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10/7/2008: Canada’s Gambling Watch Network’s Newsletter
Canada’s Gambling Watch Network’s Newsletter
Volume 10 Issue 007 CWE October 06 2008
Finance
Magna shares take a hit as Russian sells stake to creditors reports that a Russian billionaire disclosed yesterday that the global financial crisis has forced him to sell his 20% stake in Magna to creditors that helped fund his $1.54B U.S. deal. Magna is of a great importance to Canada’s horseracing lovers.
Horseracing
Horseracing firm seeks extension, an article in The 10/3/08 Montreal Gazette, reports that Attractions Hippiques, the private operator of Quebec’s four horseracing tracks, will request today in Superior Court a 120-day extension of its creditor protection.
The protection was due to expire Oct. 7 after a previous extension was extended from July 24. The company, which entered creditor protection at the end of June, says it’s confident that with extra time, a plan of arrangement acceptable to its creditors can be worked out.
On 10/4/08 a 3-page item on Canadian Gambling News And Issues is so wordy that the article says: ‘the betting card is next to impossible to figure out, because of the distances and the class of the races’.
Cyber
Cryptologic Helps Casino Sites to Be More Secure, an article found on 10/1/08 Casino Bonus News, writes about a partnership settlement between Cryptologic and Ethoca that will result in less fraud. What we would like to see is no Online gambling at all. It causes many people – young and old – to become addicted gamblers. Cryptologic is an original Canadian manufacturer of Internet software now situated in Ireland. A 10/2/08 CP item says that it obtained its first licensing deal in Russia.
Lottery
Another scandal:
A Windsor woman accused of stealing her aged husband’s winning lottery ticket was arrested by the OPP yesterday along with her daughter, who claimed the $3.5-million prize,
is the opening sentence of a 10/2/08 article in The Ottawa Citizen.
Mary Patricia Moore, 59, and daughter Bobbie-Jo Arnold, 39, are charged with fraud over $5,000, possession of property obtained by crime, false pretences and uttering a forged document. The two women were to spend the night in a Windsor jail and appear in provincial court this morning for a bail hearing, said OPP Staff Sgt. Mike Guilfoyle. A special team of OPP officers who probe “suspicious” lottery wins began investigating Ms. Moore and Ms. Arnold in late April, Staff Sgt. Guilfoyle said’. A day later this paper reports that the Ontario women were granted bail in the lottery theft case.
Winning ticket rejected - OLG vows investigation, an item in The 10/3/08 Windsor Star, is of special interest to our Editor. Every morning I see table after table in the nearby mall in use by obviously addicted scratch ticket users who are still being fed with more tickets by lottery staff. I’m still hoping that some reporter will talk to them. Occasionally I have a conversation with one of those ‘players’ who says he knows no better way to spend his money! We’ve seen no further news about the promised investigation.
Gambling related Crime
Gambling on Taking Cash Given by Casino ATM Leads to Arrest, an item in the 10/2/08 Online Casino Advisory, writes that records show that at a Gary Indiana casino hundreds attempted to take advantage of the malfunctioning ATM to get cash from invalid, closed, or overdrawn accounts.
Alberta
A good bet is the heading of a short item in The 10/4/08 Calgary Herald by Jake McArthur.
The last time I looked, that dump known as Black Bear Crossing was within walking distance to the new Tsuu T’ina multi-million dollar casino. Perhaps Peter Manywounds could clean up some of those tax-free, smoke-permeated dollar bills that flow into the casino daily and look after those folks still living in that hellhole.
British Columbia
128k stolen from dying kids, an article in The 10/3/08 Vancouver Province, reports that a founding member of the Help Fill A Dream Foundation pleaded guilty to stealing more than $128,000 from the children’s charity. We’ll try to keep our eyes on this case to find out if gambling was involved in losing that money.
Ontario
Missing man a gambler police say an article in The 10/1/08 Toronto Star, reports that Chi Ngu Ngo has been missing since last Wednesday, that his cell phone is turned off and his car is also missing.
In Gambling has many facets good and bad we read that Roger Horbay of the Game Planit Interactive Corp, a company that provides a variety of different products and services to both prevent consumers from developing gambling problems and assist those who are problem gamblers, states gambling’s economic impacts are really cleverly disguised by the province. Bill Rutsey, president and CEO of the Canadian Gaming Association denies that gambling is being abused and causes serious social and economic consequences. The fact that Rutsey calls gambling GAMING is enough to totally distrust him.
Quebec
‘When financial markets operate like a casino, we all lose’ is the heading of a letter to the Gazette’s Editor from Phyllis Vineberg that appeared in The 10/2/08 Montreal Gazette.
Prince Edward Island
On Monday, 9/29/08 The Guardian reported that the provincial government has decided not to fund new grandstands for the Summerside Raceway, and in the 10/1 paper we’re told that horsemen are shocked by this decision. One idea mentioned is that the ALC might give the horsemen help in this case. We doubt that horseracing is really a sound business!
