A prominent women’s advocacy group, Women’s Health East, affirmed a link between commercialized gambling and family violence.
2015 Concerning link between online gambling advertisements and family violence, experts warn
Sports Betting
Stop Predatory Gambling Statement on Supreme Court Ruling Murphy v. NCAA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 14, 2018
CONTACT: Les Bernal, National Director
202-567-6996 | mail@stoppredatorygambling.org
STOP PREDATORY GAMBLING STATEMENT ON SUPREME COURT’S DECISION IN MURPHY VS. NCAA
(WASHINGTON, DC) — Stop Predatory Gambling released the following statement following this morning’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning the federal law preventing states from sanctioning and promoting sports gambling:
“All men and women in our nation deserve a fair opportunity to build the best life possible for themselves and their families.
This litigation was conceived in greed by powerful gambling interests in partnership with a handful of self-serving politicians to benefit a privileged few. It’s a naked money grab from the wallets of ordinary Americans cloaked as a “states’ rights” case.
While the Court’s ruling centered on lofty questions involving states’ rights, the real-world consequences of its decision are severe. The American people lost $117 billion on state-sanctioned gambling in 2016, causing life-changing financial losses for millions of citizens. It directly contributes to the lack of mobility out of poverty that traps so many. This serious national problem will be made far worse if the government is allowed to operate and advertise sports betting
Sports betting is especially dangerous for American kids. Studies show that children in those countries with legal sports gambling are repeatedly exposed to harmful messages and advertisements about sports gambling. It normalizes gambling for kids.
State-sanctioned gambling is a relic of past failures of political leadership. Strong, visionary leaders from both political parties will ultimately phase out state-sanctioned gambling because it’s failed. It’s inevitable. It’s not a question of if but when.
We’ll continue our just fight to improve people’s lives with compassion and fairness until then.”
Click here to read the U.S. Supreme Court decision.
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Fair Game: Producing Gambling Research
This extensive and important report by the UK’s Rebecca Cassidy details the ways in which gambling research is presently conducted and funded. It also identifies a need for more unbiased reporting. It examines the state of gambling research and how it can be tainted by the influence of money and/or lawmakers who are supported by the gambling industry.
Researchers Bet Casino Data Can Identify Gambling Addicts
Researchers now believe that the very data casinos use to track customers betting habits can be used as a tool to reduce the problem of gambling addiction. Addiction scientists can use customer tracking information to create computerized models to spot and warn people with high risk profiles. But the reality is, it is merely window dressing, with casinos having little incentive to intervene with their most lucrative customers.
2013 Researchers Bet Casino Data Can Identify Gambling Addicts
He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune with Gambling Research
A key study found academic research into gambling heavily biased, controlled by industry and government. Gambling researchers maintain funding by producing research that is safe, uncritical and reliably delivered. What is lacking is the asking of the uncomfortable questions and hearing even more uncomfortable answers, something the government nor gambling industry are inclined to do.
2014 He who pays the piper calls the tune- gambling with research
Big Problems with Gambling Research
With state legislatures across the country considering legalized gambling expansion, the need for unbiased research is crucial. While other fields, such as alcohol or tobacco rely on academia for fact-based evidence, many gambling researchers remain beholden to industry funding, resulting in flawed and influenced findings. The research produced by independent studies, while likely more valid, may be perceived as incomplete or inferior due to lack of funds and access to data.
U.S. Treasury Warns Casinos for Facilitating Money Laundering By Criminal Rings
The U.S. Treasury Department is urging casinos to take steps to combat money laundering in their sports books. Regulators and law enforcement authorities are concerned by intelligence suggesting that criminals are making bets with legal sports book operations, using intermediaries, or “runners,” to place bets, the Treasury bureau said.
“In these cases, the intermediaries rarely voluntarily disclose to the casino that a transaction is being conducted on behalf of a third party, thereby disguising the third party’s role in the transaction and obscuring the source of funds used to place the bet. This poses distinct money laundering risks for casinos,” FinCEN said in the letter.
Sports gambling is legal in only four U.S. states including Nevada. However, illegal sports betting operations around the world, including online outfits, sometimes offset bets they receive by placing casino wagers, law enforcement sources told Thomson Reuters.
Runners have been known to loiter at casinos, keeping numerous mobile phones and tablets near them to receive orders from illegal gambling rings.
The letter reminds casinos that the Bank Secrecy Act requires them to ask gamblers whether their bets are for themselves, and to report any wagers for third parties as suspicious activity.
Study finds homeless are 9 times more likely to become gambling addicts
Researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital found evidence that link pathological gambling to an increased likelihood of homelessness.
2014 Gambling addictions are nine times more likely among homeless
Expansion of Casinos Increases the Risk of Children Becoming Addicted Gamblers Later On in Life
This study commissioned by the British Columbia Lottery Corporation shows a link between a parent’s gambling activity and their child’s attitude toward and participation in gambling.
“Youth who report that their parents have gambled in the past year have a significantly higher participation in various gambling activities than youth who report that their parents have not gambled in the past 12 months,” the paper stated.
An addictions psychiatrist Shao-Hua Lu says the expansion of casinos increases the risk of children becoming gamblers later on in life. According to Lu, the likelihood of a person developing a gambling problem as an adult is directly related to their parents’ gambling habits. “It’s no different from how increasing smoking exposure increases subsequent likelihood of smoking addiction.”
Widespread commercialized sports gambling leads to increases in match-fixing
This well-researched story in the New Republic highlights that sports betting should stay illegal because it leads to a marked increase in match-fixing: “An America with legal sports gambling would not be immune to match fixing. Because when market rules replace sports rules, and when gambling odds become the standard unit of measurement for the quality of a game and its players, the game itself changes: It becomes not about who wins on the field, but who wins off of it.”
2014 Quest to Legalize Sports Gambling Could Destroy Professional Athletics