In 2011, the Massachusetts legislature passed and the governor signed into law the Expanded Gaming Act, which expanded the domains of legal gambling to include a limited number of casinos and formed a state Gaming Commission to oversee legal gaming in the Commonwealth. It also established the Public Health Trust Fund (PHTF) to prevent and treat problem gambling and related issues by allocating significant resources to research, prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery support services.

This report presents the findings and recommendations from a Regional Needs Assessment of the roles that community health workers (CHWs) could effectively play in future systems of prevention, identification, assessment, support, and referrals to treatment services to mitigate problem gambling. Also included are perspectives shared by respondents, including the directors of the two main CHW training programs in western Massachusetts, concerning the nature and content of the training CHWs need to be properly prepared for their roles.