During Thursday’s State of the Industry webinar, American Gaming Association President and CEO Bill Miller said the gaming industry invested “half a billion dollars in responsible gambling programs and generated $123 million for state problem gambling intervention and treatment.”
That statement made Keith Whyte pause. The President of Safer Gambling Strategies and a strategic advisor for FanDuel, Whyte wonders how much of the money actually reaches the people who need it most.
“People would assume a half billion dollars means that there’s a half billion dollars that’s been actually helping people with gambling problems,” Whyte said during a CDC Roundtable discussion on problem gambling. “And that is far from that case. … Some of that is research. A lot of that is very abstract, and it doesn’t necessarily go to help people directly with gambling problems. I don’t think it means it’s bad. I just think it means it is perhaps a little bit heroic to characterize it the way it sometimes is characterized.”
March is Problem Gambling Awareness Month.
Elizabeth Thielen, Senior Director of Substance Abuse Treatment Services for NICASA Behavioral Health Services in Illinois, wonders if most of the dollars cited go to training staff and research. At NICASA, she hasn’t seen an influx of money.
“The resources that we have to do that are the same resources we’ve been working with for all of our general outreach and trying to engage people who are hurt by gambling,” Thielen says. “There’s no additional funding to help reach those early gamblers and to help them correct course. There’s no extra (funding). It’s just taking away from what little you have to try to impact this very, very large and, in Illinois, 767,000 adults, and that’s not even counting teenagers. It’s 767,000 people that we’re trying to in some way touch with the little bit we already have.”
Christina Cook, Founder of the Broke Girl Society and a recovering gambling addict, thinks money to treat problem gamblers is not as robust as it should be. She points to her home state of Oklahoma, where about $1 million is allotted for treatment of problems gamblers. Cook says that might seem like a lot of money, but it’s not always directed to the people who need help the most.
Cook cited a website that addresses problem gamblers but isn’t targeting the demographic that needs it most: young people.
“The imagery was of mid-30s people,” Cook says. “It was clinicians in their 40s. And though it’s fantastic information, it’s so well done, they put a lot of money, a lot of energy, a lot of effort into this, but why is it falling short? Because you’re not representing the people you’re targeting. You’re putting a lot of money in it, and you’re not representing those people.”
Thielen said that money directed to problem gambling sometimes feels like they are cursory efforts. Even advertising around problem gaming is less than vigorous.
“It’s clear to the consumer that that’s a joke, that it’s not serious,” Thielen says, “because one, if you can see it, it’s so small in relation to the rest of the ad. And if there’s any audio, it’s audibly laughable, because it’s so fast.”
Whyte notes that the gaming industry spends a lot of time making gambling frictionless. But when it comes to problem gambling, there are hurdles and obstacles.
“We’d love to see them spend the same time and energy making getting help frictionless,” Whyte says.
“I think there’s opportunities to try to improve that customer journey in a way that’s a lot more sustainable. … There should be all of this stuff. There should be the signs on the back of the door, they’re awesome. We should use the technology.
“But we have to think about this like alcohol. We don’t just rely on Budweiser to show an ad on New Year’s. That’s a good thing, and I’m glad they do it, and I’m glad Budweiser does this, but it’s got to be a whole of society thing. It’s got to be a whole community thing.”
Cook thinks that there could be more outreach from staffers at casinos to problem gamblers. Years ago, just before she quit gambling, Cook hit a jackpot on a slot machine.
A worker told her that he hoped she was going home with the money.
“I was incredulous. How dare he? But he knew,” Cook said. “And eight hours later, when he’s wrapping up his shift, he locks eyes with me, and I’m still sitting at the same machine, and all that money pushed back through the machine. He just shook his head. It was just this moment. I knew it. I knew it. And I could feel how sorry he felt for me, and that was the moment. That was very, very pivotal into that final day of my gambling.”
