DeLeo opening casino door to tribes
By Paul McMorrow
ROBERT DeLEO wants to bring legalized gambling to Massachusetts. He wants two casinos and slots at four racing tracks, and right now, it looks like he’s going to get his wish.
And, potentially, a lot more. In DeLeo’s rush to appease the building trades and carve out some action for the two racetracks in his district, the speaker of the House is setting the table for a gambling expansion in Massachusetts that has the potential to be far broader than anything he’s pitching. He’s opening the door to new gambling halls on Martha’s Vineyard and the Cape, in Middleborough and Fall River. It’s also something neither he, nor anyone else on Beacon Hill, can control.
Forget, for a second, all the reasons we know we should worry about legalized gambling — its regressive nature, the way it cannibalizes money that would otherwise be spent at local businesses, the negligible benefits it offers strained government budgets, the staggering social and regulatory costs. None of that has swayed DeLeo, or anybody else on Beacon Hill whose opinion actually matters these days. Two years ago, the Legislature was debating whether to legalize casinos at all; now the body is just wondering how many to greenlight.
The Mashpee Wampanoag and the Aquinnah, the state’s two federally recognized Native American tribes, have each expressed serious interest in owning a gleaming gambling hall. They haven’t been able to follow through on those urges because, legally, they can’t.
The tribes are sovereign, but they’re only allowed to set up a gambling shop at the highest level of gaming that’s legal in their home state. Right now, they could peddle scratch tickets, or maybe hop into the high-stakes bingo game. There’s no serious money in either pursuit. That changes the moment the governor signs a casino bill into law this summer. Each will be freed to set up gaming operations on their tribal land, on the Cape and Martha’s Vineyard. And the state wouldn’t be able to touch a dime of whatever rolls in.
There is a bit of fine print to tackle first. A Supreme Court decision has stalled the Mashpee Wampanoag effort to take land into federal trust, establishing a sovereign homeland. Still, anyone who thinks Congress will not eventually override the decision is wholly unfamiliar with Congress and with money; money and Congress, though, are by no means strangers.
Clearly, state-backed gambling enterprises will get rolling before any potential tribal enterprises. These things have life cycles of years, not months, though. The Mashpee Wampanoag fought for decades for federal recognition. In that context, the difference between a groundbreaking in 2010 and 2015 isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker. And anyone who thinks the gaming interests that form partnerships with tribes are afraid of competition should take a drive up the California coast, where every exit seems to feature a gambling outpost.
The speaker, who has assumed a leadership role in pushing gambling in the Commonwealth, is fond of quoting figures. He says he knows how many jobs will materialize, and how much cash will flow to cities and towns. His guys have it all figured out. Except that they don’t. They have no idea how many gaming operations the state will eventually wind up hosting. These things can change quickly. And they’re completely beyond Beacon Hill’s reach. Until 2007, the Mashpee Wampanoag weren’t a federally recognized tribe; months later, they had financial backers, and were talking about gobbling up more than 500 acres in Middleborough.
The Legislature hasn’t appeared to be preoccupied with asking questions about the ramifications of votes it takes. DeLeo, in particular, has been steering the effort to broaden gambling’s reach and install 3,000 slot machines at the state’s four racetracks (only two of which still feature actual racing, but let’s not nitpick).
Two of those four — Suffolk Downs and Wonderland — lie in the speaker’s district. Suffolk essentially controls Wonderland, a greyhound track rotten with debt; DeLeo’s version of the gambling legislation would hand Suffolk’s politically wired ownership half of the state’s slots market, giving it a virtual lock on one of the two full casino licenses the state will be selling off. That’s the point, really.
DeLeo rose to his post at Sal DiMasi’s right hand. DeLeo was responsible for divvying up the state budget’s spoils — a process that has long rewarded leadership’s allies, and delivered punishing blows to political enemies. His path into DiMasi’s old office was cleared with budgetary earmarks.
The casino debate shows DeLeo still playing the part of the two-bit committee chairman. DeLeo has yet to fully grasp that the speaker’s office is a statewide position. Here he is, about to dramatically reshape the state’s economic landscape, and he’s obsessing over his district, his neighborhood guys, the tracks he grew up visiting. From the beginning, he has been out to get a piece of the action for his two tracks. And now he’s on the cusp. Once he opens that door, though, he should watch out — that’s when things get interesting.
Paul McMorrow is a staff writer for Banker & Tradesman.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Cape Cod Gambling Addict
Ex-attorney says he stole $650,000
By George Brennan
BARNSTABLE — A disbarred Dennis lawyer admitted Friday that he stole $650,000 from a client to feed his gambling habit.
John "Jack" Roberts Jr., 59, pleaded guilty in Barnstable Superior Court to one count of larceny over $250 by a single scheme.
Once a respected real estate attorney, baseball coach and town volunteer, he used his client's money to fuel an obsession with online poker, according to court records.
Prosecutors said Roberts stole $650,000 from Middleboro resident Norman Sasville and wired the bulk of it to gambling websites.
Roberts was sent to Taunton State Hospital for a pre-sentencing psychological evaluation, said Nicole Manoog, an assistant district attorney in Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe's office.
"He's had some issues," she said.
Attorney Edward Lynch, who represented Roberts, declined to comment. But in September he told the court that Roberts has been treated for mental health issues and twice attempted suicide while his previous case was pending.
The judge sent Roberts to Taunton to help to determine a sentence that would be appropriate, Manoog said.
This is the second time Roberts has been convicted of bilking a client out of cash so he could gamble it away. In 2007, he was sentenced to house arrest after pleading guilty to stealing $137,000 from the estate of the late Alice May. At the time, he had control of the Sandwich woman's $600,000 estate.
In both cases, the clients told the Times they trusted Roberts with their money and thought of him as a friend.
Sasville declined to comment yesterday, but Manoog said she expects he will address the court at the sentencing hearing June 9.
By George Brennan
BARNSTABLE — A disbarred Dennis lawyer admitted Friday that he stole $650,000 from a client to feed his gambling habit.
John "Jack" Roberts Jr., 59, pleaded guilty in Barnstable Superior Court to one count of larceny over $250 by a single scheme.
Once a respected real estate attorney, baseball coach and town volunteer, he used his client's money to fuel an obsession with online poker, according to court records.
Prosecutors said Roberts stole $650,000 from Middleboro resident Norman Sasville and wired the bulk of it to gambling websites.
Roberts was sent to Taunton State Hospital for a pre-sentencing psychological evaluation, said Nicole Manoog, an assistant district attorney in Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe's office.
"He's had some issues," she said.
Attorney Edward Lynch, who represented Roberts, declined to comment. But in September he told the court that Roberts has been treated for mental health issues and twice attempted suicide while his previous case was pending.
The judge sent Roberts to Taunton to help to determine a sentence that would be appropriate, Manoog said.
This is the second time Roberts has been convicted of bilking a client out of cash so he could gamble it away. In 2007, he was sentenced to house arrest after pleading guilty to stealing $137,000 from the estate of the late Alice May. At the time, he had control of the Sandwich woman's $600,000 estate.
In both cases, the clients told the Times they trusted Roberts with their money and thought of him as a friend.
Sasville declined to comment yesterday, but Manoog said she expects he will address the court at the sentencing hearing June 9.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
End of road for gambler
End of road for gambler
A crooked travel agent convinced his business partner they could win the Blues Super 14 team contract while stealing thousands of dollars to feed a gambling addiction.
Dennis Price charged $28,000 to colleague Reg Caldow's credit card for what he claimed was a pre-season Blues trip to South Africa in 2007.
Caldow, 66, from Wellington, said: "He has caused my family intolerable stress. I set him up in business and he stole from me.
Police said Price had gambled up to $600,000 at the TAB....
Price was close friends with New Zealand's most well-known punter, Graham "Steel Balls" Bruton.
But for Bruton, too, the luck ran out. When he fled to Singapore in 2002, unable to pay a $20,000 credit bet he made with a Christchurch TAB, Price spoke out on his behalf.
After a crushing run of losses, Bruton told him high-stakes gambling had become "like a heroin addiction that I couldn't handle" - but Price said his friend was strong enough to bounce back.
A crooked travel agent convinced his business partner they could win the Blues Super 14 team contract while stealing thousands of dollars to feed a gambling addiction.
Dennis Price charged $28,000 to colleague Reg Caldow's credit card for what he claimed was a pre-season Blues trip to South Africa in 2007.
Caldow, 66, from Wellington, said: "He has caused my family intolerable stress. I set him up in business and he stole from me.
Police said Price had gambled up to $600,000 at the TAB....
Price was close friends with New Zealand's most well-known punter, Graham "Steel Balls" Bruton.
But for Bruton, too, the luck ran out. When he fled to Singapore in 2002, unable to pay a $20,000 credit bet he made with a Christchurch TAB, Price spoke out on his behalf.
After a crushing run of losses, Bruton told him high-stakes gambling had become "like a heroin addiction that I couldn't handle" - but Price said his friend was strong enough to bounce back.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Gambling Addiction in Las Vegas
Las Vegas Sun :
[Sun reporter J. Patrick] Coolican... shared an award with other Sun staff members for their examination of gambling addiction. Their report, which was printed in the Sun newspaper and more fully presented online with videos and interactive displays, won second place for multimedia storytelling.
Producing the gambling addiction project along with Coolican were reporter Liz Benston, videographer Scott Den Herder and website developers and designers Tyson Anderson, Levi Chronister and Danny DeBelius who, among other elements, developed an interactive slot machine to demonstrate gambling odds and the rate of losing money.
The project’s focus on a gambling addict was “very straightforward, personal and revealing,” judges said.
Best of the West was founded in 1987 to reward journalistic excellence and promote freedom of information. It operates a journalism contest for newspapers and newspaper-run Web sites in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The contest quickly became the region’s most prestigious awards competition, with about 2,000 entries each year.
Bottoming Out: Gambling Addiction in Las Vegas
[Sun reporter J. Patrick] Coolican... shared an award with other Sun staff members for their examination of gambling addiction. Their report, which was printed in the Sun newspaper and more fully presented online with videos and interactive displays, won second place for multimedia storytelling.
Producing the gambling addiction project along with Coolican were reporter Liz Benston, videographer Scott Den Herder and website developers and designers Tyson Anderson, Levi Chronister and Danny DeBelius who, among other elements, developed an interactive slot machine to demonstrate gambling odds and the rate of losing money.
The project’s focus on a gambling addict was “very straightforward, personal and revealing,” judges said.
Best of the West was founded in 1987 to reward journalistic excellence and promote freedom of information. It operates a journalism contest for newspapers and newspaper-run Web sites in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The contest quickly became the region’s most prestigious awards competition, with about 2,000 entries each year.
Bottoming Out: Gambling Addiction in Las Vegas
NJ: Casino Logic Defies, Morgan Stanley Bailout
Gambling Investors salivating to exploit Massachusetts residents, often point to the wondrous success of casinos in New Jersey, failing to mention 17% unemployment, even with the multitudes of low wage jobs they offer. Or even the Mob ties.
Legislators, in love with casinos and campaign contributions, removed local control from voters with more sense who oppose a Morgan Stanley bailout.
Aaahhh, yes! Notice the carrot - 'we'll finish blah, blah, if only you'll just bail us out.'
Revel intends to reapply for $300M in sales tax breaks for Atlantic City casino after replacing chief investor
ATLANTIC CITY — Revel Entertainment Group intends to reapply for $300 million in sales tax breaks after it replaces its chief investor for its stalled Atlantic City casino project.
Morgan Stanley recently announced it was better to take a $932 million loss on the casino-hotel than to spend money to finish it.
Revel CEO Kevin DeSanctis told The Press of Atlantic City the gaming company intends to commit to using the sales tax breaks for redeveloping the South Inlet, the long-neglected area around Revel.
Opponents of the proposed tax break have enough valid signatures to force a referendum on it this fall.
But a bill awaiting action by Gov. Chris Christie would strip municipalities of the right to hold referendums on projects funded by state stimulus money.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Confessions of a Slot Machine Queen
When Middleboro became "Ground Zero" as a Tribal Casino was rammed through surrounded by lies while our questions were ignored or worse, we were graveled to silence.
We were to learn that was the way Casino Tyranny begins, just as the Massachusetts House Speaker "Racino" DeLeo exemplified. He refused to support an Independent Cost Benefit Analysis that the Governor, Attorney General and many others supported. He claimed he met with "Opponents," whatever that means. When asked who, he ignored the inquiry. He claimed MMA 'endorsed' his proposal, which they hadn't. He refused to allow public hearings, claiming they had already been held, which obscures the facts. Most Representatives deferred to the Speaker with their opinion by simply wimping out with "We don't know what the Speaker will propose."
We were to learn that was the way Casino Tyranny begins, just as the Massachusetts House Speaker "Racino" DeLeo exemplified. He refused to support an Independent Cost Benefit Analysis that the Governor, Attorney General and many others supported. He claimed he met with "Opponents," whatever that means. When asked who, he ignored the inquiry. He claimed MMA 'endorsed' his proposal, which they hadn't. He refused to allow public hearings, claiming they had already been held, which obscures the facts. Most Representatives deferred to the Speaker with their opinion by simply wimping out with "We don't know what the Speaker will propose."
When the truth is obscured and the facts of revenues and job creation are conspicuously exaggerated, personal and shared research and reading becomes the only reliable source of information.
United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts offers a reservoir of information and reports.
Many of us have read a wide array of books on the surrounding topics, but recently, a friend recommended "Confessions of a Slot Machine Queen: A Memoir," by Sandra Adell. The author's riveting account of her personal experience as her life spiralled out of control adds a human face to the slot addict that a predatory industry preys on to provide its profits.
Ms. Adell maintains a blog that provides her unique insight:
Nevada's depravity
THE RELUCTANCE TO TAX OURSELVES: Nevada's depravity
By WILLIAM M. EPSTEIN
AND WILLIAM N. THOMPSON
SPECIAL TO THE REVIEW-JOURNAL
Rather than a fiscal crisis, Nevada suffers a crisis of greed, selfishness and stupidity. The state's elementary and secondary public education system, its universities and its other public services -- notably child welfare, health and mental health -- are already among the most poorly funded and weakest in the nation. Yet this wealthy state is currently in the process of further reducing its commitment to public services.
Next year, when the federal stimulus money dries up, the reluctance of Nevadans to tax themselves will decimate the university system and public education and shred other public protections. Nevada is one of the nation's wealthiest states, yet year after year its residents make the least effort of any state in the nation to fund public services or to mount a gracious effort to nurture its civic culture.
Even in consideration of the economic beating the state has taken in the past few years, there is still the financial capacity to fund our core public services at decent levels. Only the will is lacking. Encouraged by the state's influential gambling corporations, Nevadans dump their discretionary dollars into gambling rather than tax themselves to secure even mediocre levels of public services. Democracy can apparently thrive without decency.
Adults in Clark County gamble a lot more than do average Americans. That is to be expected with more casinos and more slot machines than any other community in America. Overall players in Las Vegas casinos and gaming locations (including bars and grocery stores) lose $9.328 billion a year. But how much of this comes from locals rather than tourists?
