Ethics News
News: Gambling
>> = Important Articles; ** = Major Articles
Video gambling showdown in Bible Belt state (970407)
Forever Coming Up Lemons: Legalized Gambling In The United States (Free Congress Foundation, 030416)
Gambling blamed in 85 suicides every year (National Post, 040220)
State-Operated Lotteries: The Sleaze Factor (Christian Post, 050418)
A Dark Day for North Carolina (Christian Post, 050421)
Lottery Jackpot Hits $340M (Foxnews, 051018)
N.c. Judge ignores scandalous dealings, dismisses lottery lawsuit (christian post, 060329)
Junior Jackpot: Teen Gambling On the Rise (Foxnews, 060517)
Gambling: It’s Not Just A Game (Focus on the Family, 061006)
Don’t buy lottery tickets for kids, researcher warns (National Post, 071220)
Battle for gamblers in Macao gets fierce (Paris, International Herald, 080117)
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The recent openings of a casino in Hull, and another on an Indian reserve just north of Orillia demonstrate the continuing slide in the state of morality in the nation. The latest vice to come to Canada in force, gambling brings with it increases in all kinds of social problems: increased rates of drug and alcohol use, property crime, prostitution, personal indebtedness, family break-up and suicide. Studies show that between 1 and 5% of the general population will become problem (addicted) gamblers -people who will gamble away the grocery money and even steal to support their habit.
The Ontario provincial government is currently considering legislation to legalize Video Lottery Terminals, or VLTs, which are another highly addictive form of gambling device, and which would be placed in bars and restaurants across the province. There is also a proposal to hold a referendum next year on whether or not to allow casinos to open right across Ontario.
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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Video gambling in South Carolina was supposed to be no more than a couple of poker machines near the Moon pies and RC Cola, a way to help keep mom-and-pop convenience stores in business.
However, it’s exploded into a $2 billion-a-year industry and Gov. David Beasley, who calls video poker “the crack cocaine of gambling,” is leading an election-year campaign to outlaw it.
On Wednesday, the issue goes before the state’s highest court.
Lawyers representing people who lost money in the machines sued in federal court, and a federal judge asked the state Supreme Court to advise him on the machines’ legality. The justices will hear arguments Wednesday on whether video gambling violates the state constitution’s prohibition against gambling on games of chance.
The state has 31,000 video gambling machines, and casinos have sprouted on most of the state’s major commercial strips.
But the face the industry puts forward is that of the little mom-and-pop store that would be near closing if it didn’t have what the Revenue Department says is an average $20,000 yearly profit per machine.
“Our businesses depend on that revenue,” said Corky Lane, president of the South Carolina Convenience Store Association.
Gambling operators say they employ least 27,000 people and provide about $116 million in tax revenue, money they argue would otherwise would go to North Carolina’s casinos or Georgia’s lottery.
On the other side of the debate, anti-gambling activists wear pictures of 10-day-old Joy Baker.
Joy died of suffocation on a hot August day, locked in a car while her mother, Gail Baker, gambled for seven hours at the State Line Casino in Jasper County, just outside Savannah, Ga.
“If Gail was not addicted to the machines, she would not have been there and my baby would still be alive,” said Joy’s father, Julius Baker.
“Video poker is a bad thing. It sucks in people,” said Eddie Coleman of Columbia, who plays video poker and sometimes goes back to his native New Jersey to gamble in Atlantic City. “It hypnotizes the weak-minded with its flashing lights, and somehow makes you think you’re going to win eventually.”
After Joy’s death, the State Line Casino sent Baker a notice saying his wife had written a bad check.
“I would like to see the video poker industry get what it deserves,” Baker said.
Responds state Sen. Ernie Passailaigue, an industry supporter: “That’s like banning all handguns because someone got shot.”
The history of video poker in South Carolina is one of failed regulation:
—Prosecutors tried to shut down the games, but in 1991 the state Supreme Court said that while state law barred jackpot payouts directly from the machines, nothing kept a clerk or bartender from handing over the cash.
—Legislators tried regulations. Often cited is a limit of five machines per location. Poker casino operators just built up walls and installed separate electric meters and called each small room a separate business.
—Voters in a dozen counties chose to ban prize payouts from the games in a 1994 vote authorized by the Legislature. The state Supreme Court overturned that, saying the state’s criminal laws must be uniform in all 46 counties.
This year in the General Assembly, the Republican-controlled House rushed through Beasley’s proposal to ban the machines, but the measure has been blocked in the Democrat-controlled Senate by a bipartisan filibuster now in its third week. Beasley also deleted $61 million in anticipated gambling revenue from his budget that awaits legislative approval.
Gambling operators say they favor tighter regulation instead of a ban on the machines.
And they want a public referendum on whether the games should stay. When figured statewide, 58% of those voting in the 1994 vote wanted to continue payouts.
“You never go wrong trusting the people,” says one supporter, state Sen. Glenn McConnell.
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By Paul M. Weyrich
Maryland families can breathe a sigh of relief — at least temporarily. Fortunately, the attempt by Governor Robert Ehrlich (R-MD) to legalize slot machines at the state’s horse-racing tracks died despite the fact that at one time it appeared that he had public opinion on his side plus the enticing argument that the money collected from people shoving their coins into slot machines would be used to pay for education and to balance the state’s budget.
An active critic of slot machines in the Speaker of the state House of Delegates, the commitment of grassroots activists who know how destructive gambling can be to communities and family life, and some blunders by the freshman governor and his staff, allowed the anti-gambling forces to prevail...for now. But it is expected that the pro-gambling forces will be back with a new bill in the next legislative session, rewritten to devote even more money for education, thereby making it even more politically palatable.
That Maryland is considered to be an important battleground in the fight against gambling is apparent by the fact that the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling has decided to hold its annual convention there this fall. Usually, the National Coalition picks a state where gambling is a hot issue to meet, and the leaders of Maryland’s anti-gambling forces are hoping to bring state legislators to the national meeting to better acquaint them with the havoc that gambling inflicts on families and communities.
