Gamblor’s World

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Source: English News Service
Published: Dec 08, 06

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BEIJING – More than 13.2 percent of netizens under the age of 18 suffer from Internet addiction, said a report issued by the China National Children’s Center here Friday. Internet addiction is particularly prominent among junior middle school and vocational middle school students, the report on Chinese children’s life and development said. Over 17 percent of 13 to 17 years old netizens are hooked on the Internet, especially online gaming. The report did not provide details on what constitutes an Internet addict. Official statistics show that China’s netizens reached 123 million by the end of the first half of this year, and 18.3 million were under the age of 18, accounting for 14.9 percent of the total. The young people’s failure to control themselves, lack of effective official measures to manage Internet cafes and proper school guidance on the use of the Internet are blamed for contributing to the problem. The report called on the government to evaluate and classify online games, improve management over Internet cafes and set up more hotlines to assist the young Internet addicts.

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Source: MetroValley Newspaper Group
Published: Dec 10, 06

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ABBOTSFORD – Abbotsford city councillors should make themselves familiar with the case of Leticia Villareal. The Arizona grandmother made headlines across the U.S. this week when she was busted with 214 pounds of marijuana in the trunk of her car. The 61-year-old was a bingo addict whose welfare cheque could not keep up to her dependence on dabbing, and soon found herself taking such desperate action. West Virginia’s June Skavinsky is now on parole, and part of her rehabilitation is counselling others about bingo addiction. At the height of her problem she played 72 cards per game and lost about $300 to $500 per night. She was convicted of embezzling $250,000 from her employer, a law firm. Bingo is gambling, and can be addictive. It is also legal, socially acceptable, and has long been a popular source of entertainment for many people. The exact same things can be said of slot machines - legal, socially acceptable and entertaining for many people. Abbotsford’s long-running bingo hall will apparently go out of business without the benefit of slot machines and other new games and services which are part of a Community Gaming Centre. The Abbotsford Bingo Association and Playtime Community Gaming Centres are proposing that the hall be converted to a Community Gaming Centre, and that issue is now before council. The next step is to get public input, and that will happen in the new year. There will undoubtedly be at least some opposition to the proposed slots, but those who are lighting their torches and taking up their pitchforks should realize that a community gaming centre is not the same as a casino. They should also be aware that there are 75 groups in this community who share in $2.4 million in gaming revenue from the bingo hall, including many social groups like Big Brothers, and sporting associations like the Valley Royals track club. And those who oppose slots must realize that they can do nothing to stop those few people who have problems with gambling from driving 20 minutes to a casino in Langley, or one that is being built just across the border near Sumas. Some see all gambling as immoral, but it is not up to our city council to slay that dragon.

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Source: El Paso Times
Published Date: Dec 12, 2006

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The executive director of the N.M. Coalition Against Gambling is criticizing a state group formed to develop a plan for helping New Mexicans who are addicted to gambling. Guy Clark, in a newspaper column, said the Compulsive Gambling Council appointed by Gov. Bill Richardson is stacked in favor of the gambling industry. By dedicating several seats to people with close ties to the industry, Clark claimed legislators fostered a pro-gambling bias. “You have people on the board that know if they actually do something serious about stopping problem gamblers from gambling, they will have to close their doors,” he said.

Source: Industry Canada
Published Date: Dec 13, 2006

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The Competition Bureau announced today that Tom Taylor, 60, of White Rock, B.C., was ordered to pay a record fine of $225,000 and perform 100 hours of community service for offences under the lottery and gaming provisions of the Criminal Code of Canada. Taylor’s offences relate to direct mail lottery schemes that brought in $47 million under the names Canadian Lottery Buyers Association (CLBA); International Monetary Funding (IMF); International Lottery Commission (ILC) and Transworld Lottery Commission (TLC). The lottery schemes were mailed to residents of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand from 1995 to 2002.

[This is a paltry amount considering how much was bilked from buyers].

