Grant 'no help to mental health’

Press, 1 August 1989, Page 26

Grant 'no help to mental health’

PA Wellington Promoters of Lotto have been irresponsible in their approach to advertising and have disregarded casualties of gambling — compulsive gamblers and their families, says the Mental Health Foundation director, Dr Max Abbott “It may be good news to the Lotteries Commission that New Zealanders now spend more than $6 million a week on Lotto but it is bad news for people concerned about public health,” Dr Abbott said.

He was commenting on the Lotteries Commission

report to Parliament that 69 per cent of adults regularly buy Lotto tickets. Dr Abbott said little of the profits Went to voluntary health and welfare groups and that some, including the Mental Health Foundation, had Lotteries Board funding terminated.

Most of the money; other than that spent on advertising and administration; went to Government agencies and organisations that were previously funded directly by the Government.

According to Dr Abbott, "the Lotto organisers continue to insist that Lotto is not a form of gambling

and that it. is simply a harmless form of family entertainment. “Extensive Lotto advertising has in turn stimulated increased advertising .from competing gambling codes including horse racing and the TAB,” he

Both Lotto and the TAB recently introduced new multi-combination systems in an attempt to further increase the number of gamblers and the sums bet.

“The net result of all this is a sharp increase in the number of people who gamble on a regular basis,” he said.

“Opinion polls a few years back showed that most people did not want any of the new forms of gambling — Lotto, onearmed bandits and related machines or casinos. “Shortly we. will have all of this.” If was a public health matter “because there is reason to believe that as the total number of people who gamble regularly increases, so too does the number of people who develop problem and compulsive gambling disorders.” While gambling was harmless or relatively harmless for most people, a minority developed seri-

ous mental disorders that may have might similarities to alcoholism. “Our position has been that it should be incumbent on the Government to ensure that a portion of gambling profits are earmarked for public education, the treatment of pathological gambling and research,” he said. “This is what is done in the case of alcohol with the Alcoholic Liquor Advisory Council.” There was virtually no treatment provided for people, no research and no public education concerning this important health problem.