Drawing on the official Nevada Gaming Abstract and assuming that 95 percent of Strip casino gambling is by tourists, that off-Strip casino gambling from tourists amounts to per hotel room losses found on the Strip, and that little if any gambling on the 15,000 machines in bars, convenience stores and grocery stores is done by tourists, we can calculate that 78.8 percent the Las Vegas gambling take comes from tourists and 21.2 percent comes from local residents.
In short, the average adult in Clark County incurs gambling losses of $1,511 per year while the average adult American loses $391 per year. Thus, local Clark County adults lose $1.462 billion per year above the typical American gambling loss.
Consequently, it is not surprising that pathological and problem gambling in Las Vegas greatly exceeds national averages. The National Gambling Impact Study Commission's surveys found that 0.6 percent of adults were pathological gamblers, while 1.6 percent of adults were problem gamblers. A study of Las Vegas adults found that 3.5 percent were in the pathological category, and 2.9 percent were labeled problem gamblers. Studies have documented the costs that troubled gamblers impose on other people and on governments -- $66.4 million a year to the Nevada public sector through various welfare programs and criminal justice and court systems.
Following a report of the Tax Policy Center, in federal fiscal year 2002 Nevada had the ninth largest tax capacity among the 50 states but made the 43th weakest effort to provide revenues for public services. However, in light of the huge portion of state revenues contributed by tourists -- perhaps as much as 30 percent of the total -- Nevadans are the least willing Americans to tax themselves. Even the poorest states -- Mississippi and West Virginia -- are far more willing to sustain public services than Nevada.
Nevada has no personal income tax and Nevada's tax on a hotel rooms is low, only 12 percent, compared with Atlanta (15 percent), New York City (more than 14.5 percent), Denver (15.85 percent) and San Francisco (more than 15.5 percent).
Moreover, lotteries, rejected in Nevada, return 35 percent of their face value to the states.
Las Vegas vices -- gambling, prostitution, pornography, gluttony and alcoholism -- are the sources of its pride and income; however, they are not its problems. Whatever the moral considerations, every society needs a boy's town. Yet it is positively foolhardy to allow the spirit of the libertine, even through the most fastidiously mannered corporations, to corrupt society.
The local sin is not sensual but civic, as gambling and the hustler's ethos corrupt local sensibilities. Many of America's poorer cities -- Buffalo, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Miami, to name a few -- are more hospitable than Las Vegas to artists, writers and the creative community in general, providing a richer cultural life of popular and high music, theater, folk arts, dance and so forth. Their states all make greater tax efforts to fund basic public services, notably education. All offer superior public services.
Nevadans prefer to gamble, an activity with fewer social and personal benefits than sleeping, compulsive talking, mud-wrestling or watching traffic go by. If even half of the money spent by local residents on gambling was diverted into public education and Nevada made even median tax efforts, the state would be able to fund first-rate public services while avoiding a deficit.
The gambling industry has tried to soften its hard edge by selling itself as a legitimate recreation, in the industry's newspeak, "gaming." "Gaming" calls up the imagery of a sentimental grandmother betting a few dollars on the age of her grandchildren, of sports fans putting their knowledge and insight to the test of a dollar wager on baseball, of penny-ante poker, dollar nine-ball, an office football pool, and flipping quarters.
But more than $50 per week of discretionary family income dumped into slot machines is gambling -- the fool's magical hope for a cash windfall that subverts social decency.
It is too simple and convenient to lay the burden for Nevada's depravity on its gambling corporations, surely among the least civic-minded of any American business. In this scenario, the citizen has fallen to the ubiquitous temptations of gambling, with umbilical cords sucking their money into slot machines.
More reasonable, a confluence of values binds the casinos, their employees and the state's residents. Many migrated to Nevada with an affection for gambling and the "hospitality" trades, bringing with them greed and selfishness, the soul diseases of the gambling ethos. In the deep eye of barmaids, dealers, pit bosses, musicians, dancers, doormen, bellhops and change people there is an isolating image of the sucker who pays the bills. The hustler's view of life explains in large part the civic depravity of the state. The problem is not gambling per se but rather the Nevadans who gamble, the corporations that prey on gambling and the corrosive ethos they create.
In imitation of the colonial French, the United States might initiate a Foreign Legion, headquartered in Las Vegas. The location is providential, not simply for the desert, the desperate characters and the brothels but for the enormous number of natives who need to be civilized. Nevadans would thrive with less gambling and more education. By destroying the state's public schools and universities, the state also loses its most capable Legionnaires -- its professors and teachers -- dedicated to soften Nevada's depravity into the customary commercial sin.
William M. Epstein is professor of social work at UNLV. William N. Thompson is a professor of public administration at UNLV.
By WILLIAM M. EPSTEIN
AND WILLIAM N. THOMPSON
SPECIAL TO THE REVIEW-JOURNAL
Rather than a fiscal crisis, Nevada suffers a crisis of greed, selfishness and stupidity. The state's elementary and secondary public education system, its universities and its other public services -- notably child welfare, health and mental health -- are already among the most poorly funded and weakest in the nation. Yet this wealthy state is currently in the process of further reducing its commitment to public services.
Next year, when the federal stimulus money dries up, the reluctance of Nevadans to tax themselves will decimate the university system and public education and shred other public protections. Nevada is one of the nation's wealthiest states, yet year after year its residents make the least effort of any state in the nation to fund public services or to mount a gracious effort to nurture its civic culture.
Even in consideration of the economic beating the state has taken in the past few years, there is still the financial capacity to fund our core public services at decent levels. Only the will is lacking. Encouraged by the state's influential gambling corporations, Nevadans dump their discretionary dollars into gambling rather than tax themselves to secure even mediocre levels of public services. Democracy can apparently thrive without decency.
Adults in Clark County gamble a lot more than do average Americans. That is to be expected with more casinos and more slot machines than any other community in America. Overall players in Las Vegas casinos and gaming locations (including bars and grocery stores) lose $9.328 billion a year. But how much of this comes from locals rather than tourists?
Drawing on the official Nevada Gaming Abstract and assuming that 95 percent of Strip casino gambling is by tourists, that off-Strip casino gambling from tourists amounts to per hotel room losses found on the Strip, and that little if any gambling on the 15,000 machines in bars, convenience stores and grocery stores is done by tourists, we can calculate that 78.8 percent the Las Vegas gambling take comes from tourists and 21.2 percent comes from local residents.
In short, the average adult in Clark County incurs gambling losses of $1,511 per year while the average adult American loses $391 per year. Thus, local Clark County adults lose $1.462 billion per year above the typical American gambling loss.
Consequently, it is not surprising that pathological and problem gambling in Las Vegas greatly exceeds national averages. The National Gambling Impact Study Commission's surveys found that 0.6 percent of adults were pathological gamblers, while 1.6 percent of adults were problem gamblers. A study of Las Vegas adults found that 3.5 percent were in the pathological category, and 2.9 percent were labeled problem gamblers. Studies have documented the costs that troubled gamblers impose on other people and on governments -- $66.4 million a year to the Nevada public sector through various welfare programs and criminal justice and court systems.
Following a report of the Tax Policy Center, in federal fiscal year 2002 Nevada had the ninth largest tax capacity among the 50 states but made the 43th weakest effort to provide revenues for public services. However, in light of the huge portion of state revenues contributed by tourists -- perhaps as much as 30 percent of the total -- Nevadans are the least willing Americans to tax themselves. Even the poorest states -- Mississippi and West Virginia -- are far more willing to sustain public services than Nevada.
Nevada has no personal income tax and Nevada's tax on a hotel rooms is low, only 12 percent, compared with Atlanta (15 percent), New York City (more than 14.5 percent), Denver (15.85 percent) and San Francisco (more than 15.5 percent).
Moreover, lotteries, rejected in Nevada, return 35 percent of their face value to the states.
Las Vegas vices -- gambling, prostitution, pornography, gluttony and alcoholism -- are the sources of its pride and income; however, they are not its problems. Whatever the moral considerations, every society needs a boy's town. Yet it is positively foolhardy to allow the spirit of the libertine, even through the most fastidiously mannered corporations, to corrupt society.
The local sin is not sensual but civic, as gambling and the hustler's ethos corrupt local sensibilities. Many of America's poorer cities -- Buffalo, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Miami, to name a few -- are more hospitable than Las Vegas to artists, writers and the creative community in general, providing a richer cultural life of popular and high music, theater, folk arts, dance and so forth. Their states all make greater tax efforts to fund basic public services, notably education. All offer superior public services.
Nevadans prefer to gamble, an activity with fewer social and personal benefits than sleeping, compulsive talking, mud-wrestling or watching traffic go by. If even half of the money spent by local residents on gambling was diverted into public education and Nevada made even median tax efforts, the state would be able to fund first-rate public services while avoiding a deficit.
The gambling industry has tried to soften its hard edge by selling itself as a legitimate recreation, in the industry's newspeak, "gaming." "Gaming" calls up the imagery of a sentimental grandmother betting a few dollars on the age of her grandchildren, of sports fans putting their knowledge and insight to the test of a dollar wager on baseball, of penny-ante poker, dollar nine-ball, an office football pool, and flipping quarters.
But more than $50 per week of discretionary family income dumped into slot machines is gambling -- the fool's magical hope for a cash windfall that subverts social decency.
It is too simple and convenient to lay the burden for Nevada's depravity on its gambling corporations, surely among the least civic-minded of any American business. In this scenario, the citizen has fallen to the ubiquitous temptations of gambling, with umbilical cords sucking their money into slot machines.
More reasonable, a confluence of values binds the casinos, their employees and the state's residents. Many migrated to Nevada with an affection for gambling and the "hospitality" trades, bringing with them greed and selfishness, the soul diseases of the gambling ethos. In the deep eye of barmaids, dealers, pit bosses, musicians, dancers, doormen, bellhops and change people there is an isolating image of the sucker who pays the bills. The hustler's view of life explains in large part the civic depravity of the state. The problem is not gambling per se but rather the Nevadans who gamble, the corporations that prey on gambling and the corrosive ethos they create.
In imitation of the colonial French, the United States might initiate a Foreign Legion, headquartered in Las Vegas. The location is providential, not simply for the desert, the desperate characters and the brothels but for the enormous number of natives who need to be civilized. Nevadans would thrive with less gambling and more education. By destroying the state's public schools and universities, the state also loses its most capable Legionnaires -- its professors and teachers -- dedicated to soften Nevada's depravity into the customary commercial sin.
William M. Epstein is professor of social work at UNLV. William N. Thompson is a professor of public administration at UNLV.
Alarm Bells Over Organized Crime in Casino Gambling
US sounds alarm bells over Macau triads
By Peter Brieger (AFP)
HONG KONG — US regulators are sounding alarm bells over Macau's triads but analysts say casinos around the world have always attracted organised crime, not just in the Asian gambling hub.
"It's part of the whole industry -- it always has been," said the officer, who asked not to be identified. "And it's not just in Macau. Look at Las Vegas."
The New Jersey report told Las Vegas-based MGM Mirage to cut its business ties with Ho's daughter Pansy -- after deeming her "unsuitable" because of her business relationship with her father -- or risk losing its state gaming licence.
MGM Mirage rejected the report's findings and said it would instead sell a 50 percent stake in an Atlantic City casino-resort and quit New Jersey so it could keep its casino-hotel in Macau -- which has leapfrogged Las Vegas in gaming revenue.
Now, the casino operator appears headed for another possible confrontation with gaming regulators in the US states of Illinois, Michigan and Mississippi after they said they would also examine MGM Mirage's Macau business partner.
US operator Las Vegas Sands recently dismissed a news report that said a triad member who allegedly plotted to murder a Macau casino dealer had at one stage run a high-roller gaming room at Sands Macau.
Last week, a former VIP gambling room manager at Ho's flagship Casino Lisboa pleaded guilty to laundering about 50 million US dollars from an illegal horse-race betting operation through Hong Kong bank accounts, local media reported.
By Peter Brieger (AFP)
HONG KONG — US regulators are sounding alarm bells over Macau's triads but analysts say casinos around the world have always attracted organised crime, not just in the Asian gambling hub.
"It's part of the whole industry -- it always has been," said the officer, who asked not to be identified. "And it's not just in Macau. Look at Las Vegas."
The New Jersey report told Las Vegas-based MGM Mirage to cut its business ties with Ho's daughter Pansy -- after deeming her "unsuitable" because of her business relationship with her father -- or risk losing its state gaming licence.
MGM Mirage rejected the report's findings and said it would instead sell a 50 percent stake in an Atlantic City casino-resort and quit New Jersey so it could keep its casino-hotel in Macau -- which has leapfrogged Las Vegas in gaming revenue.
Now, the casino operator appears headed for another possible confrontation with gaming regulators in the US states of Illinois, Michigan and Mississippi after they said they would also examine MGM Mirage's Macau business partner.
US operator Las Vegas Sands recently dismissed a news report that said a triad member who allegedly plotted to murder a Macau casino dealer had at one stage run a high-roller gaming room at Sands Macau.
Last week, a former VIP gambling room manager at Ho's flagship Casino Lisboa pleaded guilty to laundering about 50 million US dollars from an illegal horse-race betting operation through Hong Kong bank accounts, local media reported.
Government for Sale
Democracy for sale to the highest bidders, corruption, casino gambling and Jack Abramoff!
This documentary sounds too good to miss, except little has changed.
Casino proponents control debate
Kudos to Mr. Feingold for raising important issues in the debate.
Casino proponents control debate
ROBERT FEINGOLD
It is not surprising that Clyde W. Barrow is releasing yet another casino proponent-sponsored poll showing the results they paid for ("Poll shows support for New Bedford casino building," April 27). The surprising thing is that UMass Dartmouth allows this man to hide behind its imprimatur of civic-minded professionalism and objectivity. He should separate from the university entirely and work for the people who are really paying for his results.
His paid-for polls should not be given the headlines they receive from The Standard-Times, as it improperly bolsters their credibility by publication. As a counterbalance, I suggest that The Standard-Times staff survey the top executives and human resources chiefs of the companies at the New Bedford Business Park to see whether they are in favor of a gambling casino in New Bedford.
As I see it, the heart and soul of New Bedford is its work ethic. Work hard and succeed. That is the creed of the fishermen. That is the creed of the factory worker. That is the creed of the health care workers at Southcoast Hospitals and the employees at Acushnet Company and the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center and so many other local companies. That has been the creed on which New Bedford's economic engine has always been based.
Gambling is based on the fiction that you can get something for nothing. On that is based the most incredible profit-making engine, taking money from people who get almost nothing in return. It makes selling bottled water seem like a low-profit activity. And those profits would leave New Bedford on a fast train.
Gambling is a pyramid of greed based on the willingness of people to pay lots of money on the remote chance of getting money for doing absolutely nothing. The ripple effect of that unrestrained greed can destroy the fabric of a working community. The creed of gambling and the creed of New Bedford, get something for nothing versus work hard and succeed, are mutually exclusive and irreconcilable. The gambling creed threatens to destroy the economic values as well as the work ethic of New Bedford.
Real estate values would immediately be artificially increased by the development of a casino, making development for other business prohibitively expensive. The flashy marketing of "get something for nothing" undermines the determination of those working hard for their living, and attracts them to the shortcut of the gambling culture, the easy way out. We have enough problems from those who choose the shortcut of the drug trade. This will be another nail in the coffin of the ethic that made New Bedford strong for many generations.
