Tim Owen nearly lost his life

Special Report: Gambling addiction nearly cost a man his life

Proposal for more Ark. casinos could affect those struggling with addiction

Jul 25, 2012

Tim Owen, a former gambling addict, lost his family, his money and nearly lost his life. He shares his story with 40/29.

VIDEO: http://www.4029tv.com/news/arkansas/northwest/Special-Report-Gambling-addiction-nearly-cost-a-man-his-life/-/8897460/15708026/-/ky5to1z/-/index.html#ixzz21pmbdagx

Bills would limit lottery advertising, treat compulsive gambling

Bills would limit lottery advertising, treat compulsive gambling

By Lewis Delavan
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Bills filed today would limit Arkansas lottery advertising and boost spending to help treat gambling addictions.

The sponsor of both measures, Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, said the lottery preys on the state’s poorest people and provides false hope for winning.

“Their chances of winning are certainly not very good,” she said. “The signs at stores say, ‘Win Here!.’ They should say, ‘Lose Here!’”

Senate Bill 753 would limit spending to no more than more than $1 million annually for lottery advertising.

Madison said she wants to ensure that as much money as possible is available for funding the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship.

The legislative committee that oversees the state lottery program voted Tuesday to recommend a 10 percent reduction in lottery scholarship amounts.

SB 747 would direct unclaimed lottery prize money to fund programs for the prevention, education and treatment of gambling addiction. Arkansas currently allocates $250,000 annually to treat gambling addiction. Madison’s bill would raise that to up to $3 million.

No one knows the extent that gambling addiction has increased since the lottery began, Madison said, adding, “I don’t think we are tracking that, and that scares me.”

Arkansas Scholarship Lottery has online information to help people determine if they have a gambling problem. The website urges people needing help to call the National Council on Problem Gambling hotline.

Rudy Garza of Bella Vista, who is certified by the council to provide counseling to compulsive gamblers, told the Arkansas News Bureau Thursday there has been a considerable increase in Arkansans calling the hotline since the lottery publicized it. He had no specific numbers.

Lottery spokeswoman Julie Baldridge said it is generally accepted that advertising increases a product’s chance of success. Cutting advertising could reduce the number of scholarships that could be offered, she said.

Madison said she plans to filed legislation next week that would place a moratorium on installing more lottery ticket vending machines. She said she wants the state to determine if machines have strategically been placed in poorer neighborhoods, and to ensure that minors do not have access.

Gambling, Corruption and Racketeering

Gambling, Corruption and Racketeering
The Gangster Museum of America recallsl that in the 19th and 20th centuries Hot Springs experienced wide open illegal gambling, political corruption and racketeering by some of the nation’s most prominent gangsters.

Ex-NLR alderman pleads guilty in public corruption case

Ex-NLR alderman pleads guilty in public corruption case
By Jeremy Peppas

LITTLE ROCK — A former North Little Rock alderman pleaded guilty today to a federal public corruption charge.

Cary Gaines said during a hearing in U.S. District Court that he conspired with reputed mobster George Wylie Thompson of Cabot to rig bids for city public works projects to pay off gambling debts. In a plea agreement with prosecutors, a second charge of lying to federal agents was dismissed.

Gaines remained free on bail pending sentencing scheduled for April 22. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Hoey said Gaines likely would not serve the maximum sentence and would be eligible for sentence reductions because of his guilty plea.

U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes ordered that the plea agreement remain under seal, although Gaines said in an interview that he would testify against two co-defendants.

Gaines was elected to the North Little Rock City Council in 2006 after serving four years in the 1990s. He resigned his city post in late 2009 ahead of a federal indictment naming him with Thompson and North Little Rock Alderman Sam Baggett.

Gaines’ plea came a day before Baggett goes to trial with Thompson on weapons charges.

At today’s hearing, Gaines told Holmes he had conspired with Thompson, an alleged Cabot bookmaker who prosecutors say is connected to the Colombo crime family, to direct North Little Rock public works projects to a vendor who then would direct kickbacks to Thompson.

The kickbacks, Gaines said, were to pay off his gambling debts to Thompson.
“In December 2008 I conspired with George Thompson for bid rigging in North Little Rock,” Gaines said, adding, “We conspired together to defraud the city of North Little Rock.”

