More Gambling, More Problem Gamblers

It’s hard to see why it makes any sense to approve the new Navajo gambling compact, especially when you consider that all the other gaming tribes are able to have the same agreement and all of them will live on for another 22 years.

There is little doubt that there is a serious problem gambling problem in New Mexico. Yet the new compact continues the practice of asking the gaming tribes to do very little about the problem they are creating.

The National Council on Problem Gambling estimates that 1.2% of New Mexicans (18,795) are problem gamblers. The private agency selected by the gaming tribes and racinos to provide treatment to problem gamblers reports that it treated 196 problem gamblers in 2014.

The gaming tribes provide little money for treatment. For example, the new Navajo compact will only require the Navajo casinos to provide around $200,000 of their $80 million net win to support treatment of problem gamblers.

Plus we have no information about the nature of these services or the results.

At the same time, the Navajo compact would extend the hours of casino operation, allow casinos to extend credit to gamblers, and also allow them to provide more than $2 million in food and lodging to selected gamblers each year.

We can expect this will only add to the numbers of problem gamblers without adequate treatment.