Helping a friend with alcoholism

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Hi /adv/. I have a group of friends that I talk to and play games with at night, we've been friends for around 10 years now. We generally have a great time, laughing and shooting the shit with one another. We come from various walks of life; some I am very close with, others are friends of friends that I've never met in real life.

There's one person in the group however. Every time he joins, without fail, he is either intoxicated or on his way to being there. Every time he joins it's like the air is sucked out of the room. He says inappropriate things. He throws games because he was going to get another beer or because he momentarily fell asleep or because he was too drunk to know what was going on. He's currently unemployed and he spends the entire day drinking instead of looking for jobs.

My problem is this: I've never met the guy in person; he's a friend of a friend. I recognize that he has a problem, but every time I bring up the fact that we should do something to my friends their response is either "Ya it's a problem, but I don't really know him either" or "So-and-so is trying currently"(though not really).

Basically the group is afraid of conflict and confrontation but I recognize that the kid needs help and I want to be the person to lead the group to getting him the help he needs. I've never dealt with alcoholism before so I don't really know what the best way to approach this is. For those that have dealt with it before, what would be the best way to go about it? What would you do in my position? Thanks.