Debt mired Harrah's proposes another Philly Slot Barn

Foxwood's pipe dream of endless tax-free expansion and 6-figure incomes for tribal members, constructed on a mountain of debt collapsed with declining revenues and poor management that the Tribe resolved by simply defaulting on debts. After all, when you're "Sovereign," you don't have to pay your bills, right?

After dragging the swamp, Foxwood finally found a second willing partner in Harrah's, already so mired in deep debt, it was forced to withdraw a recent $575 million offering.

SugarHouse, Philadelphia's recently opened Slot Barn has already proven unable to assure patrons of safety and revenues are declining. The Glitter is fading quickly when you risk being pistol-whipped.

Casino-Free Philadelphia got it right!

Remember, Pennsylvania legislators passed legislation at midnight on the 4th of July, amidst some pretty ethical questions.

Amidst the Probation Dept. scandal, one would hope that Beacon Hill is watching.

Pa. regulators extend Philly casino project's life

HARRISBURG, Pa.

Backers of a long-struggling casino project in Philadelphia received a few more weeks from state gambling regulators on Thursday to show the regulators that they can get the financing and other crucial elements to get it built.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board voted unanimously to give another extension to the group that controls a license originally issued in 2006 to build the Foxwoods Philadelphia Casino along the city's Delaware River waterfront.

However, strong political and neighborhood opposition have delayed the casino, while its original financing collapsed during the tumultuous economy and financial problems for the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, a key investor that operates the huge Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut.

"Frankly, the financial bailout took much less time than this has taken," board member Ken Trujillo told project lawyers during the meeting. "General Motors today, I think, has gone public at $30 a share after having been bailed out. And so multitrillion-dollar complex transactions have taken place and companies have already been resuscitated in the time that this deal has been out there."

Last month, the Foxwoods group said the world's biggest casino operator, privately held Harrah's Entertainment Inc., was willing to invest in and manage the property, which could become the second casino in Philadelphia.

Harrah's also owns the casino and racetrack in Chester, about 20 miles south of Philadelphia, and SugarHouse Casino opened in September, a mile or so up the river.

Trujillo and the six other board members tabled a license revocation motion until the board's next meeting, on Dec. 16. The Foxwoods group now has until Dec. 10 to submit paperwork to the gaming board's enforcement office, which is seeking the revocation.

During the public meeting occasionally interrupted by hecklers from Casino Free Philadelphia, project lawyers Fred Jacoby and Bill Downey appealed to the gaming board for more time.

Three key documents -- a partnership purchase agreement, a limited partnership agreement and a management agreement -- are nearing completion, they said.

"They are, I guess, effectively the holy trinity of this deal and we remain convinced that we can get this done," Downey said. "We've got an awful lot of businesspeople and an awful lot of lawyers exerting significant effort to address the remaining issues."

The casino project now being proposed by the Foxwoods group is a lot smaller than the one originally promised to the gaming board in 2006, and board members would have to approve the changes, as well as changes to the financial and ownership arrangements.

Foxwoods is one of three casino projects in Pennsylvania that ran into serious problems, and the last of the 11 original licensees from 2006 to open its doors. Foxwoods has faced daily fines of $2,000 -- more than $700,000 to date -- since failing to meet a Dec. 1, 2009, deadline imposed by the gaming board to provide information about its financing, design and construction.

Originally, the partnership planned to open with 3,000 slot machines in late 2008.

But the Philadelphia City Council opposed the Foxwoods location and tried to stall construction by withholding approval of necessary zoning changes. When Foxwoods flirted with changing the location off the waterfront and into downtown Philadelphia, the gaming board ordered it back to its original property and last year began threatening to yank the license.

As the Mashantucket Pequot tribe's financial woes mounted, the group, which includes a group of influential Philadelphia-area businessmen, began scaling back plans for the casino and searching for another major investor.

It found one: international casino impresario Steve Wynn, who mysteriously pulled out in April, less than two months after pledging to rescue the project.

If the gaming board revokes the Foxwoods license, it could then begin accepting new applications for it. However, Jacoby warned Thursday that a costly and time-consuming lawsuit is sure to come first.

"We believe that that's Armageddon," Jacoby said. "All that does is throw this whole thing ... two or three years of litigation."

Mr. Paterson and the (Latest) Casino

Mr. Paterson and the (Latest) Casino

Gov. David Paterson of New York has only a few weeks left in office. But that hasn’t stopped him from making a bad deal with an out-of-state Indian tribe to build a casino in the Catskills.

Mr. Paterson clearly hasn’t learned enough from his disappointing tenure. The deal was mostly done in secret. Never mind that less than a month ago, the state’s inspector general issued a scathing report on the haphazard way a company was chosen to create another gambling facility at the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens.

The governor, who was accused of basically handing off that decision to incompetent Democratic leaders in the State Senate, had to rescind the selection. That should not give anybody confidence in this new deal.

The agreement is supposed to get the Stockbridge-Munsee, a Wisconsin-based tribe, to drop its claims against New York State lands. In return, New York would support the tribe’s application to convert 330 acres to tribal territory to build the 584,000-square-foot casino. Under the deal, the tribe would pay the state and local community far less than nontribal casinos and certainly not enough to cover the social damage gambling leaves in its wake.

The location, 90 miles from New York City, means the new casino would compete for patrons with gambling operations in Monticello and Yonkers and the yet-to-be remodeled Aqueduct “racino.” Other New York-based tribes that have been looking for similar land swaps are furious.

Environmentalists have also vowed to fight the construction. The Natural Resources Defense Council has warned of “a dramatic spike” in air and water pollution in “one of the most important freshwater ecosystems” in the country.

The deal will need a revised environmental impact statement and approval from the federal Interior Department. And it will almost certainly go through the courts. Those hurdles are really the only good news about this whole last-minute Catskill deal from a departing Governor Paterson.

Flawed public policy

Just think what that money would have done to help local economies.