Mayors chase casino revenue deal

Author: Hill, Edward
Source: Goldstream News Gazette
Published: Dec 13, 06

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BRITISH COLUMBIA – Capital region First Nations could become partners in casino revenue sharing, in a similar deal first rejected by West Shore governments four years ago. View Royal Mayor Graham Hill and Langford Mayor Stew Young confirmed Friday they will both approach partner municipalities to rework the casino income agreement established in 2001. “It became apparent during the Bear Mountain issues that we need to talk to other partners to consider equity-sharing in the region,” Hill said. “I want to engage all partners in a frank discussion on the principles of revenue sharing that reflects the area where we live, and the reality of our neighbours.” In 2002, Songhees, Beecher Bay, Esquimalt and Tsou-ke First Nations made a bid to join revenue sharing, but squabbling between View Royal and Colwood sunk the deal. Prior to that, Beecher Bay had approached the B.C. Lottery Corporation for a casino development. That also went nowhere. View Royal’s Great Canadian Casino distributes 10 per cent of its net gaming revenue to surrounding local governments. Last year, municipal casino payouts hit more than $4 million. View Royal receives 45 per cent, Langford 15 per cent, and Langford in-trust 40 per cent, split among Langford, Colwood, Metchosin, Highlands, Sooke and Esquimalt based on population. Young offered to approach partner municipalities on revenue sharing as part of a First Nations agreement drafted in the wake of a contentious dispute over a cave on the Bear Mountain development. Songhees and Tsartlip bands, among others, consider the cave a sacred site. The agreement-in-principle outlines consultation protocols and economic development proposals, including working toward a small casino on Bear Mountain as a joint venture with First Nations. Songhees, Esquimalt, Tsartlip, Bear Mountain and Langford have signed off on parts of the draft document. The provincial government was also at the table. A final agreement was expected Tuesday or Wednesday, after press deadline. Some reports and skeptical First Nations members suggested the casino proposal is a cynical swap for a cave site inconveniencing a billion-dollar development. Young said the cave is a flash point for deeper aboriginal grievances, largely with the slow treaty process. First Nations have long considered casino revenues and a possible casino itself as key to economic development, Young said. “Casinos are nothing new and were not brought up because of the cave. First Nations were involved initially with casino development,” Young said. “First Nations saw the one built in View Royal and there was frustration from their point of view. They were looking for casino revenue long before View Royal.” The B.C. Lottery Corp. and Great Canadian Casinos have made no comments on exploring a Bear Mountain casino. Young pointed out Bear Mountain, as a “destination resort,” is a good candidate for a casino licence. Young said he wants peace and stability in Langford while helping First Nations develop new income and employment streams. Part of the agreement-in-principle has Bear Mountain committing $6 million in infrastructure on 20 acres of Tsartlip land next to Bear Mountain’s golf course. The agreement also calls for the province to transfer 20 acres of Provincial Capital Commission land to the Songhees, along with $1 million. That land is near the bottom of Skirt Mountain and the Trans Canada Highway, where Langford wants to build the $25-million Spencer Interchange. Young said the $1 million would allow the Songhees to develop infrastructure and to contribute to the interchange, similar to other area landowners. “If they can get infrastructure they can be part of the development of Langford,” Young said. “It solves issues on a local level, and it helps the province, the feds and the First Nations to work together.” The agreement-principle is a far cry from the dismal First Nations-Bear Mountain relationship seen in November. Aboriginal members occupied the cave site to protest its imminent destruction for an archeological survey, and eventually housing. Bear Mountain construction crews also staged a show of force in solidarity with the developer. Young brought both sides together for two weeks of intensive negotiations, much of which, he said, was about learning the First Nation perspectives. First Nations are loathe to reveal spiritual areas, which kept the cave site obscured until the housing development was nearly ready to bulldoze over it. But Bear Mountain was acting within provincial heritage conservation law, and had commissioned a professional archeological survey of Skirt Mountain. The surveys showed the cave has no aboriginal historical use, although some First Nations claimed it was a spiritual bathing pool. Provincial law offers no protection for sacred places. Young said First Nation chiefs and the developers worked hard to get past seemingly irreconcilable differences. The agreement commits to a consultation process, economic development, and protection for sacred sites, although likely not for the disputed cave. A healing ceremony is part of the agreement, which would transfer the spiritual significance away from the cave site, Young said. “We need to find ways to work with First Nations on culturally significant sites, we need rules and regulations around it,” Young said. “Right now it’s a grey area, it’s undefined. There is no written way to deal with spiritual areas.” Young admits he fears the extensive media coverage of the cave dispute may have poisoned First Nations members against the agreements, after partial information leaked to some outlets last week. “I don’t want conflict in Langford. I want good relations with First Nations, and good relations with developers. My goal is to bring them all together,” Young said. “I want to work with First Nations and business to find ways to increase economic activity.” Young wants an archeological assessment on all properties within Langford to head off conflict before it starts. Ultimately, Young wants a detailed map showing potential and existing archeolgical and spiritual sites. New developments are paying $100 per unit toward an archeological fund.

Author: Whelan, Jeff
Source: Newark Star-Ledger
Published: Dec 14, 06

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NEWARK – Frank Palmer and Michael Ferrante were two high school buddies from Verona who’d gone their separate ways.
Palmer landed a job at Ernst & Young, a large accounting firm, and Ferrante became a small-time bookie.

