Robert A. DeLeo tied to tribe flak
Fundraiser for speaker has casino client
By Joe Battenfeld
A fundraiser for House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and other Democratic legislators who have final say over a Mashpee Wampanoag casino bid is also on the tribe’s payroll as a public relations consultant.
Brooke Scannell, the spokesperson for Wampanoag tribal chairman Cedric Cromwell, is a $3,000-a-month fundraiser for DeLeo’s PAC, Committee for a Democratic House, according to records.
DeLeo was a major force behind the state’s new casino law that gives the Mashpee Wampanoags first crack at a casino in southeastern Massachusetts.
Scannell is also a fundraiser for state Sen. Jennifer L. Flanagan (D-Leominster), who was on the six-person conference committee that helped craft the casino bill last year, and a half-dozen other current and former legislators.
“It’s an incestuous relationship on Beacon Hill and it’s no wonder taxpayers are so cynical,” said Kathleen Conley Norbut, former president of United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts and founder of the Western Massachusetts Casino Task Force.
DeLeo’s office referred all fundraising questions to David Martin, who is the treasurer for DeLeo’s campaign and PAC. Martin did not respond to an email request for comment.
Scannell, head of the Scannell Group, defended her dual roles in an email.
“My company consults to clients including campaign committees and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe,” she wrote.
“The public relations services provided to the Tribe do not include lobbying legislators on gaming or any other issues. I do not discuss the Tribe’s interests with any of my company’s other clients.”
Gov. Deval Patrick’s campaign has refused to accept any contributions from gambling interests — let alone employ one as a fundraiser. [Except that he did until he was caught!]
But DeLeo and other lawmakers have raked in tens of thousands of dollars from gaming interests.
“It shows the coziness that exists up on Beacon Hill. ... That’s been going on for years,” said John Ribeiro, an East Boston casino opponent.
The state’s new gaming law gives the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe a head start in negotiating with the Patrick administration for casino approval. The Legislature must vote to give final approval of a Wampanoag casino by July 31. The tribe wants a gambling resort in Taunton.
Scannell has been the fundraiser for DeLeo’s PAC since 2009 when she began representing the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe. She has also been on the campaign payrolls of state Sen. Katherine Clark (D-Melrose), state Sen. Karen Spilka (D-Ashland), state Sen. Kenneth J. Donnelly (D-Arlington), state Rep. Carlo P. Basile (D-East Boston), state Sen. Barry R. Finegold (D-Andover) and ex-state Sen. Steven Tolman, a Watertown Democrat, records show.
DeLeo, Flanagan, Clark, Basile and Tolman supported the new casino law while Spilka, Donnelly and Finegold voted against it.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Slot Barn Monument to Steve Wynn's Ego
At a time when Steve Wynn is being investigated by the SEC for FCPA [Foreign Corrupt Practices Act] violations and the forced buyout of a 'partner' renders his financial position less solvent, his proposed monument to his ego in Foxborough is raising questions about Slot Barn commitment and its size.
Foxborough residents voted overwhelmingly to OPPOSE Gambling, but never you mind! The slick public relations and unending propaganda marches on to bring low wage jobs home to you!
The 'commuter rail' line currently doesn't exist and one must live in a cave not to have noticed the current fiscal disaster that exists within the MBTA, preventing consideration of taxpayer funded Kraft/Wynn development. [One may recall the PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE TO NOWHERE that Governor Slot Barns promoted to prepare for this Folly, surrounded by backroom deals and secret promises, that successfully moved the lines on a map to make this possible.] The estimated annual loss is ~ $4 MILLION, to be borne by municipalities along the route, even though they have no vote and will receive no 'mitigation.' Such a deal!
Despite drawings, Wynn project size remains a mystery
By Frank Mortimer
So just how big is the main "destination resort" building shown in the brochure and DVD which casino developer Steve Wynn's mailed to thousands of Foxboro homes last week?
The promotional material doesn't say, and a public relations affiliate to Wynn Resorts says that's no accident.
Potentially competing with other developers interested in securing one of the state's three casino licenses, Wynn will not disclose at this early stage the specifics of building sizes, or all the specific mitigations he would offer the town for its support of the project, said Scott Farmelant, spokesman for Jobs For Foxboro.
Town planner Sharon Wason and building commissioner Bill Casbarra are in no position to discuss the dimensions or the aesthetics of the project shown in the artist's renderings distributed by Wynn.
"As to the drawings themselves, beauty is in the eye of the beholder," Wason said of the lodge-like rendering.
Unlike casual viewers, Wason and Casbarra focus on the technicalities of plans, and no plans have been submitted to the town.
Casbarra does expect the proposal to be big.
"I think a proposal of that magnitude would be a challenge for us, and we'd have to prepare properly for it as we did with the stadium and Patriot Place," he said. "I don't put a lot of stock in renderings. Renderings mean little to a building official. The plans are the meat."
Wason said: "The DVD didn't have any quantifiable details about the proposal, other than the parking garage will hold 5,000 cars."
It noted the garage would be used for game-day parking, so the size of the garage is dictated by number of spaces needed for a Patriots game, not the number required for the development, Wason said.
She said Foxboro's zoning requires one parking space per hotel room, one space for every 175 to 250 gross square feet of retail space (depending on whether it's 'large' or not), one space for every 100 square feet of a restaurant, bar, nightclub, one space for every three seats in a theater.
"So it's pretty hard to back out sizes from the number of parking spaces," Wason said.
Town zoning does not allow gambling facilities. Part of the Foxboro zoning bylaws (section 10.2.2.3) says "The Board of Appeals shall not have authority to authorize a use variance..." So the zoning bylaws would need to be changed to accommodate any gambling or gaming uses or spaces.
Current zoning does allow a number of associated uses, however.
The westerly side of Rte. 1 is zoned S1 and most of it is within the Economic Development Overlay district.
Retail, restaurants, business uses, theaters, nightclubs and museums are all allowed uses and subject to site plan approval from the planning board, she said.
Hotels, commuter rail stations and bus stations, and golf courses all require a special permit from the planning board.
Special permits require notification of abutters and adjacent towns.
Foxborough residents voted overwhelmingly to OPPOSE Gambling, but never you mind! The slick public relations and unending propaganda marches on to bring low wage jobs home to you!
The 'commuter rail' line currently doesn't exist and one must live in a cave not to have noticed the current fiscal disaster that exists within the MBTA, preventing consideration of taxpayer funded Kraft/Wynn development. [One may recall the PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE TO NOWHERE that Governor Slot Barns promoted to prepare for this Folly, surrounded by backroom deals and secret promises, that successfully moved the lines on a map to make this possible.] The estimated annual loss is ~ $4 MILLION, to be borne by municipalities along the route, even though they have no vote and will receive no 'mitigation.' Such a deal!
Thanks again, Governor Slot Barns!
Despite drawings, Wynn project size remains a mystery
By Frank Mortimer
So just how big is the main "destination resort" building shown in the brochure and DVD which casino developer Steve Wynn's mailed to thousands of Foxboro homes last week?
The promotional material doesn't say, and a public relations affiliate to Wynn Resorts says that's no accident.
Potentially competing with other developers interested in securing one of the state's three casino licenses, Wynn will not disclose at this early stage the specifics of building sizes, or all the specific mitigations he would offer the town for its support of the project, said Scott Farmelant, spokesman for Jobs For Foxboro.
Town planner Sharon Wason and building commissioner Bill Casbarra are in no position to discuss the dimensions or the aesthetics of the project shown in the artist's renderings distributed by Wynn.
"As to the drawings themselves, beauty is in the eye of the beholder," Wason said of the lodge-like rendering.
Unlike casual viewers, Wason and Casbarra focus on the technicalities of plans, and no plans have been submitted to the town.
Casbarra does expect the proposal to be big.
"I think a proposal of that magnitude would be a challenge for us, and we'd have to prepare properly for it as we did with the stadium and Patriot Place," he said. "I don't put a lot of stock in renderings. Renderings mean little to a building official. The plans are the meat."
Wason said: "The DVD didn't have any quantifiable details about the proposal, other than the parking garage will hold 5,000 cars."
It noted the garage would be used for game-day parking, so the size of the garage is dictated by number of spaces needed for a Patriots game, not the number required for the development, Wason said.
She said Foxboro's zoning requires one parking space per hotel room, one space for every 175 to 250 gross square feet of retail space (depending on whether it's 'large' or not), one space for every 100 square feet of a restaurant, bar, nightclub, one space for every three seats in a theater.
"So it's pretty hard to back out sizes from the number of parking spaces," Wason said.
Town zoning does not allow gambling facilities. Part of the Foxboro zoning bylaws (section 10.2.2.3) says "The Board of Appeals shall not have authority to authorize a use variance..." So the zoning bylaws would need to be changed to accommodate any gambling or gaming uses or spaces.
Current zoning does allow a number of associated uses, however.
The westerly side of Rte. 1 is zoned S1 and most of it is within the Economic Development Overlay district.
Retail, restaurants, business uses, theaters, nightclubs and museums are all allowed uses and subject to site plan approval from the planning board, she said.
Hotels, commuter rail stations and bus stations, and golf courses all require a special permit from the planning board.
Special permits require notification of abutters and adjacent towns.
A caring state is no nanny, it is doing its job
Too often, the "NANNY STATE" argument is used as an excuse to legalize GOVERNMENT SPONSORED ADDICTION.
A caring state is no nanny, it is doing its job
Chris Middendorp
Those who want the market to rule often put profit before welfare.
British politician Iain Macleod is said to have coined the term ''nanny state'' in 1965. It's no surprise that he was a Tory; people from the conservative side of politics never hesitate in using the term as a derisive label for when government legislates in the interests of its citizens.
The recent debate about whether the gambling industry should be subjected to reform measures provides a classic example. People in favour of stronger regulation - those who work in the community and health sectors, and those concerned by the alarming rate of problem gambling in Australia - accept that government intervention is a necessary step.
Those on the political right generally do not. For them it's nanny state nonsense. Tony Abbott's position encapsulates it best. ''Gambling is ultimately a personal and family issue … thinking we can solve problem gambling by addressing the wider world, I think, is a fundamental mistake.''
It should be noted in passing that although many in the Labor Party favour pokies reform, the increasingly mercenary government itself has done little to curb problem gambling. The ALP even owns several pokies venues.
People who holler nanny state most stridently tend to speak for the alcohol, tobacco and gambling industries, gun association members, media proprietors and property developers, whose arguments appear to be grounded in self-interest.
Bodies that aggressively advocate free market economics are most vocal in their criticism of what they consider to be government meddling.
Tim Wilson, director of the Free Trade Unit at the Institute of Public Affairs, professes ''deep reservations about nanny state measures''. For the institute, reform of gambling regulations are ''based on the assumption that government knows best''. Naturally, such reform will ''discourage individual responsibility''. They take the same position against the government's plain cigarette packaging laws.
This glib argument is a distraction. The central point is that human behaviour is often problematic. We cannot rely upon individuals to behave responsibly. If we could, we wouldn't need most of our road rules. The behaviour of drivers is bad enough with laws; can you imagine the chaos without them?
If people always behaved like responsible adults, we wouldn't need laws to protect children from abuse or laws to stop cigarettes being sold to nine-year-olds. We wouldn't need building codes and prohibitions on the use of asbestos. We wouldn't need laws to prohibit the mistreatment of animals or the dumping of waste into our rivers.
It's not as if the free market is going to protect the community from child pornography, for instance. There's clearly a big market for paedophilic material. And since the free market is driven by profit, not ethics or social justice, it offers no protection from predators.
Government doesn't necessarily ''know best'', but government can play a beneficial role in preventing people from making poor choices. People aren't always capable of doing this without help.
In a liberal democracy, our governments (exasperating though they might sometimes be) exist specifically to represent the best interests of citizens. And, unlike corporations, the best feature of governments is that if we don't like how they operate, we can vote them out.
Whenever the accusation of nanny state is made, people are effectively mocking a venerable tradition of beneficial state involvement, a journey that began with habeas corpus (which provided citizens with protection from unlawful imprisonment).
Those who are quickest to holler ''nanny state'' are generally people who believe that government should play a minimal role in human affairs, with business and the free market setting the agenda. This is the familiar neo-liberal or economic rationalist position: that the market must be the supreme arbiter of all human activity.
But markets are brutal, amoral places. When the sole aim is profit, values and morality are cheerfully bypassed. Thankfully, we live in a civilised society that was painfully, incrementally built over centuries. Unlike so many countries today, we have the benefit of the rule of law, a venerable corpus of jurisprudence that upholds people's rights, protecting us from arbitrary arrest, slavery and exploitation.
I'm sure many of us are glad there's a minimum drinking age and a maximum speed limit, that motorbike helmets are mandatory and that there are penalties for cruelty to animals. Most of us are thankful for federally funded education campaigns alerting us to the risks of smoking and exposure to the sun's rays.
If the term nanny state is useful at all, it might be better employed to describe government mollycoddling of businesses and privileged individuals. Wealthy Australians are able to evade billions of dollars in tax through tax breaks that allow them to grow wealthier without effort. Why? Elite private schools are given government funding. Why? In these areas nanna government certainly relishes spoiling her favourite grandchildren.
Chris Middendorp is a Melbourne community worker.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/a-caring-state-is-no-nanny-it-is-doing-its-job-20120312-1uwdb.html#ixzz1ozwtrePr
A caring state is no nanny, it is doing its job
Chris Middendorp
Those who want the market to rule often put profit before welfare.
British politician Iain Macleod is said to have coined the term ''nanny state'' in 1965. It's no surprise that he was a Tory; people from the conservative side of politics never hesitate in using the term as a derisive label for when government legislates in the interests of its citizens.
The recent debate about whether the gambling industry should be subjected to reform measures provides a classic example. People in favour of stronger regulation - those who work in the community and health sectors, and those concerned by the alarming rate of problem gambling in Australia - accept that government intervention is a necessary step.
Those on the political right generally do not. For them it's nanny state nonsense. Tony Abbott's position encapsulates it best. ''Gambling is ultimately a personal and family issue … thinking we can solve problem gambling by addressing the wider world, I think, is a fundamental mistake.''
It should be noted in passing that although many in the Labor Party favour pokies reform, the increasingly mercenary government itself has done little to curb problem gambling. The ALP even owns several pokies venues.
People who holler nanny state most stridently tend to speak for the alcohol, tobacco and gambling industries, gun association members, media proprietors and property developers, whose arguments appear to be grounded in self-interest.
Bodies that aggressively advocate free market economics are most vocal in their criticism of what they consider to be government meddling.
Tim Wilson, director of the Free Trade Unit at the Institute of Public Affairs, professes ''deep reservations about nanny state measures''. For the institute, reform of gambling regulations are ''based on the assumption that government knows best''. Naturally, such reform will ''discourage individual responsibility''. They take the same position against the government's plain cigarette packaging laws.
This glib argument is a distraction. The central point is that human behaviour is often problematic. We cannot rely upon individuals to behave responsibly. If we could, we wouldn't need most of our road rules. The behaviour of drivers is bad enough with laws; can you imagine the chaos without them?
If people always behaved like responsible adults, we wouldn't need laws to protect children from abuse or laws to stop cigarettes being sold to nine-year-olds. We wouldn't need building codes and prohibitions on the use of asbestos. We wouldn't need laws to prohibit the mistreatment of animals or the dumping of waste into our rivers.
It's not as if the free market is going to protect the community from child pornography, for instance. There's clearly a big market for paedophilic material. And since the free market is driven by profit, not ethics or social justice, it offers no protection from predators.
Government doesn't necessarily ''know best'', but government can play a beneficial role in preventing people from making poor choices. People aren't always capable of doing this without help.
In a liberal democracy, our governments (exasperating though they might sometimes be) exist specifically to represent the best interests of citizens. And, unlike corporations, the best feature of governments is that if we don't like how they operate, we can vote them out.
Whenever the accusation of nanny state is made, people are effectively mocking a venerable tradition of beneficial state involvement, a journey that began with habeas corpus (which provided citizens with protection from unlawful imprisonment).
