Why I’m voting for casino repeal

By Carlo Rotella

| Globe Columnist October 10, 2014

 

 

Jessica Rinaldi/Globe staff/file 2014

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission recently awarded a casino license to Wynn Resorts.


On Nov. 4 I’m going to vote “yes’’ on ballot Question 3, which calls for the repeal of the 2011 law allowing casinos in Massachusetts. My reasons have nothing to do with moral objections or concern about gambling addiction, which to my mind distract attention from more compelling arguments. The meat of the case against casinos is, as 33 eminent scholars and other experts argued last year in an authoritative report entitled “Why Casinos Matter,’’ that they don’t deliver the jobs or tax revenues that they promise. Their overrated benefits are short-lived and their underestimated costs linger over the long term; they tend to drive out sound local businesses like restaurants and attract predatory ones like payday lenders; and they bring increases in problems like bankruptcy and corruption that strain a state’s political culture and social fabric.

 

Jeff Jacoby: I back casinos — and killing casino bill

 

I don’t hate casinos. Because they host boxing matches, I probably spend more time in them than do most other pro-repeal voters, and I’ll play a little roulette on my way into or out of a fight. The faint thrill wears off rapidly for me, but if other people like casinos that’s their business and none of mine.

 

 

 

However, my commitment to the principle of letting consenting adults do what they want reaches a limit when it comes to inviting into our state an industry that profits by weakening economies and communities. It’s one thing if my fellow citizens enjoy watching their own money go around and around the toilet bowl on the way down, but another entirely if it’s our shared quality of life they’re trying to flush.

 

I became sold on repeal a year ago, when the petition was circulating that would eventually result in Question 3, despite opposition from organized gambling and its allies in state government. Two developments since then have only strengthened my conviction.

 

First, the economic argument for repeal has gotten even stronger. As more casinos open in the Northeast, the regional market has become increasingly oversaturated, and the gambling industry’s claims that more casinos will produce net gains in jobs and revenues sound less convincing than ever. Over the summer, Moody’s downgraded its outlook for the casino industry from “stable” to “negative.”

 

Casino revenue in neighboring Connecticut is down 35 percent since 2007, and in New Jersey it’s down nearly 50 percent since 2006. Casinos are closing in Atlantic City, which with its string of brightly lit gambling palaces along the shoreline resembles a beach town beset by a dozen spaceships that blasted the place halfway to hell when they landed. Now the spaceships depart, leaving behind scorched ruins. Oh, well, back to trying to actually make stuff and provide services people can use. We already do that here.

 

The second development is that the casino industry has poured money into defeating repeal. As of the end of August, the pro-casino Coalition to Protect Mass Jobs had raised more than $1.7 million this year, compared to less than $250,000 raised by its opposite number, Repeal the Casino Deal. The no faction is running ads promising that casinos will bring jobs, and, while the state’s economy has recently taken a few more steps toward recovery that make casinos a harder sell, there are still plenty of depressed places, desperate people, and opportunistic politicians in Massachusetts ready to listen to a quick-fix gambling pitch. Various localities have voted down specific casino proposals, but people unwilling to allow a casino in their backyard are less exercised about having a couple halfway across the state. Polls show that repeal’s running behind, and the late money’s coming in on the other side.

Casino revenue in neighboring Connecticut is down 35 percent since 2007, and in New Jersey it’s down nearly 50 percent since 2006.

I take the disparity in spending as another reason to vote “yes,’’ a chance to stick up for the common good by pushing back against the rule of one dollar, one vote. And I can overcome my general pessimism about all things electoral to hope that in this cantankerous Commonwealth there may be enough voters who recognize the lousy deal masked by the come-on for casinos and who distrust the effects of big-time gambling money sloshing through back channels on Beacon Hill. If I can find somebody who’ll give me decent odds, I’ll even put down a modest bet on “yes.’’

 

 

 

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/10/10/why-voting-for-casino-repeal/x8GoUsQTmSHyPhZoSAGFJI/story.html

 

 

Former Chester University bar manager stole £13K to pay gambling debts

Former Chester University bar manager stole £13K to pay gambling debts

Published date: 19 August 2014 |

Published by: Staff reporter

A FORMER University of Chester bar manager has avoided an immediate jail sentence after stealing more than £13,000 in takings to pay off his gambling debts.

Michael Poyner helped himself to cash from the till at the Cheyney Road University Campus over five months from August last year, before staff became suspicious and called in auditors to investigate.

