Alberta Casino Hires In-House Counselor

Canada - For the first time, casino goers in Alberta can find help just around the corner if they feel their urge to gamble has become an uncontrollable issue.  And around the corner is to be taken literally.  As a part of a $300,000, two-year pilot program, the Edmonton Mall’s Palace Casino will permanently staff an Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission addiction counselor.  The counselor will be on duty, Tuesday through Saturday from noon until eight.  The program only starts at Edmonton; later this year, the Deerfoot Casino in Calgary will welcome the same experiment.

The counselor will be found at a “Responsible Gambling Information Center.” The main weapon of the program is just that, information.  The center is a starting place for gamblers to find the support they need to battle gambling addiction.  The center will also release information about basic casino terms and language to increase gambler education.  Gamblers will find information such as detailed explanations of how slot machine microprocessors work to keep the games random as well as true definitions on terms like “house advantage.”

Jim Nakano, a counselor with AADAC expresses the goal of providing such information, “We try to dispel some of the beliefs and myths that they have about how slot machines actually work.  Some of those beliefs might be that they think the machine needs time to warm up or if I put in so much money, it's going to pay out so much money back.”  Nakano is a part of the counseling staff at Palace Casino.

When he went to observe the current counseling programs in Winnipeg casinos he noted that a number of patrons confessed to spending much less money once they really understood how slot machines operate.

According to AADAC statistics, 5.2% of Albertans are problem-gamblers or at risk of developing a problem.

As big a step as having onsite problem-gambling counselors is for the responsible gaming movement, not everyone thinks it is remotely enough.  Gaming critic Maurice Tougas believes the government needs to play a much more active roll, to the point of altering slot machine functions in order to decrease the rate of play.

Daphne Anderson, a 72-year old regular at Palace Casino, likes the idea of having an onsite counselor in the casino, but emphasizes that gamblers must first acknowledge that they need help before they seek it.  She parallels problem gambling to having a drinking problem.

Anderson and her husband Bud visit Palace Casino most weekday mornings for a cup of coffee and a few games.  Anderson’s advice is that gamblers should set a firm limit for themselves as to how much they are willing to spend in a day.  The Andersons have set a daily $40 limit between themselves.  According to Bud Anderson, “We’ve been doing it enough to police ourselves.”

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