Understanding and educating about problem gambling
As a research and education resource for gambling addiction treatment professionals, the Oregon Council on Problem Gambling seeks both to learn more about problem gambling in Oregon and educate Oregonians about gambling addiction and the availability of treatment.
To determine the prevalence of problem gambling in Oregon, the Council fielded a comprehensive prevalence study in 1997 and a replication study that was completed in 2001 and again in 2006. The results placed Oregon within the average range among Western states that have made similar studies and have similar gambling opportunities. The 2001 replication study found that the prevalence of problem and pathological gambling decreased from 1997 to 2001 and then remained statistically stable in 2006. The Council has also conducted prevalence studies targeted at adolescents (1998) and older adults (2001) as well as an important etiological study of the potential pathways to pathological gambling. These studies are available for download from this site.
Our mission, our future
The Oregon Council on Problem Gambling’s mission is to support effective, efficient, and sustainable treatment and prevention of problem gambling in Oregon.
We are dedicated to:
- Providing objective third party opinion on gambling related policy
- Advocating for the needs of problem gamblers and their families
- Raising awareness of problem gambling treatment availability and effectiveness
- Raising awareness of problem gambling
- Supporting state efforts that address problem gambling
- Ensuring the accountability of state resources use for the prevention and treatment of problem gambling
- Providing recognition within the field
- Supporting the prevention of problem gambling
- Proposing, conducting, and publishing research to fill voids in the knowledge base
History
The Oregon Council on Problem Gambling was established as a 501 c (3) Corporation in the State of Oregon in 1997. It petitioned, and became an Affiliate of the National Council on Problem Gambling in 1998 under the name, the Oregon Gambling Addiction Treatment Foundation and in 2008 changed its name to the Oregon Council on Problem Gambling.
The founding membership included senior management representatives from Project Stop, ChangePoint, Columbia County Administration, The Oregon Lottery, Spirit Mountain Casino, Portland Meadows, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, and the Association of County Mental Health Providers. The initial purpose of the Council was to develop a research and education institution to support effective, efficient, and sustainable treatment and prevention of problem gambling in Oregon; to ensure empirical evidence was available to the public to create an impetus for statewide, evidence-based strategic planning to better ensure adequate allocation of resources for prevention, identification, referral, and treatment of disordered gamblers and their families; and, to help ensure the public’s understanding that pathological gambling was a legitimate illness that responded well to treatment.
To that end, the Council sponsored six critical studies of problem gambling in Oregon. The first was a baseline study of the prevalence of problem and pathological gambling by adults in 1997. This was followed in 1998 by one of the first adolescent studies in the U.S. estimating the prevalence of disordered gambling among Oregon youth and the final baseline study in 2000 estimated the prevalence of disordered gambling in older adult Oregonians.
In 2001, the first replication of the 1997 adult study was conducted to document any changes in the prevalence of disordered gambling and gambling behavior in the adult population since publication of that study. Again, in 2006 another replication adult prevalence study was commissioned. The timing of this study was driven by the fact that the State Lottery was adding line games to the existing video lottery terminals (VLTs) distributed throughout the state that were previously only offering video poker games.
Importantly, in 2002 the Council commissioned a pilot study, one of the first in the U.S., that investigated the potential causal implications relating to the onset of pathological gambling.
Findings from these studies are available on this site.
