Gamblor’s World

By ANTONELLA ARTUSO, QUEEN’S PARK BUREAU CHIEF, Thu, November 22, 2007, Ottawa Sun

TORONTO — The Ontario minister who oversees the lottery corporation says he’s confident it has a handle on the “insider” wins problem.

“It’s a fair game,” Public Infrastructure Minister David Caplan said yesterday.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation has disclosed the number of ticket retailers and OLG staff winning $50,000 or more in jackpots has increased since it began cracking down on insider fraud last November.

Over the past year, one in 20 big jackpots went to insiders.

The OLG says it’s just being more vigilant in tracking insiders.

continued at

Posted: 21 November 2007 | Subscribe Online writes Natalie Valios

You probably don’t see yourself as a gambler. But many of us - about 32 million to be precise - have participated in some form of gambling in the past year. And when you look at the number of ways in which we can lose our money - from playing the National Lottery, bingo or gaming machines to betting on the horses, doing the football pools or visiting casinos - odds are that most of us gamble more often than we believe.

Since the Gambling Act 2005 relaxed rules on advertising for casinos and online gambling sites and introduced powers to license so-called super-casinos, fears have been raised about a possible surge in problem gamblers. Just before the British Gambling Prevalence Survey 2007 was published two months ago there was a flurry of media stories predicting exactly this.

But they were wrong. Contrary to speculation, the number classed as problem gamblers - more than 250,000 - is about the same as in the last prevalence survey in 1999. And the number of adults who gamble has fallen by about one million in the past eight years.

However, with more than £10bn expected to be lost by punters next year, Mark Griffiths, professor of gambling studies at Nottingham Trent University, denies claims of scaremongering over the problem.

“People seem to think there’s no problem because it has stabilised,” says Griffiths, who co-authored the prevalence study. “But a quarter of a million adult problem gamblers is a public health issue.

“Problem gambling can negatively affect significant areas of a person’s life, including their physical and mental health, employment, finances and relationships.”

continued at

Author: James Ihaka
Source: New Zealand Herald
Published Date: Nov 23, 2007

Full Document:
NEW ZEALAND — Desperate poker machine gamblers are stripping homes of essential fittings to finance their habit.
Some Housing New Zealand tenants in South Auckland have ripped carpet, ovens, stair rails, doors and water cylinders from their homes and sold them to scrap yards and pawnbrokers.

A Manurewa woman, who did not want to be named, told the Herald her husband’s problem gambling had escalated from spending “$10 every now and then” to selling his family’s hot water supply and oven for his pokie fix at a local bar.

“He ripped out the hot water cylinder and sold it for $230 at a scrap metal yard,” she said. “I think it was later that week when he took the oven and sold that too - it didn’t seem to bother him that we had two children to feed.”

continued at

at http://www.responsiblegambling.org/staffsearch/latest_news_articles.cfm

Legalized gaming and legal games — how much expansion?

Author: Lane, Mark
Source: News-Journal Online.com
Published Date: Nov 16, 2007

Description:
FLORIDA — I’ve been an opponent of casino gambling in Florida from the time anybody first paid me to write opinion. So you might expect I’d be working myself into a churning urn of burning outrage over the state’s gambling pact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida signed Wednesday. And, you’d be wrong. No, no. I still don’t buy the argument that we need casinos to keep Florida tourism competitive. And don’t insult my intelligence by telling me it means free, new money for schools. And please, I still hold back a bitter chuckle when I hear people claim casinos will relieve them of all their tax woes.

2. Anti-gambling lobby battling to reduce pokies

Author: Ihaka, James
Source: New Zealand Herald
Published Date: Nov 15, 2007

Description:
Manukau City is considering a “sinking lid” policy on pokie machines in the city. This week community groups and representatives from The Problem Gambling organisation made oral submissions against pokie machines to the city council. They met opposition from gaming industry representatives who want the cap on pokie venues to be kept at 90 venues. The issue is currently with the council’s policy and activities committee for consideration.

3. Chink of light in pursuit of gaming exclusion review. This secret review must go public.

Author: Booth, Kim
Source: Greens [Australia]
Published Date: Nov 15, 2007

Description:
The Tasmanian Greens today continued in Parliament their pressure for full release of the internal review into gaming self-exclusion secretly conducted by the Liquor and Gaming Branch within the Department of Treasury, saying that this information is vital to ensuring the effectiveness of measures to assist gambling addicts away from pokies. Greens Shadow Gaming spokesperson Kim Booth MHA welcomed news that the review, never publicly announced and first revealed in an obscure part of the Treasury Annual Report, but wants to know whether people who attempted self-exclusion were consulted, what the ambit of the review was, who took part, and what the findings and recommendations comprise.

