Gamblor’s World

Investigation to look at cases of retailers claiming customers’ winnings

Peter Mah, a retailer at McGill Grocery in Vancouver, welcomes an investigation launched yesterday by Ombudsman Kim Carter into B.C.’s lotto system.

Jack Keating, The Province

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

The ombudsman began an investigation yesterday into how the B.C. Lottery Corp. ensures its lotteries are fair.

“Recent public disclosures have raised questions about the lottery process in British Columbia,” said Ombudsman Kim Carter.

“I believe the citizens of B.C. would be well served by an independent and impartial investigation into this matter. Confidence in the lottery system is important.”

Revelations that lottery retailers in B.C. win major prizes six times more often than the public have raised concerns that some retailers steal customers’ winning tickets.

The lottery corporation’s security records show at least four cases where retailers inappropriately claimed customers’ winnings.

Carter said her role as ombudsman is “to shine a light” on the lottery process “and if there are things that we can usefully suggest to improve matters then we do that.”

Carter wants to find out “what processes they have and how do they work, and how do they check that they’re working.”

SPECIFIC ISSUES INCLUDE:

- How the corporation monitors the participation of retailers.

- How the corporation ensures that the person presenting the winning ticket is the owner.

- What checks are done to ensure compliance with its processes.

Carter said she expects to complete her written report in the spring. It will go to the legislative assembly and to the lottery corporation.

“It’s up to organizations to decide whether or not they’re going to accept our recommendations and implement them,” said Carter. “If there are things that can usefully be improved, we would make those recommendations to them.”

Lottery retailer Peter Mah at the McGill Grocery in east Vancouver welcomed the investigation.

“You want your customers’ trust,” Mah said. “And you don’t want customers thinking that they’re [being cheated]. You want the customers to believe that the lottery system is 100-per-cent foolproof.”

Lottery tickets are big sellers.

“It’s a big part of our business and it’s good to have,” said Mah, adding the store has had three $100,000-plus winners.

“No millionaires yet,” he said.

Mah said he buys tickets occasionally, but “only when it gets to a big prize and it gets exciting.”

Customers also supported the investigation.

“I think they should look into it,” said Doug Bear of Burnaby. “If the retailers are winning more than the general public, then it’s not fair to everyone that is buying. You want the lotteries to be fair.”

The lottery corporation said it welcomed the investigation.

“While we are confident that the right prizes are being paid to the rightful owners of winning tickets, we look forward to working with the ombudsman to reassure the public and our players of the integrity of our games and systems,” said corporation president Vic Poleschuk.

Corporation spokesman Paul Smith said retailers win more often because they buy more tickets.

Recent data shows that about 2.5 per cent of winners of prizes over $10,000 were retailers, Smith said.

“We have a high level of confidence that all of those prize payouts were legitimate.”

The public can reach Carter at www.ombudsman.bc.ca or 1-800-567-3247. jkeating@png.canwest.com

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Tell us by e-mail at provletters@png.canwest.com, or by fax at 604-605-2223. Please include your name and address.

© The Vancouver Province 2006

© 2006 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.

By CATHY DOBSON, Sarnia Observer, - Monday, December 18, 2006 Updated @ 9:31:19 AM

Bruce LaPointe is a smoker, so you think he’d be thrilled with the $250,000 building permit Hiawatha Slots has taken out to build an elaborate smoking area.

“It’s going to have walls and a roof and I’m told it’s going to be heated,” said LaPointe, who spends a fair share of time at the government-owned casino.

“What I don’t understand is how the government sets a standard that doesn’t allow independent businesses like the bars and restaurants to have a roof over their smoking areas, but they allow it for their own buildings.

It bothers me a lot when I see there are different rules for the casinos.”

Community health officials who enforce the Smoke-Free Ontario Act that kicked in last spring, say the casinos are within their right.

While restaurants and bars that allow food and beverages in their smoking areas are not permitted to have roofs or walls, any establishment that does not serve food and beverages in their smoking areas can.

“Food and beverage services have different regulations under the Act,” said Kevin Churchill, manager of Lambton County’s health promotion department.

“Of course, the casinos comply with the Act,” said Don Pister, a spokesman for the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation. “We are a provincial agency and it’s a provincial law. ”

“We are very careful to ensure we work within the Act. We’d probably be the last to get away with anything because we’re part of the province,” Pister said.

But that doesn’t satisfy LaPointe. He wants a level playing field for all Ontario businesses and public places.

He’s a construction worker who has worked at a number of plants in the Chemical Valley. Those companies locate their smoking areas far from buildings in compliance with the Act.

“I’ve had to stand out in the middle of a field to smoke at work because of the laws,” he said. “But Hiawatha is building its smoking area just a few feet from the south entrance.