But a chance meeting at the Verona Inn five years ago brought them together again, and when their worlds of high finance and illegal sports betting collided, their gambling addictions set them up for a big fall. The two old pals found themselves in federal District Court in Newark yesterday, where Judge William Martini sentenced them for their roles in a scheme that involved stealing more than $267,000 from the accounting firm to pay off gambling debts to an alleged mobster. Martini called it a “tragic situation” and said he was flabbergasted by how gambling took such a toll on two men with promising futures. In sentencing Ferrante to a year and a day in prison, he noted the defendant had blown a half-million dollars on sports betting, including a $150,000 inheritance from his grandmother. “This is the most significant gambling addiction case I’ve seen yet,” Martini said as Ferrante closed his eyes and hung his head and his mother wept in the back of the courtroom. Ferrante, 30, told the judge that despite psychiatric treatment and medication, he continues to battle addiction. “The gambling addiction, I just can’t stop it,” said Ferrante, dressed in a gray suit and sporting a shaved head. “I just can’t get a handle on it.” The judge shot back, “So what are you going to do? Ruin your life?” He wondered aloud whether a longer stint in jail was what Ferrante needed, but instead ordered him into further counseling. Later Palmer, 32, a financial analyst who wore a black suit and also had closely cropped hair, appeared before the judge in a separate hearing. Martini sentenced him to five years of probation, including eight months of home confinement. “I am extremely disappointed in myself, embarrassed,” said Palmer, fighting back tears as his mother dabbed her own eyes with a tissue. “Sports betting was a vice that had me back in 2001.” Both had cooperated with federal prosecutors and helped put Mimmo Marzullo, who according to authorities is a member of the DeCavalcante crime family, behind bars. Marzullo was sentenced to 29 months for illegal gambling and extortion. They also testified against one of their co-defendants, Keith Cimera, helping prosecutors convict him for his role in the scheme to steal from the accounting firm. Cimera was sentenced to 27 months. Ferrante and Palmer could have faced much stiffer sentences, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Wigler sought and received leniency for them, saying they’d put themselves and their families at risk. Palmer and Ferrante had drifted apart since high school, but they bumped into each other at the Verona Inn about five years ago. By then, Ferrante, a graduate of Caldwell College, was a small-time bookie with a ring of clients who consisted mostly of old buddies from his hometown, according to court records. “It started back in high school. It started with football, started with friends,” Stephen Turano, Ferrante’s attorney, said in court yesterday. Ferrante was in the gambling business with Marzullo, prosecutors said. He arranged loans for gamblers from Marzullo, the owner of Marzullo Brothers’ Deli in Montclair and a Newark restaurant. The loans gathered 3 percent interest each week and welchers faced threats of beatings, admitted Ferrante, who said he kept one-third of the interest for himself. INSATIABLE HABIT Turano, however, said Ferrante’s earnings fed his own gambling habit. The attorney said that when Marzullo cut Ferrante off from gambling, he made up the names of fake clients to hide his identity from the loanshark so he could keep betting. Palmer — betting on sports through a mutual friend — also had developed a nasty gambling habit, starting off with a few hundred dollars a week and eventually wagering thousands. By November of 2001, he was $3,000 in the hole, and Ferrante took him to meet Marzullo. But Palmer kept losing, and his debts piled up. That’s when, according to court records, Ferrante asked Palmer to start stealing money from Ernst & Young, where he had access to checks. Ferrante had a guy who could cash them: Cimera, the manager of Montclair Check Cashing. Ferrante previously had brought hundreds of checks there for Marzullo, and eventually cashed $8,579 worth of checks he’d stolen from his own employer, Nextel Communications, according to prosecutors. ‘FOUND MONEY’ Palmer was in. When he met Cimera, he told him the Ernst & Young checks were like “found money,” court papers show. Cimera kept 60 percent of the proceeds from the stolen checks. Ferrante’s cut was one-third while Palmer received a meager 10 percent, which was applied toward his debt. At one meeting, in the parking lot of the Forum Menswear store in Caldwell, Cimera pointed to the nearby Essex County prison and joked to Palmer, saying, “We’ll be visiting Michael (Ferrante) up there,” according to court documents. And sure enough, by June 2002, the conspiracy began to unravel when the accounting directors at Ernst & Young’s national finance office discovered three checks that had been falsely endorsed. Ferrante told Palmer to deny everything, but he soon confessed to the accountants, and later to FBI agents. Palmer began cooperating with the FBI, and secretly recorded 20 conversations with Ferrante. Soon Ferrante, too, began cooperating. Both eventually pleaded guilty: Palmer to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and interstate transportation of stolen goods, Ferrante to conducting an illegal gambling business, conspiracy to make extortionate loans, and conspiracy to transport stolen property across state lines. The judge urged Palmer to kick his habit once and for all. “If he’s still gambling, he’s going to end up back here,” he said.

