Iowans can now voluntarily ban themselves from all 13 of the state's casinos by signing a single form. The approach is meant to nip temptation in the bud: If "self-excluded" gamblers are caught sneaking a bet on roulette or a pull on the one-armed bandit, they can be arrested for trespassing. They also agree to forfeit any winnings to the state's gambling treatment program. The self-imposed ban and all its consequences, once consented to, apply for life.
About 1 percent of Iowans, or roughly 20,000 people, are believed to show signs of gambling pathologies--a figure that is in line with the rest of the United States. Legalized casino gambling on riverboats and racetracks began in Iowa in 1991. Since then, individual casinos have developed their own self-exclusion programs. But this year, as part of gambling expansion in Iowa, the legislature required casino operators to apply the program statewide. Part of the deal is that the casinos must remove banned people from their mailing lists
Several other states, including New Jersey, Illinois and Indiana have similar programs. In Missouri more than 7,500 people are on the "dissassociated persons" list, and more people are signing up at a rate of about three per day.
Frank Biagioli, the head of Iowa's gambling treatment program, says the strategy could work for addicts who are already committed to a course of recovery. "If a person has the mindset that they don't want to get arrested, it's one way to keep them from going back to the casino," Biagioli says. "But people have so much accessibility to different types of gambling. Whether it's office pools, bingo, playing cards among friends, a person can still be tempted. Gambling is all around us."
