MACAU GAMING-RELATED CRIME CONTINUES TO POST DOUBLE-DIGIT GROWTH
JULY 14, 2016
Gaming-related crime in Macau continues its torrid pace, with the number of cases showing double-digit growth in the first five months of 2016.
Speaking at a ceremony marking the 56th anniversary of the Macau Judiciary Police (PJ), director Chao Wai Kuong said there’d been 660 gaming-related criminal cases through the end of May, up 15.6% from the same period one year ago. The pace of growth is accelerating, as Q1’s year-on-year increase was only 11.2%.
In keeping with recent patterns, gaming-related crimes largely fall into one of two categories: loan-sharking and illegal detention of gamblers who can’t pay their debts. Gaming-related loan-sharking cases were up 65.7% to 179 while illegal detention cases were up 70% to 169.
Comparing the 12 months between June 2014 – May 2015 and June 2015 – May 2016, gaming-related crime is up by one-third. Loan sharking cases were up 60% to 389 while illegal detention cases were up 200% to 435.
As is now standard, Chao insisted that Macau residents had little to fear from this crime wave, as most of the incidents were confined to casino property and most victims were non-residents.
Further evidence of this type of criminal activity was on full display last week when the PJ announced the arrest of eight mainland Chinese men accused of belonging to a long-sharking gang. The PJ believe the men are part of a 60-strong gang that rotates ‘staff’ in and out of Macau in groups of up to 10 men. The suspected ringleader remains at large.
The PJ received a tipoff about the gang’s operation back in April. The men were arrested at a high-rise apartment block, where police discovered I.O.U. slips and weapons such as knuckle-dusters. The gang reportedly scouted for clients by hanging out in smaller casinos in Macau’s Zape district.
Macau’s Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak, said on Monday that his departments would continue to communicate with the city’s casino regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), to study ways to combat what he referred to as “side betting”.
The secretary made the comment at a Monday press briefing discussing the city’s crime statistics for the first quarter this year. Mr Wong stated that his office currently does not have any official statistics regarding the crime of “side betting” because of its “hidden nature” and the difficulty of obtaining usable evidence concerning the activity.
The Macau government’s “mid-term” review reportof the local casino industry published at the start of May, mentioned the likelihood of tighter regulation of VIP gaming promoters at the city’s casinos, including potentially the use of undercover investigators to combat what the report referred to as “side betting”. In the Macau context, this usually means “the multiplier”.
The multiplier is an illegal practice defined in the Macau government’s industry review report as “the VIP room operator’s secret arrangement with the client that both parties will agree to magnify by a few times – for instance ten times – the bet on the table”. The review described the multiplier as “greatly restricting government taxation and seriously disruptive to social order”.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Mr Wong said his office remains “open” on whether to adopt the use of undercover investigators to combat the multiplier. That possibility was mentioned in the “mid-term” review report.
The secretary also noted that what the government refers to as “the adjustment” in Macau’s gaming industry – usually taken by outsiders as a reference to the two-year downward trend in casino gross gaming revenue – had so far not had any negative impact on the city’s security, nor had it created what Mr Wong referred to as “irregularities” in triad activities.
Rise in crimes
But according to official data released by Mr Wong’s office, there was a rise in the number of gambling-related crimes in the first three months of this year.
In the January to March period, the number of cases of gambling-related crimes reported to, and investigated by, the police totalled 368 cases, representing an increase of 11.2 percent year-on-year, the official data indicated.
In the quarter, a total of 89 cases of unlawful detention – i.e., where a person is held against his or her will by someone not legally authorised to do so – were recorded, reflecting an increase of 32.8 percent year-on-year. Such cases are typically associated in Macau with loan sharking connected to gambling, the city’s authorities have said.
Usury cases – unlawful lending of money – in the period, increased by 55.9 percent year-on-year to 106 cases, according to official data released on Monday.
While cases of unlawful detention and of usury had fallen when judged quarter-on-quarter, the fact that both categories of offence had risen year-on-year was a ground for the security forces not to be complacent, the secretary’s office concluded. The office also noted on Monday that it would launch more efficiently targeted crime prevention measures to combat illegal detention and usury.
Most of the victims and suspects involved in the illegal detention and usury cases were not Macau residents, the secretary’s office said in its report, which was read out at the media briefing.
Explaining the year-on-year rise seen in gambling-related crimes, Mr Wong stated it was partly due to “better enforcement of the law”. Most of the cases took place inside casinos, and the police saw so signs that such criminal activity was spreading beyond the walls of the casinos.