Source: CBC News
Published: Dec 14, 06

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QUEBEC – Compulsive gambling will increase in Quebec if the province goes ahead with a plan to install video lottery terminals at horse racing tracks, an anti-gambling coalition warns. The Emjeu coalition held a news conference Wednesday to demand a moratorium on the VLTs until the province’s public health authority has time to further study their impact on compulsive gambling. The coalition’s call comes as the province’s gaming commission, Loto-Québec, takes steps to remove from bars about 2,500 VLTs — about one-third of the total provincewide. Instead, as part of a government-approved plan, the terminals are to be installed in four centres being created at horse racing tracks. Loto-Québec says moving the VLTs to the tracks will restrict everyday access and help control their use. But the activists argued that the relocation would not eliminate the temptation to gamble — but would instead increase it. “They remove machines from bars that were not truly profitable for them, and they move them into these buildings. By virtue of the fact that it’s a novelty, they’re in new locations, they’re going to attract new customers,” said Sol Boxenbaum, a gambling critic with Viva Consulting who supports the call for a VLT moratorium. VLTs are ubiquitous in Quebec bars and represent about $118 million in annual revenues for the provincial government. Loto-Québec estimates that moving them to tracks will increase profits by as much as $3 million a year. Loto-Québec, which has already started removing some of the VLTs from bars, defended the move. “Everybody looking [younger] than 30 years will be asked for ID,” said Marie-Claude Rivet, a Loto-Québec spokeswoman. The VLT centres will open in Quebec City and Trois-Rivières in fall 2007. Two other centres, in Mont-Tremblant and Montreal, are scheduled to open in 2009.

Author: Braiden, Gerry
Source: Herald, The
Published Date: Dec 13, 2006

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UNITED KINGDOM – Communities should be warned that casinos are not a magic wand for regeneration and wealth creation.
That is the main finding of a government report which has researched gaming in the US, Australia, and South Africa.

It claims that while there are international examples of economic growth this may not translate into “tangible economic benefits to the host area”.

It urges local authorities to engage and consult all sections of the community before putting their casino development proposals forward and warns against using casinos to support services and projects they otherwise could not fund.

It says that to minimise problem gambling, casinos should be located away from areas frequented by children and teenagers.

People with little discretionary income are more vulnerable to becoming “problem and pathological gamblers in society”, it claims, and they require greater protection.

While the report noted that there is no simple theory on communities being affected in terms of an increase in crime and quality of life, it suggests that casinos are “neither as good for a community as supporters contend, nor as negative as opponents argue”.

The report was compiled by Karen Lee from the Cardiff School of City and Regional Planning and was funded by the Casino Advisory Panel, which will next month recommend to Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell which of seven locations should host the UK’s first Las Vegas-style casino.

Glasgow is one of the front-runners for the prize, along with Blackpool and London.

The report was intended to be used by the panel as background research, but as it is three months late it is on the panel’s website only to provide information for interested parties.

In his introduction to the report, the panel’s chairman, Professor Stephen Crow, says it had “not been relied upon in reaching our conclusions”.

He adds: “Economic impact studies have highly variable assumptions and methodologies that make comparison difficult.”

Reports from London and Blackpool both appeared to suggest the research pointed to the Millennium Dome winning the right to host the supercasino, as it was not near areas frequented by young people and had other major attractions nearby.

Sources in Glasgow insist that, being the only one of the competing areas to have four options for the supercasino, it had more scope to address some of the concerns raised.

They also believe that with Glasgow having reinvented itself as a short-break destination and a key retail centre, as well as being a gateway to the Highlands, it too offers “a diversified tourism product” that the report claims is crucial to regeneration. The appeal to local authorities to consult widely is also expected to anger campaigners against Glasgow’s bid. When the panel met in the city in early September the sole public objector, church elder Ken Rolwegan, made an issue of the lack of discussion with the public on the plans.

Mr Rolwegan was unavailable for comment last night but in a recent letter to The Herald he wrote: “The city council was found by its own admission to have done a minimal consultation exercise.

“In March, it surveyed 1000 people to find out if they would support a casino bid. I would call that a sample, not a consultation. Perhaps they were frightened they would get a resounding ‘no’ to a fuller consultation.”

A Glasgow City Council spokesman said if they were successful they would instruct an independent survey of the four sites already identified and carry out a full public consultation.