Glance: Recession dealt tough hand to US casino gambling market

The U.S. casino market took a hit from the recession that began at the end of 2007 from which it's only just started to recover. Total casino gambling revenue by year for U.S. commercial casinos:

2004: $28.9 billion

2005: $30.4 billion

2006: $32.4 billion

2007: $34.1 billion

2008: $32.5 billion

2009: $30.7 billion

Source: American Gaming Association trade group

False Promises of Indian Gambling

From our friends at Stop Predatory Gambling:


The Longest Odds
Hundreds of millions in casino dollars haven’t lifted Oregon’s Native Americans out of poverty.

Earlier this month, two white guys from Lake Oswego asked Oregon voters to let them run a casino—a lucrative industry monopolized by American Indians in this state for more than 15 years.

They crashed in flames.

Sixty-eight percent of voters said no to Measure 75, which sought to create the state’s first nontribal casino at the former Multnomah Kennel Club in Wood Village, just east of Portland.

At a time when Oregon’s budget is deep in the red, the casino backers promised to pour $150 million a year into state coffers. But even as Oregonians watch schools and other public services disappear, they were swayed by a campaign that opposed the casino in part because of a perceived debt we owe for historic wrongs to Native Americans.

The anti-75 campaign spent $564,000 against the measure, invoking Oregon’s “promise” to leave casinos to the tribes as a means to uplift their people after centuries of abuse by whites. The assertion is that tribes have actually bettered their people with the money raised.

“We’ve accomplished some amazing things in our communities,” Justin Martin, a lobbyist for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, said just a week before the Nov. 2 election. “None of this would have been possible without the opportunity that tribal gaming represents.”

But while the Wood Village guys made a poor case to add more gambling to the state, here’s the untold story about tribal gambling in Oregon: By several key measures, American Indians here are no better off than they were the day the casinos first opened in the mid-1990s.

The U.S. Census shows Native American poverty rates in Oregon skyrocketing in recent years, from 22 percent in 1999 to 31 percent from 2006 to 2008, the most recent years for which data is available. There are some differences in the way those numbers were calculated, but they leave little doubt of a worsening trend.

On their reservation on the eastern slopes of the Coast Range, the Grand Ronde run the sprawling Spirit Mountain Casino. A 90-minute drive from downtown Portland, the casino is Oregon’s largest and most successful tribal gambling enterprise. In the 15 years since it opened, Spirit Mountain has netted more than $833 million in profits for the 5,228 members of the Grand Ronde tribes.

That works out to about $150,000 per person, even after the tribe’s generous donations to Oregon noprofits. And the vast majority of that money is dumped into social services for the tribe.

With the resulting benefits, you’d be forgiven for wishing you were a Grand Ronde member today.

The tribe covers tuition at any college or trade school in the nation, including grad school. Cradle-to-grave health care is paid for all members, no matter where they live. There’s affordable housing on the reservation. And each member receives cash payments of about $4,000 in the mail each year, courtesy of the casino.

One could argue those benefits have made the Grand Ronde in some ways Oregon’s most privileged class of people. Yet statistics show those hundreds of millions in casino money have yet to lift the majority of Oregon’s Native Americans out of their economic rut. The Grand Ronde, even with Oregon’s most lucrative casino, are no exception.

When Spirit Mountain opened in 1995, 55 percent of Grand Ronde tribal members earned below 80 percent of the median Oregon income, according to the tribe’s own figures. Five years later, the tribe switched to measuring by household, but the ratio was the same—55 percent. Today, hundreds of millions of dollars later, that statistic remains exactly the same—55 percent.

Grand Ronde households in the deepest poverty also remain stuck at rock bottom. Ten years ago, 15 percent of tribal households were severely impoverished, earning less than 30 percent of the median income. Today that number is even worse—17 percent.

It’s true that Grand Ronde members at the upper end of the spectrum make more money now than they did before the casino. But the fact that the wealthiest tribe in the state has invested a fortune and still failed to dent its widespread economic malaise says something deeply disturbing about the Native American experience in Oregon.

Native advocates point to factors that make Indian poverty especially difficult to address. Tribes face a pernicious mix of rural and urban economic decay. Add widespread drug and alcohol abuse—and a culture still suffering from deep-seated fear and mistrust—and it becomes clear why American Indians remain stuck at the bottom.

“People want it to be an easy fix, but folks don’t understand how fresh the wounds are,” says Nichole Maher, executive director of Portland’s Native American Youth and Family Center.

Granting tribes the exclusive right to run casinos was intended to lift them up—and to assuage some white Oregonians’ historical guilt. But it’s not just the Grand Ronde who have struggled to make progress. The uncomfortable truth is that Oregon’s Native Americans as a whole may be even worse off than before.

The majority of Native Americans statewide are not from Oregon tribes, and they see no direct benefits from tribal casinos here. But the striking persistence of Indian poverty despite the casinos is a tragedy researchers at Oregon State University already noted a decade ago.

“It’s obvious that constructing gambling casinos hasn’t worked in bringing Oregon’s...Native Americans out of poverty,” a team of OSU scholars wrote in a 2000 report on statewide poverty. OSU’s numbers pegged the state’s Indian poverty rate at 29 percent at that time.

Other stats are just as grim. Native Americans now make up a higher percentage of Oregon’s prison population than they did 15 years ago when the casinos opened, according to the state Department of Corrections. And they still have the highest rate of alcohol-induced death in the state, according to the Oregon Public Health Division.

American Indians now earn a lower percentage of the state’s college degrees than they did in 1997, according to the Oregon University System.

And, as a group, they still enter school with measurably lower social, personal and cognitive development than other children in Oregon, according to the state Department of Education.

The question is why.

Cheryle Ann Kennedy, elected leader of the nine-member Grand Ronde tribal council, says the emotional and economic scars from years of depredations—including massacres and actions such as Congress disbanding her tribe in the 1950s—will take generations to repair.

“It’s not different from the Holocaust of the Jewish people,” Kennedy says. “When you look at the magnitude of the level of need, it’s billions of dollars. And every year, we make millions.”

Terry Anderson has a different answer. An economist and head of the libertarian-leaning Property and Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Mont., Anderson says relying on casino money to provide social services is a disincentive to progress.

“You are talking about literally a welfare state,” he says. “If you ask what creates economic growth, it’s increased productivity that comes about when people have an incentive. And there’s nothing on reservations that creates that incentive. No investment is being made to increase productivity, except for making the casino fancier.”

The gold-painted tour bus that pulls in to Spirit Mountain Casino on a recent Saturday afternoon has a giant picture on the side of hot young women dancing in a club. But in Indian Country, things aren’t always what they seem.

Instead of glitter and curves, the bus disgorges a load of mostly older people picked up from stops in Portland, Washington Square Mall, Tualatin and Newberg. Many rely on canes and walkers to make their way into the casino—where 1,911 slot machines, 48 card and roulette tables, 400 bingo seats and the renowned Cedar Plank Buffet await to swallow their cash.

Like in casinos worldwide, there are no clocks in Spirit Mountain’s vast gambling rooms, and no windows to suggest the time of day—just the endless ding of the slot machines, the symphony of an endless jackpot.

Charles Fry sits on a bench outside the casino, waiting for his wife to drive him home. The 77-year-old retired logger lives 12 miles away, in the tiny town of Sheridan, where he scrapes by on $1,200 a month from Social Security. He comes to the casino several times a week to eat or gamble, and today he blew $90 on the slots.

But Fry figures the Native Americans have earned their right to run casinos.

“We’ve beat up on these old Indians for so long,” he says. “They deserve everything they get.”

A mile and a half up the road from the flashing lights of Spirit Mountain Casino squats the very portrait of rural poverty.

The village—if you can call it that—is known locally as Bunsville. The name comes from Floyd Bun, the now-deceased landlord who built the ramshackle neighborhood off Highway 18 in the tiny town of Grand Ronde.

About 40 small houses, dilapidated and shedding paint, stand along four muddy dirt roads filled with puddles the size of small ponds. Dogs bark from behind chain-link fences. Feral cats roam the broken sidewalks. Junked cars and broken appliances line the driveways and litter yards long since abandoned to weeds. This neighborhood is home to both whites and members of the Grand Ronde tribes.

House No. 12 has a sign on the garage saying, “No Trespassing–Violators Will Be Shot–Survivors Will Be Violated.” A pink plastic tricycle and an old pressure washer stand forgotten out front. Inside, 18-year-old Melinda Lafferty is giving a bath to her 3-year-old daughter, Bayle.

The girl’s father is somewhere in South Dakota. Lafferty, a high-school dropout, is unemployed and lives in Bunsville with her parents. If she were like most of America’s rural poor, her life could most likely be judged a lost cause already.

But Lafferty is one of about 60,000 Oregonians identified by the Census as an American Indian. One-quarter of her dad’s blood is from the Grand Ronde tribes, letting Lafferty qualify for the tribal rolls (you need to prove one-sixteenth ancestry to qualify).

That simple fact has given Lafferty a huge leg up over other neighbors in Bunsville.

The tribe paid for Lafferty to earn her GED through Chemeketa Community College in Salem, thanks to casino money. Now she’s studying business management at Chemeketa—again on the tribe’s dime. She attends classes via video conferencing in the tribal reservation’s $5 million education center, which is run on casino dollars.

She pays for clothes, food and other bills with the $4,000 she receives each year from the tribe. She’s on the waiting list for low-income housing on the reservation, where any member can live based on whatever they can afford.

Statistically, Lafferty is still an unemployed single mom below the poverty line. But because of casino money, behind those basic facts is a woman with a ticket out of Bunsville.

That’s not true for everyone in the tribe. Stories abound of people who squander their casino checks. Billie LaBonte, a white retired state administrative worker married to a tribal elder for 13 years, says the curse holds especially for young people.

“The kids get their Indian money, and all they do is drink and do drugs,” she says. “Maybe one in 50 do something good with it.”

Say what you will about gambling as a means of preying on human weakness, or about the fairness of the Indians’ monopoly. By transferring hundreds of millions from other people’s pockets to the tribe, Spirit Mountain Casino is in many ways one of the most effective systems imaginable for redistributing wealth.

Wink Soderberg spent his early childhood on the Grand Ronde reservation in the 1930s, when there was no running water. The family outhouse stood 50 feet from his back door, and the only dependable source of food was the deer in the forest.

“I remember this community as just bone poor,” Soderberg says.

Soderberg shared those memories from a leather chair in the board room of the Grand Ronde’s $5.3 million government headquarters, where he sits on the tribal council. The board room is where the council and other tribal executives run the Grand Ronde’s real-estate and investment empire, including land under development from the coast to the Pearl District.

The tribe doesn’t reveal its holdings to the public. But three facts are certain: Its investments can be measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Casino money bought nearly all of it. And that wealth has transformed the tribe’s reservation straddling Polk and Yamhill counties into what you might call a utopian experiment—at least by the standards of the rest of rural America.

Down the street from government headquarters is the tribe’s $4.6 million medical center, with two doctors, two nurses, three dentists, two optometrists, two mental-health counselors and two pharmacists. It’s open to anyone in the surrounding towns of Sheridan, Willamina and Grand Ronde. But tribal members here and elsewhere have their medical bills fully covered, at a cost of $23 million this year alone.

Nearby is free senior housing in handsome duplexes, where tribal employees take care of cleaning and yardwork for the elders. Next door is an assisted-living facility for the dying, adjoining a community center where the young are invited to eat communal lunches with the elders.

The tribe provides generous scholarships to cover the costs of any level of education for any tribal member. Nearly 600 tribal members are currently in school on scholarships, and the tribal education center provides preschool.

The tribal housing authority has built more than 100 housing units for low- and middle-income families on the reservation, with several dozen also built with federal grants. Initially, they were manufactured homes, but today they’re identical, pitched-roof homes that look similar to those in any suburb.

Conscious of not creating class differences, the low- and middle-income homes look the same on the outside—the only difference is the quality of fixtures. The tribe boasts it can provide housing for any member of any income who moves to the reservation, although there is a waiting list for low-income homes.