His office noted that in the first quarter, gaming-related cases involving a total of 424 suspects had been sent to the Public Prosecutions Office, up by 17.5 percent year-on-year.
Melco Crown is a gaming operator in Macau who recently announced efforts to step up security measures to try and thwart individuals who are banned from their properties from entering. City of Dreams and Studio City will implement the new technology which will mark the very first time an operator in Macau will be installing specialized facial recognition technology created by Cognitec for security measures.
The new system, titled FaceVACS-VideoScan, will detect the faces of individuals in live time with a video stream and then compare the faces found to features in photos of banned individuals, which are stored in data bases. If a match is found, the system will alert the security staff in real time. This extended security measure’s goal is to prevent losses on site as well as stop criminal activities quickly.
According to the software’s creator, Cognitec, the system has several capabilities including marking frequent visitors, people movement in regards to time and space, behavior of customers as well as demographical information. Stephen Meltz is the Cognitec managing director for the Asia-Pacific division, who stated that the system is the first of its kind to be used in casino setting.
Crime has been an issue in Macau, causing casinos to see less visitors than ever before. In 2015, crimes related to gaming increased by 38%. There were over 1,500 crimes related to gaming recorded in Macau last year and casinos are taking steps to try and cut down on such crimes as loan-sharking and illegal imprisonment, both of which took place inside casino venues.
Macau casino-related crime rises as gambling profits tumble
Casino-linked offences surge as graft crackdown bites into profits
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 23 May, 2015
Forced collection of debts, arson and document forgery crimes are all on the increase in the former Portuguese enclave. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Macau has been hit by a sharp rise in casino-linked crime as gaming revenues nosedive amid Beijing's drive to clean up the world's biggest gambling hub, putting the cash-squeeze on its notorious criminal underbelly.
Security chiefs in the former Portuguese enclave say the number of illegal detentions - the bulk of which involve forced collection of gaming debts by triads - almost doubled to 67 in the first three months of this year, from 37 in the same period last year.
There has also been a surge in the number of arson attacks, document forgery cases and what the authorities describe as "crimes jeopardising the territory". The crime spike comes ahead of next week's opening of two new gaming and leisure developments at Galaxy Entertainment's Galaxy Macau on the Cotai Strip.
It suggests the graft crackdown launched last year is having a deep effect on the city as its gaming-dominated economy strives to meet demands from President Xi Jinping and senior mainland officials to put its gambling house in order in the interests of the nation.
It also follows the publication of an academic study by veteran Hong Kong-based Macau analyst Professor Sonny Lo Shiu-hing, who argues that "geopolitical concerns" are the prime motivating factor behind Beijing's push for a more diverse economy and a better regulated casino sector, both of which it sees as long-term bulwarks against "the deep penetration of Western capital and influence" in Macau.
Releasing the figures this week, Macau's secretary for security, Wong Sio-chak, insisted the gaming hub's security situation was stable, adding that the growth in illegal detentions and loan sharking "still does not provide enough evidence that the current adjustment in the gaming industry has affected Macau's social public security".
A casino industry source said the surge in illegal detentions and loan sharking indicated that "criminal enterprises" were scrambling to make up for losses resulting from a mini-meltdown of controversial VIP junket operators, who bring in many of the high-rollers who are the focus of Beijing's clean-up campaign.
"Business is business for these guys, and if they can't get their pound of flesh one way, they'll get it another way," the source said.
In a paper written jointly with fellow academic Dennis Hui Lai-hang, Hong Kong Institute of Education Professor Lo - who has been monitoring Macau since the early 1990s - says: "Beijing does not want to witness any proliferation, much less monopolisation, of foreign investment in Macau's casino industry ... China's geopolitical concerns of deep penetration of western capital in Macau's casinos make a brake on the growth of casinos perfectly understandable."
On Thursday, Sociedade de Jogos de Macau CEO Ambrose So Shu-fai said VIP business was down 30 to 40 per cent in the past few months. He could not say whether it had hit the bottom.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Crime rises as gaming revenues fall
Head of pseudoephedrine syndicate produced $67 million turnover in wins and losses at SkyCity’s VIP room. ''
One of New Zealand's biggest convicted drug smugglers spent $15 million at SkyCity casino - while receiving the unemployment benefit.
Van Thanh Tran was one of six casino high-rollers under surveillance by police in Operation Ghost, which targeted an organised crime syndicate smuggling large shipments of pseudoephedrine from China into Auckland.
