subscribesubscriber servicescontact usabout ussite map
 
October 15, 2000

Casino: Gambling addicts bad PR

- Leelanau Sands, Turtle Creek casinos say they don't need business from problem gamblers
By PATRICK SULLIVAN
Record-Eagle staff writer
      
      PESHAWBESTOWN - Officials at the Leelanau Sands and Turtle Creek casinos say they don't want to gamble with people who are addicted to slot machines, blackjack or poker.
      Since 1996, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians has developed a program for addicted gamblers and soon may include information about a toll-free gambling addiction help line on all promotional material from the casinos.
      "We don't want the people with (gambling) problems here; we don't need the money," said Barbara Anderson, who is in charge of developing a program for problem gamblers at Traverse Bay Casino Resorts.
      "If you have a customer who is upset and unhappy and losing everything, and they go out to complain to the world, that's bad publicity," she said.
      Anderson cited data that 4 percent of gamblers can become addicted, and said the casino is content with business from the remaining 96 percent.
      A December 1999 Michigan Department of Community Health study found that 4.9 percent of Michigan adults were "lifetime" compulsive gamblers, but that same study found that only 2.9 percent of residents in the western Lower Peninsula fit that category.
      Still, a recently released annual report of the 13th Circuit that serves Antrim, Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties noted a sharp increase in theft and embezzlement cases from 1988 to 1999 - many arising out of problem gambling.
      Anderson said problem gambling never became an issue for the Band until 1996 when a woman called to complain that she was going broke and could not stop gambling. She asked to be banned from the casino for life, and tribal officials realized they needed to confront a problem.
      "We're supposed to be entertaining people, providing fun for them and here was a person who had a problem," Anderson said.
      The woman was voluntarily banned from the casino and the tribe paid for counseling for the woman.
      Furthermore, tribal attorney John Petoskey drafted a "responsible gaming program" in 1996, the Band donated $4,000 to a counseling service in Traverse City, and they joined the Michigan Council on Problem Gambling.
      The Band also has a policy in place for people who ask to be banned for life from the casino. Once a person signs a form, his or her photograph goes on record and the gambler is escorted from the casino if security ever spots him or her back on casino property.
      Anderson said at first she suspected her job would conflict with the casino's business strategy, but she said that has not been the case.
      Last week, Anderson returned from a trip to Atlantic City where she noticed that promotional material at casinos there includes a message for the potentially gambling addicted and offers a toll-free help line.
      Anderson liked the idea and is proposing to the marketing department at Traverse Bay Casino Resorts that all promotional material for Turtle Creek and the Leelanau Sands casinos include a message and phone number for Michigan's help line.
      When she approached the casino's marketing director with the idea, he agreed to it, she said.
      Some believe the tribe should do more to combat problem gambling.
      Jim McBryde, special assistant for drug policy for the Department of Community Health, would like to see the casino put large billboards around the gaming floor announcing the state's help line.
      "We have the treatment programs," McBryde said. "We've challenged the tribal casinos to help out more than they do."
      Phone calls to the Little Traverse Band of Odawa Indians in Petoskey and the Little River Casino Resort in Manistee seeking information about problem gambling policies at their casinos were not returned.
      Michigan's help line refers callers to Gamblers Anonymous groups, addiction programs or one of more than 70 gambling counselors around the state.
      Locally, Munson Medical Center's behavioral health services department began a program within the last year for problem gamblers and two counselors there have become panel-certified to treat gambling addiction.
      Panel certification for a counselor is important, Munson counselor Barbara Emmott said, because with it treatment programs can apply for state funding to treat specific patients, making it more affordable to fight compulsive gambling.
      "With the advent of all of the casinos, it's certainly on the increase," Emmott said.
      Most problem gamblers in Munson's program turned to help only after a family member came to Munson to look for answers about problem gamblers, she said.
      When people come to Munson for treatment, they answer a 17-question gambling questionnaire to determine whether they have a problem, and if so, how bad it is.
      "It's a very simple survey that helps us determine whether they have stepped over the line," Emmott said.
      Gambling is an addiction similar to addiction of drugs and alcohol, Emmott said. Often, people who suffer live in denial, and addicted gamblers continue to spend money despite financial hardship.
      Problem gamblers are looking for "the feeling of euphoria that they got when they got their first big win," Emmott said. "It's called 'the chase.'"