Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Every March, as Americans fill out their NCAA Basketball Tournament brackets
and shell out cash to compete in March Madness pools, gambling enters the
public spotlight, and this year, it is under more scrutiny than usual. In
New Jersey, Rutgers University's School of Social Work recently announced it
would look deeper into the nature of gambling and its effects not only on
gamblers themselves, but on the state economy. "Gambling, both legalized and
online illegal gambling, is one of the fastest-growing industries in the
world," said Lia Nower, director of Rutgers's new Center for Gambling
Studies, where researchers will study gambling addictions and culture. She
said the Rutgers program is unique compared to the few existing research
institutes in the nation because it aims to form a more comprehensive
understanding of gambling, she added. "Most [institutes] either focus on
problem-gambling research, or overall gambling policy development, but not
both," she said, adding the Center's creators saw a need for a place that
would train counselors, evaluate policies and serve as a resource for the
state legislature. Ed Looney, executive director for the Council on
Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey, said he is glad Rutgers opened such a
center on its campus, because he said schools across the nation lack
sufficient education programs. According to Loone, who said he has met with
Nower to discuss the Center, the gambling rate among college students is
twice that of the adult population. Females are growing more susceptible to
addiction, he added, which he said can evolve from innocent sports bets,
including March Madness pools. "They love the action," he said. "Pools are
so easy to join, and after the tournament is over, then baseball starts,
[and then] the NBA playoffs. People get right back into it."