California's Office of Problem Gambling, responding to Sacramento Bee coverage of the lack of services for Asian problem gamblers, Wednesday announced plans to create treatment programs.
"First, we're going to have to figure out where we're going to get bilingual treatment providers" who can speak some of the key Asian languages, said Terri Sue Canale, director of the state OPG, who will outline the plans at the California Gambling Control Commission meeting on Thursday.
And in late April, several Sacramento Southeast Asian groups will hold a town meeting to address problem gambling, said Neng Vang of Sacramento Area Congregations Together. The group will seek legislation to regulate casino advertising.
"We're trying to change the public perception, that casinos are not like movie theaters – you do get hooked on it, and there are social problems that come with it," said Vang, whose mother died in a bus wreck on the way to the Colusa Casino in October.
Last year, the Legislature authorized $5 million from the gambling tribes to be used to set up state treatment programs. Canale said she hopes to begin by training 450 counselors in the next two years.
The state's new programs could be running by December. Once treatment is available, the state hotline, 1-800-GAMBLER, could offer services in a range of Asian languages, Canale said.
Thirty counselors in California have been certified in compulsive gambling, but only one in San Francisco speaks Chinese, said Bruce Roberts, director of the nonprofit that administers the hotline.
The Office of Problem Gambling, which has received $15 million from the tribes since 2003, has spent the money on media campaigns focusing on awareness and prevention, studies, manuals, English and Chinese hotlines and community outreach.
Treatment was not offered because the Legislature specifically prohibited it.
When former Sen. John Burton wrote the bill creating the office in 2003, it didn't include treatment "because treatment was a bottomless pit" and likely to be vetoed, said Alison Harvey, Burton's former chief of staff.
"It's heartbreaking," Canale said, " to read stories like Ee Kouei Saelee," the Mien leader featured in The Bee's story, who hanged himself over pai gao gambling debts.
"That's not the only story like that in California," Canale continued, describing an elderly relative who has a gambling problem.
"She gambled away her entire life savings at the Jackson Rancheria casino," Canale said. "I went to her house hundreds of times and gave her information on where to get help, and as soon as I gave it to her, she threw it in the garbage."
Call The Bee's Stephen Magagnini, (916) 321-1072.
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