Those who are quickest to holler ''nanny state'' are generally people who believe that government should play a minimal role in human affairs, with business and the free market setting the agenda. This is the familiar neo-liberal or economic rationalist position: that the market must be the supreme arbiter of all human activity.
But markets are brutal, amoral places. When the sole aim is profit, values and morality are cheerfully bypassed. Thankfully, we live in a civilised society that was painfully, incrementally built over centuries. Unlike so many countries today, we have the benefit of the rule of law, a venerable corpus of jurisprudence that upholds people's rights, protecting us from arbitrary arrest, slavery and exploitation.
I'm sure many of us are glad there's a minimum drinking age and a maximum speed limit, that motorbike helmets are mandatory and that there are penalties for cruelty to animals. Most of us are thankful for federally funded education campaigns alerting us to the risks of smoking and exposure to the sun's rays.
If the term nanny state is useful at all, it might be better employed to describe government mollycoddling of businesses and privileged individuals. Wealthy Australians are able to evade billions of dollars in tax through tax breaks that allow them to grow wealthier without effort. Why? Elite private schools are given government funding. Why? In these areas nanna government certainly relishes spoiling her favourite grandchildren.
Chris Middendorp is a Melbourne community worker.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/a-caring-state-is-no-nanny-it-is-doing-its-job-20120312-1uwdb.html#ixzz1ozwtrePr
Monday, March 12, 2012
Casino capitalism
Casino capitalism: As gambling spreads, metaphor becomes reality
As more and more states turn to legal betting to fight the Great Recession, a metaphor becomes reality
By Daniel Denvir
Though Wall Street’s brand of “casino capitalism” crashed the American economy in 2008, American capitalists are making a growing profit from real-life casino gambling: commercial (or non-Indian) casinos have generated nearly $98 billion since 2008, including $34.6 billion in gross revenues in 2010 (the last year for which data is available), up from $20 billion in 1998.
That’s more than three times the sum Americans spend on movie tickets. And only $5.7 billion was generated in Las Vegas. The fantastical upside-down world of American commerce long confined to Nevada and Atlantic City, N.J., is now ubiquitous.
The billions of new dollars spent at casinos represent a net transfer of wealth to big business and to pay workers whose labor is not as productive as, say, repairing the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. Casino capitalism is an apt metaphor exactly because — whatever one might think about legalized gambling — it is not generally perceived as a sound operating principle for the entire economy. Yet the steady march of casino gambling now sketches an eerie facsimile of our political economy writ large. In fact, casinos thrive amid economic misery.
Industry leaders tout casinos as a tool for creating jobs and increasing revenue, and recession-weary politicians are listening.
“When you’re in recession, what that normally means is that state government suffers with regard to the revenue they have available to fund public services,” says Frank Fahrenkopf, CEO of the American Gaming Association, the industry trade group. “When the state legislature needs revenue, this has proven over the years to be a very successful way to bring in capital investment, economic development, jobs, and tax revenue.”
The United States has since the early 1990s undergone a piecemeal but profound social and economic transformation: casinos, nearly prohibited nationwide in 1910, are now legal in some form in 40 states, including 24 with legalized commercial operations. The companies involved make a tidy profit: Of the $34.6 billion in revenue (and again, this figure is in addition to the $26.7 billion generated at the nation’s 448 tribal casinos), casinos paid just $7.59 billion in taxes and $13.3 billion in wages and benefits.
With budgets tight, “the governor will get the bright idea that he can open casinos and then not have to raise taxes,” says Earl Grinols, a Baylor University economics professor and gambling critic. “We have a new round of expansion in New York, in Pennsylvania, in Massachusetts. The industry uses every recession as an opportunity for expansion.”
In Illinois, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is pressing for a casino to make up for a budget shortfall. In Detroit, which continues its slide into oblivion, casinos grossed $1.378 billion in revenue. In Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, a new Sands casino opened in 2009 at the site of the shuttered Bethlehem Steel mill. Though the casino won’t come close to replacing Bethlehem’s 31,523 unionized steel jobs, residents of the depressed city packed the casino on opening day to revel in the possibility of revival.
“Even in this economy, people still want to challenge luck,” a pleased Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson told the New York Times.
Many gamblers end up unlucky, and much of the casino debate has hinged on the question of social costs: whether casinos cause more crime and create more gambling addicts.
“The social costs clearly outweigh the social benefits,” says professor Grinols. “The only people who benefit from casinos are the owners.”
Pennsylvania’s I-95 corridor is now crowded with gambling houses: Parx casino in Bensalem, SugarHouse on Philadelphia’s Delaware River waterfront, and Harrah’s in Chester, where the school district is virtually bankrupt. Harrah’s general manager said the customers in its database visit the casino an average of 4.5 times a week, while the state’s news media have fixated on the troubling trend of parents leaving their children locked in parked cars when gambling in Bensalem.
A significant portion of gambling revenues — one-third to one-half — is derived from problem gamblers, says Grinols, who, in a 2006 Review of Economics and Statistics article concluded that 8 percent of crime in casino counties can be attributed to the presence of legal gambling.
But Fahrenkopf, a lawyer and former chairman of the Republican National Committee, says that Grinols and allied academics rely on flawed data. “They no longer argue the morality of gaming, because the American people are way past that. So they argue about social costs,” says Fahrenkopf. “As my old boss Ronald Reagan used to say with regard to the Russians: trust but verify.”
Indeed, the literature is conflicted. Some academics, like Harvard Medical School’s Howard Schaffer [who is in bed with the Gambling Industry], say that the number of gambling addicts has not increased alongside casino expansion. Douglas Walker, a professor of economics at the College of Charleston, has criticized Grinol’s methodology in studying casino-related crime.
But the larger problem is indisputable: The growth of the gambling industry feeds on America’s job insecurity; people, whether gambling or seeking employment, have fewer viable ways to make good money. As the country has deindustrialized since the 1980s, and unions have been marginalized, real wages stagnated and then declined. At the same time, a deregulated and ascendent financial sector offered easier-than-ever credit cards and home mortgages, leading Americans desperate to maintain their lifestyle deep into debt.
Sociologists Kevin Leicht and Scott Fitzgerald have dubbed these people “postindustrial peasants,” tied to debt — from subprime mortgages to the high-on-student debt but low-on- job-prospects for-profit colleges — in the manner their agrarian forebears were tied to land. Meanwhile, the poor depend on an array of “alternative” and usurious financial services like pawn shops, payday lenders and check-cashing stores to stay afloat.
“At the same time that work has become less secure, there has also been this massive move to privatize the financing system for the two traditional mechanisms of economic mobility: homeownership and education. All these industries have grown by trading on people’s efforts — sometimes concerted, sometimes desperate — to get ahead in a world where opportunities in the labor market are hard to come by,” says Adam Goldstein, a doctoral student at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies the financialization of the American economy (and a friend).
Bad bet
When it comes to the real economy, legal gambling has the same limitation as Wall Street speculation: It doesn’t make tangible things that we need or foster broad-based prosperity.
In fact, the gaming economy may be reaching its outer limits, as new casinos cannibalize revenue from preexisting operations. In Atlantic City, casinos have experienced a $1.6 billion decline in revenue and hemorrhaged more than 96,000 jobs since Pennsylvania opened its first casino in 2006. The depressed business reduces the tax revenue generated for desperate state coffers and prompt government to take ever more desperate measures. The $2.4 billion Revel, Atlantic City’s newest resort and casino slated to open in May, was only completed after Gov. Chris Christie delivered a $261 million tax credit to the project.
The American Gaming Association, says Fahrenkopf, does not get involved in statehouse debates because they so often pit his members against one another.
In states that legalize gambling, casinos no doubt create jobs but they don’t necessarily stimulate the larger economy. A 1999 report by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission found that “few businesses can be found more than a few blocks from the Atlantic City boardwalk. Many of the ‘local’ businesses remaining are pawnshops, cash-for-gold stores and discount outlets. One witness noted that, ‘in 1978 [the year the first casino opened], there were 311 taverns and restaurants in Atlantic City. Nineteen years later, only 66 remained, despite the promise that gaming would be good for the city’s own.’”
The destruction of Main Street America in the age of Wal-Mart cannot, of course, be blamed entirely on casinos.
“You always get that sort of thing, and it’s not only in this industry,” says Fahrenkopf. “When a new mall is coming into a community, it’s going to have chain shoe stores, chain restaurants. The small town businesses are going to face the same — I don’t know if you want to call it capitalism — the same free market challenge.”
Casino jobs are comparable to those created throughout the American service economy: They are no replacement for vanished manufacturing employment, and wages can be quite low if unions don’t fight their way into the picture. In Las Vegas, Culinary Workers Local 226 (part of UNITE HERE) has organized 60,000 casino and hospitality workers, boosting wages and benefits far above those that prevail in non-union Reno. But Atlantic City’s downward spiral shows the fragility of labor success in the service economy. Most of the 5,500 permanent employees at the Revel will, in a first for the heavily unionized boardwalk, have to reapply for their jobs every four to six years.
Likewise, the prospect of casinos driving net job growth nationwide seems unlikely. While commercial casino revenues nationwide have increased by 73 percent since 1998, employment grew by just 5 percent, or 15,132 jobs, to 340,564. In New England, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine and Rhode Island are rushing to expand casino gambling and outcompete their neighbors.
But as casinos expand, new profits are by-and-large net transfers to casino magnates who, flush with cash, leverage political muscle at the statehouse. In New York, Malaysian billionaire KT Lim, chairman of gambling empire Genting Berhad, has poured a large but undisclosed sum into a high-end lobbying operation to expand gambling in New York with the goal of remaking the “racino” at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens into a multibillion-dollar casino resort and conference center.
In Florida, legislation to legalize casinos was last month defeated in large part because of Disney World’s behemoth opposition: Their lucrative version of tourism is based on a “family friendly” brand. The political viability of casino gambling may be determined less by popular will and more by the balance of power between moneyed interests in any given state. In New York, major business groups like the Partnership for New York City, the Committee to Save New York, the Business Council of New York State — and, now, decisively and after long-running opposition, magnate Mayor Michael Bloomberg — support the legislation. Meanwhile, racetrack owners in New York and other states are scrambling to obtain a monopoly on expanded gambling.
The expansion of casino gambling can engender fierce opposition. And it can make for strange political bedfellows too, as progressive social justice advocates and Christian anti-gambling moralists join forces. In Philadelphia, activists organized a diverse, if ultimately unsuccessful, citywide movement against SugarHouse. But other neighbors welcome the casino and the largess they deliver via “community benefit agreements” through which casinos pay for school books, libraries and programs for senior citizens and veterans. Functions that in the past were expected from government are now delivered by corporations under a halo of philanthropic beneficence.
The limits of casino capitalism are nowhere more evident than in the birthplace of legal gambling in America: Las Vegas. Wall Street investment fueled the rise of modern Las Vegas casinos. In the 1980s, Steve Wynn was the first casino magnate to fund the construction of a new casino through Wall Street-issued junk bonds, displacing the mafia as legalized gambling’s patron of first resort. Wall Street also funded Las Vegas’ meteoric housing boom, which has ended in one of the country’s largest busts: housing prices in the city more than doubled between 2000 and 2006.
When the bubble burst, Las Vegas spent 22 months as the nation’s foreclosure capital.
And so casino capitalism spreads relentlessly even after Las Vegas, the brightly lit neon dream of a post-industrial America, has come crashing down.
Daniel Denvir is a staff writer at Philadelphia City Paper and a contributing writer for Salon.
As more and more states turn to legal betting to fight the Great Recession, a metaphor becomes reality
By Daniel Denvir
Though Wall Street’s brand of “casino capitalism” crashed the American economy in 2008, American capitalists are making a growing profit from real-life casino gambling: commercial (or non-Indian) casinos have generated nearly $98 billion since 2008, including $34.6 billion in gross revenues in 2010 (the last year for which data is available), up from $20 billion in 1998.
That’s more than three times the sum Americans spend on movie tickets. And only $5.7 billion was generated in Las Vegas. The fantastical upside-down world of American commerce long confined to Nevada and Atlantic City, N.J., is now ubiquitous.
The billions of new dollars spent at casinos represent a net transfer of wealth to big business and to pay workers whose labor is not as productive as, say, repairing the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. Casino capitalism is an apt metaphor exactly because — whatever one might think about legalized gambling — it is not generally perceived as a sound operating principle for the entire economy. Yet the steady march of casino gambling now sketches an eerie facsimile of our political economy writ large. In fact, casinos thrive amid economic misery.
Industry leaders tout casinos as a tool for creating jobs and increasing revenue, and recession-weary politicians are listening.
“When you’re in recession, what that normally means is that state government suffers with regard to the revenue they have available to fund public services,” says Frank Fahrenkopf, CEO of the American Gaming Association, the industry trade group. “When the state legislature needs revenue, this has proven over the years to be a very successful way to bring in capital investment, economic development, jobs, and tax revenue.”
The United States has since the early 1990s undergone a piecemeal but profound social and economic transformation: casinos, nearly prohibited nationwide in 1910, are now legal in some form in 40 states, including 24 with legalized commercial operations. The companies involved make a tidy profit: Of the $34.6 billion in revenue (and again, this figure is in addition to the $26.7 billion generated at the nation’s 448 tribal casinos), casinos paid just $7.59 billion in taxes and $13.3 billion in wages and benefits.
With budgets tight, “the governor will get the bright idea that he can open casinos and then not have to raise taxes,” says Earl Grinols, a Baylor University economics professor and gambling critic. “We have a new round of expansion in New York, in Pennsylvania, in Massachusetts. The industry uses every recession as an opportunity for expansion.”
In Illinois, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is pressing for a casino to make up for a budget shortfall. In Detroit, which continues its slide into oblivion, casinos grossed $1.378 billion in revenue. In Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, a new Sands casino opened in 2009 at the site of the shuttered Bethlehem Steel mill. Though the casino won’t come close to replacing Bethlehem’s 31,523 unionized steel jobs, residents of the depressed city packed the casino on opening day to revel in the possibility of revival.
“Even in this economy, people still want to challenge luck,” a pleased Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson told the New York Times.
Many gamblers end up unlucky, and much of the casino debate has hinged on the question of social costs: whether casinos cause more crime and create more gambling addicts.
“The social costs clearly outweigh the social benefits,” says professor Grinols. “The only people who benefit from casinos are the owners.”
Pennsylvania’s I-95 corridor is now crowded with gambling houses: Parx casino in Bensalem, SugarHouse on Philadelphia’s Delaware River waterfront, and Harrah’s in Chester, where the school district is virtually bankrupt. Harrah’s general manager said the customers in its database visit the casino an average of 4.5 times a week, while the state’s news media have fixated on the troubling trend of parents leaving their children locked in parked cars when gambling in Bensalem.
A significant portion of gambling revenues — one-third to one-half — is derived from problem gamblers, says Grinols, who, in a 2006 Review of Economics and Statistics article concluded that 8 percent of crime in casino counties can be attributed to the presence of legal gambling.
But Fahrenkopf, a lawyer and former chairman of the Republican National Committee, says that Grinols and allied academics rely on flawed data. “They no longer argue the morality of gaming, because the American people are way past that. So they argue about social costs,” says Fahrenkopf. “As my old boss Ronald Reagan used to say with regard to the Russians: trust but verify.”
Indeed, the literature is conflicted. Some academics, like Harvard Medical School’s Howard Schaffer [who is in bed with the Gambling Industry], say that the number of gambling addicts has not increased alongside casino expansion. Douglas Walker, a professor of economics at the College of Charleston, has criticized Grinol’s methodology in studying casino-related crime.
But the larger problem is indisputable: The growth of the gambling industry feeds on America’s job insecurity; people, whether gambling or seeking employment, have fewer viable ways to make good money. As the country has deindustrialized since the 1980s, and unions have been marginalized, real wages stagnated and then declined. At the same time, a deregulated and ascendent financial sector offered easier-than-ever credit cards and home mortgages, leading Americans desperate to maintain their lifestyle deep into debt.
Sociologists Kevin Leicht and Scott Fitzgerald have dubbed these people “postindustrial peasants,” tied to debt — from subprime mortgages to the high-on-student debt but low-on- job-prospects for-profit colleges — in the manner their agrarian forebears were tied to land. Meanwhile, the poor depend on an array of “alternative” and usurious financial services like pawn shops, payday lenders and check-cashing stores to stay afloat.