Nova Scotia
Clark guilty of hoops fraud, an article in The 10/3/08 Chronicle Herald, reports that Gerald William Clark has admitted to defrauding two not-for-profit basketball associations of close to $150,000. It seems that no gambling was involved in this fraud.
Atlantic Canada
‘Gambling Awareness Week will bring an interactive community education display to the Mayflower Mall, Sunday’ is a line in The 4/10/08 Cape Breton Post. We wonder if that week will really warn against the dangers of gambling. It is a sad fact that this part of Canada has absorbed a lot of gambling’s culture by having so many Video Lottery Terminals.
No reader comments yet - add yours See related articles: Activism, Gambling Watch Canada Network Newsletter 
Administrator10/5/2008: The National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling
NCAGE, Stop Predatory Gambling chairman Dr. Guy C. Clark today charged some in congress with trying to slip sweeping changes to Internet gambling laws through in the tumultuous last days of the 110th Congress. Our nation stands at the brink of economic meltdown, with major financial institutions failing and ordinary citizens losing their homes on a scale not seen since the Great Depression.
The current economic crisis has been caused by greed and unfettered Wall Street gambling. Lenders, borrowers, and financial institutions have gambled with unsound ventures, risking not only their own futures, but those of the taxpayers who must now bail them out,” Clark said.
Clark, heads the only national organization dedicated to stopping the spread of what his group calls predatory gambling. He noted that one presidential candidate has charged that Wall Street has developed a casino culture.”Incredibly, some in Congress want to use this occasion to promote that same casino culture through an unprecedented expansion of gambling,” he said.
Representative Barney Frank chairs the powerful House Finance Committee.
Frank has been critical of the bailout legislation proposed by the Administration, insisting on, among other things, protection for ordinary homeowners whose mortgages are at risk of foreclosure.
“That is to his credit. How ironic, then, that Frank should also be leading the charge to legalize this predatory Internet gambling industry.
If he is successful, many American homeowners will lose their homes, retirement funds, and college savings due to participation in a highly risky activity that is generally banned under current U.S. law,” say Clark.
Though he failed earlier this year, a new version of his gambling expansion bill (HR 6870) swept through committee in the furor of last weeks economic panic and could easily be attached to other legislation and passed in the few remaining days of this session, Clark warns.
Frank’s bill would not only reverse the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 that prohibits financial institutions from funding of illegal Internet gambling; it would also reverse long-standing state and Federal laws, including the 1961 Interstate Wire Act, that have banned Internet gambling outright in most circumstances.
National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling
10/5/2008: Missouri’s Proposition A
Supporters say it doesn’t matter that the gambling industry wrote and bankrolled the promotion of Missouri’s Proposition A, a measure that would erase the nation’s only casino loss limit and get rid of what some see as intrusive identification cards.
What does matter, they say, is that the “Schools First Elementary and Secondary Education Funding Initiative” would bring in more than $100 million a year in additional revenue for schools and millions more for the state and communities where the casinos operate - all without raising taxes.
And they warn that rejection of the measure would mean a loss of nearly $50 million a year in taxes and admission fees because of new casinos in Kansas, and possibly cause some people to lose their jobs.
“If it fails, Missouri will continue to be at a competitive disadvantage with our neighboring states,” said Scott Charton, spokesman for the Yes on A Coalition. “We will continue to lose revenue to those states, and the loss will increase dramatically. Up to $200 million annually will flow from Missouri to Kansas if nothing is changed in Missouri law.”
Missouri is the only state that has a loss limit, and casino supporters say that’s causing some high rollers to go elsewhere. A Missouri Gaming Commission survey showed that 30 percent of Missouri gamblers go someplace else because of the loss limits and the lack of privacy they perceive because of ID tracking cards used to enforce the limits.
On the other side:
Casino Watch, an anti-gambling organization based in St. Louis, says Proposition A supporters are deceiving voters by saying the measure is all about education.
“When it comes down to it, it has everything to do with casinos and gambling and nothing to do with schools and the economy,” said Evelio Silvera, executive director of Casino Watch. “The Prop A people, if they campaigned straight on the things they really are trying to do, they know the numbers. Our side would win every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
“The way to win this election is to make it all about something it isn’t.”
10/2/2008: John McCain and the gambling industry
A follow-up now from the other day when The Brody File reported that the Democratic National Committee released web ads slamming McCain for his lobbyist ties to the gambling industry.
The web ads are now up on places like Beliefnet.com, the Drudge Report, the American Prospect and many more.
Click here and here and here to see some images appearing on the sites for the ad. The web buy is pretty hefty.thousands of dollars.
The Brody File
A Gallop poll found 63% of US citizens don’t think gambling is a moral issue. The Barna Group found younger people and male evangelicals are less likely to see gambling as a moral issue.
9/29/2008: Gambling Watch Canada Network Newsletter
Volume 10 Issue 006 September 29, 2008
Horseracing
In Ontario it is very obvious that lovers of horseracing are worrying about their future. On 9/24/08 an article in the Niagara Falls review urges the province to get active on the $300-million redevelopment proposal surrounding the Fort Eie’s track property, owned and operated by Nordic Gaming Corporation. Two days later this paper mentions that track again, and on that same date the Toronto Star publishes a six-page article giving the horse names and the amounts of the purses of Woodbine’s thoroughbred selections. On 9/27/08 the Canadian Gambling News and Issues writes that Fort Erie’s Future Is In Doubt Again while the Niagara Falls Review says that the anxiety is growing over Erie’s racetrack’s future.
On 9/28/08 an article in the Edmonton Sun reports, Things looking up for harness racing in Alberta
Finance
Even Las Vegas hit by downturn, a 9/25/08 Windsor Star item, states that Las Vegas these days has resorts that are discounting and even giving away room nights just to attract enough people to keep their roulette wheels and slot machines spinning.
Canada
Canadians losing more to gambling, 9/27/08 Canwest News Service;
Canadians contributed five times more to government coffers through gambling last year than they did 15 years before, a new Statistics Canada report shows, with residents of the Prairie provinces spending the most. Revenues from lotteries, casinos, slot machines and video lottery terminals soared to $13.6 billion in 2007 from $2.7 billion in 1992. The 2007 revenues were up from $13.3 billion in 2006. The average Canadian spent $524 courting Lady Luck last year, ranging from a low of $121 in the territories to a high of $890 in Alberta, followed by Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Alberta
Bookkeeper jailed for $48,000 fraud is once again an example of crime caused by what our governments call ‘gaming’. It reports that Brenda Westerson, 47, wrote fraudulent cheques to feed a gambling addiction before and after her employment at Superior Power Products. The motivation for the crime was to fund her serious problem with her VLT addiction. She’ll be jailed for one year and is ordered to make full restitution, noting she has not yet paid back any of the stolen funds.
Alberta gamblers biggest spenders in Canada is an item related to the Canada section. It reports that Alberta gamblers spend an average of $890 a year on everything from scratch tickets to bingo cards, the highest amount in the country, well above Canada’s $524 average.
British Columbia
Slot machines in question, an item in The 9/25/08 Vernon Morning Star reports that the city council has adopted a bylaw that would limit the number of slot machines in the community to 300, although plans for the new Lake City Casino outlet, which is under construction, called for 400 machines. The B.C. Lottery Corporation, which owns the machines, isn’t sure if it will only install 300 slots or go ahead with 400.
Ontario
Casino Windsor gets a sparkling update as it becomes part of the Caesars chain an item in The 9/21/08 Cleveland Plain Dealer, reminds us of the fact that the Ontario Lottery Corporation, a government entity, spent more than $400 million into the Windsor casino as a dramatic reaction to competition from across the river in Detroit, where three casinos opened in this decade.
‘Rama band loses fight to keep 250M casino profit’ is an item in The 9/23/08 Windsor Star.
The Mnjikaning (Rama) First Nation did not have a valid contract entitling it to an ongoing 35 per cent share of profits at the casino, said Ontario Superior Court Justice Arthur Gans. The judge ruled in favour of the Chiefs of Ontario, which represents more than 130 native bands in the province, that these funds were to be shared among all First Nations.
‘OLG Slots at Western Fair Raceway (in London) celebrates ninth anniversary’ is an article in the 9/26/08 Sault Ste. Marie paper. (CNW Group) It talks of complimentary cake and coffee on the gaming floor at 11 a.m on Sunday and;
…the 311 direct jobs with an annual payroll of more than $14 million, which helps to support the community through the purchase of goods and services. As the host community for OLG Slots at Western Fair Raceway, the municipality has received more than $31.6 million in non-tax gaming revenue since the facility opened.
Casino scam spanned Canada-US border, an article in The 9/27/08 Brantford Expositor, reports one of the criminal consequences related to gambling: cheating.
No one knew about the Tran Organization; it then gives a 2-page story about the gang that cheated loads of money.
‘In Brantford, they got away with just $70,000 before the police shut down the operation, but at Casino Rama the gang took more than $2 million. In the U. S., the take was more than $30 million.’
Quebec
When the Montreal Gazette reports on the figures given in the Canada section, it adds that Quebecers spend $450 on average per year.
I cannot resist quoting some more of this article:
The average Canadian spent $524 courting Lady Luck last year, ranging from a low of $121 in the territories to a high of $890 in Alberta, followed by Saskatchewan and Manitoba. “This is a massive amount of money, but when you really get down to it, it’s also a massive amount of harm that’s being done to individuals, families and communities,” said Doug Little, an Ottawa resident who wrote a book chronicling the gambling addiction that cost him his marriage and job more than a decade ago. “Of that $13.6 billion that’s made … it’s actually the losses of the gamblers. That’s the reality.”
I’m tempted to add my ‘AMEN’ to this.
New Brunswick
Horsemen offered piece of VLT program, an article in The 9/23/08 Telegraph Journal, writes that the NB government is betting the province’s harness racing industry can become sustainable and self-sufficient with the help of revenue from 150 video-lottery terminals. News like that makes us wonder if that province’s politicians have forgotten that VLTs belong to the most satanic gambling devices. They are well-known like that by people who have lost relatives to suicides related to gambling with these instruments!
