Predatory gambling in Australia has matured faster than that in America, providing valuable lessons on addiction. Mark Dickerson, a noted academic from the University of Western Sydney, shared his work at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Essentially, Dickerson proves conclusively that the only truly “responsible” gamblers are professional gamblers. Gambling is designed, marketed and packaged to carry customers beyond the point of reason and control. Dickerson believes there are methods the gambling operators could employ to ameliorate these dangers. But operators are unlikely to voluntarily jeopardize revenues from its victims. The study provides remarkable insight into how predatory gambling works and what it does to its customers. The second report below was also written by Professor Dickerson and it deals with similar issues as the study above. In the second report he notes the difficulty of identifying problem gamblers and suggests ways the operators could reduce harm.
Focus
Lottery Revenue Comes Largely From People Already Receiving Government Support
Studies of lottery spending, including this study from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in 2008, show lottery revenue comes largely from Social Security, unemployment and other forms of government support. Government, in other words, is paying government — with an enormous amount of money being siphoned off by gambling interests. It also reflects a key reason why predatory gambling worsens state budget deficits over time and taxpayers end up footing the bill.
Citizens Are Not Adapting to Availability of Predatory Gambling But They Are Adapting to Losing More Money Than Ever Before
Some researchers funded by predatory gambling interests attempt to argue that after the introduction of extreme forms of gambling into a community addiction rates will spike but then, over a period of years, addiction rates will decline once people “adapt” to its availability. It is called the “social adaptation theory.” Here is a memo showing why this theory is misplaced and how the only thing people are adapting to is losing more money than ever before.
Meet Your New Neighbor: How Slot Machines are Secretly Designed to Seduce and Destroy You, and How the Government Is In On It
MUST-READ. Here’s what may be the best investigative news story about electronic gambling machines and the partnership between the predatory gambling trade and our government written to date. The reporter was Isaiah Thompson of the Philadelphia City Paper and it appeared in January 2009.
The Message of Government at the Time of “The Greatest Generation”
During the Great Depression, leaders like New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia (watch the brief news clip below) aggressively went after those who preyed on the financial struggles of his city’s working class.
What we now call “The Greatest Generation” challenged citizens to help make America and their families stronger by buying government savings bonds. Today, the daily voice of government to most citizens during the worst economic crisis since then is casinos and state lotteries. After forty years, it’s time government pulled out of the predatory gambling business because it is a failed policy.
The video is part of a “25 years ago today” UN newsreel story issued September 24, 1959.
It’s time for Atlantic City to end its failed experiment
Atlantic City, perhaps more than anywhere else, is a microcosm of what goes wrong when casinos are adopted as the main source of revenue for a city. The city now faces competition from other casinos in the northeast, which is leading to plummeting revenues and soaring unemployment rates, because the city put all of its proverbial eggs in the basket that is casinos, opting not to attempt to revitalize the city a whole, which may have prevented the city’s current economic tailspin. This article from the New York Post argues that the only way to save Atlantic City is to drop the failed casino experiment and try investing in a long-term solution to the difficult economic problems the city faces.
Only 7-12% of Pathological Gamblers Seek Treatment
In two U.S. national surveys on recovery and treatment for pathological gambling addiction revealed that 36%–39% of the individuals with a lifetime history of pathological gambling did not experience any gambling-related problems in the past year. Additionally, only 7%–12% of individuals with a lifetime history of pathological gambling had ever sought either formal treatment or attended meetings of Gamblers Anonymous.
Why It’s Time to Disrupt the “Business as Usual” Approach to the Government Policy of Predatory Gambling
This MUST-READ report by Charles Livingstone and Richard Woolley provides what may be the best analysis about how almost 100% of the responsibility for problem gambling is placed on the backs of the afflicted citizens. Predatory gambling operators and the government accept virtually no responsibility. The report also shows why it is time to disrupt this “business as usual” approach promoted by those who profit from government-sanctioned predatory gambling.
Risky Business: A Few Provocations on the Regulation of Gambling Machines
Women Embezzlers Increasing Across Nation
In Minnesota, five of the six most prolific alleged embezzlers last year were women, according to the 2011 Marquet Report on Embezzlement. The U.S. Sentencing Commission says that embezzlement is the only offense nationwide where women outnumber men. The Boston-based Marquet Report, which analyzes prominent embezzlement cases with losses of more than $100,000, found that women made up 64 percent of the alleged perpetrators nationwide. Motive and opportunity are the main reasons to why women are embezzling, and in 2011, 22 percent of embezzlement cases were directly motivated by gambling.
Leading public health law organization spotlights casinos and how they compare to tobacco companies
Below is the must-read amicus brief filed with Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Spring 2014 by the prestigious Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern School of Law, substantiating the very serious public health aspects of state sponsorship of commercial gambling and how it is comparable to efforts by tobacco companies to profit from a “toxic” product. PHAI’s President is Richard Daynard, considered by many scholars as the key legal strategist behind the transformative litigation efforts against tobacco companies in the 1980’s & 1990’s. Here’s the New York Times profile of him before he prevailed.