NCRG

The NCRG is excited to announce its participation in a newly convened Responsible Gaming Collaborative, made up of key stakeholders in the gambling industry and other sectors.  This collaboration includes the National Council on Problem Gambling, the National Center for Responsible Gaming, the University of Nevada-Las Vegas International Gaming Institute, Harvard University’s T.H.

The Division on Addiction at Cambridge Health Alliance, a Teaching Hospital of Harvard Medical School, is sponsoring Gambling Disorder Screening Day on Tuesday, March 13, 2018. This year’s Screening Day Toolkit has even more free resources to make hosting Screening Day easier than ever. Any provider or organization can host. Registration is not required to use these free resources.

“Gambling Disorder & Addiction: Treatment, Prevention and Education” will be held for treatment providers on March 21-22, 2018 at the Sandia Resort & Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The program, cosponsored by NCRG and Sandia Resort & Casino, will cover a wide range of topics including responsible gaming, new research on gambling disorder, gambling problems among the military and veterans, the stigma of gambling disorder, motivational interviewing and Wellbriety, a Native American recovery movement.

The National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) is pleased to announce the availability of research grants for the study of gambling disorder in 2018. The NCRG is committed to a multi-disciplinary approach and, therefore, welcomes applications from investigators in psychology, psychiatry, epidemiology, public health, sociology, economics, neuroeconomics, neuroscience and other relevant disciplines.

To understand the big picture of what constitutes a recovery from a gambling disorder, it is best to look at it from both national and local perspectives. The 13th annual NCRG Conference on Gambling and Addiction kicked off Tuesday morning with a presentation from H. Westley Clark, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). SAMHSA’s mission is to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness in America’s communities.

Save the date and register today for the latest NCRG Webinar Series session on September 19! Wendy S. Slutske, Ph.D., 2011 NCRG Scientific Achievement Award winner and professor at the University of Missouri – Columbia, is leading the upcoming training, titled “Path to Recovery: Is Controlled Gambling Possible for Pathological Gamblers?” The webinar will be held on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 from 2 to 3 p.m. EST. The session is free to attend, participants will earn one CEU and registration is now open on the NCRG’s website.

What is a “social network analysis” of gambling disorders and responsible gaming? The phrase might evoke images of Mark Zuckerberg in a hooded sweatshirt, or the Oscar-winning film about the creation of Facebook. In reality, a social network analysis (SNA) is a method that researchers use to study how social connections effect behaviors, such as problem or pathological gambling.  

Responsible Gaming Education Week isn’t the only time of year that the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) and the American Gaming Association (AGA) work together to help educate community members on some of the latest research and information about how to gamble responsibly. They also produce Responsible Gaming Quarterly, a free publication that provides a broad range of coverage on recent research results, regulatory efforts, studies and developments in the treatment field and best practices for programs that encourage responsible gaming.

Even though Responsible Gaming Education Week only happens once a year, the American Gaming Association (AGA) and the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) focuses on responsible gaming year-round through programs and education initiatives. As in past years, the NCRG is joining with the AGA to encourage casinos and their patrons to understand how to gamble responsibly for Responsible Gaming Education Week, July 30 to August 3. During this year’s Responsible Gaming Education Week, we’ll use Gambling Disorders 360 to highlight some of the NCRG’s responsible gaming resources, as well as successful tools from other groups.

Gambling disorders and responsible gaming aren’t just casino issues – they’re community issues. From local companies and nonprofit organizations to government officials and civic leaders, everyone in the community has a role to play in getting educated and helping to spread the word about available resources. To help educate various stakeholders about this community issue, the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) developed the Gambling and Health series, including guidebooks and factsheets that are designed to explain more about pathological gambling, provide resources available to refer to those who may need help and encourage responsible decisions when gambling. 

During this year’s Responsible Gaming Education Week, the NCRG is launching the first edition of the Gambling and Health series, titled “Gambling and Health in the Workplace.” Human resources (HR) and employee assistance (EA) professionals are often trained to help employees with addiction and other mental health issues, but are not always equipped with the knowledge and resources when it comes to pathological gambling. To help address this issue, the NCRG created this educational resource to help HR and EA managers learn about gambling disorders, encourage responsible decisions when gambling and understand practical ways to assist and refer individuals with gambling problems.