Compulsive gambling help: the register is confidential by law

It is the government programme for compulsive gambling, created by law in 2006 and placed inside ASSMCA. What matters most before calling fits in one line of the law: the register of the people who ask for help is confidential, kept separately, and any non-therapeutic use is prohibited. The law also says the services are for the affected person and for their relatives.

The law sets no eligibility requirements. It writes the help as something given “to the persons who request it,” and its public policy declaration covers both the affected person and their relatives. The concrete admission criteria for each treatment do not live in this law but in the ASSMCA programmes it refers to, and those have their own guide here.

• To request it. The law writes the Program’s duty as offering orientation and referrals to specialised treatment “to the persons who request it.”Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: The register is confidential and kept separately

   It is the fear that stops many people and the law addresses it head on. Among the Program’s duties is “to prepare a confidential register, kept separately, of the persons who request help from the Program,” and the same line adds: “The register’s confidentiality shall be guaranteed and any non-therapeutic use shall be prohibited.” Separately, and with non-therapeutic use prohibited: that is what the law says.

2. 2

   Step 2: The help is for the family too

   Worth knowing if the person seeking help is not the one gambling. The law’s public policy is to implement strategies “aimed at detecting compulsive gamblers in order to give them, and their relatives as well, professional mental health and orientation services with the purpose of reducing the prevalence of Pathological Gambling in Puerto Rico.”

3. 3

   Step 3: What the Program is supposed to do

   The law lists the duties and these are the ones with a human face: to offer orientation workshops on the consequences of unrestrained gambling; to offer orientation services and referrals to specialised treatment to the persons who request it; to keep the confidential register; and to formulate and implement the necessary prevention, treatment and rehabilitation strategies, “and establish quality controls for them.” It must also administer the assigned funds and seek additional funds from federal, state, municipal or private agencies or programmes.

4. 4

   Step 4: Declared priority: education, orientation, treatment and rehabilitation

   It is a short sentence and it helps in asking for what is due: “It shall be the Compulsive Gamblers Program’s priority to offer education, orientation, treatment and rehabilitation services to the affected persons.” All four things, not just a talk.

5. 5

   Step 5: Who sits on the Committee

   The composition says a lot about where the problem comes from and where the money comes from. The law orders establishing a Committee “which shall be chaired by ASSMCA’s Administrator, and shall be composed of the Secretary of the Treasury Department, the Director of the Electronic and Traditional Lottery, the Administrator of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, the Horse Racing Sport Administrator, the Secretary of the Department of Recreation and Sports, to ensure the Program’s proper functioning.”

6. 6

   Step 6: The gambling industry pays for the programme

   The law sets four annual sources of two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) each: from the gross income of Pool bets in the horse racing industry and sport; from the gross income produced by slot machines; from the Lottery Fund where ticket sale proceeds go; and from the net operational income of the Additional Lottery System. The Administration is also authorized to match those funds with federal, state, municipal or private sector contributions.

7. 7

   Step 7: There is an annual report with the persons served

   It serves oversight, and that is why we include it. “The Administrator shall submit to the Legislative Assembly within a term of sixty (60) working days, at the close of each fiscal year, a development and progress report on the Program, including the funds used, the persons served and an evaluation of the measures that should be implemented to achieve this Act’s objectives.”

The Program is attached to ASSMCA and that is the door. Our guide to ASSMCA’s treatment catalogue is the one explaining the divisions and the programmes by population, and the Línea PAS one is what helps if what you have is a crisis right now. This guide is the law behind that door: why the Program exists, what it must offer and why the register of whoever asks for help is confidential.

• Not asking for help out of fear of a record: the law orders a confidential register, kept separately, and prohibits any non-therapeutic use.
• Believing the help is only for the person gambling: the law’s public policy covers their relatives as well.
• Waiting for the Program to come find you: the law writes the orientation and referral for “the persons who request it.”
• Thinking the Program only gives talks: the law sets education, orientation, treatment and rehabilitation as the priority.
• Looking for admission criteria in this law: they are not there, they are in ASSMCA’s treatment programmes.
• Confusing this with the crisis line: if the situation is an emergency right now, that has its own guide.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Administración de Servicios de Salud Mental y Contra la Adicción (ASSMCA)

  ASSMCA

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov