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
Regional Casinos
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.
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.
Money From Slots Has Done Nothing to Improve Horse Racing
This Washington Post story spotlights how slot money has been used to simply prop up tracks that have virtually no fan base and couldn’t exist on their own merits. When slots were legalized, the machines proved to be so lucrative many track owners lost interest in the sport and viewed it as a nuisance. They made no effort to improve the game or attract new fans; slot players are more profitable customers.
While the money has benefited owners, trainers and breeders, it has done nothing to popularize or improve horse racing. On the contrary, it has hurt the sport in some ways. At a time when almost every track is suffering from a shortage of thoroughbreds, the horses who go to slot-subsidized tracks could be running at viable tracks, helping them to offer a better product, instead of racing in a place where almost nobody watches them.
2012 Money from slots has done nothing to improve horse racing
Wynn: “The Only Way to Win in a Casino is to Own One”
Casino owner Steve Wynn admits in the transcripts of this TV interview on The Charlie Rose Show that he has never seen a gambler step back, take his winnings and leave. Yet predatory gambling interests claim that to win and leave is ‘normal / recreational / responsible’… Steve Wynn admits on national television it never happens.
An Examination of Indian Casinos in Western New York
This report suggests that an expanded casino in the Buffalo-area will be a “huge money-sucking vacuum” for a city already struggling with high poverty. It was presented to the Legislation Committee of the Buffalo Common Council by Professor Steve H. Siegel, of the College of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Niagara University.
How Casino Gambling Worsens Buffalo’s Urban Poverty Crisis
The Partnership for the Public Good in Buffalo, New York published this policy brief which examines how the Buffalo Creek Casino exacerbates the city’s urban poverty crisis.
Piercey Estate v. Atlantic Lotto Corporation
In the 2008 Canadian Supreme Court Case, Piercey Estate v. Atlantic Lotto Corporation, Inc., the plaintiffs argued that video lottery terminals (VLT’s, or video slot machines) are designed to be “inherently deceptive, inherently addictive, and inherently dangerous, when used as intended, without any information or warning.” The plaintiffs’ daughter in this case, Susan Piercey, “lost her life due to the deceptions designed into VLT games, which led to addiction and suicide.” They made the case that the Atlantic Lotto Corporation (ALC) violated the Trade Practices Act, which had originally been put in place to protect consumers from unfair trade practices. The plaintiffs went on to say that “in modern government, government through agencies and corporations are interfering more and more with the consumer and, as such, it makes sense to have the governments responsible for their own actions or actions of its agents.” The justice presiding over this case, however, determined that because the ALC is an agent of the Canadian government, they are not bound by the restrictions of the Trade Practices Act.
Below is the decision of the case and a press release from the attorneys representing the Piercey estate.
Piercey Estate v. Atlantic Lotto Corporation
Press Release – Piercey Estate v. Atlantic Lotto Corporation