Columnist
Jeff German: A Big Step to Help Gambling Addicts
The state's Advisory Committee
on Problem Gambling meets in Las Vegas to hand
out taxpayer dollars to fund treatment programs
for the addicted.
This
has never occurred in the 75 years that gambling
has been legal in Nevada.
Backed
by Gov. Kenny Guinn, several key lawmakers and
a casino industry that began to develop a conscience,
the 2005 Legislature created the nine-member
committee and funded it with $2.4 million in
slot machine taxes through June 2007.
But
if we play our cards right, today's moment in
history will be just the start of dealing with
a problem that has been ignored for too long.
And
if you don't think the state's involvement in
gambling addiction is a welcome sight to health
care and social service providers, consider
the panel's daunting task today.
It
has 13 applicants requesting nearly $3 million
in funding, but only $1.5 million in grants
to hand out.
"This
illustrates that there's a tremendous need here,
which we've been saying all along," says
Dr. Robert Hunter, a clinical psychologist who
runs the overcrowded Problem Gambling Center
in Las Vegas.
Hunter
has submitted five separate requests for money,
including an application for $367,921 to start
up a first-ever gambling addiction treatment
center in Reno.
The
Salvation Army is looking for $221,375 to launch
a treatment center in Las Vegas, and UNLV's
Center for Individual, Couple and Family Counseling
wants to include problem gambling in its outpatient
services with a request for $277,238.
"We've
got a lot of strong applications," says
Laura Hale, chief of the Grants Management Unit
of the Nevada Health and Human Services Department.
"These are people who have been doing this
with limited funds in the past."
Hale's
boss, Health and Human Services Director Mike
Willden, is elated with the outpouring of interest
for the money the state has to offer.
"This
is great news that we have so much of a demand,"
he says.
But
Willden also worries that those who don't get
what they've requested today might, out of frustration,
consider directing their efforts away from problem
gambling in the future.
That
would not be good -- which brings to mind the
ace-in-the-hole in the law that created the
advisory committee.
The
problem gambling fund was set up to be a partnership
between the public and private sectors.
The
law allows Willden's agency to accept private
donations from, you guessed it, the casino industry.
With
the industry recording record profits again,
it's going to have plenty of money to make up
for those years of turning the other cheek to
the very problem it created.
Plenty
of eyes are watching big gaming now.
Just
how it deals with its long-neglected responsibilities
is how history will judge Nevada's success in
treating the addicted.
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