Editorial: Prepare For Gambling Ills – Hartford Courant

Connecticut, the casino capital of New England, is getting ready to expand gaming operations even more. With that expansion comes a special duty to help problem gamblers.

This state already has two of the largest casinos in the U.S. Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, just a few miles apart in southeastern Connecticut. The governor last week signed legislation for a third casino, in East Windsor. It's meant to compete with the mega-casino that MGM is building 12 miles up the road in Springfield, and to help the state out of its budget crisis. The state gets a cut of casino slot revenue.

But wait, there's more eight new off-track betting licenses have also been approved, increasing the number of OTB parlors allowed in Connecticut from 18 to 24. The state gets a cut from them too. And state-regulated sports betting may be on the horizon.

Of course, Connecticut residents spend a lot on lottery tickets now, and Keno started in April 2016. Those games are operated by a quasi-state agency.

All this gaming might be good for the state's treasury, or at least blunt the financial blow from the Massachusetts casino. But it could cause a strain on the towns, companies and families close to the gambling parlors.

They're often left to deal with the dark side of gambling the crimes, bankruptcies, divorces and suicides that can come from gaming addiction.

The Dark Side

Consider this: Nearly $8 billion was bet on slots at Connecticut casinos from July 2015 to June 2016. Research has found that 30 to 60 percent of gambling revenue is generated by problem and pathological gamblers those who lose control over their gambling impulses, despite their losses.

Jeffrey J. Marotta, president of Problem Gambling Solutions, a respected research company, estimates that 39,000 Connecticut residents are problem gamblers. Problem gambling rates are said to be twice as high for those who live close to a casino.

Connecticut has seen a number of town officials, business managers and others trusted with money caught up in gaming addiction since casinos came to the state. Embezzlement arrests, for example, rose nearly 400 percent from 1992, when Foxwoods opened, to 2009, according to one study.

Two particularly vulnerable populations are women and veterans. A study of Connecticut gamblers published in 2001 raised the possibility that "women, once they begin gambling, develop gambling problems at a more rapid rate than men." Veterans are also at higher risk for problem gambling.

The state has a responsibility to mitigate the harm that expanding gambling will do those for whom a slot machine is as addictive as a drink, a cigarette or a painkiller.

Underfunded Services

The state does put $2.5 million into problem gambling services yearly, says Marlene Warner, acting executive director of the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling. In addition, the Mashantucket Pequots and the Mohegans the Native American tribes that run the state's two casinos and will jointly operate the third support the nonprofit Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling with $600,000 annually. With the third casino, the tribes will contribute $300,000 more a year for research and treatment of problem gambling.

But the council is still "woefully underfunded," its acting director says. Though Connecticut's two mega-casinos are among the largest in the nation, this state is eighth nationally in per-capita investment in problem gambling services, says Mr. Marotta of Problem Gambling Solutions. Oregon invests, on a per-capita basis, about twice what Connecticut does. Even West Virginia spends more per-capita on services than this state does.

Connecticut's government has become dependent on gaming money as so many states now are to finance important public services, such as schools and roads. Gaming isn't going away. So the state has to direct more of its winnings toward helping those whose pastime is spinning out of control.

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Editorial: Prepare For Gambling Ills - Hartford Courant