Revenue at Plainridge Park Casino flat in March

The Boston Globe

Plainridge is restricted under state law to 1,250 slot machines and no table games, putting it at a competitive disadvantage with Twin River Casino, just ...

Consultant: Some crime up around Massachusetts' 1st casino

By PHILIP MARCELO, Associated Press

UPDATED:   04/14/2016 

BOSTON -- Since Plainridge Park opened last July, communities around Massachusetts' first casino have seen an uptick in crimes like assault, drunken driving, kidnapping, prostitution, shoplifting and fraud, but much of it does not appear to be directly attributable to the facility, a consultant told gambling regulators Thursday.

Christopher Bruce, a crime analysis expert hired by the state Gaming Commission, said a preliminary review suggests increases in traffic-related infractions like erratic driving, accidents and drunken driving as well as credit card fraud may be linked to the slots parlor and harness racing track's opening.

But increases in kidnapping, prostitution and other crimes "clearly had nothing to do" with the casino, he said. The surrounding communities also generally didn't see robberies, burglaries and thefts increase with the facility's opening, Bruce said.

"Incidents at Plainridge Park are commensurate with expected totals at similar facilities that draw lots of people, have a large parking area, offer retail, entertainment, and dining options, and serve alcohol," he wrote.

Bruce told regulators more research needs to be done. Other social and economic factors could be at work, like the heroin and opioid epidemic that's hit New England particularly hard, he suggested.

Eric Schippers, a senior vice president at Penn National Gaming, said the Pennsylvania-based company that owns Plainridge Park is "pleased and proud" the state's first casino public safety report revealed "no significant negative impacts" as a result of casino operations.

Elaine Driscoll, spokeswoman for the gaming commission, similarly concluded the analysis "does not show that any significant increase in crime was influenced" by the casino's opening.

The Penn National Gaming-owned facility is the first of four casinos slated to open in Massachusetts by 2018, including much larger developments by MGM, Wynn and an Indian casino financed by the Malaysia-based operators of the Resorts World casino chain.

Thursday's analysis compared crime data from Plainville, Attleboro, Mansfield, North Attleborough and Wrentham from July to December 2015 against average statistics covering the same period since 2010.

The report, for example, shows that violent crimes like rape, assault and kidnapping were, on the whole, up from an average of about 379 incidents prior to 2015 to 415 from July to December 2015.

But property crimes like burglary, shoplifting and theft were, overall, down from an average of 1,898 incidents prior to 2015 to 1,866 from July to December 2015.

Bruce said some of the increases could be explained by unique circumstances likely not tied to the casino's presence.

A rise in prostitution could be attributed to two incidents at a hotel in Wrentham, for example. An increase in reported kidnappings appears to have been related to parental custody disputes, he said. And a "serial burglar" in North Attleborough appears to have been a factor in that town's burglary rise, Bruce said.

Plainville Police Chief James Alfred agreed with Bruce's assessment.

He said his officers aren't reporting anything "out of the norm" and suggested a retail shopping complex across from the casino tends to generate more police activity.

"So far so good is the best way to put it," Alford said.

Bruce is expected to report back to the commission in the fall with a deeper analysis through the first full year of Plainridge Park's operation.

Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/breakingnews/ci_29767815/consultant-some-crime-up-around-massachusetts-1st-casino#ixzz45zl6ng2b

Consultant: Crime increased around state's 1st casino Milford Daily News Consultant: Crime increased around state's 1st casino ... including much larger developments by MGM, Wynn and an Indian casino financed by the ...

No crime increase seen in first months of Plainridge casino

The Boston Globe

The opening of the state's first casino in Plainville has not caused an increase incrime in the area, according to an analysis of data from the police ...

Consultant: Some crime up around Massachusetts' 1st casino - Boston Herald

Consultant: Some crime up around Massachusetts' 1st casino - The Sun Herald

Mass. Gaming Commission crime analyst: Plainridge Park Casino has had little impact - MassLive.com

Full Coverage

Consultant: Some crime up around Massachusetts' 1st casino

Boston Herald

Consultant: Some crime up around Massachusetts' 1st casino ... including much larger developments by MGM, Wynn and an Indian casino financed ...

Consultant: Crime Increased Around Massachusetts' First Casino - Hartford Courant

Consultant: Some crime up around Massachusetts' 1st casino

2012 Recap: Getting snookered!

Today, Atlantic City is the poster child for all that is wrong with Casino Gambling. 

If you think you're different, think again. 

From 2012:

Jobs:

• There will be short term increase in construction jobs 
• In Illinois, there are more people on the self-exclusion list than are employed by the casinos.
• Atlantic City's Unions are encouraging their employees to apply for food stamps. 
• The Casino's drain money from the local economy and cost more jobs than they bring in. 
• http://www.saynotocasinos.com/lies/businesses/  [link no longer valid] Steve Wynn, a casino owner once said, “Get it straight…there is no reason on earth for any of you to expect for more than one second that just because there are people here [at casinos], they’re going to run into your store, or restaurant, or bar.” Donald Trump, in an interview with the Miami Herald, said “People will spend a tremendous amount of money in casinos, money that they would normally spend on buying a refrigerator or a new car. Local businesses will suffer because they lose customer dollars to the casinos.”

