90 per cent of the 92 people who have graduated from Judge Mark Farrell's gambling court have not reoffended. Photo / Sarah Ivey
Treating gambling addicts who commit crimes would be much cheaper than jailing them, and would reduce reoffending, says a New York judge who set up the world's only specialist Gambling Treatment Court.
Judge Mark Farrell, a speaker at an international gambling conference starting in Auckland today, says it costs US$7000
to US$10,000 ($8400 to $12,000) to put an offender through a year-long gambling treatment programme, compared with $97,000 to keep a prisoner for a year in a New Zealand jail.
More importantly, 90 per cent of the 92 people who have graduated from his gambling court have not reoffended. In New Zealand, 59 per cent of all released prisoners reoffend within two years.
Auckland psychologist Dr Sean Sullivan will make a case at the conference on Friday for adding gambling to the special Drug Courts being tried in Auckland and Waitakere.
"There are thousands of such courts in the world now so it's not as though New Zealand is going to find they don't work," he said. "But we might be right at the cutting edge now if we could have a gambling court."