One other factor to consider is the impact of the gambling lobby on government. Does anyone recall that just after the casino bill was defeated in the Massachusetts House through the determined efforts of its speaker, Leon Dragone hinted in The Standard-Times on May 8, 2008 that the speaker would be gone soon and that "the issue is far from dead, and I think it's going to reappear sooner than most people think."
And immediately thereafter, a blizzard of reputation-damaging reports on the speaker hit the papers, leading to his departure.
The area's House and Senate delegation are in support of gambling now. Do we need to survey how much they have received in the past two years from the pro-gambling interests to begin to understand the shift?
Now that the United States Supreme Court has ruled that corporations, including casino companies, can make unlimited contributions to politicians, do we really have any reason to believe that casino interests will not be able to control the outcome of most issues that they have an interest in? Is that something we really are willing to suffer?
Our economy is on the road to recovery. In my opinion, reaching for gambling for a short-term fix is a bad bet because the long-term problems will be with us long after the recession is a distant memory.
Boston Globe poll shows gambling opposition
Boston Globe poll shows opposition to predatory gambling --
As for expanded gambling, which Patrick and lawmakers are currently negotiating, 33 percent said they support creating resort casinos, while only 3 percent supported adding slot parlors at the state’s race trace track; 16 percent said they had no preference, and 38 percent said they don’t want expanded gambling in the state.
AND
70% Oppose CT Gambling Expansion
Casino proponents control debate
ROBERT FEINGOLD
It is not surprising that Clyde W. Barrow is releasing yet another casino proponent-sponsored poll showing the results they paid for ("Poll shows support for New Bedford casino building," April 27). The surprising thing is that UMass Dartmouth allows this man to hide behind its imprimatur of civic-minded professionalism and objectivity. He should separate from the university entirely and work for the people who are really paying for his results.
His paid-for polls should not be given the headlines they receive from The Standard-Times, as it improperly bolsters their credibility by publication. As a counterbalance, I suggest that The Standard-Times staff survey the top executives and human resources chiefs of the companies at the New Bedford Business Park to see whether they are in favor of a gambling casino in New Bedford.
As I see it, the heart and soul of New Bedford is its work ethic. Work hard and succeed. That is the creed of the fishermen. That is the creed of the factory worker. That is the creed of the health care workers at Southcoast Hospitals and the employees at Acushnet Company and the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center and so many other local companies. That has been the creed on which New Bedford's economic engine has always been based.
Gambling is based on the fiction that you can get something for nothing. On that is based the most incredible profit-making engine, taking money from people who get almost nothing in return. It makes selling bottled water seem like a low-profit activity. And those profits would leave New Bedford on a fast train.
Gambling is a pyramid of greed based on the willingness of people to pay lots of money on the remote chance of getting money for doing absolutely nothing. The ripple effect of that unrestrained greed can destroy the fabric of a working community. The creed of gambling and the creed of New Bedford, get something for nothing versus work hard and succeed, are mutually exclusive and irreconcilable. The gambling creed threatens to destroy the economic values as well as the work ethic of New Bedford.
Real estate values would immediately be artificially increased by the development of a casino, making development for other business prohibitively expensive. The flashy marketing of "get something for nothing" undermines the determination of those working hard for their living, and attracts them to the shortcut of the gambling culture, the easy way out. We have enough problems from those who choose the shortcut of the drug trade. This will be another nail in the coffin of the ethic that made New Bedford strong for many generations.
One other factor to consider is the impact of the gambling lobby on government. Does anyone recall that just after the casino bill was defeated in the Massachusetts House through the determined efforts of its speaker, Leon Dragone hinted in The Standard-Times on May 8, 2008 that the speaker would be gone soon and that "the issue is far from dead, and I think it's going to reappear sooner than most people think."
And immediately thereafter, a blizzard of reputation-damaging reports on the speaker hit the papers, leading to his departure.
The area's House and Senate delegation are in support of gambling now. Do we need to survey how much they have received in the past two years from the pro-gambling interests to begin to understand the shift?
Now that the United States Supreme Court has ruled that corporations, including casino companies, can make unlimited contributions to politicians, do we really have any reason to believe that casino interests will not be able to control the outcome of most issues that they have an interest in? Is that something we really are willing to suffer?
Our economy is on the road to recovery. In my opinion, reaching for gambling for a short-term fix is a bad bet because the long-term problems will be with us long after the recession is a distant memory.
It's always curious that polls conducted by others produce results that differ from Mr. Barrow.
Boston Globe poll shows gambling opposition
Boston Globe poll shows opposition to predatory gambling --
As for expanded gambling, which Patrick and lawmakers are currently negotiating, 33 percent said they support creating resort casinos, while only 3 percent supported adding slot parlors at the state’s race trace track; 16 percent said they had no preference, and 38 percent said they don’t want expanded gambling in the state.
AND
70% Oppose CT Gambling Expansion
Seminary renews casino opposition
Seminary renews casino opposition
Board votes 'overwhelmingly' to reaffirm previous statement against local casino.
The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg has come out in opposition to a local casino proposal by renewing a statement it issued five years ago about a previous project.
The seminary's board of directors met on Tuesday and Wednesday and voted "overwhelmingly" to reaffirm a statement it issued in May 2005 opposing the development and operation of a legalized gambling facility in the Gettysburg area, according to a news release the seminary sent Thursday.
The board went ahead with the vote after being informed that its 2005 statement was being quoted by organizations expressing opposition to a new proposal for a casino near Gettysburg.
With the recommendation of the 28-member board's executive committee, and a report on the nature, scope and location of the new proposal, the full board voted overwhelmingly to reaffirm its previous statement, according to the release.
The board's 2005 statement was issued in regard to a proposal by Gettysburg businessman David LeVan to build a slots casino near routes 30 and 15 in Straban Township. That proposal, among the first submitted following the state's legalization of slot machines, was rejected by the state Gaming Control Board, in part because of apparent local opposition.
Earlier this year, LeVan announced a new plan to open a gaming resort featuring slots and table games at the Eisenhower Hotel and Conference Center along Emmitsburg Road, south of Gettysburg in Cumberland Township. In order to get a license to run the facility as a casino, LeVan and his business partner Joseph Lashinger must beat out a number of applicants who have proposed projects in other parts of the state.
An opinion poll commissioned recently by LeVan's group, and a separate poll conducted earlier by The Evening Sun, indicate the proposal might be met locally with less resistance this time around, and that the majority of those surveyed actually favor the project or are at least unopposed.
David LaTorre, the spokesman for LeVan's proposed Mason Dixon Resort, cited those findings in his response to the seminary's renewed opposition
"We certainly respect the position of the seminary, as well as the opinions of the overwhelming majority of Adams County residents who do support the project," he said.
The seminary's anti-casino position stems from what was referred in the news release the underlying economic injustice of legalized gambling, the hidden costs to the social fabric and historic inappropriateness for the Gettysburg area.
Over the last century, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has studied and opposed gambling as means of raising funds, both within the church and in the greater community, the news release states.
The statement paints a dire image of casinos, saying they can lead to higher crime rates, inflate infrastructure needs and lead to gambling addictions that can tear families apart. It also states the seminary's opinion that a casino is a poor fit for Gettysburg because of its historical stature and a local economy that thrives on tourism.
"For Gettysburg to host a gambling facility of any kind is to cheapen and diminish the symbolic value of this place and to abandon the historic witness it plays in American history," according to the statement. "Gambling does not offer any healthy enhancement to those who visit this place."
Board votes 'overwhelmingly' to reaffirm previous statement against local casino.
The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg has come out in opposition to a local casino proposal by renewing a statement it issued five years ago about a previous project.
The seminary's board of directors met on Tuesday and Wednesday and voted "overwhelmingly" to reaffirm a statement it issued in May 2005 opposing the development and operation of a legalized gambling facility in the Gettysburg area, according to a news release the seminary sent Thursday.
The board went ahead with the vote after being informed that its 2005 statement was being quoted by organizations expressing opposition to a new proposal for a casino near Gettysburg.
With the recommendation of the 28-member board's executive committee, and a report on the nature, scope and location of the new proposal, the full board voted overwhelmingly to reaffirm its previous statement, according to the release.
The board's 2005 statement was issued in regard to a proposal by Gettysburg businessman David LeVan to build a slots casino near routes 30 and 15 in Straban Township. That proposal, among the first submitted following the state's legalization of slot machines, was rejected by the state Gaming Control Board, in part because of apparent local opposition.
Earlier this year, LeVan announced a new plan to open a gaming resort featuring slots and table games at the Eisenhower Hotel and Conference Center along Emmitsburg Road, south of Gettysburg in Cumberland Township. In order to get a license to run the facility as a casino, LeVan and his business partner Joseph Lashinger must beat out a number of applicants who have proposed projects in other parts of the state.
An opinion poll commissioned recently by LeVan's group, and a separate poll conducted earlier by The Evening Sun, indicate the proposal might be met locally with less resistance this time around, and that the majority of those surveyed actually favor the project or are at least unopposed.
David LaTorre, the spokesman for LeVan's proposed Mason Dixon Resort, cited those findings in his response to the seminary's renewed opposition
"We certainly respect the position of the seminary, as well as the opinions of the overwhelming majority of Adams County residents who do support the project," he said.
The seminary's anti-casino position stems from what was referred in the news release the underlying economic injustice of legalized gambling, the hidden costs to the social fabric and historic inappropriateness for the Gettysburg area.
Over the last century, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has studied and opposed gambling as means of raising funds, both within the church and in the greater community, the news release states.
The statement paints a dire image of casinos, saying they can lead to higher crime rates, inflate infrastructure needs and lead to gambling addictions that can tear families apart. It also states the seminary's opinion that a casino is a poor fit for Gettysburg because of its historical stature and a local economy that thrives on tourism.
"For Gettysburg to host a gambling facility of any kind is to cheapen and diminish the symbolic value of this place and to abandon the historic witness it plays in American history," according to the statement. "Gambling does not offer any healthy enhancement to those who visit this place."
Time to oppose gambling expansion
Time to oppose gambling expansion
News that the Massachusetts Senate plans to slow down the push for expanded gambling is welcome, although it may prove a temporary respite as both the senate president and the governor favor some form of expansion. This delay in the process does, however, allow for conscientious citizens to voice their opposition to predatory gaming.
The rush to pass legislation in the House, without public hearings, seemed to be engineered precisely to avoid vocal opposition and increased awareness of the harmful consequences of expanded gambling.
The potential impact of gambling expansion is great. The House bills calls for two resort-style casinos and slot machine parlors at the state’s four racetracks. However, it would also open the door for two Native American tribes to build their own casinos, with the potential for six more if other Native American tribes receive federal recognition.
Claims of increased employment and funding for our cities and towns are greatly exaggerated and ignore the fact that expanded gaming brings with it expanded social problems. In addition to their disproportionate impact on the poor, casinos can also harm local small businesses, as money that traditionally flowed into the local economy is diverted to gambling.
As for new taxes, increased gaming may boost state coffers initially, but it is unclear what the net gain will be after accounting for its impact on the state lottery and funds that will have to be used to pay for the social impact of gambling.
Casino gambling thrives by creating addictive behavior patterns. Compulsive gambling affects a sizable number of casino and slot machine players. It has devastating effects on the gamblers’ finances, their families and society at large that will have to deal with the wreckage caused by bankruptcies, increased domestic violence and crime.
We join with the Massachusetts Catholic Conference in calling on Catholics to contact their legislators to voice their opposition to expanded gambling.
Are we so desperate for tax revenue that we must prey on the poor, promoting addictive behaviors with the potential of ruining so many lives? It may be legal but it is hardly moral.
News that the Massachusetts Senate plans to slow down the push for expanded gambling is welcome, although it may prove a temporary respite as both the senate president and the governor favor some form of expansion. This delay in the process does, however, allow for conscientious citizens to voice their opposition to predatory gaming.
The rush to pass legislation in the House, without public hearings, seemed to be engineered precisely to avoid vocal opposition and increased awareness of the harmful consequences of expanded gambling.
The potential impact of gambling expansion is great. The House bills calls for two resort-style casinos and slot machine parlors at the state’s four racetracks. However, it would also open the door for two Native American tribes to build their own casinos, with the potential for six more if other Native American tribes receive federal recognition.
Claims of increased employment and funding for our cities and towns are greatly exaggerated and ignore the fact that expanded gaming brings with it expanded social problems. In addition to their disproportionate impact on the poor, casinos can also harm local small businesses, as money that traditionally flowed into the local economy is diverted to gambling.
As for new taxes, increased gaming may boost state coffers initially, but it is unclear what the net gain will be after accounting for its impact on the state lottery and funds that will have to be used to pay for the social impact of gambling.
Casino gambling thrives by creating addictive behavior patterns. Compulsive gambling affects a sizable number of casino and slot machine players. It has devastating effects on the gamblers’ finances, their families and society at large that will have to deal with the wreckage caused by bankruptcies, increased domestic violence and crime.
We join with the Massachusetts Catholic Conference in calling on Catholics to contact their legislators to voice their opposition to expanded gambling.
Are we so desperate for tax revenue that we must prey on the poor, promoting addictive behaviors with the potential of ruining so many lives? It may be legal but it is hardly moral.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Phonies and Lies
Darling "home town boy" Sheldon Adelson, AKA Sands, is among those salivating at the prospect of draining discretionary income from Massachusetts residents.
With 3,000 slot machines, now they're down to 780 employees.
Revenue projections of $465 million didn't materialize. Don't let 'em kid you. It was predictable.
What's really telling is:
Slots revenue is taxed at 55 percent in Pennsylvania
Massachusetts' House Speaker "Racino" DeLeo proposed 25% in his Slap Dash package that the majority of Bobble Heads in the House voted to approve.
This month, groundbreaking is scheduled for the 300-room hotel, which will create about 350 construction jobs over the next 12 months.
Note the promise of 350 construction jobs. That falls far short of House Speaker "Racino" DeLeo promises of 15,000. Another 43 Slot Parlors would provide the construction jobs the delusional on Beacon Hill are promoting.
Job creation and economic development don't come from phony promises.
Let's get a clue and conduct an Independent Cost Benefit Analysis before we end up in the fiscal disaster we see elsewhere.
Layoffs at casino in Bethlehem
By Suzette Parmley
Inquirer Staff Writer
Less than a year after a grand opening that rivaled the glitz and glamour of a Las Vegas revue, Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem is laying off 80 employees.
The cuts, announced Friday, will be across the board, said Sands president Robert DeSalvio, but more of them will occur in the casino's largest department: food and beverage. The casino houses four restaurants, two of which opened last fall.
The 9 percent reduction brings the casino's workforce to 780, down from its current 860, and nearly 200 fewer than when it opened last May 22 with 3,000 slot machines.
The attrition is attributed mainly to the economy and comes at a time when the state's casinos are gearing up to add table games.
"It's based on business demand," DeSalvio said Friday. "It's fairly common for casinos and other businesses to go back through and see where you can run things more effectively."
The $743 million casino debuted nearly a year ago with Gov. Rendell and Sheldon Adelson, Las Vegas Sands chief executive officer, on stage, along with the famous Blue Man Group, which performs regularly at the Venetian Resort Hotel casino on the Vegas Strip, also owned by Las Vegas Sands.
Sands had originally projected that the casino would bring in $465 million a year in gross slots revenue. Based on figures from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, which regulates the state's gambling industry, the casino is expected, instead, to generate about $347 million in its first year.
