Education Is Part of Preventive Policy on Gambling

Some educators are recognizing a need to include gambling education in public school drug- and sex-education programs.

“Like (treating) other forms of addictive behaviors, the first approach is preventive,” says William C. Phillips, coordinator of counseling services at Bryant College in Smithfield, R.I.

Some states have passed legislation requiring that a part of lottery revenues go to education and treatment facilities for people who develop problem gambling behavior.

In 1987, after a statewide survey concluded that there were a significant number of compulsive gamblers in Massachusetts, the commonwealth started funding an organization that provides information on gambling.

Iowa and Minnesota are preparing the first state initiatives to provide preventive education on gambling to young people at the elementary and secondary school levels. Both programs use state lottery revenues.

Iowa has allocated .05% of gross lottery revenues for compulsive gambling education. “We contract with 11 agencies across the state of Iowa to provide outpatient treatment service. As a part of that contract, they have a responsibility within their communities to work with the schools,” says Mary Ubinas, manager of the gamblers-assistance program of the Iowa Department of Human Services.

“We aren’t to the point where we’ve written a curriculum,” says David Wright, substance-abuse education consultant for the Iowa Department of Education. “It would be awfully close to the kind of approaches we’re taking with substance abuse.”

Some experts, however, see dangers in this approach to drug and gambling education. “I don’t think the substance abuse programs are working, to be honest,” says Henry Lesieur, associate professor of sociology at St. John’s University in Jamaica, N.Y. “The students know more about drugs than the teachers do.” Education about youth gambling needs to begin with the adults, he says.

Durand Jacobs, a psychologist and expert on youth gambling, disagrees: “Education on problem gambling should be a fellow traveler with education on the hazards of tobacco, drugs, alcohol, and sex.”