Poyner, 26, who admitted six counts of theft, was at the time battling mounting debts from payday loan companies due to a long-term gambling addiction, Chester Crown Court heard.

After a full internal investigation, Poyner, described as being “well liked and highly trusted”, by fellow university students and colleagues, resigned from his post as bar manager after confessing to bosses, claiming he intended to repay back every penny of the money which he had took from multiple tills.

On the last occasion, on January 10 this year, Poyner had stolen more than £8,000 from numerous tills.

He immediately resigned from his manager’s post, and the university called police who arrested him soon after. A search of his home revealed correspondence which proved Poyner had engaged in payday loans and debt recovery notices, said Maria Masselis, prosecuting.

Poyner, now living in North Road, Islington, London, told police he had been too ashamed to go to his family for help with his financial difficulties.

 

 

 

In a statement, the university said Poyner’s actions were “difficult to digest” in light of how the Student Union is a charitable organisation from which monies raised are used to run student services.

Peter Barnett, defending, said Poyner was of previous good character, and described him as a “very affable young man”.

He added: “Mr Poyner has never tried to hide this matter, he was very well trusted and in those circumstances he took advantage.

“He is full of remorse for what he has done to the people who entrusted him at the university, he feels great shame at the embarrassment he has caused to them. He has also had to tell his family and his partner about his wrongdoing.

He wants to apologise for his actions.”

Judge Rajeev Shetty sentenced Poyner to a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for two years as he believed Poyner’s actions had not been contrived or sophisticated, and he had shown remorse for his wrongdoing. He also took into consideration Poyner being of previous good character.

But he told Poyner: “The fact the money was used to try and keep afloat your debt demonstrates how easily some people can be seduced by the lure of gambling and payday loans.

“You have discovered to your own costs that dangerous course.”

Following sentencing, the university released a statement, saying: “As a charitable organisation, every pound raised by Chester Students’ Union is spent on running our student services which is why this theft is particularly difficult to digest. We therefore acted in accordance with our procedures and involved the police to send a clear message that such actions will not be tolerated under any circumstances.”

Poyner was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work, pay £100 towards costs, and compensation to Chester University, the details of which had yet to be agreed before the Leader went to press.

 

 

http://www.chesterfirst.co.uk/news/137077/former-chester-university-bar-manager-stole-13k-to-pay-gambling-debts.aspx

 

 

Banker Embezzled to fund Government Sponsored Addiction, Repay PAYDAY LOANS

Santander bank worker raided customers' accounts 'to fund gambling addiction'

By Joanne Rowe, Reporter

Saturday 31st May 2014

Bank worker raided customers' accounts 'to fund gambling addiction'

A BANK worker who raided customers’ accounts to fund his addiction to fixed odds betting machines has been jailed at Bolton Crown Court.

The court heard how Ben Spencer lost cash on the machines and dipped into Santander customers’ accounts when he could not afford the pay-day loans he had taken out to repay his debts.

Daniel Calder, prosecuting, told how 23-year-old Spencer was taken on by the bank in January 2010, as a customer advisor, but in August 2011 he was promoted to the position of personal account manager, which allowed him to have a unique reference number giving him access to customer accounts.

Recorder Philip Curran said it was a “pity” no one realised at that time that Spencer, who worked at branches across Greater Manchester, had a gambling problem.

Mr Calder said that just over a year after Spencer was promoted, on August 31, 2012, he transferred £1,000 from a customer’s account into a Lloyds TSB account he had set up himself.

He subsequently stole a total of £28,417.85 from 11 customers over the following 16 months, transferring the cash into his own Lloyds TSB account and to two others he had set up for the same purpose.

The crime only came to light in January this year when customer Jeffrey Marsland checked his account and complained to the bank that two lots of £1,000 had been transferred out in October and December last year.

Mr Calder said the complaint sparked an investigation.

He said: “The defendant was swiftly identified as the employee responsible for carrying out those transactions.”

The court heard that Spencer, of Cross Field Drive, Radcliffe, resigned and co-operated with investigators to identify all the customers he had stolen from in order to pay off gambling debts.

“He admitted he had taken the money in an attempt to remedy the spiral he found himself in,” said Mr Calder.

Spencer pleaded guilty to 16 counts of theft.

Rebecca Sharpe, defending, said that although his victims were all over 55 years, their ages were not the reason Spencer had selected them as targets.