Perhaps more telling is the casino's revenue in the first 39 weeks of this fiscal year. Sands appears likely to bring in less than $250 million this fiscal year, which ends in June.
Although the Bethlehem casino faces competition from two nearby casinos in the Poconos - Mount Airy Casino Resort and Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs - as well as Atlantic City, DeSalvio said, the numbers were more a reflection of "opening up at a very difficult economic time."
"We're the only casino in the Lehigh Valley," he said. "We are pretty much alone out here. What was unexpected is the economy taking such a big turn.
"As the business gets more mature," DeSalvio said, "you have to look at the operation and match the number of team members to business volume."
Two bright spots, DeSalvio said, are the addition of 89 table games as early as July, and a hotel scheduled to open next to the casino in May 2011.
He said 400 workers would be needed to staff the table games, and an additional 100 for the new hotel. DeSalvio said those who have lost their jobs would have first consideration for the openings.
"Hopefully, we will get most of them back to work very soon," he said. "We feel the business will grow with table games coming."
This month, groundbreaking is scheduled for the 300-room hotel, which will create about 350 construction jobs over the next 12 months.
Slots revenue is taxed at 55 percent in Pennsylvania, compared with 9.25 percent in New Jersey. Pennsylvania uses the gambling proceeds toward property-tax relief (wage-tax relief in Philadelphia) and aiding the horse-racing industry.
So far, nine gambling halls have opened throughout the state. Five more are yet to open, including two in Philadelphia and one at the Valley Forge Convention Center.
Gaming analyst Andrew Zarnett of Deutsche Bank AG said what's happening in Bethlehem was a result of difficult economic conditions.
In addition to the 80 layoffs, a spokesman for the Sands said, 120 workers left on their own over the last year, and those positions were never filled.
"There is a natural attrition rate with casinos," Zarnett said. "Secondly, the economy has been softer than expected and has put pressure on casino revenues.
"It's happening in almost all regional jurisdictions."
A report released this week by the Gaming Industry Observer showed that the average length of stay for U.S. casino customers exceeded 15 hours last year - a full hour longer than just three years ago.
But the same study found net revenue per visitor fell to an average of $8.84 an hour, down from a peak of $10.54 an hour in 2006.
Vegas bristles at Wall Street gibe
Straight-dealing Vegas bristles at Wall Street gibe
"You don't get to be regulated [in Las Vegas] unless you successfully complete an examination that may take years to complete," he said. "Every aspect of the applicant's life is examined and there are minimal internal control standards [within each company], which are exhaustive."
"You don't get to be regulated [in Las Vegas] unless you successfully complete an examination that may take years to complete," he said. "Every aspect of the applicant's life is examined and there are minimal internal control standards [within each company], which are exhaustive."
While it's interesting to note the Las Vegas resentment of being compared to Casino Capitalism, Massachusetts' House Speaker "Racino" DeLeo's Slap Dash proposal falls short of even necessary vetting and oversight.
Casino Gambling Distancing Itself From Goldman Sachs
How ironic that even Las Vegas wants to distance itself from the sleazy practices of the Casino Capitalists at Goldman Sachs.
Even Las Vegas wants to disassociate itself from Goldman
"I'd like to avoid the betting analogy," Dan Sparks said, after yet another senator compared the antics of his mortgage trading business to a casino – and he wasn't the only one.
John Ensign, Nevada's representative, jumped in to defend his state's gambling capital against the slur. "In Las Vegas, people know that the odds are against them," he thundered. "On Wall Street, they manipulate the odds while you are playing the game."
Even Las Vegas wants to disassociate itself from Goldman
"I'd like to avoid the betting analogy," Dan Sparks said, after yet another senator compared the antics of his mortgage trading business to a casino – and he wasn't the only one.
John Ensign, Nevada's representative, jumped in to defend his state's gambling capital against the slur. "In Las Vegas, people know that the odds are against them," he thundered. "On Wall Street, they manipulate the odds while you are playing the game."
Friday, April 30, 2010
Gambling a hidden addiction
Gambling a hidden addiction
By Deborah Froese Mennonite Church Canada
WINNIPEG, Man. — Gambling has a broad range of appeal, from dreams of ending financial struggles to the spark of an adrenalin rush or a temporary escape from everyday challenges.
Christians are not exempt.
Barry Andres, executive director with Addiction and Mental Health for Alberta and a consultant for the development of a Mennonite Publishing Network pamphlet, Dealing with Gambling, says no statistics are available for the number of Christians who gamble. He suspects that, as with other social issues, they would be similar to national statistics.
It’s hard to tell. Compulsive gambling has been called “the hidden disease” nobody wants to talk about.
Gaming is a multibillion-dollar industry that permeates all segments of society. According to Statistics Canada, gambling drew in about $13 billion in 2008 after paying off prizewinners. Over half of that income was profit.
Andres says problem gamblers generate about one-third of Canada’s gambling income and estimates they comprise 3 percent to 5 percent of those who gamble.
Based on those estimates, chances are that in a congregation of 100 adults, at least two may have experienced problems with gambling. If 47 percent of Canada’s 25 million adults engage in gambling, Canada could have more than 325,000 gambling addicts.
Byron Rempel Burkholder, editor for the “Close to Home” pamphlet series, notes that the series steering committee discerned gambling to be one of 20 personal problems Christians may try to hide. Others include pornography, bullying, child abuse, addictions, debt, depression and eating disorders.
By Deborah Froese Mennonite Church Canada
WINNIPEG, Man. — Gambling has a broad range of appeal, from dreams of ending financial struggles to the spark of an adrenalin rush or a temporary escape from everyday challenges.
Christians are not exempt.
Barry Andres, executive director with Addiction and Mental Health for Alberta and a consultant for the development of a Mennonite Publishing Network pamphlet, Dealing with Gambling, says no statistics are available for the number of Christians who gamble. He suspects that, as with other social issues, they would be similar to national statistics.
It’s hard to tell. Compulsive gambling has been called “the hidden disease” nobody wants to talk about.
Gaming is a multibillion-dollar industry that permeates all segments of society. According to Statistics Canada, gambling drew in about $13 billion in 2008 after paying off prizewinners. Over half of that income was profit.
Andres says problem gamblers generate about one-third of Canada’s gambling income and estimates they comprise 3 percent to 5 percent of those who gamble.
Based on those estimates, chances are that in a congregation of 100 adults, at least two may have experienced problems with gambling. If 47 percent of Canada’s 25 million adults engage in gambling, Canada could have more than 325,000 gambling addicts.
Byron Rempel Burkholder, editor for the “Close to Home” pamphlet series, notes that the series steering committee discerned gambling to be one of 20 personal problems Christians may try to hide. Others include pornography, bullying, child abuse, addictions, debt, depression and eating disorders.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Stein Gets It Right!
Stein Stands Alone Against Gambling
By Maureen Turner
Earlier this month, as the Massachusetts House took up—and quickly passed—Speaker Robert DeLeo's bill to build two casinos and add slots machines at four racetracks, Jill Stein, the Green-Rainbow party's gubernatorial candidate, headed to the Statehouse with other opponents to deliver a petition calling for a casino and slots boycott.
The online petition (http://gopetition.com/online/35348.html) calls on the Legislature and Gov. Deval Patrick "to reject attempts to establish a government-endorsed program of predatory gambling in Massachusetts.
"The predatory gambling industry is harmful to local businesses, undermines sound job growth, and fosters addiction, bankruptcy, crime, divorce and other social problems," the petition reads. "Building casinos locks us in to high greenhouse gas emissions and make[s] our economy vulnerable to oil price shock. In the final analysis, these problems will consume more tax dollars than we can recover from gambling taxes."
Signers also pledged to not go to casinos or slots parlors and to "strongly encourage my children and family members to avoid such establishments. Instead, I pledge to direct my discretionary expenditures into locally-owned, productive businesses that are good neighbors in the community, that do not exploit people with addictions, workers, or the environment, and which are the best way of creating permanent jobs in a sustainable economy."
The petition was posted on April 6, and by the end of last week had collected about 500 signatures.
*
In announcing her support of the effort, Stein had especially harsh words for DeLeo, who declined to hold public hearings on his bill. (Senate President Therese Murray, who in the past has supported casinos but not slots, has said that body will hold public hearings before it votes on any casino bill. The Senate is expected to take up its own version of a casino bill in the next couple of months, after the passage of the new state budget.)
Stein accused the speaker of "attempting to ram [the bill] through the House," just days after accepting campaign contributions from casino lobbyists. DeLeo held a major campaign fundraiser the week before the House casino vote. The list of donors won't be available until Sept. 7, the next filing deadline for legislators' campaign finance reports.
According to the Associated Press, in 2009, DeLeo received $8,000 in donations from lobbyists for firms that count casino interests among their clients. Murray received $7,800; Patrick, $4,900; Lt. Gov. Tim Murray, $8,100.
Stein also took on the claim, made by gambling supporters, that casinos will create much-needed jobs. "Rather than letting casinos suck money out of our economy, we should be supporting local small businesses, and creating good wage green jobs that will be here for the long haul," she said. "We can create more jobs per dollar spent by avoiding casinos and slots. And we can also avoid the burden of permanent casino blight, which includes failed small businesses, gambling addiction, bankruptcies, broken families, crime, sprawl and pollution.
"Casinos kill more jobs than they create. And coping with the problems caused by casino gambling will cost taxpayers more than will be received in tax revenue. This is a bad deal for the people of Massachusetts, and truth needs to be told before an irreversible mistake is made by the Legislature."
Among the other gubernatorial candidates, Patrick supports casinos but opposes racetrack slot machines. His opponent for the Democratic nomination, Grace Ross (the Green-Rainbow candidate in 2006), neither supported nor opposed DeLeo's bill "because it pits 'different good forces against each other'—advocates for jobs and revenue against people concerned about the social impact," the Boston Globe recently reported. Independent Tim Cahill and Republican Charlie Baker both support casinos, while Republican Christy Mihos opposes the creation of casinos but does support racetrack slots.
By Maureen Turner
Earlier this month, as the Massachusetts House took up—and quickly passed—Speaker Robert DeLeo's bill to build two casinos and add slots machines at four racetracks, Jill Stein, the Green-Rainbow party's gubernatorial candidate, headed to the Statehouse with other opponents to deliver a petition calling for a casino and slots boycott.
The online petition (http://gopetition.com/online/35348.html) calls on the Legislature and Gov. Deval Patrick "to reject attempts to establish a government-endorsed program of predatory gambling in Massachusetts.
"The predatory gambling industry is harmful to local businesses, undermines sound job growth, and fosters addiction, bankruptcy, crime, divorce and other social problems," the petition reads. "Building casinos locks us in to high greenhouse gas emissions and make[s] our economy vulnerable to oil price shock. In the final analysis, these problems will consume more tax dollars than we can recover from gambling taxes."
Signers also pledged to not go to casinos or slots parlors and to "strongly encourage my children and family members to avoid such establishments. Instead, I pledge to direct my discretionary expenditures into locally-owned, productive businesses that are good neighbors in the community, that do not exploit people with addictions, workers, or the environment, and which are the best way of creating permanent jobs in a sustainable economy."
The petition was posted on April 6, and by the end of last week had collected about 500 signatures.
*
In announcing her support of the effort, Stein had especially harsh words for DeLeo, who declined to hold public hearings on his bill. (Senate President Therese Murray, who in the past has supported casinos but not slots, has said that body will hold public hearings before it votes on any casino bill. The Senate is expected to take up its own version of a casino bill in the next couple of months, after the passage of the new state budget.)
Stein accused the speaker of "attempting to ram [the bill] through the House," just days after accepting campaign contributions from casino lobbyists. DeLeo held a major campaign fundraiser the week before the House casino vote. The list of donors won't be available until Sept. 7, the next filing deadline for legislators' campaign finance reports.
According to the Associated Press, in 2009, DeLeo received $8,000 in donations from lobbyists for firms that count casino interests among their clients. Murray received $7,800; Patrick, $4,900; Lt. Gov. Tim Murray, $8,100.
Stein also took on the claim, made by gambling supporters, that casinos will create much-needed jobs. "Rather than letting casinos suck money out of our economy, we should be supporting local small businesses, and creating good wage green jobs that will be here for the long haul," she said. "We can create more jobs per dollar spent by avoiding casinos and slots. And we can also avoid the burden of permanent casino blight, which includes failed small businesses, gambling addiction, bankruptcies, broken families, crime, sprawl and pollution.
"Casinos kill more jobs than they create. And coping with the problems caused by casino gambling will cost taxpayers more than will be received in tax revenue. This is a bad deal for the people of Massachusetts, and truth needs to be told before an irreversible mistake is made by the Legislature."
Among the other gubernatorial candidates, Patrick supports casinos but opposes racetrack slot machines. His opponent for the Democratic nomination, Grace Ross (the Green-Rainbow candidate in 2006), neither supported nor opposed DeLeo's bill "because it pits 'different good forces against each other'—advocates for jobs and revenue against people concerned about the social impact," the Boston Globe recently reported. Independent Tim Cahill and Republican Charlie Baker both support casinos, while Republican Christy Mihos opposes the creation of casinos but does support racetrack slots.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Gambling Addict Steals Millions
SEB, HVB Appeal Ruling on Brewer’s ‘Gambling Monster’
April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank AG and SEB AB appealed a Singapore court ruling that Asia Pacific Breweries Ltd. wasn’t responsible for $57 million in loans taken out by a former executive to fund his gambling addiction.
Chia defrauded four banks including Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. of S$117 million ($85 million) by forging the signatures of Asia Pacific Breweries directors to get loans in the company’s name between 1999 and 2003. The Tokyo-based banks withdrew their case against Asia Pacific Breweries on the seventh day of the trial.
In addition to the loans, Chia also embezzled S$53 million from the brewery, according to court filings.
April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank AG and SEB AB appealed a Singapore court ruling that Asia Pacific Breweries Ltd. wasn’t responsible for $57 million in loans taken out by a former executive to fund his gambling addiction.
Chia defrauded four banks including Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. of S$117 million ($85 million) by forging the signatures of Asia Pacific Breweries directors to get loans in the company’s name between 1999 and 2003. The Tokyo-based banks withdrew their case against Asia Pacific Breweries on the seventh day of the trial.
In addition to the loans, Chia also embezzled S$53 million from the brewery, according to court filings.
False Job Creation
With 3,000 slot machines, Rivers Casino employs 1,000 people.
That certainly makes one wonder about the "Job Creation" offered by Beacon Hill.
Rivers Casino is one of nine operating casinos in Pennsylvania and employs about 1,000 people.
Casino Seeks To Cut Number Of Slot Machines; Public Absent At Hearing
Games Set To Begin This Summer
PITTSBURGH -- The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board wanted to hear from the public as it considers a proposal to add table games to the Rivers Casino on Pittsburgh’s North Shore.
But, according to Channel 11 News partner TribLive, no one showed up at a public meeting Monday in Pittsburgh to speak in favor of or against the proposal.
Holdings Acquisition Co. L.P., the operator of the Rivers Casino, hopes to add about 60 table games, in addition to a poker room with roughly 20 tables.
Rivers Casino officials, however, told board members that they want to get rid of some underperforming slot machines to make way for table games.
