"Gamblers get banning option: Indiana program offers statewide self-exclusion list" is the title of Lesley Stedman Weidenbener's Sunday column in the Louisville Courier-Journal. A quote:
Until last Thursday, when the new program started, the commission merely required the state's 10 casinos to create their own voluntary exclusion programs with minimum bans of six months. The [Indiana Gaming Commission] also required them to stop check-cashing privileges and direct-marketing appeals to people who signed up.Posted by Marcia Oddi at July 4, 2004 09:45 AMUnlike in some other states, the casinos did not share that information among themselves or with the state, requiring gamblers to go from boat to boat to be excluded from all of them.
The new program is the result of a 2003 law passed by the Indiana General Assembly after a series of stories in The Courier-Journal found that — based on research in other states — an estimated 82,300 people in Kentucky and 121,600 in Indiana likely have gambling problems.
The series also found that self-eviction programs, while not foolproof, are considered important tools in helping addicted gamblers. Counselors often encourage compulsive gamblers to ban themselves as a step toward facing up to their problems and beginning recovery efforts.
The newspaper reported that Indiana lacked the kind of uniform system for handling voluntary evictions that exists in other states, including Missouri, where about 5,000 people have signed up for lifetime bans.