Sunday, November 30, 2014

Massachusetts MAGICAL THINKING! State to study impact of new casinos

The 'STUDY' was created as a phony salve to pretend the CREATION OF GOVERNMENT SPONSORED ADDICTION was palatable.

Pity some folks didn't get the joke!

Lyn Horan

(Oh, this is too funny for words! I put out this post headed, "More Massachusetts Magical Thinking" earlier after reading the Boston Globe article.

Then when I visted the Massachusetts Gaming Commission's web site and found out they call their research project, "MAGIC" !!! (Massachusetts Gambling Impact Cohort (MAGIC))

MORE MASSACHUSETTS MAGICAL THINKING - So now we are supposed to be very excited because MA is going to conduct a supposed thorough research project on the negatives of casinos and gambling because we are so fortunate to be able to start this "investigation" before the casinos come and compare that to after they are here? Isn't that a little like taking a clean, pure water resource, allowing a corporation to dump known toxins in it, so we can have a "controlled" study of the effects of toxins on nearby communities? Then we can be proud that we have used MA residents as guinea pigs to prove what we already know. I'm so proud. And this all by the same Gaming Commission and other state administrators that brought us casinos in the first place...

https://www.bostonglobe.com/…/ZImlmIZvv1S1Qa7BPF…/story.html

State to study impact of new casinos

Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff

The studies will attempt to measure the local effects of casinos, including the slots parlor at Plainridge Park.

By Mark ArsenaultGlobe Staff November 29, 2014

Massachusetts will not get its first slot machines until the summer, but the state is already becoming a laboratory for gambling research, which may someday help answer some of the longstanding public policy questions about the casino industry.

The state gambling commission has sponsored two scientific studies that will test how new casinos affect the level of problem gambling in the population, and whether new casinos lead to broader societal woes, such as increases in crime, more domestic violence, and lower home values.

What makes the studies special is that they are beginning before casinos open in Massachusetts. The studies will measure the prevalence of problem gambling now, so researchers will have a baseline against which to compare the levels of problem gambling later, after as many as three resort casinos and one slot parlor open for business around the state.

“The mission is to substantiate with data — not anecdotes or myths — what the impacts of casino gambling are in Massachusetts,” said Stephen Crosby, chairman of the gambling commission. “It never has been done like this anywhere else and it will create a database of information that will be valuable worldwide. This will be a phenomenal resource.”

The initial phases of the two studies will cost more than $4 million, which comes from taxes and fees on the casino industry, according to the gambling commission. The studies are being conducted by University of Massachusetts-Amherst researchers, led by principal investigator Rachel Volberg, who has studied problem gambling for about 30 years, according to UMass.

The first research project, known as the Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts study, has been underway since 2013. The plan calls for massive surveys of thousands of Massachusetts residents.

“We are doing this very large survey before any casinos become operational and then waiting,” Volberg said. “We will go out into the field with an identical survey a year after all of the casinos have opened — which gives us a snapshot before and a snapshot after, on problem gambling prevalence and gambling participation.”

The survey will measure, among other things, public attitudes toward gambling; the gambling behaviors of Massachusetts residents, most of whom already live within a few hours of casinos in Rhode Island or Connecticut; motivations for gambling and what casino customers perceive as the recreational value of gambling; as well as the number of people who may be problem gamblers.

Another round of the survey will be performed around 2018, depending on how quickly the state’s casinos industry gets up and running, Volberg said.

The state’s first slot machines are due to start spinning in June, at a Penn National Gaming slot parlor in Plainville, which is under construction.

In about three years, MGM is expected to open an $800 million casino and entertainment complex in downtown Springfield, and Wynn Resorts is due to open a $1.6 billion casino hotel on the Mystic River waterfront in Everett.

The gambling commission is soliciting bids for the final resort casino license it controls, for Southeastern Massachusetts. Separately, the Mashpee Wampanoag are trying to overcome legal hurdles in pursuit of a tribal casino in the southeast.

As part of the study, researchers are also gathering community statistics, covering areas such as employment and business payrolls, household income, sales taxes, lottery sales, tourism visits, and many other categories, to track any measurable changes over time after casinos open.