The board has to permit the casino to drop below the current level of 3,000 slot machines because state law requires casinos to maintain the number of slots in place as of Oct. 1, 2009. Table games are taxed at a lower rate than slot machines.
Casino officials said they would submit an application Tuesday to reduce the number of slot machines to 2,874.
Rivers anticipates hiring about 300 people to operate those table games, which would be available sometime this summer.
Last week, the casino held its first day of on-site school for prospective table game dealers.
Dealer school kicked off with orientation and an introduction to the gaming industry.
The casino's on-site school facility includes training for table games such as blackjack, roulette and craps.
Rivers Casino opened in August and features 3,000 slots, nine distinctive restaurants and bars, a riverside amphitheater, live music performances, free parking and multiple promotions and giveaways daily.
Rivers Casino is one of nine operating casinos in Pennsylvania and employs about 1,000 people.
That certainly makes one wonder about the "Job Creation" offered by Beacon Hill.
Rivers Casino is one of nine operating casinos in Pennsylvania and employs about 1,000 people.
Casino Seeks To Cut Number Of Slot Machines; Public Absent At Hearing
Games Set To Begin This Summer
PITTSBURGH -- The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board wanted to hear from the public as it considers a proposal to add table games to the Rivers Casino on Pittsburgh’s North Shore.
But, according to Channel 11 News partner TribLive, no one showed up at a public meeting Monday in Pittsburgh to speak in favor of or against the proposal.
Holdings Acquisition Co. L.P., the operator of the Rivers Casino, hopes to add about 60 table games, in addition to a poker room with roughly 20 tables.
Rivers Casino officials, however, told board members that they want to get rid of some underperforming slot machines to make way for table games.
The board has to permit the casino to drop below the current level of 3,000 slot machines because state law requires casinos to maintain the number of slots in place as of Oct. 1, 2009. Table games are taxed at a lower rate than slot machines.
Casino officials said they would submit an application Tuesday to reduce the number of slot machines to 2,874.
Rivers anticipates hiring about 300 people to operate those table games, which would be available sometime this summer.
Last week, the casino held its first day of on-site school for prospective table game dealers.
Dealer school kicked off with orientation and an introduction to the gaming industry.
The casino's on-site school facility includes training for table games such as blackjack, roulette and craps.
Rivers Casino opened in August and features 3,000 slots, nine distinctive restaurants and bars, a riverside amphitheater, live music performances, free parking and multiple promotions and giveaways daily.
Rivers Casino is one of nine operating casinos in Pennsylvania and employs about 1,000 people.
New Hampshire kills bill for slot machines
New Hampshire kills bill for slot machines
By Jarret Bencks
CONCORD — The House of Representatives has rejected a bill that would have allowed slot machines at six venues in the state, including Rockingham Park.
The House voted, 212-158, favor of a recommendation by the House Local and Regulated Revenues Committee to kill Senate Bill 489. The bill would have allowed up to 17,000 slot machines in the state at six locations, including Rockingham Park in Salem.
It was approved by the Senate, 14-10, in March. The revenue committee voted it inexpedient to legislate by a 13-7 vote earlier this month.
The bill was debated on the House floor today before legislators voted it down.
Gov. John Lynch previously said if the bill was approved by the House he would veto it.
By Jarret Bencks
CONCORD — The House of Representatives has rejected a bill that would have allowed slot machines at six venues in the state, including Rockingham Park.
The House voted, 212-158, favor of a recommendation by the House Local and Regulated Revenues Committee to kill Senate Bill 489. The bill would have allowed up to 17,000 slot machines in the state at six locations, including Rockingham Park in Salem.
It was approved by the Senate, 14-10, in March. The revenue committee voted it inexpedient to legislate by a 13-7 vote earlier this month.
The bill was debated on the House floor today before legislators voted it down.
Gov. John Lynch previously said if the bill was approved by the House he would veto it.
Monday, April 26, 2010
GOP voters oppose slots 3 to 1
New NH Poll: Republicans & Women Solidly Oppose Slot Casinos
You've all heard about the slanted opinion poll paid for by Millennium, the Las Vegas gambling company using Washington-style earmarks and back-room influence peddling to finagle itself a no-bid slot casino monopoly.
Now, check out the results of this March 31 ARG poll which asked this straightforward question: "Do you favor or oppose a bill that would allow slot machines and table games at six casinos in New Hampshire?"
By 40 to 43 percent (oppose-support), NH voters are split almost down the middle on slot casino legalization, even after 3 solid years of Millennium's pro-gambling advertising and PR assault.
By 48 to 40 percent, NH women oppose slot casinos.
By 63 to 19 percent, NH Republican voters oppose slot casinos.
Remind GOP Reps that GOP voters oppose slot casinos by more than 3 to 1.
You've all heard about the slanted opinion poll paid for by Millennium, the Las Vegas gambling company using Washington-style earmarks and back-room influence peddling to finagle itself a no-bid slot casino monopoly.
Now, check out the results of this March 31 ARG poll which asked this straightforward question: "Do you favor or oppose a bill that would allow slot machines and table games at six casinos in New Hampshire?"
By 40 to 43 percent (oppose-support), NH voters are split almost down the middle on slot casino legalization, even after 3 solid years of Millennium's pro-gambling advertising and PR assault.
By 48 to 40 percent, NH women oppose slot casinos.
By 63 to 19 percent, NH Republican voters oppose slot casinos.
Remind GOP Reps that GOP voters oppose slot casinos by more than 3 to 1.
The Demise of Greyhound Racing
The Worlds Fastest Dogs Are Riding Out D.C.’s Weather Just Fine
Turbo, Point of Rocks, Md.
There's a glut of greyhounds up for adoption these days. At least half a dozen dog tracks closed in the U.S. last year, including established racing outposts like Raynham Park in New England and Dairyland Racetrack in Wisconsin. That's caused a relocation of thousands of greyhounds to still-viable circuits, mainly in Florida. And dog racing is a survival-of-the-fittest realm, meaning a lot of Sunshine State racers have been forced into retirement by better-performing immigrants.
Retirement hasn't historically been a pretty place for greyhounds. So rescue groups will take displaced dogs and give them homes wherever they can get them. Even if it means the animals have to leave Florida for D.C. during the worst winter ever.
"A load of six dogs from Daytona arrived on Friday," says Meredith Dowell, an organizer with Greyhound Welfare, a rescue group that operates throughout the D.C. area. "They left 60 degree weather for a blizzard. But we're trying to pull as many dogs out of Florida as we can."
Dowell says the six arrivals taken in by Greyhound Welfare -- out of a total haul of 33 being delivered from the Daytona kennel -- were immediately placed in separate foster homes here.
And while they showed some signs of being bummed at the change of scenery and diet -- "Three had diarrhea after they got here," Dowell says -- they have settled down nicely already.
Even though greyhounds are the fastest dogs on the planet, they're better equipped for being snowed in than other breeds. "Greyhounds sleep 18 to 20 hours a day, and they conserve energy," Dowell says. "They don't mind being shut in at all. It's not like having a lab or a border collie. Those dogs would go crazy in this."
Dowell's own greyhound, Turbo, who she got several years ago out of Wonderland Racetrack, a recently closed track in Massachusetts, has ridden out the recent snowstorms on the floor of her Point of Rocks, Md., home.
"Turbo is fine with doing nothing all day," Dowell laughs. "I had to literally shove him out the back door today to get him outside. He came running back in as fast as he could."
And that's fast.
For more information on how to adopt a greyhound or help out during this glut of displaced dogs, visit www.greyhoundwelfare.org.
Cheap Seats Daily: Dan Snyder’s Looking for a Few Good Collections Agents?
Turbo, Point of Rocks, Md.
There's a glut of greyhounds up for adoption these days. At least half a dozen dog tracks closed in the U.S. last year, including established racing outposts like Raynham Park in New England and Dairyland Racetrack in Wisconsin. That's caused a relocation of thousands of greyhounds to still-viable circuits, mainly in Florida. And dog racing is a survival-of-the-fittest realm, meaning a lot of Sunshine State racers have been forced into retirement by better-performing immigrants.
Retirement hasn't historically been a pretty place for greyhounds. So rescue groups will take displaced dogs and give them homes wherever they can get them. Even if it means the animals have to leave Florida for D.C. during the worst winter ever.
"A load of six dogs from Daytona arrived on Friday," says Meredith Dowell, an organizer with Greyhound Welfare, a rescue group that operates throughout the D.C. area. "They left 60 degree weather for a blizzard. But we're trying to pull as many dogs out of Florida as we can."
Dowell says the six arrivals taken in by Greyhound Welfare -- out of a total haul of 33 being delivered from the Daytona kennel -- were immediately placed in separate foster homes here.
And while they showed some signs of being bummed at the change of scenery and diet -- "Three had diarrhea after they got here," Dowell says -- they have settled down nicely already.
Even though greyhounds are the fastest dogs on the planet, they're better equipped for being snowed in than other breeds. "Greyhounds sleep 18 to 20 hours a day, and they conserve energy," Dowell says. "They don't mind being shut in at all. It's not like having a lab or a border collie. Those dogs would go crazy in this."
Dowell's own greyhound, Turbo, who she got several years ago out of Wonderland Racetrack, a recently closed track in Massachusetts, has ridden out the recent snowstorms on the floor of her Point of Rocks, Md., home.
"Turbo is fine with doing nothing all day," Dowell laughs. "I had to literally shove him out the back door today to get him outside. He came running back in as fast as he could."
And that's fast.
For more information on how to adopt a greyhound or help out during this glut of displaced dogs, visit www.greyhoundwelfare.org.
Cheap Seats Daily: Dan Snyder’s Looking for a Few Good Collections Agents?
Balser: No to slot machines
Balser: No to slot machines
By Guest Column/Ruth Balser
Newton — As the House prepares to debate Speaker DeLeo’s proposal to license two resort casinos and install slot machines at the state’s four race tracks, I am reminded of the tale about the seven blind people who are asked to describe an elephant. Each touches a different part of the animal, and “sees” something different. Like those blind people, we approach the casino debate from different perspectives. Some see the possibility of job creation during a time of high unemployment. Others see a revenue stream for a government facing record budget deficits. Still others see this as an issue of individual liberty, the right to choose one’s pleasures. To me, this is about a threat to the public’s health and safety, a threat posed by slot machines. To me, this debate is about gambling addiction.
Gambling addiction is a serious disorder with profound consequences. Compulsive gamblers will gamble until they have nothing left. They will exhaust their savings, their family’s assets and their personal belongings. They will borrow from others, but they will rarely admit it is for gambling. Bankruptcy is a common outcome. Studies show that two out of three pathological gamblers commit crimes to continue gambling. Rates of domestic violence increase. Many become homeless or are incarcerated. The rate of suicide for gambling addicts is higher than for any other addiction. Gambling addiction is an illness that is devastating to individuals, their families, and their communities.
Proponents of expanded gambling acknowledge that gambling addiction is serious, but they assert that those who are addicted can already drive to Connecticut. Massachusetts may as well get the revenue, they argue. However, studies demonstrate that rates of gambling addiction increase with proximity. By expanding gambling in Massachusetts, we will increase the number of individuals who will suffer from this illness, and the number of families who will be destroyed by it.
Proponents of expanded gambling argue that most people who gamble do not become addicted. However, the fact that not all become addicted does not preclude a public policy of discouraging use based on recognition of the dangers. Most users of illegal drugs also do not become addicted. Health and Human Services Secretary Judy Ann Bigby testified at a hearing I chaired that only 1 out of 10 heroin users become addicted, and others testified to comparable ratios between use and addiction in the gambling population. The comparison between compulsive gambling and substance abuse does not end there. At the same hearing, Dr. Hans Breiter, a neuropsychiatrist from the Massachusetts General Hospital, presented images of a cocaine-addicted brain and that of a gambling addict that were virtually indistinguishable!
Proponents of expanded gambling argue that there is already opportunity to become addicted — race tracks, the lottery, sports and Internet betting. However, I would argue that the slot machine is more toxic. At the hearing I chaired, MIT sociologist Dr. Natasha Schull pointed out that in a society that regulates most products, the slot machine is completely unregulated. She went on to say in her testimony: “Every feature of gambling machines — mathematical structure, visual graphics, sound dynamics, seating and screen ergonomics — is geared to increase ‘time on device’ and encourage gamblers to ‘play to extinction,’ as the industry jargon goes (in other words, until their funds are depleted.)”
The slot machine, an unregulated product, designed to addict and impoverish, is being offered up as the engine of the state’s economic recovery.
I am not opposed to gambling. I would not oppose a casino that had no slot machines — one that featured card games, roulette wheels and traditional games of chance. But no one would develop such a casino, because the money is in the slots! Studies have shown that 80 percent of the profits from casinos come from slot machines. The studies further show that most of the profits from the slots come from problem gamblers.
And we are not just talking about slots at casinos, but at the race tracks as well. Massachusetts race tracks are in danger of closing because so few people attend. If this legislation is enacted, machines that are built to addict and impoverish will be installed to put a dying business on life support.
Not all who gamble become addicted. But the profits depend on compulsive gambling. What is driving this proposal is the need for revenue and jobs. The revenue and jobs will come from a business that creates and exploits a serious illness that wreaks havoc on individuals and communities.
Many in Massachusetts are unemployed, and our essential government services are being cut. These are serious problems that cry out for serious solutions. Our response to these problems should be thoughtful, and we need to avoid creating worse problems than we already face. Does the proposal before us meet that standard? I will be voting no!
Ruth Balser is a state legislator representing parts of Newton and a clinical psychologist.
By Guest Column/Ruth Balser
Newton — As the House prepares to debate Speaker DeLeo’s proposal to license two resort casinos and install slot machines at the state’s four race tracks, I am reminded of the tale about the seven blind people who are asked to describe an elephant. Each touches a different part of the animal, and “sees” something different. Like those blind people, we approach the casino debate from different perspectives. Some see the possibility of job creation during a time of high unemployment. Others see a revenue stream for a government facing record budget deficits. Still others see this as an issue of individual liberty, the right to choose one’s pleasures. To me, this is about a threat to the public’s health and safety, a threat posed by slot machines. To me, this debate is about gambling addiction.
Gambling addiction is a serious disorder with profound consequences. Compulsive gamblers will gamble until they have nothing left. They will exhaust their savings, their family’s assets and their personal belongings. They will borrow from others, but they will rarely admit it is for gambling. Bankruptcy is a common outcome. Studies show that two out of three pathological gamblers commit crimes to continue gambling. Rates of domestic violence increase. Many become homeless or are incarcerated. The rate of suicide for gambling addicts is higher than for any other addiction. Gambling addiction is an illness that is devastating to individuals, their families, and their communities.
Proponents of expanded gambling acknowledge that gambling addiction is serious, but they assert that those who are addicted can already drive to Connecticut. Massachusetts may as well get the revenue, they argue. However, studies demonstrate that rates of gambling addiction increase with proximity. By expanding gambling in Massachusetts, we will increase the number of individuals who will suffer from this illness, and the number of families who will be destroyed by it.
Proponents of expanded gambling argue that most people who gamble do not become addicted. However, the fact that not all become addicted does not preclude a public policy of discouraging use based on recognition of the dangers. Most users of illegal drugs also do not become addicted. Health and Human Services Secretary Judy Ann Bigby testified at a hearing I chaired that only 1 out of 10 heroin users become addicted, and others testified to comparable ratios between use and addiction in the gambling population. The comparison between compulsive gambling and substance abuse does not end there. At the same hearing, Dr. Hans Breiter, a neuropsychiatrist from the Massachusetts General Hospital, presented images of a cocaine-addicted brain and that of a gambling addict that were virtually indistinguishable!
