at http://www.responsiblegambling.org/staffsearch/latest_news_articles.cfm
1. BWIN Study shows low percentage of online problem gambling
Author:
Source: Online-Casinons.com
Published Date: Jun 08, 2007
Description:
The study took place between February and October 2005 and embraced 40 499 players on the Bwin websites.
The study showed that the median behaviour of bettors amounted to a spend of Euro 4 per day. According to the research, only 1 percent of the 40 499 respondents exhibited behaviour which could be read as problem gambling, or “discontinuously high”.
2. Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act introduced today
Author: Thomas Jensen
Source: Point Spreads
Published Date: Jun 07, 2007
Description:
The Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act will function as a companion bill to the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act.
The new bill would create a taxation authority for internet gambling companies to be licensed under the recently introduced Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act (H.R. 2046).
3. Google update policy on gambling advertisements
Author:
Source: Bigmouthmedia News
Published Date: Jun 06, 2007
Description:
Google has extended its ban on advertising for gambling sites to include play-for-fun sites, as well as those promoting gambling related content.
Both Google and Yahoo! have already banned real-money online gaming advertising in the UK, however Google is the first major search engine to ban all forms of online gambling advertising, with immediate effect.
4. Illegal gambling raid in Winnipeg
Author: Turenne, Paul
Source: Canoe.ca
Published Date: Jun 06, 2007
Description:
Sixty-three people are facing charges in relation to illegal gambling after Winnipeg police raided three city clubs where for-profit Texas hold ‘em poker games were allegedly taking place without a licence. Six people face charges of keeping a gaming house, which carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison. No names were released. Fifty-seven other people, mostly card players who were present the night of the raids, have also been arrested and face charges of being found in a gaming house, a less serious offence.
5. Michigan gambling on economic growth
Author: Martin, Tim
Source: South Bend Tribune
Published Date: Jun 06, 2007
Description:
Potential changes to Michigan’s casino and horse track lineup are renewing the debate over the expansion of gambling in the state. Gov. Jennifer Granholm, looking to boost the state budget and offset an expected decline in government revenue from casinos, is considering a plan to allow a few Michigan horse tracks to install gaming machines that would let customers bet on previously run races at other tracks. A key question is whether it would be legal without a vote of the people.
6. Google updates policy on Internet gambling ads
Author:
Source: Gambling 911.com
Published Date: Jun 06, 2007
Description:
Effective immediately, Google will no longer allow advertising for any online gambling sites, including those where no money is needed to play games. Google and Yahoo! have both recently banned advertisements on pay-to-play online gambling websites in the UK, but Google are the first major engine to ban all forms of online gambling advertising from their service. This leaves MSN as the only one of the three major search engines still allowing advertising for pay-to-play gambling websites in the UK.
7. The night after the poker party
Author: Mandery, Evan J.
Source: Pop Matters
Published Date: Jun 06, 2007
Description:
Through a lamentable twist of circumstance, one of my least favorite people, former New York Senator Alfonse D’Amato, has become the champion of one of my most favorite causes: playing online poker in my bedroom. D’Amato recently signed on as the chairman of the new Poker Players Alliance, a group that seeks an exception for poker from the restrictions on internet gambling that Congress passed at the end of last term. The Internet Gaming Act is a bad law made badly. It does nothing to help poker players and nothing to help compulsive gamblers. But the poker community cannot simply disengage from the debate about appropriate legislation and cry that playing poker is everyone’s basic civil liberty. Even from the standpoint of a civil libertarian, Internet gambling is problematic in some nuanced ways that the poker community has yet to confront honestly.
8. Charged poker player shocked after massive gaming sting
Author:
Source: CBC News
Published Date: Jun 06, 2007
Description:
A Winnipeg man who was among 63 people charged with gambling offences after raids on three social clubs last week says he can’t believe he and his friends were breaking the law. Todd Webb says about 50 officers stormed the Barca Club with their guns drawn, ordered everyone to put their hands up and checked everyone’s identity. “I was in shock, complete shock. I had no idea what we were doing was wrong, if it’s wrong,” he says.
9. House of Representatives to meet over internet gambling
Author:
Source: iGamingBusiness.com
Published Date: Jun 06, 2007
Description:
A US House of Representatives panel announced it will hold an inquiry on Friday [June 8] to re-examine online gambling, which has effectively been prohibited in the country thanks to the introduction of 2006’s Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). The hearing will asses whether Internet gambling can be monitored to protect the interests of consumers while simultaneously protecting the payments system, House Financial Services Committee stated.