Given the concern over fast food and cigarettes, it is worth asking why not let the state legalize slot machines at racetracks? After all, neither fast food nor cigarettes are good for you, but they are legal.
Why not gambling too?
Well, as one of the leaders of the anti-gambling effort in Maryland, Kim Roman, the co-chairman of NOCasiNO Maryland and the daughter of a gambler, puts it: “How the slot machines went determined whether I would get a slug or a hug from my father.” Neither fast food nor cigarettes have been proven to cause people to go bankrupt, beat their children, or to commit suicide.
When the Louisville Courier-Journal published a special section late last year on the problems associated with gambling in Kentucky and Indiana, it found that “gambling-related thefts, embezzlements and bankruptcies are on the rise, as are calls to hot lines. And many families in the region are paying the price.”
The idea that only a relatively few gamblers have problems with addiction may sound convincing, but not if one realizes that the problem gamblers often inflict damage on those closest to them, usually their spouse and children. Nor when it becomes clear that attempting to balance state budgets by legalized gaming is a losing strategy.
Otherwise, why would Gov. Kenny Guinn of Nevada tell his legislature in this year’s State of the State address that Nevada’s economic strategy, reliant primarily on tourism and gambling, is a failed one because it has relied on “regressive and unstable” taxes. Now, in the wake of September 11th and the slowdown in tourism, the weakness of that strategy has become all too clear.
However, other states see an opportunity to improve their own finances through legalized gambling as people want to stay closer to home but still gamble. Consider this: all the money collected by casinos that went to Nevada’s state government has not improved family values. Guinn specifically mentioned that Nevada ranks high in high school dropout rates and teenage pregnancy, and indeed their rates are above the national average.
A survey of 99 Gamblers Anonymous members living in the Las Vegas area found that 31.5% were divorced or separated and that nearly two-thirds of that group identified gambling as the culprit in their split.
Over 60% had written bad checks, half had stolen money or goods to finance their gambling, and 45% had filed for bankruptcy. Over 55% had lost time at work due to absenteeism.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote earlier this year about the study, which was conducted by University of Nevada Las Vegas professors R. Keith Schwer and William N. Thompson, and student Daryl Nakamuro, that there is a big social cost being paid by southern Nevada and its problem gamblers. It’s not just the gambler flying in from Wichita every year or so who loses his shirt on the slots in Las Vegas casinos, requiring more social services and other assistance in Wichita. Southern Nevadans pay many a pretty penny for livinv in the gambling capital of the United States.
How much?
Problem gaming among Southern Nevadans is exacting a social cost of at least $300 to $450 million a year according to the professors, which they identify as a conservative estimate and one that is roughly equal to the take in gaming taxes paid by the region’s casino operators.
More states will be tempted to put gambling into place if they want to boost state revenues. But they are taking a huge gamble, not just in anticipating more revenues and perhaps more stability in their state’s budget, but with the lives of the people who will play the slots.
Gambling has expanded greatly over the last thirty years, but it’s proving itself to be a losing bet all the way round. Here’s hoping that Marylanders will come to realize that the best way to win is by stopping legalized electronic gambling — period.
Paul M. Weyrich is Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.
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Gambling problems play a role in at least 85 suicides a year in this country, according to figures that give the first national glimpse at the phenomenon.
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The business of government is to suppress evil, not to supervise it. Yet the argument often made in favor of state-operated lotteries is that the vice of gambling can be managed and made into something virtuous for the public. Hogwash!!!
There are few matters in life with a greater sleaze factor than the unholy alliance between the gaming industry and government. In fact, state-operated lotteries corrupt government.
Just since the year 2000, Colorado’s lottery director resigned under pressure. Minnesota’s lottery director committed suicide after scrutiny and tough questions from auditors. Nebraska’s lottery head chief was placed on leave during a probe. Oregon’s lottery director resigned after an audit showed hundreds of millions of dollars in administrative waste. Florida lottery officials were fired following an investigation revealing they accepted meals and gifts from vendors doing business with the lottery.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution quotes Russ Davidson, the former chief financial officer of the Kentucky lottery, saying, “You’re dealing with the dirtiest industry I’ve ever seen in my 30 years of doing business ....”
Then there’s GTECH, the world’s largest provider of lottery services and gaming equipment. GTECH serves 80 lotteries in 44 countries. Their track record is one episode after another of crooked dealing.
According to an Associated Press article, over a 16-year period, GTECH was the subject of four federal grand jury investigations that led to jail terms for a company official and a lobbyist.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported GTECH’s original bid for the Georgia lottery contract came in 50% higher than Automated Wagering’s bid. After Georgia lottery president Rebecca Paul told GTECH’s James David Smith and other officials that their first bid was too high, GTECH reduced its price and Paul agreed to the deal — even though GTECH’s bid was still the highest bid.
Fortune Magazine once reported that former GTECH CEO Guy Snowden and former national sales manager James David Smith “perfected the backroom art of lottery politics: rewarding political friends, annihilating enemies, and crushing the competition ... while in the process making millions.”
David Rainey of the Lawrence Journal-Weekly reported that a former lottery worker in Kansas filed a sexual harassment suit against GTECH, claiming she was ordered to dig up dirt on the deputy director of the Kansas lottery in order to make him susceptible to blackmail during negotiations with the company.
On April 12, 1998, a gambling industry analyst proclaimed GTECH’s ethical troubles were a thing of the past. On September 18, 1998, the Dallas Morning News reported that GTECH settled a lawsuit brought by former Texas lottery director Nora Linares in which she alleged GTECH hired her boyfriend to gain leverage over her. Less than two years later, on July 7, 2000, the Austin American Statesman reported that GTECH executives were forced to resign over a number issues, including failure to disclose a computer glitch to their clients that caused erroneous payments in millions of lottery transactions in Texas and Great Britain.
