“Getting Real About Gambling in Massachusetts” Transcript
[Music]
[Victor Ortiz, Director, Office of Problem Gambling Services, MDPH] I remember clear like it was yesterday when the legislation was being conceptualized and bringing casinos to Massachusetts. And I think what people underestimate is that we were already a really highly exposed state to gambling.
[Dr. Haner Hernandez, Senior Technical Assistance Provider, Education Development Center] How many products does the lottery have in Massachusetts? The most profitable per capita lottery in the world, bringing in over $1 billion a year.
[Victor Ortiz] To go from that to sports betting is another layer.
[Dr. Haner Hernandez] Over the last year, year and a half, we've been bombarded with ads that are deceitful in nature.
[TV ad dialogue] You know what to do.
[Hector Sostre, Peer Gambling Ambassador, Stairway to Recovery] This is basically too easy right now. You can do it even on your phone. And if you have a problem, they just making it too easy for you to just self-destruct.
[Dr. Haner Hernandez] People who are preoccupied with gambling. They don't take care of their health, so they're not necessarily going to a yearly medical checkup. They're not necessarily visiting the dentist. They're not necessarily following up on other health conditions. And there is a cumulative effect on people's health.
[Mathematics, Recovery Coach, Consultant, Case Manager, Poet, Bedrock Recovery Center] You know, I didn't know one out of four people that have problem gambling end up committing suicide. That's more than like drugs and alcohol. This is like serious business.
[Dr. Haner Hernandez] Most people who gamble gamble without a problem, but we're concerned with the most vulnerable.
[Onscreen text]
Getting Real About Gambling
Office of Problem Gambling Services
Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Government seal next to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health name
Quote symbol next to the tagline Let’s Get Real About Gambling
[Dr. Haner Hernandez] We have, in Massachusetts, as a result of the legislation for the three destination casinos, a public health trust fund. So there's an Office of Problem Gambling Services.
[Victor Ortiz] When I first came to the Department of Public Health, it was the first time ever that not only did we have the backing of the financial resources to do the work, but to really reimagine this work, right?
Most of the work that happens all over the country is on a focus on responsible gambling or promoting individual responsibility. We had a chance to do something different, and that is to think about gambling from a public health perspective.
It's about making sure that we create spaces and places for people to bring their authentic selves into a decision-making process, that we avoid the common mistakes that often happen when we try to promote equity, thinking that, you know, if we put a person of color on a brochure, that that's equity. That is not equity, right?
That equity is about really true engagement and inclusion.
[Dr. Haner Hernandez] One of the initiatives that's funded by the Office of Problem Gambling Services is the Ambassador Initiative. Ambassadors are men of color with a history of substance misuse who are educating their peers and other people in the community about problem gambling with a prevention focus.
[Hector Sostre] The reason I like this job is because I get to talk to people, and after my presentation, I talk to people, and they tell me they never saw the problem that way.
[Hernani Del Giudice, Peer Gambling Ambassador, PIER Recovery Center] When you say your story first, they'll be more open. That's the way I do it. Like, that's my little trick to talk to people, I say, oh, I had a problem. My family had a problem. From there, I start, and if they want to listen more, probably can talk back to me about it.
[Hector Sostre] We also get a lot of resources, you know, not only for gambling but for other things, you know, anywhere from housing to getting your license from doing your résumé.
[Hernani Del Giudice] We just give. We give food, we give music, we give awareness.
[Mathematics] The best solution for an alcoholic or an addict, the best medicine, is to help someone else. Because if I'm helping you, I'm not thinking about myself.
The more I just make myself available to people, most of my sponsees have been doing pretty well. And if they're struggling, we talk about it, and we work it out. You know, that's the rent I pay for my recovery. You know, there's rent I have to pay to live. There's a car note and car insurance I have to pay to drive.
Well, in order for me to stay sober, I have to be of service to other people. And that's the rent I pay for my recovery.
[Hector Sostre] Finally got the respect and trust of my family back. My kids tell me they're proud of me. I haven't had that in a long time.
[Dr. Haner Hernandez] The approach has to be one that's grounded in agency, self-determination, and allowing people to make decisions for themselves, and not imposing. Because we live in a society where addiction has been treated as a criminal justice issue as opposed to a public health issue. How well has that worked out?
[Ben Hires, CEO, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, AAPI Empowerment and Project Rise] So one of the amazing projects that we've been able to launch with the help of the Office of Problem Gambling is called AAPI Empowerment Project. You know, many casinos have Asian marketing departments. They have people who speak, you know, many different languages. They have everything down in order to make it so easy for someone to be attracted and feel welcome and feel like, you know, kind of like a king.
Thinking creatively, one of the things that we've been doing with the support of the Office of Problem Gambling is really providing alternative activities, and they're really just simple. They're just fun activities that, you know, would appeal to Asian immigrants, something maybe they've done back at their home country. Something that you can enjoy with other people who speak their language.
[Jon How Leung, Participant, AAPI Empowerment Project] [Speaking Chinese] We learned the dance from our phones. Every time we are here, we learn the dance from our phones. There are no official teachers. Whoever is better would stand at the front.
[Ben Hires] One of the things that can combat that isolation is just being connected to more people and people that you become friends with. And then it also sort of gives us the relationship, as you know, people get to know us. You know, if they are experiencing challenges, we have those programs and resources to help them.
