A top California gambling official told 300 Southeast Asians on Saturday that services for problem gamblers in their native languages could be in place by September.

The state Office of Problem Gambling will be training counselors who can provide treatment in Hmong, Mien, Lao and other Asian languages, said acting director Terri Sue Canale.

"I want to thank you for making us a partner," Canale told a town hall meeting at Luther Burbank High School sponsored by Sacramento Area Congregations Together and the Hmong and Iu Mien Leadership Network.

A problem-gambling help line – (800) GAMBLER – will be expanded with additional languages, she said. Currently, there's a Chinese language hotline – (888) 968-7888 – only in the Bay Area , but Canale plans to have Hmong, Mien and Lao operators trained in crisis management available by the end of the year.

Culturally competent therapists should be available in Sacramento – home to more than 60,000 Southeast Asian refugees – by the fall.

Canale called the meeting a strong first step "to create services for the people who need it and get them to ask for help and be willing to go to counseling. It's not going to come from me putting up a billboard saying 1-800-GAMBLER. It's going to come from the elders and community leaders."

One who didn't know where to turn for help – and felt so ashamed of his gambling addiction he hanged himself – was Mien shaman and community leader Ee Kouei Saelee.

His widow, Nai Poo Saechao, fought back tears as she told the crowd through an interpreter about her husband.

"His was a very shameful story. He gambled away his entire life savings, took his own life and left our family with nothing," she said.

The respected community leader lost more than $400,000 playing Pai Gao at Sacramento card rooms where he worked as a dealer and floor man.

"By the time he admitted he had a problem, it was too late," Saechao said. "If we don't get help, I feel my family will not be the only family this happens to."

Weun Seng Fong, chief of the Mien Elder Council representing approximately 10,000 Mien in Sacramento County, begged for help.

The deadly October 2008 crash of a bus going to the Colusa Casino was a wake-up call, Fong said through an interpreter. Many of the elderly Mien on the bus – including some of those who died – "asked me for help with gambling and I didn't know how to help them because we do not have any resources in our community. We need professionally trained people who can speak our language."

For years, "gambling has torn apart families or sent them into debt, but because it's shameful to admit you have a problem, we brush it off like dust under the rug," Fong said. "We can no longer ignore the problem. As head of the Elder Council, I plead to you to help my people."

Sacramento County Supervisor Jimmie Yee agreed Sacramento needs an "Asian hub" to provide services for elderly Asians and problem gamblers.

"I call on the county and the casinos to address this issue," said Yee. He acknowledged, however, that the county has a $187 million deficit.

Terri Ciau, executive director of the California Gambling Control Commission, said the state's 58 tribal casinos make more than $7 billion annually and the 91 licensed card rooms make more than $800 million.

"These are business, not social centers. You're not going out there to win your pot of gold," Ciau said.

Call The Bee's Stephen Magagnini, (916) 321-1072.