NCRG Annual Conference Breaks Attendance Record
A new track of conference sessions geared toward government regulators, elected officials, gaming operators and manufacturers helped to attract a critical new group of industry stakeholders to the 2003 conference of the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG), spurring a 30 percent increase in attendance from the previous year.
More than 400 people attended the conference, "Regulating Addiction: How Individuals, Groups, and Institutions Manage Excessive Behaviors," which offered 18 programs on topics ranging from gaming regulations to couples counseling.
The new "Government and Industry" track featured discussions of responsible gaming, harm minimization and gaming machine design, self-exclusion programs and gaming regulations. This track was added to a "Scientific and Clinical" track, coordinated by the Institute for Research on Pathological Gambling and Related Disorders.
Highlights of the conference included the release of the findings from the Institute-funded research project, "College Alcohol and Gambling Study," presented by Richard LaBrie, associate director of research and data analysis of Harvard Medical School's Division on Addictions. The study recently was published in the Journal of American College Health. The conference also featured the first public discussion of the article "A Science-based Framework for Responsible Gaming," which proposes principles to guide industry operators, health service providers, community groups, consumer and government agencies in the adoption of and implementation of responsible gaming and harm minimization initiatives.
According to evaluations by the conferees, 91 percent agreed that "Regulating Addiction" was superior to other programs on this topic. All of the speakers earned high marks, especially Howard Shaffer, director of the Division on Addictions at Harvard Medical School and organizer of the conference, who not only set the tone with his opening talk about gambling as a public health issue but also pinch-hit for one of the speakers stranded by the snow storm in Boston. The participants praised the conference for its "professional, non-judgmental, science-based, and ethically tempered approach to a volatile subject matter." Another noted, "Even though I did not agree with some of the methods, approaches, interpretations, perspectives, it is to the program's credit that it does include a variety of opinions and approaches-an openness to a multiplicity of options." Responding to a question about the impact of the conference on the participants' work, one conferee concluded, "It will help me to take a broader, more accepting, less judgmental/punishing view of the treatment-resisting clients. It has also heightened my awareness to ask more in-depth questions regarding gambling issues." The participants also appreciated the scheduling of an on-site Gamblers Anonymous meeting, the opportunity to earn continuing education credits and the chance for networking.
Attendees were particularly enthusiastic about the addition of the "Government and Industry" track. One attendee said: "I attended some presentations from each track and found it all useful! A good mix!" One of the few complaints was the difficulty of choosing between the concurrent sessions.
The theme for the 2004 conference is "Gambling and Addiction: Common Causes, Managing Consequences" scheduled for Dec. 5-7 in Las Vegas. Watch for announcements on the NCRG Web site at www.ncrg.org.
