In this 1990 article from New England Monthly, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch gives an overview of the development of state lotteries in New England and the danger this poses to our democracy.
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Taylor Branch Speech at the Stop Predatory Gambling National Convention
This is a video featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch at Stop Predatory Gambling’s 2008 National Convention in Washington, D.C. He begins to specifically address the issue of government-sanctioned predatory gambling after the 6:00 mark. Daniel Hunter of Casino Free Philadelphia was invited to introduce Branch.
Sleep-Deprived Citizens Are a Lucrative Profit Center for Gambling Operators
In this study, researchers at Duke University Medical School found that sleep-deprived individuals tended to make choices that emphasized monetary gain and were less likely to make choices that reduced financial loss. Sleep deprivation can also change the way the brain assesses economic value. Finally, the study also demonstrates that sleep deprivation increases sensitivity to positive rewards while diminishing sensitivity to negative consequences.
Sleep Deprivation Biases the Neural Mechanisms Underlying Economic Preferences
The Ugly Carpets Inside Casinos are Hideously Clever Social Engineering at Work
This article from Gizmodo.com discusses the interesting designs of casino carpets and how they may be designed to be purposely distracting to keep people gambling. Others believe they are deliberately designed “to obscure and camouflage gambling chips that have fallen onto the floor. The casinos sweep up a huge number of these every night. So the carpets are just another source of revenue.”
The Ugly Carpets of Vegas are Hideously Clever Social Engineering at Work
Public Health Leader Calls on Rhode Island Not to Create Even More Gambling Addicts
Dr. Bob Breen, a psychiatrist from Rhode Island Hospital, wrote a letter in March 2011 to Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee explaining that 50% of the state’s gambling revenue comes from addicts and warning that allowing table games would create 1,000 to 2,250 new addicts.
7% of Wisconsin Residents Are Now Addicted Gamblers
According to the Wisconsin Council on Problem Gambling, 7% of the state’s population are now problem gamblers.
Wisconsin Council on Problem Gambling – 1.12.11 Press Release
Taylor Branch on Democracy and Government-Sanctioned Gambling
Taylor Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the Civil Rights Movement and biographer of Martin Luther King, lays out why the government policy of predatory gambling undermines the core democratic principles our nation was founded on: “State-sponsored predatory gambling is essentially a corruption of democracy because it violates the most basic premises that make democracy unique: that you can be self-governing, you can be honest and open about your disagreements as well as your agreements, and that you trust other people that you are in this together. That’s what a compact of citizens is. And the first-step away from it is to play each other for suckers. We’re going to trick them into thinking they are going to get rich but they are really going to be paying my taxes.”
The first document below is a opinion piece written by Branch for the Baltimore Sun in 2004. The second item is a feature story on Branch’s activism that appeared in the Sun in 2008.
One of the world’s largest accounting firms finds that gambling was the most common motivator of fraud
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.
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.
Poker Bots Invade Online Gambling
The online gambling world is faced with a menace: poker bots. These are robots that have been programmed to play poker and beat the odds – and people are racking up debt because of them.