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Louisiana Boasts Public Funding for Problem Gambling Treatment13 July 2004NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana -- As reported by the Associated Press: "Legalized gambling has provided a jackpot of tax dollars for many states, but virtually no money is being funneled to treat the exploding numbers of problem players -- the ones who could lose everything. "Louisiana, often thought of as running behind the curve on almost everything, has the nation's only two state-supported residential treatment centers for problem gamblers. "Among the other gambling states, only New Jersey chips in -- on a limited basis -- for outpatient treatment. "...Estimates vary widely on how many problem gamblers there are in the United States. "A national study authorized by Congress in the late 1990s suggested that up to 6 percent of the adult population has a gambling problem, with about 1 percent being pathological -- or completely out of control. "In Louisiana, population 4.4 million, a recent study by the state health department estimated about 74,000 pathological gamblers. "...'We are only meeting something in the vicinity of 1 percent of the need,' said Reece Middleton, head of the Louisiana Association on Compulsive Gambling and co-founder of the Shreveport center which opened in 1999. "...Louisiana's two treatment centers get $2 million a year from state gambling taxes..." |