Not only do state-operated lotteries cause government to prey on its own people; not only do they often use deceptive advertising; not only do they put government in competition with legitimate business — but they are riddled with scandal after scandal.
In a July 1999 letter, Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family rightly points out that the gambling industry “pours vast sums into campaign coffers of gambling-friendly politicians.” Continuing, he states that “most politicians will dance for anyone who offers them bushels of cash. It’s what keeps them in office.”
In the same letter, Dobson also notes the most egregious example of “political exploitation occurred when Colorado spent $25,000 on a study to find the best way to get its residents to play the lottery more. They discovered that certain types of people were less likely to play the lottery. Initially, once they were hooked, they remained hooked. Can you imagine state officials contracting with behavioral researchers to figure out how to bilk the citizens who pay their salaries? Something similar occurred in Maryland after officials proposed the state study how to entice people to play the lottery more. As columnist Austin Abercrombie wrote, ‘Traditionally, one of the legitimate roles of a republican form of government is to protect its citizens against harm, to promote the general welfare, but state governments seem to be redefining that role to one of how do we separate the sucker from his money?’”
State-operated lotteries produce a stench of moral putrification that reaches the very nostrils of God. I believe God hates lotteries, and so should every God-fearing American.
Today my home state, North Carolina, is the largest state in the Union without a lottery. I shudder as I think about GTECH’s team of registered lobbyists intensely working the halls of the North Carolina General Assembly, trying to get lawmakers to approve a so-called “education lottery.”
Only last year, North Carolina’s U.S. Representative Frank Balance plead guilty to a federal corruption charge for directing $2 million of state money, while he was a state senator, to a nonprofit and using some of the money for his own personal expenses. Such situations are but a pale reflection of the kind of corruption that will constantly plague state government if North Carolina approves a state-operated lottery.
No, I see no virtue in state lotteries at all. I agree with Thomas Jefferson, who once said: “In a world which furnishes so many employments which are useful, so many which are amusing, it is our own fault if we ever know what ennui is, or if we are driven to the miserable resources of gaming, which corrupts our dispositions, and teaches us a habit of hostility against all mankind.”
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Rev. Mark H. Creech (calact@aol.com) is the executive director of the Christian Action League of North Carolina, Inc.
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It was certainly one of the saddest days of my life. Lottery proponents were grinning from ear to ear, quite proud of themselves. They had pulled it off. But in the process, the North Carolina House sold the state’s soul to the devil.
April 6, 2005, is a day that future generations of North Carolinians will come to rue. House Speaker Jim Black, who created a House Select Committee to study the lottery — which incidentally was stacked with lottery supporters — pushed through a lottery bill. Two hours before session, the Committee met and approved lottery legislation with no meaningful debate. The measure was then sent directly to the House floor and passed by a 61-59 margin.
When the vote was announced, Speaker Black said that without objection the third reading would take place. Despite the fact that there were numerous objections and one very vocal point of order, the Speaker forced a final vote, which was a voice vote that he ruled passed the measure.
The Speaker’s actions were a gross violation of parliamentary procedure, which requires a revenue measure to be held over for a final vote at least one day. When the vote is close and objections on the third reading are raised, lawmakers are given that extra time to carefully consider whether they have cast the right vote. Of course, the Speaker’s objective was not fairness, but instead to ramrod a lottery bill through the House. Should the legislation have lingered for another day, the final outcome of the vote may have been different.
What is more, the arguments made by certain lawmakers on the House floor in favor of the lottery were unbelievably shallow and morally bankrupt!
Rep. Stephen LaRoque (R-Kinston) argued that our nation’s founding fathers approved of lotteries. But Laroque conveniently left out some critical information in his citing of lottery history. According to G. Robert Blakey, in State Conducted Lotteries: History, Problems and Promises, the minimum amount that could be wagered might be as high as $10, which was a very significant minimum in the 17th and 18th centuries that was designed to prevent the poor from being preyed upon unduly. By the early 19th century, strong opposition developed against legalized lotteries for three reasons: (1) lotteries were considered a drain on the economy, (2) many lotteries were fraudulent, and (3) lotteries contributed significantly to crime and poverty.
Of all the legislators that argued for a lottery, none offered a more spurious argument than Rep. Mickey Michaux (D- Durham). Michaux argued that the state shouldn’t be legislating morality. As John Stossel says, “Please, give me a break!” Was not our country in its finest hours legislating morality when it addressed issues like: forced child labor, indentured servitude, slavery, lack of education for the exploited poor, giving women the right to vote, and civil rights for blacks? It’s foolish to think we can legislate anything but morality. All legislation is the codification of someone’s value system. The truth of the matter is, lawmakers either legislate morality or immorality.
Rep. Ronnie Sutton (D-Lumberton) contended a lottery was completely voluntary. People don’t have to play if they don’t want to play, he said. Sutton said that in his hometown he often visits a neighborhood store where the wall is lined with beer for sale. He said he didn’t have to buy that beer; he could walk right by it and not be affected. But only last year, Sutton stood before the N.C. House and was stalwart in his opposition to video poker, saying video poker machines in local convenience stores and other places ought to be banned. What? You mean, a person can’t walk by a video poker machine and not be affected too? Where is the logic in wanting to ban video poker and legalize a lottery? Could it be certain lawmakers are bent on eliminating video poker only because that way the state gets a bigger piece of the gambling pie in a lottery? How corrupt!!!
Rep. Alma Adams (D-Greensboro) said people could be addicted to many things, but she was going to vote for a lottery in support of education. How sad that Adams and others like her can so easily dismiss the plight of over 300,000 new pathological gamblers that the lottery will create in North Carolina. Moreover, it was truly sad that a large delegation of students from North Carolina’s schools watched and listened from the gallery as Adams made the case for state-sponsored gambling — a way of life which undermines the work ethic, sacrifice, and the kind of moral responsibility that sustains democratic life. Is that what we want to teach our kids?
