Gamblor’s World

Bath Chronicle

September 27, 2007 Thursday

I believe that government, both locally and nationally, should have clear priorities as to where it spends its money.

There are some things that need financial help and assistance and some things that just don’t.

Recently, B&NES council reconfirmed its commitment to having a small casino in Bath .

I voted against the motion because I do not believe that a casino can in any way regenerate a community.

This means to feed the poor and heal the sick - a casino does far from that.

In voting for a casino councillors have committed £200,000 to proceed with the work that needs to be done to bring it to the city.

Surely what is more important is to find any surplus money to spend on the youth service which suffered a drastic £300,000 cut last year?

Isn’t it more of a priority to spend the money needed to bring a casino to Bath on the thousands of teenagers and young people who already think that local democracy does nothing for them?

The priority in Bath and North East Somerset should be our youth service, not a gambling house for the elite.

CLLR NATHAN HARTLEY BA (Hons) Liberal Democrat, Peasedown St John Bath

July 5, 2007 - 12:18 PM, swissinfo

Image caption: Switzerland has one of the highest casino densities in the world (Keystone)

Five years after the first Swiss casinos opened for business, almost 17,000 people have been banned from playing in the country’s 19 gambling houses, mostly for addiction reasons.

Casinos have a legal obligation to work to prevent gambling addiction. swissinfo visited a casino on a midweek afternoon to see the everyday players the law aims protect.

Inside the Casino Barrière de Fribourg is another world. It is cool and dark with no hint of the scorching summer’s day outside. In the moment it takes to get your bearings it seems like a vast space filled with flashing, beeping, jingling machines.

The regulars trickle in, flash their identity cards and head straight for their favourite machines. At this time of day the table games are lying idle.

But the most popular and most addictive slot machine game, Super Cherry, is a hive of activity. There are players in front of two thirds of the casino’s 20-odd Super Cherry machines, including one player who is able to master two machines simultaneously.

Low income

Psychiatrist Claude Uehlinger, head of the Fribourg Addiction Treatment Unit, provides treatment to gambling addicts, most of whom come to him under pressure from their family circle.

“Socio-economic status is a factor in gambling addiction, with less-educated people on lower incomes more at risk,” Uehlinger told swissinfo.

“It’s not only a question of time but also a question of environment. Ease of access to slot machines, for example, can trigger and speed up the addiction but psychological predisposition is also important,” Uehlinger said.

The personality trait of impulsivity plays a major role in the development of pathological gambling.

“A person with a weakness in terms of mood stabilisation would be more at risk,” Uehlinger said.

Gambling is a very severe addiction and it requires long treatment.

Claude Uehlinger, psychiatrist

Intervention

According to Linda McCarthy, resident psychologist and customer relations manager at Fribourg Casino, it is the casino’s goal for the client to remain healthy.

“Our approach is more about collaboration than confrontation. If necessary we will direct them to the appropriate professional help.”

Casinos are obliged to train staff to recognise problem clients. In Fribourg, once a person has been identified as a potential addict, McCarthy approaches them, suggesting a deal to limit the number of visits per month or stop access altogether. This arrangement would include all Swiss casinos.

It is not uncommon for family members of players to call the casino asking for their relative to be barred. If they can supply proof of financial difficulties, the casino will impose a ban on the person.

“There are still people who slip through the net, we cannot prevent all cases but we can do a lot to reduce the risk,” McCarthy said.

“Casinos must observe their clients, keep a record of problems.

Jean-Marie Jordan, Federal Gaming Board

Inspections

The Swiss Federal Gaming Board supervises and inspects Swiss casinos and ensures that the law is upheld. In its report for 2006, the Board praised casinos for significantly improving their measures for gambling prevention.

The Board carries out unannounced and arranged inspections which can be short one-day inspections or in-depth three-day visits.

“Casinos must observe their clients, keep a record of problems and speak to visitors if necessary. They may also demand proof of the person’s financial status and they have the right to bar the player,” Jean-Marie Jordan of the Federal Gaming Board told swissinfo.

“From the social point of view, we acknowledge the casinos are on the right track,” Jordan added.

According to Uehlinger it takes months of treatment exposure to deal adequately with gambling addiction. “Gambling is a very severe addiction and it requires long and repetitive treatment including psychotherapy, behavioural therapy, medication and lifestyle change.”

“Addiction cannot be completely cured but you can people move from an addiction state to a remission state. However addicts have a predisposition to go back to their addiction throughout their lives.”

swissinfo, Clare O’Dea

What is social bookmarking?

CONTEXT

A report co-commissioned by the Federal Gaming Board in 2004 found that the average monthly loss incurred by gambling addicts was SFr5,380 ($4,437).

Of the gamblers in counselling, 54% were losing half or more than half of their monthly income on average.

The gambling career can be subdivided into three phases:

1. The positive early phase, also known as the winning phase 2.The critical adjustment or losing phase 3. Finally the addiction or desperation phase.

KEY FACTS

Switzerland has one of the highest casino densities in the world.

