BY MELISSA GRACE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Brooklyn has a gambling problem - and it's growing.
The number of Brooklynites calling the state's hotline for problem gamblers jumped almost 20% in 2004 - to 344 from 288 in 2003.
The numbers of female and teen gamblers also are on the rise, experts said.
"Brooklyn had a large increase in numbers" of callers, said Mariangela Milea, assistant executive director of the New York Council on Problem Gambling.
While other boroughs have seen larger percentage increases in callers - the number of them from Staten Island jumped 117% - Brooklyn's total remains at the top.
It even outpaces Manhattan, where 296 gamblers called the hotline last year, compared with 189 in 2003.
Experts say the number of a borough's residents dialing for help is a function of population, and with 2.5 million people, Brooklyn is the most populous of the five boroughs.
Though Brooklyn has the largest number of admitted gamblers in the city, it has no treatment clinic.
St. Vincent's Medical Center - the only institution the Council on Problem Gambling refers callers to - has branches in Manhattan and Queens.
Gambling is increasingly more accessible and popular through the Internet and on TV, where poker shows on ESPN and "Celebrity Poker Showdown" have become a phenomenon.
Stephen Block, an outreach education director at the Gamblers' Treatment Center at St. Vincent's Medical Center on Staten Island, said a 19-year-old gambling addict from that borough recently came to see him.
Block asked the teen what he planned to major in at college.
"It doesn't matter, because I'm going to be a professional poker player," he told Block.
Most experts say gambling has become more popular than pornography on the Internet.
Online poker rooms are "24-hour-a-day operations for a nominal fee that quickly adds up," said Linda Berman, New York-based co-author of "Behind the 8-Ball: A Guide for Families of Gamblers."
Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes' office said it now prosecutes far fewer gambling-related crimes - not because there's less gambling, but because more people place their bets online.
"We've seen no increase in gambling-related crimes. It appears to have gone offshore and onto the Internet," said Michael Vecchione, chief prosecutor in Hynes' rackets bureau.
A big concern among counselors and leaders at Gamblers Anonymous is a dramatic rise in the number of young gamblers coming to them for help.
Statewide, 28% of gamblers said in a survey they started placing bets before their 18th birthday.
"For young boys especially, betting on football is almost a right of passage," said Berman.
And Block said 20% of his clients are women.
"Ten years ago, it was half that," he said.