Although I deeply respect House Speaker Jim Black and the other legislators mentioned for their commitment to public service, what took place on Wednesday of last week was state government run afoul. It was wrong, wrong, wrong!!! It was a dark day for North Carolina.
The measure now moves to the North Carolina Senate. Would the Senate consider an old proverb the House obviously didn’t: “If virtue is the object of a man’s affections, the fruits of wisdom’s labors are the virtues; temperance and prudence, justice and fortitude, these are her teaching, and in the life of men there is nothing of more value than these.”
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Rev. Mark H. Creech (calact@aol.com) is the executive director of the Christian Action League of North Carolina, Inc.
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[Kwing Hung: see how many people, mostly the poor, wasted their money.]
HURRICANE, W.Va. — With $340 million up for grabs in the second-biggest lottery jackpot in U.S. history, people trekked to a small-town West Virginia convenience store to buy their tickets Tuesday in the apparent belief that lightning can strike twice in the same place.
Nearly three years ago, it was the C&L Super Serve in Hurricane that sold the ticket that made West Virginia contractor Jack Whittaker the winner of the nation’s biggest undivided jackpot: $314.9 million in the multi-state Powerball lottery.
Wednesday’sPowerball jackpot climbed into the stratosphere after 20 straight drawings in which no one won the grand prize.
“It’s a lot a money to win for just playing a dollar,” 18-year-old construction worker Danny Loudin said after buying his ticket at the C&L.
Twenty-seven states offer Powerball, along with the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Edward Jarvis, a 39-year-old real estate agent, drove from New York’s Long Island to Greenwich, Conn., to buy $120 worth of tickets.
“That’s worth an hour or two out of your day,” he said. “It’s cheaper than going to Atlantic City for a heck of a lot better return if you win.”
What would he do if he won?
“Not work,” he said, then changed it to work less. “It would be nice to be debt-free. I’d spend a lot more time with my kids and do the things I like to do — golf.”
The odds of hitting all six numbers are 1 in 146 million.
The biggest lottery jackpot in U.S. history is $363 million, won by two ticketholders in Illinois and Michigan in 2000.
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It was a sad day for justice in North Carolina. Instead it was an illegitimate victory for a legislature that overstepped its constitutional parameters, and for the gambling industry which on thursday intends to start fleecing the citizens of the Tar Heel State.
Only after a few hours of deliberation, judge henry “chip” hight dismissed the lawsuit against the lottery, saying passage of the lottery was legal and the games can proceed. In his ruling judge hight stated: “[t]hat all of the allegations of the complaints of both the plaintiffs and the plaintiff-intervenors alleging that the general assembly violated Article ii, Section 23 and Article v, Section 7 of the Constitution of North Carolina are without merit and should be dismissed.”
Justice Robert Orr, who heads up the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law, argued on behalf of the plaintiffs and plaintiff-intervenors (Charles Heatherly, Thomas Spampinato, Rep. W. Edward Goodall, Jr, Rep. Paul Stam, the wake county taxpayers association, the North Carolina family policy council, Willis Williams, North Carolina Fair Share, and the North Carolina Common Sense Foundation) that the General Assembly violated Article ii, Section 23 when it passed the lottery act. The North Carolina Constitution declares “Revenue Bills” — or legislation that (1) raises money on the credit of the state, (2) pledges the faith of the state for the payment of any debt, or (3) imposes a tax on the people of the state — must be voted on by both chambers of the legislature in three separate readings over three separate days. Because the Lottery Act does constitute a “revenue bill” or a “tax” as prescribed by North Carolina’s Constitution, Justice Orr rightly contended the legislature did not follow proper procedures when both the house and senate voted on the third reading on the same day as the second. Therefore, the lottery legislation was passed in an unconstitutional manner.
It’s a considerable disappointment judge hight failed to stop the injustice perpetrated by the way in which the lottery garnered passage. The judge states a number of findings in his ruling, but fails to give any rationale for his decision that the lottery was passed constitutionally.
The ruling notes the state’s argument that too much water was over the dam — a finding in which judge hight apparently agrees. The ruling notes, “the lottery commission hired employees, entered into contracts, collected application fees, expended large sums of money, and engaged in other activities necessary for the establishment of a lottery.” Also noted is “a large number of people had altered their economic, legal, and planning positions in reliance on the lottery act.”
This is justice? — that legislation can be ramrod through in violation of the state’s constitution – just as long as you can get enough people on board, and just as long as you can get a sizable number of people who have altered their lives in reliance upon it before it can be resolved in court? What about the nearly 300,000 compulsive gamblers the lottery act will help create in north carolina? Will not their lives be considerably altered economically and otherwise?
Moreover, the judge’s ruling is obviously based in part on the view the lottery doesn’t constitute a tax because it’s voluntary. As the findings of the ruling state: “[n]o person is forced to purchase a lottery ticket ... The lottery act does not impose a tax on the purchaser of a lottery ticket.” But this is a ludicrous argument. Every day the citizens of the tar heel state voluntarily purchase a variety of goods and are forced to pay a tax on these products. No one forces them to purchase them. It’s no different with a lottery ticket! No one is required to play the lottery, but once the ticket is bought, a mandatory 35% of the price is collected by the state in an “embedded” or “hidden” tax for education. So even if the purchase is voluntary, there is still an involuntary taxing taking place.
The North Carolina family policy council states in is the lottery a tax? Generating revenue through state sponsored gambling: “it is the lottery’s function to raise money for public purposes that immediately sets it apart as a taxing mechanism .... The only difference between the purchase of consumer goods and a lottery ticket is that the tax is included in the price of the lottery ticket instead of added on to the purchase price. And this hidden tax is easily accomplished because the state has a monopoly on the lottery. Unlike other industries that produce and market their merchandise before adding the tax at the point of sale, north carolina exclusively produces the product (in this case a lottery ticket), sells the product to consumers through approved retailers, advertises the product, and is the sole beneficiary of the revenues raised.” Without question, the 35% is a tax!
