for the opposition, folks.

Keep in mind that the Gemini report concludes Nevada now has a higher rate of problem gambling behavior than “every other jurisdiction where similar surveys have been carried out,” and the state of Nevada doesn’t spend a penny on the prevention and treatment of problem gambling. Even if you disagree with the report, this is the anti-gamer’s propaganda equivalent of the hanging curveball.

For those who still don’t see the point, there is an abundance of evidence suggesting that funding problem gambling services makes a difference. Rachel Volberg, president of Gemini, has previously noted declines in the prevalence rate of problem gambling in Louisiana, Oregon and Washington during the 1990s, results she attributed to significant amounts of funding that each state provided for problem gambling programs. North Dakota and Montana, on the other hand, spent very little and saw their respective rates stay the same and sharply increase.

Nevada, the respected leader of the casino industry in so many ways, needs to go the extra mile again.

Funding problem gambling services in a meaningful way is the first part. Next, the state should develop standards that are applied with the same tenacity that it uses elsewhere in the regulatory process. Make it illegal for a casino to cash a welfare check or an unemployment check; create incentives to make compulsive gambling counseling part of employee health care programs; revisit the issue of convenience gambling, whose dangers were so articulately detailed by former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones; and develop responsible gambling messages for children.

There’s no reason why problem gambling can’t be taken off the table, too. But, first, you have to recognize that it’s there.

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