HOOK SHOTS
As March Madness arrives, so does chance for spike in betting addiction
March Madness wagers will be legal at Rivers Casino for the first time this week, and every betting slip from the heavy action there will include the 1-800GAMBLER help line number for anyone worried that their gambling is out of control.
Most NCAA basketball tournament bettors will be focused on different numbers from those of that phone line. And most won’t have a gambling problem meriting a call for treatment recommendations anyway, but one local gambling therapist says she already has seen an increase in problems connected to sports wagers since the North Shore casino’s sportsbook opened in December.
“It’s the straw that broke the camel’s back for them,”
treatment specialist Jody Bechtold, based in Mt. Lebanon, said of six young men she has as clients who are addicted to sports betting.
They were already betting through bookies or online or illegal online operators, she said. The new casino option increased their gambling or desire for it, she said, and while they are in treatment to try to stop, this week of office pools, bracket chatter, buzzer beaters and back-toback televised games on multiple TV channels will be challenging.
“The majority state that March Madness is the most difficult time for them, because of how much is packed into a short time, and how many people there are who talk about it at work and wherever you go,” Ms. Bechtold said.
Perhaps the most active and well-known certified specialist in gambling treatment around Pittsburgh, Ms. Bechtold is apparently unusual in experiencing such a quick surge in sports bettors seeking help. But other therapists and officials responsible for addressing gambling disorders around the state expect an eventual increase in reported problems from the new betting opportunity.
It will be even more likely, they say, once the chance for online sports wagering and other casino-style gambling hits Pennsylvania, as is expected within a few months. No longer will a physical trip be required either to bet on the Pirates or play slots or blackjack.
“We’ve only had [legal sports betting in Pennsylvania] since November, so it’s still kind of premature,” said Josh Ercole, executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania. “I’ll be curious to see what changes we see occur over the course of the next year . ... I don’t expect it to be like the floodgates open, but I do expect at some point to receive more calls from people exhibiting problems.”
Mr. Ercole’s group, which contracts with the state to run the help line and to train casino employees about compulsive gambling, held its annual conference in Pittsburgh on Thursday for therapists to discuss issues related to gambling treatment. There was no focus on the new sports betting or Pennsylvania’s overall gambling expansion, but those changes are intertwined with what the attendees expect of their future work.
Nancy Smith, a licensed professional counselor in Bridgeville, is treating only about 2 percent of her clients now for a gambling disorder, but she expects that to go up. She’s among local therapists to whom callers to 1-800GAMBLER are referred for help, in addition to those callers being made aware of Gamblers Anonymous meetings.
“I get calls, but people don’t follow through,” Ms. Smith said. “A lot of times people are really scared and seeking information, but they’re not willing to make any changes.”
Problem gambling is known as the “hidden addiction,” because it’s so difficult for the gambler’s family and friends to spot, and so few of those afflicted actually seek help. Researchers generally estimate 1 percent to 2 percent of adults cannot control their gambling despite clear harm they are doing to their finances, work and/or relationships.
Pennsylvania has recognized the problem in various ways while becoming the nation’s biggest gambling revenue state after Nevada, as a result of 2004 casino legislation and various additions since then. The state’s Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs reports that 134 individuals who met income guidelines received state-funded therapy with contracted, certified counselors in 2017-18; an untold number received private help separately using employer insurance or other financial means. Among other state efforts: • Most of the $4.6 million dedicated to problem gambling as a share of casino revenue last year went not for direct treatment but for prevention and education programs, primarily through efforts by county agencies. The amount of such funds will increase through a share of revenue generated by the new options such as sports betting and internet games.
• The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board maintains a self-exclusion list, now numbering about 13,000 and growing each year, of individuals admitting they are addicts who should be barred from casino floors. An official says no increase has shown up yet tied to sports betting, but they expect that to occur from it and other new gambling options.
• The state-funded 1-800GAMBLER line received 1,069 calls seeking addiction help in 2017-18. Only 21 of those listed sports betting as their biggest problem, compared with 393 for slots, 156 for casino table games and 153 for lottery play. Mr. Ercole suggested the small sports betting number stems partially from the lack of awareness for sports bettors, before the new legalization, of how to seek help.
“Your bookie doesn’t put a pamphlet in your hands,” he noted.
He and others in the treatment field praised some aspects of Pennsylvania’s work on the issue while finding fault in other areas: among them, a shortage of state-funded treatment providers — it formerly had about twice as many contracted counselors as the 53 it does now — and a lack of research to explore the level of the addiction problem and whether and how it’s changing over time.
“It’s frankly incredible that a state reaping so much revenue is so unwilling to learn what the problems are and develop innovative ways to address them,” said Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling.
From 2008-2012, gamblingrelated questions were added to a wide-ranging random telephone survey of Pennsylvanians’ health overseen by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. It showed then that nearly half of adults gamble in a given year, and of those, about 20 percent wager on sports, with men about three times as likely to do so as women and 18-to-29-year-olds more interested in sports betting than any other adult age group.
State officials had no direct answer for why the gambling information is no longer gathered in the annual survey, but a Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs spokeswoman said it is finalizing a 2019 Problem Gambling Strategic Plan that will address various research-related issues dealing with prevention, education and treatment. One idea will be to use video or phone means to begin offering counseling treatment to pockets of the state where there are no state-contracted therapists; those counselors are presently concentrated in the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia metropolitan areas, where most casinos are.
None of that future help will mean much for addicted bettors lured by this week’s ubiquitous basketball games and talk. In addition to being younger than many other types of gamblers, the sports bettors often have excessive confidence that their knowledge can overcome odds against them, said Jon Grant, a University of Chicago professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience who spoke at last week’s compulsive gambling conference. Even if they want to avoid a bet, he said, society makes it hard.
“You can’t do self-exclusion from sports,” Dr. Grant said. “I can go all week and never see a blackjack table, if I don’t want, but I will be bombarded [about the NCAA tournament] every time I watch the news or go online.”