Gambling in Nevada - Fun or Addiction?

I enjoy going to the casinos here in Nevada. They are a lot of fun, not just for the gambling, but for the free entertainment and inexpensive buffets. I often go to the local casinos to gamble small change, just to get out of the house and be with people. I enjoy the casino atmosphere. Occasionally I have won large amounts but I'm sure that overall I have lost more than I have won. But, like many other casino-frequenting Nevadans, I consider it the cost of having a good time. Sort of a vacation getaway fee.

While going to the casino is fun for me, I have become aware of the dark side of gambling. I see individuals who are obviously throwing away a lot of money, again and again. I wonder, if the mentality here in Nevada (“gambling is fun and normal, not a vice”) creates more problem gamblers than average?

Compulsive gambling is “ is particularly severe in Nevada”, says the Christian Science Monitor (Mar. 2005) Further, “A Nevada-funded study revealed in 2002 that 6.4 percent of the state's population were either pathological or problem gamblers. That's far ahead of the 2.7 percent of the national population found to have such addictions in a 1998 survey conducted by National Gambling Impact Study Commission, a panel appointed by Congress.”

Nevada has a 74-year history of legalized gambling, with a reputation and tradition of being the gambling capital of the USA. There are many neighborhood-type casinos throughout Las Vegas and other cities in Nevada, indicating that the local population has adopted the gambling tradition of the state. (Many Las Vegas residents are “transplants”). Let's face it, gambling is attractive and can lead to huge wins as well as huge losses. It's those “wins” that keep a gambler coming back for more, hoping for a repeat of the win. However, in the long run, the odds are on the side of the casino, leaving many frequent gamblers “in the red”.

What can be done? Just saying that individual responsibility is the answer is like saying that people addicted to drugs or alcohol don't need treatment. It is the casinos who have taken the lead in providing ads for gambling addiction hotlines and financial contributions to treatment programs.

“It's not good business to cater to problem gamblers because these are people whose addiction is progressive and will end in some destructive way," says Carol O'Hare, executive director of the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling, whose $445,000 annual budget is largely funded by donations from casinos. "The problem gambler is not a long-term customer. He's not profitable. Ultimately he becomes a casualty." (ibid)

So the moral of the story, I guess, is that Nevada does have a lot of problem gamblers...more than any other state...but it also has more GAMBLERS! And I like it that way.