“At the same time that work has become less secure, there has also been this massive move to privatize the financing system for the two traditional mechanisms of economic mobility: homeownership and education. All these industries have grown by trading on people’s efforts — sometimes concerted, sometimes desperate — to get ahead in a world where opportunities in the labor market are hard to come by,” says Adam Goldstein, a doctoral student at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies the financialization of the American economy (and a friend).
Bad bet
When it comes to the real economy, legal gambling has the same limitation as Wall Street speculation: It doesn’t make tangible things that we need or foster broad-based prosperity.
In fact, the gaming economy may be reaching its outer limits, as new casinos cannibalize revenue from preexisting operations. In Atlantic City, casinos have experienced a $1.6 billion decline in revenue and hemorrhaged more than 96,000 jobs since Pennsylvania opened its first casino in 2006. The depressed business reduces the tax revenue generated for desperate state coffers and prompt government to take ever more desperate measures. The $2.4 billion Revel, Atlantic City’s newest resort and casino slated to open in May, was only completed after Gov. Chris Christie delivered a $261 million tax credit to the project.
The American Gaming Association, says Fahrenkopf, does not get involved in statehouse debates because they so often pit his members against one another.
In states that legalize gambling, casinos no doubt create jobs but they don’t necessarily stimulate the larger economy. A 1999 report by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission found that “few businesses can be found more than a few blocks from the Atlantic City boardwalk. Many of the ‘local’ businesses remaining are pawnshops, cash-for-gold stores and discount outlets. One witness noted that, ‘in 1978 [the year the first casino opened], there were 311 taverns and restaurants in Atlantic City. Nineteen years later, only 66 remained, despite the promise that gaming would be good for the city’s own.’”
The destruction of Main Street America in the age of Wal-Mart cannot, of course, be blamed entirely on casinos.
“You always get that sort of thing, and it’s not only in this industry,” says Fahrenkopf. “When a new mall is coming into a community, it’s going to have chain shoe stores, chain restaurants. The small town businesses are going to face the same — I don’t know if you want to call it capitalism — the same free market challenge.”
Casino jobs are comparable to those created throughout the American service economy: They are no replacement for vanished manufacturing employment, and wages can be quite low if unions don’t fight their way into the picture. In Las Vegas, Culinary Workers Local 226 (part of UNITE HERE) has organized 60,000 casino and hospitality workers, boosting wages and benefits far above those that prevail in non-union Reno. But Atlantic City’s downward spiral shows the fragility of labor success in the service economy. Most of the 5,500 permanent employees at the Revel will, in a first for the heavily unionized boardwalk, have to reapply for their jobs every four to six years.
Likewise, the prospect of casinos driving net job growth nationwide seems unlikely. While commercial casino revenues nationwide have increased by 73 percent since 1998, employment grew by just 5 percent, or 15,132 jobs, to 340,564. In New England, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine and Rhode Island are rushing to expand casino gambling and outcompete their neighbors.
But as casinos expand, new profits are by-and-large net transfers to casino magnates who, flush with cash, leverage political muscle at the statehouse. In New York, Malaysian billionaire KT Lim, chairman of gambling empire Genting Berhad, has poured a large but undisclosed sum into a high-end lobbying operation to expand gambling in New York with the goal of remaking the “racino” at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens into a multibillion-dollar casino resort and conference center.
In Florida, legislation to legalize casinos was last month defeated in large part because of Disney World’s behemoth opposition: Their lucrative version of tourism is based on a “family friendly” brand. The political viability of casino gambling may be determined less by popular will and more by the balance of power between moneyed interests in any given state. In New York, major business groups like the Partnership for New York City, the Committee to Save New York, the Business Council of New York State — and, now, decisively and after long-running opposition, magnate Mayor Michael Bloomberg — support the legislation. Meanwhile, racetrack owners in New York and other states are scrambling to obtain a monopoly on expanded gambling.
The expansion of casino gambling can engender fierce opposition. And it can make for strange political bedfellows too, as progressive social justice advocates and Christian anti-gambling moralists join forces. In Philadelphia, activists organized a diverse, if ultimately unsuccessful, citywide movement against SugarHouse. But other neighbors welcome the casino and the largess they deliver via “community benefit agreements” through which casinos pay for school books, libraries and programs for senior citizens and veterans. Functions that in the past were expected from government are now delivered by corporations under a halo of philanthropic beneficence.
The limits of casino capitalism are nowhere more evident than in the birthplace of legal gambling in America: Las Vegas. Wall Street investment fueled the rise of modern Las Vegas casinos. In the 1980s, Steve Wynn was the first casino magnate to fund the construction of a new casino through Wall Street-issued junk bonds, displacing the mafia as legalized gambling’s patron of first resort. Wall Street also funded Las Vegas’ meteoric housing boom, which has ended in one of the country’s largest busts: housing prices in the city more than doubled between 2000 and 2006.
When the bubble burst, Las Vegas spent 22 months as the nation’s foreclosure capital.
And so casino capitalism spreads relentlessly even after Las Vegas, the brightly lit neon dream of a post-industrial America, has come crashing down.
Daniel Denvir is a staff writer at Philadelphia City Paper and a contributing writer for Salon.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Ugly Cast of Characters and Stupidity: Duh?
The Palmer Casino Study Group determined that a Slot Barn in Palmer would cost:
$18 MILLION to $39 MILLION ANNUALLY
Isn't that the same study PAUL BURNS REFUSED TO DISCUSS PUBLICLY?
A small group of vehicles traveling through Palmer, MA, brought traffic to a standstill, successfully proving that ANY increased traffic is IMPOSSIBLE!
Yet, Paul Burns, perennial Slot Barn cheerleader insists, begs, salivates, genuflects and continues to make statements of questionable ethics for personal gain, that the financially insolvent Tribe should bankrupt the small town of Palmer, MA.
If Paul Burns spent as much time, effort and energy rebuilding the community as he has schmoozing and glad handing with the insolvent Tribe, the community would be bustling.
Add to the mix The Republican, unable to print the facts, ignoring opposition letters to the editor, deleting online opposition comments, perhaps based on dreams of future advertising revenues and shunning the truth.
People who have formed their opinions based on flashing neon lights, the glitter of Fools' Gold, ignored the 'downsizing' of the Slot Barn to ridiculous size and the phony promises.
And now The Republican, with an apparent reading comprehension problem, refusing to read the legislation, publishes the article below?
Here's the legislation:
http://www.mass.gov/legis/journal/desktop/Current%20Agenda%202011/H3807-11.pdf
Note to Palmer: You gotta elect people with brains
Mohegan Sun pledges $50,000 for host community agreement with Palmer; refinances $1 billion in debt
By Lori Stabile, The Republican
PALMER — A day after the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority refinanced approximately $1 billion in debt, it announced that it would provide an initial payment of $50,000 to the town to pay for expenses related to the host community agreement for its proposed casino here.
The authority, which operates Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut, wants to open a $500 million casino across from the Massachusetts Turnpike exit on Thorndike Street (Route 32).
Town Council President Paul E. Burns called the money a "good first step" in the negotiation process.
Town Manager Charles T. Blanchard said that the money will help fund consulting fees, as numerous studies will be conducted to determine the casino's impacts. He said that Mohegan is in agreement that the total cost of studies will be approximately $275,000.
He said he will ask for more money as the process moves forward.
Areas to be studied include the casino's impact on traffic and public safety, as well as the tax impact.
While Palmer stands to gain additional property tax revenue and meals tax revenue, it also could lose state aid and Chapter 70 educational funding if it becomes what is considered to be a wealthier community, Blanchard said.
"We are moving forward with a host community agreement with a mutual understanding of what work will need to be done on the part of the town," Blanchard said.
Blanchard noted that the full Gaming Commission has not been appointed, and estimated that it will be late this year, or sometime next year, by the time it calls for applications for a casino license.
A host community agreement is required before a binding vote can take place, which is required through the legislation. The agreement will detail the responsibilities of the gaming operator, and conditions for building in Palmer. And a community must have a favorable vote before a casino project can move forward.
Mitchell Etess
“We understand the importance of this initial payment to help the town of Palmer in the host community agreement process,” Mitchell Etess, chief executive officer of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, said in a statement. “We look forward to the continuation of the host community agreement process and anticipate additional financial commitments to the town of Palmer in the months ahead.”
The refinancing, which was extended several times, was finally completed this week.
The refinancing of about $1 billion will buy it more time to develop its business and pay down debt, Etess told the Associated Press.
Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, which also operates a casino in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., negotiated with lenders the exchange of several notes, extending the due date for repayment to 2016 and 2018. The earliest notes were due next year.
The deal is expected to be approved by investors, according to Bruce "Two Dogs" Bozsum, chairman of the authority's management board and Mohegan Tribal Council.
In addition to renegotiating debt of $961.8 million, the tribal gaming authority said it
also established $225 million in credit.
Investors have been nervous about Mohegan's debt because Mohegan cannot file for bankruptcy and creditors can't foreclose on its properties because tribal governments are sovereign.
Keith Foley, an analyst at Moody's Investors Service, said the gaming authority did not reduce its debt load, but won time for more flexibility. Even if the economy improves, he said Mohegan Sun will face increasing competition in the Northeast that will limit earnings, due in part to the plans to build casinos in Massachusetts.
Burns, who issued a press release commending the refinancing, said it will "help to reposition them as a strong competitor for a gaming license." Burns again said he is interested in meeting with developers interested in supporting and enhancing economic development opportunities provided by a casino development.
Palmer is competing for the lone Western Massachusetts casino license with three other communities – Springfield, where Ameristar has purchased the old Westinghouse site for a casino; Brimfield, where MGM Resorts International wants to build in the northwest corner of town; and Holyoke, where Hard Rock International identified Wyckoff Country Club as its casino site.
But the Holyoke project faces opposition from the new mayor, who is opposed to casinos.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report
$18 MILLION to $39 MILLION ANNUALLY
Isn't that the same study PAUL BURNS REFUSED TO DISCUSS PUBLICLY?
A small group of vehicles traveling through Palmer, MA, brought traffic to a standstill, successfully proving that ANY increased traffic is IMPOSSIBLE!
Yet, Paul Burns, perennial Slot Barn cheerleader insists, begs, salivates, genuflects and continues to make statements of questionable ethics for personal gain, that the financially insolvent Tribe should bankrupt the small town of Palmer, MA.
If Paul Burns spent as much time, effort and energy rebuilding the community as he has schmoozing and glad handing with the insolvent Tribe, the community would be bustling.
Add to the mix The Republican, unable to print the facts, ignoring opposition letters to the editor, deleting online opposition comments, perhaps based on dreams of future advertising revenues and shunning the truth.
People who have formed their opinions based on flashing neon lights, the glitter of Fools' Gold, ignored the 'downsizing' of the Slot Barn to ridiculous size and the phony promises.
And now The Republican, with an apparent reading comprehension problem, refusing to read the legislation, publishes the article below?
Here's the legislation:
http://www.mass.gov/legis/journal/desktop/Current%20Agenda%202011/H3807-11.pdf
Note to Palmer: You gotta elect people with brains
Mohegan Sun pledges $50,000 for host community agreement with Palmer; refinances $1 billion in debt
By Lori Stabile, The Republican
PALMER — A day after the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority refinanced approximately $1 billion in debt, it announced that it would provide an initial payment of $50,000 to the town to pay for expenses related to the host community agreement for its proposed casino here.
The authority, which operates Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut, wants to open a $500 million casino across from the Massachusetts Turnpike exit on Thorndike Street (Route 32).
Town Council President Paul E. Burns called the money a "good first step" in the negotiation process.
Town Manager Charles T. Blanchard said that the money will help fund consulting fees, as numerous studies will be conducted to determine the casino's impacts. He said that Mohegan is in agreement that the total cost of studies will be approximately $275,000.
He said he will ask for more money as the process moves forward.
Areas to be studied include the casino's impact on traffic and public safety, as well as the tax impact.
While Palmer stands to gain additional property tax revenue and meals tax revenue, it also could lose state aid and Chapter 70 educational funding if it becomes what is considered to be a wealthier community, Blanchard said.
"We are moving forward with a host community agreement with a mutual understanding of what work will need to be done on the part of the town," Blanchard said.
Blanchard noted that the full Gaming Commission has not been appointed, and estimated that it will be late this year, or sometime next year, by the time it calls for applications for a casino license.
A host community agreement is required before a binding vote can take place, which is required through the legislation. The agreement will detail the responsibilities of the gaming operator, and conditions for building in Palmer. And a community must have a favorable vote before a casino project can move forward.
Mitchell Etess
“We understand the importance of this initial payment to help the town of Palmer in the host community agreement process,” Mitchell Etess, chief executive officer of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, said in a statement. “We look forward to the continuation of the host community agreement process and anticipate additional financial commitments to the town of Palmer in the months ahead.”
The refinancing, which was extended several times, was finally completed this week.
The refinancing of about $1 billion will buy it more time to develop its business and pay down debt, Etess told the Associated Press.
Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, which also operates a casino in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., negotiated with lenders the exchange of several notes, extending the due date for repayment to 2016 and 2018. The earliest notes were due next year.
The deal is expected to be approved by investors, according to Bruce "Two Dogs" Bozsum, chairman of the authority's management board and Mohegan Tribal Council.
In addition to renegotiating debt of $961.8 million, the tribal gaming authority said it
also established $225 million in credit.
Investors have been nervous about Mohegan's debt because Mohegan cannot file for bankruptcy and creditors can't foreclose on its properties because tribal governments are sovereign.
Keith Foley, an analyst at Moody's Investors Service, said the gaming authority did not reduce its debt load, but won time for more flexibility. Even if the economy improves, he said Mohegan Sun will face increasing competition in the Northeast that will limit earnings, due in part to the plans to build casinos in Massachusetts.
Burns, who issued a press release commending the refinancing, said it will "help to reposition them as a strong competitor for a gaming license." Burns again said he is interested in meeting with developers interested in supporting and enhancing economic development opportunities provided by a casino development.
Palmer is competing for the lone Western Massachusetts casino license with three other communities – Springfield, where Ameristar has purchased the old Westinghouse site for a casino; Brimfield, where MGM Resorts International wants to build in the northwest corner of town; and Holyoke, where Hard Rock International identified Wyckoff Country Club as its casino site.
But the Holyoke project faces opposition from the new mayor, who is opposed to casinos.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Gambler comes to terms with dangerous addiction
Gambler comes to terms with dangerous addiction
Curt’s drug was the slot machine. The North Dakota man could spend hours plugging dollar after dollar into the slots. In three hours, he could go through $500. At one point, he began to develop carpal tunnel from hitting the button on the machine so much.
By: TAMMY SWIFT , Forum Communications Co.
Curt’s drug was the slot machine.
The North Dakota man could spend hours plugging dollar after dollar into the slots. In three hours, he could go through $500. At one point, he began to develop carpal tunnel from hitting the button on the machine so much.
Curt may have told himself he was looking for a big payout, but today he knows better. When he gambled, any worry or pain was replaced by a merciful numbness.
“That’s not money. That’s not what you’re putting in there. It’s a feeling-changing medication that allowed me to slip into a numbing state,” says Curt, who shared his story on condition of anonymity.
Reality wouldn’t hit until Curt finally returned to his car, many hours after his gambling binge began. Then the endorphins subsided, only to be replaced by self-loathing and a realization of what he’d done.
Curt equates that chaser of post-gambling regret to an “instant hangover.”
His experiences reflect results of a new data analysis conducted by WooMi Phillips, assistant professor and hospitality management program coordinator at North Dakota State University.
The survey of 136 adults from throughout North Dakota and western Minnesota found that 77 percent of respondents believed their gambling was a way to escape personal problems or relieve uncomfortable emotions.
The results help give insight into the minds and motives of problem gamblers. It’s estimated that 1 in 20 people struggle with problem gambling, says Lisa Vig, director of Lutheran Social Services Gamblers Choice, a statewide gambling addiction treatment program.
