Editorials

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Taking VLTs out of bars is overkill

By: Editorial

Posted: 01/21/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies) | Last Modified: 01/21/2010 11:10 AM | Updates

A group of University of Manitoba researchers who studied problem gambling among women in Canada concluded that government should take VLTs out of bars, lounges, restaurants and other locations and cut the number of them in casinos. They also suggested taking casinos out of heavily populated areas.

Pulling the machines out of private drinking businesses and making access to gambling palaces more difficult may cut down on the number of people in trouble. VLTs and slots are often referred to as the crack cocaine of gambling because those who fall into trouble report those machines are most irresistible. But that option is also an extreme fix that would penalize everyone who enjoys pumping the machines with money on a remote chance it'll pay back big time. Better to focus on the few in dire need of help.

The paper, published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, found that 1.4 per cent of women were "problem gamblers." That roughly reflects a survey in 2006 by the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba, which found 1.4 per cent of respondents were addicted. But 1.4 per cent indicates that chronic gambling is blighting the lives of an estimated 12,700 people.

The researchers found that women are unlikely to gamble on the Internet, to play sports lotteries or games of skill, such as cards. They prefer to play the machines, almost equally inside and outside the casinos.

What the addictions foundation discovered in 2001, however, is that women were much more likely to call for help when someone else's gambling was creating trouble. Men were more likely to call out of concern for their own problem. Further, the 2006 survey discovered that even though men and women equally reported being problem gamblers, men were much more likely to admit they faced a "moderate risk" of spiralling into trouble.

All of the research around gambling gives very broad-brush information on those in trouble -- the U of M study noted it is the first national research to look at the kinds of gambling women engage in.

Tellingly, even as the authors make a pitch to restrict access to VLTs, they imply there's slim chance of that happening, since government is operator and regulator and provinces rely heavily on the profits of gaming, of which VLTs are the largest contributors.

The realities of Manitoba's gambling problem inevitably lead to a rational conclusion. The government refuses to get out of the business of running the gaming houses so it can concentrate on regulation and grapple with the scourge that afflicts a small percentage of people. That means others must be funded to do the work necessary -- notably independent researchers and the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba, which offers counselling and therapy. Advertising and addictions-treatment programs need to target the addicts and there may be differences in the way women and men respond -- women, who are less likely to play certain games, may be less likely to see a problem developing, or are disinclined to acknowledge the monkey on their back.

Those questions need answering and that alone underscores an abiding negligence of public policy makers: More than 20 years after Manitoba led Canada into the culture of legalized, permanent gaming houses, little is known about what drives people to continually throw cash at a losing proposition.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 21, 2010 A10

History

Updated on Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 11:10 AM CST:
Corrects calculation error.

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