They had large sums in their accounts so the bank worker hoped the amounts he stole, which ranged from £27, to more than £3,000 at a time, would not be missed.

She added that Spencer, who has no previous criminal record, had now sought the help of Gamblers Anonymous and is unlikely to appear in court again.

“He makes no attempt to minimise his actions and takes responsibility for them,” said Miss Sharpe.

Jailing Spencer for 12 months, Recorder Curran told him: “The tragedy is that, having got into debt yourself, you tried to get out of it by stealing other people’s money.

“You must have realised at that time that what you were doing was a serious breach of trust.

“It undermines the confidence of people who use banks — people put their money in there in the belief it would be safe.”

http://www.burytimes.co.uk/news/11248601.Bank_worker_raided_customers__accounts__to_fund_gambling_addiction_/

Gambling Addict's Marriage in Tatters After Online Betting Binge

Strood woman Collette Smith's marriage in tatters by racking up £16k debt in husband's name after going on online betting binge

by Lynn Cox

A mother of three lost her home, her husband and almost lost her freedom after an online gambling obsession spiralled out of control.

 

A court heard Collette Smith, 40, took out several payday loans in her husband's name without telling him while she was trying to hide her addiction.

 

But despite racking up £16,000 of debt with payday loan companies, banks and other borrowers, she could not keep up the repayments and her deception was discovered by her husband Dennis.

Collette Smith's gambling obsession spiralled out of control.

He found out about the fraud when he started getting threatening letters and calls about the debt he owed.

 

Direct debits for monthly outgoings, including council tax and other utility bills, were not paid and he went to his bank to ask why.

 

It was only then he discovered some bank statements had been hidden from him by his wife of 16 years. The couple are now divorcing.

"She tells me she and her husband were very happy until this happened and it has put too much upheaval on the parties and they have separated..." - Natalie Brown, defending

Smith, of Weston Road, Strood, was charged with fraud and appeared before Medway magistrates for sentencing on Monday after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing.

 

Debbie Jones, prosecuting, said Smith had built up debts with payday loan companies, such as Wonga, and had been gambling on internet sites.

 

She added: "Mr Smith was totally unaware of it. He started to get phone calls from debt collectors to his mobile and as each day went by he found more and more debt."

 

In a statement read out in court, Mr Smith said he was now working seven days a week so his home is not repossessed before it could be sold to pay off the debts.

 

Ms Jones added: "Mrs Smith has a serious gambling problem and the couple are now going through a divorce."

 

The court also heard Smith had got into debt with Argos and owed £755.

The case was heard at Medway Magistrates' Court

Natalie Brown, defending, said: "She struggled to cope and borrowed the money as there was a gap in their finances, a cash flow problem. The loans were easy to access and she could get a loan in 15 minutes. She spent it on gambling.

 

"She tells me she and her husband were very happy until this happened and it has put too much upheaval on the parties and they have separated.

 

"She is very sorry for the distress this has caused her family and she has stopped gambling."

Magistrates gave Smith a 16-week custodial sentence, suspended for two years, and told her to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and pay £755 compensation to Argos and £85 costs.

 

Chairman of the bench Janet Cherrison said: "We hope you get the help you need."

 

 

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway_messenger/news/gambling-obsession-14194/

"tax on the stupid"

No quick fix for nation's gambling addiction

Herald View

Wednesday 1 January 2014

We've all said it.

We've all said it.

       

When I win the lottery ... Of course, most of us know that winning the lottery is about as likely as being hit by lightning. But that doesn't stop us fantasising about it, especially at this time of year when budgets have been squeezed tight by Christmas. The government makes a lot of amount of money from this "tax on the stupid" as it has been called. Britain's success at the Olympic Games was largely built on lottery cash.

The downside is that, since the National Lottery was first established in 1994, gambling has become part of the fabric of everyday life. And more and more of us are becoming addicted to it. The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Lorna Hood, has warned in her New Year message that this is because gambling is now "cool and normalised" - the stigma has gone.

Along with pay-day loans, betting is making a significant contribution to the debt crisis faced by thousands of Scottish families.

According to the Scottish Health Survey published earlier this year, 70% of Scots have gambled in the past year. That's three million people, and the UK Gambling Commission estimate that 31,000 of them are addicted - not far short of the number of hard drug addicts in Scotland.