Tran was the "boss" and has yet to be sentenced after earlier pleading guilty to importing and distributing pseudoephedrine, used to manufacture methamphetamine, including 250kg smuggled in a single shipment.
Also known as Peter or "Elder Brother Ching", Tran had been on the unemployment benefit since immigrating to New Zealand in 1993 until 2012. A father of three, he has lived at a number of addresses in Auckland and Dunedin, where he ran a tiling company, but was living in Flat Bush, in South Auckland during the Operation Ghost investigation.
But a Herald investigation can reveal that the 48-year-old was one of six VIPs at SkyCity under surveillance in Operation Ghost.
The police discovered Tran's identity by using an undercover officer to pose as a drug dealer and infiltrate a pseudoephedrine syndicate, then "working their way up the tree". Tran was sitting at the top.
He sold pseudoephedrine in bulk to wholesalers with their own supply networks, but kept his "hands clean" by using lieutenants to keep his stockpiles safe and deliver packages on his instructions.
Evidence given during the trial described him as a "big gambler", once losing $800,000 in a week, and a loan shark who would lend amounts as large as $300,000.
SkyCity records show he spent $15 million in a 15-month period and his volume of play - the churn of money won and lost - was $67 million.
Overall Tran lost more than $1.1 million.
The high-roller also held an account with SkyCity in which he deposited $2.5 million of gaming chips, cheques and cash in 11 months and withdrew $460,000 during the same time.
Police say this level of gambling is consistent with someone who can access substantial sums of cash despite declaring a much smaller legitimate income, according to an affidavit in a parallel civil court case to seize Tran's assets.
"Many of those involved in drug dealing activity attend casinos for the purpose of 'laundering' funds that have been generated through their unlawful activity."
The police have seized two homes from Tran, several cars including an Audi, $85,000 cash, bank accounts holding more than $200,000 as well as jewellery. Most of these assets were held in the names of family members.
The link between organised crime and the casino gives ammunition to the anti-gambling lobbyists who warned SkyCity could become a "scene for large-scale criminal activity or a meeting place for people who commit serious crimes".
But SkyCity said it was "extremely comfortable" it had met obligations under anti-money laundering and problem gambling laws, while the millions of dollars gambled "were not out of the ordinary" by VIP standards.
A spokesman said the casino could not comment on individuals for privacy reasons and strict disclosure rules in the anti-money laundering laws, but confirmed "a number of those people did come to our attention on several occasions".
"We were co-operative with the police from the start of this investigation. We are extremely confident that we took all appropriate actions under AML requirements and also that we took proactive steps from a host responsibility perspective," the spokesman said.
These steps - some of which predated Operation Ghost - included staff interventions, interviews, monitoring, and, in several cases, banning people from the casino.
"Only a few of the group of players identified by police were regular visitors to the casino, and the level of their play varied widely. In most cases their turnover was not out of the ordinary for local VIPs."
Any suspicious transactions are immediately reported to the Police Financial Intelligence Unit.
A spokesman for Internal Affairs said the department was committed to ensuring that casinos remained free from criminal influence or exploitation and held regular meetings with SkyCity and government agencies to discussing a "variety of issues".
He said the DIA worked closely with the police during Operation Ghost.
"Large amounts of money can be gambled in casinos and does not of itself necessarily raise issues. In the course of our operations, we liaise and co-operate with other enforcement agencies but would not take any action which could jeopardise a current operation."
VIP gamblers at SkyCity casino
"Peter" Van Thanh Tran Spent $15 million in a 15-month period and his volume of play was $67 million. Overall lost $1.1 million. Also deposited $2.5 million of gaming chips, cheques and cash into SkyCity account in 11 months and withdrew $460,000. Also a loan shark. Pleaded guilty to pseudoephedrine charges.
Da Wen Shao Banned for loan sharking. In the eight months prior, spent $3.3 million, with a turnover of $13.2 million and total losses of $248,000. Fled New Zealand.
Chuck Lou Tarm. Photo / Supplied
Chuck Lou Tarm Blamed his drug offending on his gambling addiction. Owed money to loan shark. Sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison.
"Alex" Zhi Tong Li Known as a "big player". Convicted of pseudoephedrine and methamphetamine charges.
"J" (name suppressed) Gambled $600,000 of family money and amassed a further $500,000 debts over two years. Banned for problem gambling and arranged deals for loan sharks. Yet to stand trial.
"M" (name suppressed) Yet to stand trial.
Other gamblers:
Zhi Wei Yang Had a total "buy in" of $2 million, a turnover of $14 million and total losses of $500,000. Despite this, he was not a VIP. Left New Zealand and still at large.
