For years I've joined with the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling to raise awareness of gambling addiction in Connecticut and promote services and supports for individuals and families confronting problem gambling.

At each event I've attended in recent years, and with each group I meet, I repeat a similar sentiment: we cannot and we must not let down our guard with regard to problem gambling.

I echo this belief and continue to beat the drum on this issue because, quite frankly, Connecticut has grown complacent. The state has grown increasingly reliant on revenues from casino gambling to support its budget to the extent that necessity of this revenue stream is now taken for granted.

Yet why is it not taken for granted that we must continue to study the effects of casinos on gambling addiction amongst Connecticut's population? Why, in a state where gambling plays such an outsized role in state affairs, is there such little political will to shine a light on the addiction that arises wherever gambling proliferates?

We last undertook a comprehensive study of problem gambling in Connecticut six years ago, in 2008. Despite an annual push by advocates and a group of loyal legislators, we have been unable to secure support for a more up-to-date study. In fact, it took years for us to even secure the 2008 study.

I raise these points now because recent rumblings from a few in our state suggest a wish to expand gambling in Connecticut as a means to keep our casinos competitive with those outside our borders. Anyone familiar with my opposition to legalizing keno in Connecticut two years ago will be unsurprised to hear me express a similar distaste for further expansion of our casinos.

I am not opposed to gambling. What I am opposed to is expanding gambling options in our state without possessing a thorough analysis of Connecticut's current gambling addiction problems. It would be grossly irresponsible to entertain the notion of additional gambling without first gathering the most up-to-date information on addiction. We must make sure our house is in order before we entertain the possibility of making any additions.

Connecticut is a state that has made tough choices. In the last four years we have taken the right path, not the easy one. We have made the difficult choices to move Connecticut forward. I do not see how additional casinos enter our policymaking calculus as a reasonable means to move Connecticut forward.

Regardless, we must continue to take the right path, not the easy one. That begins with a new study on problem gambling in Connecticut. Expanded gambling will almost certainly necessitate additional awareness, education and support services. It is essential that we know where we presently stand before exacerbating a potentially serious issue.

Ultimately, whether or not Connecticut expands gambling, we must get a new, accurate assessment of where our state currently stands regarding gambling addiction and the availability and delivery of the resources we currently afford our citizens. Connecticut needs legislators who will step up and push for a new study. I urge my colleagues to be the leaders that their constituents expect them to be. Please advocate for this study; it is the right and necessary thing to do.

For 10 years Andrea Stillman has been the state senator for the 20th District. She did not seek re-election.