This is no Potemkin village. Tribal members shuffle out of doctors’ offices in the clinic. Cars pull into the driveways. Elders are bused from their assisted housing to social events, including at the traditional longhouse nearby for community ceremonies.

Why hasn’t all of this spending lifted more Grand Ronde out of poverty? Tribal officials compare that task to the long-term work of rebuilding Iraq or Afghanistan. They say it will take several generations to see more dramatic results.

“What we’re really doing is nation-building—rebuilding what was there,” says Rob Greene, the tribe’s attorney for 16 years. “That’s a tremendous amount of work.”

Tribal council members like Soderberg make about $75,000 a year, and the tribe’s stats for the percentage of households making that amount or more show steady progress. Upper-income households rose from 7 percent of the total in 1999 to 25 percent in 2009.

But less-fortunate tribal members struggle to compete for lower-wage jobs. Even at the casino.

The astounding truth is, only an estimated 10 percent of the roughly 1,500 employees at Spirit Mountain are Grand Ronde—despite the fact tribal members are given hiring preference.

The reason points back to the same social problems plaguing Native Americans statewide. Tribal members say many Grand Ronde can’t pass the strict criminal-background and credit checks required to work in their own casino.

The resounding defeat of Measure 75 shows Oregonians are willing to rely on the tribes to run our casinos. But after 15 years of what they call nation building, the Grand Ronde also remain reliant on the rest of us—perhaps now more than ever. “We need the white man and his money,” says trial elder Gene LaBonte, “to keep that [casino] going.”


The Grand Ronde: A History
Visitors to Spirit Mountain Casino are greeted at the front door by a statue of Martha Jane Sands, a Grand Ronde who survived a white raid on her childhood village by hiding in a beaver dam.

As the Grand Ronde tell their history, Indians lived from time immemorial in peace and abundance in the Columbia and Willamette river valleys. Frequent wars with plateau tribes—and the widespread practice of slavery by their ancestors—are less often mentioned.

With the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855, they were forced to cede their homelands, and 27 tribes were pushed onto the Grand Ronde reservation. They refer to that march as Oregon’s “Trail of Tears.”

Promises from Washington, D.C., to provide government services were broken, tribe members say, and the original reservation was gradually whittled away. In 1954, the federal government disbanded the Grand Ronde and 109 other tribes nationwide under a policy called “termination.” Sixty-two of those tribes were from Oregon, mostly on prime timber land.

The Grand Ronde were left with nothing but their cemetery and an adjoining tool shed. Many dispersed and intermarried with whites—other tribes now mock them for looking too pale. But a handful of elders fought to restore the tribe, a distinction Congress finally granted again in 1983.

Restoration came at the same time the timber economy collapsed. Salvation came with the 1988 Indian Regulatory Gaming Act, which allowed casinos on tribal reservations.

When the Grand Ronde opened Spirit Mountain in 1995, it was slots and bingo only. They had to negotiate in 1997 to allow roulette, blackjack and other games. In return, the tribe agreed to give 6 percent of its casino take to Oregon nonprofits.

Those funds are distributed by the Spirit Mountain Community Fund. The fund has powerful friends—its board includes Secretary of State Kate Brown, former U.S. Rep. Darlene Hooley (D.-Ore.) and Portland businessman Sho Dozono. During this fall’s Measure 75 campaign, the opposition never tired of reminding Oregonians that the Spirit Mountain Community Fund has distributed more than $50 million to charity.

A losing bet: 20% at risk of addiction

Our take on: A losing bet

A losing bet

Gambling addiction is a big menace on campus. A 2008 study of students at seven major Florida universities found one in five had developed a betting problem or was in danger of doing so.

The study led the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling to launch a program aimed at college students. A $1.75 million windfall for the Altamonte Springs-based council — paid this week by the Seminole Tribe of Florida under its gambling compact with the state — will enhance the program, which is available for no charge to universities.

But so far, only the University of Central Florida has adopted it. That speaks well for UCF, and poorly for the state's other universities.

Given the prevalence of gambling addiction on campus, why wouldn't every university take advantage of this free program?

Rep: Ban buses to casinos

Rep: Ban buses to casinos

A WORRIED assemblyman has urged the state to ban direct buses from the state to Singapore casinos.

Datuk Tee Siew Kiong (BN-Pulai Sebatang) said the step was necessary to curb gambling among locals who are spending an average of RM7mil daily at the casinos.

“Local travel agencies should also be banned from arranging direct trips to casinos on the island.

“I have received complaints of people who have used up their savings and sold their houses to feed their gambling addiction,” he said.

Tee added that about 30 buses travel to the casinos across the causeway every day.

“The locals spend an average of S$1,000 (RM2,400) each daily.

“These buses are even paid a commission of RM2,600 to RM2,700 for each trip by the casinos.

“Because it is so easy to travel there, many locals are now gambling their savings away,” Tee said at the state assembly sitting here yesterday.

Besides the buses, about 500 cars also travel to the casinos daily.

“An estimated 3,000 Malaysians are believed to be actively gambling at the casinos.

“This results in a monthly gambling expenditure of about RM200mil,” he said.

Tee also urged the government to implement a system to deter-mine those who actually spend money at tourist attractions in the state.

“We know that millions of foreigners enter the state yearly but how many of them are actually spending money at local attractions?,’’ he asked. Tee suggested that travel agencies should only bring visitors to tourist destinations in the state.

“These agencies should also prove their visit by producing stamps from each destination they go to,” he said.

Tee added this could help the state gauge the actual number of tourists that come here.

Students learn about problem gambling

Students learn about problem gambling


ALLISTON - Raising awareness about gambling addiction had Alliston high school students out of the classroom and learning in a different way recently.


Four young actors took to Banting Memorial High School’s stage for 82%, a play put on by the Responsible Gambling Council designed to increase awareness about problem gambling.


The play tells the story of a first-year university student who gets addicted to gambling. Along the way he alienates his friends and eventually has to quit school, move back home with his parents and get a job to pay off his debt.


The actors ended their presentation with a Family Feud-type game. The audience was split in two and students answered questions about the skit and the dangers of gambling.