The second research project, known as the Massachusetts Gambling Impact Cohort study, will follow about 2,600 individual people for the next five years — or longer — as the casino industry moves into Massachusetts and matures, to see what happens to the individuals over time.

“It’s truly remarkable that we’re going to be able to start this study in advance of any of the casinos being operational,” Volberg said. “That’s something that hasn’t been done before.” The cohort study “focuses on getting a better understanding about how problem gambling starts, develops, and resolves over time. To do that you really need to follow individuals, rather than taking a population snapshot.”

In addition to legalizing Las Vegas-style casino gambling, the 2011 state casino law requires the gambling commission to study the effects of casinos in Massachusetts.

The commission anticipates that the results of the studies will help the panel design policies to combat problem gambling.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/11/29/state-study-impact-new-casinos/ZImlmIZvv1S1Qa7BPFQseO/story.html

Seeking Patterns

Morriss Partee

If only we could explain to everyone the mechanisms at work in gambling and the biology of gambling addiction. Unfortunately, gambling remains entertainment for those who are statistically-challenged. I heard this terrific story on today's Radiolab show on NEPR: http://www.radiolab.org/story/91687-seeking-patterns/

Seeking Patterns

Fine. Randomness may govern the world around us, but does it guide US?? Jonah Lehrer joins us to examine one of the most skilled basketball teams ever, the '82 - '83 '76ers, and wonders whether or not the mythical "hot hand" actually exists. Then we meet Ann...

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Hold the line against sports gambling

Two words: Tim Donaghy

BY Paul Davies

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Friday, November 28, 2014

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s call to legalize sports betting — a major break from his fellow big league executives that’s being praised for its supposed candor — demonstrates a profound lack of understanding of the issue.

Silver’s main argument is that many fans already bet illegally, so we may as well bring that activity out of the shadows to regulate and tax it. But making sports gambling legal doesn’t suddenly make it morally right, or economically healthy.

The nation’s biggest sports leagues, fearful that point-shaving or other scandals could taint their multi-billion dollar businesses, have long opposed betting on games in an effort to protect the integrity of the game.

The NBA ought to be especially sensitive to such concerns.

Perhaps Silver has forgotten the scandal involving NBA referee Tim Donaghy, who was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison in 2008 for taking money from a professional gambler in exchange for tips on games he called.

According to a book released last year, “Larceny Games: Sports Gambling, Game Fixing and the FBI,” three members of the New York Knicks were implicated in a federal investigation for alleged point shaving and game fixing in the 1980s. No charges were ever filed.

In 2006, former NBA star Charles Barkley estimated that he lost $10 million gambling, mainly in casinos. He said he had a gambling problem — but that he never bet on basketball.

If betting on the NBA in casinos had been legal when Barkley played, would he have been enticed to wager on games he was playing? Will other players bet on games if they suddenly can with ease?

Probably.

Silver points to the popularity of legal sports betting outside the United States to suggest that it’s compatible with high-level athletics — favorably citing the fact that sports bets can be placed in England via a smart phone, a kiosk inside a stadium or even via a television remote control.

But last year, a European police intelligence agency uncovered widespread fixing of soccer matches involving some 680 games globally.

Even more disturbing than the effect on the game is the damage a vast expansion in sports betting will do to ordinary Americans. Many people don’t bet on games now because it is illegal, and they don’t trust or have easy access to bookies.

Legalizing sports betting would make it more accessible. Widespread marketing and advertising will surely follow, sending the message that gaming is good. That would unquestionably grow the customer base and lead to more gambling addiction.

More troubling, legalizing sports betting will attract younger gamblers. About 67% of college students already bet on sports, and 80% of high-school students have gambled for money, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling.

And if sports betting is legalized, you can be sure there will be a push to allow gamblers to place bets via the Internet. The upshot will be more and more people betting on games anytime and anywhere.

Silver insists that legalizing sports betting will bring it above board, imposing strict regulatory requirements and technological safeguards, including minimum age verification measures.

But he offers no details as to how this can be done effectively. Any safeguards can be easily circumvented, just as they are now in other areas of the Internet.