Author: Hopp, Jessica
Source: Tennessean.com
Published Date: Dec 10, 2006

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TENNESEA – In the 109th Congress, which adjourned Saturday, lawmakers attached a provision to the SAFE Port Act that would attempt to forever change the country’s gambling landscape.
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act is aimed at U.S. credit card companies and financial institutions that help fund Americans’ gambling. It bars them from transferring money to Internet betting sites. The goal is to rein in an online betting industry projected to hit $24.5 billion in global spending by 2010, according to Christiansen Capital Advisors, a gambling-industry analyst.

On Oct. 13, when President Bush signed the SAFE Port Act and Gambling Enforcement Act, multiple gambling sites saw their stocks plummet. Others were forced to put themselves up for sale. It sent shockwaves through the online gambling community.

Enforcement questioned

“They all are smart enough to realize you can’t lock up the player,” said Glen Walker, an oddsmaker for Intertops.com, a sports book run out of Antigua and Barbuda. “Stalin didn’t even have that many cops. That’s not going to happen.

“But by making it illegal, is the government really protecting us from anything? They don’t protect us from tobacco, because they get a tax on that. They don’t protect us from alcohol, and they get a tax on that.

“They say they are trying to protect the American public from themselves, protect them from becoming addicted, but they are just against Internet gambling because they can’t get a piece of it.”

Earlier law left a question

The ambiguity of an old law helped lead to the explosion of Internet gambling.

The Wire Act of 1961 was intended to help states enforce laws on gambling and bookmaking and to suppress organized gambling. However, because it contained the words “wire communication,” it was unclear whether the Wire Act also applied to the Internet.

Although the Justice Department said it did, making online gambling illegal in the U.S., it could not regulate Internet gaming overseas. Most online gambling sites operate out of the Caribbean, Central America and, more recently, Great Britain, where gambling is regulated.

There are more than 2,000 Internet gambling sites worldwide, and by 2005 almost $12 billion was spent on online gambling. Sports betting accounted for almost $4.3 billion of the total, poker around $2.4 billion.

Effects seen quickly

The new law already has had an impact. In mid-October, British-based Sportingbet PLC and Leisure & Gaming PLC sold their U.S. operations, while Australia-based Betcorp Ltd. dumped its operations in Antigua and Toronto.

These moves came on the heels of several arrests, including that of David Carruthers, chief executive of BetOnSports PLC, which operated online sports books and casinos out of Costa Rica. He was indicted in St. Louis on 22 federal fraud and racketeering charges.

Before that, Carruthers had said “prohibiting online gambling would be catastrophic.”

“Prohibition would not stop online gambling,” he told WSJ.com in April. “It would send it underground and leave the vulnerable unprotected.”

Law may have loophole

There may already be a loophole in the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

Although financial institutions under U.S. jurisdiction are no longer a legal option for money transfers to offshore betting sites, some that are not under U.S. jurisdiction are willing to be middleman between American gamblers and such sites.

By providing e-wallet accounts, companies such as MyCitadel, Neteller and Moneybook, operated in the United Kingdom or surrounding area, enable customers to load, withdraw and transfer funds to any merchant Web site that supports their online payment system.

Many gambling sites already support such payment systems.

Author: Hopp, Jessica
Source: Tennessean.com
Published: Dec 10, 06

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NASHVILLE – Gambling on sports, once seen as a shady endeavor, has become mainstream fare. Fueled by the nation’s love for football and a newfound passion for poker, the sports gambling industry is now a $400 billion monster of legal and illegal activity worldwide.
“The explosion today is gambling surfacing from underneath,” said Nashville’s Angela Evans, a sports gambler and handicapper. “Now it’s everywhere.” Including Tennessee. All gambling except the state lottery is illegal here, but police know they can’t fully control sports betting or poker. “People enjoy betting,” said Sgt. Steve Reed of the Nashville Metro Police Gambling Control Unit. “You have people betting in this city every day.”

In Las Vegas, the Nevada Gaming Control Board said $2.26 billion was wagered last year in legal sports books.

Globally, $12 billion was spent on online gambling last year, $4.3 billion of it in sports bets, according to gambling-industry analyst Christiansen Capital Advisors. By 2010, revenue from online gambling is expected to hit $24.5 billion.

Tennesseans are part of that projection, but their involvement extends beyond bettors and bookmakers.

Local handicappers profit with online sites, radio shows and book sales. Poker has produced Midstate millionaires.

Counseling centers and Gamblers Anonymous meetings around the state take in those who become addicted.

And local lawmakers and law enforcement continue the fight to keep gambling illegal and put its offenders in jail.