Banning Online Casinos Not the Answer for Problem Gambling Expert
During the course of a recent interview, Carol O'Hare, the executive director of the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling, asserted that preventing ease of access such as illegalizing online casinos will not end problem gambling. In a discussion with the Las Vegas Sun, O'Hare urged that education and treatment be considered the best methods for dealing with compulsive gambling, not legal bans."But problem gambling is not going away because somebody puts it in a corner or puts the casino too far out of town so that we don’t drive there or take it off the Internet," said O'Hare in response to a question about whether Internet gambling should be illegal. "We tried prohibition in this country once. It didn’t work."
"We have to continually be focusing on how do we mitigate the circumstances for these individuals, not how do we regulate the problem out of existence," continued the director.
O'Hare notes that the percentage of gamblers who develop problem gambling issues remains fairly constant, and reiterates the belief commonlyb held by mental health specialists and supported by scientic studies that compulsive gambling is another aspect of the mental disorders that form substance abuse issues.
The statements fly in the face of arguments presented by less trained volunteers and religious anti-gambling leaders, who presume banning online casinos prevents the spread of problem gambling and the damage it causes.
