Americans who want to roll the dice, bet the ranch, take their best shot, or dance with Lady Luck never had more chances to do so than they do now. The School of Social Work at Rutgers has established an academic center to help scholars understand how gambling works, why people gamble, how society should deal with gambling, and how best to help problem gamblers.
“In recent decades, we’ve seen various forms of gambling legalized all over the United States,” said Lia Nower, associate professor of social work and the center’s director. “Recently, we’ve seen the advent of illegal Internet gambling and ‘Texas hold ’em’ poker tournaments, often aimed at younger and even underage people. And yet it’s clear that, as a society and as individuals, we haven’t really thought gambling through.”
“There is considerable debate and research about gambling – as a business, as a policy issue, and as a social or personal problem,” said Richard Edwards, dean of the School of Social Work at Rutgers. “But there aren’t many places in the country that take a multidisciplinary approach to studying gambling and its effects on individuals and society. We want our center to do that.”
The new Center for Gambling Studies has three main goals. The first is to foster inter-disciplinary and international research on issues related to gambling, including legal, sociological, and even ecological issues. As a second goal, the center has created a “policy consortium” of experts from industry, government, and academia who will study specific gambling issues and will publish periodic reports to inform government, industry, and communities.
“Gambling is here to stay,” Nower said. “People have done it forever, and they’ll continue to do it.
Nower hopes to establish the center as a source of objective, expert information for state lawmakers in New Jersey and elsewhere. She also wants to see this research published quickly and disseminated widely, and not just in academic journals. “People need to understand how gambling works and what its effects are, and they need to hear about those things in clear language,” Nower said.
Finally, the Center for Gambling Studies will train clinicians and educators in the prevention, identification, and treatment of youth and adult problem gambling through a continuing education certificate program and treatment center.
Nower comes to Rutgers from the University of Missouri–St. Louis, where she taught for six years in the School of Social Work. She has treated problem gamblers, and published widely on various aspects of problem gambling – its connection with impulsivity, its relationship to suicide, to homelessness and other social problems. Nower is also a lawyer who served as an assistant prosecutor in St. Louis County, Missouri, before returning to graduate school to study social work.
“Gambling is here to stay,” Nower said. “People have done it forever, and they’ll continue to do it. Our task is to make sure we maximize the entertainment value and economic benefits while minimizing the potential harm to those who don’t know when to stop.”