BOSTON – The division of Harvard Medical School that studies pathological gambling is under fire from some anti-gambling activists who point out that virtually all its funding comes from the gambling industry.
The Institute for Research on Pathological Gambling and Related Disorders, founded four years ago, has received nearly $5 million in industry money.
Gambling opponents say the institute’s research has been used by gambling industry lobbyists trying to persuade state lawmakers to approve new gambling venues and to counter charges that gambling is widely addictive and causes other social problems.
“They point to the Harvard research all the time,” said the Rev. Tom Grey, a Methodist minister who heads the nonprofit National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling. “It’s a good investment. They’re getting Harvard cheap at this point.”
Harvard officials and gambling industry representatives say the institute’s scientists are under no pressure and that the research may lead to treatments for gambling addictions.
Dr. Howard Shaffer, the institute’s director, said its work is unbiased and its research is reviewed by independent scientists before publication.
Harvard Medical School’s administration has reviewed the arrangement between the industry and the institute twice in the last four years and found no evidence of biased research, medical school spokesman Don Gibbons said.
In September, during debate on slot machine expansion in Maryland, gambling industry lobbyist Frank Fahrenkopf told lawmakers that Harvard research indicated that 1.14 percent of adult Americans suffered from pathological gambling problems, disputing industry opponents who claim the number is higher. He did not mention that other aspects of the study indicated more widespread gambling problems.
The industry typically omits the institute’s broader findings, including that almost 4 percent of adults had some degree of a gambling problem, that 20 percent of adolescents were pathological or at-risk gamblers and that the lifetime problem gambling rate among adults had doubled between 1977 and 1997.
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