At a press conference held at the offices of the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law at 3:00 p.m. Last wednesday, Justice Orr said no final decision had been made concerning an appeal. Justice Orr said he needed to converse first with his board of directors and his clients to determine the next step. Nevertheless, he implied there likely would be an appeal, saying, this was still an important constitutional issue and the case “was not a single-elimination tournament.” He added if there were an appeal, it would go to the state court of appeals and his organization might petition that court to bypass them and go directly to the north carolina supreme court.
Everything about the lottery from its start has been scandalous. In order to circumvent the normal passage of a bill through a long-standing committee, house speaker jim black created a temporary select committee (the house select committee on the lottery) and stacked it with lottery supporters, passing the lottery legislation in a day and sending it directly to the house floor. Then black facilitated the passage of the measure in an unconstitutional manner by voting on the third reading on the same day as the second, not allowing the “revenue bill” to be held over for a day as required for fear of losing any necessary votes for passage.
When the bill was to be taken up in the senate, the senate leadership couldn’t muster enough votes for the legislation. So senate president pro tempore mark basnight dismissed the senate for the year and said no more votes would be taken until may 2006. Only two days later, when senate lottery opponents would be missing two from their ranks, basnight broke his word and called the senate back for a vote on the lottery. In the same manner as House Speaker Black, Lieutenant Governor Beverly Perdue ignored the constitutional mandate to hold the bill over for a day before voting on the third reading, passing it by one vote after a tie.
After passage of the lottery act by the legislature, it was discovered Meredith Norris, the House Speaker’s political director, was also doubling as a lobbyist for scientific games and was influential in crafting the language of the lottery bill in order that scientific games would likely get the lottery contract. After the Norris Fiasco, another bombshell was dropped when authorities discovered lottery commissioner Kevin Geddings had not disclosed he had been working for scientific games to the tune of $25,000. Now Judge Henry Hight suffers from what seems to be a voluntary case of judicial blindness and says he can’t see the tax in a lottery. Scandalous! Scandalous! Scandalous! Unbelievable corruption from day one!
All of these facts clearly demonstrate that branches of government — specifically the legislative and judicial branches in the tar heel state — are not without their problems. They are only as good as the people who run them.
Thus the need for the prayer: god save the great state of north carolina.
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Rev. Mark h. Creech (calact@aol.com) is the Executive Director of the Christian Action League of North Carolina, Inc.
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Ross was only a sophomore in high school when he started betting on video games. Almost overnight, he became a full-fledged gambling addict with $30,000 in debts.
“I started gambling on whatever I could get my hands on,” said the New Rochelle, N.Y., teen, who asked that his last name be withheld. “I was always gambling and losing. I was always chasing that bet.”
The now 19-year-old is currently in recovery in Gamblers Anonymous. But his story of adolescent addiction to gambling has become alarmingly common.
Gambling — especially poker — is on the rise among teens and pre-teens, according to gambling addiction experts and psychiatrists, who cite a mountain of anecdotal evidence and research on the phenomenon. The trend can be attributed to a growing acceptance of gambling in American culture, an increase in accessibility because of the Internet and more betting shows on TV.
“Gambling is a much more pervasive part of our society than it used to be,” said J. Michael Faragher, the director of training and development at the University of Denver Problem Gambling Treatment and Research Center. “Kids pick right up on that. They pick up on the excitement, too.”
It was that euphoria that got Ross hooked on serious gambling, which he said he began doing his senior year of high school. After the previous two years of betting on video and sports games with classmates, he got a bookie during college basketball’s end-of-season “March Madness.”
“That was really money, I thought, so that was so exciting for me,” he remembered. “I won, but $1,000 wasn’t enough. So then I would gamble thousands on a game. I became greedy.”
Disease and Addiction
Because the path of addiction is well trodden, experts worry that it’s only a matter of time before teen gambling addiction becomes an epidemic. Faragher said kids are three times as likely as adults to get hooked on a bad habit, meaning up to 12% of children and teens who gamble will probably become addicts.
“Kids are more susceptible,” said Faragher. “They don’t seem to have the kind of control and brain executive functions adults have.”
Certainly, as medical science has come to understand addiction as not just a social problem but a medical disease, research has provided some insight into possible biological and genetic factors that may contribute to gambling addiction.
A 2004 Yale University School of Medicine study on psychological factors associated with teen gambling provides some answers about which children might be predisposed to gambling dependency.
The Yale researchers found that adolescent gamblers were more likely to report depression and drug and alcohol use or dependence than non-gamblers.
Lead researcher Wendy J. Lynch and her colleagues concluded that “adolescent-onset gambling is associated with more severe psychiatric problems, particularly substance use disorders, in adolescents and young adults.”
It may seem like an obvious finding, but Dr. Lawson F. Bernstein, a neuropsychiatrist and gambling addiction expert, said it’s important to confirm even predictable conclusions when it comes to an emerging trend like this.
A 2005 study of 1,000 18-year-old men and women in New Zealand found that the personality profile associated with problem gambling was very similar to that associated with substance-related addictive disorders, specifically alcohol, nicotine and marijuana addiction.
The study also found that people with problem gambling in the past year were three times as likely to have one of three substance-abuse disorders and, in personality tests, were more likely to have higher scores in areas measuring negative emotions and impulsive and risky behavior.
Also in 2005, German scientists using brain scans compared the brain activity of compulsive gamblers to those of non-gamblers and found that the region of the brain signaling reward was much less active in compulsive gamblers. Those findings matched studies done on the brain activity of people with drug addiction, suggesting the same reward deficiency driving people to produce that feeling artificially through substance abuse may also compel some to try to produce it through gambling.