4. Asia’s gambling capital, Macau, might raise casino entry age to 21

Author:
Source: Bangkok Independent
Published Date: Nov 15, 2007

Description:
Macau’s booming gambling industry was considering how to respond to a proposal by the territory’s leader to increase the legal age for entering casinos from 18 to 21. Millions of young gamblers would be excluded by the new age limit suggested by Chief Executive Edmund Ho while school leavers would be unable to go straight from sixth form to casino jobs. Ho disclosed the plan at a question and answer session with legislators Wednesday [Nov 14], saying the gambling boom in Macau could not continue indefinitely without addressing the “social costs.”

5. N.B. First Nations could face litigation over casino

Author:
Source: CBC News
Published Date: Nov 15, 2007

Description:
Ambitions among New Brunswick First Nations groups to build a casino independent of government will likely meet with litigation as the province defends its legal high ground on gaming issues, experts contend. That is, if the province doesn’t willfully ignore First Nations gambling pursuits to avoid a contentious political showdown. Unimpressed with the Liberal government’s new gambling policy, some First Nations leaders have vowed to pursue a casino on their own outside of government regulations.

6. Casino to benefit from paths blazed by others; decades of success, failures in other provinces will help N.B.’s venture succeed

Author: Robichaud, Jesse
Source: Moncton Times & Transcript
Published Date: Nov 15, 2007

Description:
New Brunswick should benefit from the decades of successes and mistakes experienced across the country since casinos began popping onto the Canadian landscape, says an official with the Manitoba government’s gambling regulator. When Premier Shawn Graham announced last week that the province’s responsible gaming policy would bring gambling in New Brunswick into the 21st century, it was clear that the country’s ninth province to legalize a casino was by no means blazing a pioneer’s trail. However, approaching casino gambling from behind the pack can position the province favourably, says Liz Stephenson, the director of research with the Manitoba Gaming Control Commission.

7. We shouldn’t romanticize this idea of a casino

Author: Llewellyn, Stephen
Source: Fredericton Daily Gleaner
Published Date: Nov 15, 2007

Description:
The alleged economic benefits of a New Brunswick casino don’t add up, says a University of Prince Edward Island political science professor. “There is a tendency to inflate the benefits and revenues and downplay the costs, particularly from a social standpoint,” Peter McKenna said. “I have heard these arguments all before, and none of them are convincing and none are factually correct.” “We shouldn’t romanticize this idea of a casino,” he said. “It is nothing more than a cover to justify bringing in hundreds of VLTs under a single roof.

8. Inspired Gaming increase responsible gaming investment

Author: Lee, Sandy
Source: Casino Wire
Published Date: Nov 15, 2007

Description:
The chairman of Inspired Gaming, Jim O’Halleran, has highlighted the need for gaming companies to increase their contributions to responsible gaming by giving more generous funds to the Responsibility in Gambling Trust (RIGT). The announcement came after Inspired, the largest gaming machines operator in the UK, has increased in its own contribution to the RIGT to £50,000, denying rumours that it was a mere publicity stunt. Inspired see the move as a prime example for other operators to follow.

9. Treasury details Internet gambling ban

Author:
Source: Houston Chronicle
Published Date: Nov 14, 2007

Description:
The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve continue to finalize a new rule that would put the onus on banks to help crack down on online gambling by U.S. citizens, a Treasury official said Wednesday [Nov. 14]. In prepared remarks, Deputy Assistant Secretary Valerie Abend said banking regulators are focusing their efforts on banks that do business with gambling companies, as well as the interaction between U.S. banks and foreign banks that may be tied to online gambling.

10. US lawmaker raps Internet-gambling enforcement

Author: Kaplan, Peter
Source: Reuters
Published Date: Nov 14, 2007

Description:
The Democratic head of the House Judiciary Committee voiced frustration about what he said are disparities in the enforcement of U.S. Internet gambling laws. Chairman John Conyers questioned “the selective nature” of Internet gambling enforcement and said a ban enacted by lawmakers last year could end up hurting U.S. relations overseas. “Continuing with the same old failed policies for the sake of feel-good politics doesn’t make sense,” Conyers, of Michigan, said at a hearing on the issue.