Felix Lim Small player who gambled socially. Was targeted by Joe Arama, the undercover police officer, to infiltrate the drug syndicate. Fled New Zealand.
SkyCity lounges served as office for criminal ringleaders
Operation Ghost did not uncover any evidence of drug deals taking place inside SkyCity but this is not the first time the casino has been linked in court to a major drugs operation.
Two ringleaders, Tac Kin Voong and Ri Tong Zhou, spent nearly $20 million at the casino in 12 months while using the VIP lounges as an office to conduct their criminal affairs.
In sentencing Zhou to 15 years in prison in 2009, Justice Rhys Harrison noted that anti-gambling lobbyists had warned the casino could become a "scene for large-scale criminal activity or a meeting place for people who commit serious crimes".
A 2007 report by the Department of Internal Affairs revealed "a significant amount of evidence" that predominantly Asian groups "were frequenting New Zealand casinos for the purposes of criminal networking, money laundering and social gambling using illegitimate funds".
One of SkyCity's VIP gaming salons. Photo / Supplied
Alongside the criminal inquiry of Operation Ghost, police launched a parallel investigation into the finances of the accused in a bid to seize their assets. "This investigation initially focused on a number of VIP members at SkyCity casino, in particular, the flow of money related to drug transactions through the casino," according to an affidavit sworn by Detective Inspector Bruce Good.
"From my experience and numerous intelligence reports and organised crime investigations, SkyCity casino and, in particular, the VIP facilities are a recognised money laundering risk and an environment within which numerous drug distribution groups work, both alone and alongside one another."
More than $20 million in assets were restrained under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act.
The law essentially forces someone to prove how an asset was paid for - even if they were acquitted on criminal charges.
There was only one thing we needed to know about Measure E to conclude that it's a bad idea for Milpitas and the South Bay.
It would more than double the number of gaming tables at Bay 101 from the current limit of 49 in San Jose to 115 if the club moves a few miles to Milpitas. With increased capacity would come a corresponding increase in domestic violence, loan sharking, gambling addiction and other crimes and family crises routinely associated with serious gambling.
The effects won't be limited to Milpitas, just as they are not now limited to San Jose. But Milpitas voters can stop the expansion by voting no on Measure E.
A few years ago, Bay 101 tried an end run around the San Jose City Council and asked voters to approve more tables. The club ran a high-roller campaign, but voters saw through it and said no way. We hope Milpitas voters will be as perceptive.
If the number of tables were roughly the same, we'd be neutral on Measure E, despite the shift of around $8 million in tax revenue a year from San Jose, which badly needs the money. But more than doubling the number of tables means trouble for South Bay families: For a dad struggling with a gambling addiction, a casino that's close to home and open 24-7 is far more of a threat than the nearest Indian casino in San Pablo, more than an hour away.
Even if Measure E passes, a state law still would have to be changed to allow Bay 101 to cross the border without San Jose's permission. But voters' welcoming it to Milpitas would take expansion a step closer. Vote no on Measure E.
AG candidate Maura Healey thinks Massachusetts should ditch its casino law.
By Maureen Turner Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Like a number of political figures in the state, Maura Healey acknowledges that she wouldn’t want to see a casino built in her neighborhood in Charlestown.
But unlike most of her fellow candidates for state office, she opposes a casino’s being built anywhere in Massachusetts.
Last week, Healey, a Democratic candidate for attorney general, announced via an op-ed on the political website BlueMassGroup that she supports repealing the 2011 law that legalized casinos in the commonwealth. “I oppose casinos because I believe they hurt people and they hurt communities, and they don’t yield what they purport to promise in terms of economic gains, in terms of families and communities,” she said in an interview with the Advocate.
“We’ve seen the impact on communities that have welcomed in casinos. We’ve seen the lost jobs, the lost homes, the lost livelihoods, bankruptcies, foreclosures, addictions, crime,” Healey said. “As somebody who has stood up against these issues, I think it’s important to stand up to them here.”
Healey comes to the AG’s race after six years working in that office, including time as head of its Public Protection and Advocacy Bureau. “I spent many years in the Attorney General’s Office fighting for people who were disempowered, who were vulnerable, who could be taken advantage of. … I fought off predatory lenders, unfair debt collection, foreclosures,” she said. And those are the very sorts of problems (along with gambling addiction and public safety woes) that experience in other states shows increase with casino development, she said.
