Across the country, the CNHI News Service survey found, state and local governments are spending only $35.5 million of the $20.9 billion they receive annually in gambling taxes for treatment.

Mike Stone, executive director of the Kentucky Council on Compulsive Gambling, said his state falls into the "zero, nada, zilch" category. And, he adds, "we're seeing an increase in people seeking help" because of riverboat casinos along the Indiana border.

The gambling industry as a whole does far better than Kentucky and yet it spends only a slight sum of its billions in profits on research, prevention and treatment. And nowhere close to the many millions it shovels out to influence lawmakers through lobbying, and gamblers through TV, Internet, direct mail and billboard advertising.

The industry has established the National Center on Responsible Gaming, a small nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that says it is trying to develop tools for prevention and treatment of addictive gambling.

The center proudly claims it is "committed to funding research that some day will identify the risk factors for gambling disorders and determine methods for not only treating the disorder but preventing it, much like physicians can identify patients at risk from cardiovascular disease long before a heart attack." Yet it operates on a shoestring budget compared with the huge outlays spent by the government, private agencies, foundations and others on heart disease research.

The center is quick to boast about a $2.4 million startup grant and a $1.1 million annual appropriation to Harvard's Medical School to fund the Institute for Research on Pathological Gambling and Related Disorders. The only other major expenditure ($180,000) is for an annual gambling addiction conference in Las Vegas, attended by researchers, public health administrators, treatment providers and gambling executives.

Integrity in Science Project, a group that monitors scientific research for conflicts of interest, has indicated concern over Harvard accepting research money from an industry that reaps handsome rewards from the very problem under study. The unstated worry is research skewed to reflect a desired outcome - specifically, that addiction has been overstated by critics of legal gambling.

Christine Reilly, executive director of the Harvard institute, rejects any notion the gambling industry could manipulate the research. She said it funds the institute but has no say in how the research is conducted or the results - which, she added, are subject to rigorous peer review by scientific journals.

Two unaffiliated nonprofits are making independent efforts to help problem and compulsive gamblers, although both suffer from lack of resources. They are Gamblers Anonymous, which has more than 1,400 chapters in the United States, and the National Council on Problem Gambling, which has 34 state affiliates.

Gamblers Anonymous is modeled after the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. A state-by-state directory of local meetings is posted on its Web site (gamblersanonymous.org/mtgdirTOP.html). Financial support comes from private contributions.

The Council on Problem Gambling is an advocacy group to increase public awareness and encourage treatment programs for troubled gamblers and their families. Funds for the group's $500,000-a-year budget come from private and foundation contributions and at least two casino companies. It operates a national hotline (1-800-522-4700) for problem gamblers, and more than 200,000 problem gamblers call it over the course of a year.

Keith Whythe

Keith S. Whyte is the council's executive director and once worked for the American Gaming Association, the industry's lobbying arm. He said the council is neutral on the debate over legalized gambling, focusing its efforts instead on helping addicts overcome their problem.

The federal government, Whyte said, has been unhelpful in the effort to get mental health care for compulsive gamblers, pointing to the absence of compulsive gambling from mention in the Americans with Disabilities Act. The exclusion, he said, allows insurance companies to refuse to pay for treatment programs for problem gamblers.

"Addictive gambling is a rare and stigmatized sort of behavioral health disorder because there's no physical or outward signs," said Whyte. "It has slipped through the legislative cracks."

Congress, he added, could easily fix the issue by expanding the definition of the disabilities law to include compulsive gambling as a public health problem, the same as it did with alcoholism and drug abuse.