10. Study proves problem gambling can be treated effectively
Author: Goodwin, Terry
Source: CasinoGamblingWeb.com
Published Date: Jun 05, 2007
Description:
A non-biased study of problem gamblers who have gone through problem gambling treatment programs in Nevada shows that with proper treatment compulsive gamblers can be treated effectively 90% of the time. More than 80 percent of those interviewed said they were better able to control their lives after treatment, 67 percent of them said their financial situation had improved greatly since treatment ended, and 73 percent said they had re-established important relationships with friends and family.
11. Czech towns want to regulate gambling
Author:
Source: Czech Happenings
Published Date: Jun 05, 2007
Description:
Czech towns that regulate the operation of gambling machines want to have the right to restrict all gambling on their territory embedded in a new law on lotteries, representatives of the Association of Municipalities Against Gambling said. If they failed with their demand, they would turn to the Constitutional Court or possibly to the European Court of Human Rights, the association, comprising five Czech towns, said at its meeting in Prague. The right should also apply to lottery video terminals that the Finance Ministry used to permit without letting the municipal administration know.
12. Prime Minister orders stricter gambling controls
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Source: NhanDan.com
Published Date: Jun 05, 2007
Description:
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has ordered a tighter management of electronic gaming centres and casinos that have been designated only for foreigners and Overseas Vietnamese use in order to prevent gambling violations. The Ministry of Planning and Investment has been charged with conducting a campaign to inspect licensed electronic gaming centres nationwide, and report the results to the PM by the third quarter of this year. The move is seen by observers as one of the government’s efforts to closely manage the electronic gaming industry after police uncovered illegal gambling at five hotels in Ho Chi Minh City and southern Vung Tau city on May 27, in which 81 Vietnamese gamblers were arrested.
13. Gambling may expand more than state expected
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Source: Huntington Herald
Published Date: Jun 05, 2007
Description:
Adding table games to West Virginia’s four racetrack casinos was supposed to add jobs. That, in fact, was one of the major selling points for changing the state’s laws on gambling to allow voters in the four counties with racetrack casinos to decide whether to allow those tracks to add games such as poker, blackjack and roulette. Now the question is how many jobs will be added at the tracks. It seems that gambling is automating. According to The Associated Press, the new table games law gives casino operators the choice of hiring live dealers or buying a $135,000 machine to do that job.
14. More tribes are gambling on casinos for revenue
Author: Werner, Erica
Source: Tacoma News Tribune
Published Date: Jun 05, 2007
Description:
American Indian gambling pulled in $25 billion in 2006, 11 percent more than the year before as the industry’s explosive growth outpaced Las Vegas. Federal figures compiled from 387 tribal facilities in 28 states, show Indian gambling revenue has nearly doubled in five years. Indian casinos brought in $12.8 billion from gambling in 2001, $22.5 billion in 2005 and $25.1 billion in 2006, according to the National Indian Gaming Commission.
15. House of Representatives to hold Internet gambling hearings
Author:
Source: CappersMall.com
Published Date: Jun 05, 2007
Description:
Today the United States House of Representatives panel said it will hold hearings beginning this Friday to look at Internet gambling, which is effectively banned in the United States since the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Rep. Barney Frank who has introduced the Internet Gambling Regulation & Enforcement Act 2007 which legalizes online gambling but has many holes and outs in the bill said long ago that he wanted hearings held on internet gambling and he once called the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act the “stupidest law ever.”
16. Low-paid casino staff likely gambling addicts: union
Author: Loome, Jeremy
Source: Edmonton Sun
Published Date: Jun 05, 2007
Description:
Casino workers who put up with meagre wages in Alberta are “probably” gambling addicts who do the job as much for enjoyment as for financial support, says the head of one of Alberta’s largest unions. That’s one reason why staff are on the picket line at West Edmonton Mall’s Palace Casino after nine months of striking for a first contract, said Doug O’Halloran, president of Local 401 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. The average wage for the 250 striking workers was under $11 an hour and dealers make more than $1 an hour less than Tim Hortons staff on average, he noted.
17. No Sunday gambling, for now
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Source: CBC News
Published Date: Jun 05, 2007
Description:
Anyone who showed up to use the VLTs at the Charlottetown Driving Park on Sunday discovered it was closed. Earlier this spring, Atlantic Lottery Corporation took out advertisements that said the race track’s racino, with its 210 VLTs and Texas hold ‘em poker tables, would be open on Sundays. At the time, an ALC spokesperson said P.E.I.’s new Sunday shopping rules meant the racino could operate seven days a week. The new Liberal premier Robert Ghiz said he’ll ask the people of P.E.I. what they think about Sunday shopping and then make a decision.
