Great Letter About Gambling Addictions

Hi David,

I'm not sure exactly who you are----ie medical Dr., Politician, etc. But I read your article with interest.

You are right. The addicts need treatment not more drugs and drug paraphenalia.

And if you are interested in this subject---you might be interested in how they are treating other addicts in this province. Know how they treat the gambling addicts?

Back in 2001 those with gambling problems got treatment through a free Problem Gambling Program run through the Ministry of Health. Gordon Campbell's gvt changed that and it now falls under the umbrella of the Minster of Public Safety and Solicitor General. That's John Les, also the Gaming Minister. He also oversees the RCMP and the Coroners office. The people gvt uses for the problem gambling program are hired at arm's length, in other words private companies get contracts for the job and then they hire the councellors who do the work. They do not use abstinance as their mode of treatment like Gamblers Anonymous does. They use a "client based approach". ie if the gambling addicts want to cut back on their problem gambling the councelllors will support that approach.

Ever heard of a heroin addict, alcoholic, or smoker that wants to get control of their health and life------"cut back"? It's quite an astonishing approach. I spoke to one of the BCLC executives and asked why we didn't have residential treatment facilities here in BC for problem gamblers. Who replied to me-----What evidence do we have that they work? When I tried to discuss further with her gambling addicts, she said------we don't call them that. We call them "people with issues".

Here in BC if a family calls a casino to ask them to cut off their husband or wife from gambling, they won't do it. Noone can get a problem gambler self excluded except the problem gambler themselves. I

n Holland----a friend or a family member can get a gambler cut off from gambling. And an employee can and is expected in their work to identify problem gamblers, pull them aside and speak to them, and if necessary------cut them off for a period of time. Also in Holland you have to show ID to enter a casino. Makes their exclusions for problem gamblers there work. Here, no ID req'd to enter a casino. No proper study done here to show the stats on how effective the self exclusion program is. But we do have evidence of self excluded problem gamblers who have gone back to gamble, lost money and then killed themselves.

Oh, and bye the way----in this province we have the distinction of being almost the only province not to keep stats on the number of steadily rising gambling related suicides. The other province that doesn't I think is PEI. Quebec has well over 100 gambling related suicides. And they keep other info like the ages, names, games addicted to, and amount of money lost. If gambling addicts want residential treatment, they have to go out of province to get it and pay for it themselves. Even though there is money left year after year in the budget for the problem gambling fund. That left over money does not get added to the next years budget.

So----as frustrated as you may be with the treatment of the drug addicts, don't expect anything to get better. It could get even worse. Sue