Experts: Casino will add to risks in Cleveland

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

Casino gambling is coming to one of America’s poorest cities, and with the glitz and new jobs it’ll bring to Cleveland, the games of chance are also likely to attract troubled gamblers.

And the convenience will increase the number of chronic gamblers willing to lie, cheat or steal to get a fix, experts agree.

“Because we are bringing the gambling closer to home, the problem’s going to be closer to home,” said Laura Clemens, who directs the responsible gambling program for the Ohio Casino Control Commission, created to regulate the new casino industry.

Voters approved four casinos in 2009 for Ohio, in part with the promise of jobs for a Rust Belt state hit hard by the loss of manufacturing jobs. Last year, the Census Bureau ranked Cleveland, with a 34 percent poverty rate, the third-poorest big city in the U.S. Cincinnati ranked seventh with 30.6 percent of residents living in poverty.

Opponents, led by church groups, warned that casinos would lead to more troubled gamblers. Ohio’s first casino opens in mid-May in Cleveland, with Toledo’s to follow in two weeks and the Cincinnati and Columbus casinos next year.

The risk the casinos bring was underscored by a pair of military veterans who have sought treatment for their gambling problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs’ only residential treatment center for troubled gamblers. The pair talked to The Associated Press about their gambling ordeals, but insisted on anonymity to protect their privacy.

A female Army vet who is an admitted longtime problem gambler said she started with bingo and card parties as a teen and that casino gambling pushed her over the edge, ruining her family life and prompting her to rip through $1 million in losses.

“I got so addicted to it so fast, that’s kind of like all I wanted to do,” said the 49-year-old from Chicago. And, now in Ohio, “here comes the casinos. The casinos, oh, my God,” she said.

The other veteran, a 36-year-old former Marine from Dallas, predicted the convenience of having casinos nearby instead of having to pay for travel would push more people into trouble.

“My compulsion definitely drove me to the nearest casino, so location has a lot to do with it,” he said.

Jennifer Clegg, gambling program supervisor with the Recovery Resources counseling agency in Cleveland, expects to get busier soon.

“We would anticipate that, with casinos coming, we would see these numbers increasing,” she said.

“For someone who’s in a lower socio-economic status, they just can’t jump in the car and drive to Detroit or drive to Pennsylvania, but they can hop on RTA [buses or trains] and go downtown, so there’s a little more easy access.”

An estimated 2 million to 5 million Americans have some sort of gambling problem, according to a 1999 study by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission.

It might be hard for casual gamblers to understand the compulsion that drives some, said Heather Chapman, who directs the Veterans Affairs’ gambling treatment program in Cleveland.

“Their brain lights up almost as if they’d won,” she said, and that “explains why someone will keep going despite having loss after loss after loss.”