Vig says the survey reinforces what counselors have taught for years: that gambling can act like a drug to dampen internal pain.
“Most problem gamblers describe positive euphoric feelings while gambling or they experience emotional numbing or ‘zoning out,’” Vig says.
An addict-in-training
During his strict Lutheran upbringing in a small North Dakota community, Curt believes he already was an addict-in-training.
He learned that if something bothered him, he shouldn’t show it. He grew proficient at talking his way out of almost any situation. And he learned how to put on a good front, even if he felt like a fraud inside.
“I never really felt as good as the people around me,” he says.
Curt struggled with a drinking problem in adulthood, but sobered up in 1979. But his interest in gambling surfaced as tribal-run casinos cropped up around the region. His work in sales created plenty of opportunities to travel and gamble.
“I should have made the connection that a double martini and putting $500 in a slot machine are both ways to change feelings,” he says.
Dual addiction is fairly common for problem gamblers. Nearly 30 percent of respondents in the NDSU study reported they had sought professional treatment for other addiction problems before seeking help for gambling.
Curt first came to Lutheran Social Services in 1999 after his gambling led him to borrow money from others and file for bankruptcy.
Through one-on-one counseling with Vig and Gamblers’ Anonymous meetings, he was in recovery for 3½ years.
But gradually, he stopped attending GA meetings.
Life as a closet gambler
Curt spent the next few years as a closet gambler, plotting how to visit casinos during business trips and how to make sure his wife didn’t see the tax forms that list gambling winnings.
Each time, Curt says he vowed that this was his last spree and he would never do it again. But then the feelings of restlessness or discomfort returned. He would think of his next casino visit, which filled him with the adrenaline surge of a drug user anticipating his next fix.
Curt also experienced “chasing behavior” — the attempt to recover one’s losses by further gambling — that is a hallmark symptom of compulsive gambling.
He recalls once driving down the road with $7,400 in gambling-related credit card bills on his car seat, next to a $7,600 commission check.
Many addicts describe an “aha” moment — that flash of clarity in which they realize they’ve bottomed out and need help. Curt says that moment hit when he contemplated suicide.
Curt returned to LSS in May 2011 and enrolled in the Gamblers’ Choice program. He learned that a drug he’d taken to treat restless leg syndrome, Mirapex, had reduced his inhibitions severely and amplified his already-pathological gambling problem.
Time to rebuild trust
The Gamblers Choice program offers services like gambling evaluations, group and individual counseling, family counseling and financial counseling.
That financial component is one reason why the program works, Vig says. Counselors may sit down with family members and make sure the compulsive gambler doesn’t have access to unlimited funds and isn’t listed on financial documents.
Curt does not have a checkbook and rarely carries cash. Instead, he relies on gift cards for necessities like gas or groceries.
He says he doesn’t resent this, as he understands ready cash is a dangerous trigger for him. “It’s like locking the liquor cabinet,” he says.
AP Photo Lisa Vig of Lutheran Social Services’ Gamblers Choice program says many problem gamblers describe positive feelings or a sensation of “zoning out” when gambling.
Curt’s drug was the slot machine. The North Dakota man could spend hours plugging dollar after dollar into the slots. In three hours, he could go through $500. At one point, he began to develop carpal tunnel from hitting the button on the machine so much.
By: TAMMY SWIFT , Forum Communications Co.
Curt’s drug was the slot machine.
The North Dakota man could spend hours plugging dollar after dollar into the slots. In three hours, he could go through $500. At one point, he began to develop carpal tunnel from hitting the button on the machine so much.
Curt may have told himself he was looking for a big payout, but today he knows better. When he gambled, any worry or pain was replaced by a merciful numbness.
“That’s not money. That’s not what you’re putting in there. It’s a feeling-changing medication that allowed me to slip into a numbing state,” says Curt, who shared his story on condition of anonymity.
Reality wouldn’t hit until Curt finally returned to his car, many hours after his gambling binge began. Then the endorphins subsided, only to be replaced by self-loathing and a realization of what he’d done.
Curt equates that chaser of post-gambling regret to an “instant hangover.”
His experiences reflect results of a new data analysis conducted by WooMi Phillips, assistant professor and hospitality management program coordinator at North Dakota State University.
The survey of 136 adults from throughout North Dakota and western Minnesota found that 77 percent of respondents believed their gambling was a way to escape personal problems or relieve uncomfortable emotions.
The results help give insight into the minds and motives of problem gamblers. It’s estimated that 1 in 20 people struggle with problem gambling, says Lisa Vig, director of Lutheran Social Services Gamblers Choice, a statewide gambling addiction treatment program.
Vig says the survey reinforces what counselors have taught for years: that gambling can act like a drug to dampen internal pain.
“Most problem gamblers describe positive euphoric feelings while gambling or they experience emotional numbing or ‘zoning out,’” Vig says.
An addict-in-training
During his strict Lutheran upbringing in a small North Dakota community, Curt believes he already was an addict-in-training.
He learned that if something bothered him, he shouldn’t show it. He grew proficient at talking his way out of almost any situation. And he learned how to put on a good front, even if he felt like a fraud inside.
“I never really felt as good as the people around me,” he says.
Curt struggled with a drinking problem in adulthood, but sobered up in 1979. But his interest in gambling surfaced as tribal-run casinos cropped up around the region. His work in sales created plenty of opportunities to travel and gamble.
“I should have made the connection that a double martini and putting $500 in a slot machine are both ways to change feelings,” he says.
Dual addiction is fairly common for problem gamblers. Nearly 30 percent of respondents in the NDSU study reported they had sought professional treatment for other addiction problems before seeking help for gambling.
Curt first came to Lutheran Social Services in 1999 after his gambling led him to borrow money from others and file for bankruptcy.
Through one-on-one counseling with Vig and Gamblers’ Anonymous meetings, he was in recovery for 3½ years.
But gradually, he stopped attending GA meetings.
Life as a closet gambler
Curt spent the next few years as a closet gambler, plotting how to visit casinos during business trips and how to make sure his wife didn’t see the tax forms that list gambling winnings.
Each time, Curt says he vowed that this was his last spree and he would never do it again. But then the feelings of restlessness or discomfort returned. He would think of his next casino visit, which filled him with the adrenaline surge of a drug user anticipating his next fix.
Curt also experienced “chasing behavior” — the attempt to recover one’s losses by further gambling — that is a hallmark symptom of compulsive gambling.
He recalls once driving down the road with $7,400 in gambling-related credit card bills on his car seat, next to a $7,600 commission check.
Many addicts describe an “aha” moment — that flash of clarity in which they realize they’ve bottomed out and need help. Curt says that moment hit when he contemplated suicide.
Curt returned to LSS in May 2011 and enrolled in the Gamblers’ Choice program. He learned that a drug he’d taken to treat restless leg syndrome, Mirapex, had reduced his inhibitions severely and amplified his already-pathological gambling problem.
Time to rebuild trust
The Gamblers Choice program offers services like gambling evaluations, group and individual counseling, family counseling and financial counseling.
That financial component is one reason why the program works, Vig says. Counselors may sit down with family members and make sure the compulsive gambler doesn’t have access to unlimited funds and isn’t listed on financial documents.
Curt does not have a checkbook and rarely carries cash. Instead, he relies on gift cards for necessities like gas or groceries.
He says he doesn’t resent this, as he understands ready cash is a dangerous trigger for him. “It’s like locking the liquor cabinet,” he says.
AP Photo Lisa Vig of Lutheran Social Services’ Gamblers Choice program says many problem gamblers describe positive feelings or a sensation of “zoning out” when gambling.
Thief facing unpaid work
Thief facing unpaid work
A GAMBLING addict who fleeced an ex-partner and her Alzheimer’s suffering mum out of more than £13,000 could face working off his crime.
Conman Kenneth Wager appeared at Teesside Crown Court yesterday after previously admitting stealing and gambling away £13,457 from the two victims.
His former partner, who looks after her mum’s money affairs, told of the devastating impact the case has had on her and her family in a statement that was read out in court.
The woman, who the Hartlepool Mail decided not to name to protect her elderly mother, said she has suffered depression and her relationships with members of her own family have broken down as a result of wrongly coming under suspicion.
Wager stole the money, including £11,585 of the elderly woman’s life savings, after getting hold of the victims’ bank cards which he was not allowed access to.
He has been told he is likely to keep his freedom with a suspended prison sentence but the judge wants him to do unpaid community work as punishment.
But sentencing was put on hold because probation chiefs want to wait for the outcome of medical tests to see if Wager is fit for the work.
In the statement read out by prosecutor Joseph Spencer, Wager’s ex-partner said the case had caused her stress, sleepless nights, depression and family disagreements.
The letter stated: “I’m responsible for my mother’s financial affairs which I’m trusted by my family and the public guardianship, which has taken a set back causing family disagreements, and stress upon myself.
“I have had sleepless nights, anxiety and depression, which has had an impact on my family and at work.
“Kenneth Wager went into my mother’s personal private cupboard where I kept her mailing and correspondence and he had taken her pin number and stolen the card from my purse and helped himself on many occasions.
“I also had a breakdown in relationship with my own son as he felt under suspicion for this crime.
“I would like people to be aware of the impact this has had on myself and family.”
The court heard Wager’s partner kept her mother’s PIN number in a kitchen cupboard together with other personal information.
Mr Spencer said: “It appears the defendant went into the cupboard, into an envelope, took the PIN or memorised the PIN and stole the elderly woman’s bank card.
“He wasn’t allowed access to her card.”
Wager, who used to work with Alzheimer’s sufferers, also helped himself to his partner’s bank card and stole £1,871.84 without her consent.
He intercepted bank statements to try and prevent his partner from discovering what he was doing.
But Wager’s deception came to light when she received a call from her bank saying she was overdrawn.
The money went to feed Wager’s gambling addiction. He was a regular customer at Coral bookmakers, in Seaton Lane, Hartlepool.
Jim Withyman, mitigating, said: “He did, though he’s not keen to admit it, have something of a gambling problem.
“It’s his intention when this matter has been resolved that he pays back the money he owes.”
Judge Peter Armstrong said: “The medical report is saying you are fit for work which is what I think you ought to be doing.”
Wager, of Stirling Street, Hartlepool, was released on bail until Friday, March 30.
A GAMBLING addict who fleeced an ex-partner and her Alzheimer’s suffering mum out of more than £13,000 could face working off his crime.
Conman Kenneth Wager appeared at Teesside Crown Court yesterday after previously admitting stealing and gambling away £13,457 from the two victims.
His former partner, who looks after her mum’s money affairs, told of the devastating impact the case has had on her and her family in a statement that was read out in court.
The woman, who the Hartlepool Mail decided not to name to protect her elderly mother, said she has suffered depression and her relationships with members of her own family have broken down as a result of wrongly coming under suspicion.
Wager stole the money, including £11,585 of the elderly woman’s life savings, after getting hold of the victims’ bank cards which he was not allowed access to.
He has been told he is likely to keep his freedom with a suspended prison sentence but the judge wants him to do unpaid community work as punishment.
But sentencing was put on hold because probation chiefs want to wait for the outcome of medical tests to see if Wager is fit for the work.
In the statement read out by prosecutor Joseph Spencer, Wager’s ex-partner said the case had caused her stress, sleepless nights, depression and family disagreements.
The letter stated: “I’m responsible for my mother’s financial affairs which I’m trusted by my family and the public guardianship, which has taken a set back causing family disagreements, and stress upon myself.
“I have had sleepless nights, anxiety and depression, which has had an impact on my family and at work.
“Kenneth Wager went into my mother’s personal private cupboard where I kept her mailing and correspondence and he had taken her pin number and stolen the card from my purse and helped himself on many occasions.
“I also had a breakdown in relationship with my own son as he felt under suspicion for this crime.
“I would like people to be aware of the impact this has had on myself and family.”
The court heard Wager’s partner kept her mother’s PIN number in a kitchen cupboard together with other personal information.
Mr Spencer said: “It appears the defendant went into the cupboard, into an envelope, took the PIN or memorised the PIN and stole the elderly woman’s bank card.
“He wasn’t allowed access to her card.”
Wager, who used to work with Alzheimer’s sufferers, also helped himself to his partner’s bank card and stole £1,871.84 without her consent.
He intercepted bank statements to try and prevent his partner from discovering what he was doing.
But Wager’s deception came to light when she received a call from her bank saying she was overdrawn.
The money went to feed Wager’s gambling addiction. He was a regular customer at Coral bookmakers, in Seaton Lane, Hartlepool.
Jim Withyman, mitigating, said: “He did, though he’s not keen to admit it, have something of a gambling problem.
“It’s his intention when this matter has been resolved that he pays back the money he owes.”
Judge Peter Armstrong said: “The medical report is saying you are fit for work which is what I think you ought to be doing.”
Wager, of Stirling Street, Hartlepool, was released on bail until Friday, March 30.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Money Laundering and Embezzlement by Czech Firms
Czech betting firms to face criminal charges over embezzlement
Finance Ministry says companies are prime culprits in embezzlement totaling Kč 300 million which should have gone to good causes
The Finance Ministry’s anti-money laundering and financial crimes watchdog, the Financial Analytical Unit (FAÚ), says hundreds of millions of crowns which gambling and betting firms should have put into charitable causes was effectively embezzled. The accusations were outlined in its annual report for 2011 released last month. On Thursday, the daily Hospodářské noviny (HN) published the names of the firms against which the FAÚ has lodged criminal complaints.
HN reported that the Helvet Group “diverted” Kč 140 million, and Merkur Casino – Kč 100 million, which the firms claimed they had given to worthy causes. According to the criminal complaints lodged by the FAÚ, all that money made its way back to the companies. For the most part they allegedly operated a scam based on sending money to the accounts of registered, but inactive charities and civic organizations. The money was then withdrawn in cash.
Both of the companies refused to comment to HN about the charges against them.
The bogus NGOs which reportedly received money from the Helvet Group include the Association for the Defense of Rights and Justice (SOPS), which according to the FAÚ received Kč 16.7 million. Among other recipients of “contributions” from Merkur Casino was the inactive Association for the Support and Promotion of UNESCO World Heritage Monuments to which the casino chain operator transferred Kč 3.5 million, and Tree of Life – a Czechoslovak Society about which the only information available is that its registered address is near Prague’s main airport.
Two other supposed charities, Greenway Centrum and Our Rainbow (Naše duha) are registered at the same address. The only sign of any activity from either are virtual plans for an ecological center. Together these two organizations received almost Kč 16 million.
Despite the charges, the question remains as to why the FAÚ did not react sooner. It has become a tradition of sorts that every fall following the publication by the Finance Ministry of the list of recipients of lottery money the media reports about inactive and apparently bogus charities and civil organizations which received cash.
The incredible tax exemption enjoyed by Czech betting and gambling firms has finally been scrapped. Until now, instead of paying any corporate or gambling tax, lottery firms were required to donate to charities but free to choose which good causes they could sponsor. From this year they are subject to corporate tax, a new gambling tax, plus a local income tax. So where did all the money go in the past?
To illustrate the potential scale of lottery charity contribution fraud a list of the largest recipients of cash from Helvet Group and Merkur Casino in 2010 are shown below. A complete breakdown is available for download from the Finance Ministry’s website.
Finance Ministry says companies are prime culprits in embezzlement totaling Kč 300 million which should have gone to good causes
The Finance Ministry’s anti-money laundering and financial crimes watchdog, the Financial Analytical Unit (FAÚ), says hundreds of millions of crowns which gambling and betting firms should have put into charitable causes was effectively embezzled. The accusations were outlined in its annual report for 2011 released last month. On Thursday, the daily Hospodářské noviny (HN) published the names of the firms against which the FAÚ has lodged criminal complaints.
HN reported that the Helvet Group “diverted” Kč 140 million, and Merkur Casino – Kč 100 million, which the firms claimed they had given to worthy causes. According to the criminal complaints lodged by the FAÚ, all that money made its way back to the companies. For the most part they allegedly operated a scam based on sending money to the accounts of registered, but inactive charities and civic organizations. The money was then withdrawn in cash.
Both of the companies refused to comment to HN about the charges against them.