“I can’t in good conscience support gambling here in the state as a way out, a way to economic opportunity,” she said. “The casino industry business model is based on profits over people, on taking advantage of those who can least afford it.”
Healey said she’s sympathetic to the argument that casinos would bring much-needed jobs to Massachusetts, particularly in hard-hit cities like Springfield, where voters last year approved a proposed MGM casino. But there are better, more innovative ways to create jobs and boost the economy, like building on existing industries such a technology and healthcare and investing in infrastructure, she said: “Gambling just isn’t the way out.”
As for people who say efforts to overturn the law come too late, Healey said, “I don’t come at this believing that it’s all a done deal. … We’re still at a point where the people can make a decision.”
In point of fact, it remains to be seen whether the people of Massachusetts will be able to make that decision. While casino opponents have worked to get a casino-repeal ballot initiative before voters this November, that effort was halted last fall when incumbent Attorney General Martha Coakley—Healey’s former boss and now a candidate for governor—ruled the question unconstitutional (“Do You Want Casinos?” Oct. 8, 2013, www.valleyadvocate.com). The repeal backers have appealed that decision; the Mass. Supreme Judicial Court is due to take up the case this spring.
That matter, Healey said, “will be up to the court to decide.”
For her part, she continued, “I wanted to be out front on this issue, because whether gambling comes into the state or not, the attorney general will have a big role. … A core part of your job is to protect consumers [from] predatory practices.” If she’s elected, Healey said, that work would start with putting together a strong state Gaming Division focused on “mak[ing] sure that we are taking actions to protect against predatory lending, loan sharking, unfair debt collection, that we’re fighting gambling addiction and organized crime.”
Healey’s rival for the Democratic nomination for AG, former state senator Warren Tolman, does not support repealing the casino law. In a statement sent by his campaign to the Advocate, Tolman noted that the fate of the proposed ballot question will be determined by the SJC, not the next attorney general.
“But if it is on the ballot I will vote against repeal,” Tolman said. “I support the Legislature’s decision to allow individual towns and cities like Springfield and Plainville to decide if they want a casino in their back yard. The people in these communities want the jobs and economic development that will be created.
“If casinos go forward in Massachusetts, the real issues for the next Attorney General are to enforce casino agreements and to be an advocate for consumers and taxpayers,” Tolman continued. “I will ensure that agreements with host communities and surrounding communities are strictly enforced. I will be the leader on whom Massachusetts residents can depend so that casino operators are adhering to their agreements with regards to traffic mitigation, compulsive gambling, work rules, the impact on local economies, consumer bankruptcy and other issues. Finally, I will continue to be a watchdog on ethics and political corruption.”•
When you think of gambling, immediately you envision the original “Sin City” Las Vegas. But times have changed and Macau, once a quiet Portuguese colony that was handed back to China in 1999, has now become the global leader when it comes to “Sin”.
Macau today produces seven times more gambling revenues than Las Vegas with a whopping $46 billion a year and it is estimated this will triple in the next 6 years. With all this money and gambling, Macau has also developed another side, an underworld of money laundering, prostitution, corruption and loan sharks.
A key challenge for Macau is curbing the gambling addiction that has gripped so many people in Macau especially so many casino employees who have fallen prey to loan sharks.
Now some Chinese officials want to clean up Macau’s image and entice more wholesome family activities and entertainment. Similar to Las Vegas, Macau will introduce more shows, music concerts and other events beyond just being a gambling destination.
Bunches of us sacrificed time from our lives, away from families, we shared information, educated ourselves, did the research...
....bunches of us wasted our lives testifying before the Beacon Hill Bobble Heads.....
...suddenly, Steve Wynn is salivating to invade....
...after being prevented from invading South Boston by the NIMBYs, rejected by FOXBORO, unwanted in Connecticut, unwanted in New York [Aqueduct] because of his Anti-Union position, squeezed out of Florida...Steve Wynn finally found some dummies who welcomed him in Everett.....
...willing to ignore FACTS and SLEAZE....a GAM[BL]ING Commission willing to sputter and spew....after all what's a few MILLION DOLLARS in bribes....it's in another country...after all....
...so totally bored at his advanced age, Steve Wynn dozed....while Bill Weld prostituted himself...
Fast forward.....
....the Wynn crowd apparently fed information to a particularly lazy Boston Globe reporter about Mohegan Sun [Wynn's current competitor in the Boston Area] regarding their sleazy loan collection methods.....
10:34 AM PT -- TMZ Sports has now obtained the original criminal complaint filed against Tarver in Nevada in 2013 ... which shows he was charged with fraud and theft for taking out the money in 2012 and never paying it back.
