Conference to look at negative effects of gaming

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Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority to hold the first-ever national conference to look at the issue of problem gambling in Canada's Aboriginal community.

Alice Marchand is program manager of Prince Albert Grand Council (PAGC) problem gambling program. She explained the PAGC has been working with other organizations from across Canada for the past two years, trying to coordinate this conference as a forum for First Nations people to come together, talk, and share their experiences.

The conference will be held in Prince Albert from Nov. 5 to 7, attracting both attendees and presenters from across Canada and the United States.

Among the scheduled presenters are William Eadington, a professor of economics and gaming at the University of Reno, Nev., who himself has organized 12 conferences on gambling, and Durand F. Jacobs, from Redlands, Calif., who has a diploma in clinical psychology and who established the first in-patient program for compulsive gamblers in the United States in 1972. Jacobs has also conducted research on the issue of problem gambling among Native Americans.

"They're not First Nation, but we are not attempting to attract First Nation presenters. We don't have them," Marchand said, adding that Eadington and Jacobs have "both been involved since the inception of the involvement of First Nations people in the gaming industry."

While the conference will have a First Nations focus, the event is open to anyone wanting to attend, Marchand said.

"It's that we focus on attracting the First Nations people because they're stuck in bingo halls. So the daily schedule that we're presenting in some aspect is going to generate some animosity for the major part of the population who chooses to remain in denial and sees bingo as a fundraiser, not as a gaming venue," she said.

"We have three tracks. One is called research and education. The other one is called responsible gambling. And the third is treatment. "We are attempting to attract employers, employee and family assistance programmers, people who work in the addictions field, the health and medical profession, business, and people who work in the problem gambling field, and also problem gamblers. Because we do have a component in our program that is going to allow people who have experienced difficulties to actually speak and share. So it's a wide range. And the overview of the conference is to create and provide an awareness by the provision of information in those three tracks. We're also attracting the gaming industry, and that's through the responsible gambling component.

"And actually, the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA) is sponsoring the conference. And playing a very key role in terms of its promotion and organizing, from a social aspect, taking responsibility for the fall-out. Because the gaming industry actually does bring what are called both positive and negative attributes. It brings to the consumer, to communities, and to government. And as the gaming venues themselves spread more from a land base to an interactive on-line base, we need to pay attention to the negative attributes because they are many," Marchand said.

"The gaming industry benefits, and their intent is to take the money, not give it to you. And it robs very fast . . . so what our role is is to ensure that the social aspects are being balanced with the economic gain. Because the gaming industry, that's not what they're there for."

The goal is for the conference to be an ongoing event, held every two years, Marchand said.

In addition to hosting the conference on problem gambling, the PAGC will soon also be opening up the first problem gambling in-patient treatment centre in Canada, Marchand said.

"It's the first centre which is specifically for problem gambling," she said, indicating that while addictions recovery centres like Poundmaker's Lodge in St. Albert, Alta. and the Walter A. "Slim" Thorpe Recovery Centre in Lloydminster haveadded gambling-relate programming alongside their existing alcohol and drug treatment programs, the Prince Albert centre will deal only with problem gambling.

"We are specifically problem gambling. We are not taking any of the other addictive disorders. And we're approaching things a little differently in terms of looking at the past research, looking at where we're going. And it's got no interaction with addiction. We're looking specifically at the impact of the gaming industry. "

For more information about the First National Aboriginal Problem Gambling Awareness 2002 Conference, visit the PAGC Web site at www.pagc.sk.ca, or call 765-5305.