Pennsylvania’s Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) has recently released its latest report on the impact of programs and initiatives funded by the Compulsive and Problem Gambling Fund (CPGT). The report is drawn up and published annually per the Pennsylvania Racehorse Development and Gaming Act requirements and encompasses the State Fiscal Year (SFY) of July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023.
The report’s figures indicate that more than $8.3 Million was allocated to the CPGT fund, with roughly 48% of the funds apportioned to various assessments, publicity, and education programs, 17% going to gambling treatment providers, and the remaining 35% utilized for administration costs, training, and Helpline services.
Notably, the report indicates that 58% of treated gamblers were no longer engaging in gambling or have reduced it, which represented an 8% increase compared with the last fiscal year.
The CPGT Report Reveals Further Statistics Regarding Problem Gambling in Pennsylvania
During the SFY 2022-23, the toll-free Pennsylvania Gambling Helpline’s operators received a total of 2,834 calls. Other communication channels, such as chat and texting, reveal an additional 471 communications. The greatest number of communications came from Philadelphia (485) and Allegheny (305) counties. They were followed by Montgomery (124) and Bucks (98).
The most commonly reported problem ensuing from gambling was financial difficulties, accounting for 1,913 callers, or 68% of gamblers. Family issues have impacted 21% of those seeking professional help, while mental health problems concerned 14% of callers. Marital issues, troubles at work, and legal issues were among the rest of the precipitating problems reported by gamblers.
The data also discloses that 82% of callers contacted the Helpline for themselves, 8% called on behalf of a family member, 5% were concerned with the gambling-related problems of a spouse, 3% were worried about a friend, and the remaining 2% were unwilling to answer.
Looking into the gender of callers, men accounted for 65% of the communications, whereas women made 30% of the calls. The remaining 5% were distributed between callers who were unwilling to share their gender, or identified as ‘other’.
The most common ethnicity of callers is White (64%), followed by those unwilling to share (18%), Black (13%), Hispanic or Latino (4%), and Asian (1%).
A closer examination of callers’ most problematic type of gambling indicated that online gambling websites led to issues for 30% of the callers. 17% said that slots were the gaming genre that proved problematic, whereas sports betting was troublesome for 12%. It was followed by table games (9%), lottery/scratch-off tickets (6%), and poker/video poker (2%), among other products.
The number of problem gambling treatment providers has decreased from 54 for SFY 2020-21 to 50 for SFY 2022-2023. As the report suggests, the decrease is primarily due to inadequate staffing. DDAP monitors the activity of gambling treatment providers through onsite and virtual inspections, whose frequency depends on the number of clients served for the previous fiscal year.
