May 19, 2006 – The Alliance for Responsible Gaming recently sent out a call to the community for individuals to participate in an upcoming Compulsive Gambling Addiction training seminar to be held next week.
The goal of the seminar is to prepare participants for certification as compulsive gambling counselors.
Casino Control Commissioner Devin Carrington said 18 new volunteers will take part in the four-day training Tuesday through Friday.
Carrington said the new volunteers will join 21 returning volunteers who need to make up needed classroom hours toward their full certification.
The sessions will be held at Divi Carina Beach Resort and Casino and led by Gini Fellows, a certified addictions and gambling counselor.
Some of the private and governmental agencies involved are the Bureau of Corrections, the Youth Rehabilitation Program, the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, the V.I. Lottery, the Village-Virgin Islands Partners in Recovery, the Center for Independent Living and the Men's Coalition.
Carrington made a point in saying the training is not specifically targeted towards persons experiencing problems with casino gambling. The trained volunteers can counsel individuals with horseracing, cockfighting, drag racing and other types of gambling addictions, he said.
During the seminar, volunteers will receive training to enable them to treat and diagnose problem gamblers, to learn strategies for counseling family members affected by problem gamblers and to address issues of problem gambling associated with all types of gambling activities in the Virgin Islands.
And although the program is not up and running yet, persons experiencing gambling additions can receive counseling from a number of health professionals in the community, Carrington said. Counselors from the Department of Health or the Virgin Islands Partners in Recovery are trained to counsel all types of addictive behavior, he said.
Carrington said persons presently looking for help with gambling addictions can also call the Casino Control Commission at 773-3616, where they will be directed to a counselor in that office.
Carrington said the Commission is actively pursuing separate office space to house the Compulsive Gambling Addiction program with a counseling dedicated line. He said he hopes that office would be functional "by the last quarter of the year."
The Alliance for Responsible Gaming is made up of representatives from the casino, lottery and horse-racing industries, gaming regulators and mental health professionals.
Funding for the seminars is through the V.I. Casino and Resort Control Act of 1995, which mandates that 1 percent of the casino fund go to gambling and addiction programs and 1 percent to The Village-Virgin Islands Partners in Recovery, for preventing and treating gambling addictions.
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