The bogus NGOs which reportedly received money from the Helvet Group include the Association for the Defense of Rights and Justice (SOPS), which according to the FAÚ received Kč 16.7 million. Among other recipients of “contributions” from Merkur Casino was the inactive Association for the Support and Promotion of UNESCO World Heritage Monuments to which the casino chain operator transferred Kč 3.5 million, and Tree of Life – a Czechoslovak Society about which the only information available is that its registered address is near Prague’s main airport.
Two other supposed charities, Greenway Centrum and Our Rainbow (Naše duha) are registered at the same address. The only sign of any activity from either are virtual plans for an ecological center. Together these two organizations received almost Kč 16 million.
Despite the charges, the question remains as to why the FAÚ did not react sooner. It has become a tradition of sorts that every fall following the publication by the Finance Ministry of the list of recipients of lottery money the media reports about inactive and apparently bogus charities and civil organizations which received cash.
The incredible tax exemption enjoyed by Czech betting and gambling firms has finally been scrapped. Until now, instead of paying any corporate or gambling tax, lottery firms were required to donate to charities but free to choose which good causes they could sponsor. From this year they are subject to corporate tax, a new gambling tax, plus a local income tax. So where did all the money go in the past?
To illustrate the potential scale of lottery charity contribution fraud a list of the largest recipients of cash from Helvet Group and Merkur Casino in 2010 are shown below. A complete breakdown is available for download from the Finance Ministry’s website.
Wynn: Dubious corruption claim
Dubious corruption claim
By: Raul J. Palabrica Jr. Philippine Daily Inquirer
Once the best of friends and business partners in the gambling casino business, American billionaire Steve Wynn and Japanese tycoon Kazuo Okada are now the worst of enemies.
Wynn has accused Okada of engaging in illegal activities to obtain a gambling license in the casino resort being built by Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. at the Manila Bay area.
According to Wynn, Okada spent more than $110,000 – by way of luxury lodgings, extravagant dinners and shopping treats – to curry the favor of two Pagcor officials despite Wynn’s admonition not to do so.
These freebies supposedly violate the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and ethical standards of the Macau casino company where both of them own substantial shares of stocks.
In his complaint, Wynn described the Philippines as a “corrupt nation” and pooh-poohed the efforts of President Aquino to rid the country of graft and corruption.
Reacting to this scathing statement, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry denounced the “irresponsible and unwarranted dragging of the Philippine government in the private corporate squabble” between the two businessmen.
Prohibition
In military parlance, the Philippines has become collateral damage (or accidental or unintended casualty) in the clash between two warring gamblers.
With millions in dollars in gambling revenues at stake, which Wynn could lose if Okada gets his way, Wynn does not give a damn on who gets hurt in his efforts to put Okada down. Like a woman scorned, hell hath no equal to Wynn’s fury against his erstwhile high roller partner. Wynn’s use of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) to go after Okada is the usual modus operandi of American businessmen who lose out to their foreign counterpart in big-ticket projects in foreign countries.
By way of background, the FCPA prohibits certain classes of persons and companies doing business in the US from making cash and non-cash payments to foreign government officials to “secure any improper advantage in order to assist in obtaining or retaining business for or with, or directing business to any person.”
Enacted in 1977 during the administration of US President Jimmy Carter when several iconic American companies were found to have bribed foreign government officials to bag lucrative contracts in their countries, the law is aimed at restoring the integrity of the American business system.
Statements
It is not uncommon for American companies that are trounced by Chinese, Korean or Japanese firms in contracts auctioned off by foreign governments to claim that money exchanged hands in consideration for the award.
Some American businessmen have not yet outgrown their 19th century belief that US technology and skills are superior to any one else. So if foreign governments choose to do business with non-American companies, in their mind it’s because bribes were given to tilt the odds in the winner’s favor.
The losers cannot accept the fact that the world has changed many times over. No longer are companies from Asia and other developing countries pushovers in terms of technical, financial and managerial expertise.
They can already go toe-to-toe with the best that American companies can offer in a fair competition and emerge victorious with plenty of space to spare.
To show compliance with the FCPA, American businessmen often make holier-than-thou pronouncements about their manner of doing business or, at least on paper, make strong statements against engaging in unethical business practices.
But there is an ocean of a difference between what is said in public and what actually takes place in the highly competitive field of international business.
Memories
No babes in the woods in the Asian way of doing business, American businessmen who want to win contracts in the Philippines know the weak spots (or kiliti) of government officials or Filipino executives whose endorsement make a lot of difference in contract awards.
When in the US, whether at their expense or upon the invitation of American companies, most Filipino officials or businessmen find happiness watching NBA basketball games (if it’s the season), seeing Broadway shows, dining at Michelin-accredited restaurants (think Le Cirque) or sightseeing.
Enjoyment of any or all of these activities translates to bragging rights upon their return, complete with the ubiquitous photos to memorialize the occasion.
All they have to do is drop subtle hints about wanting to go to any of these places and (voila!) the necessary tickets or reservations will be booked and the visit made enjoyable. Or more specifically, something to be remembered when the bid documents are evaluated prior to the award of the coveted contract.
Although no cash actually changed hands, strictly speaking, such hospitable indulgence falls squarely within the coverage of the FCPA because they could induce their recipient to reciprocate their kindness in future business transactions.
Understandably, nothing would appear in the books of the American companies concerned about these generosities that may alert the authorities into looking deeper for possible violation of the FCPA.
The entertainment and its attendant costs will be handled by the companies’ law offices, investment bankers or public relations agencies.
The reimbursement of expenses will be taken care of in the “bill for services rendered” that will be later submitted to the client. Pre-arranged buzz words will subtly describe the particulars of entertainment activities. Very neat.
Just because a US law prohibits bribery does not mean that all American companies comply with it. The art of bribery has no territorial boundaries.
By: Raul J. Palabrica Jr. Philippine Daily Inquirer
Once the best of friends and business partners in the gambling casino business, American billionaire Steve Wynn and Japanese tycoon Kazuo Okada are now the worst of enemies.
Wynn has accused Okada of engaging in illegal activities to obtain a gambling license in the casino resort being built by Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. at the Manila Bay area.
According to Wynn, Okada spent more than $110,000 – by way of luxury lodgings, extravagant dinners and shopping treats – to curry the favor of two Pagcor officials despite Wynn’s admonition not to do so.
These freebies supposedly violate the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and ethical standards of the Macau casino company where both of them own substantial shares of stocks.
In his complaint, Wynn described the Philippines as a “corrupt nation” and pooh-poohed the efforts of President Aquino to rid the country of graft and corruption.
Reacting to this scathing statement, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry denounced the “irresponsible and unwarranted dragging of the Philippine government in the private corporate squabble” between the two businessmen.
Prohibition
In military parlance, the Philippines has become collateral damage (or accidental or unintended casualty) in the clash between two warring gamblers.
With millions in dollars in gambling revenues at stake, which Wynn could lose if Okada gets his way, Wynn does not give a damn on who gets hurt in his efforts to put Okada down. Like a woman scorned, hell hath no equal to Wynn’s fury against his erstwhile high roller partner. Wynn’s use of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) to go after Okada is the usual modus operandi of American businessmen who lose out to their foreign counterpart in big-ticket projects in foreign countries.
By way of background, the FCPA prohibits certain classes of persons and companies doing business in the US from making cash and non-cash payments to foreign government officials to “secure any improper advantage in order to assist in obtaining or retaining business for or with, or directing business to any person.”
Enacted in 1977 during the administration of US President Jimmy Carter when several iconic American companies were found to have bribed foreign government officials to bag lucrative contracts in their countries, the law is aimed at restoring the integrity of the American business system.
Statements
It is not uncommon for American companies that are trounced by Chinese, Korean or Japanese firms in contracts auctioned off by foreign governments to claim that money exchanged hands in consideration for the award.
Some American businessmen have not yet outgrown their 19th century belief that US technology and skills are superior to any one else. So if foreign governments choose to do business with non-American companies, in their mind it’s because bribes were given to tilt the odds in the winner’s favor.
The losers cannot accept the fact that the world has changed many times over. No longer are companies from Asia and other developing countries pushovers in terms of technical, financial and managerial expertise.
They can already go toe-to-toe with the best that American companies can offer in a fair competition and emerge victorious with plenty of space to spare.
To show compliance with the FCPA, American businessmen often make holier-than-thou pronouncements about their manner of doing business or, at least on paper, make strong statements against engaging in unethical business practices.
But there is an ocean of a difference between what is said in public and what actually takes place in the highly competitive field of international business.
Memories
No babes in the woods in the Asian way of doing business, American businessmen who want to win contracts in the Philippines know the weak spots (or kiliti) of government officials or Filipino executives whose endorsement make a lot of difference in contract awards.
When in the US, whether at their expense or upon the invitation of American companies, most Filipino officials or businessmen find happiness watching NBA basketball games (if it’s the season), seeing Broadway shows, dining at Michelin-accredited restaurants (think Le Cirque) or sightseeing.
Enjoyment of any or all of these activities translates to bragging rights upon their return, complete with the ubiquitous photos to memorialize the occasion.
All they have to do is drop subtle hints about wanting to go to any of these places and (voila!) the necessary tickets or reservations will be booked and the visit made enjoyable. Or more specifically, something to be remembered when the bid documents are evaluated prior to the award of the coveted contract.
Although no cash actually changed hands, strictly speaking, such hospitable indulgence falls squarely within the coverage of the FCPA because they could induce their recipient to reciprocate their kindness in future business transactions.
Understandably, nothing would appear in the books of the American companies concerned about these generosities that may alert the authorities into looking deeper for possible violation of the FCPA.
The entertainment and its attendant costs will be handled by the companies’ law offices, investment bankers or public relations agencies.
The reimbursement of expenses will be taken care of in the “bill for services rendered” that will be later submitted to the client. Pre-arranged buzz words will subtly describe the particulars of entertainment activities. Very neat.
Just because a US law prohibits bribery does not mean that all American companies comply with it. The art of bribery has no territorial boundaries.
...addiction has destroyed his life...
Armored Car Company Worker Confesses To Stealing $50K
Shane Marquardt Says He Gambled Money Away At Blackhawk
Jaclyn Allen, 7NEWS Reporter
AURORA, Colo. -- A vault worker at an Aurora armored car company said he took $50,000, but his plan to gamble with it, keep the winnings and return the cash backfired.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” said Shane Marquardt, 23, of Lakewood. “I thought I needed it more than they did, and now I’m paying the price.”
For the past two years, Marquardt said, he had been a model employee for Loomis Armored in Aurora, working as a vault manager.
He said the company had no idea his gambling addiction had gotten out of control, and that he was about to lose everything.
Marquardt spoke to 7NEWS reporter Jaclyn Allen from inside the Adams County Jail, where he said he has plenty of time to think about how he got there.
On Thursday, Feb. 9, he said that he realized he didn’t have enough money to pay his bills after his paycheck was garnished by creditors.
“I was paying my bills with my credit cards and using my cash to gamble,” said Marquardt. “Push came to shove, and I thought I had found a way out.”
At Loomis Armored, he said, he had access to large sums of money and a brief window of opportunity. He said he made a plan on Feb. 9 and carried it out the next day.
“I had it in my brain how I could make it work, all the way down to which bag I could take in particular to where it could work where I could put it back,” said Marquardt.
Court records obtained by 7NEWS state that Marquardt was seen on video putting $50,000 in his cargo pants pocket when he was alone for about 10 seconds in the vault.
Then, Marquardt said, he went to Blackhawk, going to one casino after another to gamble with the stolen cash.
His plan, he said, had been to keep the winnings from blackjack and other games, but put back the $50,000 before anyone noticed it was missing.
“I can’t even tell you how I lost that much money in two days with a hundred-dollar betting limit,” said Marquardt. "I went from casino to casino so no one would get suspicious."
He said he didn’t sleep that Friday, Saturday or Sunday night, gambling every night.
Records show when Loomis managers called him about the missing money that Monday, he confessed, handing over what was left, only $5,300.
He has been arrested on felony theft charges.
“I feel terrible,” said Marquardt. “I have disappointed so many people. This has taken everything from me. So, it’s definitely the biggest mistake in my life. But I intend to take responsibility. I will pay restitution and do what I need to do to be a good citizen.”
Marquardt said he started gambling when he turned 21, and the addiction has destroyed his life. He hopes his story serves as a cautionary tale.
Records show he sometimes gambled with another Loomis employee, and Marquardt owed that person $400 for gambling loans.
“People always go up there thinking they can turn it into more than it is, and it never happens,” he said.
He said he plans to plead guilty, take responsibility for his actions and contact Gamblers Anonymous.
Loomis Armored did not respond to the 7NEWS request for comment.
Shane Marquardt Says He Gambled Money Away At Blackhawk
Jaclyn Allen, 7NEWS Reporter
AURORA, Colo. -- A vault worker at an Aurora armored car company said he took $50,000, but his plan to gamble with it, keep the winnings and return the cash backfired.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” said Shane Marquardt, 23, of Lakewood. “I thought I needed it more than they did, and now I’m paying the price.”
For the past two years, Marquardt said, he had been a model employee for Loomis Armored in Aurora, working as a vault manager.
He said the company had no idea his gambling addiction had gotten out of control, and that he was about to lose everything.
Marquardt spoke to 7NEWS reporter Jaclyn Allen from inside the Adams County Jail, where he said he has plenty of time to think about how he got there.
On Thursday, Feb. 9, he said that he realized he didn’t have enough money to pay his bills after his paycheck was garnished by creditors.
“I was paying my bills with my credit cards and using my cash to gamble,” said Marquardt. “Push came to shove, and I thought I had found a way out.”
At Loomis Armored, he said, he had access to large sums of money and a brief window of opportunity. He said he made a plan on Feb. 9 and carried it out the next day.
“I had it in my brain how I could make it work, all the way down to which bag I could take in particular to where it could work where I could put it back,” said Marquardt.
Court records obtained by 7NEWS state that Marquardt was seen on video putting $50,000 in his cargo pants pocket when he was alone for about 10 seconds in the vault.
Then, Marquardt said, he went to Blackhawk, going to one casino after another to gamble with the stolen cash.
His plan, he said, had been to keep the winnings from blackjack and other games, but put back the $50,000 before anyone noticed it was missing.
“I can’t even tell you how I lost that much money in two days with a hundred-dollar betting limit,” said Marquardt. "I went from casino to casino so no one would get suspicious."
He said he didn’t sleep that Friday, Saturday or Sunday night, gambling every night.
Records show when Loomis managers called him about the missing money that Monday, he confessed, handing over what was left, only $5,300.
He has been arrested on felony theft charges.
“I feel terrible,” said Marquardt. “I have disappointed so many people. This has taken everything from me. So, it’s definitely the biggest mistake in my life. But I intend to take responsibility. I will pay restitution and do what I need to do to be a good citizen.”
Marquardt said he started gambling when he turned 21, and the addiction has destroyed his life. He hopes his story serves as a cautionary tale.
Records show he sometimes gambled with another Loomis employee, and Marquardt owed that person $400 for gambling loans.
“People always go up there thinking they can turn it into more than it is, and it never happens,” he said.
He said he plans to plead guilty, take responsibility for his actions and contact Gamblers Anonymous.
Loomis Armored did not respond to the 7NEWS request for comment.
Insolvent Mohegan Sun Refinances
Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority Completes Financing Deal
The new structure allows for more flexibility
By Carrie Jacobson
The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, which owns and operates the Mohegan Sun and Pocono Downs in Wilkes-Barre, PA, has renegotiated its debt, with a $225 million term credit line, and restatement of its bank credit, totaling about $1 billion.
In addition to the credit line, the gaming authority renegotiated $961.8 million in debt, says the Hartford Courant.
According to Market Watch, roughly $10.8 million was paid to holders of old debt.
The moves mean the due date for repayment have been extended to 2016 and 2018, as opposed to beginning in 2013.
Keith Foley, an analyst at Moody's Investors Service, said the activity does not reduce the authority's debt, but does add more time, giving the authority more flexibility.
Meantime, other projects are languishing a bit.
In February, Palmer, MA, Town Council President Paul E. Burns pushed Mohegan Sun to find a partner, or investor, and get moving on its plan to build a resort casino in the town, according to MassLive.
