The Doctor and the Gambler

Of integrity and responsibility

     On January 22, 1998, the National Gambling Impact Study Commission invited Dr. Valerie Lorenz, a highly respected researcher who has studied problem gambling for 25 years, to address the commission on her research. She submitted a written as well as an oral presentation. Her work and presence was entirely voluntary at her own expense. The website of the NGISC, www.ngisc.gov , provides the oral testimony, but the written presentation is missing.

     At the end of the testimony of Dr. Lorenz and of Ed Looney, Executive Director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling in New Jersey, Commissioner and MGM Grand Casino Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer J. Terrence Lanni engaged Dr. Lorenz in a dialogue in an attempt to discredit her. Apparently Dr. Lorenz had said some things about the lack of responsibility of gambling industry leaders toward pathological gambling in her written presentation.

     Read the discourse between the doctor and the gambler wherein the distinguished defender of gambling den millionaires loyally rescues their integrity from the evil researcher.