Revenue:

• Government sponsored gambling is a failed public policy that isn't working anywhere in the country.  
• The state of West Virginia is buying new slot machines for their casinos so that they can better compete with surrounding states.
• Florida has estimated that they will LOSE between $2 and $90 million to support their gambling operations.
• NH did a study in 2009 on the estimated revenue a casino at Rockingham Park would bring, and they found that the costs would outpace revenue by $60 million.
• The Governor's Secretary of Economic Development and front man on the casinos, during a meeting with opponents (us on 9/21/11) asserted that the revenue "would cover the costs associated with expanded gaming."  
• Mohegan Sun is $1.6 billion in debt and their stock is rated at a junk-bond status.  
• Casino states have higher unemployment and budget deficits than MA. Nevada leads in both those categories as well as suicides.

Crime:

• Ledyard, CT (home to Foxwoods), has seen a 30-fold increase in calls to 911 since casinos were introduced.
• CT State Police have seen a dramatic increase in drunken driving arrests, followed by a leveling off of drunken driving arrests.  The leveling off, was followed by an increase in drunken driving DEATHS.  The state police determined that drunken driving occurrences had continued to rise but they did not have enough police resources to CATCH them.

Five reasons to kill the casino bill

Published 4:00 pm, Friday, April 10, 2015

 

It's getting hard to keep up with all the attempts to expand casino-type gambling in Connecticut. Last year, public opposition stopped legislative leaders from putting the gambling game keno in restaurants, bars and convenience stores, and earlier this year a lack of support derailed a proposal by a legislative task force to place video slots in OTB facilities.
 
Now, the Democratic legislative leadership wants to pass a bill that would allow the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes, owners of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, respectively, to jointly build three commercial -- not tribal -- satellite casinos in order to fight out-of-state competition.

The tribes want to open the first "convenience" casino on I-91 between Hartford and the Massachusetts border in an effort to keep Connecticut residents from going to the new $800 million MGM casino being built in Springfield.

They reportedly hope to open the other two casinos along I-95 and I-84 in Fairfield County to defend against New York's casinos. The Hartford-area casino would be heavily oriented to slot machines, with up to 2,000 slots and 50-75 table games, no entertainment, and limited food and beverages. There are about 5,000 slots and 300 table games at Foxwoods.

The bill's supporters argue the new casinos would help both the tribes and the state by slowing the decline in gambling revenue and helping to preserve casinos jobs. But the bill is a bad one for Connecticut for five reasons:

1. The primary economic benefit of Connecticut's casinos has come from their success in drawing over half their combined customers and billions of dollars from other states. These out-of-state customers are the ones who are disappearing because they have new casinos in their own backyard. Building new scaled-down casinos in Connecticut will do nothing to bring them back.

2. While opening convenience casinos would encourage current Connecticut gamblers to stay in state, it would also encourage them to gamble more and attract thousands of other Connecticut residents to gamble, with a corresponding increase in gambling addiction, debt, bankruptcies, broken families and crime.

3. There is a growing body of research on the negative effects of casino gambling's spread. According to a recent report by the nonpartisan Institute for American Values, the new local and regional casinos drain wealth from communities, prey on low-income people, weaken nearby businesses, hurt property values and reduce civic participation, family stability and other forms of social capital that are at the heart of a successful society.

Here in Connecticut, a 2014 study from Western Connecticut State University shows that despite a sharp drop in crime in the state as a whole, the number of violent crimes, including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, increased in nearby towns after Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun opened.

While the number of thefts declined modestly, the value of property stolen skyrocketed by nearly 40 percent. Interviews with police and judicial officials also indicated increases in prostitution and illicit drug use.

4. In disregard for Connecticut voters, the bill makes no provision for residents of proposed host towns to vote on whether they want a casino in their community, but simply gives the municipality's legislative body the power to make this far-reaching decision.

5. Just over a decade ago, Connecticut showed its opposition to more casinos by repealing the charity gaming law that opened the door to our two current Indian casinos, and then mounted a successful effort to keep its other tribes from gaining federal recognition and the right to open casinos.

Now our governor and congressional delegation are in a battle to stop the federal government from changing regulations that would again create the possibility of more Indian casinos -- and land claims -- in Connecticut. Passage of the new casino bill would make a mockery of the state's argument that it opposes more casinos and would destroy its ability to win that fight.

More casinos are not an answer to Connecticut's economic problems. Instead of encouraging our citizens to gamble away their savings, we need to attract productive, living-wage jobs, promote stable revenue streams and end the runaway spending that's put the state so deeply in debt.

Robert Steele, of Essex, was a U.S. representative from eastern Connecticut and is author of "The Curse: Big-Time Gambling's Seduction of a Small New England Town." State Sen. Tony Hwang, R-28, of Fairfield, is an assistant Senate minority leader, representing the towns of Easton, Fairfield, Newtown, Weston and Westport.


http://www.ctpost.com/opinion/article/Five-reasons-to-kill-the-casino-bill-6192037.php


If you haven't read the book, I encourage you to do so.