Proponents of expanded gambling argue that there is already opportunity to become addicted — race tracks, the lottery, sports and Internet betting. However, I would argue that the slot machine is more toxic. At the hearing I chaired, MIT sociologist Dr. Natasha Schull pointed out that in a society that regulates most products, the slot machine is completely unregulated. She went on to say in her testimony: “Every feature of gambling machines — mathematical structure, visual graphics, sound dynamics, seating and screen ergonomics — is geared to increase ‘time on device’ and encourage gamblers to ‘play to extinction,’ as the industry jargon goes (in other words, until their funds are depleted.)”
The slot machine, an unregulated product, designed to addict and impoverish, is being offered up as the engine of the state’s economic recovery.
I am not opposed to gambling. I would not oppose a casino that had no slot machines — one that featured card games, roulette wheels and traditional games of chance. But no one would develop such a casino, because the money is in the slots! Studies have shown that 80 percent of the profits from casinos come from slot machines. The studies further show that most of the profits from the slots come from problem gamblers.
And we are not just talking about slots at casinos, but at the race tracks as well. Massachusetts race tracks are in danger of closing because so few people attend. If this legislation is enacted, machines that are built to addict and impoverish will be installed to put a dying business on life support.
Not all who gamble become addicted. But the profits depend on compulsive gambling. What is driving this proposal is the need for revenue and jobs. The revenue and jobs will come from a business that creates and exploits a serious illness that wreaks havoc on individuals and communities.
Many in Massachusetts are unemployed, and our essential government services are being cut. These are serious problems that cry out for serious solutions. Our response to these problems should be thoughtful, and we need to avoid creating worse problems than we already face. Does the proposal before us meet that standard? I will be voting no!
Ruth Balser is a state legislator representing parts of Newton and a clinical psychologist.
Gambling against democracy
From a friend and regular reader:
Gambling against democracy
How nice that things are looking rosy for Mr. Piontowski ("Gamble on law pays off for owner of Plainridge owner" Sunday, April 4, 2010). Apparently, his interests were heard by House Speaker DeLeo. Promoters of gambling can afford the best PR, the loudest lobbyists, the best polling firms to determine which words to use to elicit support and the biggest shills to loudly promote their false claims.
Speaker DeLeo's bill was crafted behind closed doors and will not be afforded a public hearing. The Speaker insists he already met with opponents. Really? He did NOT meet with the long-time statewide organizations that have opposed legalizing slots and casinos like the Mass Council of Churches, Mass Family Institute, National Association of Social Workers, Western MA Substance Abuse Providers, Mass Catholic Conference or the citizen’s group United to Stop in Massachusetts. Mr. DeLeo's prevarications and lack of transparency are beginning to look very much like those of his (indicted) predecessors.
So what is Speaker DeLeo hiding?
Slots gambling sucks discretionary income from the local economy. The jobs created are low wage, dead end jobs, cannibalized from existing jobs. (The great majority of jobs at casinos can regularly be found on the Forbes list of worst paying jobs in America - including that of 'gaming dealer'.) The National Gambling Impact Study determined that gambling addiction escalates, along with crime, within a 50 mile radius of gambling facilities. Research from the University of Nevada Las Vegas regarding the effect of gaming facilities on suburban neighborhoods in Philadelphia found that a typical Philadelphia home owner living within a mile of a casino saw her home's value decline between $9,638 and $2,032. This is a claim echoed in every state where gambling has expanded into suburban neighborhoods.
No state has ever solved its economic difficulties by expanding gambling. Connecticut, New Jersey and Rhode Island all have casino gambling and all have higher taxes than Massachusetts. Under the ruse of property tax relief, Pennsylvania passed a bill to legalize slots two years ago and today their Governor is calling for a major increase in the sales tax rate. These states pay higher taxes in part because they need to make up for the unmet revenue needs that were promised by the casinos. Non-gamblers pay for the massive social costs like child neglect and bankruptcies that the casino gambling industry brings along with it. The industry certainly doesn't pay the bill.
With gambling facilities going bankrupt across the country (just Google 'casinos bankrupt' to see), gambling is a particularly bad industry on which to hang our hopes for economic stability. When Twin River Casino — the first "racino" in the country — was going bankrupt, they asked R.I. taxpayers to pick up anywhere from $4 million to $11.4 million of the slot parlor's annual marketing and management costs.
The Governor's revenue estimates, with numbers provided by the casino industry, do not account for the reality that New Hampshire would put two casinos right on the state border if we legalize them here — Rockingham Park in Salem, NH (already owned by a casino developer) and Seabrook Dog Track on Rt. 95. Rhode Island would also expand its slot machine locations into full scale casinos in response to Massachusetts.
On a personal note, I worked on a Paiute reservation in Nevada some years ago. Every week, when I went to Reno for supplies, I stayed in a hotel where I saw the same people playing the slots. I saw the same children waiting outside in cars or playing on the sidewalk. Pawn shops, used car lots and same day cheque-cashing and payday loan stores had replaced small businesses killed by the casinos. There were cash machines to max out credit cards and businesses offering "instant" mortgages. Poverty was everywhere I looked. There's a reason slot machines are called the "crack cocaine of gambling".
They tell you it's "inevitable" because they don't want you to ask questions or speak up. Ask questions! Speak up! Call or email your representatives. Speak with members of your local government. Go to http://uss-mass.org/myths.html to get the view of the people and organizations excluded from the "democratic process" by Speaker DeLeo. Act now, before it's too late.
Gambling against democracy
How nice that things are looking rosy for Mr. Piontowski ("Gamble on law pays off for owner of Plainridge owner" Sunday, April 4, 2010). Apparently, his interests were heard by House Speaker DeLeo. Promoters of gambling can afford the best PR, the loudest lobbyists, the best polling firms to determine which words to use to elicit support and the biggest shills to loudly promote their false claims.
Speaker DeLeo's bill was crafted behind closed doors and will not be afforded a public hearing. The Speaker insists he already met with opponents. Really? He did NOT meet with the long-time statewide organizations that have opposed legalizing slots and casinos like the Mass Council of Churches, Mass Family Institute, National Association of Social Workers, Western MA Substance Abuse Providers, Mass Catholic Conference or the citizen’s group United to Stop in Massachusetts. Mr. DeLeo's prevarications and lack of transparency are beginning to look very much like those of his (indicted) predecessors.
So what is Speaker DeLeo hiding?
Slots gambling sucks discretionary income from the local economy. The jobs created are low wage, dead end jobs, cannibalized from existing jobs. (The great majority of jobs at casinos can regularly be found on the Forbes list of worst paying jobs in America - including that of 'gaming dealer'.) The National Gambling Impact Study determined that gambling addiction escalates, along with crime, within a 50 mile radius of gambling facilities. Research from the University of Nevada Las Vegas regarding the effect of gaming facilities on suburban neighborhoods in Philadelphia found that a typical Philadelphia home owner living within a mile of a casino saw her home's value decline between $9,638 and $2,032. This is a claim echoed in every state where gambling has expanded into suburban neighborhoods.
No state has ever solved its economic difficulties by expanding gambling. Connecticut, New Jersey and Rhode Island all have casino gambling and all have higher taxes than Massachusetts. Under the ruse of property tax relief, Pennsylvania passed a bill to legalize slots two years ago and today their Governor is calling for a major increase in the sales tax rate. These states pay higher taxes in part because they need to make up for the unmet revenue needs that were promised by the casinos. Non-gamblers pay for the massive social costs like child neglect and bankruptcies that the casino gambling industry brings along with it. The industry certainly doesn't pay the bill.
With gambling facilities going bankrupt across the country (just Google 'casinos bankrupt' to see), gambling is a particularly bad industry on which to hang our hopes for economic stability. When Twin River Casino — the first "racino" in the country — was going bankrupt, they asked R.I. taxpayers to pick up anywhere from $4 million to $11.4 million of the slot parlor's annual marketing and management costs.
The Governor's revenue estimates, with numbers provided by the casino industry, do not account for the reality that New Hampshire would put two casinos right on the state border if we legalize them here — Rockingham Park in Salem, NH (already owned by a casino developer) and Seabrook Dog Track on Rt. 95. Rhode Island would also expand its slot machine locations into full scale casinos in response to Massachusetts.
On a personal note, I worked on a Paiute reservation in Nevada some years ago. Every week, when I went to Reno for supplies, I stayed in a hotel where I saw the same people playing the slots. I saw the same children waiting outside in cars or playing on the sidewalk. Pawn shops, used car lots and same day cheque-cashing and payday loan stores had replaced small businesses killed by the casinos. There were cash machines to max out credit cards and businesses offering "instant" mortgages. Poverty was everywhere I looked. There's a reason slot machines are called the "crack cocaine of gambling".
They tell you it's "inevitable" because they don't want you to ask questions or speak up. Ask questions! Speak up! Call or email your representatives. Speak with members of your local government. Go to http://uss-mass.org/myths.html to get the view of the people and organizations excluded from the "democratic process" by Speaker DeLeo. Act now, before it's too late.
Casinos and Crime Rates
Casinos and Crime Rates
William Reece has published* an extraordinarily detailed analysis of the relationship between the opening of casinos and crime rates, using a unique data set for Indiana,....
The economic model of crime [also] suggests that colser proximity of potential criminals and potential victims would increase local crime rates...lowering transportation costs between potential criminals and victims...increases crime rates..." (p. 146)
What he finds may be disconcerting for advocates of casinos as a tool for economic development. For several classes of property crimes (larceny, burglary, and robbery), crime rates rise significantly over the five years following the opening of a casino. Thefts of motor vehicles apparently rise in the first year, but then experience no significant change in the following years. So it appears that casinos do, on balance, lead to increaed rates of property crimes.
On a more hopeful note, assault rates apparently fall in the five years following the opening of casinos, and the incidence of rape is apparently unchanged. (These results are derived from his Table 2, on p. 153, and Table 3, on p. 155.)
William Reece has published* an extraordinarily detailed analysis of the relationship between the opening of casinos and crime rates, using a unique data set for Indiana,....
The economic model of crime [also] suggests that colser proximity of potential criminals and potential victims would increase local crime rates...lowering transportation costs between potential criminals and victims...increases crime rates..." (p. 146)
What he finds may be disconcerting for advocates of casinos as a tool for economic development. For several classes of property crimes (larceny, burglary, and robbery), crime rates rise significantly over the five years following the opening of a casino. Thefts of motor vehicles apparently rise in the first year, but then experience no significant change in the following years. So it appears that casinos do, on balance, lead to increaed rates of property crimes.
On a more hopeful note, assault rates apparently fall in the five years following the opening of casinos, and the incidence of rape is apparently unchanged. (These results are derived from his Table 2, on p. 153, and Table 3, on p. 155.)
Economic Development, Poverty and Casino Gambling
Casino Gambling: What has it done for Mississippi?
Is legalized casino gambling, with its associated state and local tax revenue, really a silver bullet to solve our state's economic woes?
When I wrote about poverty in Perry County, Alabama a while back I was intrigued by this figure from the U.S. Census Bureau. It appears that poverty in Mississippi -- land of gambling tax revenues -- is even worse than here in Alabama. And in fact it is. How can that be?
Casino gambling was legalized in Mississippi back in 1990 and the first casino opened in August, 1992. If gambling is such a great economic driver, shouldn't they be doing better than we are by now?
Let's take a closer look at this, starting with the situation in Mississippi before gambling was legalized. Since 1989 figures are readily available, we'll start then, just before gambling was legalized. According to U.S. Census data, 13.1% of Americans lived in poverty in 1989. That figure was 24.1% for Mississippi residents and 17.7% for Alabama.
In 1989, 80 of 82 Mississippi counties (97.6%) exceeded the national average for residents living in poverty. The poverty rate topped 40% in 14 Mississippi counties, with a whopping 56.8% of residents in Tunica County living below the poverty line. The median household income (see this page for median income tables) was $20,136, just 67% of the national average.
At the same time, 64 of 67 Alabama counties (95.6%) exceeded the national average for poverty with 3 counties over 40%, the highest was Greene County at 45.6%. The median household income was $23,597 or 78.5% of the national average.
Fast forward to 2008. How have the two states fared, one with casino gambling (Mississippi now has 29 casinos) and one more or less without? Bear in mind that Mississippi has done gambling right; their casinos are tourist destinations, not just gambling parlors dedicated to harvesting money from local residents. The US Census data says 13.2% of Americans lived in poverty in 2008. That figure was 20.8% for Mississippi residents and 15.9% for Alabama.
Still, 80 of 82 Mississippi counties (97.6%) exceeded the national average for residents living in poverty. The poverty rate topped out at 48.1% in Issaquena County and exceeded 30% in 15 others. The median household income was $37,790 or 72.6% of the national average.
In 2008, 57 of 67 Alabama counties (85%) exceeded the national average for poverty with 6 counties over 30% (none over 40%) the highest is Bullock County at 33.6%. The median household income was $42,666 or 82% of the national average. It may have seemed like Alabama was standing still, but we've made real progress since 1989.
Different approaches to economic development.
While the state of Mississippi opened casinos and built riverboats, Alabama built automobile plants – Mercedes, Honda, Hyundai, the Toyota engine plant – a rocket plant in Decatur, aviation and aircraft maintenance in South Alabama, not to mention catfish farms throughout the Black Belt and biotechnology in North Alabama. Those industries create things, they employ people for good wages and they come with a network of smaller support businesses that also employ people. To put it in old fashioned terms, they grow the local economy.
After construction, except for the tourism component, casinos don’t grow the local economy. They harvest dollars that are already available in the system. Most of the jobs created are service jobs, with relatively low wages. The economic impact is localized, not spread around in a network of suppliers.
Alabama started off in a stronger economic position than Mississippi in 1989 and has at least kept pace with Mississippi’s progress since then, even without casino gambling. There’s a lot to be said for good, old-fashioned economic investment to create jobs and improve lives. It isn’t as sexy as casinos, but Alabama should be thankful for the industrial recruitment of Governors like Jim Folsom, Jr. and Don Siegelman and the increased prosperity their vision has brought to our state.
Now, what's the next step to keep us ahead of Mississippi? Is it widespread casino gambling or high tech/green tech/smart tech industries?
Is legalized casino gambling, with its associated state and local tax revenue, really a silver bullet to solve our state's economic woes?
When I wrote about poverty in Perry County, Alabama a while back I was intrigued by this figure from the U.S. Census Bureau. It appears that poverty in Mississippi -- land of gambling tax revenues -- is even worse than here in Alabama. And in fact it is. How can that be?
Casino gambling was legalized in Mississippi back in 1990 and the first casino opened in August, 1992. If gambling is such a great economic driver, shouldn't they be doing better than we are by now?
Let's take a closer look at this, starting with the situation in Mississippi before gambling was legalized. Since 1989 figures are readily available, we'll start then, just before gambling was legalized. According to U.S. Census data, 13.1% of Americans lived in poverty in 1989. That figure was 24.1% for Mississippi residents and 17.7% for Alabama.
