CARMEL – The National Council of Alcoholism and Other Drug Dependencies of Putnam has now implemented a program to combat gambling addiction.

The group has been awarded a $60,000 annual grant to develop and implement strategies to prevent and reduce problem gambling, which is pretty serious, said Executive Director Kristin Cafiero.

“Nearly 60 percent of students in grades eight through 12 in all five of our school districts reported some sort of gambling in the last year and of them, just about 11 percent admitted to online gambling,” she said. “So, there is definitely concern for adolescents; there’s always a concern for the adults going to the racinos and casinos, and also, the senior population.”

The council has hired Juliette Doyle to coordinate the new program to create local efforts to educate and raise awareness to the problem of gambling addiction.