Potential casino coming to South Bend

Potential casino coming to South Bend

Posted: Mar 13, 2015

More slot machines and table games could be coming to Michiana if plans are approved to build a casino in South Bend.
The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians got a response from the Federal Government on Thursday after a proposal they submitted two years ago.
They are seeking Trust Land to create a Tribal Village but now that they have a response, they are in the first step of a very lengthy process.

If they are able to get that Trust Land approved, it will be their decision in how they want to use it.

The Pokagon Band released a statement that said in part: "The Pokagon Band is seeking Trust Land to create a Tribal Village with the necessary infrastructure and services to support its citizens, including affordable housing, government and administrative offices, a community center, and health services. To fund this infrastructure and services, the Pokagon Band will also build a Four Winds Casino on the South Bend site, which will create jobs and provide continued economic support to the Pokagon Band and surrounding communities."

The Pokagon Band will use the Four Winds Casino to help sustain its community but some people are opposed to building a casino in South Bend.

According to Jake Teshka who is involved with the grassroots organization Citizens for a Better Michiana, he has seen studies based in cities where casinos are built.

“In areas where casinos are, crime can spike, violent crimes can spike as much as ten percent,” said Teshka.

He also thinks that small businesses could suffer as a result of the casino.

“By building a casino what we're doing is cutting off any future possibility of having major consumers in small business," Teshka added.

However, the Four Winds Casino in New Buffalo was built in 2007 and according to New Buffalo Township Supervisor Rose Dudiak it has been a success.

“This casino has been a win-win situation for us. The things we've been able to do in the township have been incredible. We would not be able to do them without the casino,” Dudiak said.

She also said the casino has brought in enough money that the New Buffalo Township Hall will soon go through a two million dollar renovation.

If the casino is built, it has the potential of bringing in about 2,000 permanent jobs and about 1,500 temporary construction jobs.

That is something South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg thinks will be good for the city.

“We got to work with them, figure out exactly what the plans are and how the city fits in but as long as this happens in the context of an overall agreement that benefits the city, benefits the community, then I think it could be a very positive thing for South Bend,” said Mayor Buttigieg.

The location of this land is near the U.S. 20 Bypass and covers 166 acres.


http://www.abc57.com/story/28491607/potential-casino-coming-to-south-bend

Casinos ‘BREED’ gambling degenerates who become criminals.

Bill Kearney

Massachusetts ‘GAMING’ Future

Casinos ‘BREED’ gambling degenerates who become criminals.

 

Associated Press - December 15, 2014 - DA: Fired Pittsburgh-area mall manager stole $51K

 

WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. (AP) — The fired manager of a Pittsburgh-area mall has been charged with stealing more than $51,000 which he then spent mostly at casinos.

 

Online court records don't list an attorney for 51-year-old John Sabino, of Wexford, who also doesn't have a listed phone.

 

The Allegheny County district attorney's office on Monday announced that Sabino was charged with theft and surrendered last week.

According to a criminal complaint, Sabino had checks made out to himself for events scheduled at the Century III Mall in West Mifflin. Investigators say the events either never occurred or that vendors who put on the events were paid directly and not through Sabino. He was fired in August when the money was found to be missing.

 

The DA says Sabino deposited the checks in his bank account and withdraw it at casino ATMs.

http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/…/article_fdb3a421-6…

 

Waking Up In Vegas

BRILLIANT!  MUST WATCH VIDEOS!

Waking Up In Vegas

Ignoring Costs!

Ignoring the Costs of Gambling Addiction is universal.....

Study suggests more money could be saved with tighter regulations

Prague, Oct 9 (ČTK) — According to a study by the Psychiatric Center Prague, coping with the consequences of gambling costs the Czech Republic 14 to 16 billion Kč annually, while 2 to 5 billion Kč could be saved with an effective regulation of gambling machines, daily Lidové noviny (LN) writes today.

The authors of the study included in the calculation not only the state's costs of treatment of gambling addicts, but also money spent on exacting debts, court fees and the cost of police interventions, suicides and social benefits paid to those who lose their job over addiction, LN writes.

It writes that lottery companies are critical of the calculation method. They say some 1,500 gamblers are being treated in the country, while there are 10 times more alcoholics, which makes it difficult to precisely calculate the costs.

National anti-drug coordinator Jindřich Vobořil also takes a reserved stance on the study, but he concedes that the calculations of lottery companies are problematic as well, LN writes.

The Finance Ministry will present a new bill on gambling today. It is expected to largely tighten the rules for operating gambling machines, while Internet lotteries may be legalized.

LN writes that the study it releases today is unique in this country, and that similar calculations are not common abroad.

The study authors refer to is from an Australian government research team that attempted to make this calculation at the end of the 1990s.



http://www.praguepost.com/czech-news/41985-gambling-consequences-cost-czechs-16-billion-crowns-a-year

How come the Predatory Gambling Industry NEVER argues about the FACTS?

Group Claims Casinos Bring Higher Taxes and Crime
By Alex Crichton

The group No More Casinos Coalition has released details of analysis of property tax and crime data released by Freedom of Information Law requests to the cities of Niagara Falls and Salamanca.
Former Rochester Mayor Bill Johnson, speaking for the group, says the initial data show taxes went up 17 percent and 16 percent in Niagara Falls and Salamanca, respectively, from the period before the casinos were built there to 2012.