Is Adam Silver truly interested in bringing sports gambling out of the shadows, as he claims, or is he just seeking more basketball fans? Consider this: More Americans watched a weekday World Cup soccer match between the U.S. and Belgium in July than watched the NBA Finals games during primetime.

Maybe the commissioner thinks that legalizing sports betting can get more people to actually pay attention to the NBA. That’s a dangerous gamble.

Davies is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Delaware and a senior fellow at the Institute for American Values, a New York think tank, where he writes about gambling.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/paul-davies-hold-line-sports-gambling-article-1.2025278

Macau Is 'Near Broken'

Linette Lopez

Nov. 28, 2014

Reuters

An elderly man sits outside a casino reflecting Casino Lisboa owned by tycoon Stanley Ho opposite the street in Macau December 18, 2009, two days before the 10th anniversary of its handover to China

Casino revenue in Macau could fall 25% in December according to Wells Fargo, continuing an ugly months-long slide that is beginning to claim another victim — Las Vegas.

Total casino revenue on the Las Vegas strip fell 5.6% to $520 million in October as high-rolling baccarat players from China stayed home fearing President Xi's corruption drive. Baccarat winnings fell 36%.

It's worth noting that the people that can really make a difference in the high-roller market are few — maybe a couple hundred big time players from around the world — so when some (in this case, Chinese) players dip out, it makes a difference.

And it's a problem Macau has been trying to tackle since earlier this year, when a billion dollar heist changed the way VIP games are financed. Macau used to adhere to a junket system in which high-rollers use investor money to gamble, and investors were guaranteed 1%-2% returns.

However, when one junket operator vanished with over a billion in junket cash, the whole system was disrupted and investors wanted higher returns. Xi's corruption crackdown and China's economic slow down exacerbated matters.

"We see no near-term respite for weak on-the-ground conditions in Macau," Philip Tulk of Standard Chartered wrote in a recent note. "Junket/VIP’s long-time virtuous cycle has become a vicious one; funding/liquidity remains very tight, and the business model looks near broken."

This is a big admission for a Wall Street bank. For months analyst notes have been riddled with excuses — a smoking ban was hurting revenues, they said; the corruption drive was a minor issue, they said; middle class Chinese players would soon rescue Macau's revenue etc.

But none of that has turned out to be true, and analysts are grudgingly beginning to think about what will happen to Macau after the next 6 months.

"We believe last week’s rate cuts in China signal that the Chinese economic outlook is worsening, rather than a material change in policy," wrote Wells Fargo analyst Cameron McKnight. "With short-term negative macro and Macau trends well understood, most investors have been inquiring about the longer-term outlook.

We remain on the sidelines, all else equal, regarding Macau until we see either: (1) a sustained macro rebound, and/or (2) a change in China policies. Importantly, continued weakness in Chinese credit growth suggests that Macau gaming could remain weak for longer than expected (at least 6 months)."

Xi is visiting Macau next month, which analysts are considering an additional headwind for gaming revenue. It's like having your dad visit your frat house.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/macau-malaise-spreading-to-las-vegas-2014-11#ixzz3KVZaoxTV

Border Towns Should Beware Springfield Casino

By Editorial

Springfield neighbors, take note from SE Connecticut casino crime study

Some crimes declined after casinos moved in, but not property losses

Towns that border Massachusetts had better prepare for the costly and more violent crime that might follow a new casino in Springfield.

A study by a state university professor has found that the value of property stolen in several southeastern Connecticut towns increased in the years he examined from 1999 on, when Foxwoods and the Mohegan Sun were both up and running.

Also, the number of violent crimes (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) increased in those towns in those years — contrary to a nationwide drop in violent crime in that time period. However, the number of certain nonviolent crimes such as burglary, larceny, vehicle theft and arson did decline in the towns near the casinos, mirroring the national trend.

But though the number of theft crimes went down, the value of the property stolen in them went up.

Property losses from larceny, for example, jumped from $8.8 million in 1992-96 to $12.4 million in the years Mr. Muska studied — 1999, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2011. (Foxwoods opened in 1992 and Mohegan Sun in 1996.)

The author says that, given the higher cost of the crimes committed, "the economic benefits of casino gaming for the state of Connecticut still remain questionable."