The next day this paper in The future’s a gamble notes that ‘gaming bar’ owners worry about their businesses after harness racing industry gets 150 of their very addictive VLTs.
Another day later this paper writes that the Exhibition Association of the City and County of Saint John sees this Video Lottery plan as A window of opportunity for new recreational facilities for the community. And it could be great news for the recreation file for the city and surrounding communities!
On 9/26/08 the Times & Transcript in Slots or VLTs What’s the difference? reports that the opening of Casino New Brunswick in Moncton in 2010 will inject 600 slot machines into the province’s gambling mix, that the government has also announced that it will cut the number of video lottery terminals across the province from 2,650 to 2,000 by 2010, and that, according to a top industry representative, the average player could never tell the difference between the two gambling machines.
Beyond our Border
Detroit casinos tie up smoking ban in state House, an item in The 9/23/08 Michigan Live LLC, writes that a prohibition on all indoor workplace smoking failed Tuesday to gather the 56 House votes necessary to send it to Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who would sign it into law. A day later this paper reports that Detroit’s new mayor said a smoking ban should include an exemption for Detroit’s three casinos.
International
Online gambling takes its toll, an article in the 9/23/08 Aftenposen, a Norwegian paper says:
Top community officials are among those who unwittingly lent large sums of money to finance a Norwegian bishop’s son’s gambling debts’. The bishop’s son, meanwhile, is just one of thousands of Norwegians who have a serious problem with online play. Online gambling has left thousands of Norwegians with heavy debts.
No reader comments yet - add yours See related articles: Activism, Gambling Watch Canada Network Newsletter 
J. Deviet9/26/2008: Gambling Watch Canada Network Newsletter
Volume 10 Issue 005 CWE September 22, 2008
From the Editor
I owe an apology to the regular receivers/readers of our Newsletters for the absence of our communication for some weeks. What started as an interruption of our internet connection was lengthened by some personal difficulties caused mainly by failed efforts to catch up publishing the news gathered during those days. Now I decided to let that news rest until some volunteer tries to catch it up. Now we only plan to publish the more important gambling news items that arrive from week to week.
Addiction
Casino gambling not only for fun, an WIVB 9/17/08 article out of Buffalo , contains the tale of an Ontario single mother who crossed the border and got involved in gambling. She lost $80,000 in one year, her house, the equity in it and almost ended up on the streets. She said her addiction ruined her relationship with her family.
Crime
Cheating Became Big Business For These Casino Thieves, a CasinoGamblingWeb.com 9/18/08 article, is the story of a husband and wife who started a cheat scheme so big that the investigation into it becomes the largest in U.S. history.
The cheating involved high tech communication devices, dirty dealers, and the brains to know how to put it all together. Quoc Truong and Van Thu Tran were the masterminds to what turned into a million dollar operation. The couple traveled through casinos in Canada and the U.S. working their scam to perfection. They paid off dealers, and anyone else who they felt could help them steal more money. In the end, they and dozens of their family members and associates all were busted by authorities in Canada and the United States. It was a Canadian who sold out eleven more people that were indicted in the scheme in California last week’. The investigation is still ongoing and is still netting arrests.
On that same day the London Free Press revived an old story about a company that seems to have been damaged by its leader’s gambling debt. Questions about Vanier delay fraud trial verdict
Vanier is subject to a judgment of $441,000 from MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas for unpaid gambling debts and a Los Angeles firm has sued him for US$27.5 million relating to an office he had planned to open there.
The outcome of this case is postponed again.
Police bust Etobicoke counterfeit cheque operation is a 9/19/08 Ontario story showing that all gambling promotes crime.
Police have busted a counterfeit cheque operation that cost victims across North America as much as $2.1 million. Victims received the fake cheques in the mail – disguised as lottery winnings or investment offers – with instructions to cash them and wire the bulk of the money to a phony company, say the OPP. Victims were left on the hook for the missing money when the bank realized the cheques weren’t real. Police identified over 1,200 victims in an investigation that included the OPP, the Vancouver Police Dpt and the United States Postal Service.
Cyber
New Online Casino Games Featured at All Slots, a 9/15/08 Online Casino Advisory, Ltd article, reports that all Slots online casino has released several new games which figure to be winners as well as generating winners. Among the three new games are Sir Winsalot Video Slot, Deuces Wild Level-Up Poker, and First Past the Post Video Slot.
Finance
An AP article that appeared in The 9/18/08 Calgary Sun reminds us of the fact that the life of every human being is subjected to all kinds of chances. The AP titled it: ‘AIG gamble could pay big time for Yanks’ and it deals with just one thing that might have effects on millions of US citizens. All humans are continually subjected to all sorts of chances that are beyond our control, and the fact that our mob-minded governments added what they hypocritically call ‘gaming’ to these chances is a criminal piracy that for many years was forbidden. It’s still a sad fact that too many of us fall for that piracy by being idiot enough to buy lottery tickets and visiting casinos. If our present national government was really conservative it would have outlawed that ‘gaming’ years ago!