There are 19 casinos in Switzerland, 9 A-casinos and 12 B-casinos.

B casinos are restricted to 150 gaming machines, three table games and maximum bets of 25 francs.

A-casinos decide themselves how much the bets can be.

In 2006 Swiss casinos made a profit of SFr955 million.

SFr750 was lost in slot machines and the remaining 205 came from table games, such as Black Jack or Roulette.

Peter McKenna, For The Calgary Herald, Saturday, July 07, 2007

Gambling proponents and video lottery stakeholders maintain that a VLT ban will never work. For them, there is no sense thinking about it because it can’t be properly structured or effectively enforced, and addicts will always want their fix.

This sentiment was captured by the president and CEO of the Atlantic Lottery Corporation, Michelle Carinci, when she spoke before the Newfoundland and Labrador Public Accounts Committee in January 2006. “Prohibition has never proven to have worked in any jurisdiction that we have looked at. . . . What prohibition does is it drives the activity underground. The activity will happen,” she declared.

South Carolina’s abolition of some 34,000 video poker machines in 2000 undermines Carinci’s claims. The tipping point for that state was the death of a newborn in a car on a sweltering summer day as the child’s mother played the VLTs for hours at a roadside casino.

The governor of North Carolina moved to ban an estimated 10,000 VLTs from his state as of July 1. He did so in part because of a flood of illegal machines that entered the state after being outlawed in South Carolina.

The real argument against a VLT ban is that it will work too well.

A ban will cut into the revenue stream of governments (and interested parties) and force them to look for monies elsewhere. It could also have a marginal impact in terms of job losses.

This expected financial hit is what really terrifies opponents. North Carolina’s revenue department is projecting a forfeiture of some $100 million annually and the potential loss of more than 1,700 jobs.

In North Carolina, law enforcement agencies joined church groups, the mental health community and citizens in calling for a ban.

The North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association maintained they didn’t have enough resources to regulate the machines, which were supposed to pay out prizes worth no more than $10 in merchandise or store credit (when they were paying out significantly larger sums). With the ban, not only did they have one less thing to worry about from a policing standpoint, but they wouldn’t have to involve themselves in time-consuming and costly investigations of illegal payouts.

The sheriffs said illegal activities often accompanied improper operations, including increased political corruption and crime. They viewed the ban as a critical step in reducing petty theft, fraud, embezzlement and even domestic violence.

Clearly, the argument of those who say a ban is unenforceable is severely weakened when the ones who would be responsible for implementing it endorse it.

South Carolina police have had no problem enforcing their ban as long as they have in place guidelines, penalties, sufficient staff and the requisite political backing of legislators.

The real problem with a ban is politicians’ utter lack of will and commitment.

The Alberta government should stop listening to the Gaming and Liquor Commission and do what is best for Albertans. Politicians need to stop fiddling with prevalence studies, responsible gambling gimmicks and marginal reductions in the numbers of machines, and put out the VLT fire with a ban on these insidious machines.

Peter McKenna is an associate professor of political studies at the University of Prince Edward Island. he is completing a book on the politics of VLTs in Atlantic Canada.

http://news. sawf.org/Lifestyle/ 39061.aspx

Posted on Monday, 25 June 2007 (EST)

OSLO (AFP) - In a bid to combat gambling addiction, the Norwegian state
has declared a monopoly on all slot machines and has given humanitarian
organisations, volunteer groups and sporting clubs until July 1 to
remove their machines from bars, supermarkets, airports, gas stations
and other locations.

Apparently the charities, embarassed at the harm they have been
causing, have agreed to the move. The new machines, to be operated by
Norsk Tipping, the state lottery monopoly, will be less “aggressive” .

see article …

problem gambling info. in Chinese at www.problem-gambling. org (need to install Chinese language program to read characters)

The following blog also have relevant info for family: http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/edkwanwk/

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, 23-Jun-07, The Brunei Times.

BEWARE of any form of activity that causes financial loss and contains elements of luck or chance, for it is considered to be gambling and therefore haram, according to Islam.

The imams in their Friday sermons yesterday warned Muslims congregating in mosques and prayer halls throughout Brunei against taking part in such sort of activities.

Gambling is considered a crime in Islam, and any financial gain obtained from it is haram and cannot be used. This is especially so in terms of purchasing food or drinks for one’s family.

Items that are purchased using haram money or gains are also considered haram, and those who consume it will be punished with the flames of Hell. The imams also noted that it is now much easier to indulge in gambling, even without realising, through the Internet and handphones.

Some activities that contain elements of gambling include Short Message Service (SMS) quiz competitions, riddles, auction and surveys.

These are considered to be gambling because participants are charged a fee for every inclusion or entry they make. In SMS quiz competitions, as an example, participants who answer the questions are charged a fee that is higher than the normal rate for sending SMS.

For instance, the normal rate is five cents, but for the quiz competition they are charged 50 cents.

This set up is similar to lottery, where every entry is charged through the purchase of a ticket. Whether the entrant wins the lottery or quiz is based on chance, which is another characteristic of gambling.