Certain areas of crime also increased, according to Johnson.

That includes a 22-percent increase in theft-related crimes over the same period.

WXXI tried to reach Niagara Falls mayor Paul Dyster for verification, but he was unavailable.
Gates Town Supervisor Mark Assini, who favors the idea of a casino at Rochester Tech Park in his town, says the issues of higher taxes and crime rates and casinos are unrelated.

He says pressures that force higher taxes or crime in urban areas have nothing to do with a single business, casino or otherwise, going into an urban center.

Johnson says it's clear that Seneca-run casinos aren't a panacea for local problems, and while residents in Henrietta have said "no" to the idea, it's still the subject of talk in other towns, including
Greece and Gates, and Irondequoit.

He says any community that is considering a casino should question whether a deal with the Seneca Nation to build would be a benefit for the long term, based on analysis of the data.

Johnson urges residents to bring up the issue with Monroe County lawmakers at their May 13th meeting.

Assini argues a casino would have several benefits: it will bring [LOW WAGE] jobs to region [THAT WILL REPLACE LOCAL BUSINESSES - CANNIBALIZATION], and if the town of Gates received the same offer that went to Henrietta, residents would no longer have to pay town property taxes, and Gates residents support the proposed location, Rochester Tech Park
Assini points out that the No More Casino Coaltion is funded by Batavia Downs and Finger Lakes Gaming and Racetrack, which don't want competition from Seneca run casinos.

How come the Predatory Gambling Industry NEVER argues about the FACTS?

http://wxxinews.org/post/group-claims-casinos-bring-higher-taxes-and-crime

Anti-casino coalition releases study

Sarah Taddeo 1:24 p.m. EDT May 1, 2014

 

 

Western New York cities with casinos have higher tax and crime rates than those without, according to an analysis by a group opposing proposals to create a casino in the Rochester area.

Speaking on behalf of the No More Casinos Coalition on Thursday, former Rochester Mayor William A. Johnson unveiled statistics from Salamanca and Niagara Falls, showing that property tax rates went up by 16 percent and 17 percent, respectively, in those cities between 2002 and 2012. Seneca casinos opened in Salamanca in 2004, and in Niagara Falls in 2002.

Crime went up by 18 percent in Niagara Falls, though the only crimes studied were burglary, robbery and larceny. The No More Casinos Coalition facilitated the analysis, with help from city departments in both Salamanca and Niagara Falls.

Though the Seneca Nation pledges to hold down taxes in every potential development area, that promise is almost never validated, Johnson said. He mentioned several sites in Rochester's suburbs that are in talks about developing casinos, including the town of Henrietta and the Odenbach Shipyard in Greece.


Photos: Then & Now: Odenbach Shipbuilding Corp.

A potential buyer is a West Coast development group interested in turning the site in to a retail complex. (Photo: ANNETTE LEIN staff photographer)

 

       

 

"Everyone thinks that casinos will be a bonanza for their area, with jobs and tax rates," Johnson said.

 

"But these casinos have not delivered on their primary goals of increasing development and benefiting tax rates in the communities they serve."

Niagara Falls has had developmental challenges for years, and the city had hoped that a casino would bring tourism and revenue to the area, Johnson said. But the casino just brought higher taxes and crime, having the opposite effect, he said.

"Criminals go where the customers are," Johnson said. "We've seen enough warning signs for us to continue investigation into the building of casinos anywhere in Monroe County."

Casinos promise to bring jobs into development areas, but really they only provide low-level jobs, which are not the kind of jobs a city "wants to stake its economic turnaround on," Johnson said.
Johnson emphasized that the Seneca Nation is a "sovereign nation," and that it will continue to pepper the state with casinos if residents do not actively push back.

"This is not a witch hunt...it is based on their actions that have occurred in the past," Johnson said.

"They won't change things if everything continues to go their way."

Johnson invited attendees to the Monroe County legislature meeting on May 13 for further discussion
on this issue.



http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/05/01/anti-casino-coalition-releases-study/8559605/


 

Depew woman sentenced for stealing $90,000 from hockey club to feed Gambling Addiction

Depew woman sentenced for stealing $90,000 from hockey club

By James Staas | News Staff Reporter

 

on March 24, 2014

 

A Depew woman who repaid the $90,000 she took from a youth hockey club and its donors to support her gambling addiction was sentenced today to weekends in jail for four months followed by five years’ probation and 500 hours of community service.

State Supreme Court Justice Russell P. Buscaglia told Teresa A. Fusani, former treasurer of the Depew Saints Hockey Club, that he had considered sentencing her to a longer jail term, but he cited several factors that led him to impose a shorter term at the Erie County Correctional Facility.

He said he was especially affected by a letter from a Depew swimming pool and spa company that is aware of Fusani’s grand larceny conviction but has offered her a job.

He also cited letters he received from her three children on her behalf, including one from her oldest son, Michael, who is a member of the Depew School Board.

