by PATRICK LEJTENYI

When the Quebec government released its latest action plan on fighting the problem of chronic gambling addiction, it managed to raise a few knowledgeable eyebrows. Could the government actually be doing something well thought-out and worthwhile to fight gambling addiction? The short answer, however, when push comes to shove: probably not.

Released at the end of September, the plan, as described in a 40-page booklet entitled “Agir ensemble: plan d’action gouvernementale sur le jeu pathologique 2002-2005” (available—in French only—on the Web at www.msss.gouv.qc.ca), is both comprehensive and ambitious. Prepared by an inter-ministerial consultation committee, including representatives from the Ministries of Health and Social Services, Public Security, Finance, the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux and Loto-Québec, it covers the province’s past actions, prevention, treatment, approach and evaluation. It also addresses problem gambling among adolescents.

“On paper, this plan looks fantastic,” says Dr. Rina Gupta of the International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High-Risk Behaviours at McGill University. “But at the governmental level there is so much disorganization, I don’t know if the plan will be fantastic or a disaster.”

The problem, as Dr. Gupta and her colleague at the Centre, Dr. Jeffery Derevensky, see it, is implementation. Neither of them are over-confident that the province has the wherewithal to actually accomplish what it has set out to do.

“The framework is very good,” says Derevensky, “if they do it. But another problem is the fact that there aren’t enough experts in the province to do what the framework calls for. Who has the expertise? There’s a worldwide shortage of experts [for treating gambling addiction]. There are more experts in the field in Quebec than anywhere in the world… but really, there is a serious lack of people to do the proper training.”

With only three gambling treatment centres for youth in the province, at McGill, the Université de Montréal and the Université de Laval, there isn’t an overwhelming surplus of treatment available to teens who have gambling problems. And youth gambling may be on the rise.

The numbers game

Derevensky says that in North America, one to three per cent of adults are problem gamblers. The provincial action plan says the country’s, and the province’s, gambling-addicted populace numbers around 2.1 per cent of the adult population. That’s about 125,000 addicts in Quebec alone. Among adolescents, however, that percentage rises to four to eight per cent.

“We don’t know if problem-gambling teens will grow up to become problem-gambling adults,” he says. “The adults that are 40 years old today didn’t grow up with video lottery terminals (VLTs), so we don’t know what the effects will be.”

But one immediate effect can be seen: the provincial government raked in some $1.3-billion in net profit off gambling last year alone, after expenses, accounting for about 2.9 per cent of its total revenues. Quebec collects 100 per cent of all gambling profits, because it owns and runs all (legal) gambling establishments within its borders, those on First Nations reserves aside. “It’s an awful lot of money,” Derevensky says.

So much money is involved, some believe, that many lottery vendors think the rewards of selling tickets to minors—which has been illegal since Bill 84 was passed in early 2000—may outweigh the risks.

In two sting operations, one in 2000, the other in 2001, Sol Boxenbaum, the CEO of Viva Consulting Family Life Inc., a Montreal-based, non-profit advocacy organization specializing in gambling issues, found that few vendors are willing to even ask customers their age, much less for any ID. In the first operation, only six of 31 vendors refused to sell loto tickets to a pair of 16 year olds; in the second, only two out of 35 refused. This despite vendors facing possible fines of $300 to $2,000 for a first offence, with repeat offenders facing fines ranging from $600 to $6,000. Loto-Québec also said it would implement its own punishments: first offenders being given an official warning, a second offence would result in permits for selling lottery tickets being revoked for a month, and a third offence would result in losing the license permanently. Boxenbaum, however, says that Loto-Québec has never once flexed its muscles.

“New York State, Kentucky and Massachusetts actually set up their own sting operations against vendors selling lottery tickets to minors, and they followed through with prosecutions,” says Boxenbaum. “We’ve followed them all closely. But here in Quebec, we’ve passed laws but nobody seems worried about it. The retailers feel no threat. And that’s because people are capitalizing on it, they’re selling it to whoever wants to buy.”

Running the risks

Gambling critics often point out that parents don’t fully understand how addictive and potentially harmful underage gambling can be. Scratch cards and Mis-O-Jeu tickets often make popular stocking stuffers for kids, says Rina Gupta, and parents don’t feel that it will lead to possible dangers down the road.

“Parents often feel gambling is safe because it’s promoted by the government,” she says. “And lottery and scratch tickets, while not problematic by themselves, can be a gateway in terms of addiction.”

Compounding the problem of being easily exposed to gambling, either at home, at the local dep and at the Casino, which Boxenbaum charges has become laughably lax at letting in underage kids, is the sense of teen invulnerability.

“Most kids don’t feel the need to get help,” Gupta says. “And for the parents, it’s hard to identify a gambling problem. They can’t understand that gambling is dangerous. When they find out that their child has been acting strangely because of a gambling addiction, they’re usually relieved and say, ‘Thank god it’s only gambling and not drugs.’”

While Canada spends the most per capita on treatment than any other country, 109 suicides in the province have been directly linked to gambling since Quebec legalized it in 1993, Boxenbaum says. “But for every death that can be attributed to suicide, through a note or confirmed by family members,” he says, “I believe there are four who haven’t left any notes.” He doesn’t have the numbers for teen suicides related to gambling, but believes it is probably pretty low. “Kids don’t bottom out like adults do,” he says. “At the end of the day, they still have a bed to sleep in, food on the table and their laundry done.”

Still, treatment is one thing, prevention is another, he notes. If the government really wants to crack down on underage gambling, the province has to be serious about it.

“They have to stop advertising, same as was done with tobacco,” he says. “There needs to be a ban on advertising, which has taken over the Just for Laughs, the Jazz Fest and the Grand Prix. And we need real warnings, graphic ones.”

As the framework exists now, he feels, “It’s a waste of time. The government is only coming out with programs that look good but help nobody.” :