Dear Editor:

The article in your newspaper April 14 headlined “Study finds compulsive gambling more prevalent than alcoholism” is misleading on multiple counts. 

First, the piece implies that the 1 percent figure used by the industry and almost every credible researcher in the country for pathological gambling is not accurate because it is “a figure taken from smaller, regional or statewide studies.”

This is wrong. A meta-analysis conducted by Harvard Medical school of 100 state and regional studies established the 1 percent figure, and it was affirmed by the National Academy of Sciences.

Since then, a study of 43,000 people in 2005 and another of 10,000 people in 2008 have found respectively lifetime rates of pathological gambling at 0.4 and 0.7 percent, respectively.

The article further errs by accepting the “spin” from the author of a University of Buffalo study that makes the claim repeated in the headline.

To be fair, the author reports on skepticism about the study because it compares the broadest definition of disordered gambling with a narrow definition of alcohol disorders. But the headline and the tone of the article clearly give your readers the impression that there are more problem gamblers than alcoholics. That is simply not true.

This letter is not meant to diminish the seriousness of problem gambling. Our industry has long believed that even one problem gambler is one too many, and we continue to support programs to help those who cannot gamble responsibly.

Sincerely,

Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr.
President and CEO
American Gaming Association