Gambling Related Suicides Rising in Quebec

[HotPants]

MONTREAL - Officials in Quebec are dealing with a disturbingly high number of gambling-related suicides - a number that critics say is only the tip of the iceberg.

One hundred deaths have officially been linked to compulsive gambling over a nine-year period, since the province began running casinos and video lottery terminals in 1993.

While critics say that number alone is unsettling, they believe the number of unreported deaths could be much higher.

Sol Boxenbaum, head of a counseling firm for Montreal gamblers, says the 100 deaths are only the known cases of suicide.

"The suicides that are accounted for by the coroner are only suicides where people have left a note or where a member of the family has confirmed there was a gambling problem," said Boxenbaum.

He believes several hundred more people have died from gambling-related deaths in the province and puts the number at 400 to 500.

There is help for gamblers, including a government funded telephone hotline and a program at the Montreal casino which bars well-known gambling addicts from entering, if they are signed up.

But Boxenbaum says the measures are not tough enough to be effective.

"We have clients that we're treating that are barred from the casino voluntarily and that have no problem getting back in anytime they choose to," said Boxenbaum.

He would like to see video lottery terminals removed from corner stores and bars, and gambling centralized at one location, such as the Montreal Casino. This way, says Boxenbaum, it would be easier to help compulsive gamblers control their addiction.
Written by CBC News Online staff

[The Prophet]

gambling/suicide link...

I read an article recently--can't remember where, but I think it was the Las Vegas Review Journal--about a guy doing research on the high suicide rate in Vegas. The conventional wisdom was that it was a by-product of legal gambling (and legal just-about-everything-else) but he found that gambling was directly to blame in a very low percentage of the cases. Most of the Las Vegas suicides were demonstrated to have been motivated by other causes--illness, drug problems, wife running around, mental problems, depression, or whatever.

Another thing that this guy (and other researchers studying similar topics) have found is that a lot of people with "high risk" behaviors also enjoy gambling--in other words, drug addicts, sex maniacs, head cases, etc.--gambled at a higher rate than the general public. So people that commit suicide may also gamble, but the suicides were seldom caused by gambling or related problems.

One of the things I've always griped about on my other website, The Prophet's Place(www.prophetsplace.com) is this sort of shoddy social science research. Politically motivated psuedo-scientists find a behavior that they don't like--in this case gambling--and try to tie it in to some awful societal problem. There was one a few months back that tried to suggest that smoking among teenagers caused juvenile crime and teen pregnancy! While I would probably agree that a large percentage of teen criminals and sex maniacs also smoke, it's quite an inductive leap to suggest that a pack of Marlboros is what led them into crime or some stranger's bed.

The other problem is the laziness of the media, who more often than not print press releases verbatim without questioning the research's conclusions or methodology. That's a whole other can of worms....

Jim
THE PROPHET
www.netprophetsports.com

[HotPants]

The Article Prophet was alluding to?

NEW STUDY: Suicide theory disputed
Las Vegas Review Journal
Glenn Puit

When Christian Marfels learned about a handful of studies linking gambling and suicide, he wanted to "go to the source."

That meant the Clark County morgue.

In 1999 and 2000, the professor of economics at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, spent several weeks researching why Nevada's suicide rate regularly leads the nation.

His study came to a different conclusion than those he had heard about or actually tried to verify.

The vast majority of suicides in Clark County do not involve gambling, Marfels said during a visit to Las Vegas last week. Instead, Marfels found, most suicides are attributable to depression and other mental illnesses, broken relationships and substance abuse.

"In some cases, gambling plays a role," Marfels said. "But we have to recognize these other factors."

As an economics professor, Marfels might not be the obvious choice to be delving into the complex psychological question of why people take their own lives.

But local mental health officials agree with his findings, and Clark County Coroner Ron Flud said, as far as he knows, Marfels' study is the first on suicide and gambling in which a researcher has actually contacted him.

"He's the only one I know of who has ever done any research on suicide in the county that is fact-based," Flud said. "The others have never actually talked to us."

Marfels has written several books on gambling but is independent of the business. Still, gaming industry officials have used his studies in supporting their positions when debating the social effects of gambling.

Local mental health officials say a crucial first step in addressing the problem is acknowledging that psychiatric illnesses such as depression are the primary cause of Clark County's large number of suicides.

"Gambling is a very small percentage of the reason why people make suicide attempts or consider it in Las Vegas," said Ron Lawrence, director of the Community Counseling Center, near the intersection of Sahara Avenue and Maryland Parkway. "It's primarily mental illness and other mental health issues."

Last year, an all-time high of 292 people killed themselves in Clark County. Nearly 88 percent of those were local residents.

Marfels spent several weeks at the Clark County coroner's office examining the case files of hundreds of suicides with the help of coroner's office assistants. He broke his study down into two categories: visitor and resident suicides.

For visitor suicides, he reviewed all 249 adult case files for the period of 1990 to 1997. Of those cases, a cause could be determined in 163.

The figures broke down as follows:

• 25 percent were attributable primarily to psychiatric illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia.

• 20 percent were the result of relationship problems.

• 15 percent were tied to alcohol and drug abuse.

• 15 percent were attributable to health problems.

• 10 percent were attributable to an individual's criminal problems, such as an arrest or prior criminal history.

• 6 percent were because of gambling.

• 9 percent were categorized as "other."

With regard to local suicides, the number of self-inflicted adult deaths for a similar time period was 2,123. This was too large a number to allow for an individual review of each case. So, Marfels took a random sample of 10 percent of those suicides and came up with the following figures.

• 32 percent were attributable to psychiatric illnesses.

• 21 percent were attributable to relationship problems.

• 21 percent were because of health problems.

• 12 percent were blamed on alcohol and drug abuse.

• 6 percent were blamed on criminal problems.

• 3 percent were blamed on gambling.

• 5 percent were categorized as "other."

Under the sample, those percentage figures could fluctuate by a couple of percentage points, Marfels said.

Marfels said it was difficult to find more than a handful of cases in which a person killed themselves solely because of a gambling problem. Instead, he said, most suicides were the culmination of a multitude of factors.

Marfels also said it is important to note that he is not trying to diminish what can be the tragic effects of problem gambling. He said, in some cases, gambling is an indisputable cause of suicide in Clark County.

"One suicide is one too many," Marfels said.

He said one of the most obvious conclusions is that suicide is mostly a male problem. "Men are much more emotional about this, while women seem to be more prone to second thoughts," he said.

Last year in Clark County, men accounted for just under 80 percent of the suicides.

Marfels also said he believes many Clark County suicides involve people who came here after having problems establishing themselves in other communities. They are drawn here, he believes, by reports of astounding economic growth and opportunity.

But a review of the case files revealed that within a few months, many of the newcomers' lives had fallen apart because of substance abuse, economic misfortune or failed relationships.

"It appears there are a lot of cases of people who come here, and they haven't made it elsewhere," Marfels said. "What if they come for a job, and they don't get it? They begin to think 'If I can't make it in Las Vegas with all these economic opportunities, where else can I go?' "

Marfels concedes it will be close to impossible to deter some suicides, but in general, says it is a preventable problem that can be addressed.

First, Clark County and its leaders must begin to start talking about suicide on a regular basis. He said the region also needs to take a close look at implementing increased mental health services for its residents along with outreach programs detailing mental health treatment options.

"The public has to care about this," Marfels said. "We can't allow people to be left in a terminal state of despair."

[The Prophet]

That's the one--thanks for re-posting it!

JRM
THE PROPHET
www.netprophetsports.com