Council Works with Neighbors of Potential Casino Sites

The first Reginal Collaborative was held at Stonehill College

by Jim Wuelfing, Prevention and Recovery Support Services Consultant, The Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling








With the reality of casinos in our backyard approaching, the Mass. Council is working hard to help raise awareness and educate people about problem gambling.

Many times when people discuss problem gambling they talk about intervention and treatment, almost forgetting about prevention. It can be argued that prevention is the most important measure in lowering rates of problem gambling.

The Council’s Prevention Consultant, Jim Wuelfing, shares with us preventative steps that the Council is taking to prepare for the up and coming casinos.

Working with local communities to engage them in understanding the issue of problem gambling, designing effective interventions and building the capacity of the community to implement prevention programs, is the core of good prevention efforts.

With this in mind, the Council has moved forward in an effort to develop prevention collaboratives in three regions of the state: Western Massachusetts focusing on the Springfield area; Southeastern Massachusetts focusing on the Taunton area; and Eastern Massachusetts focusing on the Boston area.

We are reaching out to three populations within those regions. These include high schools, colleges and universities, and agencies and organizations serving older adults. The first step was to invite representatives of these populations to a regional meeting.

Thus far meetings, targeting the college group, have been held at Western New England University, Harvard University and Stonehill College. We will now begin the process of developing a network of college and university administrators with the common goal of preventing problem gambling on campuses, and being better prepared to meet the challenges of expanded gambling in their areas. 

Those in attendance welcomed the opportunity to learn about the issue of problem gambling among college students. Discussion topics included: prevalence, warning signs, risk reduction behaviors and brief screening tools. Attendees were also made aware of services the Council can provide to them; such as programs designed specifically for athletes and resident assistants. We found many administrators grateful for the opportunity to have a partner to assist them in addressing the issue.

Regional meetings are being planned in April for high school administrators and in May for service providers of the older adult population.  It is our hope that these collaboratives will continue to foster a regional approach to the prevention of problem gambling.