The problem has become significantly worse following the deregulation of gambling in 2005, which allowed online gaming companies to advertise on the UK media. Online gambling is now worth nearly £2 billion a year in the UK. The UK gambling industry as a whole enjoyed a jackpot yield of £6.3bn last year, up 7%.

Gambling is no respecter of age or social class. Online gambling is particularly attractive to middle-class women since it can be carried out discretely in the home and doesn't involve a trip to the bookmaker or casino.

But the crack cocaine of gambling are the fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) that have sprung up in bookmakers across Scotland, especially in areas of social deprivation. FOTBs allow people to bet up to £100 every 20 seconds, and Scottish bookies made £122 million profit from them last year alone. Gambling addiction charities are calling for the stakes to be limited to £2 in these machines, and we believe that this should be introduced as a matter of urgency. Labour has now promised to review high stakes betting machines if it wins the next election.

But it is time also to review the social cost as a whole. Gambling is reserved to Westminster and Holyrood has only limited powers to intervene. Nevertheless, we hope that in 2014 the Scottish Government will look closely at the licensing of betting establishments to see if something can be done to curb the growth of predatory gambling.

At the very least it should continue to lobby the UK government to stem the growth of fixed odds betting - a sure sign of a gambling industry that is out of control.


http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/herald-view/no-quick-fix-for-nations-gambling-addiction.23038933

 

Footballers Gambling with Payday Loans

Sporting Chance UK CEO Says Footballers Gambling with Payday Loans

October 28, 2013
By David Sheldon

The CEO of Sporting Chance, an organization that helps pro athletes with gambling problems, says you’d be surprised where they get their betting money from.

You’ve probably seen the ads for payday loans on TV or on a billboard – those services that will immediately cash your paycheck as a loan, only asking for an insanely high interest rate in return. You may have even used one in a pinch. But you’ve probably never considered the fact that a professional athlete might take advantage of this service to help place a bet or two on the side.

Yet that’s exactly what some UK footballers are doing to fund their gambling habits, according to Colin Bland, the CEO of Sporting Chance – a charity that helps athletes deal with addiction. According to the organization, about 70 percent of its referrals are related to gambling, and many soccer players end up in a recurring pattern where they have to use payday loans to continue betting.

Vicious Circle

“It’s not uncommon to have a player in a cycle of payday loans and gambling,” Bland told BBC Radio 5. “We are working with a lot more current football players. We have had players who have got caught up in the scenario of taking out payday loans to place bets. We’ve had several of those over the last couple of years, so the vicious circle continues.”

This might sound odd to the average working Joe, who wonders how a professional athlete could squander millions of dollars a year on gambling. But according to Bland, that can actually be part of the problem. At least one athlete has told him that the issue was that there’s always plenty of money coming into his pockets, which means that it’s always available and ready to wager on a moment’s notice.

“We’ve worked with players who have lost up to £7 million ($11.3 million) in three years in gambling,” Bland said. “But the particular young man I’m talking about said ‘it’s the quantity of bets I’m placing. I’m placing 50 bets a day…it’s affecting my life, it’s affecting my performance…it’s affecting what sort of father I can be.’”

Athletes Are Bettors

And while that might sound like a case that’s out of the norm, it’s no secret that athletes around the world love placing big bets. And some former soccer players in the UK have fessed up to losing plenty of money during their careers.

For instance, Stoke City winger Matthew Etherington publicly admitted to having a gambling problem earlier in his career. According to him, he lost about £1.5 million ($2.4 million) betting on poker, horse racing, and dog racing during his career. And while he relied on loan sharks to fulfill his gambling needs, that’s only because that’s what was most available to him.

“I don’t think the payday loans were about when I was gambling, otherwise I would probably be one of [the players that turned to them] myself,” Etherington has said.

“It just snowballed to where I was frequently spending my month’s wages and then lending money off loan sharks,” he said about his gambling addiction.

The gambling habits of high-profile soccer players have become a hot topic in the UK in recent months. Rangers midfielder Ian Black was suspended for 10 matches earlier this year for gambling on at least 160 matches over the last seven years, while Crystal Palace striker Cameron Jerome faced a £50,000 ($80,000) fine for breaking Football Association rules related to betting.




http://www.casino.org/news/sporting-chance-uk-ceo-says-footballers-gambling-with-payday-loans

Will this extend to Tribal Casinos?

