LITTLE ROCK — Nearly 10,000 calls have been made to the National Council on Problem Gambling's hot line from Arkansas area codes the past 3 1 /2 years.
But only 437 of those 9,845 calls were from people who said they had gambling problems or wanted a referral to a Gamblers Anonymous meeting, said Reece Middleton, executive director of the Louisiana Association on Compulsive Gambling in Shreveport, which answers calls from Arkansas.
The others were from people wanting information about casinos, such as what band is playing or what food is served, or trying to find out what the winning lottery-ticket numbers were.
"Those were not calls for help," Middleton said.
Among the 437, Middleton said, the top problem was gambling at casino slot machines,with playing blackjack second, unspecific casino gambling third, and betting on horse races fourth.
Sixty-two of those gambling problem calls came from Fort Smith, 57 from Little Rock, with Fayetteville third, Springdale fourth and Hot Springs fifth in the number of calls, he said.
Four of the callers were considering suicide, but chose not to do it, Middleton said.
LOTTERY PLANS
A new means of gambling is about to take off in Arkansas. The Arkansas lottery is to begin selling tickets in less than a month, on Sept. 28.
Some steps are being taken along with the lottery to address gambling problems in the state.
Lottery officials plan to put the council's national hot line number - (800) 522-4700 - on the lottery tickets, Middleton said.
But the display of that number will be more extensive than that. The lottery plans to put it on the back of scratch-off tickets, on the lottery's Web site, within retailer "play-stations," and on the majority of its print advertisements, said Bridgette Frazier, staff attorney for the lottery.
That's in addition to the lottery's separate "Play Responsibly" campaign, she said.
The lottery will replace the national hot line number with an Arkansas-based number as soon as one is available, Frazier said.
The state's lottery law, Act 606 of 2009, also requires that at least $200,000 in unclaimed prize money be directed to the state Department of Health for the treatment of compulsive gambling and educational programs related to that.
In Tennessee, $200,000 goes to problem-gambling programs from a state appropriation, a Tennessee official said.
The Arkansas idea was borrowed from Tennessee, said Arkansas House Speaker Robbie Wills, D-Conway, who sponsored Act 606.
"It is intended to be a show of good faith that if there are people who develop a gambling addiction because of the lottery, there's a funding source to address it," he said.
Wills said the Legislature directed that some lottery funds be used for gambling treatment programs, though there is no such state requirement regarding Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, where gambling on horse races and "electronic games of skill" take place, and Southland Park in West Memphis, where gambling takes place on dog races and electronic games.
WADING IN
The lottery is different because it "is the only state-run gambling enterprise," Wills said.
The state treatment program hasn't yet taken shape.
Mary Leath, deputy director for administration for the Health Department, said the department will enter into an agreement with the Department of Human Services for the Human Services Department to run the program because it has a behavioral-health program.
The Department of Human Services' Division of Behavioral Health Services will design the program and it will likely include a hot line as well as referrals to local counselors, said Department of Human Services spokesman Julie Munsell.
She said department officials haven't set a timeline for establishing the program.
Middleton said he expects to get more calls from Arkansas when the council's hot line number is publicized by the lottery, but he doesn't know whether they will be from people with gambling problems.
"By sheer mathematics, if you have more gamblers, you have more problem gamblers," he said. "The more people you got gambling, the more people you have in trouble."
But he's considering putting a disclaimer on the hot line that would say it doesn't have information about winning lottery tickets.
"When you got a huge number for the Powerball [jackpot], our phone rings off the hook," Middleton said.
Thirty other states participate in Powerball, which has an average jackpot of about $136 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association. Arkansas is set to participate in Powerball starting Oct. 31.
How many people will play the lottery isn't clear. Nor do officials know for sure how much money will be moving through the lottery. Estimates of ticket sales range from about $185 million a year to as much as $500 million a year.
Those estimates pale in comparison to total gambling already going on at Oaklawn Park and Southland. Wagering at the two tracks added up to $989 million last year, a figure based on reports from the tracks to the Arkansas Racing Commission, according to commission staff member Wendy Brocato.
Though the state does not mandate that the tracks provide funds to the state for gambling treatment programs, some action is taken at the tracks, track officials point out.
Oaklawn spokesman Terry Wallace said Oaklawn has a training program, "a mini-course on problem gambling," under which each employee is a given a card showing the national council's toll-free number and Web site (www.ncpgambling.org). Employees are to give the card to anyone who indicates he has a gambling problem.
Oaklawn also has a policy under which people can ask to be ejected from a gambling room, he said. That's only happened a few times, he said.
Southland President and General Manager Troy Keeping said Southland customers may ask to be permanently evicted. That happens once or twice a month, he said.
People who ask for help are directed to the national council's number or Web site, he said.
All of Southland's materials promote responsible gambling and its employees go through training to promote that as well, Keeping said.
"The Legislature is correct in creating resources in supporting the Department of Human Services" with lottery revenue, he said.
"But we do the same internally with our resources in terms of assisting our customers," Keeping said. He said he didn't have an estimate of how much Southland spends for that.
The tracks also pay taxes to support state government, officials said.
State records show that the Hot Springs track paid the state more than $6.1 million in taxes on wagering and the West Memphis track paid more than $5.3 million, said Whitney McLaughlin of the state Department of Finance and Administration.
AIDING GAMBLERS
Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, which is based in Washington, said 20 or so states provide public funds for problem-gambling programs.
But at least half of the nation's 44 lotteries don't have a dedicated program, he said.
Texas had one in the 1990s, but it was abolished, despite the proliferation of its lottery, he said.
"Texas is by far worse than Arkansas when it comes to addressing problem gambling," Whyte said.
But, he said, "The state of Arkansas had an obligation to address this public health disorder a long time before they had a lottery."
One problem gambler can embezzle more in one year than Arkansas plans to spend on aiding compulsive gamblers, Whyte said.
"Arkansas needs to do a lot of things like develop a program and a plan to help people so they can get treatment and train certified counselors," said Middleton.
"Our recommendation is the state develop a program whereby they train some counselors to who we can refer them to," he said.
Rudy Garza of Bella Vista said he's the only nationally certified gambling treatment counselor in the state and some of the Arkansas calls to the council's national hot line are referred to him.
He said he usually refers callers to programs in Oklahoma or to a counselor in Little Rock who is trained in dealing with problem gambling but isn't nationally certified. He said he plans to meet soon with the state Department of Human Services to discuss training counselors.
"The mass population is not going to be compulsive gamblers," Garza said. Three to five percent will develop a pathological gambling problem, he said.
Garza said most of the callers referred to him have "casino-type gambling problems."
They are seeking help because they have lost a lot of money, a family member is going to leave them because of their gambling or a court has ordered them to get treatment, he said.
A call from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette to the council's national hot line last week referred the caller to a Gamblers Anonymous meeting at Second Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, counselor Bill Wilson in Little Rock, or Garza.
Front Section, Pages 1, 12 on 08/30/2009