As this article by the Observer-Reporter explains, many white-collar workers with access to tens of thousands of dollars of company funds embezzle this money to fund their gambling addictions. It’s a growing problem in Pennsylvania, and shows how problem gambling drives some to break the law to fuel their addiction.
Poor citizens ride casino bus out of desperation to survive
A bus ride to a casino in the New York/Pennsylvania area is often accompanied by a free-slot play promotion, worth around $15-$45 of free play in a surrounding casino. This is meant to draw bus riders into the casinos, however, for some citizens like these poor New Yorkers, this is a way of life. Many citizens, desperately looking to make ends meet, spend their days riding casino buses for hours to collect free-slots play and often reselling the coupon for cash.
2014 Sands Bethlehem casino bus-hoppers beat odds using free money
Casino owners create image of a “community partner” to insulate themselves from the harm they inflict on citizens
When it comes to buying good will from the community and luring voters to support casinos in their city, casino interests use a multitude of methods to make themselves appear as if they are some kind of local charitable foundation. In this instance, the casino interests in Springfield, MA used tactics such as handing out diapers to citizens and sponsoring community pancake breakfasts to convince voters to support them, creating their own political machine with virtually no spending limit.
2013 Casino Operators Offer Pancakes, Diapers in Springfield
Casinos don’t mess around when it comes to collecting debts
Commercialized gambling is based on getting people to lose far more than they can afford. One common tactic is to get citizens to chase their losses. Casinos like Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun often lend gamblers money interest-free because they know the players will inevitably gamble away all the money back to the casino. Then the casinos demand to be paid back for the money they lent! It’s a state-sanctioned business practice, often ensnaring people’s homes.. These two articles from WPRI (RI) and The Boston Globe describe the situation.
Through charitable donations, casinos attempt to buy the silence of community nonprofits
In their never-ending attempt to lure voters into believing that they are good for communities, casinos have begun to trot out charitable donations are evidence of their commitment to community. As usual, these claims are merely used to generate public goodwill, and are all in an attempt to make voters overlook the damage casinos have done time and again to their surrounding communities. This article from Nonprofit Quarterly takes the mask off this phony policy.
2013 It’s a Gamble- Casinos Offering Charitable Donations to Woo Voter Support
Taxpayers being swindled out of millions by casino licensing fees
This article by The Capital Gazette documents two think tanks’ research that explains how casinos have gotten their licensing fees much lower than one might expect, taking hundreds of millions of dollars from the state for which taxpayers have to foot the bill. In Maryland, the licensing fees for the new Prince George casino should total over $500 million. However, Maryland will only receive about $18 million- a fraction of the money it could be receiving. Thus, Maryland taxpayers will have to pitch in the missing hundreds of millions of dollars that the casino got out of paying.
2012 Think Tank- MD taxpayers dealt bad hand for casino fees
More and more “perks” added to try and trick Massachusetts citizens into supporting casinos
With a huge referendum vote coming in Massachusetts on casinos in November, casinos and their supporters are pushing harder than ever to trick citizens into supporting them. This article from the Concord Monitor explains the recent attempts by legislators in support of casinos to put more provisions in the casino law that make it seem like more money would be given to communities. However, when it comes down to it, these are just proverbial carrots being waved in citizens’ faces to make them support a policy that will, in the end, harm the community.
2013 In Massachusetts, casinos provide jobs, taxes, child care and skating rinks
How gambling addictions lead to embezzlement and other crime
This article from Post-Crescent Media recounts examples of how regular, everyday, law-abiding citizens can turn into embezzling criminals when their gambling addictions drive them to do so. In one case, an employee embezzled a half of a million dollars to finance her gambling from the Wisconsin non-profit Goodwill Industries. It just goes to show what happens to the conscience of an average person when they develop a gambling addiction.
Casinos use free enticements to lure seniors
This article from Psychology Today shows how casinos use offers for free services- such as a free room or meal- to trick seniors into playing. In some cases, when the gambler is addicted enough and has enough money, these free meals and rooms become free limo and jet rides from home to the casino. Such is the case with former San Diego mayor Maureen O’Connor who, throughout a decade of gambling, won and lost more than $1 billion, with a net loss of over $13 million. O’Connor, now 67 years old, says she had a brain tumor that may have been impairing her judgement at the time. This vulnerability was compounded when casinos began sending private jets to San Diego to bring her to play. Though the private jet case is an extreme, this principle of giving free stuff to seniors to lure them in is commonplace for casinos, as the article below explains.
2014 Casinos’ predatory practices are a test case for financial elder abuse
Despite booming slot machine profits, horse racing is still dying at the track
This 5-part series from New Orleans Times-Picayune investigates Fair Grounds horse track and its neglect by parent company Churchill Downs. Churchill Downs is posting record revenue from the slot machines they put in the race tracks- so-called “racinos” – while the track is in deteriorating condition and is becoming less and less popular.
2014 Some say conditions at New Orleans Fair Grounds lagging
2014 Horsemen concerned about growing disconnect
2014 New Orleans Fair Grounds experiences turf problems and purse cuts
2014 Corporate raider Churchill Downs needs to reinvest in historic New Orleans Fair Grounds