Westbrook - When sentencing problem gamblers convicted of crimes, state judges have much to consider - and few options - speakers at the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling's annual conference said Thursday.

New London Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Clifford, a conference panelist, said the presiding judges who mete out sentences must weigh the need to punish offenders, protect victims and deter future crimes against the need to rehabilitate those with such problems as gambling addictions.

In any event, he said, the state lacks a "diversionary program" that could benefit convicted problem gamblers.

"I think we're behind on that (in Connecticut)," said panelist James McKay, a state public defender.

Nearly 200 people attended the conference at the Water's Edge Resort & Spa.

Donna Zaharevitz, another panelist, described her own gambling addiction, which led to her arrest for larceny and three suicide attempts. Well into her recovery, she founded a problem-gambling program for women incarcerated at the York Correctional Institution in Niantic and now counsels problem gamblers and their families.

"Prior to 1994, I was a model citizen," she said. "I ran for first selectwoman in my town."

Once hooked on the machines at the casinos, her life began to spin out of control, she said. While house-sitting for a friend, she helped herself to some of the friend's checks.

"Oh, I took deposit slips, too," Zaharevitz said. "I was going to pay back the money."

At some point, detectives arrived on her doorstep. Her arrest led to court appearances and a sentence of two years' probation. Still she gambled, refusing to believe she had a problem. That admission would finally come in the wee hours one morning after she fell asleep behind the wheel of her car while returning home from a casino.

"I'm not proud of what I did," Zaharevitz said, "but I'm proud of what I do today."

Clifford said many of the offenders he sees are, like Zaharevitz, "good people who do bad things." That's why it's so important, he said, for the court system to understand why a person commits such a crime as larceny or embezzlement. Is it simply greed? A need for money to buy drugs? To fuel a gambling addiction?

"The more information we have, the better," Clifford said.

McKay, the public defender, said the gambling addict "flies below the radar" far more often than the offender with a drug or alcohol problem. Reinforcing Clifford's point, he said such offenders are rarely hardened criminals. Typically, he said, they are in their 30s or 40s and have "not so much as a traffic ticket" on their record.

"Then they start gambling and it's like crack," he said. "God forbid they should win their first time out."

According to the panelists, the gambling-addicted offenders who end up in jail are most often those who have resorted to violence or, in the case of embezzlements, stolen large sums.

"If I've got an embezzler with the ability to work and make payments, I'm going to push for probation so that person can stay out of jail," McKay said.

A fourth panelist, Susan Brown of the state Office of the Chief Public Defender, said public defenders have to be more aware of the underlying causes of their clients' criminal behavior.

"It's important to ask the questions about how people are spending their free time," she said. "It's about putting it on our radar so we can bring it to the court."

During a question-and-answer period, Soncherie Silvan, a conference attendee from Norwich, said she'd lost "a trust fund, a house and two husbands" to a gambling addiction. She also spent 2½ years at York after being convicted of conspiracy to commit robbery, she said.

"I get angry that the casinos are legal," Silvan said. "(Gambling) needs to be as illegal as crack."

b.hallenbeck@theday.com