Panel Expected to Revisit Problem Gambling Rules

Nevada gaming regulators plan next year to take another look at the state's 5-year-old problem gambling regulations, Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Dennis Neilander said.

The Nevada Gaming Commission enacted new rules in 1999 that required casinos to educate employees about problem gambling, and to post notices advising gamblers about problem gambling symptoms and listing toll-free telephone help numbers.

The rule changes also gave problem gamblers the right to ask casinos not to cash their checks, grant credit or send them mail, and required casinos to honor the requests.

"I think it's appropriate for us to revisit the issue," Neilander said last week.

Neilander was a member of the three-man control board when it recommended the rule changes to the five-member Nevada Gaming Commission in 1998.

"At the time we first adopted the (problem gambling) regulation, we intended it to be a kind of baseline," Neilander said. "I think it's appropriate for us to go back and look at the five years of research that's been done in the field, and to look at what's been done here and elsewhere, and what's worked and what hasn't worked."

Neilander recently talked with Nevada Gaming Commission Chairman Pete Bernhard about looking at the problem gambling rules again. They expect to tackle the issue sometime next year, with Neilander declining to be more specific.

"Sometime soon," was as far as Neilander, a lawyer and the state's top gaming cop, would go.

Bernhard was unavailable for comment.

Neilander said control board staff is compiling documents on recent problem gambling research and on the efficacy of existing state programs and regulations.

Neilander said he didn't want to predict what changes regulators may choose to make to the existing rules, or to say what improvements he personally believes in.

"I'd like to take a look at the research," Neilander said. "It's a new field and there is a lot of new research."

Carol O'Hare, executive director of the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling, last week called on state regulators to revisit their problem gambling regulations.

O'Hare, one of the state's leading problem gambling experts, said it's now time to talk about what's working and what's not working.

"I think it may be time to open the dialogue again," O'Hare said at the time. "Change is a part of life and we may need to change."

Missouri imposes a $500 per riverboat cruise loss limit on its casino gamblers; states including Missouri, New Jersey, Illinois and Michigan have problem gambler self-exclusion rules; and some states limit advertising, credit and alcohol service.

Most other states fund problem gambling treatment; Nevada doesn't.

Neither O'Hare nor Neilander were willing to say Nevada should adopt some of the tougher rules already enacted in other states.

"Let's wait and look at the evidence," Neilander said.