More articles ….

By ALISON AULD The Canadian Press, Halifax Herald, Sat. Nov 17 - 5:18 AM

The Nova Scotia government put the regional lottery corporation under further scrutiny Friday when it called for a performance review of the head of the embattled agency.

Angus MacIsaac, the minister responsible for the Gaming Control Act, said he sent a letter to the provincial gaming corporation asking the Atlantic Lottery Corp. to conduct an evaluation of its CEO, Michelle Carinci.

MacIsaac said he became alarmed earlier this week when Carinci appeared at a public accounts committee to face questions about the corporation’s procurement policies and the number of retailers who win cash prizes.

The minister said he was struck by Carinci’s apparent lack of concern for what he called “obvious problems” at the corporation.

“There might not have been the level of understanding of the concerns Nova Scotians have and I have asked the board to evaluate whether that level of concern is there,” he said in an interview.

“This is a matter of re-establishing Nova Scotians’ confidence in the Atlantic Lotto Corp.”

continued at http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/985465.html

By ANTONELLA ARTUSO, SUN MEDIA QUEEN’S PARK BUREAU, Sat, November 17, 2007, London Free Press

TORONTO — The official number of insiders winning big in the lottery game has gone up during the year since the Ontario Lottery Corp. began cracking down on potential fraud by ticket retailers.

Thirty-nine insiders — identified as ticket retailers or OLG staff — have claimed prizes of $50,000 or more since last November when the lottery corporation began implementing security measures.

Insiders claimed about one in every 20 jackpots of $50,000 or more between November 2006-07. During that same period a year earlier, there were 28 insiders who took home the big prizes.

OLG spokesperson Teresa Roncon said the organization has begun monitoring winners more closely to determine who is an insider and the rise in official insider wins reflects that greater scrutiny.

“When we started asking more detailed questions, we were able to capture more people as insider winners.”

According to OLG figures, there were 1,949 general winners of prizes of more than $10,000 during the last year, including 72 insider winners. Of those prizes, 1,189 were in the $10,000 to $49,999 range. There were 760 big prizes of more than $50,000 of which 39 went to insiders.

continued at http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/CityandRegion/2007/11/17/4662776-sun.html

Description of show:

“It all started with an unlikely hero, Bob Edmonds of Coboconk, Ontario.

Last year, the fifth estate told you his story: how Edmonds was cheated out of his $250,000 lottery winnings by a store clerk and then was cheated again by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation when they made him go through a four-year court battle to get his money. Bob Edmonds eventually got that money, but his case was not unique.

The story sparked an investigation by Ontario’s Ombudsman, Andre Marin. In two subsequent updates, the fifth estate revealed more problems within the lottery system as well as other suspicious cases, including one Super 7 jackpot worth $12.5 million.

The $12.5 million jackpot

Kathleen Chung didn’t want to talk about the lottery win with the fifth estate.In Twice Lucky, Linden MacIntyre tells the story of that 2003 $12.5 million jackpot and of the young woman, who walked in to the OLG’s offices to claim the prize, gave inconsistent stories to lottery officials and couldn’t remember any details about her ticket. Lottery officials were concerned enough to hold on to the prize money, but failed to do a thorough investigation. When no one else came forward to claim the prize after one year, the OLG paid $12.5 million to someone they suspected of lying.

This case so shocked the Ombudsman that he highlighted it in his report of March, 2007. The next day, the Ontario Minister responsible for lotteries, David Caplan, ordered the OPP to investigate the $12.5 million jackpot as well as other “insider” win cases. So, what has happened since that investigation was ordered? Find out on the fifth estate’s on-going investigation into retailer troubles at the OLG.”

at http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/twicelucky/

14/11/07, The Cape Breton Post

HALIFAX — Officials from the Atlantic Lottery Corp. have fielded a series of tough questions from a Nova Scotia legislative committee about measures taken to ensure the integrity of its games.

Corporation officials were explain to the public accounts committee why retailers won big prizes at rates up to 19 times more than should have been expected.

Corporation CEO Michelle Carinci says while she can’t explain the statistics, steps have been taken to protect customers and that complaints are followed up on.

Carinci also admitted that the procurement process wasn’t transparent enough in the awarding of a recent Internet gaming contract to Swedish company Boss Media.

continued
at http://www.capebretonpost.com/index.cfm?sid=80263&sc=145