Thompson has pleaded innocent to the public corruption charges as well as charges related to his dealings with Baggett.

Hoey said Gaines, Thompson and Paul Mayfield, a Cabot-based vendor who later worked as cooperating witness with federal authorities, had worked together on two different projects.

The first was concrete work in North Little Rock for sidewalks and drainage projects. Gaines introduced an ordinance in January 2009 that would have allowed bids for the concrete work. The second project was for city-funded landscaping near the Levy exit on Interstate 40.

Work never started on either project.

Gaines said he communicated with Mayfield by e-mail as part of the conspiracy and was also in regular communication with Thompson by telephone.

Federal authorities said Gaines first became part of their investigation of Thompson when they overheard Gaines in a court-authorized wiretap placing a bet on a college football bowl game in 2008. Agents subsequently received court permission for electronic surveillance of Gaines.

Earlier, the three defendants lost a bid to keep recordings from federal wiretaps out of court.

In October, a federal jury convicted Thompson on separate drug trafficking charges with Ralph Francis Deleo of Somerville, Mass., a Boston suburb. He is scheduled for trial Feb. 1 on the public corruption charges.

In the trial set to start Tuesday, Baggett is accused of selling guns and ammunition to Thompson, a felon

Gambling Addiction

Dealing with gambling addiction

No more family, no more job, no more money; most of us know that's what drug and alcohol addiction can lead to, but you may not realize gambling addiction can have the same devastating impact.

Arkansas' year old lottery is providing thousands of college students with scholarships, but the number of people seeking help for gambling is increasing too.

Two years ago, something terrible changed Stacy Kelly’s life forever.

"It was so overwhelming I couldn't cope in a healthy manner,” says Stacy.

Stacy loves three things, the outdoors, animals and her family. Naturally, the last is the most important for the mother of four. But when her 5-year-old son died in may 2008, she turned to drugs and alcohol to ease the pain. When the lottery came along, she found a new escape.

"I get excited. I see motorcycles on some or lucky charms on another and I get overwhelmed. I want to purchase them,” says Stacy. “I felt like if I purchased the lottery tickets, it would be ok if I didn't have money to pay for certain things, so I would sacrifice things."

She sacrificed necessities like bills and food.

"I was just at my rock bottom. I wasn't able to pay my bills. People that I love were coming and confronting me,” says Stacy.

But she kept going. Soon her family cut her off and the Department of Human Services put her children in foster care because of her combined addictions.

"It cost me everything,” says Stacy.

"It triggers a lot of excitement in our brain," says Dr. Bill Wilson with Lakewood Behavioral Health.

Dr. Bill Wilson treats gambling addiction and says it's common to see patients with other addictions as well since gambling offers a high just like drugs or alcohol.

"They keep chasing after the money with the false belief that they can win and don't,” says Dr. Wilson.

Gambling is not new to Arkansas. Horses and dogs have raced for decades, we have casinos in border states, and internet gambling knows no bounds.

But after the lottery came along, the number of people seeking help for addiction did go up. In the nine months before the lottery, 139 people called the state gambling hotline for help. In the nine months afterward, 247 have called.

But Arkansas lawmakers have made sure there is money to deal with it. The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery gives $200,000 a year to 11 clinics around the state for training and treatment to help people fight addictions.

"All gambling has a downside," says lawmaker Julie Baldridge. "Those people who can't control their impulses to spend more money than they should on any endeavor have an issue that needs to be addressed. We want them to seek help and we don't want their money."

Dr. Wilson treats the problem by getting addicts to adjust their unrealistic expectations about winning. That takes lots of counseling at places like The Freedom House in Russellville. It's one of the locations receiving funding and training therapists. In fact, Arkansas has more than a dozen gambling addiction experts now compared to just two before lottery funding came along.

"It’s a very difficult addiction to treat. But there is help and people do get well and do get sober," says Stacy.

The Freedom House is where Stacy Kelly stayed for a month and a half getting help for her gambling addiction. But not everyone takes the same step. In fact of the 30 people who call the hotline looking for help with their addictions each month, only two or three actually follow through.