The state might argue that its share of the casinos' slot machine revenue went to a lot of public good. But that revenue came at a price to the communities surrounding the casinos. Enfield, Suffield and other towns close to Springfield, take note.

http://www.courant.com/opinion/editorials/hc-ed-crime-rate-casino-towns-20141128-story.html

Wrong side of economic table

Last updated: November 27. 2014

Don McNay Life Lessons

“It’s a lonely, lonely road we’re on/ This side of paradise” — Bryan Adams

My late father was a professional gambler. Towards the end of his life, he was active in helping at a soup kitchen in Cincinnati, which was run by the Sisters of Charity.

One Thanksgiving, as dad was dishing out food to homeless people, my father was approached by the Sister who ran the program.

“Joe,” she said, “What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a gambler,” replied my father.

“Joe,” she said “This is the first time we ever had a gambler on this side of the table.”

The key to my father’s success was that he was always on the house side of the table.

He understood that if the house has the odds in its favor long enough, the house will eventually and always win out. As he often noted, “You never see them tearing down a casino because people beat them out of money.”

First with lotteries, and then with video slots and casinos, governments realized that a very easy way to gain revenues is by allowing and sponsoring gambling.

The lottery and other games that have been legalized bring in much of their income from those on “the wrong side of the table.”

Some European countries limit access to the casinos to those who prove they have sufficient assets.

Various forms of stock and option trading, which can be considered a more elite form of gambling, require that those who invest in those instruments have the net worth to survive a loss.

In my father’s era, bookmakers cut off bettors on losing streaks. Las Vegas casinos carefully monitored their customers and cuts off their credit when they lose too much.

There have been few, if any, moves by states to monitor the losing of their lottery customers.

Legalized casinos, which have several games of skill and reasonable probability, gear most of their operations to the highly profitable slot machines and video games.

Lotteries have evolved from a form of gaming called “numbers,” formerly very popular in poor, urban neighborhoods. If you go into a grocery or liquor store in any poor neighborhood today, you will see people who can’t afford to lose even a few dollars, standing around playing scratch off lottery games until all of their money is gone.

I rarely if ever gamble. I can’t stand to part with my money on something that is such a bad bet.

My few trips to casinos have been bad experiences for the house. I bet very little and I am a terror at the low price buffet. I play high probability games and won’t go near a slot machine. I have a certain profit margin in mind and leave the second that I hit it.

In short, I am a person casinos do not want to attract.

Making gambling illegal was an attempt to protect people from themselves.

It did not stop the tide but pushed it underground. Gambling for rich people, such as options trade and sophisticated stock market games, have always been allowed. Most of the crisis on Wall Street was caused by corporations gambling with stockholders money.

When I passed the stockbroker’s (Series 7) test many years ago, I called my father and asked, “Why is futures trading legal but betting on the Bengals illegal?” There is no logical answer.

States are under pressure to legalize casinos and slot machines, and just like the lottery, they eventually will. It is much easier than raising taxes or cutting services.

When legislators do expand legal gambling, someone must think about and speak out for the person on “the wrong side of the table.”

When I was growing up, my father would go around to the sleeping room hotels and give out bottles of low cost champagne on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Just like the patrons at the soup kitchen, many of those men were gamblers. Often the bottle was the only gift they got.

Legalized gambling is not responsible for most of these people being in their positions in life, but states needs to take extreme care that we are not keeping them there.

http://www.harlandaily.com/news/home_top-local_features/150654123/Wrong-side-of-economic-table

A Slot Machine on Every Corner!

Do you want a slots parlor close by?

Our View 5:45 p.m. EST November 27, 2014

Welcome to Delaware, where there is a slot machine on every corner. Or so the state government hoped for a while.

The news is that the Markell administration approached the state's three casinos with the idea of creating satellite slots parlors spread around the state. The idea was, we suppose, that with more slots out in the open, the casinos could draw the cash of Delawareans too lazy to drive 10 or 15 minutes to a casino. Or perhaps, they had the idea of putting in an ocean-side slots parlor to give parents something to do while the kids play away at Funland in Rehoboth Beach. Even the casinos thought it was a dumb idea.

