Researchers at the University of Cambridge in England have found that homeless people are ten times more likely to be problem gamblers than non-homeless people. While many studies have been done examining the link between homelessness and alcohol or drug usage, this is one of the first to consider how homelessness affects one’s propensity to have a gambling addiction. This article summarizes the study’s findings.
2014 New study reveals scale of problem gambling among homeless population
This article from the Online Casino Archives details the rapid drop in online poker players in recent months. Even as online poker has expanded to include three new states in 2014, more and more players are folding on online poker.
The name “penny slot” implies that these machines are essentially harmless- after all, what use is there for one penny? However, these machines, which are rapidly growing in popularity, garner huge profits for casinos at the expense of players. These machines attract mainly lower-income players, lured by the idea that one penny can net them some extra cash. Most “penny slots” actually require you pay more than 1 cent per play, with some requiring 25 or 50 cents, and others requiring bets of over $1. Players put more than $500 million into penny slots in January alone, and given the high profits they give to casino owners, casinos are starting to install more and more of them. This article, from the Press of Atlantic City shows how one penny can cost gamblers a lot more than you might think.
This article, dated December of 1932, over 80 years ago, explains how slot machines are built to make players lose, and it still remains true today. It not only goes into detail as to how these machines mathematically cheat players out of their hard-earned cash, but it serves to show that these machines have been swindling players out of their money for generations.
This study, made for the Iowa Department of Public Health, examined the relationship between college students and problem gambling. After using both qualitative and quantitative data, the study concluded that almost 70% of college students gambled in the past year, and about one in ten met at least DSM-IV criterion for potential problem or pathological gambling, a disturbing figure that presents real concerns for America’s future. Below is a copy of the study, which is detailed and informative, and sheds light on the future of American problem gambling.
2014 Pilot Study of Gambling Attitudes and Behaviors Among Iowa College Students
With the increasing pervasiveness of government-sponsored gambling, the issue of the dischargeability of gambling debt has become very significant. The attached report by two U.S. Trustees of Indiana highlights several major problems including how one research group suggests that about 10 percent of bankruptcy filings are linked to gambling losses, 20 percent or more of compulsive gamblers are forced to file bankruptcy because of their losses, and upwards of 90 percent of compulsive gamblers use their credit cards to gamble.
GAMBLING ON DISCHARGEABILITY: Casino debt collection practices
“When the state joins forces with private industry in order to sponsor and propagate an old human vice, the results can devastate both civic life and, in the long run, the civic purse as well.” This is the conclusion made by author Harvey Silvergate after a visit to Atlantic City with his son. His libertarian values would, one would think, compel him to support as many casinos as the free market would support. However, this visit to an Atlantic City casino showed him the despair which problem gamblers feel as they drain their savings in slots. The surrounding community, with its old, rundown, dilapidated buildings further convinced him of casinos’ harmful effects. Ultimately he makes the conclusion that this is not so much a private business as it is a government-sponsored industry that causes social dislocation and poverty. The story he tells is gripping and the poverty he describes is palpable. The article is a must-read for anyone looking into the issues of government-sponsored casino gambling.
This article by the North Carolina Justice Center explains how the North Carolina Lottery is not living up to its promises of education funding. After providing an initial bump in funds for education, the level of education funding has now dropped back down to below pre-lottery levels. The old argument that the lottery will pay for its social injustice by giving money to schools is now defunct, according to the article, because the state spends less on education than it did before the lottery was put in place. Now that the lottery no longer provides money for education, it is no more than “a regressive tax that falls mainly on the poor”.
Casinos negatively impact small businesses in the surrounding area, especially those in the food and beverage industry. This article from Indian Gaming helps to explain the casino strategy to subsidize food and drink costs with gambling profits to help boost the overall revenues from gambling, which hurts small businesses around the casinos and helps lure players into the casino.
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.