He also has started to work to find other casino developers who might be interested in creating a proposal for other available sites in town, either to compete against Mohegan, or work with them.
In Sullivan County, NY, a project to rebuild the Concord is lagging, in large part because of issues two developers are having with each other.
"We are very pleased to announce the successful completion of our refinancing," said Bruce "Two Dogs" Bozsum, Chairman of the Authority's Management Board and Mohegan Tribal Council.
"This accomplishment reflects a tremendous team effort, and we would like to extend our thanks to everyone involved at both the Authority and the Tribal government. We believe that this transaction demonstrates and confirms to the financial community that market-based solutions to comprehensive debt refinancings in the Native American gaming space are achievable."
Moody's Investor Service downgraded Mohegan Sun's heavy debt last spring, citing increased competition and declining gambling revenues.
Palmer Town Council President Paul Burns urges Mohegan Sun to find investors to boost casino proposal
February 28, 2012
By Lori Stabile, The Republican The Republican
PALMER – Town Council President Paul E. Burns thinks Mohegan Sun should find a partner, or investor, if it wants to make its plan to build a resort casino here a reality.
He also is trying to find other casino developers who might be interested in creating a proposal for other available sites in town, either to compete against Mohegan, or work with them.
"I think we have to cover all our bases," Burns said.“I’m really just trying to encourage other development. Whether it supports or competes with Mohegan Sun isn’t my concern. My concern is that we generate some strong economic development opportunities in the town,” Burns said.
Burns said he thinks it's important to have the best casino proposal, as Palmer is now competing with Brimfield (MGM Resorts International), Springfield (Ameristar)and Holyoke (Hard Rock), and potentially Chicopee, for the lone Western Massachusetts casino license.
Two months ago, Burns said, he called on Mohegan Sun to "step up or step out" and prove it has the financing to make the project happen. Burns said the project has gotten smaller since it was first unveiled in 2007 - it once was advertised as an $1 billion resort casino and it has been scaled down to $500 million to $600 million. Meanwhile, Connecticut-based Mohegan is trying to refinance approximately $1.1 billion of debt, but has extended the deadline for the bond exchange several times. The latest deadline was Feb. 22.
Moody's Investor Service downgraded the company's heavy debt last spring, citing increased competition and declining gambling revenues.
Burns issued a press release recently – leaving off his title as Town Council president - saying that “to ensure Palmer is chosen it will be vitally important for Mohegan Sun to partner with other developers who can support this vision.” He wrote that he believes this approach would stand out to the Gaming Commission, which will award casino licenses.
“I urge Mohegan to be open to this concept and I urge other interested developers, whether in the casino, hospitality or some other field, to visit Palmer and see all we have to offer. As always I would be happy to meet with anyone looking to bring economic development opportunities to town,” Burns wrote in the release.
Burns then named what the advantages he thinks the Palmer site has over competing casino proposals – a dedicated Massachusetts turnpike exit, strong community support, existing infrastructure, a large site, zoning that allows such a development and ample land throughout the community for development of projects to support the casino. All ignoring that a citizens' committee determined that the annual cost to the town would be $18 MILLION TO $39 MILLION - a report Mr. Burns REFUSED to air publicly. And ignoring that Palmer has NO water.
Burns later said he left off his title in the press release because he says he is not speaking for the council, and these are his own actions.
He said he has made calls to five to eight entities - developers of casinos and hotels that he would not name – in which he identified himself as the Town Council president and discussed economic development opportunities in Palmer. All rather questionable!
“I’m encouraging a dialogue about opportunities in Palmer,” Burns said.
Burns named the former Olsen Farm off Route 20, or land right off the turnpike exit, as potential alternative casino or development locations.
James L. St. Amand, community liaison for Northeast Realty, which is leasing the land to Mohegan Sun for a resort casino, said Mohegan’s financial woes are no secret, and said he feels Burns is showing “strong leadership” by seeking a partner for Mohegan or other developers.
“I think it’s appropriate as the Town Council president for the economic development for Palmer. And hopefully Mohegan will step up and clarify their financial situation so we can move forward,” St. Amand said.
Mitchell Etess, chief executive officer of Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, said in a statement that “We believe Mohegan Sun Palmer represents the best opportunity for Western Massachusetts to generate economic development from expanded gaming, including the potential for complementary development of other nearby parcels by other entities.”
“We continue to be pleased with the strong support we have in the community as we make progress on a host community agreement,” Etess continued.
The new structure allows for more flexibility
By Carrie Jacobson
The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, which owns and operates the Mohegan Sun and Pocono Downs in Wilkes-Barre, PA, has renegotiated its debt, with a $225 million term credit line, and restatement of its bank credit, totaling about $1 billion.
In addition to the credit line, the gaming authority renegotiated $961.8 million in debt, says the Hartford Courant.
According to Market Watch, roughly $10.8 million was paid to holders of old debt.
The moves mean the due date for repayment have been extended to 2016 and 2018, as opposed to beginning in 2013.
Keith Foley, an analyst at Moody's Investors Service, said the activity does not reduce the authority's debt, but does add more time, giving the authority more flexibility.
Meantime, other projects are languishing a bit.
In February, Palmer, MA, Town Council President Paul E. Burns pushed Mohegan Sun to find a partner, or investor, and get moving on its plan to build a resort casino in the town, according to MassLive.
He also has started to work to find other casino developers who might be interested in creating a proposal for other available sites in town, either to compete against Mohegan, or work with them.
In Sullivan County, NY, a project to rebuild the Concord is lagging, in large part because of issues two developers are having with each other.
"We are very pleased to announce the successful completion of our refinancing," said Bruce "Two Dogs" Bozsum, Chairman of the Authority's Management Board and Mohegan Tribal Council.
"This accomplishment reflects a tremendous team effort, and we would like to extend our thanks to everyone involved at both the Authority and the Tribal government. We believe that this transaction demonstrates and confirms to the financial community that market-based solutions to comprehensive debt refinancings in the Native American gaming space are achievable."
Moody's Investor Service downgraded Mohegan Sun's heavy debt last spring, citing increased competition and declining gambling revenues.
Palmer Town Council President Paul Burns urges Mohegan Sun to find investors to boost casino proposal
February 28, 2012
By Lori Stabile, The Republican The Republican
PALMER – Town Council President Paul E. Burns thinks Mohegan Sun should find a partner, or investor, if it wants to make its plan to build a resort casino here a reality.
He also is trying to find other casino developers who might be interested in creating a proposal for other available sites in town, either to compete against Mohegan, or work with them.
"I think we have to cover all our bases," Burns said.“I’m really just trying to encourage other development. Whether it supports or competes with Mohegan Sun isn’t my concern. My concern is that we generate some strong economic development opportunities in the town,” Burns said.
Burns said he thinks it's important to have the best casino proposal, as Palmer is now competing with Brimfield (MGM Resorts International), Springfield (Ameristar)and Holyoke (Hard Rock), and potentially Chicopee, for the lone Western Massachusetts casino license.
Two months ago, Burns said, he called on Mohegan Sun to "step up or step out" and prove it has the financing to make the project happen. Burns said the project has gotten smaller since it was first unveiled in 2007 - it once was advertised as an $1 billion resort casino and it has been scaled down to $500 million to $600 million. Meanwhile, Connecticut-based Mohegan is trying to refinance approximately $1.1 billion of debt, but has extended the deadline for the bond exchange several times. The latest deadline was Feb. 22.
Moody's Investor Service downgraded the company's heavy debt last spring, citing increased competition and declining gambling revenues.
Burns issued a press release recently – leaving off his title as Town Council president - saying that “to ensure Palmer is chosen it will be vitally important for Mohegan Sun to partner with other developers who can support this vision.” He wrote that he believes this approach would stand out to the Gaming Commission, which will award casino licenses.
“I urge Mohegan to be open to this concept and I urge other interested developers, whether in the casino, hospitality or some other field, to visit Palmer and see all we have to offer. As always I would be happy to meet with anyone looking to bring economic development opportunities to town,” Burns wrote in the release.
Burns then named what the advantages he thinks the Palmer site has over competing casino proposals – a dedicated Massachusetts turnpike exit, strong community support, existing infrastructure, a large site, zoning that allows such a development and ample land throughout the community for development of projects to support the casino. All ignoring that a citizens' committee determined that the annual cost to the town would be $18 MILLION TO $39 MILLION - a report Mr. Burns REFUSED to air publicly. And ignoring that Palmer has NO water.
Burns later said he left off his title in the press release because he says he is not speaking for the council, and these are his own actions.
He said he has made calls to five to eight entities - developers of casinos and hotels that he would not name – in which he identified himself as the Town Council president and discussed economic development opportunities in Palmer. All rather questionable!
“I’m encouraging a dialogue about opportunities in Palmer,” Burns said.
Burns named the former Olsen Farm off Route 20, or land right off the turnpike exit, as potential alternative casino or development locations.
James L. St. Amand, community liaison for Northeast Realty, which is leasing the land to Mohegan Sun for a resort casino, said Mohegan’s financial woes are no secret, and said he feels Burns is showing “strong leadership” by seeking a partner for Mohegan or other developers.
“I think it’s appropriate as the Town Council president for the economic development for Palmer. And hopefully Mohegan will step up and clarify their financial situation so we can move forward,” St. Amand said.
Mitchell Etess, chief executive officer of Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, said in a statement that “We believe Mohegan Sun Palmer represents the best opportunity for Western Massachusetts to generate economic development from expanded gaming, including the potential for complementary development of other nearby parcels by other entities.”
“We continue to be pleased with the strong support we have in the community as we make progress on a host community agreement,” Etess continued.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Gambling Addict Punches Slot Machine at Sands Bethlehem
State police seek Allentown woman who punched Sands Casino slot machine
By Peter Hall, Of The Morning Call
State police are searching for a woman who punched a slot machine at the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem early Saturday morning.
A 42-year-old Allentown woman allegedly damaged the slot machine when she punched it about 1:45 a.m., according to the state police gaming enforcement office in Bethlehem. The woman left the casino before police arrived, but an investigation is ongoing.
Peter Hall
By Peter Hall, Of The Morning Call
State police are searching for a woman who punched a slot machine at the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem early Saturday morning.
A 42-year-old Allentown woman allegedly damaged the slot machine when she punched it about 1:45 a.m., according to the state police gaming enforcement office in Bethlehem. The woman left the casino before police arrived, but an investigation is ongoing.
Peter Hall
National Problem Gambling Awareness Week
A Gambler's Addiction: A Hopeful Recovery
By Andrew Clay, Monongalia and Preston County Reporter - email
MORGANTOWN - For every story of addiction hardship there is a story of recovery and hope.
Jim A. is an Ohio native who now lives in Morgantown. The last few years of his life have been a whirlwind after almost losing everything to gambling.
But Jim's life is changing. Jim is on his way to recovering from an addiction he felt he never had control over.
"It was like someone tripped a switch from that point forward, and that was about two-and-a-half, three years ago," Jim said. "From that point forward I'd do anything I could to go get funds to gamble some more."
What started off as seemingly harmless scratch-off tickets became an obsession for Jim when he learned to gamble using video poker machines.
Over the course of several years, he lost more than money. Jim lost jobs, his home, and his family.
But those days are long behind him, as Jim has been abstinent from gambling for more than a year.
"I went to the meetings basically because people said I needed to go," Jim said. "Of course at the time I didn't think I did. It took about six months to really about nine months before it finally took hold."
His battle has been difficult , full of Gamblers Anonymous meetings and canceling sessions, but Jim's inspiration is never far away.
In his pocket he keeps his mother's 20-year Alcoholics Anonymous chip, reminding him of her battle with addiction and keeping him strong.
"It helps me stay calm," Jim said. "It does. It means tranquility. It means hope, everything that's on the coin."
Jim's life is improving every day. While he lives paycheck-to-paycheck in student housing, he knows he is moving forward in a positive direction and wants everyone to know that they can do the same thing.
"Do I want to go and put my face on TV? No, not really, but if it's going to help one person, then it's absolutely worth it because it has done wonders for me. I know more about myself than I ever did," Jim said.
Recently, Jim rediscovered his love for fishing and is starting to repair relationships with his family as well.
This week is National Problem Gambling Awareness Week. If you have a problem, or know somebody who does, you can call the Problem Gamblers Help Network of West Virginia at 1-800-GAMBLER
By Andrew Clay, Monongalia and Preston County Reporter - email
MORGANTOWN - For every story of addiction hardship there is a story of recovery and hope.
Jim A. is an Ohio native who now lives in Morgantown. The last few years of his life have been a whirlwind after almost losing everything to gambling.
But Jim's life is changing. Jim is on his way to recovering from an addiction he felt he never had control over.
"It was like someone tripped a switch from that point forward, and that was about two-and-a-half, three years ago," Jim said. "From that point forward I'd do anything I could to go get funds to gamble some more."
What started off as seemingly harmless scratch-off tickets became an obsession for Jim when he learned to gamble using video poker machines.
Over the course of several years, he lost more than money. Jim lost jobs, his home, and his family.
But those days are long behind him, as Jim has been abstinent from gambling for more than a year.
"I went to the meetings basically because people said I needed to go," Jim said. "Of course at the time I didn't think I did. It took about six months to really about nine months before it finally took hold."
His battle has been difficult , full of Gamblers Anonymous meetings and canceling sessions, but Jim's inspiration is never far away.
In his pocket he keeps his mother's 20-year Alcoholics Anonymous chip, reminding him of her battle with addiction and keeping him strong.
"It helps me stay calm," Jim said. "It does. It means tranquility. It means hope, everything that's on the coin."
Jim's life is improving every day. While he lives paycheck-to-paycheck in student housing, he knows he is moving forward in a positive direction and wants everyone to know that they can do the same thing.
"Do I want to go and put my face on TV? No, not really, but if it's going to help one person, then it's absolutely worth it because it has done wonders for me. I know more about myself than I ever did," Jim said.
Recently, Jim rediscovered his love for fishing and is starting to repair relationships with his family as well.
This week is National Problem Gambling Awareness Week. If you have a problem, or know somebody who does, you can call the Problem Gamblers Help Network of West Virginia at 1-800-GAMBLER
Survey affirms that gambling addiction is not about the money
Survey affirms that gambling addiction is not about the money
By KAREN HERZOG Bismarck Tribune BismarckTribune.com
Gambling addiction is not about the money, but about escaping difficult and negative feelings.
That is according to a new survey by an assistant professor and program coordinator at North Dakota State University at Fargo.
Lisa Vig, who is the director of Lutheran Social Services’ Gamblers Choice treatment program, said that this analysis verifies what Lutheran Social Services has observed during 25 years of treating compulsive gamblers.
“Although many gamblers are motivated early on by winning money, the addiction is really about escaping negative feelings and difficult life experiences,” said Vig, in a release.
Lutheran Social Services gambling counselor Dawn Cronin has worked in this field for 19 years.
People who call to seek treatment will talk about the rush or the excitement that goes with gambling, she said. These are risk-takers, people who live on the edge, and the risk of gambling feels desirable, she said.
Others are seeking to numb out, looking for escape from the difficulties in their lives, Cronin said.
The new survey is called “North Dakota Problem Gamblers Characteristics, 2006-2012,” and was recently completed by WooMi Phillips, Ph.D., of NDSU.
Phillips’ survey also discovered that 29 percent of the 136 problem gamblers surveyed also had sought treatment for other addictions before seeking help for gambling. Many problem gamblers who enter the Lutheran Social Services Gamblers Choice program report they have already “conquered” another addiction, only to move on to develop a gambling addiction problem, Vig said.
Normally, gamblers who come into Lutheran Social Services are pretty evenly divided between men and women, Cronin said. The most common ages for those seeking help are between 40 and 55, she said.
“The female gambler often starts later in life,” she said. Middle age can bring stressors such as an empty nest, the grief of losing someone, or marriage problems. Women also get into trouble with gambling quicker than men, but seek help sooner, she said.
“Males often start gambling earlier in life (and) gamble longer,” Cronin said. “It’s a progressive disease for those who are addicted.”
