Stop Predatory Gambling

It’s time states stopped the use of “free play” to entice citizens to gamble and allowing casinos to escape paying taxes

State governments continue to allow casino operators to offer free play to lure citizens into gambling. Today’s casinos use mail, phone and email solicitations to offer free slot machine play to citizens who have rarely been to a casino before,… Read more

Newspaper blisters the sham of casino “responsible gambling” programs

After many years of watching government’s failed predatory gambling policy unfold in their state, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial unloads on the recent efforts by casinos to eliminate the last of Missouri’s precautionary operating restrictions: offering loans to gamblers. Here… Read more

“The Smartest Guys Not in the Room” makes its video debut featuring America’s favorite casino stars

Caesars stock will end up like Enron’s: virtually worthless

Caesars Casinos, the casino operator taken over by buyout firms TPG Capital and Apollo Global Management LLC in 2008, announced plans to sell shares in an initial public offering at $8 to $10 apiece. According to Bloomberg News: “Caesars, which… Read more

Watch Florida casino promoters be afraid to use the word “casino” at their own press conference

Predatory gambling operators promote the “destination resort” message because it polls very well, much better than framing it as casinos or slot parlors. The public conjures nice restaurants, golf courses and high-end retail as opposed to the most predatory business… Read more

Casinos are fighting against efforts to reduce gambling addiction in Pennsylvania

Casinos like to declare they are “just like any other business” but they continually to defy efforts that treat them like any other business. In Pennsylvania, a grassroots push is underway that would require casinos to mail monthly statements to… Read more

Philadelphia leads way against “Quicksand credit” at casinos

Casino-Free Philadelphia, a vocal and effective citizens group against government’s policy of predatory gambling in that city, is hosting a meeting TOMORROW, Saturday, Sept. 10 from 1:30 to 4:30 PM at their Center City office, 714 Market Street, Suite 3…. Read more

Lotteries are now running ads to teach citizens how to play lottery games

One publicly-stated reason why government got into the predatory gambling business in the first place was “citizens are doing it anyway so we may as well capture that money.” The evidence is indisputable, however, that government has turned a nation… Read more

Another major U.S. media outlet exposes the failed government policy of predatory gambling

Following on the heels of the 60 Minutes investigation into slot machines that aired in January, The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Science Writer John Mangels publishes his investigative series into predatory gambling this week appropriately titled “Game of Trance.” The quality… Read more

Prove that slot machines and casinos are safe to be promoted to the public

Below is testimony I submitted at yesterday’s casino hearing in Massachusetts: Good morning, my name is Les Bernal and I’m the Executive Director of Stop Predatory Gambling, a national organization based in Washington DC, and our mission is to end… Read more

Is there a soup kitchen across the street from Pebble Beach Golf Course?

In states across America, predatory gambling operators and some political officials have deceptively framed their proposals as a push to legalize “destination resort casinos.” They use the frame to avoid arousing serious questioning by media, legislators and citizens about the… Read more

“I have a feeling but I can’t quite pinpoint the research”

Previously we have highlighted the push in Pennsylvania to require casinos to send monthly statements to gamblers about how much money they lost. This week, in an effort led by activist Bill Kearney and Rep. Paul Clymer, the bill passed… Read more

Promoting indebtedness, addiction and now cancer to pay for government

The Illinois House voted this week to lift a smoking ban in all of the state’s casinos during a debate that pitted the health of gamblers and casino workers against hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues. The proposal,… Read more

The failed policy of exploiting human weakness for profit faces unrelenting fire in Australia

A MUST-READ piece by the editors of The Kings Tribune from Australia about why government’s partnership with predatory gambling interests is a failed public policy. They make a powerful, evidenced-based public argument.  Here it is: Don’t gamble with human weakness… Read more

“Come Play” and then later we’ll sue to recoup the money we loaned you to gamble with

Mohegan Sun in Connecticut is suing a Florida man who gambled away $1.2 million in credit that the casino loaned him in May 2009. Court documents filed by the man say the casino solicited him to open a line of… Read more

Must-watch video of a Merchant of Deceit

Roxbury News captures Sands Bethlehem (PA) president Robert DeSalvio testifying before the Pennsylvania Legislature that sending monthly statements to gamblers about their losses will violate privacy and may encourage citizens to gamble more because it will remind them about their… Read more

Government’s biggest dirty secret

The Philadelphia City Paper’s Isaiah Thompson writes another excellent column this week about casinos, this time about the recent hearing on a bill that would allow the revoked Foxwoods Casino license to be re-bid statewide. Thompson writes: “Less cunning was… Read more

State government and casinos aim to exploit Asian and Slavic communities

Kellie Patrick Gates of Plan Philly wrote a must-read news account about how casinos, in partnership with state government, aggressively target Asian and Slavic populations across the U.S.  Her account is below: Philadelphia’s large Asian and Slavic populations help make… Read more