SMS surveys are similar in which every answer or response to a survey is charged a fee which is substantially higher than the normal rate, the imams emphasised.

SMS auctions too contain elements of gambling. In contrast to normal auctions that are considered harus or not haram in terms of Syariah, where participants can make a bid until the highest offer is made without any fee imposed, SMS auction organisers charge bidders for every offer they make.

In this way, SMS auctions cause the participants to suffer a loss, as they have to pay for every bid they make, although they may not win.

The imams reminded Muslims in the country to refrain from such sinful activities. Recognising that as humans who are not exempt from making mistakes, they exhorted the congregation through the Friday sermon to repent for their sins and refrain from conducting more wrongdoings.

The Brunei Times

Missouri is currently the only state that
limits gambling losses to $500 for any two-hour period. That limit has
just survived a legislative test.

The article and online poll by The St.
Louis Post-Dispatch can be found at:

http://www.stltoday .com/stltoday/ business/ stories.nsf/ developmentecono my
/story/3AFB74FE37E5 C817862572F50007 B931?OpenDocument

By GARY RIVLIN
Published: June 13, 2007

excerpt ….

“The vigor of their efforts is stirring the ire of some Asian activists and others. “If the casinos singled out African-Americans and marketed to them as heavily as they do Asians, I’d imagine there’d be this huge political outcry,” said Timothy W. Fong, co-director of the Gambling Studies Program at the University of California, Los Angeles. “The marketing has been so aggressive, and the penetration so deep, we’re starting to see alarming increases in the rates of problem gambling among Asians.””

continued at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/business/13vegas.html?em&ex=1181880000&en=497728caadcc8f9c&ei=5087%0A

By ROSS ROMANIUK, SUN MEDIA, Winnipeg Sun, Wed, June 6, 2007

Charlette says thinking positively and intuitive feelings won’t help you beat very long odds. (JASON HALSTEAD, Sun Media)

If you think the bingo numbers and spinning lemons are lining up in your favour, Val Charlette has a warning for you — the gambling gods are not.

The Addictions Foundation of Manitoba consultant wants just about anyone trying their hand at bingo, video lottery terminals or other gaming machines to ultimately recognize the risks of overconfidence in “their own efforts” to beat very long odds with unproven methods or unrealistic hopes. Because the most proven science of gambling numbers is that they’re stacked against you, she said.

“When you’re playing bingo, do you think positively? Do you think that thinking positively is going to result in a win?” Charlette, a gambling prevention educator with the AFM in Thompson, asked a crowd of dozens of representatives gathered at the National Aboriginal Gambling Awareness Conference in Winnipeg yesterday. “Are there gambling gods listening to my thoughts or my prayers? Probably not.”

It was a sobering message about the dangers of wonky strategies and “looking for that power within” when shoving coin after coin into a ringing, flashing gizmo.

A long list of red-flag mindsets were highlighted — selective recall in “remembering a win and forgetting or glossing over losses,” the near-miss notion in “justifying further tries” at a game after appearing to come close in lining up numbers or symbols and “personification” with a game in believing it’s a thinking entity.

As well, Charlette pointed to superstitions in keeping possessions or clothing on hand for luck, as well as cognitive distortion in believing “that every intuitive feeling is going to give them a win.”

IT’S CHANCE

For aboriginal gamblers, such conceptions could become an issue through their “very strong connection to spirituality,” she said. And she said aboriginals sometimes have “the gift of intuition and dreams,” they shouldn’t attempt to use it when chance is a major player. “Every time someone presses a button on a VLT machine, it’s just like when you throw a die. It’s one in six, no matter what.”

Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved.

ED. - No mention here of the Carmen no show!

By JENNY FENIAK, Edmonton Sun, Sun, June 3, 2007

Aside from being one of the newest, swankiest establishments in town, the River Cree Resort and Casino throws great parties. So with a bunch of Hollywoodites in town looking for a party, the casino was an obvious choice.

With a tight and exclusive invite list, the Christmas in Wonderland cast party was aces.

Held at Mystic Ultra Lounge in the casino, the chic space offered a sophisticated, yet relaxed atmosphere.

Chef Cruz was on hand and had an incredible selection for first rate snacks from Kobe beef cubes and carpaccio to candied walnuts and the finest cheeses to be found.

Not surprisingly, local guests arrived first and then, one by one, the film crew and cast began filing in. Chris Kattan and Preston Lacy of Jackass fame were some of the first famous faces to appear. And Patrick Swayze did eventually make an appearance though it came with a request for no photographs to be taken. It was an understandable request, as the party was intended for the movie’s cast and crew to relax for an evening while in town for a few months filming.

With guests fed and watered, the music picked up as people started dancing and letting loose. There was a formal request from the film side for some late night karaoke, but others opted to join the public outside the dark curtains and throw some money around on the felt tables.

Either way, it’s great having such high profile visitors in town and River Cree were wonderful hosts for the occasion.

Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved. Test