The judge also noted her work with Jewish Family Service of Buffalo and Erie County, which her attorney, Joel Daniels, said has helped her with her gambling problem and may use her as a spokeswoman to persuade other people with a similar problem to stay away from casinos.

Buscaglia said he also took into consideration her husband Frank’s brain injury, which has prevented him from returning to his job as a lieutenant in the Depew Police Department for nearly two years.

“But that is no excuse for gambling away all this money,” he told her.

The judge said that while the hockey club did not recommend a jail sentence, “I feel some jail time is appropriate.”

Fusani, 49, of Canton Street, pleaded guilty in November to second-degree grand larceny. She admitted that between July 2006 and January 2010, she embezzled money from the hockey club while serving as its treasurer.

Assistant District Attorney Brian P. Dassero said Fusani oversaw a legitimate hockey club bank account through HSBC Bank but also had another account at M&T Bank, with a similar name, which no one else knew about.

Fusani also admitted that after leaving her position as club treasurer, she sent letters to several Depew-area businesses requesting donations for the club from January 2010 to last April and kept the money to support her gambling habit.

She had faced a maximum prison term of five to 15 years.

Daniels, her attorney, said Fusani is among a growing number of people in the Buffalo area addicted to gambling at local casinos.

“It’s the lure of electronic slots,” he told the judge. “Once they catch you, it’s difficult for some to walk away.”

He noted today’s front page story in The Buffalo News on the rising gambling problem among older people who spend their retirement money on slots and casinos. “It’s a problem I’m afraid we’ll be facing for quite some time,” he said.

Fusani apologized “to all the families who trusted me and who I let down.”

She accepted responsibility for her actions, admitting she made the choice to gamble. She also cited her decision to make full restitution to those she deceived.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/depew/depew-woman-sentenced-for-stealing-90000-from-hockey-club-20140324

Husband says woman accused in Depew youth hockey embezzlement case is addicted to gambling

U.S. Bankruptcy Court records show the couple’s finances were a mess.

They filed jointly for bankruptcy Nov. 26, 1997, with the case closed in March 1998. Then in May 2007, Teresa Fusani filed alone for bankruptcy protection, citing consumer debt as the reason.

According to the 2007 bankruptcy filing, $156,920 was listed in assets, with $171,220 in liabilities.

Gambling Addict steals, sent to prison.....

A WIGAN betting shop manager pretended he had been robbed at knifepoint to hide the thousands of pounds he had gambled away.

Karl Swift, who ironically had only become addicted to gambling after starting work there, had taken just over £2,000 and lost it at a casino.

Swift, who was already in desperate financial straits, decided to hide his tracks and the next morning staged a fake robbery.

The duty manager claimed that he had been held up at knifepoint just after he arrived at the William Hill bookie’s in Goose Green on September 6 last year and £5,744 taken from the safe.

And he alleged that the raider had turned off the shop’s CCTV system and broken into the safe.

But when the CCTV footage was examined it showed Swift alone and bending down behind the counter to switch off the machine.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that as well as the CCTV footage his boss saw an unusual sequence of 31 bets the previous day amounting to bets totalling £3,660.

It was realised that Swift had placed those bets, only seven of which were successful, and had never paid over the stakes for them, said Richard Archer.

“Investigations by the police into the robbery showed it was a complete fabrication. He said £5,000 had been taken to cover the money he had taken and the money in the bets.”

The 25-year-old, of Jubilee Avenue, Orrell, pleaded guilty to theft, fraud and attempting to pervert the course of justice and was jailed for 12 months.

Martyn Walsh, defending, said that Swift, who has no previous convictions, had lost the £2,084 in the casino and placed the “imaginary bets. He was a very desperate man who had reached the end of the road.”

Swift, who had worked at the shop for four years and was described as a good worker, has since taken steps to address his gambling addiction and has been attending Gamblers Anonymous.

Sentencing him the judge, Recorder Roderick Carus, QC, said that they were serious offences and he had been in a position of trust. “You have lost your reputation, your job and now your liberty.”


http://www.wigantoday.net/news/local/gambling-betting-shop-manager-jailed-1-6509361

Gambling addict who committed £19m fraud has just £600,000 assets left

Gambling addict who committed £19m fraud has just £600,000 assets left


AN IT manager who defrauded his employer out of almost £19m to fund his chronic gambling addiction has just £600,000 worth of assets left.
Jonathan Revill is currently serving a seven-year jail sentence for stealing the money from GDF SUEZ, one of the world’s largest companies. Revill, 38, worked as a service delivery systems manager at the energy company’s subsidiary business, GDF Suez Energy, based in Leeds, when he carried out the scam.

Revill was returned to Leeds Crown Court yesterday to face a confiscation hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act. The court heard his benefit from the offending was £18,976,602. Mehran Nassiri, prosecuting, said Revill had just £608,909 available.

Most of that figure is made up from the value of his home, worth £515,000, and £21,000 worth of investments.

Judge Christopher Batty ordered Revill to pay the sum 
within six months of face a further prison sentence of up to four years.

Revill made a profit of £5.6m from the deception and blew most of it betting online.

He was able to pay cash for his home in Marsh Lane, Huddersfield, and would gamble as much as £300,000 on a single sporting fixture.

