This article from Deutsche Welle examines the use of German online gambling sites by Italian mafia members for transferring money made by human trafficking and drugs into legal circulation. Due to unclear laws, the police are powerless to stop the situation, as more and more illegal money exchanges hands over the internet. A prominent Italian lawyer described the “unbelievable” sums of money flowing through internet gambling, which could total almost $2 billion.
Investigative Journalism
Many Asian-Americans are riding the casino bus everyday just to exist
This article from The Morning Call details a growing phenomenon in the Asian-American community in urban New York. Many of these people are very poor, or even homeless, desperate for a way to make a living. Casinos will often provide $45 in free-play cards to these citizens, as a way of getting them into the door and luring them into playing. These people then take a bus for several hours to a casino, and sell these cards to gamblers at the casino, so they can have cash to support themselves.
2014 Asians at Sands Bethlehem casino ride bus to live
Ottawa Board of Health voices opposition against casinos
The head of the Ottawa Board of Health has come out against the addition of a new casino in the city, instead advocating for increased funds to help aid and prevent gambling addiction, according to this article by CBC News. Instead of adding casinos and increasing the number of gambling addicts, he recommends helping the existing 13,000 problem gamblers already in the city, by increasing funds to local gambling treatment centers and by taking some of the money from the Ottawa Lottery and Gaming Corporation and diverting it to gambling prevention and outreach programs.
More and more seniors struggle with gambling addiction
Seniors are among the fastest-growing groups of problem gamblers in America. Being unable to make up their losses after retirement, senior citizens often plunge themselves farther and farther into debt, gambling away their retirement savings for which they worked their whole lives. This report from AlterNet details the effects of problem gambling on seniors.
Tax break for Atlantic City casinos means more struggles for the city
According to this article by NorthJersey.com, Atlantic City may have to take on an additional tax burden after casinos in the city won a large property tax reduction in court. The reduction is due to declining property values of casinos because of the casino industry’s overall downward spiral in recent years. The city will now have to cope with the loss of serious tax revenue in addition to its long-term financial struggles.
Oklahoma lottery produces disappointing results
This Journal Record article outlines the argument behind the opposition to the Oklahoma lottery, especially in light of its failure to live up to promises in the past decade. This piece gives an interesting look into the debate over lotteries and shows another example of the failure of government’s experiment with gambling.
The link between poverty and lottery sales is undeniable
This article by The Hartford Courant, written in response to a taxpayer-funded study that concluded no link between poverty and lottery sales, presents the findings of several other studies that have time and again found an irrefutable link between poverty and lottery sales, and poverty and gambling addiction. The author offers insightful comments on these many past studies that have found this strong link and finds the faults in the one study that has concluded otherwise.
Atlantic City’s severe hardships continue despite plunging millions into casinos
Atlantic City is known for its many casinos and for being, essentially, the Las Vegas of the east coast. The many casinos were brought into Atlantic City under the pretense that they would help the city out of its financial hole. However, even decades after Atlantic City legalized casino gambling and spent millions on the casino industry, according to this article by the USA Today, the city continues to struggle.
Even the most lucrative of casinos cannot save its surrounding city
The Resorts World Casino is located in Queens, New York, and is known as the country’s #1 top grossing casino, reaping huge profits for the casino owners. However, if you take a look at the surrounding city and its residents, you will see that these immense profits have yet to rescue this city from its poverty, contrary to the promises upon which it was built. This article by The New York Times explains this situation and shows that, although casinos are often built with the promise of economic revitalization, even the richest of casinos don’t send the necessary help that the surrounding communities desperately need.
Casinos are no help for Detroit’s financial ruin
This in-depth report by the Detroit Free Press chronicles the downfall of one of America’s great cities and explores the many reasons behind the city’s financial collapse. Though originally heralded as a possible savior for the city, casino gambling became just another factor in the downfall of Detroit. Gambling, and the tax increases that often went along with it, were one of the factors the article identifies as contributing to Detroit’s decline.