The Oregon State Lottery has decided that one way to help problem gamblers is to past the number to find treatment on the front of their 11,000 gambling terminals.
Lottery officials are saying that beginning this fall they will start placing stickers with the numbers for help centers in prominent places like the video gambling machines in more then 2,100 bars and taverns across the state.
The head of the Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare treatment program said that calls to a help line usually spike when the lottery puts the help line number in its adverts. Oregon residents can receive free treatment for gambling addiction, as can the family members of problem gamblers. About 1,500 people a year seek treatment.
Sellers of Lottery tickets are required by law to post in an obvious spot at least one notice about compulsive gambling and where to find treatment for this problem.
Most of the places that have gambling machines do not seem to be adhering to these laws. At one bar they found the brochures across the room next to an old unused coffee machine more then 12 feet away from the machines, and at another place employees could not even find them when asked.
By placing this information on the machines themselves they will no longer have to worry about the operators doing the right thing said the problem gambling services coordinator.