18. B.C. Lotteries’ CEO a human sacrifice
Author: Leyne, Les
Source: Victoria Times Colonist
Published Date: Jun 05, 2007
Description:
Some damage control plans work, and some don’t. The one devised by the Liberal government and the B.C. Lottery Corp. held up for about 20 minutes at the news conference where it was unveiled. Then it turned into a disaster on a par with the one it was designed to address. The firing of Vic Poleschuk wasn’t just to punish the CEO. It was to divert attention from the rest of the people responsible for letting the lottery corporation drift. The best way to keep the lifeboat safe was to throw someone overboard. As BCLC chairman John McLernon said, it’s the easiest thing to do.
19. Nevada survey says problem gambling can be treated
Author: Benston, Liz
Source: Knox News
Published Date: Jun 04, 2007
Description:
The first research in Nevada to assess programs for problem gamblers found that most gamblers were able to stop entirely after going through state-funded treatment programs, which helped them recover financially and emotionally and even saved some from suicide. The research, paid for by state grants authorized in 2005, also found that for a handful of gamblers with other addictions, the gambling treatment also addressed those problems, such as compulsions to eat and to shop.
20. Roadshow heads to schools to warn on problem gambling
Author: Yung, Wong Siew
Source: Channel News Asia
Published Date: Jun 02, 2007
Description:
It is never too young to be caught in the trap of problem gambling. But nearly two-thirds of some 2,000 Singapore teenagers in a survey did not know that. So a Youth Gambling Prevention Roadshow will make its rounds at 9 schools this year alone to warn students about the dangers of gambling. The day-long roadshow was organised by the Methodist Children and Youth Centre, and co-funded by the National Council on Problem Gambling. Social workers say it has been useful in helping students spot the danger signs of addiction.
21. Heavy gambler stole $306K, police say
Author:
Source: Arizona Daily Star
Published Date: Jun 02, 2007
Description:
A Scottsdale schools employee arrested on suspicion of embezzling more than $300,000 of school funds had racked up hundreds of thousand of dollars in gambling debts at local casinos, authorities said. Scottsdale detectives discovered “evidence of a destructive gambling habit” in the bank records of the employee, Janet Winkler Rice, said Sgt. Mark Clark, a police spokesman. Rice, 59, was arrested Friday after a search warrant turned up documents showing evidence of the crime, police said.
22. Sales tax beats more gambling
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Source: CitizensVoice.com
Published Date: Jun 02, 2007
Description:
Pennsylvanians didn’t bite on the state Legislature’s recent attempt to dump a crucial statewide tax reform issue on local school districts. Now some lawmakers are responding with another measure that would enable them to evade their responsibility for the structural tax reform that is needed, statewide. State Rep. Jim Wansacz, a Lackawanna County Democrat and member of the state House Gaming Oversight Committee — which would more accurately be named the Gambling Promotion Committee — has emerged as a principal sponsor of a bill that would significantly expand casino gambling in Pennsylvania by authorizing a variety of table games.
23. WTO-Online Gambling: US dragging on enforcement of UIGEA
Author:
Source: EOG.com
Published Date: Jun 01, 2007
Description:
The drafting of regulations for the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) has been delayed for months. The U.S. Treasury Department is dragging its feet in writing regulations to accompany a law designed to stop the use of credit cards to pay for Internet gambling. “Are they going to be committed to enforcing this law?” Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) asked, “and putting the personnel in place that it needs as well?”
24. Where have the lottery millions gone?
Author: Ismail, Sumayya
Source: Mail and Guardian Online
Published Date: Jun 01, 2007
Description:
Since the suspension of South Africa’s national lottery in March this year, the estimated weekly average of R10-million spent on tickets and R2-million to R3-million spent on Sportstake — the lottery’s soccer betting game — has not been near a ticket counter. So how much of that money is now being channelled into other betting ventures? “The jury is out on this issue,” says Professor Peter Collins, of the National Responsible Gambling Programme (NRGP). “It is an issue which is being systematically researched in South Africa and internationally.” However, money generated from Sportstake, in particular, has already found its way to ventures such as the Soccer 6 game owned by Phumelela Gaming and Leisure, which asks players to forecast the results of soccer matches.
25. Gambler’s self-ban system ‘built on quicksand’
Author:
Source: CBC News
Published Date: Jun 01, 2007
Description:
Thousands of gambling addicts have signed agreements with Ontario’s gaming agency asking to be barred from casinos and slot parlours, but critics say the system is full of holes that let addicts easily slip back into the gaming sites. The photos of 10,000 problem gamblers who have signed up for the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.’s so-called “self-exclusion” program fill 22 binders. Security guards at the province’s gambling facilities are expected to commit each face to memory, then charge those gamblers with trespassing if they’re found in the facility. But security guards say it’s an impossible task and lawyers for clients who have sued the agency call it a “system based on quicksand.”
