Experts: Nevada behind in problem gambling treatment

[NVMojo]

or ...how Bush's favorite Red State and Rove's home state treats its people!! HAHA!!! Dump em upside down and shake!!! Sort of like at the polls with those lousy Sequoias!!!

LV Sun:

The Problem Gambling Center, located in a warren of office complexes on the north side of Sahara Avenue and across from the Palace Station casino, isn't easy to find. But if more people knew about it, they might very well be put on a waiting list.

The nonprofit treatment center counsels more than 200 people each year on an annual budget of less than $350,000 that's funded chiefly by gaming companies. It is the only formal public treatment program in Las Vegas devoted to treating compulsive gamblers. A few more recent donations has led to new daytime sessions for graveyard shift workers on top of its existing evening sessions.

Robert Hunter, a psychologist who runs the center, says he is "keeping a finger in the dike." He hopes things will change next year, when he expects the state to finally devote money to fund treatment for gambling addicts.

Bills allocating $250,000 per year for problem gambling treatment failed in both the 2001 and 2003 legislative sessions. But Hunter thinks 2005 will be different because the fate of those bills put Nevada in a bad light nationally.

"I've said it before, but it's a travesty," he said. "As a citizen of Nevada, as someone who raised my kids here, (the Legislature) has never addressed this as a public health issue."

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/gaming/2004/dec/20/518013089.html

[Warpy]

1. Some of the Indian casinos in NM

advertise programs for problem gamblers. They do seem to recognize it's a potentially addictive behavior, and have taken a few steps to deal with folks who realize there is a problem but can't stop.

So much for the superior morality of the Christian whitefolks, eh?