Payday lenders covered by FTC Act even if affiliated with American Indian Tribes

Details

Published on Monday, 22 July 2013 19:28

Written by Lesley Fair - FTC

Washington, DC - In an FTC action challenging allegedly illegal business practices by a payday loan operation affiliated with American Indian Tribes, a United States Magistrate Judge just issued a report and recommendation on the scope of the FTC Act. Attorneys will want to give the order a careful read, but here’s the need-to-know nugget:

Over the defendants’ vigorous opposition, the Magistrate Judge concluded that the FTC Act “gives the FTC the authority to bring suit against Indian Tribes, arms of Indian Tribes, and employees and contractors of arms of Indian Tribes.” Most importantly, the Judge’s finding confirms that the FTC’s consumer protection laws apply to businesses regardless of tribal affiliation. The FTC sees that as a key step in protecting consumers from deceptive and unfair practices.

The FTC sued a web of defendants — including AMG Services, Inc., 3 other Internet-based lending companies, 7 related companies, and 6 individuals, including race car driver Scott Tucker and his brother Blaine Tucker — for violating Section 5 of the FTC Act, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, and the Truth in Lending Act in their payday loan practices. Some of the defendants tried to get the FTC case dismissed, claiming that their affiliation with American Indian Tribes makes them immune from those federal statutes.

Not so, urged the FTC. True, the FTC Act makes no specific reference either way to its applicability to tribal entities. But citing Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit precedent, the FTC reasoned that “statutes of general applicability that are silent on tribal issues presumptively apply to tribes and tribal businesses.”

The defendants responded that the FTC Act isn’t a “statute of general applicability” because Congress wrote certain exemptions into the law.

“Exemptions alone aren’t dispositive,” said the FTC, quoting the Ninth Circuit’s Chapa De case. As the Court held in Chapa De, “The issue is whether the statute is generally applicable, not whether it is universally applicable. We have previously held that other federal statutes that contain exemptions are nevertheless generally applicable.”

Citing that decision and others, the Magistrate Judge’s report and recommendation rejected the defendants’ immunity theory and concluded that “the FTC Act has a broad reach and is one of general applicability.” The order reserves judgment on whether the defendants are “not for profit” corporations for purposes of the FTC Act, but held that TILA and EFTA apply regardless of the defendants’ disputed for-profit status.
 

The Magistrate Judge’s report and recommendation is now subject to review by United States District Judge Gloria M. Navarro.



http://www.yumanewsnow.com/index.php/news/latest/3800-payday-lenders-covered-by-ftc-act-even-if-affiliated-with-american-indian-tribes

 

Gambling and payday loans websites blocked

Saturday 22 June 2013
Gambling and payday loans websites blocked by Comhairle

Published on 21/06/2013 09:00
Online gambling and payday loan websites will be blocked from all Comhairle computers including those used by the public in local libraries.

Leader of the Comhairle Angus Campbell said he was very concerned about the availability of gambling sites and said he knew the effect this was having in his own ward in Stornoway South.

At last week’s Policy and Resources committee he said: “It’s the availability of gambling sites for members of the public. That’s having a very big effect in my own ward, it is bringing gambling into the home. I’m finding it a real issue for people in financial hardship.”

North Uist councillor Archie K Campbell said the amount of advertising for such things was extraordinary and supported moves to restrict access.

Councillors were given an update on work undertaken by the council in relation to poverty and welfare reforms and noted that a recent investigation by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) into the business practices of payday lenders had uncovered evidence of widespread irresponsible lending and failure to comply with the standards expected.

This included lenders failing to conduct adequate assessments of affordability before lending or before rolling over loans; Failing to explain adequately how payments will be collected; and using aggressive debt collection practices.

Locally, the Western Isles Citizens Advice Service (WICAS) reports that it is dealing with increasing numbers of clients experiencing difficulties with these types of loans which may be due to the ease of access to these companies.

WICAS currently operates a Money Advice Service on behalf of the Comhairle where consumers can get free, impartial advice on debt problems and assistance with income maximisation.

Councillors agreed that consumers should be advised to think carefully before taking out a payday loan and to be aware of their rights and where to go if they have a problem.

Action to block access to such websites on public computers has already been taken by many Scottish authorities and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar will now follow.

The Poverty Action Group set up by the Outer Hebrides Community Planning Partnership is also currently collating information about the impact of changes to the welfare system on individuals and services locally.

http://www.stornowaygazette.co.uk/news/local-headlines/gambling-and-payday-loans-websites-blocked-by-comhairle-1-2972536