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Expert: Problem Gambling Program At Risk

QUEBEC – As reported by the Montreal Gazette: "As Kahnawake residents prepare to vote in a referendum Saturday on whether to build a casino, a Quebec public health official warns the province's treatment programs are in danger of being overrun with gambling addicts.

"`There is one sure road to pathological gambling and that's (offering) VLTs (video-lottery terminals) and slot machines,' Serge Chevalier, a sociologist and addiction specialist with the Institut national de santé publique du Québec, said in an interview yesterday.

"Chevalier's comments came as the first evaluation of one of the world's largest scientifically-based treatment programs was made public.

"Chevalier's department estimates there are about 15,000 pathological gamblers in Montreal. About 125,000 live in the province, or about 2.1 per cent of the adult population.

"…Since the first wave of participants completed the program just as the assessment process began, it is too early to evaluate its success, Chevalier said.

"What is clear, however, is that one critical group of addicts isn't seeking treatment, he said.

"…The core of the experimental program - offered at no-charge to participants at public and private centres - was developed by Robert Ladouceur, a Université Laval researcher and an internationally-recognized expert in the emerging field of gambling addiction treatment and research.

"Elements of the program that make it unique include standardization of treatment strategies, common training of therapists and standard assessment and follow-up.

"Given the size, scope and scientific nature of the project - its closest rival is a New Zealand program - it and the research documents streaming from it will likely be closely assessed by addiction specialists the world over…"

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