The New Jersey lottery and the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey have come together to launch a new campaign to increase problem gambling awareness.
The “Awareness + Action” campaign is designed to educate the public on gambling addiction and its treatment.
Neva Pryor, executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey, says the campaign is about educating the public and letting them know gambling addiction is “a preventable disease.”
“Gambling can be an enjoyable activity for some people but for others and their families, that really caused the problem,” she told NJ 101.5 radio.
Pryor says the informational campaign will go out through media and online videos stressing that anyone affected by a problem gambler, including families, should call 1-800-GAMBLER. The introduction of sports betting in the state and online gambling has increased public exposure to gambling opportunities, and also heightened the risk for problem gamblers, she said.
“We’ve seen an increase in our phone calls,” Pryor said. “And right now, we’re tracking the sports betting calls in particular and we’ve known that among our calls, 22 percent of them are related to sports as a primary or secondary activity.”