“It’s good for Grade 11 and 12 students because it’s a university setting and these guys are going to be heading off there,” said BMHS drama teacher Dale Phelps.


Phelps had several reasons for bringing 82% to the Alliston high school.


“As a drama teacher I want to show the power of live theatre to bring a message to students,” said Phelps, adding that, “we live in a society where gambling exists.”


Not only does gambling exist, it’s affecting young people.
“Problem gambling is an issue people normally associate with older adults,” said Laurie Bell, Responsible Gambling Council director of preventative programs. “In reality, a 19-year-old is more likely to have a problem with gambling than a 50-year-old.”


Bell said young adults are more likely to see gambling (poker) as a way to make money.


“This kind of thinking can be a real set-up for a gambling problem. On the Internet, in movies and on TV, gambling is positioned as cool. Our goal is to encourage students to engage their critical thinking skills now, so that when they reach the age where they can gamble legally, they are aware of the risks,” said Bell.


The 82% tour is the fourth for tour director Rick Simm.


The presentation is based around youth. The cast is in their early 20s, their plot is designed around university students and problems arise when the main character sells his friend’s tickets to a game between the Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators.


“You can see when they’re watching that they’re retaining the message, they get it,” said Simm.
As Simm and his fellow actors move on to their next performance, there is one thing he wants the local students to take away.


“We want them to know there are risks associated to gambling and we want them to know how to avoid them,” said Simm.

Loveman addicted to Loveman

Gary Lovemen, brilliant mathematician, who drove Harrah's from a non-entity to the MacDonald's of Pop and Slots by sucking in the suckers, whose success has gone to his waistline can't understand that as folks have figured out that along with his financial success comes cannibalization and crime, not everyone wants his snake oil.

Loveman seems addicted to Loveman these days.

It seems money markets have defined casino capitalism for what it is - Gambling.

Harrah's pulls $575m flotation
as gaming hits a losing streak

Caesars Palace owner hit by slump in US consumer spending, while debt from private equity buyout costs $1.5bn in interest


Las Vegas, and Harrah's, have been badly hit by the US recession, with property values collapsing and the municipality insolvent.

Harrah's Entertainment, the major US gambling group, which operates Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and four casinos in London, has abruptly shelved plans for a $575m (£360m) share offering in New York, citing weak investor demand.

The cancellation, which came on the heels of a $22bn General Motors share offering launched successfully in New York, has sent a chill through the gambling and private equity industries.

Harrah's, which is renaming itself Caesars Entertainment, operates the Rendezvous Casino in Mayfair and the Golden Nugget off Piccadilly Circus, the World Series of Poker tournament, as well as 50 hotels and casinos in the US under the Caesars, Harrah's and Horseshoe brands.

One of the largest global gaming companies, Harrah's public offering comes less than three years after it was purchased for $31bn by the New York private equity firms TPG and Apollo Management.

Leading financiers, including the sub-prime hedge fund king John Paulson, are exposed; the company says it is keeping its options open on a future offering.

The failure to complete the initial public offering (IPO) suggests that the eagerness of banking and private equity to get into the gambling business was misguided.

Expectations of an online gambling boom have not been realised; the US industry, where Harrah's is focused, has been hit hard by the two-year downturn in consumer spending. Last year, the casino operator MGM nearly collapsed under its $14bn debt. While stocks in operators such as Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts have risen this year, most growth has come from a Chinese-driven gaming boom in Macau.

Despite Las Vegas's ardent efforts to promote itself through Hollywood movies as the anything-goes capital of America, the desert city is experiencing the worst downturn in its history. Property values in what was the fastest-growing city in the US five years ago have collapsed and the surrounding municipality of Clark County is in effect insolvent. Unemployment stands at 14.3%, well above the 9.5% national average.

In the post-credit crunch landscape, banks have had to pick up the pieces. Next month, Deutsche Bank will become owner of the Vegas strip's newest hotel-casino, The Cosmopolitan, after its original developer defaulted on a $1bn loan. The bank then put $3bn more into the hotel, which features the rapper Jay-Z at its New Year's Eve party and is promoted with the slogan: "Just the right amount of wrong."

For Harrah's, the only US operator without a casino in Macau, the plan to sell less than 10% of company stock in an uncertain market for public offerings was itself a gamble. Harrah's has reported a loss of $634.4m in nine months. As the most highly leveraged of the big casino firms with $20bn in debt, it paid about $1.47bn interest over the same period.

Analysts say the industry is picking up but is not strong enough to withstand the test of an IPO amid fears over European debt woes and China's currency controls.

In a speech to a gaming convention last week, Harrah's president Gary Loveman indicated that a major block to growth of casino companies was lack of consumer access. Loveman said casinos should be given the same freedom to market as other products or activities considered unhealthy, such as alcohol or fast foods. "It should offend us every day that adults can't entertain themselves in the way that they want to when they have access to so many other things," Loveman said. [Oh? Never one to suffer pangs of conscience when confronted with an Industry that only profits by continuing to create Gambling Addicts!]

Gambling industry executives in Vegas claim the market is improving, with international visitors up 8% on a year ago. But after years of price-cutting, many visitors are considered "low rollers" drawn by cheap hotel rooms but gambling little.

American Cancer Society: Casino Could Be Hazardous To Your Health

American Cancer Society: Casino Could Be Hazardous To Your Health

Opposition to Gov. Paterson's nearly-completed casino deal with a Wisconsin-based Indian tribe seems to be coming from all directions, reports our Glenn Blain:


Neighboring tribes, racino operators, and newspaper editorials have all panned Paterson's effort. And now the American Cancer Society is getting into the act.

In a letter to Paterson today, the group expresses its formal opposition to the proposal because smoking would be allowed in the Sullivan County casino.

The state's Clean Indoor Air Law, which prohibits smoking in worksites and public places, is not enforced on Indian lands.

"We believe the compact’s failure to meaningfully address smoking is backsliding and a bad deal for the health of New Yorkers," the Society's Russell Sciandra wrote in the letter.

