I Thought Gamblers were Tourists

National group alarmed over W.Va. problem-gambler plans

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) - The National Council on Problem Gambling may consider rerouting hot line callers away from West Virginia's treatment program, if the Lottery Commission keeps pursuing its plan to take control of the state's highly regarded service.

The Lottery's bid to bypass public health officials and directly oversee the state's Problem Gamblers Help Network is "extraordinarily troubling" and "almost unprecedented," said Keith Whyte, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based council.

The only state to attempt something similar _ Arizona, about six years ago_ did so with disastrous results, he said Wednesday.

"The industry has an important role to play in responsible gaming. But there has always been, for very obvious reasons, a line between industry and treatment," he said. The Lottery's plan "obliterates that wall."

Entities that promote gambling cannot effectively counsel gamblers who become hooked, Whyte said. Nor is the Lottery professionally or ethically equipped, he said, to deal with the mental health, medical and confidentiality issues surrounding addiction.

Though calls to the national hot line are now routed to West Virginia counselors, Whyte said that could change.

"Never in history has a gaming operator had direct access to treatment data and, potentially, treatment decisions," he said. "It's hard to construct even a commonsense argument why it's good for a gambling operator to offer treatment. It's unheard of.

"The Problem Gamblers Help Network provides unique, customized treatment on demand to callers to its toll-free hot line. It has counseled more than 5,000 gamblers and their families in seven years, assigning local counselors, scheduling appointments and following up on visits within 24 hours.

The Lottery wants the Department of Health and Human Resources to stop administering the $1.5 million program on July 1, when the current contract expires. Required by law to fund the program, the Lottery would then begin paying providers directly.

A request for proposals for the next contract would remove DHHR _ and its annual $150,000 cut _ from the equation. But the change is being made through the state purchasing system, out of sight of legislators and others.

First Choice Health Systems, which has run the network for DHHR, filed the only bid by Wednesday's deadline for the next year of services.

Both the Lottery and the DHHR say the change is purely administrative and a more efficient way to process bills. Critics, however, allege a conflict of interest that breaks down the checks and balances ensuring good government.

The Catholic Conference of West Virginia and the West Virginia Council of Churches have joined addictions counselors in raising concerns about what they call an alarming case of micromanaging.

"No one of good will wants the Lottery Commission to be in the 'fox running the hen house' situation," Monsignor Edward Sadie wrote in a May 7 letter to Gov. Joe Manchin that laid out proposed changes to the Lottery's bidding criteria.

Sadie urged the state to rework the proposed contract the Lottery will award for problem gambler services and allow the DHHR's Bureau of Behavorial Health "to do its supervisory job.

"Whyte, meanwhile, said his organization is not antigambling; its board includes employees of the gambling industry.

But West Virginia's plan is "so poorly thought out, so theoretically flawed, so counter to everything we know in 35 years of helping problem gamblers, that it frankly calls into question everything they do," he said.

"Much of the public support for gambling rests on the perception that the state is making a good faith effort to minimize the harm," he said.

If the Lottery alters that perception, it will be harming not only gamblers but itself.

"As gambling becomes a bigger and bigger source of state revenue, the only way it's going to be sustainable is to have a professional, independent, objective oversight body," he said. "This is just the tip of the iceberg."