Stacy has a message for all the others.

"There is hope for them, this is a very serious problem and it can't be arrested without help."

Because Stacy got help she now has custody of one of her children and she's working to get them all back, rebuilding the thing she loves the most, her family.

If you're jeopardizing your finances to gamble, if you're only happy when you're gambling or thinking about it, or if it starts to become more important to you than work or family, you may be a gambling addict.

You can call 1-800-522-4700 to be connected to a confidential, 24-hour, problem gambling hotline.

Warning signs of gambling addiction include:

•Feel the need to be secretive about your gambling.
•Have trouble controlling your gambling.
•Gamble even when you don’t have the money.
•Family and friends are worried about you.

Arkansas crime and corruption

Judge: Wiretaps Stay As Evidence In NLR Corruption Case

LITTLE ROCK — A federal judge Wednesday denied defense requests to suppress wiretap evidence in the public corruption case of a North Little Rock alderman and a former colleague.

U.S. Magistrate David Young decided to allow federal prosecutors to submit into evidence electronic surveillance recordings against North Little Rock Alderman Sam Baggett, former alderman Cary Gaines and three others.

Baggett and Gaines are named with reputed mobster George Wylie Thompson in a wide-ranging indictment alleging public corruption, weapons violations and other charges.

The ruling covered separate indictments against Thompson’s son, George Allen Thompson of Jacksonville, and Ralph F. Deleo of Massachusetts.

Lawyers for Baggett and Gaines had argued that evidence against their clients was obtained illegally as federal agents targeted George Wylie Thompson’s dealings.

In his ruling Wednesday, Young said he found “persuasive” the government’s counter that agents got court approval to intercept the elder Thompson’s phone conversations and that Baggett and Gaines injected themselves into the investigation.

The probe began in 2007 when a cooperating witness, identified in court filings as former Blytheville police officer Thomas Charles Warren, informed the FBI’s Little Rock office of a gambling operation allegedly run by George Thompson and how it involved public officials.

Gaines’ lawyer, Chuck Banks of Little Rock, argued that Warren was unreliable.

But in his ruling Wednesday, Young said FBI agents independently corroborated some of the information Warren provided through video surveillance and other methods, and that was “sufficient to establish probable case.”

Baggett and Gaines are charged with George Wylie Thompson in a wide-ranging indictment that includes allegations of a kickback scheme involving North Little Rock public works projects and illegal weapons dealing.

Gaines faces two counts. He is accused of involvement in a kickback scheme related to city public works projects and of lying to the FBI about his dealings with the elder Thompson.

Baggett faces six counts, including accusations that the former licensed weapons dealer knowingly sold guns and ammunition to a convicted felon, George Thompson.

The George Wylie Thompson faces a wide range of charges — from gambling to drug trafficking to marriage fraud — in addition to the public corruption and weapons counts.

Baggett and Thompson are scheduled to be tried together Dec. 7. Thompson will be tried with Gaines in 2011.

The elder Thompson and Deleo are scheduled to appear before U.S. District Leon Holmes on Oct. 18.

Deleo is considered by authorities to be one of the bosses in the Colombo Mafia crime family, while George Wylie Thompson is alleged to have worked under Deleo transporting large quantities of cocaine across state lines, along with running an illegal gambling operation in central Arkansas.

George Allen Thompson was indicted following his arrest in March on drug and gun charges.

Public Corruption Indictments

Judge: Wiretaps Stay As Evidence In NLR Corruption Case

LITTLE ROCK — A federal judge Wednesday denied defense requests to suppress wiretap evidence in the public corruption case of a North Little Rock alderman and a former colleague.

U.S. Magistrate David Young decided to allow federal prosecutors to submit into evidence electronic surveillance recordings against North Little Rock Alderman Sam Baggett, former alderman Cary Gaines and three others.

Baggett and Gaines are named with reputed mobster George Wylie Thompson in a wide-ranging indictment alleging public corruption, weapons violations and other charges.

The ruling covered separate indictments against Thompson’s son, George Allen Thompson of Jacksonville, and Ralph F. Deleo of Massachusetts.