In 1989, 80 of 82 Mississippi counties (97.6%) exceeded the national average for residents living in poverty. The poverty rate topped 40% in 14 Mississippi counties, with a whopping 56.8% of residents in Tunica County living below the poverty line. The median household income (see this page for median income tables) was $20,136, just 67% of the national average.
At the same time, 64 of 67 Alabama counties (95.6%) exceeded the national average for poverty with 3 counties over 40%, the highest was Greene County at 45.6%. The median household income was $23,597 or 78.5% of the national average.
Fast forward to 2008. How have the two states fared, one with casino gambling (Mississippi now has 29 casinos) and one more or less without? Bear in mind that Mississippi has done gambling right; their casinos are tourist destinations, not just gambling parlors dedicated to harvesting money from local residents. The US Census data says 13.2% of Americans lived in poverty in 2008. That figure was 20.8% for Mississippi residents and 15.9% for Alabama.
Still, 80 of 82 Mississippi counties (97.6%) exceeded the national average for residents living in poverty. The poverty rate topped out at 48.1% in Issaquena County and exceeded 30% in 15 others. The median household income was $37,790 or 72.6% of the national average.
In 2008, 57 of 67 Alabama counties (85%) exceeded the national average for poverty with 6 counties over 30% (none over 40%) the highest is Bullock County at 33.6%. The median household income was $42,666 or 82% of the national average. It may have seemed like Alabama was standing still, but we've made real progress since 1989.
Different approaches to economic development.
While the state of Mississippi opened casinos and built riverboats, Alabama built automobile plants – Mercedes, Honda, Hyundai, the Toyota engine plant – a rocket plant in Decatur, aviation and aircraft maintenance in South Alabama, not to mention catfish farms throughout the Black Belt and biotechnology in North Alabama. Those industries create things, they employ people for good wages and they come with a network of smaller support businesses that also employ people. To put it in old fashioned terms, they grow the local economy.
After construction, except for the tourism component, casinos don’t grow the local economy. They harvest dollars that are already available in the system. Most of the jobs created are service jobs, with relatively low wages. The economic impact is localized, not spread around in a network of suppliers.
Alabama started off in a stronger economic position than Mississippi in 1989 and has at least kept pace with Mississippi’s progress since then, even without casino gambling. There’s a lot to be said for good, old-fashioned economic investment to create jobs and improve lives. It isn’t as sexy as casinos, but Alabama should be thankful for the industrial recruitment of Governors like Jim Folsom, Jr. and Don Siegelman and the increased prosperity their vision has brought to our state.
Now, what's the next step to keep us ahead of Mississippi? Is it widespread casino gambling or high tech/green tech/smart tech industries?
New Hampshire: "It's going to suck all the business out of Manchester"
"It's Going To Suck All the Business Out Of Manchester"
So said Manchester businessman Steve Talarico to the Union Leader in joining several leading Manchester businessmen, who want a casino in Manchester but object to the Senate's lobbyist-written, earmark-studded SB489 casino bill.
And here's what Marie from Hookset said about the rotting mess SB489 has become:
Good God now this is getting ridiculous, like vultures circling a gut wagon. OK, if Manchester's gonna get in on the action then we residents of Hooksett want a piece of this too ...Comon give us the slots, we can put a few machines in the new Ocean State Job Lots, maybe a few in Shaws and Kmart too. Yeah and the now empty Auto Wholesale lot and showroom would make a nice casino.
Maybe the fog is starting to lift on this train wreck casino bill.
SB489 would award no-bid slot casino monopolies to the owners of three race tracks and one golf course who have hired batteries of lobbyists and public opinion manipulators. They have apparently succeeded in tricking the majority of Manchester House members into believing that SB489 would somehow help their city.
Not only will the 5 or 6 casinos proposed under SB489 suck business out of Manchester, they would saturate New Hampshire with slot machines and suck hundreds of millions out of the existing New Hampshire economy.
Using casino business consultants' own numbers, the proposed casinos would drain $800 million in gambler losses from the New Hampshire and Massachusetts border economies. Using mid-range estimates of casino business cannibalization (substitution) effects of 50 percent ...
Existing New Hampshire businesses will suffer losses of $400 million per year.
Maybe the Manchester delegation ought to stop drinking from the casino lobbyists' punch bowl and start listening to Manchester business leaders: "It's going to suck all the business out of Manchester".
Even better, maybe New Hampshire is discovering that we don't want Washington-style earmarks in our legislation and special-interests circling like vultures in our statehouse. Maybe we want our legislators to think rationally and to find a budget solution that will not hurt the New Hampshire economy and corrupt New Hampshire politics.
Demand that they vote NO on both business-killing slot casino bills, SB489 and SB490.
Reasons we oppose SB489, saturating the state with 5 or 6 slot casinos.
Reasons we oppose SB490, legalizing 3 "historic racing" slot casinos.
23 Reasons we oppose any type of slot casino anywhere in our state.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Patrick still against track slots
Patrick still against track slots
Governor, at campaign cookout, says veto talk premature
ATTLEBORO - Gov. Deval Patrick reiterated his opposition to slot machines at racetracks Saturday, but stopped short of issuing a veto threat during a campaign appearance in Attleboro.
Patrick repeated his position of supporting legislation to legalize casinos, saying they create more jobs and higher paying jobs than slot machines at racetracks.
The governor said that despite the current hard times Massachusetts is excelling across a broad range of fronts and its economy is turning around.
He also said: The Federal Reserve has found that Massachusetts is recovering faster from the recession than 48 other states.
Massachusetts' fourth- and eighth-graders have scored first in national assessment tests in math and English three years in a row.
The state's bond rating is AA, one of the highest in the nation.
There has been an unprecedented investment in road, bridge, school and college construction over the past two years.
The Legislature has passed landmark ethics, pension and transportation reform.
Governor, at campaign cookout, says veto talk premature
ATTLEBORO - Gov. Deval Patrick reiterated his opposition to slot machines at racetracks Saturday, but stopped short of issuing a veto threat during a campaign appearance in Attleboro.
Patrick repeated his position of supporting legislation to legalize casinos, saying they create more jobs and higher paying jobs than slot machines at racetracks.
The governor said that despite the current hard times Massachusetts is excelling across a broad range of fronts and its economy is turning around.
He also said: The Federal Reserve has found that Massachusetts is recovering faster from the recession than 48 other states.
Massachusetts' fourth- and eighth-graders have scored first in national assessment tests in math and English three years in a row.
The state's bond rating is AA, one of the highest in the nation.
There has been an unprecedented investment in road, bridge, school and college construction over the past two years.
The Legislature has passed landmark ethics, pension and transportation reform.
Alabama: Slots Still Illegal
Bingo's future in courts, but it remains campaign issue
MONTGOMERY — Bingo’s temporary death in the 2010 legislative session puts the issue of electronic gambling machines back in court and doesn’t change anything in the 16 counties with bingo constitutional amendments.
Gov. Bob Riley, who is attacking electronic bingo in court and with law enforcement agencies, said he’ll continue to push to eradicate bingo that he believes is being played on illegal slot machines.
“I don’t know if we’re going to change anything,” Riley said Thursday, the final day of the 2010 session when the nail was hammered into the bingo coffin. “As long as they try to operate slot machines in the state of Alabama, it’s incumbent on us to enforce the law.”
MONTGOMERY — Bingo’s temporary death in the 2010 legislative session puts the issue of electronic gambling machines back in court and doesn’t change anything in the 16 counties with bingo constitutional amendments.
Gov. Bob Riley, who is attacking electronic bingo in court and with law enforcement agencies, said he’ll continue to push to eradicate bingo that he believes is being played on illegal slot machines.
“I don’t know if we’re going to change anything,” Riley said Thursday, the final day of the 2010 session when the nail was hammered into the bingo coffin. “As long as they try to operate slot machines in the state of Alabama, it’s incumbent on us to enforce the law.”
Folly to rush into expanded gambling
Folly to rush into expanded gambling
The full report of the New Hampshire Gaming Study Commission should be released in a few weeks, but the commission's draft report raises plenty of questions about gambling's potential impact. Even if permitting slot machine and casino gambling were a good idea - it isn't - to proceed at anything close to the pace gambling proponents would like would be folly.
New Hampshire's gambling regulations are not strong enough to adequately regulate the gambling that exists now, the commission found. That suggests that the structure and expertise necessary to properly regulate a massive new enterprise that involves casinos and thousands of slot machines can't be put in place quickly.
The revenue gains from expanded gambling are neither reliable nor stable. The New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies concluded that the additional economic wealth created by expanded gambling would be small, relative to the state's overall economic activity, and would decline with time. There is also no good method in place to spread that economic wealth. A community with a casino, for example, could reap a huge tax windfall while the cost of educating children and providing municipal services to the casino's modestly paid workers falls on other communities.
The vital question of what economic impact casinos and racetracks with slot machines would have on existing businesses is unanswered. When casinos are relatively isolated, as with Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, the effect on businesses in other communities is small. But Atlantic City's casinos sucked the life out of existing businesses.
Since visitors and vacationers usually have a relatively fixed amount of money they're willing to spend, it's logical to assume that money pumped into slot machines or wagered in a casino is money that won't go to New Hampshire restaurants, retailers and tourist attractions.
The commission called the proliferation of gambling, should it be legalized, "a deep concern, but one with no clear solution." Once legalized, gambling is almost never repealed. "Absent a constitutional amendment, it may not be possible to prevent proliferation," the report said.
Gambling proponents have been overselling the number and value of the jobs expanded gambling would create, the report said. "Slots-only facilities generally offer the fewest numbers and lowest wages; full-scale casinos offer more and better employment possibilities, though still not at high wages," the commission said.
Big questions remain about how expanding gambling would affect crime rates in the safest state in the nation. Similarly unanswered is the question of how big the increase in problem and pathological gambling would be, and how well the state would address the issue.
The commission's testimony included the findings of what was described as the most exhaustive study on the relationship between casinos and crime ever conducted. The study, which looked at two decades of information, found that all crimes save for murder increased when casinos were opened. Casinos, in counties where one was located, accounted for a crime increase of 5.5 percent to 30 percent.
"Overall, 8.6 percent of property crime and 12.6 percent of violent crime in counties with casinos was due to the presence of the casino," the study concluded. Much of the increase was the result of crimes committed by problem and pathological gamblers.
West Virginia, which relies heavily on casinos for income, has the best-funded gambling treatment program in the nation. Its director told the commission that only 5 to 10 percent of problem gamblers reach out for help. As gambling expanded in West Virginia, the profile of the typical problem gambler changed. The average hotline caller used to be a 55-year-old man. Now it's a woman between 45 and 50. Youth, the program discovered, are two to four times more likely to become problem gamblers than older adults.
Unanswered, too, is the impact the immense spending power of the gambling industry would have on New Hampshire's government. The Legislature is exceptionally large, but the industry's pockets are deep. The money available for lobbying would be enormous. Connecticut's two casinos each spend about $60 million annually on advertising. A fraction of that spending would drown out New Hampshire's tourism budget.
Finally, no one knows how expanding gambling would affect New Hampshire's "brand" as a family-friendly state of scenic beauty and outdoor recreation. Some studies suggest that when gambling is expanded, the area's social capital - time spent serving one's community or participating in church and volunteer activities - declines. Expanding gambling, it's clear, would turn New Hampshire into a different place, a place from which it couldn't return.
The full report of the New Hampshire Gaming Study Commission should be released in a few weeks, but the commission's draft report raises plenty of questions about gambling's potential impact. Even if permitting slot machine and casino gambling were a good idea - it isn't - to proceed at anything close to the pace gambling proponents would like would be folly.
New Hampshire's gambling regulations are not strong enough to adequately regulate the gambling that exists now, the commission found. That suggests that the structure and expertise necessary to properly regulate a massive new enterprise that involves casinos and thousands of slot machines can't be put in place quickly.
The revenue gains from expanded gambling are neither reliable nor stable. The New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies concluded that the additional economic wealth created by expanded gambling would be small, relative to the state's overall economic activity, and would decline with time. There is also no good method in place to spread that economic wealth. A community with a casino, for example, could reap a huge tax windfall while the cost of educating children and providing municipal services to the casino's modestly paid workers falls on other communities.
The vital question of what economic impact casinos and racetracks with slot machines would have on existing businesses is unanswered. When casinos are relatively isolated, as with Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, the effect on businesses in other communities is small. But Atlantic City's casinos sucked the life out of existing businesses.
Since visitors and vacationers usually have a relatively fixed amount of money they're willing to spend, it's logical to assume that money pumped into slot machines or wagered in a casino is money that won't go to New Hampshire restaurants, retailers and tourist attractions.
The commission called the proliferation of gambling, should it be legalized, "a deep concern, but one with no clear solution." Once legalized, gambling is almost never repealed. "Absent a constitutional amendment, it may not be possible to prevent proliferation," the report said.
Gambling proponents have been overselling the number and value of the jobs expanded gambling would create, the report said. "Slots-only facilities generally offer the fewest numbers and lowest wages; full-scale casinos offer more and better employment possibilities, though still not at high wages," the commission said.
Big questions remain about how expanding gambling would affect crime rates in the safest state in the nation. Similarly unanswered is the question of how big the increase in problem and pathological gambling would be, and how well the state would address the issue.
The commission's testimony included the findings of what was described as the most exhaustive study on the relationship between casinos and crime ever conducted. The study, which looked at two decades of information, found that all crimes save for murder increased when casinos were opened. Casinos, in counties where one was located, accounted for a crime increase of 5.5 percent to 30 percent.
"Overall, 8.6 percent of property crime and 12.6 percent of violent crime in counties with casinos was due to the presence of the casino," the study concluded. Much of the increase was the result of crimes committed by problem and pathological gamblers.
West Virginia, which relies heavily on casinos for income, has the best-funded gambling treatment program in the nation. Its director told the commission that only 5 to 10 percent of problem gamblers reach out for help. As gambling expanded in West Virginia, the profile of the typical problem gambler changed. The average hotline caller used to be a 55-year-old man. Now it's a woman between 45 and 50. Youth, the program discovered, are two to four times more likely to become problem gamblers than older adults.
Unanswered, too, is the impact the immense spending power of the gambling industry would have on New Hampshire's government. The Legislature is exceptionally large, but the industry's pockets are deep. The money available for lobbying would be enormous. Connecticut's two casinos each spend about $60 million annually on advertising. A fraction of that spending would drown out New Hampshire's tourism budget.
Finally, no one knows how expanding gambling would affect New Hampshire's "brand" as a family-friendly state of scenic beauty and outdoor recreation. Some studies suggest that when gambling is expanded, the area's social capital - time spent serving one's community or participating in church and volunteer activities - declines. Expanding gambling, it's clear, would turn New Hampshire into a different place, a place from which it couldn't return.
Opposition Group Forms to Fight Casino Proposals
Opposition Group Forms to Fight Casino Proposals
April 20, 2010 AP A group opposing possible ballot proposals that would expand gambling in Michigan is kicking off its campaign.
The opposition group being announced Tuesday includes some law enforcement officials and anti-gambling groups along with some state lawmakers. Opponents to the new gambling plans also likely will include operators of Michigan's existing casinos.
Two separate ballot proposals that would allow more casinos to open in Michigan are in the preliminary stages of trying to qualify for the November ballot.