At middle age, men have often reached their max-out point in terms of credit, she said; “once the money runs out ... something needs to change.”
Lutheran Social Services sees a fairly even split among gamblers who prefer casino games, such as slots, and charitable gambling like pulltabs or blackjack, she said.
And even once people stop spending money on gambling, “until they get strong and develop better coping mechanisms, (compulsive) shopping is something gamblers have to watch out for,” Cronin said.
Cronin said that most clients call for help after trying on their own to control their gambling by gambling less frequently or limiting the amount of money they will take. Once they call, they are encouraged to come in for an assessment and get information about the outpatient gambling treatment program.
The group sessions meet three hours a night, two nights a week, and most clients attend a minimum of six months, Cronin said. Working through the 12 step program similar to other addiction recovery programs, clients do a lot of learning about the addiction, she said.
“We know a lot more about drug and alcohol abuse. Gambling is a little more hidden,” Cronin said.
While in treatment, clients are encourage to attend Gamblers Anonymous support group sessions, as well, she said.
While insurance companies rarely cover treatment for compulsive gambling, a contract through the Department of Human Services helps pay for scholarships or subsidies, Cronin said. The casinos in the state also make voluntary contributions to a treatment fund, she said.
“That’s really nice for our clients at the beginning,” Cronin said. “Most come with financial issues (so) the first month or two is covered for them. They can focus on getting caught up on rent, mortgages, insurance, those are critical.”
Further along, they can re-evaluate what they can afford to pay, she said.
“We in North Dakota have the belief that people will not be turned away for lack of funds.”
Other results from the survey:
- 84 percent of the 136 compulsive gamblers surveyed had lied to family members, friends or others in order to hide their gambling;
- 81 percent experienced preoccupation with gambling;
- 77 percent believed their gambling was a way to escape personal problems or relieve uncomfortable emotions;
- 76 percent had unsuccessfully tried to cut down or stop gambling;
- 71 percent had relied on others to pay gambling debts or pay their bills due to financial problems caused by gambling; and
- 51 percent had committed illegal acts such as writing bad checks, theft, forgery, embezzlement or fraud to finance their gambling habit.
Gamblers Choice services are available at Lutheran Social Services offices in Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, Minot and Williston. The 32-week program serves about 150 problem gamblers and their families each year.
For more information, call 877-702-7848 or visit www.lssnd.org/gamblerschoice.
Read more: http://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/survey-affirms-that-gambling-addiction-is-not-about-the-money/article_3ae95dd8-67ce-11e1-8d86-001871e3ce6c.html#ixzz1oRB3JRcT
By KAREN HERZOG Bismarck Tribune BismarckTribune.com
Gambling addiction is not about the money, but about escaping difficult and negative feelings.
That is according to a new survey by an assistant professor and program coordinator at North Dakota State University at Fargo.
Lisa Vig, who is the director of Lutheran Social Services’ Gamblers Choice treatment program, said that this analysis verifies what Lutheran Social Services has observed during 25 years of treating compulsive gamblers.
“Although many gamblers are motivated early on by winning money, the addiction is really about escaping negative feelings and difficult life experiences,” said Vig, in a release.
Lutheran Social Services gambling counselor Dawn Cronin has worked in this field for 19 years.
People who call to seek treatment will talk about the rush or the excitement that goes with gambling, she said. These are risk-takers, people who live on the edge, and the risk of gambling feels desirable, she said.
Others are seeking to numb out, looking for escape from the difficulties in their lives, Cronin said.
The new survey is called “North Dakota Problem Gamblers Characteristics, 2006-2012,” and was recently completed by WooMi Phillips, Ph.D., of NDSU.
Phillips’ survey also discovered that 29 percent of the 136 problem gamblers surveyed also had sought treatment for other addictions before seeking help for gambling. Many problem gamblers who enter the Lutheran Social Services Gamblers Choice program report they have already “conquered” another addiction, only to move on to develop a gambling addiction problem, Vig said.
Normally, gamblers who come into Lutheran Social Services are pretty evenly divided between men and women, Cronin said. The most common ages for those seeking help are between 40 and 55, she said.
“The female gambler often starts later in life,” she said. Middle age can bring stressors such as an empty nest, the grief of losing someone, or marriage problems. Women also get into trouble with gambling quicker than men, but seek help sooner, she said.
“Males often start gambling earlier in life (and) gamble longer,” Cronin said. “It’s a progressive disease for those who are addicted.”
At middle age, men have often reached their max-out point in terms of credit, she said; “once the money runs out ... something needs to change.”
Lutheran Social Services sees a fairly even split among gamblers who prefer casino games, such as slots, and charitable gambling like pulltabs or blackjack, she said.
And even once people stop spending money on gambling, “until they get strong and develop better coping mechanisms, (compulsive) shopping is something gamblers have to watch out for,” Cronin said.
Cronin said that most clients call for help after trying on their own to control their gambling by gambling less frequently or limiting the amount of money they will take. Once they call, they are encouraged to come in for an assessment and get information about the outpatient gambling treatment program.
The group sessions meet three hours a night, two nights a week, and most clients attend a minimum of six months, Cronin said. Working through the 12 step program similar to other addiction recovery programs, clients do a lot of learning about the addiction, she said.
“We know a lot more about drug and alcohol abuse. Gambling is a little more hidden,” Cronin said.
While in treatment, clients are encourage to attend Gamblers Anonymous support group sessions, as well, she said.
While insurance companies rarely cover treatment for compulsive gambling, a contract through the Department of Human Services helps pay for scholarships or subsidies, Cronin said. The casinos in the state also make voluntary contributions to a treatment fund, she said.
“That’s really nice for our clients at the beginning,” Cronin said. “Most come with financial issues (so) the first month or two is covered for them. They can focus on getting caught up on rent, mortgages, insurance, those are critical.”
Further along, they can re-evaluate what they can afford to pay, she said.
“We in North Dakota have the belief that people will not be turned away for lack of funds.”
Other results from the survey:
- 84 percent of the 136 compulsive gamblers surveyed had lied to family members, friends or others in order to hide their gambling;
- 81 percent experienced preoccupation with gambling;
- 77 percent believed their gambling was a way to escape personal problems or relieve uncomfortable emotions;
- 76 percent had unsuccessfully tried to cut down or stop gambling;
- 71 percent had relied on others to pay gambling debts or pay their bills due to financial problems caused by gambling; and
- 51 percent had committed illegal acts such as writing bad checks, theft, forgery, embezzlement or fraud to finance their gambling habit.
Gamblers Choice services are available at Lutheran Social Services offices in Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, Minot and Williston. The 32-week program serves about 150 problem gamblers and their families each year.
For more information, call 877-702-7848 or visit www.lssnd.org/gamblerschoice.
Read more: http://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/survey-affirms-that-gambling-addiction-is-not-about-the-money/article_3ae95dd8-67ce-11e1-8d86-001871e3ce6c.html#ixzz1oRB3JRcT
Youth gambling addiction could have lifelong consequences
GUEST COMMENTARY: Youth gambling addiction could have lifelong consequences
By Don Levinson nwitimes.com
Gambling is part of life in Lake County. Many of us gamble recreationally, and we're not alone: 85 percent of the general population gambled at least once within the last year.
Most of us see gambling as a way to have fun, but 1 in 10 gamblers develop a problem when it comes to controlling their gambling habits. Two percent of gamblers even develop pathological addiction symptoms. Gambling addiction is as real and as dangerous as being addicted to drugs or alcohol -- and some gambling addicts are children.
It sometimes comes as a surprise to learn that children and adolescents gamble, but many do. As many as 30 to 47 percent of Indiana youths in grades 6-12 reported gambling behaviors such as playing cards for money, betting on games like pool or bowling, playing the lottery, visiting casinos or betting on sports teams -- March Madness, anyone? Additionally, participation in online gambling more than doubled among Indiana youths in 2010.
Gambling obviously doesn't just happen while we're yelling at a roulette wheel or punching a slot machine. Gambling happens whenever we risk an asset on a game of chance, and young people have as much opportunity to take those risks as anyone else.
The younger someone is when they develop a gambling problem, the more likely they are to develop addictive personalities, sometimes leading to drug or alcohol addictions down the line. Teen problem gamblers also have higher rates of crime and legal trouble, school and family problems, and mental health issues such as depression and thoughts of suicide.
There are ways to tell if your child or student might be a problem gambler. Has gambling become their favorite (or only) activity? Do they often use gambling terminology in regular conversation? Are they borrowing more and more money? Do they talk about gambling as an easy way to make money, or to fix problems? Do they believe they can beat the odds, or do they talk about winning back lost money? Are they irritable or defensive when confronted about their gambling habits?
If you suspect your child or student has a gambling problem, there are community resources available such as Gamblers Anonymous. Additionally, Regional Mental Health Center has five state-certified gambling therapists who can help. Financial assistance is available, so please do not let cost be a barrier.
Regional Mental Health Center will host a community awareness event about problem gambling from 6 to 7:30 tonight at the Wicker Park Clubhouse in Highland. Please feel welcome to attend and learn more about this disorder, and how you or your loved ones can maintain or regain control over gambling behavior.
Don Levinson is chairman of the Regional Mental Health Center board of directors. The opinion expressed in this column is the writer's and not necessarily that of The Times.
Read more: http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/guest-commentary/guest-commentary-youth-gambling-addiction-could-have-lifelong-consequences/article_d5a8c7f5-ecb5-5571-8706-caca2167d564.html#ixzz1oR85ngJn
By Don Levinson nwitimes.com
Gambling is part of life in Lake County. Many of us gamble recreationally, and we're not alone: 85 percent of the general population gambled at least once within the last year.
Most of us see gambling as a way to have fun, but 1 in 10 gamblers develop a problem when it comes to controlling their gambling habits. Two percent of gamblers even develop pathological addiction symptoms. Gambling addiction is as real and as dangerous as being addicted to drugs or alcohol -- and some gambling addicts are children.
It sometimes comes as a surprise to learn that children and adolescents gamble, but many do. As many as 30 to 47 percent of Indiana youths in grades 6-12 reported gambling behaviors such as playing cards for money, betting on games like pool or bowling, playing the lottery, visiting casinos or betting on sports teams -- March Madness, anyone? Additionally, participation in online gambling more than doubled among Indiana youths in 2010.
Gambling obviously doesn't just happen while we're yelling at a roulette wheel or punching a slot machine. Gambling happens whenever we risk an asset on a game of chance, and young people have as much opportunity to take those risks as anyone else.
The younger someone is when they develop a gambling problem, the more likely they are to develop addictive personalities, sometimes leading to drug or alcohol addictions down the line. Teen problem gamblers also have higher rates of crime and legal trouble, school and family problems, and mental health issues such as depression and thoughts of suicide.
There are ways to tell if your child or student might be a problem gambler. Has gambling become their favorite (or only) activity? Do they often use gambling terminology in regular conversation? Are they borrowing more and more money? Do they talk about gambling as an easy way to make money, or to fix problems? Do they believe they can beat the odds, or do they talk about winning back lost money? Are they irritable or defensive when confronted about their gambling habits?
If you suspect your child or student has a gambling problem, there are community resources available such as Gamblers Anonymous. Additionally, Regional Mental Health Center has five state-certified gambling therapists who can help. Financial assistance is available, so please do not let cost be a barrier.
Regional Mental Health Center will host a community awareness event about problem gambling from 6 to 7:30 tonight at the Wicker Park Clubhouse in Highland. Please feel welcome to attend and learn more about this disorder, and how you or your loved ones can maintain or regain control over gambling behavior.
Don Levinson is chairman of the Regional Mental Health Center board of directors. The opinion expressed in this column is the writer's and not necessarily that of The Times.
Read more: http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/guest-commentary/guest-commentary-youth-gambling-addiction-could-have-lifelong-consequences/article_d5a8c7f5-ecb5-5571-8706-caca2167d564.html#ixzz1oR85ngJn
Casino Purse Snatchings
Man implicated in bank robberies admits casino purse snatchings
By Lori Caldwell
GARY — Beaver Bernard Russell, the Benton Harbor, Mich., man suspected of crimes in several Midwest states, has been charged with two robberies at Majestic Star Casino.
Russell, 47, admitted to FBI Special Agent Michael Peasley that he robbed two women during separate incidents in the Buffington Harbor parking garage, the probable cause affidavit states.
He was arrested last month after leading police on a high-speed, multistate chase through Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. He is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago.
A $200,000 bail was set for Russell on the Gary charges.
Detective Sgt. Larry Robertson reviewed the FBI statement Russell made after his arrest.
He admitted grabbing the purses of two women, one Dec. 18 and the second Jan. 3.
A 69-year-old victim said the assailant grabbed her purse strap, causing her to be dragged to the ground. She suffered head injuries and other medical complications from the assault.
The second robbery involved a 59-year-old woman who said she used her cane to break out the robber’s tail light on his white car. She fell and was struck by his car as he fled the scene, the affidavit states.
Russell said he used the women’s credit cards in Indiana and Michigan.
He was charged in U.S. District Court in Hammond with two bank robberies, the Jan. 5 robbery of Mutual Bank in South Bend and Fifth Third Bank in Munster Jan. 12. Russell is also a suspect in a purse snatching at Westfield Southlake mall.
By Lori Caldwell
GARY — Beaver Bernard Russell, the Benton Harbor, Mich., man suspected of crimes in several Midwest states, has been charged with two robberies at Majestic Star Casino.
Russell, 47, admitted to FBI Special Agent Michael Peasley that he robbed two women during separate incidents in the Buffington Harbor parking garage, the probable cause affidavit states.
He was arrested last month after leading police on a high-speed, multistate chase through Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. He is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago.
A $200,000 bail was set for Russell on the Gary charges.
Detective Sgt. Larry Robertson reviewed the FBI statement Russell made after his arrest.
He admitted grabbing the purses of two women, one Dec. 18 and the second Jan. 3.
A 69-year-old victim said the assailant grabbed her purse strap, causing her to be dragged to the ground. She suffered head injuries and other medical complications from the assault.
The second robbery involved a 59-year-old woman who said she used her cane to break out the robber’s tail light on his white car. She fell and was struck by his car as he fled the scene, the affidavit states.
Russell said he used the women’s credit cards in Indiana and Michigan.
He was charged in U.S. District Court in Hammond with two bank robberies, the Jan. 5 robbery of Mutual Bank in South Bend and Fifth Third Bank in Munster Jan. 12. Russell is also a suspect in a purse snatching at Westfield Southlake mall.
Alabama: Jury Deliberates in Vote Buying Trial
Jury deliberations continue in gambling corruption trial
Written by Sebastian Kitchen
The jury in the high-profile political corruption trial of casino owner Milton McGregor and five others, including three current or former state senators, will return to the federal courthouse today for a seventh day of deliberations.
There was little action in the courtroom on Tuesday as the jury deliberated for about six and a half hours. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson met privately with prosecutors, the defendants and their attorneys after the jury finished its deliberations at about 3:30 p.m. Some of them had left the courthouse and were summoned back for the meeting. They met for less than 30 minutes.
McGregor left the courthouse with his team of attorneys around 5:20 p.m., about an hour and a half after the meeting with Thompson.
McGregor is accused of leading an alleged conspiracy in which he and fellow casino owners and those who worked for them bribed state lawmakers with cash and campaign contributions in exchange for their votes on gambling legislation.
"I think we're headed for a verdict," said Joe Espy, lead attorney for McGregor, when they emerged from the courthouse.
He said they believe "that's an innocent verdict" for McGregor, who owns VictoryLand 20 miles east of Montgomery.
In the last corruption trial for McGregor and the other defendants, the jury deliberated for seven days. It found the then nine defendants not guilty of most of the charges against them, did not find them guilty of any of the more than 120 counts against them, and totally exonerated two of the defendants. But those jurors were unable to reach a unanimous decision on 33 counts so prosecutors moved forward with a second trial on them.
Susan James, an attorney for defendant and former Country Crossing casino spokesman Jay Walker, said that this jury has had so many breaks that Tuesday was really just the second full day of deliberation. So she said she did not view it as the jury having deliberated for as long as the one at the first trial, when there were more defendants and more counts.