The study also noted decreased activation in the region of the brain linked to diminished impulse control.
A small, inconclusive study of 11 compulsive gamblers in Argentina suggested that gambling addiction could be associated with an impairment in the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which would affect the ability of a person to consider the consequences of an action before taking that action.
And, in an unexpected medical development that sheds even more light on a link between brain function and addiction, a Mayo Clinic study published in July 2005 revealed that Parkinson’s disease patients being treated with the drug Mirapex developed compulsive behaviors, including gambling, shopping and sexual addiction.
Mirapex (pramipexole) alleviates the tremors and stiff movements associated with Parkinson’s disease by producing the effects of dopamine, a brain chemical that controls movement and is deficient in Parkinson’s disease. Dopamine is also associated with the brain’s experience of pleasure and reward.
Finally, other research has suggested that gambling addiction can be genetic. A 2006 study funded by the National Center for Responsible Gaming, a casino-industry group, found that relatives of compulsive gamblers were much more likely to experience their own gambling problems than those of non-gamblers.
The study compared a group of gamblers and their adult relatives with a control group of non-gamblers and family members, and found that between 8 and 12% of gamblers’ relatives had their own gambling problems, while only 2 to 3.5% of non-gamblers’ relatives were compulsive gamblers.
The researchers also found higher rates of alcohol and drug abuse among the gamblers’ relatives.
One only needs to look at risk factors associated with young alcoholics to surmise that similar traits could exist in children who are vulnerable to becoming problem gamblers.
Pre-teen and adolescent boys who abuse alcohol tend to start drinking at a younger age than their peers, have a father with a history of alcoholism, get a stimulant effect from alcohol (rather than a depressant effect) and/or have abnormalities in their serotonin metabolism, said Bernstein, the neuropsychiatrist.
“We know people at risk for one addictive disorder are also at risk for other disorders,” he said. “But nobody’s proven that there’s a so-called gambling gene.”
Anecdotal evidence indicates that gambling addicts frequently come from unstable families, have been subject to overly harsh or unpredictable forms of punishment, have been the victims of neglect or abuse and/or have attachment difficulties and self-esteem issues, according Faragher, the Problem Gambling Treatment and Research Center director.
Gambling on Rise
There are no statistics on how many adolescents gamble and how many develop gambling addictions. But more and more Americans are participating in the practice.
Total U.S. consumer spending at commercial casinos more than doubled in the decade from 1994 to 2004, jumping from $13.8 billion to $28.93 billion, according to the American Gaming Association. There was a 7.1% increase in casino spending from 2003 to 2004.
In 2005, 53% of adult Americans played the lottery, 35% gambled in a casino, 18% played poker, 6% bet on a race and 2% engaged in Internet gambling, the AGA found.
And consumer spending on poker shot up from 2003 to 2004. In Nevada and New Jersey, the only two states that track poker revenues, Americans spent 45% more on poker in 2004 — $151.7 million — than they did the previous year, according to the AGA.
Poker has become especially popular among adolescents in part because of the explosion of programs on television about playing it.
Some shows, like “Celebrity Poker Showdown” on Bravo, have depicted stars including Ben Affleck and Don Cheedle at the card table.
Others, like “The World Series of Poker” on ESPN and “The World Poker Tour” on The Travel Channel, track championships among ordinary people who are competitive players. But either way, seeing it on TV makes it look appealing to kids.
“It makes it more glamorous and it trivializes it,” said Bernstein. “It puts it in the face of that kid when that kid is vulnerable and impressionable.”
Bernstein said the card-game-for-money has even permeated teens’ social lives.
“There are more pre-teen and teen poker parties,” he said.
In addition to latching onto that age-old card game, adolescents have gotten more involved in gambling online and betting on sports.
Parents may miss the warning signs indicating the habit is getting out of hand because they could see gambling as a perfectly healthy way for children to spend their time.
“This looks very benign,” said Bernstein. “They’re home playing cards with their friends, they’re not drinking or doing drugs. It all looks very harmless. But the problem is for a certain number of kids, it’s going to be the addictive equivalent of pot in that they’re going to get in trouble with it.”
Part of the concern surrounding gambling dependency is that it’s the addiction with the highest suicide-attempt rate, according to Faragher, who said that 20% of problem gamblers try to kill themselves.
Usually, it’s because their addiction has led them to fall into a financial hole they can’t climb out of.
“For a low-income person, it can be catastrophic,” Faragher said. “It’s not an addiction people are able to walk away from the consequences of.”
One of the worst things that could happen to a child at risk for developing a gambling problem is some sort of big win, since that’s often what propels someone to try to repeat the experience, Faragher said.
In Ross’ case, that big win came when he went away to the Bahamas for his senior year spring break and raked in $3,000 in one night at a casino.
“That was heaven,” he said. “But I lost all the money.”
Ross’ situation is right in line with the Yale study findings, since he not only developed a gambling addiction but a problem with marijuana abuse too. The two habits fed into each other: He would use his gambling money to buy pot and sell pot to support his gambling habit, all the while borrowing thousands of dollars from his parents, grandparents and friends.
“It was interchangeable,” he said. “I borrowed Peter to pay Paul. It was hard-earned, legitimate money made by my grandfather, mother, father. But I still didn’t learn my lesson.”
The important thing is to educate families about adolescent gambling and the dangers that can accompany it, said Faragher. Problem gamblers can call 1-800-522-4700, a 24-hour confidential help-line set up especially for them, he said.
“We need to do with gambling what we did with drugs and alcohol and start informing children and families that it can lead to severe problems,” he said. “It doesn’t mean we have to burn the casinos down.”
Ross finally broke his habit with the help of his parents, who forced him into Gamblers Anonymous after he came back from the Bahamas and, as punishment, made him confess what he’d been doing to his entire family on Thanksgiving.