One would allow casinos to be opened in Benton Harbor, Detroit, Flint, Lansing, Muskegon, Port Huron and at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
A separate ballot proposal would allow casinos at Michigan horse tracks.
April 20, 2010 AP A group opposing possible ballot proposals that would expand gambling in Michigan is kicking off its campaign.
The opposition group being announced Tuesday includes some law enforcement officials and anti-gambling groups along with some state lawmakers. Opponents to the new gambling plans also likely will include operators of Michigan's existing casinos.
Two separate ballot proposals that would allow more casinos to open in Michigan are in the preliminary stages of trying to qualify for the November ballot.
One would allow casinos to be opened in Benton Harbor, Detroit, Flint, Lansing, Muskegon, Port Huron and at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
A separate ballot proposal would allow casinos at Michigan horse tracks.
Wynn Weighs Move to Macau
Wynn Resorts (WYNN) Weighs Moving Headquarters
Filed in Wynn Resorts (WYNN) on Apr.24, 2010
Gaming Giant Wynn Resorts (WYNN: 89.50 -0.47%) may be making things worse for U.S. based gambling operations and the economy if Steve Wynn’s idea of moving their headquarters overseas comes to light.
“I love it out here (Macau),” Wynn said on Wednesday “I’m going to bring it (the potential relocation of Wynn Resorts’ headquarters) up at our board meeting in May. But I have to persuade my staff first.”
Wynn had said that he wants to make Wynn Resorts a “Chinese Company”.
“It is not improbable or unrealistic considering so much of our revenue is from China that it makes sense that I spend most of my time here,” said Wynn. “I’m seriously considering that and I am weighing the implications of how I engineer that.”
The Las Vegas Strip that currently houses Wynn Resorts head office has long since seen its gambling revenues far eclipsed by Macau, which has drawn on the China’s growing economic might and passion for punting.
Wynn Resorts makes more than half of its operating cash flow from its Macau unit.
The story was broke by interviewers at the grand opening of Wynn Resorts $600 million major expansion Wynn Encore, this week.
Filed in Wynn Resorts (WYNN) on Apr.24, 2010
Gaming Giant Wynn Resorts (WYNN: 89.50 -0.47%) may be making things worse for U.S. based gambling operations and the economy if Steve Wynn’s idea of moving their headquarters overseas comes to light.
“I love it out here (Macau),” Wynn said on Wednesday “I’m going to bring it (the potential relocation of Wynn Resorts’ headquarters) up at our board meeting in May. But I have to persuade my staff first.”
Wynn had said that he wants to make Wynn Resorts a “Chinese Company”.
“It is not improbable or unrealistic considering so much of our revenue is from China that it makes sense that I spend most of my time here,” said Wynn. “I’m seriously considering that and I am weighing the implications of how I engineer that.”
The Las Vegas Strip that currently houses Wynn Resorts head office has long since seen its gambling revenues far eclipsed by Macau, which has drawn on the China’s growing economic might and passion for punting.
Wynn Resorts makes more than half of its operating cash flow from its Macau unit.
The story was broke by interviewers at the grand opening of Wynn Resorts $600 million major expansion Wynn Encore, this week.
A Losing Bet
Who would have thought we’d be missing Sal DiMassi?
For several years, the former speaker effectively blocked gaming proposals from getting any traction in the House of Representatives. Now with a sputtering economy, a state government running in deficit, and a governor desperate for reelection, the easy way out button is being pushed again with proposals for legalized gambling back on the table.
The House has already passed a proposal, and the state Senate is now turning its focus on the issue. With big money supporting the cause, the gambling wolf has never strayed far from our legislative door, and it has never looked friendlier to our politicians.
From a business standpoint, we think casino gaming is a bad deal. The arguments for gambling are few: It brings in jobs and it feeds state tax coffers. There is also a long held fear in our state that Connecticut’s two major casinos have been robbing Massachusetts blind, and that we’re not getting our fair share of the regional gambling pie.
But on balance, based on the effect of gaming over time in other states, the proposal’s limited benefits are being oversold, and its liabilities are being swept under the rug or ignored by those supporting the legislation. Gambling is not good business for the state and its existing taxpayers, and going down that seductive but slippery slope will only lead to disappointment in what it yields in tax revenues, and further troubles in the years to come.
High Impact
Massachusetts is already in the gambling business. Currently, the state lottery generates some $950 million in net tax revenues, which have become a critical annual subsidy to cities and towns. However, since the program is run and administered by the state, and the winnings paid out are a much lower percentage than in the casino business, the return to the taxpayer on each lottery dollar is 27 cents.
The return to the state on casino and slot revenues, with Indian tribes and for-profit gaming operators in the mix, plus a higher payout to winners, is projected to be a fraction of the 6 or 7 cents on the dollar that casinos collect in net margin.
Building a high volume casino is exceedingly difficult to do. While Las Vegas and Connecticut have boomed, Atlantic City has struggled mightily, and many states who jumped into the casino business with both feet have found it was not the panacea sold to them in the frothy, well-funded days of the political process.
They have found the cost of mitigating local impacts to be much more onerous than planned, the increase in gambling addiction a real and present problem, the jobs not as plentiful, or not as high paying as advertised, and so on. In addition, the large sucking sound of a casino as it locks its patrons in fantastic play rooms has had a direct negative effect on surrounding entertainment venues from restaurants to theaters. Entertainment dollars are not increasing when casinos arrive; the pie is simply redistributed.
Massachusetts is a state with incredible natural resources, and a world class group of educational institutions and a highly educated and skilled workforce. We need jobs, but we need to be targeting those jobs in industries that have a future, where our young people, and those out of work and looking for opportunities, can grow a career. Advanced manufacturing, life sciences, green industries, high technology and health care are all well-paying growth sectors in our state. If we could intensify our focus and energy on helping these and other promising industries grow and prosper here, and align the skills and training our workforce is receiving to these promising areas, we’ll assure that Massachusetts maintains its leadership position, and its strong economy.
The siren song of casinos is at its most seductive in difficult times. Let’s have the resolve to say no to that industry, and invest in the sectors that have made Massachusetts such an attractive place to live and grow a business.
For several years, the former speaker effectively blocked gaming proposals from getting any traction in the House of Representatives. Now with a sputtering economy, a state government running in deficit, and a governor desperate for reelection, the easy way out button is being pushed again with proposals for legalized gambling back on the table.
The House has already passed a proposal, and the state Senate is now turning its focus on the issue. With big money supporting the cause, the gambling wolf has never strayed far from our legislative door, and it has never looked friendlier to our politicians.
From a business standpoint, we think casino gaming is a bad deal. The arguments for gambling are few: It brings in jobs and it feeds state tax coffers. There is also a long held fear in our state that Connecticut’s two major casinos have been robbing Massachusetts blind, and that we’re not getting our fair share of the regional gambling pie.
But on balance, based on the effect of gaming over time in other states, the proposal’s limited benefits are being oversold, and its liabilities are being swept under the rug or ignored by those supporting the legislation. Gambling is not good business for the state and its existing taxpayers, and going down that seductive but slippery slope will only lead to disappointment in what it yields in tax revenues, and further troubles in the years to come.
High Impact
Massachusetts is already in the gambling business. Currently, the state lottery generates some $950 million in net tax revenues, which have become a critical annual subsidy to cities and towns. However, since the program is run and administered by the state, and the winnings paid out are a much lower percentage than in the casino business, the return to the taxpayer on each lottery dollar is 27 cents.
The return to the state on casino and slot revenues, with Indian tribes and for-profit gaming operators in the mix, plus a higher payout to winners, is projected to be a fraction of the 6 or 7 cents on the dollar that casinos collect in net margin.
Building a high volume casino is exceedingly difficult to do. While Las Vegas and Connecticut have boomed, Atlantic City has struggled mightily, and many states who jumped into the casino business with both feet have found it was not the panacea sold to them in the frothy, well-funded days of the political process.
They have found the cost of mitigating local impacts to be much more onerous than planned, the increase in gambling addiction a real and present problem, the jobs not as plentiful, or not as high paying as advertised, and so on. In addition, the large sucking sound of a casino as it locks its patrons in fantastic play rooms has had a direct negative effect on surrounding entertainment venues from restaurants to theaters. Entertainment dollars are not increasing when casinos arrive; the pie is simply redistributed.
Massachusetts is a state with incredible natural resources, and a world class group of educational institutions and a highly educated and skilled workforce. We need jobs, but we need to be targeting those jobs in industries that have a future, where our young people, and those out of work and looking for opportunities, can grow a career. Advanced manufacturing, life sciences, green industries, high technology and health care are all well-paying growth sectors in our state. If we could intensify our focus and energy on helping these and other promising industries grow and prosper here, and align the skills and training our workforce is receiving to these promising areas, we’ll assure that Massachusetts maintains its leadership position, and its strong economy.
The siren song of casinos is at its most seductive in difficult times. Let’s have the resolve to say no to that industry, and invest in the sectors that have made Massachusetts such an attractive place to live and grow a business.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Couple overcomes gambling addiction
Couple overcomes gambling addiction
By VANESSA McCRAY
TRAVERSE CITY -- Like some lucky couples, Karen and Dale Paakola found an activity they liked doing together.
Unluckily, that mutual pursuit was gambling, and it became a compulsion that threatened everything that mattered most.
"If you continue unarrested, it does take over your entire life," Dale said.
Karen, known by the nickname "Mike," and Dale have been married for nearly 41 years and live in Williamsburg. Their gambling troubles started with Dale. He made small-time wagers: the Lotto, a friendly game of poker, sports bets.
About 13 years ago, Dale stopped work as a pharmaceutical representative and went on long-term disability. He made significantly less money and suffered from severe depression. He turned to casinos, in part to replace lost income with winnings. At first, he didn't gamble a lot, but the sum -- and the problem -- grew.
Around 2002 to 2003, a concerned Mike started to accompany her husband to the casino to monitor his activity. Dale encouraged Mike to play, and within a few years she, too, was gambling. They primarily played video poker, often "tag-teaming" one machine.
"It tore me away from everything I believed in," Mike said. "I stopped going to church. We stopped going to our grandchildren's parties. You don't realize until you looked back at your life."
They tapped into retirement savings.
"You never win enough. Money has no value; it's just a means," said Dale, whose personality changed as he became more angry.
Then the loudest alarm sounded, and this time, the couple heard it. Mike was charged with embezzling money from a Traverse City schools employee union she helped found. She served as the group's treasurer, which gave her access to its funds. Mike said she wasn't thinking when she took the money. The only thing she considered was doing "whatever I need to do" to keep gambling.
"When you are in that, you don't have a conscience," she said.
She pleaded guilty in 2008 and was ordered to pay about $31,000 in restitution and fines. She spent more than three months in jail and several more months on a tether.
"We were just in a daze. We went and talked with family. We told them what we had done," Dale said. "To me it was a big bang. To see her go off in shackles. It's devastating."
Mike is embarrassed and remorseful, but her arrest exposed their venomous vice.
The couple joined Gamblers Anonymous and received help from Munson Medical Center's Behavioral Health Services. The gamblers' support group was "very friendly, very open, non-judgmental," Mike said. They banned themselves from the casino and have not relapsed since they committed to quit gambling.
Behavioral Health Therapist Barbara Fasulo-Emmott counseled the Paakolas. People who seek help are asked two initial assessment questions. The first is, "Have you ever felt the need to bet more and more money?" The second is, "Have you ever had to lie to people important to you about how much you gambled?" Those who answer yes are asked more detailed follow-up questions.
Fasulo-Emmott said people can receive free, grant-funded services from Behavioral Health for problem gambling. Behavioral Health also plans a free seminar Friday on the topic.
Problem gambling is rising among the elderly, who may be grieving losses or trying to escape loneliness or boredom, and adolescents, for whom a casino trip is a "new rite of passage," said Fasulo-Emmott.
The Paakolas finances have started to improve since they quit gambling. They cannot, however, recover the time lost to their addiction. Mike tries to live life one day at a time, and the couple's new calling is to make their struggle count for someone else.
"Through our experience, we've seen the devastation," Dale said.
"Our life has changed so much for the better. We have so much peace," Mike said. "Our ministry right now is to help any compulsive gambler."
By VANESSA McCRAY
TRAVERSE CITY -- Like some lucky couples, Karen and Dale Paakola found an activity they liked doing together.
Unluckily, that mutual pursuit was gambling, and it became a compulsion that threatened everything that mattered most.
"If you continue unarrested, it does take over your entire life," Dale said.
Karen, known by the nickname "Mike," and Dale have been married for nearly 41 years and live in Williamsburg. Their gambling troubles started with Dale. He made small-time wagers: the Lotto, a friendly game of poker, sports bets.
About 13 years ago, Dale stopped work as a pharmaceutical representative and went on long-term disability. He made significantly less money and suffered from severe depression. He turned to casinos, in part to replace lost income with winnings. At first, he didn't gamble a lot, but the sum -- and the problem -- grew.
Around 2002 to 2003, a concerned Mike started to accompany her husband to the casino to monitor his activity. Dale encouraged Mike to play, and within a few years she, too, was gambling. They primarily played video poker, often "tag-teaming" one machine.
"It tore me away from everything I believed in," Mike said. "I stopped going to church. We stopped going to our grandchildren's parties. You don't realize until you looked back at your life."
They tapped into retirement savings.
"You never win enough. Money has no value; it's just a means," said Dale, whose personality changed as he became more angry.
Then the loudest alarm sounded, and this time, the couple heard it. Mike was charged with embezzling money from a Traverse City schools employee union she helped found. She served as the group's treasurer, which gave her access to its funds. Mike said she wasn't thinking when she took the money. The only thing she considered was doing "whatever I need to do" to keep gambling.
"When you are in that, you don't have a conscience," she said.
She pleaded guilty in 2008 and was ordered to pay about $31,000 in restitution and fines. She spent more than three months in jail and several more months on a tether.
"We were just in a daze. We went and talked with family. We told them what we had done," Dale said. "To me it was a big bang. To see her go off in shackles. It's devastating."
Mike is embarrassed and remorseful, but her arrest exposed their venomous vice.
The couple joined Gamblers Anonymous and received help from Munson Medical Center's Behavioral Health Services. The gamblers' support group was "very friendly, very open, non-judgmental," Mike said. They banned themselves from the casino and have not relapsed since they committed to quit gambling.
Behavioral Health Therapist Barbara Fasulo-Emmott counseled the Paakolas. People who seek help are asked two initial assessment questions. The first is, "Have you ever felt the need to bet more and more money?" The second is, "Have you ever had to lie to people important to you about how much you gambled?" Those who answer yes are asked more detailed follow-up questions.
Fasulo-Emmott said people can receive free, grant-funded services from Behavioral Health for problem gambling. Behavioral Health also plans a free seminar Friday on the topic.
Problem gambling is rising among the elderly, who may be grieving losses or trying to escape loneliness or boredom, and adolescents, for whom a casino trip is a "new rite of passage," said Fasulo-Emmott.
The Paakolas finances have started to improve since they quit gambling. They cannot, however, recover the time lost to their addiction. Mike tries to live life one day at a time, and the couple's new calling is to make their struggle count for someone else.
"Through our experience, we've seen the devastation," Dale said.
"Our life has changed so much for the better. We have so much peace," Mike said. "Our ministry right now is to help any compulsive gambler."
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