We already know you can’t stop yourself but we’ll keep the burden on you to stop because we’re making a lot of money at your expense

The concept of the “self-exclusion list” has always been a scheme for casinos and government to help deflect attention away from how they severely exploit addicted gamblers to reap their profits. Such lists allow them to say, like the Indiana… Read more

A video every legislator in America needs to watch

Dr. Kevin Harrigan, a gambling researcher at the University of Waterloo in Canada, has been an international leader in exposing the highly-deceptive and predatory nature of electronic gambling machines. He has produced several brief, must-watch videos to spotlight the issue,… Read more

Make the casinos return the stolen money

The government program of predatory gambling can now add several more names to its continually expanding list of victims. A longtime bookkeeper for a small Chicago machinery company has been charged with embezzling more than $1.5 million from the business… Read more

How Vegas Security Drives Surveillance Tech Everywhere

Popular Mechanics examines how the predatory gambling trade employs the most effective and invasive surveillance technology in the world. How Vegas Security Drives Surveillance Tech Everywhere

Leaked memo shows a glimpse of casino business practices

Tina Detelj of WTNH in Connecticut gets the exclusive on a leaked memo from Mohegan Sun that offers a glimpse into casino business practices. The memo included a reference to the casino’s push for its employees to “Sex It Up.” You can… Read more

Profiting by pushing their fans into deeper debt

Officials from the four major professional sports franchises in the Boston area – the Red Sox, the Patriots, the Celtics and the Bruins – gathered together yesterday to heap praise on their business partnership with the State Lottery to sell… Read more

New York Times online op-ed and Stop Predatory Gambling

The New York Times is holding a discussion forum on internet gambling in their online opinion section. SPG contributed an op-ed which appears below: Internet gambling is one of the most predatory businesses in the world which is why public… Read more

The Economist hosts a debate on gambling

Over the past week The Economist has been conducting a debate on whether government should have no restrictions on gambling. Stop Predatory Gambling was invited to make the case against the proposition. Here are the opening statements, the rebuttal statements… Read more

Casinos put people on welfare and profit from welfare

California casinos continue to reel from news reports that the state’s casinos are profiting from the gambling losses of welfare recipients using taxpayer-funded debit cards. How did the casinos respond? They expressed surprise that the ATMs can be used by… Read more

Racial profiling, casino-style

East Coast casinos are intensifying their targeting of Asian-Americans in an effort to get them to lose more money. They are hiring directors of Asian-American player development, expanding dining areas and menus, and spending money on foreign-language advertising in newspapers… Read more

The next story that needs to be written

The Erie Times (PA) has a report about a local man who was denied a $2001 jackpot at Presque Isle Downs & Casino because he put himself on the state’s self-exclusion list. He now faces a summary criminal trespass charge…. Read more

Staying on the predatory gambling story

Philadelphia Citypaper newsman Isaiah Thompson, the reporter behind what may be the best investigate news story into the business practices of the predatory gambling trade to date, predicts this week how Pennsylvania will attempt to fund its billion-dollar budget shortfall…. Read more

Why does our government consider this man less equal?

A Massachusetts firefighter/­paramedic was arrested for embezzling $46,000 from his labor union’s bank account to feed a gambling addiction at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut. As the 35-year old firefighter was arraigned in court, the defendant’s elderly father watched from the… Read more

The most predatory business in America today

SPG executive director Les Bernal has a column about predatory gambling in today’s Boston Globe.  We urge you to check it out.

There are no snow days in this government program

Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Monica Yant Kinney writes a first-class story exposing the most predatory business in America. Here are a couple of the most remarkable excerpts in which she quotes the President of the former Philadelphia Park racetrack now known… Read more

Florida reporter exposes the Lottery’s highly predatory practices

Reporter Lindsay Peterson of The Tampa Tribune wrote one of the best investigative stories on the lottery that has appeared anywhere in America in recent years. Read it here. Some of the story’s highlights include: “The state pays millions to… Read more

Now the Symbol of Phony Prosperity

Over the weekend there was a news story about the Bethlehem (PA) casino, built on the site of the former Bethlehem Steel- once a symbol of America’s industrial might. It was supposed to be a “destination resort casino” yet they… Read more

Another victim of predatory gambling speaks out

Kent Glowinski, an attorney and former gambling addict, speaks out against the government program of predatory gambling. Glowinski rightly argues that government is unwilling to aggressively stop the predatory business practices used by casinos because it depends on the revenue…. Read more

Casino lets man gamble and lose for 23 hours straight

Yesterday in Massachusetts a top executive of the Mohegan Sun Casino helped release recommendations for dealing with problem gamblers if casinos are legalized in the Bay State. For public relations purposes, casinos spend tens of millions of dollars trying to… Read more

Casino ownership is about loving yourself more than your neighbor

Today’s New York Times has a story about a politically influential African American pastor in New York City who is an investor in a soon-to-be Queens casino. The casino business model and its business practices are predicated on greed, deceit… Read more