Even after his arrest, Revill accessed more than £20,000 from his betting account and lost it all in one evening.

His wife and child knew nothing of his secret addiction until he was arrested.

Revill pleaded guilty to four offences of fraud and one of transferring criminal property.

His annual salary was £55,000 plus bonuses.

He faked signatures to order more than £18,9m worth of computer equipment from a supplier over a three-year period.

He then sold it on to other companies or through eBay.

Describing his gambling addiction to the court, Revill’s barrister Benjamin Hargreaves said: 


“Winning or losing didn’t 
matter.

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/main-topics/general-news/gambling-addict-who-committed-19m-fraud-has-just-600-000-assets-left-1-6501115

Widower speaks of betrayal after gambling addict nurse stole his dying wife's bank cards

Hartlepool News  

Widower speaks of betrayal after gambling addict nurse stole his dying wife's bank cards

By Neil Hunter
Monday 20th January 2014

                                       
AWFUL BETRAYAL: Rubilita Coggin



A WIDOWER spoke last night of the "awful betrayal" after his wife had her bank cards stolen by a gambling-addict nurse as she lay in her deathbed.

Retired local authority worker Peter Jones said Rubilita Coggin took advantage of the lack of security cameras on the isolation ward to strike.

Coggin, 48, from Hartlepool, was jailed for 15 months at Teesside Crown Court last week for the theft of Connie Jones's cards and using them to bet.

Mr Jones, 86, from nearby Blackhall, County Durham, spoke emotionally about discovering £5,000 missing from his wife's accounts after her death.

He said he believed the 87-year-old would be coming home in the days before her death, but she died from heart failure after a sudden relapse.

"The only mercy is that Connie died before she knew about this awful betrayal of her trust by that nurse," he said.

"She was a nice, kind, trusting lady and I'm not sure she would have believed anyone would be capable of such a thing.

"We had been married for 60 years and even now I haven't come to terms with losing her, although she had been ill between just after Christmas and April she wanted to come home and I really believed she would.


"I'd have been so happy to look after her where she wanted to be - in her own house.

"So when she died so suddenly I was in shock as well as grief. And it was while all that was happening that the nurse was helping herself to Connie's money.

"I brought her belongings home and put her handbag down in the corner of the living room and it stayed there for weeks. I could never have imagined that someone had taken her purse and her cards.

"It was about a month later when her statements arrived that I realised something was wrong. Instead of the normal two pages there were ten or 12 pages with dozens and dozens of transactions on them.

"Many of them were to a Mr Green's casino in Malta and it eventually dawned on me that someone was stealing from us so that they could gamble.

"Most of the amounts were kept below £100, which I found out later was to avoid alerting the security measures set up by the credit card companies.

"I asked a cousin of mine who runs a security firm to take a look and he saw straight away what had been happening and we called in the police. Even then it didn't occur it was one of the nurses - one of the people paid to provide care and help for my wife.

"The nurse in question wasn't familiar to me, I don't remember seeing her before but she had access to the locker where Connie's belongings were and she took her purse. She used a Lloyds card and then a Laura Ashley card to run up an awful lot of transactions.

"She knew what she was doing because there are no cameras on the isolation ward and she'd have been able to take the cards undetected. After that it was easy for her once she had the credit cards.

"All she needed was the card number and the security strip on the back. People need to be so careful about their credit cards because all the information a thief needs is on there, PIN numbers aren't needed.

"Because I was in so much distress at losing Connie the last thing I thought I needed to do was check that her cards were safe in her purse.

"Gambling is a problem for people and it draws people in. Her barrister said she had an addiction and that is probably the case, these things do happen to people but it doesn't excuse what she did.

"Losing my wife is the hardest thing I've gone through in all my years and this has made it all so much worse."


http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/local/teesvalley/hartlepool/10947689.Widower_speaks_of_betrayal_after_gambling_addict_nurse_stole_his_dying_wife_s_bank_cards/

 

Gambling Addict sentenced for bilking bank clients for internet gambling

Barrie man sentenced for bilking bank clients

Man sentenced

A Barrie man was sent to jail for 3-1/2 years after being found guilty of stealing from TD Canada Trust customers' line of credit accounts to feed a gambling addicion. In one case, the man spent $100,000 at the Platinum SB that police shutdown following a raid in February 2013.

nextplay/pausepre1/1

 

 

SIDEBAR

Signs of gambling addiction
• Hiding bills, past due notices, winnings or losses;
• Gambling instead of spending time with friends or family;
• Neglecting work and personal needs because of gambling;
• Increased tension, stress and arguments relating to money;
• Getting irritated more easily or having less patience when dealing with normal, everyday activities;
• Constantly thinking or talking about gambling;
• Finding it difficult to control, stop or cut down gambling, or feeling irritable when trying to do so;
• Thinking that your gambling will get under control as soon you have a ‘big win’;
• Borrowing money, selling things, committing (or considering committing) criminal acts in order to get money for gambling;
• Often gambling until all of your money is gone;
• Needing to gamble with larger amounts of money or for longer periods of time in order to get the same feeling of excitement;
• Experiencing extreme highs from gambling wins and extreme lows from gambling losses;
• Gambling to escape personal problems or to relieve feelings of anxiety, depression, anger, or loneliness;
• Increased debt, unpaid bills or other financial troubles.
How to protect finances - Once you have identified there is a problem, there are short term strategies to help protect finances:
• Set a realistic budget with your partner. Having a plan will cool down stress, minimizing the risk of a return to gambling for a quick financial fix;
• Negotiate for control of managing family finances;
• Take action to protect assets;
• Do not rescue the gambler by offering money to pay off debts. This will only allow the problem to continue;
• Seek professional help for both financial advice and emotional support.