Markets are like casinos, an item in The 9/20/08 Toronto Star, opines that today’s investors act like gamblers.
Horseracing
The 9/15 Toronto Star carried a 5 page item on Mohawk Standardbred selections.
Loans tighten reins on racetrack firm, an article in The 9/16/08 Toronto Star, reports that “Magna Entertainment needs a deal by Oct. 31 so it can find money or reorganize to stay alive.”
The company, which has major interests in horse racetracks and corresponding gambling and broadcasting assets, is on the brink of collapse unless it can raise cash for operations or restructure.
Magna gets OK to use 2 million to promote slots, a 9/17/08 Baltimore Sun item, state that the owner of Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park has secured permission from its parent company to use up to $2 million to encourage voters to authorize slot- machine- gambling in Maryland this November, company officials announced.
Racinos give horse industry ray of hope, a 9/19/08 Business Edge item, confirms that the many gambling opportunities of these days cut 35 to 40% in betting at racetracks across North America.
Ontario
Cashing in on casino addicts, a 9/15/08 item in The Hamilton Spectator, writes that the question is how much responsibility should the province take with problem gamblers, when it owns the casinos and racetrack slot machines which are managed by the OLG.
Haven’t we argued enough times that our mob-minded governments are totally at fault? The article writes that Paul Isaacs and his mother have filed a $3-million negligence suit against the OLG and Falls Management Company, which operates Casino Niagara and Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort.
Regulate gambling properly and reap the economic rewards is a 9/15/08 Welland Tribune article making this suggestion on Cyber gambling (including poker).
Court ruling a blow to Rama, an item in The 9/20/08 Orillia Packet & Times, reports that a Superior Court ruling dismissed a Chippewas of Rama bid to retain 35% of net revenue from Casino Rama.
Quebec
Note from Sol Boxenbaum: Because I will testify as an expert witness on November 13/ 08 I am not allowed to be in the courtroom during testimony from other witnesses. I am however receiving feedback on a daily basis and will keep you updated.
Gambling was like a drug, a Loto-Québec plaintiff says’ is the title of an item in The 9/16/08 Ottawa Citizen reporting that after years of legal wrangling, the hearing of a potentially crippling class-action lawsuit against Loto-Québec has opened in Quebec City with the testimony of a former journalist, Mr. Nelson Labrie, 69, who squandered more than $360,000 in video lottery terminals. Mr. Nelson Labrie, 69, who worked for newspaper Le Soleil for more than 25 years.
Mr. Labrie is part of a group of pathological gamblers who filed a class-action lawsuit against Loto-Québec seeking compensation for addicts, estimated by the plaintiffs to number 119,000 in the province.
Suit against Loto-Québec makes little sense is an opinion piece in the 9/17/08 Gazette that assumes the powers that be do enough to prevent gambling addiction. A day later the paper published a letter from Phyllis Vineberg, a Montreal mother who lost a son to his gambling addiction and who is in favour of the ongoing court case.
GWG reacts: Letter to Montreal Gazette
Gambling ‘like drug,’ court hears at start of suit against Loto-Quebec (September 15, 2008)
Anti-VLT activist Phyllis Vineberg - whose son Trevor committed suicide in 1995 after he had spent $100,000 on VLTs - will follow the trial very closely.
“We often talk about second-hand smoke, now it’s time we start talking about second-hand gambling. Too many families have been torn apart by this,” Vineberg said.
“Gambling is not a game, it never was and it will never be a game,” she added, waiting outside the courtroom where she is set to testify later this fall.
Saskatchewan
First Nations spar over proposed casino is a 9/16/08 item of Saskatchewan News Network,
A battle is brewing among First Nations over a proposed new casino for North Battleford and the millions in expected profits. The Battleford Tribal Council (BTC) wants to replace the existing Gold Eagle Casino and has sent a letter to North Battleford city council detailing its plans. But Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) vice-chief Morley Watson says the BTC is getting ahead of itself. “We have to build a new casino in North Battleford, but for any tribal council to say they want to build it is very, very premature,” Watson said.”Boy, they haven’t let us know and we have the agreement with the province. I’m not sure what they’re doing or what they’re thinking.”
BTC is suing the FSIN after the federation gave control of Gold Eagle profits last year to a new tribal council.
Newfoundland
Gambling in court, a 9/17 Editorial in The Telegram, writes that St. John’s lawyer Ches Crosbie is seeking to have a class-action case registered, arguing that the ALC is engaging in deceptive trade practices by not disclosing complete information about the VLTs and heir profits while the ALC is trying to head the lawsuit off at the pass. It argues that, as a provincially owned lottery, the ALC is specifically exempted from the province’s deceptive trade practice laws.
Nova Scotia
The title Highly visible advertising has embedded gambling in our culture, of a 9/18/08 item in Metro Halifax shows that this province isn’t better of than our others.
