Focus
Geolocation and Online Gambling
Former Assistant US Attorney Mike Fagan, an expert in online gambling prosecution, wrote the memo below about the ineffectiveness of geolocation technology.
Journalists Reveal How Casinos are Complicit in Money Laundering
Inspired by a criminal case of money laundering in Ontario, CBC investigative journalists used $30,000 to see if they could launder it through two B.C different casinos. They were able to convert $24,000 into “clean money,” an 80 per cent “success” rate.
How Online Gambling Drains Millennial Finances
Gambling has been normalized among young people and is an unconscious drain on their cash. The constant temptation of having a gambling app in your pocket leads to a stream of spending that’s hard to control. Phones are distracting enough as it is, whether it is the unanswered WhatsApp messages in your pocket or 200 Instagram pictures you’ve yet to like. Now betting companies are exploiting the iPhone generation’s obsession with our phones to hook us into betting more, and more frequently.
According to Financial Times, more than one-fifth of 18 to 24-year-olds confessed to gambling in 2017.
Gaming The Poor
This New York Times column spotlights how casinos contribute to the lack of mobility out of poverty facing millions of Americans. As casinos have spread into de-industrialized cities, dying resorts and gritty urban areas, the rate of gambling participation has grown among lower-income groups. A research team from the University at Buffalo and SUNY Buffalo State has conducted studies that offer new evidence of the exploitative effects of casino gambling on lower-income Americans. Examining 15 types of legal gambling, the researchers came to a striking conclusion: Casino gambling had by far the most harmful effects on people at the lower end of the income ladder.
Average debt of problem gamblers in Wisconsin exceeds $34,000
They max-out credit cards, drain their savings and checking accounts, seek payday loans, borrow money from relatives and friends, steal from employers and write bad checks. On rare occasions, they even rob banks. On average, they are $34,078 in debt by the time they seek assistance.
These are characteristics of those who called the helpline at the Wisconsin Council on Problem Gambling in 2017. The council received 12,674 calls for help last year. The heavy financial losses are a catalyst to other serious problems. Gamblers have reported thoughts or attempts of suicide, bankruptcies and falling hopelessly behind on house and utility payments.
States that Rely Lotteries Funding the Most
This Washington Post story looks at the intended use for lottery revenues in each state. On average, lotteries accounted for 2 percent of overall state revenues, according to an analysis of Census data from researchers at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, a State University of New York policy think tank.
Gambling on the Lottery: Sociodemographic Correlates Across the Lifespan
Lower-income Americans overwhelmingly engage in other forms of state-sanctioned gambling, studies show. Increased levels of lottery play have been linked with certain sections of the U.S. population — men, African-Americans, Native Americans, and those who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods, according to one 2011 study of over 5,000 people published in the Journal of Gambling Studies.
How the gambling industry preys on senior citizens
According to this article from Salon, seniors are the fastest growing population of gamblers. They are gambling away their income, their savings, and their chance for a secure future. When they lose, they can’t make it up or start over. It’s a no-win game, driven by a greedy industry united in unholy alliance with policy makers and politicians who turn a blind eye to the social and economic costs of gambling.
When dementia affects the frontal lobe of the brain, a person may lose inhibitions, and this sometimes translates into a gambling compulsion. A person with this type of dementia might seem perfectly fine on the surface and even perform normally on standard neuropsychological tasks, so the situation goes undetected
How California Lawmakers Goosed Jackpots To Create Record-Setting Lottery Sales
As California Lottery ticket sales have skyrocketed, California schools aren’t seeing much of a return on that investment. A KPCC/LAist investigation found contributions to education by the lottery are essentially unchanged from 12 years ago, even though revenues are up by billions.
“It’s toilet paper money,” said Mona Field, who writes a textbook on government and served on the Los Angeles Community College District board for four terms. “It really has always been a tiny, tiny percent of our education funding in California.”