The true cost of gambling

Sir,
I wish to comment on the statement of casino owner Ian Ohalloran (‘Cyprus letting money slip through its fingers’, August 15), who claims that only an “extreme minority has a gambling problem and would most likely have an addictive personality anyway”.

In my profession, I see people with addictive problems and I can assure Mr Ohalloran that they are not few. Cyprus appears to have the problem of compulsive gamblers, as confirmed by international organisations that specialise in addictions – and this without casinos.

The plight of the pathological gambler is well defined by Sproston, Evans and Orford in The Prevalence Survey of the United Kingdom as “gambling to a degree that compromises disrupts or damages family, personal or recreational pursuits”.

Let me familiarise Mr Ohalloran of a quotation contained in the Gambling review report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport which was presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State by command of Her Majesty: “for those people who become problem gamblers and their families, problem gambling can cause extreme misery and distress”.

Harvard University studies estimate that between 3.5 per cent and five per cent of those participating in gambling become addicted gamblers. I ask Mr Ohalloran, is that an extreme minority? Considering how many “clients” he wishes to attract – he says both local people and tourists – the five per cent may be a very high figure of pathological gamblers. As the Henley Centre research (BBC News, March 2, 2004) revealed, there are currently 400,000 pathological gamblers in Britain, estimated to increase to 700,000 if the Casino licences are increased from 122 to 241. Is that a significant or an extreme minority figure?

Finally does he know what is the cost to treat an addicted gambler? The Centre for research on Human Behaviour, an NGO based in Athens tells us it costs a total of £9,000 with three months inpatient and three months out-patient treatment. Some estimates give a figure of 500,000 current addictive gamblers in the UK. This means £45 million, so do not let Mr Ohalloran tell us only that the government can earn, but more important what it will have to spend.
Rena Stylianaki, psychologist-lecturer, Nicosia

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