But if we are trying to be creative and cook up ideas as the administration suggests, why doesn't Delaware roll all the legalized sin industries in a single package and place them on the borders with neighboring states? We could promote little islands of slots/sports bets/cheap cigarettes/cheap liquor parlors and let them dot the entrances to the state. If we really wanted to rev up the state's take, Delaware should drop the cigarette and liquor taxes so our neighbors would really be enticed to visit the First State. (Don't worry about the lower taxes on smokes and booze. We will make it up in volume.)

Of course, we could always follow the lead of Washington, Colorado and Alaska and legalize recreational marijuana. That would pull in customers until the neighboring states catch up.
But that would be immoral, you say. Of course, it would be. Yet except for a matter of degree, what is the difference between a fantasy cynical ploy like that and a genuine suggestion to spread slots parlors? The goal is more revenue. The harm to the social structure is collateral damage.
These activities were once considered sinful, or at least inappropriate for a state government to push on its citizens. The attitude follows the philosophy of Napoleon III of France, who allegedly said about his country's tax on tobacco: "This vice brings in one hundred million francs in taxes every year. I will certainly forbid it at once – as soon as you can name a virtue that brings in as much revenue."
These are signs of the state's addiction to gambling revenues. The administration and the General Assembly must face the facts. The regional monopoly for casino revenues is gone. Competition from Pennsylvania and Maryland, much larger states, is killing Delaware's gaming business. With that goes the easy revenues of star-crossed gamblers pumping money into slot machines.

It has been a good ride. It enabled the state government to spend a lot of money without controlling costs and raising taxes. A shakeout is enveloping the regional gaming industry. Casinos are closing in Atlantic City. The shakeout will hit Pennsylvania and Maryland. And it will hit Delaware.

Desperate measures like neighborhood slot parlors show how much magical thinking is going on in the capitol complex. It is time to face the facts.

DELAWAREONLINE

Delaware is trapped in casino business

http://www.delawareonline.com/story/opinion/editorials/2014/11/27/want-slots-parlor-close/19592189/

Chinese Whales Evaporate!

The delusional in Massachusetts SOLD Predatory Gambling on the False Premise that WHALES were willing to travel to the HINTERLANDS of Massachusetts.....

....you been duped!

Posted on November 27, 2014 12:51:00 PM

Chinese VIPs flee Vegas tables amid anti-corruption drive

BACCARAT winnings on the Las Vegas Strip fell 36% to $97 million in October, echoing declines in Macau where an anti-corruption drive in China has crimped high-end play.

Total casino revenue on the Strip fell 5.6 percent to $520 million last month with baccarat accounting for the largest share of the decline, according to data released yesterday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

The numbers suggest the drop in spending by high-end Chinese card players that began in June in Macau has spilled over to the U.S., said Brent Pirosch, an analyst with CBRE in Las Vegas. Other markets, such as Singapore, have also seen declines in baccarat play, as probes by the Chinese government and a weak mainland economy impact business. Baccarat, a card game where players compete against a designated banker, is the most-popular casino game in the Chinese enclave of Macau.

“It’s a global VIP problem,” Pirosch said in a telephone interview. “It’s such a small, finite group,” he said of the Las Vegas baccarat market. “It really only takes a few guys not playing, less than 100 folks, really driving that high-end play.”

Baccarat Slump

The results in the largest U.S. gambling market mark the third month of decline for a game that has become a big revenue generator for MGM Resorts International, Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Caesars Entertainment Corp. Baccarat revenue on the Strip has tripled since 2004 to $1.6 billion last year, according to data from the University of Nevada’s Center for Gaming Research in Las Vegas.

Wynn Resorts Ltd., which gets about 70 percent of its revenue from Macau, fell 0.5 percent to $177.06 as of the close of trading in New York. Wynn Macau Ltd. slumped 0.2 percent at 10:09 a.m. in Hong Kong. Among other Macau casino operators, Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. fell 0.1 percent to HK$66.9, SJM Holdings Ltd. dropped 0.9 percent, Sands China Ltd. rose 0.8 percent and Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. gained 0.7 percent.

More than half of Wynn Resorts’ table-games business in Las Vegas comes from Asian customers, the company’s president, Matt Maddox, said in testimony before Massachusetts gaming regulators last year.