[Daniel Ngan, Boston Chinatown Community Center Organizer, AAPI Empowerment Project] [Speaking Chinese] Our main objective here is to build a relationship with every participant. After we have built trust, they would be willing to share with us the stress they are having, then this would be the chance to counsel and refer them to this center.
[People cheering]
[Ben Hires] You know, everybody wants to belong, right? And everybody wants to feel welcome. So these kinds of activities really appeal to people.
[Mathematics] These kids now, when we were growing up, there wasn't FanDuel, there wasn't DraftKings, there wasn't Pick Your Prize. So now you do have to address this stuff a little bit earlier.
When I go into the schools, I don't go there to tell them what to do. Kids are always going to do what we tell them not to do; just make them aware of the consequences. And then you let them know you make the choice.
[Priscilla Martinez Munoz, Youth Gambling Prevention Coordinator, Gandara Center] Their decision-making is purely based on their development at this point. So exposure is a risk factor because what they're identifying is a reward rather than necessarily the long-term consequences. I always say their voices matter. And that's one of the biggest points in our curriculum and our engagement with youth. Like your voices matter, your experiences matter.
Best way to capture is what do you see?
[Saeeda Mohamed, Photovoice Youth Leader] When we're taking photos for Photovoice, like, I try to make sure that everything that I was taking has some kind of meaning behind it.
[Priscilla Martinez Munoz] They have to be given these spaces because, unfortunately, they’re not always believed, they're not always taken as credible. So it's raw footage, right?
[Binti Hassan, Photovoice Youth Leader] I participated in Photovoice because it made me feel like I could really get my voice out there and, like, you know, have an impact on the community and actually see a change.
[Priscilla Martinez Munoz] Each youth has something different to bring. And so if we want to say your voices matter, we want to make sure they're heard. So someone speaks low, I'm not going to force them to talk loud. I'm going to get closer. So like one of those things of like meeting them where they are and then understanding you're seen here and what are the skills we want to develop.
[Tiffany Rufino, Youth Mental Health Coalition Manager, Public Health Institute of Western MA] In the Beat the Odds Program, we really try to educate youth about mental health, problem gambling, substance use, alcohol misuse. Those are all counterparts, I guess you could say, of mental health and not being able to manage mental wellness for yourself.
[Arianna Turner, Beat the Odds Social Media Manager] Beat the Odds is like I would say, like this group of youth, and like we all come together. Like this year, we're talking about problem gambling.
[Module Mason, Beat the Odds President] The community, as soon as you go in, everybody's so welcoming and understanding and like friendly.
Also, what we talk about and the education you get from it, it doesn't only help you with like your personal problems or what you're going through personally, but like if you see other people, what they're going through, you can also like help them as well.
[Tiffany Rufino] So I do this work because I was born and raised here in Springfield, and now that we have a casino here in the area, I want to make sure that our youth know how to protect themselves, protect their families, from going down a road that would be very hard to come back from.
[Victor Ortiz] Every program that we have funded through the Department of Public Health has been informed by the community, is obviously led by data and evidence, but ensuring that we are weaving in the community voice, and that's what I'm most proud of.
[Priscilla Martinez Munoz] Getting real while gambling is not just about the individual, and I think within a society that continues to talk about “you, you, you” while hiding behind like it's a collective. To get real about gambling is you go to gamble. It's not just affecting you. Someone’s seeing you. Someone had to pay you. You're losing your money. And it's affecting, whether it's your home life, it’s affecting your children. It's affecting your sister, your mom. It's affecting the way you see the world itself. Your perspective of the world affects the collective.
So I think getting real about gambling very much relates to the mission of public health. It's not just about you. You know, we have to think about the collective as a whole. And you going to gamble could be fun today, but may not be fun tomorrow. And how is that going to affect the way you treat people? How is that going to affect the way you interact or ask of people?
[Ben Hires] If you're going to get real about tackling problem gambling, you've got to look at, you know, the upstream social determinants of health, you know, access to stable, affordable housing, you know. Good health care, education opportunities, job opportunities, right?
And so I think it's really important that we look at those areas to really get at the heart at why recent immigrants, low-income communities really are most at risk for problem gambling.
[Victor Ortiz] When we can get real about gambling, then we can get real about solutions. Then we can get real about strategy.
[Ben Hires] I'm hopeful because, you know, we've done research, we've initiated some of these partnerships with the Department of Public Health, and they've all grown. They've all grown in the last three years in terms of, you know, who we're working with. The number of people who are involved, the number of people we're reaching.
You know, I was talking with Victor earlier, and the word empowerment, I think, is really powerful because once you start shining a light on sort of the facts and the issues, that is power, and the facts and issues live within the community.
The people know what the impact is, how it's harmed their family. They also know the solutions, right? They also know what's going to help them most. And so, when we empower the community, that's very, very strong.
[Dr. Haner Hernandez] We have to tell people the truth, basically. And we have to engage in honest and truthful conversations.
The way that we spend resources responsibly is by telling the truth about the impacts of gambling on individuals, families, and entire communities.
[Onscreen text] [Music]
Getting Real About Gambling
Office of Problem Gambling Services
Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Government seal next to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health name
Quote symbol next to the tagline Let’s Get Real About Gambling