(Page 2 of 2)
She said someone could view the jury leaving at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, when the members have been leaving at 4 p.m. on other weekdays, as an indication that they are "closer and want to sleep on it" and come back fresh in the morning to discuss it.
"We're very optimistic," James said leaving the courthouse.
Espy said the jury leaving earlier could indicate the jury is close to a verdict or might not indicate anything.
This trial began Feb. 6.
The team of prosecutors with the U.S. Department of Justice presented its case until Feb. 24, when it rested after calling nine witnesses. Defense attorneys did not call a single witness.
After hearing closing arguments from both sides and instructions from the judge, the jury actually began its deliberations Thursday.
The other defendants are state Sen. Harri Anne Smith of Slocomb; former state Sens.
Larry Means of Attalla and Jim Preuitt of Talladega; and McGregor lobbyist Tom Coker.
They are accused of working together in 2010 to try to ensure that the Legislature passed a gambling bill, which if also approved by voters, would have allowed McGregor and Country Crossing developer Ronnie Gilley, who has already pleaded guilty, to keep their casinos open.
Smith, an independent state senator who represents counties in southeast Alabama, made time on Tuesday while the jury was deliberating to go to the State House, where her fellow state lawmakers were in session.
James said the jury, at this point, has likely gone through every defendant and every count. She said there seems to be more camaraderie with this jury than the first. James said she has not heard people talk about hearing yelling from the jury room and that when people see the jurors they do not appear to have the upset looks that were sometimes visible on the faces of jurors in the first trial.
"I think they're trying to reach some closure in this case," she said.
James reminded reporters that the judge gave the jury 47 pages of instructions.
Sixth day of deliberations conclude in gambling corruption retrial
By: Lance Griffin Dothan Eagle
5:11 p.m. -- The sixth day of deliberations in the gambling corruption retrial was perhaps the quietest as jurors appeared to deliberate without interruption until 3:30 p.m.
1:31 pm – Jurors spent the first half of Tuesday in what appeared to be uninterrupted deliberations in the gambling corruption trial. Deliberations were halted several times since the jury got the case last week with notes to the judge.
Gambling Corruption Retrial: Jury begins 6th day of deliberations
Reported by: Scott Packard
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WIAT) - Jurors in the gambling corruption retrial started a sixth day of deliberations Tuesday morning in Montgomery.
Written by Sebastian Kitchen
The jury in the high-profile political corruption trial of casino owner Milton McGregor and five others, including three current or former state senators, will return to the federal courthouse today for a seventh day of deliberations.
There was little action in the courtroom on Tuesday as the jury deliberated for about six and a half hours. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson met privately with prosecutors, the defendants and their attorneys after the jury finished its deliberations at about 3:30 p.m. Some of them had left the courthouse and were summoned back for the meeting. They met for less than 30 minutes.
McGregor left the courthouse with his team of attorneys around 5:20 p.m., about an hour and a half after the meeting with Thompson.
McGregor is accused of leading an alleged conspiracy in which he and fellow casino owners and those who worked for them bribed state lawmakers with cash and campaign contributions in exchange for their votes on gambling legislation.
"I think we're headed for a verdict," said Joe Espy, lead attorney for McGregor, when they emerged from the courthouse.
He said they believe "that's an innocent verdict" for McGregor, who owns VictoryLand 20 miles east of Montgomery.
In the last corruption trial for McGregor and the other defendants, the jury deliberated for seven days. It found the then nine defendants not guilty of most of the charges against them, did not find them guilty of any of the more than 120 counts against them, and totally exonerated two of the defendants. But those jurors were unable to reach a unanimous decision on 33 counts so prosecutors moved forward with a second trial on them.
Susan James, an attorney for defendant and former Country Crossing casino spokesman Jay Walker, said that this jury has had so many breaks that Tuesday was really just the second full day of deliberation. So she said she did not view it as the jury having deliberated for as long as the one at the first trial, when there were more defendants and more counts.
(Page 2 of 2)
She said someone could view the jury leaving at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, when the members have been leaving at 4 p.m. on other weekdays, as an indication that they are "closer and want to sleep on it" and come back fresh in the morning to discuss it.
"We're very optimistic," James said leaving the courthouse.
Espy said the jury leaving earlier could indicate the jury is close to a verdict or might not indicate anything.
This trial began Feb. 6.
The team of prosecutors with the U.S. Department of Justice presented its case until Feb. 24, when it rested after calling nine witnesses. Defense attorneys did not call a single witness.
After hearing closing arguments from both sides and instructions from the judge, the jury actually began its deliberations Thursday.
The other defendants are state Sen. Harri Anne Smith of Slocomb; former state Sens.
Larry Means of Attalla and Jim Preuitt of Talladega; and McGregor lobbyist Tom Coker.
They are accused of working together in 2010 to try to ensure that the Legislature passed a gambling bill, which if also approved by voters, would have allowed McGregor and Country Crossing developer Ronnie Gilley, who has already pleaded guilty, to keep their casinos open.
Smith, an independent state senator who represents counties in southeast Alabama, made time on Tuesday while the jury was deliberating to go to the State House, where her fellow state lawmakers were in session.
James said the jury, at this point, has likely gone through every defendant and every count. She said there seems to be more camaraderie with this jury than the first. James said she has not heard people talk about hearing yelling from the jury room and that when people see the jurors they do not appear to have the upset looks that were sometimes visible on the faces of jurors in the first trial.
"I think they're trying to reach some closure in this case," she said.
James reminded reporters that the judge gave the jury 47 pages of instructions.
Sixth day of deliberations conclude in gambling corruption retrial
By: Lance Griffin Dothan Eagle
5:11 p.m. -- The sixth day of deliberations in the gambling corruption retrial was perhaps the quietest as jurors appeared to deliberate without interruption until 3:30 p.m.
1:31 pm – Jurors spent the first half of Tuesday in what appeared to be uninterrupted deliberations in the gambling corruption trial. Deliberations were halted several times since the jury got the case last week with notes to the judge.
Gambling Corruption Retrial: Jury begins 6th day of deliberations
Reported by: Scott Packard
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WIAT) - Jurors in the gambling corruption retrial started a sixth day of deliberations Tuesday morning in Montgomery.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Profitable 'Casinos' Refuse to Pay Fair Share
Wildly profitable 'Casinos' don't want to pay their fair share of taxes to support the state government in Nevada and they never have.
Interesting to watch!
Resort Group Sues Over Gambling Tax Initiative
By: Associated Press
CARSON CITY, Nev. --
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) The Nevada Resort Association, which represents major casino owners, has sued to block an initiative petition to raise the top tax rate on Nevada's highest earning casinos.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Carson City District Court, contends the petition is confusing and inaccurate, and fails to inform voters of its impact.
"It utterly fails to inform voters of the breadth of these changes or the character and nature of existing taxes and fees, much less accurately describe its intended purposes and consequences," the complaint contends.
The suit asks Judge James Todd Russell to bar supporters from collecting signatures and to enjoin the secretary of state from putting the issue on the ballot, the Nevada Appeal and Las Vegas Sun reported.
The ballot initiative backed by Nevadans for a Fair 9 percent Gambling Revenue Tax was filed last month by Monte Miller, a Las Vegas businessman and director on the conservative, pro-business group Keystone Corp.
It would raise the top tier of gambling taxes to 9 percent, up from 6.75 percent, for casinos that make more than $250,000 a month in gambling revenue. State regulators said the proposal to change state law would affect about 170 of Nevada's 443 license holders if approved.
Attorney Maggie McLetchie, a spokesman for Miller, said she was "not surprised" by the suit, and expected the resort association to "do all they could to keep this out of the hands of the voters."
She said she's reviewing issues raised by the association, and hopes the issue doesn't get tied up in court, so voters will have a chance to decide.
The group is facing a Nov. 13 deadline to gather 72,352 signatures of registered voters statewide. If there are enough valid signatures, the petition will be sent to the 2013 Legislature for consideration. If lawmakers fail to pass the proposal, it would go to voters in 2014.
No hearing on the suit before Russell has been set yet.
Interesting to watch!
Resort Group Sues Over Gambling Tax Initiative
By: Associated Press
CARSON CITY, Nev. --
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) The Nevada Resort Association, which represents major casino owners, has sued to block an initiative petition to raise the top tax rate on Nevada's highest earning casinos.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Carson City District Court, contends the petition is confusing and inaccurate, and fails to inform voters of its impact.
"It utterly fails to inform voters of the breadth of these changes or the character and nature of existing taxes and fees, much less accurately describe its intended purposes and consequences," the complaint contends.
The suit asks Judge James Todd Russell to bar supporters from collecting signatures and to enjoin the secretary of state from putting the issue on the ballot, the Nevada Appeal and Las Vegas Sun reported.
The ballot initiative backed by Nevadans for a Fair 9 percent Gambling Revenue Tax was filed last month by Monte Miller, a Las Vegas businessman and director on the conservative, pro-business group Keystone Corp.
It would raise the top tier of gambling taxes to 9 percent, up from 6.75 percent, for casinos that make more than $250,000 a month in gambling revenue. State regulators said the proposal to change state law would affect about 170 of Nevada's 443 license holders if approved.
Attorney Maggie McLetchie, a spokesman for Miller, said she was "not surprised" by the suit, and expected the resort association to "do all they could to keep this out of the hands of the voters."
She said she's reviewing issues raised by the association, and hopes the issue doesn't get tied up in court, so voters will have a chance to decide.
The group is facing a Nov. 13 deadline to gather 72,352 signatures of registered voters statewide. If there are enough valid signatures, the petition will be sent to the 2013 Legislature for consideration. If lawmakers fail to pass the proposal, it would go to voters in 2014.
No hearing on the suit before Russell has been set yet.
Taxpayer Subsidized Gambling
A Slot Barn at Suffolk Downs will cost Massachusetts taxpayers + $500 MILLION and the Bobble Heads think it's a good deal.
The Lake Tahoe Slot Barn in Foxborough will cost Massachusetts taxpayers +$100 MILLION to extend the commuter rail line and municipalities along the line will foot the annual losses. (The cash-strapped town hasn't figured out what Kraft and Company is costing now because it's too busy genuflecting.)
The insolvent Mohegan Sun Tribe's Palmer proposal is even sillier! No infrastructure access and no water. The Town's Casino Study Committee determined the annual cost to the town would be $18 MILLION to $39 MILLION.
The insolvent MGM wants a Slot Barn that also requires 'infrastructure' improvements and water and other services?
And here goes Senator "But For" Pacheco acknowledging infrastructure improvements for the Mashpee Wampanoag's latest Folly in Taunton.
Folks, you're gonna pay the bill! And that's before we calculate what the increased CRIME and DRUNKS will cost.
Infrastructure upgrades predicted if Casino proposal comes to fruition
By Gerry Tuoti
Taunton Gazette
TAUNTON — From the additional cars driving into town to the increased demand for water a massive resort casino complex would require, the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s plans to build a casino in East Taunton would create a serious need to improve the surrounding infrastructure.
During his announcement that the tribe is pursuing plans to build a casino on land in Liberty and Union Industrial Park, Tribal Council Chairman Cedric Cromwell said the East Taunton parcel’s proximity to major roads – routes 24 and 140 – is very appealing.
“Certainly, infrastructure is important and we believe the property we’re looking at will provide the best in infrastructure,” Cromwell said.
Although Cromwell admitted that the tribe is eyeing other land in the area, he declined to identify it.
Some have speculated the Mashpee may consider purchasing the nearby Silver City Galleria property, which is directly across Route 24 from the industrial park parcel. If such a transaction occurred, some elected officials said it is their understanding that the tribe would likely build an overpass or tunnel to connect the two tracts.
State Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, said the city’s water system – the tribe’s vision includes a water park – and roads would be affected. Since infrastructure studies pertaining to the Galleria were already conducted years ago, he speculated that there may already be a foundation for future analysis.
Building direct access to the site from Route 24, Pacheco said, would relieve local traffic congestion.
“During the holiday season, when the mall had total occupancy and was maxed out in terms of customers, we would have some back up on 24,” Pacheco said. “There are obviously some traffic studies and other issues that would need to be done to anticipate and plan for this type of development.”
City Councilor Deborah Carr said she envisions the project having direct highway access, which would keep the majority of the cars out of residential areas and off of local roads.
“I don’t envision anything like a casino being in someone’s backyard,” she said. “I’m envisioning something where they’d be coming off a major thoroughfare, Route 24 or 140, that would go into several hundred acres somewhere. I imagine it would have to have some sort of buffer … The only negative impact I could see is there’ll obviously be a greater influx of traffic, but I’m sure that’s something that will be well addressed and they’ll keep traffic out of the neighborhoods.”
Improvements to routes 24 and 140, which already get backed up during rush hour, will likely be necessary, many local officials say. Since the roads fall under state, rather than local, jurisdiction, that may be an issue to be addressed in the tribe’s negotiations with the governor, Hoye said.
Read more: http://www.enterprisenews.com/news/x127282185/Infrastructure-upgrades-predicted#ixzz1oApjhdAG
The Lake Tahoe Slot Barn in Foxborough will cost Massachusetts taxpayers +$100 MILLION to extend the commuter rail line and municipalities along the line will foot the annual losses. (The cash-strapped town hasn't figured out what Kraft and Company is costing now because it's too busy genuflecting.)
The insolvent Mohegan Sun Tribe's Palmer proposal is even sillier! No infrastructure access and no water. The Town's Casino Study Committee determined the annual cost to the town would be $18 MILLION to $39 MILLION.
The insolvent MGM wants a Slot Barn that also requires 'infrastructure' improvements and water and other services?
And here goes Senator "But For" Pacheco acknowledging infrastructure improvements for the Mashpee Wampanoag's latest Folly in Taunton.
Folks, you're gonna pay the bill! And that's before we calculate what the increased CRIME and DRUNKS will cost.
Infrastructure upgrades predicted if Casino proposal comes to fruition
By Gerry Tuoti
Taunton Gazette
TAUNTON — From the additional cars driving into town to the increased demand for water a massive resort casino complex would require, the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s plans to build a casino in East Taunton would create a serious need to improve the surrounding infrastructure.
During his announcement that the tribe is pursuing plans to build a casino on land in Liberty and Union Industrial Park, Tribal Council Chairman Cedric Cromwell said the East Taunton parcel’s proximity to major roads – routes 24 and 140 – is very appealing.
“Certainly, infrastructure is important and we believe the property we’re looking at will provide the best in infrastructure,” Cromwell said.
Although Cromwell admitted that the tribe is eyeing other land in the area, he declined to identify it.
Some have speculated the Mashpee may consider purchasing the nearby Silver City Galleria property, which is directly across Route 24 from the industrial park parcel. If such a transaction occurred, some elected officials said it is their understanding that the tribe would likely build an overpass or tunnel to connect the two tracts.
State Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, said the city’s water system – the tribe’s vision includes a water park – and roads would be affected. Since infrastructure studies pertaining to the Galleria were already conducted years ago, he speculated that there may already be a foundation for future analysis.
Building direct access to the site from Route 24, Pacheco said, would relieve local traffic congestion.
“During the holiday season, when the mall had total occupancy and was maxed out in terms of customers, we would have some back up on 24,” Pacheco said. “There are obviously some traffic studies and other issues that would need to be done to anticipate and plan for this type of development.”
City Councilor Deborah Carr said she envisions the project having direct highway access, which would keep the majority of the cars out of residential areas and off of local roads.
“I don’t envision anything like a casino being in someone’s backyard,” she said. “I’m envisioning something where they’d be coming off a major thoroughfare, Route 24 or 140, that would go into several hundred acres somewhere. I imagine it would have to have some sort of buffer … The only negative impact I could see is there’ll obviously be a greater influx of traffic, but I’m sure that’s something that will be well addressed and they’ll keep traffic out of the neighborhoods.”
Improvements to routes 24 and 140, which already get backed up during rush hour, will likely be necessary, many local officials say. Since the roads fall under state, rather than local, jurisdiction, that may be an issue to be addressed in the tribe’s negotiations with the governor, Hoye said.
Read more: http://www.enterprisenews.com/news/x127282185/Infrastructure-upgrades-predicted#ixzz1oApjhdAG
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