“This is a double standard.”

Churchill said the Act has different requirements for smoking area locations depending on whether it’s a workplace, a food and beverage business or a public building where food and drink won’t be served in the smoking shelter.

There have been some inquiries like LaPointe’s but not many, Churchill said.

“We get a lot of questions but not a lot of complaints.”

Three part-time enforcement officers do random checks of workplaces and businesses, particularly convenience stores where cigarettes are sold, said Churchill.

“Compliance in Sarnia-Lambton is very high. We’ve had very little ticketing,” he said.

© 2006, Osprey Media

Letter The Edmonton Journal, Tuesday, December 19, 2006

The Journal recently published an article about a dog that was tortured and left to die by teenagers. Albertans responded with outrage, calling for punishment of the kids who committed the crime.

Yet every day, we openly allow various forms of cruelty to animals that are equally unpleasant.

The horse who was injured last week during a race at Northlands Park is an example of a socially acceptable form of animal cruelty. Its leg was shattered and the horse had to be “destroyed,” as if it were a car that had crashed; as though it wasn’t an intelligent, living being.

The animal died for fun and entertainment, so that some folks could make and others lose money, and so that somebody could go away and brag about winning a race.

I hope our politicians will discourage this heinous cruelty to animals by discontinuing funding for horse racing.

Sherry Dawn Knettle, Devon

© The Edmonton Journal 2006

© 2006 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.

The Province, Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Punters taking a flutter with the B.C. Lottery Corporation shouldn’t be forced to gamble on the honesty of retailers who sell them their tickets.

An inquiry by the official B.C. lottery watchdog, the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch of the public safety ministry, has identified only “minor technical problems.”

But revelations that the 4,400 B.C. retailers have been scooping lottery prizes at a far greater rate than the rest of us have prompted provincial ombudsman Kim Carter to launch her own impartial probe.

The lottery corporation pledges to “pay the right prizes to rightful winners.”

And while we wonder just how many government agencies are needed to get the facts, the issue of public trust is too important for the matter not to be vigorously pursued.

© The Vancouver Province 2006

© 2006 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.

Star News Services, Wednesday, December 20, 2006, Windsor Star

TORONTO - Lotteries are still the biggest source of gambling revenue for the Ontario government, far outpacing casinos and slot machines at racetracks.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. says it sold $2.3 billion in lottery tickets and instant scratch games in 2004-05.

The province’s four commercial casinos pulled in almost $1.6 billion in revenues in the last fiscal year, while charity casinos and slot machines at racetracks earned $1.9 billion.

After operating expenses were figured in, the $6.2 billion in total gaming revenues was reduced to $1.7 billion, but a so-called “win tax” of 20 per cent of revenues from casinos boosted the net cash flow to the province to $1.96 billion.

Most of the profits from the lotteries, charity casinos and slot machines — about $1.5 billion — will be used to fund hospitals, with another $100 million going to community groups through the Trillium Foundation, $36 million for a problem gambling strategy, and $3 million for amateur athletes.

Profits from the commercial casinos — about $334 million in 2004-05 — go into general government coffers.

© The Windsor Star 2006

© 2006 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.

Dave Hall, Windsor Star, Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Casino Windsor “will do just fine in its niche” but the city can no longer look toward gambling as a growth industry, according to a leading gaming analyst.

The casino, which employs more than 3,000, will have to fight to retain market share in the face of cross-border competition even with the addition of a new hotel, convention space and a concert venue, said Jacob Miklojcik, president of Michigan Consultants.

Along with interior renovations to spruce up the existing casino it will also become known as Caesars Windsor in 2008. The name change is in recognition of its operators and is an effort to attract American customers. It is the first Caesars outside the States. Patrons will be able to tap into the Caesars rewards program.

“With the amount of competition close by, you end up running harder and harder just to stay in place,” Miklojcik said.

Casino Windsor, which once employed 4,000, laid off 329 staff in July as a result of decreasing business, largely blamed on cross-border woes and no-smoking legislation, amid projections that business will plummet by up to 75 per cent before rebounding once the $400 million expansion is completed in two years.

“With 80 per cent of the bettors coming from the Detroit area, the major challenge for Windsor is to keep people smiling while they’re losing money,” said Marvin Roffman of Roffman Miller Associates in Philadelphia. “Even though most people go to casinos to lose money, keeping them smiling and keeping them coming back when they’re doing it isn’t easy.”Roffman said Windsor’s expansion should make a difference because “it’s adding amenities it didn’t have before and that should draw a different audience but it has to be a very, very rewarding experience to bring them back.” The casino recently added a sports betting room, which has proved popular and is not available in Michigan.

