Better preparation needed for social consequences of casino gambling (by Tracy Soska, Ray Engel, and Danny Rosen)

With the region absorbed with the economic benefits and development issues of video casino gambling, the School of Social Work took interest in the national research that underscores the adverse social impacts of problem gambling that tends to rise in the wake of casino gaming. Mental health, substance abuse and key social service and faith-based organizations that will be called upon to address problem gambling and its related mental health, substance abuse, family and social problems were surveyed to ascertain if and how they were preparing for this likely role.  Professors Ray Engel, Danny Rosen, and Tracy Soska released the results of their "Raising the Stakes: Assessing Allegheny County’s Human Service Response Capacity to the Social Impact of Casino Gambling" at a press conference on January 22, 2008 at the University. Among the study’s key findings for this region:

• With the exception of a few agencies on the front lines of addictions treatment – about one third of those surveyed, the majority of agencies are not interesting in training staff, don’t see problem gambling as an issue among their clientele, lack the resources to train or don’t know where to find training.
• More than three-quarters do not screen, treat or refer clients for gambling-related problems. While about of one-fourth of those providing mental health and substance abuse service do screen, the most common reason offered for not screening, treating or referring was that problem gambling is not seen as an issue.
• Only slightly more than 30% of human service providers surveyed were aware of any public awareness or educational campaigns on problem gambling; fewer – less than 10% - are education their own clients on problem gambling and even less – under 4% - are engaged in educating the community on gambling-related issues.

Given that the state has been engaged in bringing video casino gambling to venues across the Commonwealth for nearly two years now, these findings are somewhat surprising and, perhaps, speak most loudly to PA’s failure to give a more balanced focus to preparing the community for both the positive and negative impacts of casino gaming.  While our region’s long-standing culture of gambling, i.e., daily numbers, bingo, strip tickets and other small games of chance, that are often part and parcel of our nonprofit and faith-based sectors, might account for many not seeing problem gambling as an issue.  The research on pathological and problem gaming cited in the study stresses two critical findings:

• Most problem gamblers have other co-occurring disorders, including mental health, e.g. depression, mood, personality disorder, and substance abuse issues.
• Casino gambling increases the number of individuals who gamble and, therefore, also increases the number of individuals who will become problem gamblers.

Pennsylvania has set aside $1.5 million to cover the education, prevention, training, treatment, and monitoring of problem gambling, but this might increase as .001% of gaming revenue are dedicated to these social costs.

With these concerns strongly in mind, the study recommends:

• The human service providers, County and private providers, cannot wait on the state any longer and should develop a comprehensive human service educational program on the nature of problem gambling, as well as undertake a corresponding community-wide education campaign;
• A simple screening process should be developed for human services provider to use and a centralized database – perhaps through the new www.humanservices.net – should be established to make providers aware of regional resources for problem gamblers and their families.

Relative to the limited state support for social costs, which the investigators note amount to about $15.50 per potential problem gambler in the state, the study further recommends:

• An expansion – actually a better start – of a statewide public awareness campaign on problem gambling associated with casino gambling.
• An increase in the set-aside to address issues of problem gambling – the study notes that in Ontario, Canada, fully 2% of gaming revenues are targeted to offset social cost and for research and monitoring.
• An expansion of training efforts to be more inclusive and accessible to both mental health and substance abuse clinical practitioners, especially those with PA professional licenses, which the current state guidelines are not fully involving in its training initiatives.

Finally, the study cautions that while the state and the gambling interests have allocated modest resources to monitor the impact of gambling and problem gambling, no effort made to benchmark current gambling behavior and issues that would establish a baseline to legitimately measure impact.  Without a baseline, monitoring is meaningless.  The investigators further recommend that

• In lieu of state or gaming interest support, Allegheny Countyand the Pittsburgh regional funders and policy-makers will need to step up and insure that a benchmark study is done before the Pittsburgh casino opens to help plan for services and legitimize monitoring.

The School of Social Work and UCSUR stand ready to take on this critical benchmark/baseline study that might help this region “Beat the Odds” of the adverse impact of casino gambling.

Tracy Soska, Ray Engel, and Danny Rosen are Professors at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work and co-investigators on the gambling study.