"At a time when smoke-free environments are becoming the norm all over the world, and New York is recognized as a leader in this death and disease-preventing movement, this agreement freezes in place the bad old days of smoke-filled rooms, subjecting the nonsmoking majority to the pollution generated by the small minority that still uses tobacco," he added.

Paterson is expected to announce the deal with the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians on Monday. Critics have charged that he's rushing the deal to bolster his legacy before leaving office in December.

Others have argued that the proposed casino, which must still be approved by the federal government, would siphon business from existing Indian casinos in New York and the state's video-lottery facilities - including the one planned for Aqueduct.

Paterson and other supporters, including Sen. Charles Schumer, have said the casino will provide a huge boost to the Catskills' economy.

Preliminary plans call for a 584,000-square-foot facility with 3,000 slot machines and 190 gaming tables in the town of Thompson. If it opens, it would be the full-service gambling

Court Throws Out Ruling Against Las Vegas Sands

Court Throws Out Ruling Against Las Vegas Sands


HONG KONG—The Nevada Supreme Court threw out a lower court's decision to award a Hong Kong businessman $58.6 million for allegedly helping Las Vegas Sands Corp. win a gambling license in Macau, ruling that the district court's errors warranted a new trial.

In 2008, a jury decided Richard Suen should be paid for helping arrange meetings in Beijing between company executives and Chinese officials, which he said led to the gambling giant's 2002 receipt of a coveted license to operate casinos in Macau. The Chinese territory, on track this year to rake in four times the gambling revenue of the Las Vegas Strip, is now home to three casinos run by Las Vegas Sands unit Sands China Ltd.

Las Vegas Sands spokesman Ron Reese said, "The company hasn't yet had an opportunity to thoroughly review the details but obviously we're pleased with the result."

Mr. Suen couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Legal experts say though the ruling was in favor of the casino operator, the prospect of a new trial isn't great news for the company because of the potential bad publicity and because one of its key witnesses, former Las Vegas Sands President William Weidner, is unlikely to be cooperative. Mr. Weidner resigned in March 2009 after almost 14 years at the company amid disputes with Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson.

"The company will continue to defend its contention that Suen had nothing to do with the license," Mr. Reese said.

The state's supreme court reversed the lower court's earlier decision in an order filed Wednesday, ruling that a district judge shouldn't have admitted a hearsay statement during the trial.

Mr. Suen tried to prove to the jury that the meetings he had arranged in Beijing influenced the license tender process, but without the hearsay statement, "the jury may have found there was no connection," the judgement said.

The high court also concluded that the district court had erred in refusing to instruct the jury on presumptions of governmental regularity, as one of Las Vegas Sands's defense arguments revolved around the presumption that officials in mainland China had no involvement with Macau's licensing procedure and, therefore, that the meetings Mr. Suen had set up with Chinese officials hadn't led to the company securing the license.

Mr. Suen had argued that Beijing was involved even though Macau's basic law entitles it to independent executive, legislative and judicial powers, the order said.

In June 2009, Las Vegas Sands paid $42.5 million to settle a dispute with three other businessmen who had claimed they helped the company secure its Macau gambling licence. The settlement came just before a Nevada jury was set to start a public hearing on the case.

The company is also facing a wrongful termination suit from former Sands China Chief Executive Steve Jacobs, who alleges he was fired after refusing to carry out Mr. Adelson's illegal demands.

"Gambling is a tax on ignorance"

Resist temptation of floating casino

The argument for casino gambling settles quickly and entirely on money. States and localities reap a few quick bucks in the form of direct tax receipts. Investors make a mint.

The lure of easy money, especially in hard times, now has the Norfolk City Council asking lawmakers in Richmond to OK riverboat gambling. Given that local officials seem incapable of resisting the temptation, the General Assembly will have to do so for them.

Advocates, led by City Councilman Paul Riddick, have promised to put the receipts from gambling in a transportation lockbox. It's a gimmick designed to sway lawmakers desperate for a few bucks to put into roads. But like the bright lights of a slot machine, the deal Norfolk is pursuing is ultimately a bad one for everyone but the game's operators.

Gamblers always lose, of course. No player ever beats the house for long, a fact that explains why gambling is such a profitable enterprise. People who believe they can beat the house are regularly proven wrong.

But it's not just gamblers who are affected by the arrival of the industry. Others lose, too. Studies have shown that existing businesses for go sales when money is diverted into casino slot machines. Restaurants struggle. Crime accompanies gambling, as sure as anything. Bankruptcies rise.

What city officials are proposing certainly sounds exotic enough. It's intended to. "Riverboat gambling" even seems somehow historical, inspiring visions of paddlewheel boats and Kenny Rogers. What the industry actually offers, romantic costume aside, is a casino on the water.

In some ways that fact even compounds the problems presented by a casino. For every person who enjoys gambling on the Elizabeth River or Chesapeake Bay, there will be one who will play more than he can afford because he cannot escape the temptation until the boat docks again.

Advocates for floating gaming argue that opening a casino on the water will keep people from spending their money in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, another argument that simply fails on its face. Proximity matters enormously, especially in matters guided by human impulses.

More importantly, with gambling removed from Hampton Roads - at least for now - so are the industry's problems and effects. And the appalling victimization on which it is built.

"Gambling is a tax on ignorance," Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, once famously said. "I find it socially revolting when the government preys on the ignorance of its citizenry. When the government makes it easy for people to take their Social Security checks and pull [slot machine] handles, it relieves taxes on those who don't fall for it. It's not government at its best."

Buffett, one of Earth's richest men, knows something about money. Local leaders - and the ones in Richmond - ought to listen to him.

High Cost of Government Sponsored Gambling Addiction

Heat on punting addicts

PROBLEM gambling would be treated as a health issue like smoking addiction under a Coalition plan.

Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu has pledged to set up a $150 million body, modelled on VicHealth, to help reduce problem gambling if his party is elected.

The Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation would be responsible to Parliament and the community.

"In the same way that VicHealth has earned the community's trust and helped to reduce smoking, the VRGF will work to tackle the scourge of problem gambling, which damages so many families," Mr Baillieu said.