“That was the worst experience of my life. I had to come clean to everyone,” he said. “My brother was infuriated with me, my sister, my mom, my dad. I cried. That was the hardest day of my life.”
Though Ross initially was still smoking pot even after he’d stopped gambling, he soon gave up the drug habit too and has been totally clean since that November of 2004.
During his recovery, the teen — who had to drop out of university because of his struggle with addiction — has enrolled in community college and excelled in school. Next month, he will move out on his own again, to New York City, to start an internship with a sports broadcaster.
He plans to try to help other kids avoid getting hooked on gambling by speaking at schools about his own experience. And he still goes to Gamblers Anonymous meetings every week.
“Now that I think about it, it was an escape,” Ross said in explaining his gambling addiction. “It wasn’t about the money; it was about the action. When I was betting on anything, it was a rush. It was heaven for me.”
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Gambling can seem like innocent fun, but it has a dark side. What’s the big deal?
by Steve Russo
Some of my greatest childhood memories are of celebrations at my grandparents’ house. We’re a big Italian family, so to us, those times were occasions filled with good friends, hordes of uncles, aunts and cousins and endless plates of amazing food! At the center of the fun was Grandpa—or Big Ernie, as everyone called him. He was a huge man with a raspy voice and a cigar dangling out of his mouth. But here’s the crazy part: It was no secret that his profession was linked to the gambling industry.
Despite Grandpa’s gruff exterior and shady line of work, he had a tender heart toward his grandchildren. He’d constantly encourage us not to follow in his footsteps.
So why doesn’t he live by his own advice? I’d often ask myself.
I’ll never forget the day my cousins, brother and I were pretending to gamble. We sat in the living room of my grandparents’ house, playing with poker cards and having a great time.
Grandpa saw what we were doing, scooped up the deck of cards in his big hands and ripped them to shreds. “Don’t you kids ever play with cards again,” he scolded. “Gambling’s not good for you!”
Why is he so upset? After all, we were only playing a game, right?
Playing With Fire
Unfortunately, my teenage attitude toward gambling is the same one held by way too many guys today. I’m glad I learned the truth, despite the mixed messages from my grandfather.
Look around, and I’m sure you’ll agree: Gambling is a big business that’s everywhere—from Las Vegas to the Bahamas, from celebrity poker on TV to online gambling. Even ESPN is cashing in with its hit show “The World Series of Poker.” The network has included tense poker matches in its lineup of sports coverage, with tiny cameras showing the competing players’ cards so viewers can follow the action at home.
It all leads us to believe that gambling is a respectable pastime—and even a quick ticket to fame and fortune. Rarely do we get a glimpse of reality: shattered families and broken pocketbooks.
And here’s what alarms me: A growing number of Christian guys are placing bets on everything from professional basketball teams to local high school sports events. Some teens are playing small poker games and scratching off lottery tickets. According to Teenage Research Unlimited, nearly one in three high school students gambles on a regular basis.
High school guys do it for a variety of reasons. Some gamble to relax, while others see it as fun entertainment or a “harmless” risk. Others use it to deal with negative feelings about themselves and life. I’ve even met a few boys who make gambling part of their identity—just as some do with an interest in sports, music or cars. Gambling can fuel a false image of being different from others—special.
Seventeen-year-old Seth says he’s walked away from poker games with $300 in his pocket. Tim, 16, says a lot of sports betting goes on in the boys’ locker room at his school.
A High-Stakes High
It’s huge, it’s risky and for many teen guys it’s addictive. Psychologists agree that nearly one in 10 youths develops an addiction when he toys with the tables. With Lotto, bingo, craps, five-card stud, coin pitching, sports pools, scratch-and-wins, pull tabs, faro, racetracks, Powerball and Nambling—the variety could mesmerize anyone. Some guys are so hooked they’ll put 10 bucks on whether the next person to appear has brown eyes or blue.
When Dustin, 17, and his friends weren’t gambling, he watched it on TV or checked out the action online. This teen started gambling in the lunchroom of his high school and ended up in local casinos—even though he was underage. “My wallet was full of cash. I mean, what a great feeling when you’ve got all this money you made in just two days. You know, I had bouncers walk me out. Man, I felt like a celebrity. A teen doesn’t get treated like that every day.”
But the “high” Dustin got from gambling didn’t last, and neither did his winning streak. Eventually his life spiraled out of control, and he checked himself into Gamblers Anonymous.
Fifteen-year-old Brett said he used to bet $25 to $50 almost every day on basketball games and every Sunday on football until he wound up $700 in debt. His dad said he would pay his bookies if Brett got help. But he was still addicted. He told himself that he had had enough, but five minutes later he was on the phone making another bet.
“In the beginning you win more than you lose,” he says. “But then you begin to lose more than you win.” Brett finally joined Gamblers Anonymous.
Bottom Line: Gambling’s a Bad Bet
According to the Council on Problem Gambling, more than 200,000 teens in America are addicted to gambling. Treatment centers are popping up around the country for teen gambling addiction.
Teen gambling habits can lead to stealing from others and abusing parents’ credit cards. Researchers say that teens with a gambling addiction are more likely to engage in unsafe sex, binge drink, abuse drugs and skip school. Gamblers also have the highest suicide rate of any addictive group. A New York teen killed himself, leaving a suicide note blaming a lost $6,000 bet on the World Series.
Let’s look at gambling from another angle—a spiritual perspective. How does gambling affect your relationship with God? Even though the Bible doesn’t use the word gambling, there are still some principles that we need to check out.
“A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished” (Proverbs 28:20).
The truth is, God doesn’t want our hearts set on riches. He wants our hearts set on His Son, Jesus Christ. The two don’t mix. Gambling is inherently a fixation on money. If you want true riches, ones that will last, be fixed on Christ.
Paul, after warning Timothy of the dangers in loving money, continued: “But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Timothy 6:11-12).