United States
Win big in Vegas? Fill out IRS forms is an item in The 9/15/08 Montreal Gazette informing Canadian gambling winners in the US that they might get their paid taxes back.
International
Estonia’s addiction to gambling brings cash and death, an article in the 9/18 afp:
There are more than 90 casinos in Tallinn, where the population of 400,000 people has now been boosted by gamblers from across Europe who are spreading an addiction to the poker tables and fruit machines to the locals. Some addicts have committed suicide after losing their money. Last year one man drowning in gambling debts killed his wife and children before hanging himself.
No reader comments yet - add yours See related articles: Gambling Watch Canada Network Newsletter
J. Deviet9/25/2008: Good advice. Avoid cra$h flow
Ban on betting would boost ailing economy gambling critic says
September 23, 2008 PhysOrg
Congress should resurrect the nationwide gambling ban that existed through most of the 20th century to help soothe a fragile U.S. economy shaken by the worst credit and financial crisis in decades, a University of Illinois professor and national gambling critic says.
John W. Kindt argues that gambling is a multi-billion dollar drag on the economy, not the moneymaking boost touted by supporters. Cash merely changes hands from bettors to casino owners, he says, creating no products or anything else of value.
If the estimated $100 billion now spent annually on gambling – mostly slot machines – went into consumer spending instead, economic models show it would generate more than $300 billion for the nation’s slumping economy and create jobs and services, said Kindt, a professor of business and legal policy. He says Congress should also repeal more than $40 billion in tax write-offs for slot machine owners.
A ban also would save hundreds of billions in costs to society stemming from gambling addictions, bankruptcies and crime that studies show increases when casinos open, he said.
“No. 1, a ban would pump prime the economy,” Kindt said. “No. 2, it would lower pressure on taxes because you wouldn’t have as many new addicted gamblers, bankruptcies and crime. So you’re eliminating substantial social costs, you’re improving quality of life overall and as John F. Kennedy said, ‘a rising tide lifts all boats.’ ”
A ban would not solve the lingering economic turmoil that has left the nation teetering on the brink of recession, said Kindt, who has studied gambling since Illinois first allowed riverboat casinos nearly two decades ago.
“But it’s a step in the right direction and would halt the spread of gambling that is destabilizing world economies and financial markets,” he said.“It also would send good economic signals to less stable countries that they can’t gamble their way to prosperity.”
Kindt said Russia re-criminalized 2,230 casinos and slot machine facilities in 2007.
“What do the Russians know that the U.S. hasn’t figured out?” he said.
Kindt says gambling has spawned a potentially dangerous speculative bubble in international financial markets as decades of industry growth have created exaggerated expectations that far outstrip real value. If the bubble bursts, he says, the ripple effect on the U.S. economy could rival the subprime mortgage crisis that sparked the nation’s latest economic woes.
“In the subprime crisis, at least you had some real estate in assets,” Kindt said. “What assets do you have with gambling? Slot machines? Gambling is built on sand. There’s nothing there. It isn’t built on rock.”
Markets outside the U.S. have already seen the potential consequences, he said. A Gibraltar-based gaming company saw its London Stock Exchange value plunge from $10 billion to $2.4 billion in one day after the U.S. voted to increase sanctions on Internet gambling in 2006.
“It’s fun and games,” Kindt said of the gambling industry. “The question is do you want fun and games, addicted gamblers, bankruptcy and crime or do you want economic development and international financial stability?”
While states routinely turn to gambling as a quick, short-term fix for revenue shortfalls, Kindt says history shows betting isn’t the answer. He said President Franklin D. Roosevelt used jobs programs and other initiatives – not gambling – to pull the nation out of the deepest depression in modern times.
“The point is you didn’t see FDR and you won’t see the federal government saying that gambling will save us,” Kindt said. “It’s just the opposite.”
He says the 1999 U.S. National Gambling Impact Study Commission called for a moratorium on the expansion of any type of gambling anywhere, but the move failed in the face of opposition by the gambling industry’s powerful lobby.
But he says gambling critics hope their odds improve based on talk during this year’s presidential campaign to limit the influence of special interests in Washington.
“If people really want to take risks, they should take educated risks as entrepreneurs or with the stock market,” Kindt said. “They also should ask if slot machines are ‘fair.’ “
Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
9/22/2008: Vulnerable consumers
What’s distressing about Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz’s listeriosis “joke” is not that he has a streak of black humour running through his soul. Most of us do. Nor is it that he made a comment in bad taste. Many suffer lapses of judgment.
Rather, Ritz’s remark is unnerving because it is far too indicative of the Conservative government’s casual attitude toward an epidemic that has already killed 18.
Indeed, most authorities have been remarkably sanguine about the contaminated cold-cut scandal. Even as victims were dying, the mood of officialdom was eerily self-congratulatory.
“This is an example of where our surveillance system worked,” federal Health Minister Tony Clement said last month. Meanwhile, Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty lavished praise on his officials for recognizing “that we had a real issue.”
