Ohio gambling helpline reports 1,500 calls in first months of 2023

Ohio launched its online sports gambling market on January 1, 2023, marking a pivotal achievement for the Buckeye State which quickly aligned itself with neighbors and made online betting the go-to option for an estimated 90% of all people who wager.

With this though, there have been some other considerations to factor in as well, best reflected by the number of calls placed with the Problem Gambling Network of Ohio, which uses the 1-800-GAMBLER helpline. There has been a significant three-fold increase in the number of calls placed with the organizaiton in the first months since January 2023.

According to Michael Buzzelli, the Associate Director at the organizaiton, Ohio citizens and gamblers have been calling at a much higher rate to seek help. Sports betting is the trigger that has caused this increase in the calls, Buzzelli mulls. He has urged people to turn to the state’s Before You Play program, which is designed to promote responsible and safe gambling practices in the state.

Essentially, the program wants from people to "take a moment before they bet," with the logic being that this way, spontaneous and unreasonable spending on sports gambling will be curbed. Buzzelli has issued a statement in which he not only cautioned about the sudden spike in the number of people who seek help, but also some of the early symptoms that people can detect that are associated with problem gambling.

For example, people who are beginning to show symptoms of problem gambling, may be more irritable, restless, or even resort to borrowing money to keep gambling. Buzzelli argues that should people experience these symptoms they should reach out and seek help. In the meantime, there have already been other experts weighing in to debate problem gambling publicly.

Department of Social Work at the University of Cincinnati's Collegeof Allied Health Sciences Assistant Professor Gregory Stewart, PhD spoke about the dangers that lay ahead. The triple-number trend has kept through January when it was first registered, Professor Stewart, PhD confirmed.

What this means is that there is a very clear parallel between an increase in gambling and an increase in problem gambling numbers, he explained. However, things need to change for people to receive adequate help.

According to Stewart, PhD, social workers deal with 60% of the cases involving people who suffer from problem gambling. Therefore, equipping social workers with the skills necessary to help problem gamblersget better should be an important priority for states that regulated gambling.

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