By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas’ lottery law mandates that some lottery proceeds be used to help people with gambling addictions, but with the games scheduled to start in six weeks, officials say they have just begun to discuss how that help might be provided.
Act 606 of 2009 states, “An annual amount of at least $200,000 (in unclaimed prize money) shall be directed to the Department of Health for the treatment of compulsive gambling disorder and educational programs related to compulsive and education related to compulsive gambling disorder.”
Arkansas Lottery spokeswoman Julie Baldridge said Friday that lottery officials began discussing that part of the legislation with state health officials on Thursday. State Sen. Johnny Key, R-Mountain Home, raised the issue during a legislative hearing Thursday morning.
“Based on our conversations with them starting yesterday (Thursday), the Department of Health says that they’re more involved with the tobacco cessation program and that the Department of Human Services does behavioral addiction programs,” Baldridge said.
“Their plan, according to what we have been just told verbally, is that in order to follow the law the Department of Health will receive the dollars, then will forward the dollars to the Department of Human Services and the Department of Human Services will run the program,” she said.
DHS spokeswoman Joyce Williams said that was news to her — and to Arkansas Surgeon General Joe Thompson.
“Right this minute, Joe doesn’t know anything about it,” Williams said Friday.
Baldridge said lottery officials have asked the Health Department to arrange a meeting between that agency and DHS to work out a plan. Health Department spokesman Ed Barham said a memorandum of understanding likely will be issued so the Health Department can receive the money and DHS can run the program.
No lottery proceeds will be available until ticket sales begin, of course, but the state Legislature has loaned the lottery $6 million to cover start-up costs, to be repaid with lottery revenue.
Neither Barham nor Williams would comment when asked whether six weeks is enough time to develop and implement a program for gambling addicts.
When the same question was put to Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue, he said, “I can’t answer for the department who’s supposed to do that.”
“That should have been the first thing they set up, is a way to deal with problem gamblers,” said Jerry Cox, executive director of the Christian conservative Family Council. “Every state that conducts gambling operations acknowledges that some people become addicted to gambling.”
Cox, whose organization campaigned against the lottery amendment voters approved in November, said the process of starting up the lottery is leaving “a sour taste in a lot of people’s mouths, because they’re paying the directors and the officials far too much money, they’re trying to rush this thing into operation, and it’s poorly done.”
Passailaigue’s annual salary is $324,000, which makes him the third-highest paid lottery director in the country. His two vice presidents, both of whom worked under Passailaigue in South Carolina when he previously ran that state’s lottery, receive $225,000 salaries.
Several major hurdles in the startup process have been cleared, including selecting vendors for the games and for the lottery’s advertising account. Cox said the fact that no program for gambling addicts is in place “shows that it’s not a very high priority to the people that are running the lottery.”
Passailaigue said creating the program is not lottery officials’ responsibility under Arkansas law, but the lottery’s advertising, its Web site and materials displayed at retail locations will tell players where they can get help.
The theme of the lottery’s advertising will be that the games are for fun and entertainment, Passailaigue said.
“If you think you are going to change your financial wealth by playing the lottery … don’t play. We don’t need the money. We’re not trying to create additional problems for society,” he said.
Passailaigue said he expects the program to be similar to South Carolina’s, where lottery players are urged to call a hotline if they think they may have a gambling problem.
He also said, repeating a statement he made Thursday to legislators, that most of South Carolina’s gambling problems are not related to the lottery.
“If you check with the Department of Alcohol and Other (Drug) Abuse Services (DAODAS) in South Carolina, who administer the gambling program in South Carolina, they’ll tell you most of the problems are Internet gambling,” he said.
Christopher Reid, gambling services specialist for DAODAS, said Passailaigue had it backwards.
“We have had some calls that come in in relation to Internet gambling, but not too many,” Reid said. The 20-30 calls that come in each month are about “mainly the lottery,” he said.
Reid said South Carolina has 33 treatment centers for gambling and other addictions.
Passailaigue said he remembered DAODAS reporting in the spring of last year that Internet gambling was the main subject of hotline calls, but he accepted Reid’s statement.
“To me one call is too many, so I’m not diminishing it,” but the fact that only 20-30 people call the hotline per month in a state the size of South Carolina suggests gambling addiction is “not a rampant problem” in the state, Passailaigue said.