Even most media have been relatively blasé, treating this epidemic as just one of those things – tragic perhaps, but unpreventable.
But is it? The editors of the Canadian Medical Association Journal certainly don’t think so. They issued a blistering editorial this week in their peer-reviewed journal, which is hardly a radical mouthpiece.
Their points are worth repeating:
First, this outbreak is not just one of those things that occur from time to time. It is the “worst epidemic of listeriosis in the world.”
Second, the ultimate cause is not the listeria bacterium. Rather it “may” lie in what the journal calls “risky government decisions” to hand over food inspection to the food companies themselves.
Third, those decisions – which the journal says have “reversed much of the progress” made in the field of public health – have affected far more than cold cuts. By letting animal feed mill operators inspect themselves, Ottawa has increased the risk of mad cow disease. By cutting back Canada’s bird flu program, it has left the country open to a major pandemic. more
Letter to Thomas Walkom
The Toronto Star
Monday Sept 22, 2008
Thank you for excellent article. Read and reread it a number of times.
Then I found an article January 9, 2005 which begins with a letter from the CMAH to the Ontario minister of Health George Smitherman.
The letter refers to nearly half a million addicted gambling Ontarians.
Have we had an up to date tally on other addictions, alcohol, tobacco, and substance abuse ?
The title suggests “Addicts simply unable to make right choices”.
This certainly ties into “No joke for vulnerable consumers.”
Prime target market for OLG when citizens cannot make right choices.
There is not a report written, a mention, a reference, a prevalence number, a public health link, that does not connect suicide as a side effect of gambling. In spite of The Canada Safety Council writing to every Prime Minister; of numbers upwards of two hundred plus suicides per year, do media and public health departments pay attention?
In Canada gambling money goes to Public Health with no regard to costs to citizens.
All the same points are worth repeating.
Self regulation ?
Prime example in court room in Hamilton. OLG publishes a statement that it spent $133,000 in perks and comps on Paul Issacs to siphon some $500,000 plus, from Paul Issacs mother’s bank account. This occurred over a ten year period.
What a cruel relentless pursuit of an addicted gambler.
If pit bulls can be outlawed; aren’t these social pit bulls?
As you finish, ” when you have a powerful incentive to make short term profits, collisions can occur”
one result is crash flow.
California which is similar size to Canada reports 32,000 gambling citizens in jail.
Certainly there is no duty of care.
I realize your article was on Listeriosis, but it could have been on gambling.
Maybe the next one should be.
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bill clark9/19/2008: Letter to Montreal Gazette
re: Suit against Loto-Quebec makes little sense
As a retired Quebec community pharmacist, I feel I must disagree and state that Lotto Quebec must be held responsible.The total concept that gambling is entertainment and not without risk has never been true. If I had charge and was responsible for narcotics and addictive chemicals, then Lotto Quebec must be held responsible for marketing an equally addictive product without any responsibility. Addictive products were designated by the Food & Drug department, and gambling produces same addictive characteristics, including brain chemical changes. A simple CSA sticker stating that the machine is grounded, etc, is not adequate as a warning.
People are not born gamblers. They become gamblers when exposed to certain sequence of lucky hits. (B F Skinner) The Pavlovian aspects of gambling were summarized as “pigeon, rat or human“, to whom gambling is addictive. If you want to train a laboratory rat to push a button, don’t reward him with a food pellet after every push - vary the number of pushes required for the payoff. Give him a pellet after four pushes one time - 16 the next time, then three, then 23.By manipulating the length between payoffs, researchers can lead a rat, pigeon, or human into addictive behaviours. They could stretch the ratio to the point where that rat would literally drop from exhaustion. These principles led to the “ concept of gambling addiction “ as the variable schedule of reinforcement which would operate to produce an addiction to gambling in a percentage of the public“. (see Michigan State Law review Vol 2003 Summer Issue 2 p 302) VLTs and slot machines today are the fine tuned instruments to maximize this effect. Nevada, break open tickets, scratch tickets, and many lottery product tickets are the equivalent of disposable paper slots used to enlarge the market. This allows equally addictive products at every corner store, and sadly on every counter in every drug store that stopped selling tobacco products. If you want to see this in action, grab a coffee, go and sit next to a lottery counter, watch and observe people buy and scratch tickets…some are break open tickets, observe many return time after time to buy more, and more and more. Many parents share them with children to open and share. Same routine, many, day after day. Especially when welfare or pension cheques come in. Can this be termed predatory by this practice ?
Anyone can pick out an addict, and all of the ticket sellers know those who are addicted, and many “players” know they are addicted.
How many ? a 2004 letter to Ontario Minister of Health mentioned close to 500,000 addicted gamblers just in Ontario.