According to the criminal complaint, both charges are felonies ... which means Tarver could be facing some real slammer time.
Former boxing champ Antonio Tarver never paid back $200,000 in gambling markers to the Wynn Las Vegas from a gambling binge in 2012 ... so says a lawsuit obtained by TMZ Sports.
Tarver was arrested in Florida over the weekend on a warrant out of Nevada -- the arrest documents were vague about the nature of the alleged offense.
Now, we know ... Tarver is the target of a criminal investigation for allegedly not settling several gambling markers he took at the Wynn during a 4-day gambling binge in July 2012.
According to the Wynn, Tarver took out $50k on July 24, 2012 ... another $50k on July 26 ... and $100k on July 27 ... totaling $200k.
Besides the criminal investigation, Wynn is also suing Tarver for the cash in civil court in Nevada ... the same way he went after Joe Francis when the "Girls Gone Wild" honcho flaked on a $2 MILLION marker.
Michael Chopra's gambling debts at centre of drugs cash trial
A stash of alleged drugs money was in fact footballer Michael Chopra’s gambling debts, a court was told
Michael Chopra in action for Sunderland in 2007
A stash of alleged drugs money was in fact footballer Michael Chopra’s gambling debts, a court was told.
The former Newcastle United and Sunderland striker’s debts are at the centre of a trial of four men accused of running a cocaine cartel.
Prosecutors claim £50,000 found in a car was drugs cash but jurors at Newcastle Crown Court were today told it was money Chopra owed to underworld loan sharks.
And one of the accused's barristers claimed Chopra had only joined arch rivals Sunderland so he could put the signing-on fee towards his debts after spending millions on his addiction.
Richard Bloomfield told the court: “Michael Chopra had a gambling addiction and spent or wasted, you may think, an awful lot of money gambling.
“He would bet on anything and reached a stage where he was owing increasing amounts of money.
The amount he spent runs not into the thousands or hundreds of thousands but into the millions and he even owed money to team mates.”
Mr Bloomfield said there came a time when Chopra was unable to get credit from legal bookmakers and was offered money by loan sharks in Liverpool.
The barrister said: “Eventually they started putting the squeeze on to him and they contacted his football club.”
Unable to loan money from the bank, Chopra is then said to have borrowed money from shadowy figures in Glasgow.
One of the men on trial is John Somerville, who knew Chopra’s dad and agreed to help the footballer get the money to the men in Glasgow, Mr Bloomfield said.
When police stopped a car leaving Somerville’s Newcastle home, they found £50,000, which prosecutors say is linked to the alleged drugs gang.
But Mr Bloomfield said: “That money was nothing to do with drugs, it was Chopra’s from the loan sharks to pay off his illegal gambling debts.
“That’s what John Somerville was doing, not buying drugs, he was paying Michael Chopra’s gambling debts off.”
The barrister said Chopra then got himself in trouble with the Scottish money lenders, who contacted his then club, Ipswich.
They were put on to chairman Simon Clegg OBE, who helped organise the London Olympics and had a personal audience with the Pope.
He arranged for the club to loan Chopra £250,000 to pay off his debts, the court heard.
Mr Bloomfield said: “When loan sharks start turning up at the training ground it’s a big story.
“Michael Chopra would prefer to keep it under wraps but John Somerville is on trial for a serious offence and he has no alternative but to deal with it, so he will call Michael Chopra to give evidence.
“He will expose himself to the inevitable storm by coming to give evidence.”
He added: “For those of you who are Newcastle fans, when he moved from Cardiff to Sunderland he did so to pay off his creditors with the signing on fee.”
Somerville is alleged to have thrown £12,500 of cocaine out of his car window in Gateshead with police on his tail.
Months later police allegedly found a flat in Washington turned into a drugs factory.
Somerville, 53, of Sherringham Avenue, Kenton, Newcastle, Daniel Chisholm, 51, of Franklin Street, Sunderland, Joseph Lewins, 55, of Malvern Road, Lambton, Washington and Christopher Bacon, 33, of Ashwood Terrace, Sunderland, all deny conspiracy to supply cocaine.
The trial continues.
Family First NZ says that the passing of the New Zealand International Convention Centre Bill today is morally bankrupt and that the government should be encouraging tourists to come to New Zealand to see the country and our culture - not casinos.
