Legislature 2004
Treatment sought for problem gamblers

By Andrew Garber
Seattle Times Olympia bureau

	ROD MAR / THE SEATTLE TIMES Jennifer McCausland, a former state deputy insurance commissioner, wants a state-funded program for gambling treatment. She blames her 29-year-old son's death on his addiction to gambling.
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OLYMPIA — Ben Hossack started gambling as a high-school senior in Seattle. He died 11 years later when his car brakes failed on a mountain road in Australia.

His mother, Jennifer McCausland, ties the two events together.

Although he'd kicked gambling by the time of his death last year at age 29, he was left with little money and many bills. As a result, he "did not spend any money on car repairs," McCausland said, "and police determined that it was a mechanical failure of his car that caused the accident."

Things might have been different for her son, she said, if he'd been able to find help for his problem gambling while living in Seattle.

But Washington, which has a burgeoning billion-dollar gaming industry, has no treatment program for gamblers. McCausland, a former state deputy insurance commissioner, aims to change that.

2003 state gambling receipts* (in millions) Bingo: $29.5 Punch board/pull tabs: $135 Card rooms: $249 Raffles: $4.1 Tribal casinos**: $700 Lottery: $162 Horse racing: $29.6 — — — — — — Total: $1.31 billion *Net receipts represent the amount wagered minus the amount paid out in prizes. **Estimated Source: Washington State Gambling Commission (2003 draft figures)

"There is nothing like the parent of a dead child to be motivated to make something change," she said.

Rep. Eileen Cody, a longtime friend of hers, plans to introduce a bill that would raise up to $2 million a year for a treatment program by raising gaming fees. "It would apply to the cards rooms and minicasinos. Anything that's not tribal," said Cody, D-Seattle.

The state lottery and nonprofits, such as bingo operators, also would not be affected, she said.

McCausland said she's talking to the tribes, which are sovereign nations, to see if they'd contribute a similar amount to a different fund.

The state currently spends about $54 million each year to treat drug addiction and alcoholism. It's only right, McCausland said, that problem gambling get attention as well.

"People's lives are shattered by addictive gambling," she said. "The fact that the state and the private gambling industry and the tribes profit so enormously ... They really need to put something back."

"I really think it is something the state needs to address," Cody said. "Especially when we're having the discussion about even expanding gambling now. There's no way you can talk about expanding gambling when we aren't doing anything to treat the problems we have currently."

Nontribal gambling interests are expected to renew their push this session for access to the slot-machinelike games used in Washington's tribal casinos.

Some lawmakers have concerns about the treatment-program proposal.

"Whatever the amount (of the fee increase) is, it's an additional burden on a business that's already having a difficult time," said Rep. Barry Sehlin, R-Oak Harbor, ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee.

The nontribal Recreational Gaming Association (RGA) says the state already collects enough money from gaming operations.

If the state does increase fees, such a step should apply to all gambling operations, including the state lottery, said Dolores Chiechi, executive director of the RGA. The tribes should participate as well, she said.

"I believe a state-run program should be put in place, but the means of going about it is not fair if it's only one segment of the industry" hit with an increase in fees, Chiechi said.

The state currently collects about $9.4 million a year from non-Indian gaming operations, with the bulk of that money coming from card rooms and businesses that sell punch cards and pull-tabs. Those operations have net receipts of about $380 million a year, after winnings are paid, according to the Washington State Gambling Commission.

The entire gaming industry in the state, including the lottery and tribal casinos, had about $1.3 billion in net receipts last year.

Ernest Stebbins, executive director of the Washington Indian Gaming Association, said he was not familiar with the proposed legislation and declined comment.

A 1999 state-funded survey estimated that about 5 percent of Washington's adult population has gambling problems. Between 53,200 and 137,900 people were scored as being either problem gamblers or pathological gamblers. Gambling is considered a problem when it disrupts or damages peoples' lives.

Ken Stark, director of the Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, said the Legislature had appropriated $500,000 for a treatment program in 2002 but that money ran out, and the state doesn't have any treatment program for problem gambling.

People with gambling problems can seek private treatment, "but they'd really have a hard time searching out and finding out who has the expertise," Stark said.

Cody's bill would pay for a program that would educate people about the dangers of problem gambling and help them get treatment. Stark's office would oversee the effort.

McCausland said that when her son started gambling in high school, she wasn't aware of the warning signs.

"If there was one thing, it was that Ben was always running out of money, even though he had a part-time job in high school and in college," she said.

After graduating from high school, Hossack attended the University of Washington and then went to Australia and entered the Army there. His gambling problems continued.

"The addiction grew progressively, to the point that the year before he died, it overwhelmed everything," McCausland said. "He had no disposable income ... it overwhelmed everything else in his life."

He was able to enter and successfully complete a residential treatment program in Australia, she said. "He had stopped gambling and had been out of the program for three months when he died," McCausland said.

"The treatment had worked," she said. "But it was too late."

Andrew Garber: 360-943-9882 or agarber@seattletimes.com

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