This 2009 Australian report from KPMG (one of the world’s largest accounting firms) finds that gambling was the most common motivator of fraud with an average value of $1.1 million per incident.
Crime
FBI Letter on the Threats Posed By Internet Gambling
Below is a 2009 letter from the F.B.I.’s Cyber Division with responses to questions about internet gambling from the Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee. The letter includes statements that technology currently exists to both manipulate online gambling and to illicitly launder money through online gambling. Serious questions are also raised about the claims that online vendors could accurately validate the age of players.
Gamblers Stealing Millions to Feed Habit
A private investigative report in Australia found that millions of dollars were being stolen because of the rising numbers of problem gamblers in the country. This includes $13 million of stolen money lost in slot machines or “pokies.”
Sydney Morning Herald – Gamblers Stealing Millions to Feed Habit
Casinos in Their Own Words About Other Casinos
This Oregonian article describes how predatory gambling interests, in an effort to stop the development of rival casino projects, highlight the truth about how casinos destroy families and raise the crime rate in the community.
The Impact of Casinos on Fatal Alcohol-Related Traffic Accidents in the United States
This is a 2010 study from The Journal of Health Economics which investigates the impact of casinos on alcohol-related automobile accidents. Gamblers often drink excessive alcohol while gambling and casinos often provide free alcohol to problem gamblers. The results of the study indicate that there is a strong link between the presence of a casino in a county and the number of alcohol-related fatal traffic accidents.
The Impact of Casinos on Fatal Alcohol-Related Traffic Accidents
The Relationship Between Crime and Electronic Gambling Expenditures
Here is a study on the relationship between crime and electronic gambling expenditures in Victoria, Australia. It shows a consistent positive and significant relationship between gambling and crime rates, especially income-generating
crime rates, at the local level.
The Relationship Between Crime and Electronic Gambling Expenditures
Internet Gambling Offers Another Avenue for Organized Crime and Money Laundering
A report by Dr. John Kindt, a University of Illinois Professor of Business and Legal Policy, shows government-sanctioned gambling to be economically and politically destabilizing. As exemplified by casinos, gambling provides quick and substantial quantities of stable cash flow to predatory gambling operators, and particularly in less-secure governmental systems, these operators are often associated with groups dedicated to destabilizing the government, such as organized crime, terrorist, and rebel groups.
Why the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was needed and what it does
An excellent Powerpoint summary on the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) focusing on why it was needed and what it does.
More Than 30% of Problem Gamblers Admitted to Stealing from the Workplace to Gamble or Pay Gambling Debts
R. Keith Schwer, William Thompson and Daryl Nakamuro compiled this fascinating study of problem and pathological gamblers in which they estimate the social costs to gambling’s host community, arriving at a conservative figure above $19,000 per problem gambler. Some of the detail is particularly compelling: when pathological gamblers run out of legitimate sources of money they consider illegal sources. Starting close at hand, they pass bad checks. The study found that 63.3% wrote such checks. They also look for money in the workplace. Also, 30.1% admitted to stealing from the workplace in order to gamble or pay gambling debts. This is about the same portion who stole from the workplace in other surveys: 31.7% in Wisconsin, 37.1% in South Carolina, and 40.7% in Connecticut. A majority, 50.6%, of the respondents indicated that they had stolen money or things and used it to gamble or to pay gambling-related debts.
Beyond the Limits of Recreation – Social Costs of Gambling in Southern Nevada
Why Only a Tiny Percentage of Predatory Gambling Victims Seek Help
Only about 6% of people experiencing problems with gambling are reported to seek help from problem gambling services, according to this study. People experiencing problems with their gambling often do not seek professional help until a ‘crisis’ occurs — financial ruin, relationship break down, court charges or attempted suicide — or when they hit ‘rock bottom. Another reason why problem gamblers are afraid to get help is because two of of three have done something illegal to obtain the money to feed their addiction.