"Governments should not fund projects on the back of gambling losses. This deal will only hurt families, and there is still debate over the need for the Centre at all. This deal may be fiscally good, but it’s morally bankrupt. Governments should not be cheerleaders for casinos and the gambling industry," says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.
"The law change necessary for the deal is completely contrary to the Gambling Act which seeks to reduce gambling harm. Casinos thrive on the false promise of getting rich quickly, but the reality is that those who can least afford to gamble are gambling themselves deeper into debt."
"New Zealand studies have found that gaming machines are associated with harm more often than any other form of gambling. Pokie machines have been referred to as ‘mechanical pickpockets’.
Today’s pokie machines are designed to be the most addictive form of gambling ever developed.
Addiction counselors and psychologists are calling video gambling the "crack cocaine" of the gambling industry. People are becoming addicted to these machines within a year," says Mr McCoskrie.
"We’re also concerned that the process was not robust. There were four other interested parties in building the convention centre. The Deputy Auditor-General was concerned with how unfairly they were treated in the tendering process. What has been shown is that the Convention Centre - if needed - could be built without a mass increase in pokie machines."
"It is ironic that the government is targeting loan sharks at the same time as increasing the number of pokie machines," says Mr McCoskrie.
"And with the Auckland Council-approved super brothel soon to be built across the road, this area will quickly become the seedy capital of Auckland, rather than the family-focused tourist attraction that the Sky Tower should be."
"Of most concern is the impact on families including domestic violence, unsupervised children in casino carparks, children going without food clothes and other necessities, and US research suggesting a link between gambling and physical and emotional abuse," says Mr McCoskrie.
"A government partnership with the gambling industry spells bad news for families."
Bill Bollom: More casinos not good for Wisconsin
Oct. 24, 2013
Recently, there has been much discussion on more casinos in our state. The discussion centers on which Indian tribes will benefit and which will be hurt by adding more casinos. No one talks about the impact on all citizens of Wisconsin. I will help fill that void, but first a caveat: I don’t gamble (although I do occasionally play a round of cribbage for a dollar and bragging rights). I have never been to Vegas and I have never purchased a lottery ticket, but I am part American Indian.
Casinos provide benefits primarily to tribal members; jobs, social, some cold hard cash, and educational and health care facilities. This is a considerable and much appreciated benefit to some Wisconsin citizens. Wisconsin taxpayers get a small share of their winnings too, but much of that is earmarked for Indian interests. Casinos also provide a social and recreational experience for many of the elderly (and not so elderly) in our state, who have little or no interest in gambling. Casinos have been very beneficial in some people’s lives, but for some it has destroyed their lives.
Casinos primarily make their money from those who gamble; they advertise, “Easy Street. It’s Only a Play Away.” Gambling preys on poor people, luring them in with the promise of a life free from financial stress.
Addictive gambling increases as access to gambling increases. Many people lack any self-restraint.
About 4-10 percent of gamblers have this problem. It’s estimated that half of casino revenue comes from them. This results in many social problems; increased personal bankruptcies, crime rates, domestic abuse, loan sharking, divorce, suicide, homelessness and welfare services.
Casinos do not benefit the total economy. Casino revenue is cannibalized from other sectors of the local economy. The jobs created in the casinos are lost in other businesses. If money wasn’t lost gambling, it would be spent on furniture, cars, etc. Manufacturing job losses are partly caused by casinos.
Casinos also cannibalize one another. Every Wisconsin citizen is already within 2 hours of a casino.
There is practically no new gambling revenue created by building more casinos. The only way casinos can benefit Wisconsin’s economy is if out-of-state gamblers come to our state, as in Vegas, but our neighboring states all have casinos, many of them located near our borders. Actually, the growth of internet gambling will no doubt result in less business for our current casinos. The required investment by local communities to handle a new casino will be difficult to justify.
My golfing buddies tell me, “People have a right to spend their money as stupidly as they want; it’s a free country,” but we shouldn’t be encouraging a mother to gamble away the kid’s lunch money.
I realize that gambling is deep rooted in man’s social environment. It cannot be stopped, no matter what the consequences on the player or the family – but we don’t have to encourage it. I know that I will not encourage our grandchildren to gamble. No person can be a long-term net winner at casinos, unless they cheat. Casino gambling is inconsistent with ideals like perseverance and hard work. The risk involved in playing casino games is not the same as the risk the pioneers took or the risk business people take every day.
On balance, the addition of more casinos is not something our governor should support. It makes about as much sense as luring in more tort lawyers to practice in our state. We can only hope our governor takes no contributions to his reelection campaign from the 11 tribes in Wisconsin. If he does, he will become beholding to them just like the Democrats did under Gov. Jim Doyle. We will again see expanded casino operations, with likely four more in our state, and, in my opinion, this is not at all good.
