Harrah’s Will Offer Help to Bettors Hit With ‘Disease’ : Gambling: A hot line has been set up for those with a chronic problem. But, like alcohol or drugs, the key is persuading compulsive patrons to admit they have a problem.

Like the addict who admits he has a problem, 51-year-old Harrah’s Corp. has conceded that compulsive gambling is a disease and some of its casino patrons and employees are infected.

So far, the company stands alone in Nevada in its public confession that the state’s No. 1 industry and its biggest taxpayer is more than recreational fun for 3 to 6 million Americans. For them, it’s a problem.

“We didn’t know if it existed,” said William Sherman, Harrah’s general counsel and chairman of an employee task force that studied compulsive gambling for more than one year before recommending that the company help addicts.

Last month, Harrah’s posted signs in its five Nevada casinos telling people how to get help for gambling problems. The firm also agreed to pay for one year of operating a hot line to take those calls at a cost of $235 a month.

“Our role in the problem gambling issue is not to change anyone’s behavior, but simply to provide help for people who might have a gambling problem,” said Harrah’s President Phil Satre.

As many as 12% of Nevada casino employees are compulsive gamblers, according to some estimates, while 7% to 9% of Nevadans share the problem compared to 2% to 5% of the general U.S. population.

Satre said employee absenteeism, petty theft and misconduct might be reduced by helping workers who can’t control their gambling. And casinos would be better off without addicted gamblers who are trouble because they can run up huge debts and sometimes become angry or abusive when on a losing streak.

“Helping employees and guests with this problem is both the right thing to do and also a very good business decision, not only for Harrah’s but for the entire gaming industry,” Satre said.

Atlantic City, N.J., casinos have had such hot lines in place since gambling began in 1978, and spend $300,000 a year to help compulsive gamblers. In Nevada, casinos have all but ignored gambling addicts since betting was legalized 58 years ago.

“I think there’s always been a feeling that the casinos are such large taxpayers that if there is a problem it should be handled by the state,” said Jerry Higgins, executive director of the Gaming Industry Assn. “And over the years, I’ve never seen any kind of movement in the Legislature to deal with this issue.”

For Nevada, which receives more than half its annual revenues from casino taxes, declaring gambling a problem would be akin to admitting some of the golden eggs laid by the gaming goose are really fool’s gold, Higgins said.

“For now, I think most of the casinos are watching the Harrah’s program to see what kind of effect it has,” he said.

Casinos paid $73.6 million into the state treasury on earnings of $1.21 billion in the July-September quarter, according to the state Gaming Control Board.

Dian Edwards, volunteer executive director of the Nevada Council on Compulsive Gambling that runs the Las Vegas-based hot line, said most Nevada casino operators are like the addicted gambler who denies he has a problem.

“Hopefully, this is the beginning of a realization that the casino industry should be doing something,” Edwards said. “I was really grateful to Harrah’s for starting this, but it did surprise me.

“We just need to do a lot more education because there’s still this Wild West mentality out there that gambling’s just fun. For many people it is, but not for everybody.”

So far, Edwards said the month-old hot line (800-729-GAMB) gets three to five calls daily and has an answering machine on at night to refer callers to programs for compulsive gamblers.

Most calls come from friends and family members of addicted gamblers, she said. The ones from bettors don’t last long.

“They usually don’t stay on the line very long; there’s a real problem of denial involved in this just like for alcohol and drug addicts,” said Edwards, a mental health therapist.

Only one certified hospital exists in Nevada to help compulsive gamblers, she said, but insurance companies don’t recognize the problem as a disease like alcoholism or drug addiction.

“We’re just in the beginning stages of addressing this problem,” she said. “Our group’s been around since 1978, but people only now are starting to really deal with this.”

Edwards said part of the recent move to help gambling addicts might be because of publicity about compulsive gamblers such as Pete Rose, the Cincinnati Reds’ baseball manager suspended for life from the sport for betting.

According to various studies, the typical gambler is male, between the ages of 20 and 40, lives with his spouse and has at least a high school education.

Compulsive gamblers often are in upper-level professions, with a disproportionate number of bankers, stockbrokers, attorneys and accountants caught up in the nightmare.

“You can gamble frequently, even be a professional, but it’s not really considered a problem unless it begins to affect your life negatively. It can ruin your life” through money problems, depression, divorce and, sometimes, suicide, she said.

As with alcoholics and drug addicts, the success rate among recovering gamblers isn’t good but is helped by joining Gamblers Anonymous and forever avoiding the addictive activity, she said.

“All it takes is one fix, one bet and they’re back,” she said, adding that gambling gives addicts a physical high.

“I can walk through a casino and tell you who the compulsive gamblers are,” she said. “They’re mesmerized by the machines. They’re in love with them. They can’t take their eyes off them. It’s frightening.”

John, a 41-year-old recovering gambler in Reno, said he actually got a high from betting.

“I firmly believe I was addicted to my own drugs,” he said. “People say, ‘All you’ve gotta do is quit.’ But when I was in the action, adrenaline would be pumping through my body. . . . I was hooked on that.”