SEARCH NEWS:

 

States Stew Over Problem Gamblers

"A debate raged at a forum Thursday night in Atlantic City on how to enforce a new state law that allows compulsive gamblers to ban themselves from casinos.

"Under the law, compulsive gamblers can provide personal information and a photograph, and then casinos would be responsible for keeping them out.

"…Casino operators, however, are uneasy about being held responsible for enforcing the rule. They want to know whether people who register would also be banned from casino business offices, hotels and restaurants, or simply barred from placing bets.

"…Mississippi law requires casinos to honor requests from customers to be denied check-cashing or credit privileges and to be taken off mailing lists. The law, however, stops short of banning any customer from the premises, as New Jersey's does.

"Also this past week, the Nevada Legislature adjourned its regular session without voting on a $250,000 annual funding measure for compulsive gambling programs.

"…The casino industry's Mississippi Gaming Association provides $150,000 a year for the 5-year-old council, which also gets $100,000 from the Mississippi Gaming Commission, as well as accepting private donations.

"Even Mississippi's efforts seem puny next to Michigan's, however. That state has only three casinos but spent $3.4 million last year on problem gambling programs.

"…`It is somewhere between ironic and a travesty that Nevada sets the standard for almost everything in the casino industry, from operations and architecture to regulation, yet spends nothing on problem gambling,' said Dr. Rob Hunter, director of Las Vegas' Problem Gambling Consultants, the only non-profit treatment center in the state…"

< Gaming News