The Coalition will announce the new body today, trumpeting the move as the biggest funding boost to tackle problem gambling in the state's history.

The $150 million for the VRGF would be spread over four years, and would enable the new body to deliver research and treatment.

The body would also provide advocacy services for communities worried about gambling services.

In the past year Victorians spent almost $2.6 billion - $7 million a day - on pokies, with punters in the battling west losing the most.

Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation figures show more than 26,000 poker machines in suburban and rural clubs ring up almost $5000 a minute. But there had been a slight decrease in the total revenue pumped into state coffers compared with the previous year.

Youth gambling, crime, suicide

Gambling addiction linked to suicidal behavior in teens--study

Gambling, often perceived as a harmless hobby, is especially risky for teens, and can easily escalate into a problem behavior, claims a new study.

According to experts, the relatively easy access to a variety of gambling venues, such as online betting opportunities, family trips to the racetrack and video games all contribute to a culture of gambling among the youngsters.

However, what starts out as a small diversion, soon acquires dangerous connotations, and the lure of easy money can propel teens towards risky activities.

Principle investigator Dr. Robert Mann from the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto stated, "We also found that students who reported problem gambling indicators also reported high rates of elevated psychological distress and other potentially dangerous behaviors.”

Link between destructive behavior and gambling examined
In order to establish a link between destructive behavior and gambling, the researchers surveyed 9000 middle and high school students across Ontario in 2009.

Nearly half the participants were involved in some gambling activity over the year. It was noted that betting on card games and purchasing lottery tickets were the most common form of gambling while internet and casino gambling were the least popular.

Revelations of the study
The researchers found that three percent of students in grades seven to twelve exhibited signs of addiction. They gambled more than intended and also had no qualms about skipping school to pursue their habit.

The study found that nearly two-thirds of the students addicted to gambling were consuming alcohol and doing drugs while a quarter had attempted suicide within the year compared with about two percent of their peers.

Mann stated, "If you look at the general population of students, about 26 per cent have some kind of issue with some kind of substance, whether they reported a binge drinking pattern, which is relatively common, or using cannabis or some other drugs.

He added, "Among those with a gambling problem, it turns out 68.5 per cent have a problem with a substance like alcohol or cannabis.”

An alarming aspect of the study was that problem gamblers were more inclined towards criminal behavior.

They openly admitted to stealing, selling drugs, and wrecking property.

According to experts, the odds of teens carrying a handgun and getting embroiled in gang fights were 11 times higher.

In addition, they were 20 times more likely to indulge in illegal activities like selling drugs other than cannabis.

"There's a consistent theme here about these students involved in delinquent behaviours related to obtaining money," Mann said.

Implications of the study
Though, gambling may seem to parents to be a relatively safe activity for adolescents, since it does not involve drinking or drugs, experts warn them about the dangers of teenage gambling addictions.

According to them, problem gambling can be just as life damaging as an addiction to any other substance and there is an urgent need to tackle the problem at home, in schools, and in the society.

Dr. Bruce Ballon, head of the centre's teen clinic for problem gambling, gaming and internet use stated, "Even though it seems very minor and fun, they're being primed and trained to think gambling is a natural thing without thinking about what that means.”

Cop Appears in Court in Prince George's Corruption Probe

Cop Appears in Court in Prince George's Corruption Probe

GREENBELT, Md. - New details continue to emerge in the Prince George's County corruption probe. Three more suspects appeared in court Wednesday including a county police officer accused of dealing drugs.

Prosecutors say that officer was involved in the cigarette and alcohol smuggling operation linked to the county corruption case and that's how they discovered the drug trafficking.

During a detention hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Copperthite said Simic was running contraband cigarettes to New York and New Jersey, in a smuggling operation previously linked to the owner of Tick Tock liquors, involving bribes to public officials.

However, authorities say Simic then used those shipments for his own gain, to traffic in cocaine. His lawyer says the case has been unfairly tainted by the link to the corruption case against County Executive Jack Johnson.

"I think what has happened here since Friday," when Johnson and his wife Leslie were arrested, "has been sort of a frenzy and I think everybody needs to realize the process needs to work itself out and let this go forth in the normal course," said Brian Stolarz, Simic's attorney.

Simic who is charged with drug trafficking was suspended by Prince George's County police three months ago and told he was under investigation. It's his third suspension. Prosecutors say twice he's been stopped in Fairfax County, Virginia in which traces of drugs were found in his vehicle.

Simic's job, authorities say, was to drive the contraband from Virginia to Maryland and further north to New York and New Jersey and to use his police powers if anyone stopped them.

In court, Copperthite describe wiretaps of Simic and his alleged partner, Mirza Kujundzic. On one, the prosecutor says Simic is heard talking about buying a 50 caliber desert eagle handgun for his partner in a straw purchase.

"'I want to get the damn gun,'" the prosecutor said Kujundzic is heard saying and Simic replies "I told you we're going to get you one." It's the same type of gun, investigators say was found in a search of Simic's home.

The judge ordered the officer detained pending trial saying with the mix of guns and drugs, "that is very much a danger to the community."

Simic's attorney asked the judge to make accommodations to protect Simic in prison.

"Anytime you have a police officer in custody you are concerned about other inmates knowing that and doing harm to them," said Stolarz.

Chun Chen, who is also known as Eddy Chen, appeared in court charged in the cigarette smuggling operation. He was released to his wife and is under home detention with electronic monitoring.

An interpreter for the family says agents seized cash during a search of his home but his wife claims the cash was from their carryout business and frequent gambling trips to Atlantic City.

"They were stunned. The wife told me that the husband he goes to Atlantic City every weekend so the thing is regular gambling. It's fine you know. But suddenly the police come you know," said Alex Mong.

Simic's alleged partner, Kujundzic, had his detention hearing postponed.

The government says it has wiretaps of Simic and Kujundzic described what they called their "protection business," which was code for the drug and cigarette trafficking. The prosecution also says based on those wiretaps, they were able to covertly record drug transactions involving the two suspects, in which cocaine is laid out on a table and repackaged in front of them.

