JENNIFER MCCAUSLAND;
My son Ben gambled on life - and lost. The police report said he died in an auto accident due to mechanical failure. But that is only part of a story of addiction that lead to his death at just 29 years old.
Ben was obsessed with gambling. He had attended a gambling rehabilitation program and successfully completed it. But the program couldn't repair the six years of financial devastation driven by his addiction to gambling. He had spent his money at the blackjack table instead of on such mundane activities as car maintenance.
The tragic turn of events in Ben's life doesn't have to be repeated by others. Compulsive gambling can be successfully treated. It is a question whether we as a society, along with the gaming industry, are willing to step up to make such treatment readily available to all.
Gambling is a multibillion-dollar industry in this state, with official net revenues in excess of $1.5 billion for 2003. The amount of money actually gambled by Washington residents is several billion dollars annually.
The overwhelming majority of people who gamble participate responsibly. However, as our gambling activities and revenue have expanded over the past 10 years, the Lottery Commission funded four separate studies revealing that 8 percent of the state's adolescent population are problem gamblers and 5 percent of the adult population are similarly affected.
Regrettably, state government has shown almost total neglect of this critical and treatable problem. There are no publicly or privately funded treatment programs for problem gamblers in Washington, and there are only a very limited number of mental health professionals with the training to recognize and treat the disorder.
This indifference has occasionally been interrupted by the willingness of several legislators to attempt to fund some treatment. Unfortunately, each of their funding initiatives failed when any other objective took priority.
It is also dismaying that grants and contributions to the Council on Problem Gambling, a nonprofit advocacy and education group, have been minuscule. In 2002, the Gambling Commission even voted to cut funding of the group's activities to $23,000 a year, designated specifically to operate an information line. Furthermore, from a net revenue of $168 million the lottery donated $24,908 as reimbursement for printed material.
Gamblers are not parasites on the public purse; quite the contrary. Their gambling dollars help fund vital state and local government services.
At the same time, the Department of Alcohol and Substance Abuse receives $250 million in the biennial budget to treat 50,000 alcoholic and drug-addicted Washington state citizens. Meanwhile, virtually nothing goes toward helping addicted gamblers and their families.
The societal costs resulting from problem gambling are significant. And while the addicted gambler often shows no outward signs of trouble, reckless gambling destroys families, breeds criminal activity and causes financial ruin.
At a recent legislative forum, state Rep. Richard Debolt (R-Chehalis) stated that government is here to help its citizens. The perfect opportunity to act on that commitment will be presented to him and the other legislators in the coming weeks.
State Rep. Eileen Cody (D-Seattle) will introduce legislation to create a permanent separate fund for the prevention and treatment of problem gambling disorders. The source of this new funding will be the gambling industry itself, not existing program budgets. This could finally open the door to a life beyond the shipwrecked existence of thousands of vulnerable and currently exploited state citizens.
It's too late for my son and our family, but it's not too late for all the beneficiaries of the gambling boom to give back to the at-risk members of the community whose participation in that boom has placed lives in jeopardy.LINK
My son Ben gambled on life - and lost. The police report said he died in an auto accident due to mechanical failure. But that is only part of a story of addiction that lead to his death at just 29 years old.
Ben was obsessed with gambling. He had attended a gambling rehabilitation program and successfully completed it. But the program couldn't repair the six years of financial devastation driven by his addiction to gambling. He had spent his money at the blackjack table instead of on such mundane activities as car maintenance.
The tragic turn of events in Ben's life doesn't have to be repeated by others. Compulsive gambling can be successfully treated. It is a question whether we as a society, along with the gaming industry, are willing to step up to make such treatment readily available to all.
Gambling is a multibillion-dollar industry in this state, with official net revenues in excess of $1.5 billion for 2003. The amount of money actually gambled by Washington residents is several billion dollars annually.
The overwhelming majority of people who gamble participate responsibly. However, as our gambling activities and revenue have expanded over the past 10 years, the Lottery Commission funded four separate studies revealing that 8 percent of the state's adolescent population are problem gamblers and 5 percent of the adult population are similarly affected.
Regrettably, state government has shown almost total neglect of this critical and treatable problem. There are no publicly or privately funded treatment programs for problem gamblers in Washington, and there are only a very limited number of mental health professionals with the training to recognize and treat the disorder.
This indifference has occasionally been interrupted by the willingness of several legislators to attempt to fund some treatment. Unfortunately, each of their funding initiatives failed when any other objective took priority.
It is also dismaying that grants and contributions to the Council on Problem Gambling, a nonprofit advocacy and education group, have been minuscule. In 2002, the Gambling Commission even voted to cut funding of the group's activities to $23,000 a year, designated specifically to operate an information line. Furthermore, from a net revenue of $168 million the lottery donated $24,908 as reimbursement for printed material.
Gamblers are not parasites on the public purse; quite the contrary. Their gambling dollars help fund vital state and local government services.
At the same time, the Department of Alcohol and Substance Abuse receives $250 million in the biennial budget to treat 50,000 alcoholic and drug-addicted Washington state citizens. Meanwhile, virtually nothing goes toward helping addicted gamblers and their families.
The societal costs resulting from problem gambling are significant. And while the addicted gambler often shows no outward signs of trouble, reckless gambling destroys families, breeds criminal activity and causes financial ruin.
At a recent legislative forum, state Rep. Richard Debolt (R-Chehalis) stated that government is here to help its citizens. The perfect opportunity to act on that commitment will be presented to him and the other legislators in the coming weeks.
State Rep. Eileen Cody (D-Seattle) will introduce legislation to create a permanent separate fund for the prevention and treatment of problem gambling disorders. The source of this new funding will be the gambling industry itself, not existing program budgets. This could finally open the door to a life beyond the shipwrecked existence of thousands of vulnerable and currently exploited state citizens.
It's too late for my son and our family, but it's not too late for all the beneficiaries of the gambling boom to give back to the at-risk members of the community whose participation in that boom has placed lives in jeopardy.LINK