If one pathological gambler has a spouse, a child, a parent, a boss maybe, that is a huge number of affected Canadians What kind of government subverts its own tax paying citizens, creates addicts needing extra public health services, who for themselves can only serve their addiction ? We now have well over one million Canadians . As a pharmacist, I am sure this product from a pharmaceutical company never would have been allowed. But in this industry, promoters cannot be regulators. EVERY gambling study warns of elevated suicide numbers caused by this addiction. If this side effect were allowed to go unchecked in Pharmacy, as in all provincial gambling, Public Health would scream. Gaming, le jeu, is classed as entertainment, and the public is allowed to over dose on this entertainment.. And, the best part, the promoters blame the addict. It is so easy, voluntary, yes, his/her choice. Well, in this addiction, the addict has no choice. compulsive, pathological, yes, mess your pants, wear depends, whatever, this is addiction, but duty of care. I don’t think so.
Poor Paul Isaacs…(in litigation in Ontario) a gambler in Hamilton On . over a 10 year period The Ontario Lottery Corporation invested $133,000 to assure his continued addiction all the while draining his mothers bank account, and OLG ended up a million dollars ahead. Bad enough to be addicted, perks are one thing, enticement is another, your own hostess… catering to every desire wow, hard for any one to handle. Harassment ? assigned a personal $ocial pit bull by the casino. The last 11 litigation’s in Ontario, OLG has settled out of court imposing non disclosure . A crown corporation, for public health, not wanting that the public know the dangers of addiction. That is why, as you state, gambling as a social health problem, and solving it is their responsibility, and duty. .
In 100,000 + persons involved in this Quebec litigation, you mention a $$ amount, why doesn’t anyone assess the individuals side? How many years, yes, family years, employers, and workplace, are suffering in all of this. No dollar amount will bring back a lost son. NO one heeded the letters from the Canadian Safety Council to all premiers about gambling suicide. Perhaps, if the papers printed a little photo and story, of each suicide in Canada from gambling. Would attitudes change ? Especially, promoters being self regulators… ? If, just if, gambling was a private business, not tied to tax raising for government, our public health authorities would be screaming……a new epidemic… maybe even G difficile. (gambling), or G (overnment)
In the end, one must see the casino’s self interest . Reports tell us that 35 + % of the gambling money comes from a small 5 % of people, they need addiction to prevent crash flow. !
Thank you
w a clark B.Ph. L.Ph. B.Ed north bay on
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bill clark9/17/2008: Addiction, enticement, harassment and cruelty
Letter to Hamilton Spectator Sept 15 2008
re: Gambler seeks big cash in suit against casino
Cashing in on casino addicts Sept 15 2008
People are not born gamblers. They become gamblers when exposed to certain sequences of lucky hits. (B F Skinner) The Pavlovian aspects of gambling were summarized as “pigeon, rat or human“, gambling is addictive. If you want to train a laboratory rat to push a button, don’t reward him with a food pellet after every push - vary the number of pushes required for the payoff. Give him a pellet after four pushes one time - 16 the next time, then three, then 23.
By manipulating the length between payoffs, researchers can lead a rat, pigeon, or human into addictive behaviours. They could stretch the ratio to the point where that rat would literally drop from exhaustion. These principles led to the “ concept of gambling addiction“ as the variable schedule of reinforcement would operate to produce an addiction to gambling in a percentage of the public“. (see Michigan State Law review Vol 2003 Summer Issue 2 p 302)
If you want to see this in action, grab a coffee, go and sit next to a lottery counter and watch and observe people buy and scratch tickets.
Some are break-open tickets, observe many return time after time.
Same routine, many, day after day. Especially when welfare or pension cheques come in.
Anyone can pick out an addict, and all of the ticket sellers know those who are addicted, and many “players” know they are addicted.
Today one lotto ticket seller told me of a person dropping $700.00 in one day.
How many?
A 2004 letter to Ontario Minister of Health mentioned close to 500,000 addicted gamblers.
If one pathological gambler has a spouse, a child, a parent, a boss maybe, that is a lot of affected Ontarians.
What kinds of government subverts its tax paying citizens, creates addicts who can only serve his/hers addiction?
500,000 tax paying Ontarians need extra public health services.
Duty of care. I don’t think so.
Poor Paul Isaacs… bad enough to be addicted; perks are one thing, enticement is another. Your own hostess catering to every desire.
The OLG admits he received $ 133,000 in perks! To a known addict.
Harassment…assigned a personal social pit bull by the casino.
In the end, one must see the casino’s side.
Reports tell us that 35+ % of the gambling money comes from a small 5% of people,
Times are hard enough. That is why casinos have to squeeze, if that 5% stopped gambling, casinos would be in a crash flow situation.
That would not do.
Well, imagine, they call it entertainment!
I call it cruel.
I had nearly 50 years in community pharmacy.
I never met a responsible addict, and I never had a patient overdose on entertainment.
On Monday this week in Quebec City, a class action started a 6 month trial signed by 119,000 addicted gamblers.
Another class action suit against OLG is coming to Ontario soon.
Another is slated for Newfoundland for gambling suicides.
Strange, some drugs cause drug addicts, alcohol causes alcohol addictions. yet it’s those bad pigeons, rats, and humans who can’t control their gaming in Ontario causing all those problems.
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bill clark