Video Poker: `Crack Cocaine' Of Gaming Swells Ranks Of Oregon's Gambling Addicts

He borrows money for food, but buys no groceries.

His paychecks vanish as soon as he cashes them. His credit limit was exceeded long ago.

His debts, he says, are massive.

Yet, Dallas Evans is hooked on what some worried critics call the "crack cocaine" of gambling. He can't resist video poker machines, those bright, beckoning electronic card games that have engulfed Oregon's bars since they were introduced four years ago and which voters could legalize at Indian casinos in Washington state.

The machines allow Evans to play 5-card draw without the distraction of other players or a human dealer. Garishly decorated cards flip across the screen as fast as his fingers can punch the buttons designating "hold" or "draw."

"It's becoming hard to survive," said Evans, 35, a Eugene mill worker who figures he has lost $8,000 to the machines in the last two months alone.

"It's becoming a life-and-death situation. If I don't quit I won't have a place to live, I'll end up losing my job. I'm using up all my friends, lying to them."

A recovering alcoholic, Evans is one of what experts estimate may be 60,000 Oregonians who are problem gamblers. He is also among the few who have sought professional help for their problems.

Since the gambling devices were legalized in Oregon in 1991, addiction to video poker is beyond all expectations.

"It's skyrocketed, and we're just hitting the tip of the iceberg," said Paul Potter, who operates Project STOP, a gambling-addiction program in Portland. He said he has about 50 problem gamblers in treatment at any one time, and the vast majority are addicted to video poker.

Washington state psychologists fear the same thing would happen here if the video games are introduced to the state under Initiative 651. The measure on the Nov. 7 ballot would allow unrestricted gambling at Indian casinos, including slot machines and video poker, which are now prohibited. Once the machines were legalized at tribal casinos, many officials worry, Washington legislators would be pressured to permit non-Indian operators.

Psychologist Charles Maurer, president of the board of the Washington State Council on Problem Gambling, has trained many of the counselors in Oregon and has seen the problems on both sides of the Columbia River.

While Maurer said he has treated about 350 problem gamblers in the past 16 years, John Weatherly, an Oregon psychologist Maurer has trained, has seen 300 people in the last two years alone.

"We're pretty overwhelmed in Oregon," said Weatherly, adding that recent studies in Oregon show many gambling addicts have a multitude of problems, such as alcoholism and drug addiction, and a high number have visited hospital emergency rooms.

Unlike Oregon, where gambling-addiction programs have mushroomed, Washington state has only a handful of treatment programs. Yet a 1993 study concluded there are at least 57,000 adults in the state with moderate to severe gambling problems. The study estimated that in their lifetimes, 3.5 percent of the state's adults will become problem gamblers.

"It's a very, very nasty psychological hook," said Maurer. "Gambling is very compelling and it's so hidden. You can't smell it, you can't taste it. It is an exquisite distorter of truth and reality. You find out someone you live with cashed in all his life insurance and has 10 credit cards you didn't know you were responsible for. There are stories I hear all the time."

Pressure from gaming industry

Among the tales of broken marriages and bankruptcy, Trish, a businesswoman from Portland, is considered a success story. A gambling addict, she received counseling from Project STOP and has been able to resist the poker machines for more than a year.

"It was the excitement," said Trish, 35, who asked that her last name not be used. "It was a place you could go and not think about anything else. I couldn't sleep at night, I'd just hear those video poker machines. I was always going to win the money back I lost."

In all she figures she lost $14,000 before she sought help.

Video poker was legalized by the Oregon Legislature in 1991 by a one-vote margin, following rancorous debate and heavy pressure from the gaming industry. Part of that legislation required that 3 percent of the revenues be earmarked for the treatment of problem gamblers.

The Oregon Supreme Court later struck down the treatment portion of the bill. With counseling agencies worried they'd have no money, the Oregon Legislature set aside $4 million for treatment over two years.

State `addicted' to revenues?

The state, it appears, can certainly afford it.

The state receives 65 percent of the net receipts from video poker machines, which are allowed only in bars and taverns. No establishment can have more than five terminals.

Today, said Oregon Lottery spokesman David Hooper, there are more than 7,500 machines in nearly 1,600 locations.

Taverns receive a lucrative 35 percent of the receipts. One tavern alone is reporting $25,000 in average weekly sales, Hooper said.

The first year of operation, the state earned $77 million from video poker. During the last fiscal year, ending in June, the state made $165 million in profits on video poker, more than double the combined earnings of all other gambling games, and $30 million more than Washington state netted from its lottery. And Oregon has 2 million fewer people than Washington.

"The state has become addicted itself to the revenues of gambling," said Rodney Page, executive director of Ecumenical Ministries, which challenged the constitutionality of the expansion of gambling in Oregon.

"This is part of a gambling frenzy that has swept the nation. With the frenzy has come a trail of tears, of lies, of suicide. It's very bad public policy."

No money for treatment

While Washington officials fear the same gambling-addiction problems experienced in Oregon, there are big differences between the two states.

The biggest is that in Washington the drive for legalization is led by Indian tribes, and state officials say they will probably take the tribes to court if Initiative 651 passes.

The measure earmarks no money for gambling treatment, and no profits would go to the state treasury, as they do in Oregon.

The tribes don't expect the video machines will cause gambling-addiction problems, said Russell LaFountaine, Initiative 651 campaign manager. "If there's any it will be minimal and the tribes will work to secure treatment," he said. "We're not looking for the heavy gamblers, but those who are looking at video poker as a source of entertainment, not addiction."

Video poker is worrisome to Washington state officials and psychologists because of the addictive nature of the machines.

Because they don't require the interaction of such table games as craps and blackjack, they are less intimidating than other casino games, say those who study addiction problems.

Video poker has simply allowed more people to gamble, said Tom Moore, who evaluates Oregon counseling programs that are funded by the state.

"I don't think video poker is the demon in gambling, but just one more significant element of the whole picture," he said.

"It's a physical, social, spiritual illness that eats at every part of a physical being. It's easy for people to moralize. But the kind of people getting caught up in it are nice people," he said.