Trading one something-for-nothing scheme for another

Guess where the FBI found a Massachusetts man fleeing federal charges for running a $28 million Ponzi scheme? A casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. The FBI tracked him to Mississippi after he left (yes, follow your instincts here)… Las Vegas. It… Read more

A money making scheme based on getting people into debt defaults on its own debt

Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, one of the world’s largest, has failed to make a full payment on its debt, leading to a default and another credit-rating downgrade to D, Moody’s lowest grade. According to the AP wire story, the… Read more

The Oregon Lottery is addicted to addicted gamblers

According to a news report by The Oregonian, a major newspaper in the state, more than half the money the Oregon Lottery collects from video gambling — about $375 million last year — comes from a small number of Oregonians,… Read more

Taking action against allowing casinos to extend credit to slot machine users

Philadelphia citizens are rightly challenging legislation that would allow casinos to extend easy credit to anyone playing a slot machine. They are organizing an action outside of State Senator Shirley Kitchen’s district office this afternoon at 1:30pm. Participating groups include:… Read more

They will not use their own product but they will sing their own theme song

Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut is looking for a new voice to resurrect its catchy “Wonder of It All” theme song and has launched an online “American Idol”-type contest. The contest is open to professionals and amateurs. To attract the… Read more

The new story line about the predatory gambling trade in America

The Massachusetts Legislature held a public hearing on casinos last week and not one of the gambling operators who testified denied that their business model, their product or their marketing was predatory. 1) They did not deny that casinos earn… Read more

The biggest nightmare for casinos? No casino ATMs

Global Cash Access, a Las Vegas company that operates ATM machines in casinos around the country, said Tuesday it’s working to resolve a problem in which about 40,000 customers nationwide were charged for cash withdrawals, but did not receive their… Read more

The Top 10 Best Practices in the Predatory Gambling Trade

Yesterday, a “Best Practices in the Gambling Industry” conference sponsored by the predatory gambling trade was held at Suffolk Downs racetrack in Boston. Here are the trade’s Top 10 “Best Practices”: 1) Base your business model on 90% of the… Read more

Bernie Madoff must have Neil Bluhm envy

Billionaire “something for nothing” investor Neil Bluhm and his financing proposal for a casino in downtown Philadelphia received approval yesterday from the Pennsylvania Gambling Commission. Bernie Madoff went to prison for his role in what has been called “casino capitalism”… Read more

Will Indiana lead the way to stop predatory gambling?

Indiana is about to experience the reality of a something for nothing scheme which is more commonly described as “casino capitalism.” As surrounding states like Michigan, Ohio and Illinois all consider adding more extreme forms of predatory gambling into their… Read more

The predatory gambling mission of New York: Outperform pornography

New York Governor David Paterson ordered the New York City Off-Track Betting Corp. to prepare for a reorganization under Chapter 9 of federal bankruptcy law, after four years of losses totaling $38 million. The filing, the first involving a New… Read more

Predatory gambling supporters lose one of their products

A candidate for Massachusetts governor recently said a key part of his platform will be to promote more predatory gambling in the form of legalized sports betting like Delaware did. Yet according to a news report today: “A federal appeals… Read more

Racial profiling, Lottery-style

Jodie Winnett, acting superintendent of the Illinois Lottery, reinforces the truth why the Lottery is the most predatory institution still standing in America in this news story from Abraham Lincoln’s hometown newspaper. According to the news report: “…the state on… Read more

How is offering free slots play not predatory?

The Connecticut Attorney General announced yesterday the state’s two Native American casinos will pay the state $25 million in slot revenues to compensate for promotions that allowed gamblers to use slot machines for free. State officials said Foxwoods offered some… Read more

Illinois is asking the right questions about video poker

Yesterday, the Illinois Gambling Board publicly shared some of its analysis about efforts to place 45,000 video poker machines in every bar and tavern in the state. One Board member described it as “the equivalent of putting up 50 new casinos… Read more

Be sure to touch the magnificent cloth

Public discussions around predatory gambling continue to focus mostly on superficial aspects like how “momentum is building for slot machines” yet there is virtually no analysis of the product or business model for which “momentum is building.” This story from… Read more

Ohio attempts to exploit its younger generation

Even though Ohio citizens have voted four times against legalizing casinos in their state, state officials found a legally questionable way to bring them into Ohio through executive order. Now state officials want the legal age to use slot machines… Read more

The need to publicly investigate casino databases

The Las Vegas Sun published two good stories this morning that highlight the need for public officials and citizens to put an intense spotlight on the players clubs rewards system that is the backbone for the casino marketing machine. The… Read more

There is one winner in the predatory gambling trade

Atlantic City casinos are now asking for New Jersey state government to create a $20 million annual marketing fund to be used on their behalf. They want taxpayer dollars to help aggressively market their casinos so that citizens can lose… Read more