At one point, the prosecution says Simic said, "The heat sealer is better than they one they have in (the police department) evidence control."

Spotlight on Gambling Addiction

Play puts spotlight on problem gambling

Students at Pauline Johnson Collegiate got a lesson in the risks behind gambling on Wednesday.

They got to watch 82%, a play about how a gambling addiction can destroy lives and relationships, which was staged at the Colborne Street high school courtesy of the Responsible Gambling Council. The council is an independent non-profit organization committed to problem gambling prevention.

The play was inspired by the growing popularity of poker and other forms of gambling. It follows the trials and tribulations of a first-year university student named Chris who becomes so obsessed with gambling that he steals from his best friend, Sean, to support his addiction.

"We've been performing this play all over Ontario, up north in Timmins and North Bay, and we've been in eastern Ontario, as well," said Rick Simm, who plays Sean. "Our whole focus is on prevention.

"We want to show students the risks and the harm that problem gambling can cause before it becomes a problem for them."

The play follows previous efforts including R U Up?, house of cards, Caught in the Game, Three of a Kind, and after the beep. It is based on submissions sent to the council's Flash Fiction program, which encourages students to communicate with their peers about risks associated with youth gambling.

The actors are young and they use language that would be used by high school and university-aged students. The play covers the most common signs that there is a problem, including thinking more and more about the game and skipping classes or work to gamble.

Other common signs include: spending more money to win back money that has been lost; lying to family and friends about gambling and expecting to make money from gambling.

Cathy Lihou-Perry, the head of guidance at Pauline Johnson, said that, while the play centres on youth gambling, it is also about addiction.

"Gambling isn't something that we'd hear about," she said. "But I can say that addictions are a problem for some students and what we're hearing a lot about these days is video game addiction."

In some cases, students become so addicted to video games they skip school to play video games.

Bus driver steals fares to fund gambling habit

Bus driver steals fares to fund gambling habit


A former city bus driver has dodged a criminal record after taking his longtime employer for a ride.

During a Wednesday court appearance, Ernest J. Rygus, 62, pleaded guilty to theft under $5,000.

Judge Ernie Bobowski settled on a 12-month conditional discharge, which means Rygus can say he has no criminal record as long as he successfully completes conditions of an attached probation term.

The conditions include that he continue to take counselling as directed for the gambling addiction that led to the offence.

Court heard that Rygus' case came to the city's attention when it was discovered that not as much money was coming in from the bus he was driving as they had expected.

Police officers watching Rygus' bus on July 16 discovered the reason.

Rygus was seen placing an out-of-service sign on his empty bus a couple of times, then using a coat hanger with a magnet on the end to fish coins from the coin deposit.

Overcoming gambling addiction

Stoke City: Matt Etherington's dad hails Stoke for saving son's career


Now he [Peter Etherington, Matt Etherington's dad] believes City were the best possible club for Matt, who has turned his life around on and off the pitch since moving to the Britannia.

Peter contacted The Sentinel to say he will always be grateful to Stoke City and Tony Pulis for their help as his 29-year-old son has put his football career back on track while overcoming his gambling addiction.

Matt reckons he has lost about £1.5m on gambling and was still in the grip of the addiction when he moved to Stoke in January 2009.

But he has confronted his problems and is beating them, having not gambled for a year.

Ultimately, only Matt himself could make the decision to change, but his dad says Stoke have done his son proud.

He said: "Stoke City have helped him in a big way. They have been there for him and have understood him.

Seeing Matt thrive at the Britannia has been a joy for his family, who felt helpless when he was consumed by gambling.

Peter added: "It was horrible for the whole family. You would wake up and get a phone call saying there was something in a newspaper about Matt. It wasn't nice and a lot of what was said about him was untrue.

"But, yes, he had a problem and, to his credit, he has overcome that.

"As a family we were there for him and, since he stopped gambling 12 months ago we have supported him.

"But you can only help your kids if they want to be helped. They have to be the ones to lead the way.

Dealer sold drugs to fund gambling

Dealer sold drugs to fund gambling

A man who admitted dealing drugs to fund his gambling addiction has been sentenced to 100 hours of community service at Londonderry Crown Court.

A police sniffer dog found 145 grams of herbal cannabis hidden in the Creggan home of Sean James Morrison (27) on February 12 this year.

Morrison admitted £1,712 cash was the proceeds of his drug dealing.

Judge Piers Grant also ordered Morrison to take part in programmes for his gambling, drugs and alcohol problems.

Macau to be 'controlled'

Sands China Drops as Xinhua Says Macau Casino Curbs

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Sands China Ltd., Asia’s second- biggest casino operator by market value, dropped the most in almost a year in Hong Kong after Xinhua News Agency said Macau will tighten control of its casino industry.

Macau’s government will tighten control of the number of new casinos, gaming tables and slot machines, state-run Xinhua reported yesterday, citing the city’s Chief Executive Fernando Chui. Regulators in the only place in China where casinos are legal will also enhance supervision, especially the auditing of financial records, it said.

Macau will exclude casinos from allowed uses for land newly filled in from the sea, instead earmarking it for public housing and industries that will help the economy expand beyond gambling, .....

Las Vegas Sands fell 5.8 percent to $46.24 in New York trading yesterday, the most in more than four months. Melco Crown declined 4.2 percent and Wynn Resorts Ltd. slid 3.3 percent.

Las Vegas losses

Continued Losses for the Las Vegas Hilton

The Owners of the Las Vegas Hilton

Colony Capital, LLC of Los Angeles and Goldman Sachs are the partnership that owns the Las Vegas Hilton. They claim to have lost $14.796 million in the third quarter which ended September 30th. One year ago they showed a loss of $13.168 million. Overall, net revenue further fell from $44.3 million to $39.5 million.

Also, casino revenue declined by 18.4 percent to approximately $15 million because of the decrease in table game and slot- activity. Hotel room revenue fell to $15.2 million due to a decline in rented rooms. Overall, the Las Vegas Hilton contains 2,950 rooms. Additionally, food and beverage revenue dropped by 9.1 percent to $12.9 million as a result of decreasing convention business.