Lawyers for Baggett and Gaines had argued that evidence against their clients was obtained illegally as federal agents targeted George Wylie Thompson’s dealings.

In his ruling Wednesday, Young said he found “persuasive” the government’s counter that agents got court approval to intercept the elder Thompson’s phone conversations and that Baggett and Gaines injected themselves into the investigation.

The probe began in 2007 when a cooperating witness, identified in court filings as former Blytheville police officer Thomas Charles Warren, informed the FBI’s Little Rock office of a gambling operation allegedly run by George Thompson and how it involved public officials.

Gaines’ lawyer, Chuck Banks of Little Rock, argued that Warren was unreliable.

But in his ruling Wednesday, Young said FBI agents independently corroborated some of the information Warren provided through video surveillance and other methods, and that was “sufficient to establish probable case.”

Baggett and Gaines are charged with George Wylie Thompson in a wide-ranging indictment that includes allegations of a kickback scheme involving North Little Rock public works projects and illegal weapons dealing.

Gaines faces two counts. He is accused of involvement in a kickback scheme related to city public works projects and of lying to the FBI about his dealings with the elder Thompson.

Baggett faces six counts, including accusations that the former licensed weapons dealer knowingly sold guns and ammunition to a convicted felon, George Thompson.

The George Wylie Thompson faces a wide range of charges — from gambling to drug trafficking to marriage fraud — in addition to the public corruption and weapons counts.

Baggett and Thompson are scheduled to be tried together Dec. 7. Thompson will be tried with Gaines in 2011.

The elder Thompson and Deleo are scheduled to appear before U.S. District Leon Holmes on Oct. 18.

Deleo is considered by authorities to be one of the bosses in the Colombo Mafia crime family, while George Wylie Thompson is alleged to have worked under Deleo transporting large quantities of cocaine across state lines, along with running an illegal gambling operation in central Arkansas.

George Allen Thompson was indicted following his arrest in March on drug and gun charges.





A federal judge on Wednesday denied defense attorneys’ requests that wiretap evidence gathered in a sprawling public corruption and criminal case be suppressed.

Instead, U.S. Magistrate David Young ruled that all the wiretaps gathered by federal agents be allowed against five different defendants — North Little Rock Alderman Sam Baggett, former Alderman Cary Gaines, George Wylie Thompson of Cabot, Ralph Francis Deleo of Massachusetts and Thompson’s son, George Allen Thompson of Jacksonville.

In the ruling Young wrote, “The government’s position is persuasive and is adopted” by the judge. His decision is considered key because evidence gleaned from the wiretaps form the foundation of the government’s cases against Baggett, Gaines and the others.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office had argued that the wiretaps gathered in Arkansas and Massachusetts over the course of three years be allowed in the prosecution in the four different combinations of cases.

The probe began in 2007 when a cooperating witness, identified in court filings as former Blytheville police officer Thomas Charles Warren, informed the FBI’s Little Rock office of Thompson’s alleged gambling operation and how it involved public officials.

Chuck Banks, the former U.S. attorney, is working in Gaines’ defense and argued that Warren was unreliable.

In his ruling Young wrote, some of the information provided by Warren, “was independently corroborated” by FBI agents through video surveillance and other methods and that was “sufficient to establish probable case.”

Baggett and Gaines are charged with Thompson in a wide-ranging indictment that includes allegations of a kickback scheme involving North Little Rock public works projects and illegal weapons dealing.

Gaines faces two counts. He is accused of involvement in a kickback scheme related to city public works projects and of lying to the FBI about his dealings with Thompson.

Baggett faces six counts, including accusations that the former licensed weapons dealer knowingly sold guns and ammunition to a convicted felon, Thompson.

Thompson faces a wide range of charges — from gambling to drug trafficking to marriage fraud — in addition to the public corruption and weapons counts.

Baggett and Thompson are scheduled to be tried together Dec. 7. Thompson will be tried with Gaines in 2011, while the first scheduled trial is set for Oct. 18 when Thompson and Deleo go in front of U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes.

Deleo is considered by authorities to be one of the bosses in the Colombo crime family, while Thompson is alleged to have worked under Deleo, taking large quantities of cocaine across state lines, along with running an illegal gambling operation in Central Arkansas.