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8/15/2006: Alberta Casinos place addiction counsellors onsite
Hundreds of problem gamblers in Alberta have sought help through a pilot project that placed addiction counsellors in two casinos.
Counsellor Jim Nakano says that in the six months since the province set up a gambling information centre inside Palace Casino in West Edmonton Mall, 800 people have asked him for help.
An estimated one in 20 adults in Alberta have problems as a result of their gambling.
(CBC)
“I have had some very severe cases, people who have been at the point of suicide. If I wasn’t here what would have happened to those folks?” Nakano said in an interview aired Monday on CBC Radio.The cost to run the two-year pilot project in Edmonton is about $300,000. The province also put a counsellor in Calgary’s Deerfoot Inn and Casino in the spring.
The moves are aimed at helping people in the province who have problems as a result of their gambling — an estimated one in 20 adults in the province, according to the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission.
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