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.
Online Gambling
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.
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
Gambling Problems More Common than Drinking Problems
In a study published in Journal of Gambling Studies, gambling problems were discovered to be more common than alcohol problems among adults in the U.S. Dr. John Welte, a national expert on alcohol and gambling pathology at the University of Buffalo, also concluded that problem gambling increases in frequency during adolescence and reaches its highest levels during the 20s and 30s.
Columbia Journalism Review urges journalists to be skeptical on gambling proposals amid the glitz
The Columbia Journalism Review examines how journalists should cover the expansion of predatory gambling – “…gambling needs to be covered like other economic development proposals – glitz and hype notwithstanding. Journalists should not forget that they may be the only ones able to cast a skeptical eye on plans to expand legalized gambling in their community.”
Future Growth in Gambling Revenue Will Not Keep Pace With Tax Revenue or Spending
The slides below are from a presentation by the Rockefeller Institute of Government at the 2009 Stop Predatory Gambling Foundation Conference. It outlines recent national trends in gambling revenue, growth in gambling revenue compared to growth in tax revenue and expenditures, and points for consideration by policymakers.
Rockefeller Institute – Trends in Gambling Revenue to the States
Self-Exclusion Lists Serve to Exclude Public Scrutiny of the Casino Business Model
Self-exclusion lists are another public relations ploy by predatory gambling interests to create a public impression they are care about the addicts they create and exploit. Because these out-of-control gamblers are so lucrative, it can be hard for casinos to pull themselves off of them. Mt. Airy Casino in Pennsylvania was the latest casino to get caught when it sent six targeted mailings over the course of 2 months to a gambling addict on the state’s self-exclusion list. In addition, the casino allowed other addicts on the self-exclusion list to gamble at the casino and even cash checks there on five separate occasions.
Self-Exclusion List Violations Lead to $40,000 Fine for Pennsylvania Casino
Timeline of Predatory Gambling
| 1931 | The legalization of casino gambling in Las Vegas kick starts the modern era of predatory gambling in America. | ||
| 1950 | Senate investigative commitee spotlights links between organized crime, gambling. | ||
| 1964 | New Hampshire becomes the first state to create a state-owned lottery making the partnership between state government and predatory gambling official. | ||
| 1975 | Just over a decade after New Hampshire created the first state-owned lottery, there are lotteries in 12 states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Michigan, Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, Maine, Rhode Island, and Delaware | ||
| 1976 | New Jersey approves casino gambling in Atlantic City, marking the first expansion of legal casino gambling outside of Nevada in the modern predatory gambling era. | ||
| 1980 | American Psychiatric Association recognizes pathological gambling as mental disorder. | ||
| 1986 | The first multi-state lottery game, Lotto America, begins operation with six participating states and the District of Columbia. In 1992, the game would be renamed “Powerball.” | ||
| 1988 | The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act is passed by Congress, allowing federally recognized tribes to operate all types of games not forbidden by state law. This leads to one of the largest expansions of predatory gambling in the history of the U.S. To date, 28 states have Indian tribes operating full casinos. | ||
| 1989 | South Dakota becomes just the third state to allow non-tribal commercial casino gambling, as well as the first to legalize VLTs to be placed at various locations around the state. | ||
| 1989 | In response to tribal casinos, Iowa legalizes “limited” riverboat gambling. And then in a border war response, Illinois, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri and Indiana all legalize riverboat gambling by 1993, and most “limits” are dropped. | ||
| 1990 | Colorado legalizes limited stake casino gambling in the historic communities of Blackhawk, Cripple Creek, and Central City in an effort to “preserve and revitalize” the historic sites. | ||
| 1991 | Minnesota signs contracts with 11 Indian tribes allowing them to own and operate full scale casinos. Today there are 18 tribal casinos in operation in Minnesota | ||
| 1992 | Rhode Island becomes the first state to legalize slot machines at race tracks, creating the first “racino.” | ||
| 1994 | National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling founded; reorganized in 2008 as Stop Predatory Gambling. | ||
| 1994 | Thirty years after New Hampshire debuts the first state-owned lottery, 36 states and the District of Columbia operate their own state lotteries. | ||
| 1994 | Delaware, Iowa, Louisiana and West Virginia all legalize racinos, bringing the total states with legal racinos to 5. | ||
| 1994 | South Dakota approves 9 tribal casinos | ||
| 1995 | Kansas legislature approves compacts with four Indian tribes to operate casinos on tribal lands. | ||
| 1996 | A second multi-state lottery game begins operation. Titled “The Big Game,” it begins with six member states. In 2002, the game is renamed “Mega Millions.” | ||
| 1996 | Supreme Court rules that tribes cannot sue state governments for damages for refusing to negotiate gambling compacts. | ||
| 1999 | Michigan opens its first commercial casino in Detroit, bringing the number of states with non-tribal commercial casinos to 11. | ||
| 1999 | California signs a compact with 61 Indian tribes, allowing them to own and operate casinos. Today, there are 58 tribal casinos operating in the state of California. | ||
| 1999 | National Gambling Impact Study Commission calls for rollback in “convenience” gambling; recommendations not acted on. | ||
| 2002 | Macau permits privately owned casinos; surpasses Las Vegas as world’s biggest gambling center by 2007. | ||
| 2006 | Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act prohibits use of credit cards or online payment systems for Internet gambling in United States.” | 2006 | Florida and Pennsylvania open their first racinos; Pennsylvania also opens its first casinos becoming the 12th state to allow non-tribal commercial casinos. |
| 2007 | Kansas legislature approves licenses for four commercial casinos to be owned and operated by the state. | ||
| 2008 | Racinos open in Indiana, bringing the number of states with racinos to 12. | ||
| 2008 | Maryland approves 15,000 slots to be operated at 5 different locations across the state. | ||
| 2009 | Arkansas is the latest state to begin operating a state-owned lottery. With Arkansas included, the number of states operating either their own state-owned lottery or one of the two multi-state lottery games reaches 44 (including the District of Columbia). | ||
| 2009 | Despite rejecting four previous attempts to allow casino gambling in the state since 1990, yet another referendum was put before Ohio voters. This time, after a $50 million advertising campaign by predatory gambling interests heralding the “new jobs” and “education funding” casino gambling would create, the voters approved the proposition by a narrow margin. “Issue 3” allows for casinos to be built in each of the four major Ohio cities: Cincinnati, Toledo, Cleveland and Columbus, making Ohio the 39th state to allow casino style gambling. | ||
| 2011 | After spending more than $20 million on lobbying over the prior ten years, casino interests push through a bill allowing casinos in Massachusetts. | ||
| 2011 | The U.S. Department of Justice released a highly-controversial opinion – on the day much of the country was preparing for the Christmas holiday even though the ruling was completed in September- that said the Wire Act of 1961 prohibiting wagering over telecommunications systems that cross state or national borders does not prevent states from using the Internet to sell lottery tickets to adults within their own borders. The opinion reversed the DOJ’s long-held opposition to many forms of Internet gambling and removed a big legal obstacle for states desperate to sanction online gambling to collect more revenue. | ||
| 2012 | Illinois, a state on the verge of bankruptcy, becomes the first to legalize web-based lottery sales which some predict will soon lead other states to follow suit. | ||
| 2013 | New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada partner with gambling interests to sponsor and promote internet gambling to the citizens of their own states. |
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.