Gambling Treatment Diversion Courts Are Long Overdue

Nevada has the only gambling treatment diversion court (GTDC) in the country, but efforts are underway in several states to launch a similar program. One of those states, New Jersey, looks to be the closest to establishing a GTDC.

In May, New Jersey Assemblyman Anthony Caputo introduced Bill Number A-5604. The legislation would establish a GTDC pilot program in the state.

According to a press release issued by the New Jersey Gambling Court Initiative (NJGCI):

“The Bill establishes a Gambling Treatment Diversion Court (GTDC) Pilot Program in the criminal court system to provide treatment, monitoring, and support for persons with gambling disorders who have committed crimes and the crime was done in furtherance of gambling addiction.”

The New Jersey GTDC pilot program is modeled after Nevada’s successful GTDC, and is widely seen as a critical component of a robust responsible and problem gambling program. If established, “a defendant can elect to enter a gambling treatment diversion program if a criminal judge deems they are eligible in lieu of incarceration. Upon completion of the program, the felony conviction will be set aside if conditions are met,” the NJGCI press release notes.

Nevada Gets the GTDC Ball Rolling

The Nevada GTDC was authorized in 2009, but the court wasn’t established until November 2018. New Jersey native Judge Cheryl Moss presided over the Nevada GTDC up until her retirement last year. Throughout her tenure, Judge Moss has been a vocal advocate for establishing GTDCs across the country. Her advocacy has increased since her retirement.

As Judge Moss explained in an interview with Gaming Law Review (paywall), the delayed rollout in Nevada shouldn’t be viewed as the standard, and the program can pay dividends in short order.

“It took only two months to coordinate all the logistics involved in creating a specialty court, such as personnel, contracts, specialty court applications, monitoring services, drug testing services, financial monitoring tools, and of course, having a network of treatment providers,” Judge Moss said. “After nearly two years of the GTDC program, our court now has eight participants. The number has quadrupled since the first day we heard our first two cases.”  

The New Jersey GTDC Efforts

To bring a GTDC to New Jersey, Judge Moss collaborated with George Mladenetz of Hamilton, New Jersey, formerly with the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey, to create the NJGCI, the organization responsible for initiating Bill Number A-5604. Full disclosure, I’m a member of the New Jersey Gambling Court Initiative advisory group.

As the NJGCI press release details, the basic outline of the New Jersey GTDC effort is to put the following systems in place:

1. The GTDC will operate similarly with regard to protocols and best practices already in place in New Jersey’s other specialty courts such as Drug Court
2. The GTDC “TEAM” consists of the judge, a prosecutor, a public defender, a specialty court coordinator with a mental health and addictions background, and a community provider (the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey)
3. Generally, the GTDC judge will see the defendant regularly in the courtroom to make sure they are on track to successfully complete the program.

The Benefits of a GTDC

In a guest column in The Star-Ledger, Judge Moss ran through the myriad benefits of establishing a GTDC:

• Gambling Treatment Diversion Courts save lives and taxpayer money. According to the VERA Institute of Justice and the NJ Institute for Social Justice, it costs New Jersey about $61,603 per year for a healthy inmate. Compare this to Nevada at an average cost of $17,851.
• There is a low budget impact in creating a Gambling Court. No building needs to be built. Court proceedings can be held a few times per month in one courtroom. One judge can be trained at little to no cost to work with attorneys (prosecutors, defense attorneys), social service workers, and treatment providers (certified problem gambling counselors) to preside over and adjudicate diversion treatment cases in criminal settings.
• Specialized treatment courts can lead to better outcomes. Gambling Treatment Diversion Courts have more resources to work directly with gambling treatment providers and organizations, such as state Councils associated with the National Council on Problem Gambling, which exist in 36 states. This coordination can lead to positive outcomes in lowering recidivism rates and saving taxpayer money that would otherwise be wastefully spent on incarceration.
• Courts can oversee the process of the gambler’s recovery and relationship with family members.
• Finally, it just makes sense that gaming states should have gambling diversion. The upward increase of gambling across the country, coupled with the relatively recent recognition of gambling disorder as a behavioral addiction with many parallels and significant co-occurrence with substance addictions for which most states already have specialized court remedies, argue for their creation.