The chairman of National Problem Gambling Awareness Week, Jeff Beck, said the flux of people enrolled as problem gamblers nationwide in the US has remained in a steady variation between six to nine million.

Beck told the NJBiz that fifty percent of all casino income is derived from five percent of patrons. However, this statistic was not broken down to determine relative wealth of that five percent, which may largely be constituted of whales capable of losing millions without caring.

The New Jersey self-exclusion program did use the publicity of the national promotion to add over a thousand names to its list. Often, though, the list is signed in as hasty a decision as any a compulsive gambler might make.

Observers say gambling patrons frequently sign to be self-excluded in a moment of irritation, then find they have committed themselves permanently.

Many problem gambling advisers expected economic stress to create new gaming difficulties. Failing to see that develop strengthens the position that compulsive gambling is a manifestation of deeper dysfunctions, and not caused by exposure to gambling and the lure of illusory riches.

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