As Massachusetts welcomes casinos, treatment for problem gambling is already in demand. But funding for that treatment has been cut midyear, and its future relies on casino profits.
It wasn’t until she was in her 40s that Joan started going to horse-racing tracks with her boyfriend.
“I would pick horses that had pretty names and if they won I was sure that I had a lucky streak and I could continue to win more,” she said.
Winning led Joan from Suffolk Downs to Saratoga, N.Y. Eventually, her relationship ended and Joan started to gamble by herself.
“I was missing something in my life, bored, lonely, and I had been to Mohegan Sun on several occasions and I started playing slots, and I would win … and the next night I would go back and play blackjack.”
You can probably guess where this is headed. Sometimes Joan would lose … big.
“It became a pattern where I was traveling there at least three times a week in the middle of the night,” she said.
Joan lived alone in a suburb of Boston and didn’t tell her family about her gambling. But soon she ran out of money.
“I would take cash advances on my credit cards,” she said. “I didn’t pay my rent or my bills. And then when it became a problem where I couldn’t get money, I started taking money from my employer at the time.”
Read NECIR's investigative report on money for compulsive gambling at www.NECIR-BU.org
Joan’s employer called the FBI, but not before she stole hundreds of thousands of dollars. She lost her job, credit, home, and the trust of her family and friends. Just before she went to federal prison for 27 months, she called the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling. The then-director sent letters to Joan in prison.
“When I came home in June of 2010 all the staff at the Mass Council helped me find employment and helped me get back on my feet,” she said.
Joan now works as an office manager. Her boss is aware of her past. She owes the federal government and her former employer about $900,000. But she says one of the saving graces of her situation is her longstanding relationship with the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling. It’s a nonprofit, but it relies on funding from the state. Right now, it’s the state’s main outlet for prevention and treatment programs. Executive Director Marlene Warner says there’s need for more education among health care providers, high school and college students.
“The backbone of our organization is our helpline and we really work with folks who call us in a moment of crisis,” she said. “Our calls can be upwards of 150 to 200 calls a month. And visits have skyrocketed to our website, visiting the areas for help.”
But with casinos on the horizon in Massachusetts, and the fear that gambling addiction will rise, will the state fund treatment programs adequately? Funding for the Mass Council on Compulsive Gambling was boosted at the start of the fiscal year in July – to $1.8 million – then reduced by more than $500,000 in December.
“It’s hardship in that you plan for programs, you plan knowing that the slot parlor will open in a year, and further down the road the three casinos will open,” Warner said. “And knowing that we don’t have enough to meet the needs of people with gambling disorders currently in the state.”
Advocates say the cutbacks leave Massachusetts and New England unprepared for a potential surge in problem gambling.
“This issue can impact all the people around the individual because these folks are coming in and filing for bankruptcy and committing crimes, or struggling with mental health and taxing the services in a number of different ways in these communities,” Warner said.
There are no in-patient rehab programs. Outpatient counseling, where it exists, is clustered in urban locations. There aren’t any statistics on how many people have – or are expected to have – gambling addictions in this state, largely because it’s such a secretive problem.
“The number one way people call us with a problem to our help line is with scratch tickets,” Warner said. “With a not terribly distant second being slots at the Connecticut casinos, and a not terribly distant third, betting with a bookie.“
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission is about to hire a full-time director of research on problem gambling. Commission Chairman Steven Crosby says more money for problem gambling education and treatment is a high priority.
“If the numbers turn out to be what they have been estimated to be, we’ll be somewhere probably between a total of $15 million to $20 million a year to deal primarily with problem gaming and some other things as well,” he said. “And I’m told that’s at least 2 to 3 times more than any other state in the union.”
But there’s an odd connection to pay for compulsive gambling programs. The Mass Council on Compulsive Gambling relies on large casino profits: More gambling means more money to help addicted gamblers. Casino taxes are put through a formula and fed into various state health programs.
“We will not be actually running intervention programs,” Crosby said. “We’re not in the clinical business. We will be overseeing the collective efforts to make sure that we’re accomplishing the objective of minimizing the impacts of problem gambling.”
Gamblers Anonymous says their meetings always grow in size when casinos arrive in a given area. And GA agrees with the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling that education and research may be the most important services to fund, because so few of those with a gambling addiction seek treatment.
WGBH News is partners with the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit investigative reporting newsroom based at Boston University.