Miklojcik believes the addition of a 5,000 seat concert venue will have minimal impact beyond raising the casino’s profile. “it doesn’t really add anything to the bottom line. You hope to break even and that the people going to the concert stick around and gamble a bit.”

But Milkojcik added that the concert venue does give Windsor an edge on its Detroit competition because none have made major plans for such amenities across the border.

If growing anti-smoking sentiments finally reach Michigan, Roffman said “it might level the playing field and gamblers might return to Windsor for the same reasons they went there in the first place — service, tax-free winnings and safety.”

Miklojcik said that pending legislation requiring people entering the U.S. to carry passports will also affect Casino Windsor. “even Americans who have passports, and there aren’t many of them, don’t always carry them, so you’ve largely lost the impulse visitors.

“And even if you decide to try and sell Windsor-Detroit as a casino destination, you have the impediment of the border to deal with,” said Miklojcik.

dhall@thestar.canwest.com or 519-255-5777, ext. 408.

© The Windsor Star 2006

© 2006 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.

By TOM McCOAG Amherst Bureau, Halifax Herald, Wednesday December 20, 2006

AMHERST — A Truro woman was in such despair over her gambling addiction that she robbed an Amherst bank in September hoping police would shoot her dead.

“I thought death was my only option,” a sobbing Margaret Alice Baldwin said Tuesday in Amherst provincial court before Judge Carole Beaton sentenced her to 59 months in prison for robbing the Scotiabank branch on South Albion Street of $100,000.

Ms. Baldwin, 61, also received a concurrent 12-month sentence for having a weapon — bear spray — during the robbery.

The court was told the robbery was the second time Ms. Baldwin had attempted “suicide by cops.” In 1999, she robbed a takeout restaurant in Miramichi, N.B., of $540 hoping that she would be killed. She was sentenced to three years for that robbery.

Ms. Baldwin told the court she spent 25 years in the military as a nurse before a neck injury ended her career. After her medical discharge, she had a tough time adjusting to civilian life.

“Little did I suspect on Oct. 19, 1994, when I used that first VLT for some social gambling, that I was doomed to spiral to the depths of hell,” she told the court.

“I lost $600,000. I’ve lost my dream home, my car. I lost my values, my self-respect and my family. I became a piece of garbage.”

She attempted suicide by hanging and by crashing her car.

Ms. Baldwin said she tried to get help for her gambling addiction on an outpatient basis but it didn’t work. After she was released from prison after the Miramichi robbery, she entered an in-patient program at a Toronto clinic and was treated successfully. But she couldn’t afford to continue with the clinic’s outpatient rehab program and fell back into gambling after moving back to the Maritimes.

By last August, she had hit bottom and figured the only way out of her desperate situation was to return to the Ontario clinic. She said she asked for financial help from the Nova Scotia government but was refused.

“That put me into a full-blown crisis,” she said. “I decided the only way to stop it was to stage another robbery. I thought if they (police) wouldn’t shoot me for $540, they might shoot me if I stole $100,000.”

Ms. Baldwin entered the Amherst bank on Sept. 5 and asked to see manager Maria Campbell. Once inside Ms. Campbell’s office, Ms. Baldwin produced a handwritten note demanding $100,000 in unmarked, untraceable bills and warned that she had a bomb strapped to her waist that accomplices in the parking lot could set off.

She was wearing a black veil covering her face and white sport socks on her hands.

Police arrested her within minutes after she left the bank and recovered all the money.

“It must have been scary for the people in the bank, but it was not my intention to scare or harm people,” Ms. Baldwin said, dabbing at tears. “I only wanted to die.

“I hope Ms. Campbell can forgive me, not for my sake, but for hers. She needs to get on with her life and not think of me.”

Ms. Campbell accepted the apology and the sentence.

“I hope she can now get the help she needs,” the bank manager said.

( tmccoag@herald.ca)

© 2006 The Halifax Herald Limited

By David Helwig, SooToday.com, Tuesday, December 19, 2006

NEWS RELEASE, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH, MEDICAL CENTER

Deal or no deal? Need for immediate reward linked to more active brain region

Individual preferences correspond to magnitude of activity and may indicate risk for addictions, gambling problems

PITTSBURGH, Dec. 19 - Deal or No Deal? How people might play this popular game show - whether they would likely accept an offer for quick cash or opt to hold out for the chance to take home $1 million - probably has less to do with what could be inside each briefcase than what’s inside each contestant’s brain, suggests results of a new study.

