Keller @ Large: State Plays Pretend With New Program To Curb Compulsive Gambling

BOSTON (CBS) - It landed in my inbox Wednesday, and at first, I thought it was gag of some kind - a new "responsible gaming initiative" from the state gaming commission designed to give gamblers - excuse me - "gamers" - a way to track and control their gambling - excuse me, "gaming."

Starting Thursday down at the Plainridge Park Casino, patrons can take advantage of a voluntary option to set up visual reminders when they've reached their pre-set limit for losses at the slots. This will, claims the commission, "help players make decisions about gambling," presumably good ones, as part of a "comprehensive approach to responsible gaming strategies."

This may be well-meaning, but it is also baby-talk designed to somehow mitigate guilt over the reality of casino gambling -- it is a major come-on to the estimated 150-to-200,000 Massachusetts residents who gamble and have difficulty controlling it.

Most people can control their wagering, but for those who struggle to do so, the notion that this so-called "play my way" option will really help strikes me as fantasy. I have interviewed compulsive gamblers, and they are people in the grip of an addiction as fierce and devastating as any opioid or alcohol problem. If the state or the casino industry were serious about helping keep these people out of trouble, they would aggressively screen patrons for signs of addiction and keep them away from their facilities.

But that would be bad for business, a legal business that is in our state because voters invited it in. So be it. But let's not play pretend about it in the interests of excusing the human toll it will take.