Vaughan Citizen

 

By Jeremy Grimaldi

A gambling addict has been sentenced to federal prison after losing almost $3 million of bank customers’ cash to an infamous sports betting website.

Andrew Ramdass of Barrie was sentenced to 3-1/2 years after losing thousands of dollars at a time as he fraudulently accessed via the Vaughan TD Bank where he worked.

The 29-year-old lost the money – including more than $100,000 on one particular weekend – gambling on the Platinum Sports Book website.

The site was the subject of a major 18-month York Regional Police investigation that culminated Feb. 3, 2013 when the force busted a Super Bowl party at Le Parc banquet hall in Markham.

York police said the party was organized by the same people who run the website, including members of organized crime groups such as the Hells Angels.

During the bust, police confiscated cellphones, laptops and $2.5 million in cash.

In that investigation, police charged seven York Region residents from Richmond Hill, Concord, Stouffville, Aurora, Thornhill and Markham in connection to the investigation.

                          

On Friday, Mr. Ramdass was sentenced for the crimes he committed between September 2011 and April 2012 by Justice Peter West.

                          

The judge considered mitigating factors in sentencing, including that Mr. Ramdass was an addict, Det. Fred Kerr, head of York’s corporate fraud division, said.

During a seven-month period, he was accessing clients’ unused lines of credit only to indulge his severe gambling problem and spend the money betting on basketball and hockey matches, Det. Kerr said.

                          

“He was very busy,” he added. “It’s my belief that it (all the money) went to gambling.”

 

The bank covered the losses so more than dozen customers targeted were not affected, according to Det. Kerr.

At the end of the court proceedings, Mr. Ramdass expressed regret for his actions and apologized to the bank and customers.

Det. Kerr said he deals with a number of these styles of frauds due to gambling addictions each year.

http://www.ourwindsor.ca/news-story/4301977-barrie-man-sentenced-for-bilking-bank-clients/

 

 

Why Casinos are Becoming Like Landfills

Americans still love to gamble. They just don't want casinos near where they live

By Jon Marcus/Boston

Dec. 23, 2013

Milford, Massachusetts at the holidays looks a lot like Bedford Falls, the fictional setting of the classic film “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Settled in 1662, the town of 27,000 still has working farms, its own daily newspaper, a baseball diamond behind the American Legion Hall and an annual picnic. On Memorial and Veteran’s days, parades run down a Main Street lined with white wooden churches and historic buildings made of red brick and locally quarried pink granite.

But it’s visions of Pottersville, the film’s alternate-universe world of greed, strip clubs, pawnshops, and hopelessness that have been on residents’ minds this season.

Wary of increased crime and traffic and depressed property values, Milford voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal for a $1 billion, 24-hour casino in November, becoming the sixth Massachusetts community to say no since voters statewide opened the way for three slot parlors or casinos in 2011.

“It didn’t take long to be convinced that this was not good for a small town,” says Steve Trettel, co-chair of the group Casino-Free Milford. “If you want to get right down to the root of it, that’s really it.”

While there’s been no slowdown in the pace at which states continue to approve adding or expanding casinos and slot machine parlors, they are starting to run into trouble finding places to put them.

In addition to the cities and towns in Massachusetts, which included a neighborhood in Boston, new or expanded gambling venues have been voted down in Portland, Oregon, Newport, Rhode Island and Biddeford, Lewiston, and Washington County, Maine. In early December, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick filed suit to block a native-American tribe from opening a casino on toney Martha’s Vineyard.

Across the nation, community and business interests are pushing back against the possibility of new casinos. In Central Florida, powerful interests including the Walt Disney Company, intent on preserving the region’s reputation as a family destination, have organized to prevent the state legislature from adding casinos there. Even in South Florida, which has been more accepting of gambling, local officials are raising concerns about plans to expand an existing casino operated by a Native American tribe, citing the potential for spillover traffic and crime.

A federal application submitted by another Native American tribe to build a casino in the upstate New York town Union Springs is being fought by a coalition that includes the state’s senior Senator, Chuck Schumer, on the grounds that it would bring unfair competition for local businesses. Even Massachusetts Governor Patrick, who signed the bill to legalize casinos there, has said that he would vote against one if it were ever proposed for the Berkshires town where he has a second home.

This resistance is not because Americans don’t want to gamble. In the last 10 years, the nationwide revenue from casino gambling has grown from $29 billion to more than $37 billion, according to the American Gaming Association, which represents the casino industry.

Massachusetts residents alone spent an estimated $850 million last year in casinos in neighboring states, according to the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.

And 61 percent of them still like the idea of having casinos in the state, a survey by the Western New England University Polling Institute found.