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.
As Native American Casinos Proliferate, The Social Costs Of The Gambling Boom Are Ignored
By Kerri Toloczko
Indian gaming has been a hot button issue since before the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act passed in 1988. Although administration of Tribal casinos by state and federal government is codified in law, it is often a sidebar in the debate as to whether a casino should be approved in a community.
Wisconsin has more than 20 Indian casinos with another request in the pipeline. The tribe presenting the newest application is trying to circumvent long-standing federal regulation requiring tribes to open casinos only on reservation lands unless specific criteria are met – including that the casino be a “commutable”distance from the reservation.
The proposed gaming site is 200 miles away from the applicant Menominee Tribe’s doorstep.
Although waivers are rarely given, the tribe has had success with the Obama Administration after it proposed running the new facility using union labor for the first time in Wisconsin gaming history — leaving one to wonder if it will be a tribal casino at all?
The casino also requires approval from the state and Wisconsin’s other tribes, neither of which it has. Governor Scott Walker has applied brakes to this circumvention of federal law by proposing common-sense requirements – not an easy position to take in a state overrun with big gaming money and the lobbying pressure that comes with it.
A prime concern must be the crime and moral decline that often accompanies casinos – especially those associated with unions. In the cost-benefit analysis of casino positives and negatives that accrue to the community affected, social impacts should be a critical determinant.
In many places, sleaze and filth are commonplace around casinos. Las Vegas, our country’s largest union-controlled gaming venue, is known as “Sin City.” Along with its tourists, pornography, prostitution, drug use and alcoholism walk its sidewalks. Gaming chips away at the innocence and morals of society and is antithesis to the notion that fiscal responsibility and embracing a clean, healthy environment are good national characteristics.
Casinos are crime magnets with two types of illegal activity: Internal corruption that includes money laundering, loan sharking and mob influence, and street crime. It is the increase in crime directly spilling from casino doors that has the most immediate affect on surrounding communities. For nearby neighborhoods, these include DUI-related accidents, home robberies and mail theft. If a precedent is set that Indian casinos are no longer restricted to reservation lands, negatives will impact neighboring areas like never before.
According to a 2012 study of casino crime by University of Maryland researchers, there is a 10 percent increase in substance abuse, suicide, violent crime, theft and bankruptcy when a new casino opens in town. Other studies found 8 – 9 percent crime increases at a cost near $70 per year for every person living nearby. After Atlantic City’s rapid casino growth in the 1980s, crime increased by 100 percent in a 30 mile radius surrounding the area.
When casinos started booming in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute commissioned a three-part study of casino related crime in the Badger State that produced frightening results. The expert panel (an economist, a statistician and an expert in gaming administration) found, “existence of a casino within the boundaries of a county led to an increase in county-wide crime rates (and) a strong spillover effect with counties adjacent experiencing higher crime rates.” Their data showed a 5,300 annual increase of “major crimes” and 17,100 “minor crimes” with an associated cost in 2001 dollars of $51 million for Wisconsin taxpayers.
Debt is a damaging and destructive influence in society, and the main reason for divorce. Divorce is a main cause of poverty, depression and youth crime. National data demonstrates that debt increases alongside new casinos. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, casinos attract “pathological gamblers” who account for 50% of casino revenue and much of the crime.
An Indian nation singularly focused on the staggering increase in tribal revenue provided by casinos will continue to ignore social costs, as it is in its reasonable self-interest to do so. However, citizens in impacted communities should not choose violence and crime over morals, integrity and the cost of illegal activity. If a non-reservation casino is built, problems will not affect “someone else” - it will have an immediate, negative effect on Wisconsin society and the wallets of its workers.
Nationwide in 2008, about 80 percent of both Tribal and union contributions (more than $500 million) went to the Obama campaign and Democrats – a strategy paying off at the expense of Wisconsin communities. As Scott Walker takes a stand against integration of crime into neighborhoods he has sworn to protect, regardless of their political views, Wisconsinites would be wise to join their Governor on this issue, making it clear to the government in Washington and special interests in their state that they stand for safe communities – and themselves.
Kerri Toloczko is a Senior Fellow with Let Freedom Ring, a public policy organization supporting constitutional government, economic freedom and traditional values.
Gaming-related crime in Macau continues its torrid pace, with the number of cases showing double-digit growth in the first five months of 2016.
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