Members of the state Gaming Commission will meet with a UMass Amherst-led research team this week for a progress report on the first year of a groundbreaking study that will help shape how the commission and the Legislature respond to the social and economic impacts of casino gambling.
Chairman Stephen Crosby and Commissioner Enrique Zuniga will meet Tuesday with researchers the commission hired last spring to conduct the study, which will cost $3.5 million for the first three years, with one-year extensions possible at a cost yet to be determined.
"This is a unique study in the history of gaming," Crosby said, noting it is the first one to trace the impact of casinos in real time, from before they are built to years afterward. "If the research identifies problems emerging, that data will inform us as we try to identify strategies to mitigate any negative consequences."
By mid-May, the researchers expect to complete a baseline survey of 10,000 randomly selected adults to determine whether they gamble, drink or engage in other behaviors that have been linked to gambling, said Rachel Volberg, a UMass Amherst sociologist and the study's principal investigator.
"This is an attempt to take a snapshot of what gambling behavior looks like in Massachusetts before casinos," said Volberg, whose 15-member team includes researchers from MIT, the University of Nevada and the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada.
The team also is working with the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling and the state Department of Public Health to evaluate services for problem gamblers over the past 10 years, she said. Future prevention and treatment services, as well as the study, will be paid for with casino revenues through a public health trust fund DPH will oversee.
"Every jurisdiction is unique, but in general, what we've seen elsewhere is an increase in the prevalence of problem gambling in the wake of the introduction or expansion of gaming," said Volberg, who has studied gambling in more than two dozen states and 15 countries. "But that's typically been followed by a reduction as individuals and communities adapt and as services are introduced."
Richard McGowan, a Boston College professor and expert on gaming, called the study worthwhile and said it should have been done sooner, even though it comes with some caveats.
"One of the problems is people are going to want to know what's the actual social cost of gambling, and it's virtually impossible to do," McGowan said. "How do you figure the cost of divorce (as a result of problem gambling)? I don't know."
Equally difficult, Volberg said, is how to start a conversation about problem gambling with an addict.
"We've learned a lot," she said, "but we're still learning."
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