They just don’t appear to want gambling near where they live. The same poll found that 55 percent of Bay State adults oppose casinos in their own communities.

“There is definitely some of that ‘not in my back yard’ going on,” says David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. “It seems that people are comfortable with the idea of casinos, but once they get into the specifics of, this is where it’s going to go and this is what it’s going to look like and this is how it’s going to affect my commute, they may be having second thoughts.”

Not every community is hostile to casinos. Several in Massachusetts have voted to allow them, including one on the site of a former chemical plant and one at a former greyhound racing track. In Philadelphia and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, casinos have been approved to replace a hazardous waste site and an abandoned factory.

“What’s clearly going on here is that the communities that have approved these are much poorer communities” than the likes of Milford, says Richard McGowan, a professor of economics at Boston College and a casino expert. When they consider the alternatives—“a prison, a nuclear power plant—most people think that casinos overall are good for a community when they replace things that are tired or old,” says Bob Jarvis, a gaming expert and law professor at Nova Southeastern Law School in Florida.

Other casinos are in largely nonresidential neighborhoods of cities such as New Orleans, on remote tribal land free from the authority of voters and elected local officials, or in rural areas. But as more are proposed in densely populated states, gaming experts say, finding places to put them is becoming more contentious.

“Overall, people are not uncomfortable with gaming,” says Steve Rittvo, a principal with the casino consulting firm the Innovation Project Group. “But people also realize that you don’t necessarily need to be the host community to get that spinoff of the impacts of it.”


Read more: Massachusetts Casinos: Gambling's NIMBY Problem | TIME.com http://nation.time.com/2013/12/23/why-casinos-are-becoming-like-landfills/#ixzz2on3LgeaK

....'grotesque' online gambling addiction.....

Financial advisor stole £1m from a primary school, a charity and his own friends to feed his 'grotesque' online gambling addiction

• Michael Garner, 52, placed bets totalling £1.5m, but only won £750,000
• He stole money from a primary school PTA as well as his friends
• Gambled on average about £10,000 a day on betting website Jackpotjoy
• Garner was sentenced to five years and eight months in jail

By Jill Reilly
PUBLISHED:08:29 EST, 23 November 2013

Jailed: Michael Garner, 53, was jailed for five years eight months at Chester Crown Court

A financial adviser stole almost £1 million from friends, a charity and investors to feed his online gambling addiction.

Michael Garner, 53, frittered away astronomical amounts on an online casino - placing bets totalling an astonishing £1.5m, but only winning back around £750,000.

To feed his gambling habits, he began stealing from the Cheadle and Gatley Round Table charitable organisation, where he was the trusted treasurer and later president.

He stole ticket money, totalling £2,500, which had been collected by the likes of Cheadle Primary School's PTA and Mathers bakers, in Cheadle, Greater Manchester.

A court heard he also swiped £3,500 from the charity's coffers by forging a signature and paying a cheque from its account directly into his own.
 
But, as his gambling addiction escalated, so did his stealing.

Garner, a well-known self-employed financial and pensions adviser from Heaton Mersey, Stockport, convinced long-time friend and client Dr Ken Jones, 80, to invest in a trading opportunity he had identified in Switzerland.

Dr Jones, a retired biochemist, cashed in his £100,000 stocks and shares and then paid the money into his trusted pal's account.

But Garner blew the lot on online gambling site Jackpotjoy within a month.

Stole: The 53-year-old stole ticket money, totalling £2,500, which had been collected by the likes of Cheadle Primary School's PTA (pictured)

Garner's stealing continued and became more audacious as he scammed a dozen successful businessmen who had been persuaded to invest in the Swiss scheme.

 

The Escrow Trading Trust, based in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, was set up to hold the investors' cash with Garner and two other people as trustees.

Garner forged a bank mandate without the knowledge of the other trustees that allowed him to withdraw money from the trust's account.

Between December 2011 and May 2012, he stole almost £900,000 and paid it into the account he shared with his wife.

The court heard Garner was gambling on average about £10,000 a day on Jackpotjoy - and up to £80,000 a day on some occasions.

 

 

Online gambling: Garner blew the money on online gambling site Jackpotjoy. The court heard Garner was gambling on average about £10,000 a day on the website - and up to £80,000 a day on some occasions

 

His crimes were uncovered when one of the trustees spoke to their bank manager and realised the cash had gone missing.

Garner was arrested at his home on Woodside and later pleaded guilty to five counts of theft relating to the Round Table, and two counts of fraud and 22 counts of theft relating to the Swiss investment opportunity.

Sentencing Garner to five years and eight months in jail, Recorder Michael Hayton QC described Garner's breach of trust as 'grotesque'.

He added: 'Your life has been ruined by this addiction.'

Anna Mackenzie, defending, told the court Garner was remorseful and understood his actions had 'devastated' the lives of himself, family, friends and victims.

She added his marriage appeared to be over and his matrimonial home, his only asset, had been sold to help pay off a civil claim made by the investors against him.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2512312/Financial-advisor-stole-1m-primary-school-charity-friends-feed-grotesque-online-gambling-addiction.html?ico=home%5Eheadlines