society Smith had seen the woe unleashed on many of her fellow Cherokee members with the rise of tribal gaming in her native Oklahoma, home to more than 100 casinos.
chologist who is founder and head of the Problem Gambling Center in Las Vegas, introduced Hartwell to Sydney Smith. At the time, she was a Southern Nevada newcomer who was setting up a therapy practice primarily focusing on problem gambling. Her connection to the issue had a personal dimension as well. Smith had seen the woe unleashed on many of her fellow Cherokee members with the rise of tribal casinos in her native Oklahoma, home to more than 100 casinos. She shared Hartwell’s enthusiasm and concern about native peoples. “It was exciting to hear Ted sketch out his idea to look at how a stigmatized addiction affects frequently marginalized groups,” Smith says. “My hope then and now was to be part of research that will offer insight that’s valid across tribal communities.” But the process would be just as
important as the goal; talking to native tribes called for a careful approach. For instance, Smith says the reliance on revenue from Oklahoma’s tribal casinos made the Cherokee there suspicious of anyone asking tough questions about compulsive gambling. “This is a problem that touched my family, my friends, and other people I grew up with,” says Smith, whose practice, Rise Center for Recovery, has offices in Oklahoma as well as Las Vegas. “Back home, the tribes are wary of giving ammunition to their political opponents, who fought them on gaming every step of the way.” Such wariness is less of an issue in Nevada, where gambling has been part of the fabric of the state for 85 years, and only four of the state’s 27 tribes are in the casino business. Still, Hartwell and Smith met countless times over the course of a year on how best to approach
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