University of Pittsburgh investigators didn’t study any of the game’s players nor did they offer stakes nearly as high, but their research in 45 normal adult volunteers, who were taunted with the prospect of getting between 10 cents and $105 at that very moment or waiting one week to five years for a sure $100, provides new insight about reward-based decision making and may have implications for understanding and treating addiction disorders.

Not only do people differ in their preferences for immediate over delayed rewards of larger value, say the researchers in the Journal of Neuroscience, but these individual traits are mirrored by the level of activity in the ventral striatum, a key part of the brain’s circuitry involved in mediating behavioural responses and physiological states associated with reward and pleasure.

Research volunteers classified as more impulsive decision makers, who tend to seek rewards in the here and now, had significantly more activity in the ventral striatum.

The preference for immediate over delayed rewards of larger value, which researchers term “delay discounting,” has already been linked to impulse-control problems, such as substance abuse, addiction and pathological gambling.

And separate studies have shown that people with addiction disorders have a more active ventral striatum.

The current study is the first to look at the relationship between individual differences in discounting behavior and individual ventral striatum activity, which in finding a strong connection between brain and behavior in normal subjects suggests the same neurocognitive mechanism could contribute to increased risk for addiction as well.

“The ventral striatum appears to be a nexus where we balance acting impulsively to achieve instant gratification and making prudent choices that may delay rewards. Understanding what drives individual differences in ventral striatal sensitivity could aid efforts to treat people who have difficulty controlling impulsive behavior, by adjusting the circuitry,” explained lead author, Ahmad R. Hariri, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry and director of the Developmental Imaging Genetics Program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic.

Based on their findings, Dr. Hariri and his colleagues are now looking at whether ventral striatum activity can help predict substance abuse disorders in those at risk.

Since the activity of the ventral striatum is modulated by dopamine, a brain chemical also associated with reward, they plan to explore the role that variations in dopamine-related genes may play in determining differences in ventral striatum reactivity.

“Addiction and problem gambling represent behaviors on the extreme end of the continuum. But even in the most common, day-to-day situations, reward-based decisions dictate how we behave. For example, individual preferences for immediate versus delayed rewards could explain why some can’t resist the temptation of dessert, an immediate gratification, while others will opt for a five-mile run knowing it will help shed pounds, a delayed gratification,” added Dr. Hariri. “Food, sex and money are all sources of pleasure, yet individuals differ greatly in the rewarding aspects they derive from these pleasures.”

In the study, subjects completed a computer-based task of delay discounting that required choices between immediate and postponed rewards - a laboratory version of Deal or No Deal that gives investigators a reliable index of each volunteer’s impulsive tendencies.

Subjects had to choose between hypothetical amounts of money available to them that day, ranging from 10 cents to $105, and $100 that would be given after seven days, one month, three months, six months, one year or five years.

Based on their cumulative choices, a switch-point value was calculated for each volunteer - the specific dollar amount that caused indifference about receiving the money now or later.

After several months, fMRI brain imaging studies were performed to determine each subject’s ventral striatum activity during a task that measures positive and negative feedback in anticipation of a monetary reward.

Each volunteer was told that the amount they would receive depended on how well they performed in a card guessing game, yet the researchers fixed the odds and all subjects were paid $10.

The researchers found that individual differences in discounting behavior, as determined by the first test, corresponded with the magnitude of ventral striatum activity.

Positive feedback produced the greatest activity, especially in those with a preference for immediate rewards.

The study’s volunteers comprised participants in the Adult Health and Behavior project, in which researchers being led by Stephen Manuck, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Arts and Sciences and a co-author of the Journal of Neuroscience paper, are assessing a wide range of behavioral and biological traits among non-patient, middle-aged, community volunteers.

In addition to Drs. Hariri and Manuck, other authors were Sarah M. Brown, and Douglas E. Williamson, Ph.D., department of psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Janine D. Flory, Ph.D., formerly of Mount Sinai School of Medicine and now at Queens College, New York City; and Harriet de Wit, Ph.D., department of psychiatry, University of Chicago.

The research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, both of the National Institutes of Health, and by a NARSAD Young Investigators Award given to Dr. Hariri.

Copyright ©2005 SooToday.com

Sarnia Observer, Tuesday, December 19, 2006 Updated @ 3:54:30 PM

Lambton OPP are searching for a male suspect in his mid-20s who grabbed a tray of lottery scratch tickets and fled a variety store here Sunday afternoon.

The suspect, described as having a slim build, blonde hair and wearing a light coloured baseball cap, ran to a tan-coloured van and drove off.

© 2006, Osprey Media

http://www.education.mcgill. ca/gambling/en/problemgambling.htm

http://www.responsiblegambling. qld.gov.au/ education-services/school-stuff/index.shtml

Teenage Gambling by Carol Silverman Saunders