Gambling News by Gambling Headquarters

Slot-machine casinos are opening in Pennsylvania even though the state does not have a gambling-addiction program in place to handle an expected rise in compulsive gamblers seeking treatment. Although the slots parlors are required to advertise the existence of such services, the state has not set up a compulsive gambling hotline or a procedure to subsidize treatment services for gambling addiction. Both are months away, said Gene Boyle, who directs the state Health Department's Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Programs. In the meantime, the state will lean on existing providers, such as the Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania, based in Philadelphia. "I believe the infrastructure that's already in place, that's already working for people who have had addiction over the years, will carry through until we formalize the public system," Boyle said. Pennsylvania's 2004 law that legalized up to 14 slots casinos earmarked at least $1.5 million a year for treatment of compulsive-gambling problems. Last week, Gov. Rendell authorized the money from a state fund that is fed by slot-machine gambling revenues and slots licensing fees. The department can use that money to reimburse public or private treatment agencies for gambling-addiction services. The state is looking at hiring a company that will manage the authorization of and reimbursement for gambling-addiction services, as opposed to managing the process itself, Boyle said. In the next several months, the Health Department hopes to set up an official toll-free hotline, as required by the slots law, to answer questions about gambling addiction and provide treatment referrals. Yesterday, a second resort in southwestern Pennsylvania pulled its application for a slot-machine-gambling license, the third slots applicant to drop its plans in the last two months.

The withdrawal of Nemacolin Woodlands Resort leaves no applicants for the two slots licenses state gambling regulators are authorized to award to established resorts. It also means the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will be able to issue 11 of the state's 14 total slots licenses when it meets to vote on the applicants Dec. 20.

Nemacolin said it withdrew its application for a Wild West-themed slots casino because gaming board officials said the resort's patrons would have to spend $25 on nongaming purchases each visit before playing the slot machines.