In two U.S. national surveys on recovery and treatment for pathological gambling addiction revealed that 36%–39% of the individuals with a lifetime history of pathological gambling did not experience any gambling-related problems in the past year. Additionally, only 7%–12% of individuals with a lifetime history of pathological gambling had ever sought either formal treatment or attended meetings of Gamblers Anonymous.
This MUST-READ report by Charles Livingstone and Richard Woolley provides what may be the best analysis about how almost 100% of the responsibility for problem gambling is placed on the backs of the afflicted citizens. Predatory gambling operators and the government accept virtually no responsibility. The report also shows why it is time to disrupt this “business as usual” approach promoted by those who profit from government-sanctioned predatory gambling.
Risky Business: A Few Provocations on the Regulation of Gambling Machines
One of four published papers resulting from the largest national study to date, this presentation unequivocally demonstrates the damage created by having casinos nearby. Data collected by Dr. John Welte and others shows: (1) A casino within 10 miles of home is associated with a 90% increase in the odds of being a pathological or problem gambler; (2) For every increase of one standard deviation in neighborhood disadvantage the odds of being a pathological or problem gambler increase by 69%; and (3) For every additional form of legal gambling in his or her state, the respondent’s odds of having gambled in the past year increase by 17%.
This paper explores the fact that when video lottery machines were turned off in South Dakota, the inquiries about gambling and the number of individuals receiving treatment for problem gambling diminished abruptly. When the machines were turned back on, there was a prompt increase in both of these categories.
These changes occurred despite the fact that alternative forms of legal gambling were available (i.e., scratch tickets, Indian Reservation casino gambling, and multi-state lotteries). This suggests that video lottery gambling machines presents a unique risk for the development of problems severe enough to prompt treatment. These data suggest little substitution of other forms of gambling occurred when video lottery gambling was not available.
Video Lottery and Treatment for Pathological Gambling – A Natural Experiment in South Dakota
In this paper, Harrigan and Dixon examine how the same slot machine games with different payback percentages may affect the player’s behavior. Interestingly, slot machines with higher payback percentages (offering a perceived air of fairness for the player: 98% vs. a lower payback of 85%), were more likely to impose the most risk for ensuing gambling problems. In their findings, they argue for the regulations of lower payback percentages (85%), as the higher ones appear to be far more addictive.
The Oregonian reports that the state of Oregon is “cutting programs that serve poor families, threatening to close highway rest stops and laying off teachers.” But this has not stopped the Oregon Lottery from spending $8.9 million on messaging during the 2011 fiscal year in its effort to encourage more Oregonians to gamble.
Whatever Oregon’s Trying to Communicate, It’s Costing You Millions
In its recent report, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families concludes that a lottery hurts the economic security and well-being of the state’s’ families – regardless of how much money it raised. The report lays out the following reasons: 1) Lotteries function as regressive taxes that disproportionately hurt the economic security of low-income families; 2) Lotteries are unstable sources of tax revenue that can decline from year to year. Overall, any positive effect on state budgets tend to fade over time; 3) Lotteries and other forms of gambling often lead to negative social and economic consequences for children and their Lotteries function as regressive taxes that disproportionately hurt the economic security of low-income families costs which must often be borne by the state; 4) Researchers have found that Georgia’s “Hope Scholarship” lottery, often cited as a model for lotteries in other states, is disproportionately funded by low-income households, while higher-income, more-educated households disproportionately benefit from the scholarships; 5) A lottery would do little to improve access to higher education among the lowest-income citizens and would prey upon those who stand to lose the most from state- sponsored gambling; and 6) If increasing access to higher education is indeed important to Arkansas’s future economic success, then the state should commit to finding a stable, reliable and fair source of funding for it.
The general manager of Henderson, Nevada’s Stetson Saloon and Casino has some advice for player club members: casinos don’t really care how much you win or lose. What matters to them is how long you play the games and how much you are willing to play. They care less about sending free slot play to frequent players (why waste it on people who are coming anyway?) and concentrate more on sending promotions to less frequent players. The manager of this casino also freely admits that, “the longer you play, the more money you are likely to lose.”
According to this article from The Wall Street Journal, the same data casinos use to track customers’ gambling habits can be used to identify gambling addicts. Casino customer-tracking information could create computerized models that can spot and warn people with high risk profiles. But what do casino operators, who extract more than half their profits from addicts, think of the idea? “I think it’s a terrible idea,” said former Caesars head Gary Loveman.
Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment, a major European online gambling company, released data on 4222 gamblers, and the math behind gambling win probabilities shows just how badly the odds are stacked against gamblers. Experts say these data figures are comparable to those of real casino here in the US, however casinos keep their data a heavily-guarded secret. The figures released show that statistically, the more you play, the more you’ll lose- the heaviest gamblers had only a 5.4% chance of ending in the black, compared with 17% of the customers who placed the least amount of wagers. Furthermore, the data shows that casinos and gambling operations rely mostly on problem gamblers for their revenue- 2.8% of the customers provided half of the company’s profits, and 10.7% provided 80% of revenue. This The Wall Street Journal article summarizes the findings.
2013 How Often Do Gamblers Really Win- New data provide some answers