Christ is coming back. A life lived in obedience to Him has a payoff that involves no debt, no guilt and no gamble—a jackpot that lasts forever.
Guaranteed.
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REGINA - Parents who buy lottery tickets as presents for their kids are gambling with their children’s futures, says a McGill University researcher.
“It’s really something that’s common,” said Alissa Sklar, a researcher with McGill’s International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High-Risk Behaviours.
“Thirty percent of kids under 18 report having received a lottery ticket or scratch card as a gift,” Skar said, citing a recent survey of children and teens in Quebec.
Giving a child a lottery ticket can send the message that gambling is just a game, said Sklar.
“We don’t necessarily recognize that as a risky behaviour. . . . We know about drugs and alcohol and tobacco, but we don’t always know that we have to teach kids that gambling can have an impact on them, too,”Sklar said.
“Parents who are playing poker for money with their kids or taking them to the track or buying them lottery tickets are telling their kids - without saying it in so many words - that this is acceptable, this is appropriate, this is harmless, this is normal, this is just entertainment.”
Poker is the most common form of gambling among youth, said Sklar, but sports-betting and dice games are also popular.
“That can really have life-altering consequences. You can’t smell it on their breath. You can’t see it in their pupils and there’s no urine test,” said Sklar, who is a mother.
The Western Canada Lottery Corporation, which operates in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, supports Sklar’s message that adults shouldn’t buy lottery tickets for kids, said spokeswoman Andrea Marantz.
Lottery retailers are prohibited from selling tickets to anyone under 18, and anyone who looks younger can be asked for ID.
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HONG KONG: A battle for supremacy in Macao’s gambling market is shaping up between the casino tycoon, Stanley Ho, and an American newcomer in 2008 as the Chinese enclave emerges as the biggest gambling jurisdiction in the world.
Gambling revenue from Macao’s casinos leapt 46.6% last year to reach about 83 billion patacas, or $10.4 billion, according to industry analysts and officials.
With the momentum for growth expected to be maintained this year, Macao is poised to overtake the entire state of Nevada in the United States as the biggest gambling jurisdiction after surpassing the Las Vegas Strip last year.
The phenomenal growth is also driving big changes to an industry that until 2002 was a monopoly controlled by Ho. In December, Ho’s SJM Holdings, operator of his flagship Lisboa and Grand Lisboa casinos, was beaten to the top place in revenue for the first time by Las Vegas Sands, which owns the Sands Macao and the newly opened Venetian Macao.
Analysts predict that Las Vegas Sands will maintain its lead in the Macao market this year because of the popularity of the Venetian, a fully integrated resort on the Cotai Strip that opened in August, and its success in winning lucrative VIP gambling business.
A slip into second place in revenue share would be another setback for Ho, who has been making a troubled bid to list a 25% stake of SJM in Hong Kong with the goal of raising about $1 billion.
The listing has been hindered by a long-running legal dispute between Ho and his sister Winnie over the ownership of shares in Sociedade de Torismo e Diversões de Macau, SJM’s parent.
Although Ho controls 18 of Macao’s 27 casinos, most of them are relatively small and vulnerable to determined efforts from new American and Hong Kong casino operators to win VIP customers, the most valuable segment of the market, said Davis Fong, director of the Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming at the University of Macau.
“In 2008, it’s very likely SJM will fall into second place for the whole year,” Fong said. “Traditionally, SJM has relied on its VIP room operation. If you look at the proportion of gaming revenue, more than 70% came from VIP rooms. Now it’s more competitive.”
Fong said that top-flight customers were crucial to industry profitability and were driving the sharp growth in the local gambling industry. Among the factors behind the increase in VIP gambling, he said, were booming property and share markets in mainland China and Hong Kong and the opening of Las Vegas-style resorts, like the Venetian, that were drawing in wealthy gamblers from other regions.
Macao casinos rely heavily on table games for their revenue in contrast to Las Vegas, which gets the majority of its gaming revenue from slot machines.
The critical role of the VIP customer for Macao’s casinos is evident in revenue figures for 2006. VIP Baccarat, the main game played by high-stakes gamblers in Macao, accounted for about two-thirds of the 56.6 billion patacas in revenue from games of fortune, according to the gaming inspection bureau.
Most industry analysts expect Macao’s gambling industry to maintain strong growth over the next three years, with estimates for the increase this year varying from 20% to 30%.
David Green, a casino consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Macao, said that growth of this scale would give Macao more than the combined gambling revenues of Las Vegas and Reno in Nevada.
“The significance of that is that it would be the largest single gaming jurisdiction in the world,” he said. “The implications are that some of the focus that has traditionally been on Las Vegas might shift further to Macao.”
In the 12 months to December, gambling revenue in Nevada was $12.8 billion but had increased only 2.8% over the year-earlier period.
A string of new integrated casinos and resorts are to open in Macao over the next two years.
This development, most of it taking place on the Cotai Strip, Macao’s answer to the famed Las Vegas Strip, will propel future growth by attracting visitors other than hard-core gamblers from the mainland and Hong Kong.
The new Cotai Strip developments will aim to hold visitors for longer periods by pitching for convention business and vacationers in search of entertainment and high-end shopping.
“With the launch of the U.S. casinos, a lot of people who didn’t come to Macao before are coming and the whole VIP segment is getting bigger,” said Gavin Ho, the head of Hong Kong and China research of the gambling industry at CLSA.
But the emergence of the resort-style casinos is also going to make the market tougher for the VIP business and change the face of the industry. While the size of the pie might increase, analysts said that so would the battle to win the business of so-called junket operators that largely control the flow of top-flight customers.
“Unavoidably the competition is going to intensify,” Ho said. “I think what we have seen in the past year is the overall expansion of the VIP market to the U.S. casinos, in particular. But we can also expect the competitive pressure to increase in Macao.”
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