The lower Las Vegas baccarat revenue is a combination of gamblers betting fewer dollars and the casinos winning less money from customers, Brian Miller, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, said. The house kept 10 percent of the baccarat money bet in October, compared to 13 percent in the same period last year. -- Bloomberg

http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Beyond&title=chinese-vips-flee-vegas-tables-amid-anti-corruption-drive&id=98636

Tycoon hosts son’s big fat Tangshan wedding

As part of the Chinese Anti-Corruption actions, Gambling Revenues have declined.

Lavish Chinese wedding leaves social media stunned amid anti-corruption crackdown

PUBLISHED : Friday, 28 November, 2014, 3:10pm

Andrea Chen

A photograph posted online of some of the Rolls-Royce Phantoms taking guests to the banquet after the wedding in Tangshan, Hebei province, last Sunday. Photo: Weibo

Chinese social media users were stunned by online images of the lavish multimillion-yuan wedding of a mainland energy and real estate tycoon's son – showing a fleet of 30 Rolls-Royce Phantoms taking guests to the 9,999 yuan-per table (HK$12,600) banquet.

Liu Baoli, a normally low-profile businessman from Hebei Province - named in a report in the Huashang Daily newspaper - created national headlines after video and photographs of Sunday’s “most extravagant wedding in Tangshan” were widely circulated on China’s social media.
The lavish celebration in the city came as mainland China is in the midst of a crackdown against ”extravagance and hedonism”.

An onlooker posted this photo of the red Ferrari taking the newly weds to their lavish wedding banquet in Tangshan, Hebei province, last Sunday. Photo: Weibo

Pictures posted online by spectators showed the newlyweds – Liu’s son Liu He and his bride, the daughter of a village chief – driving to the wedding banquet in their bright red Ferrari followed by a fleet of luxury motorcycles.

Online reports said they were joined by 30 Rolls-Royce Phantoms, which some microbloggers suggested were worth more than 200 million yuan.

Videos posted by guests showed Li Xiang, a well-known mainland talkshow presenter, hosting the wedding banquet.

At least seven other celebrities, including the Hong Kong singer and actor Dicky Cheung Wai-kin, were guests at the wedding, according to online comments posted by guests.

The tycoon reportedly spent more than 1 million yuan just on the 101-table banquet, staff at the hotel hosting the feast told the Huashang Daily newspaper.

Hong Kong singer and actor Dicky Cheung reportedly attended the banquet. Photo: Weibo“The most expensive banquet on our menu is about 3,000 yuan per table, one staff member said. “But the dishes at the wedding were customised: it was 9,999 yuan per table.”

Liu made his first fortune trading in coal before switching to real estate businesses, the newspaper said, quoting local sources.
“There are so many legends surrounding him … such as he owns casinos in both Hong Kong and Macau and makes money by lending money to mainland gamblers,” one source told the newspaper

Secondary school classmates of the groom, Liu He, told the newspaper that he had driven to school in a Porsche Cayenne, and previously dated the daughters of other tycoons in the city.
Liu He’s wife is the daughter of Bai Yanchun, an official in the village of Ligezhuang.

Bai reportedly owns a 2,220 sq metre mansion and at least two luxury cars, villagers from Ligezhuang, in the suburbs of Tangshan, told the newspaper.

Last year, a deputy village chief from the suburbs of Beijing was sacked after spending 1.6 million yuan on his son’s wedding.
Since President Xi Jinping came to power in late 2012, he has overseen a series of campaigns to help crack down on
government spending and gift-giving and stamp out widespread corruption, official extravagance, prostitution, pornography, gambling, terrorism and corruption.

Chinese authorities have issued directives ordering all officials to notify their bureaus in advance of future weddings and funerals.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Tycoon hosts son’s big fat Tangshan wedding

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1650723/lavish-wedding-30-rolls-royce-phantoms-and-ferrari-leaves-chinas-social

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Mike Huckabee's Fight Against Online Gambling (and Libertarians)

Nov 26, 2014

The possible 2016 presidential candidate talks up Sheldon Adelson's biggest (non-Israel) issue, live on Fox News.

By David Weigel

Conversations between failed presidential candidates and senators-turned-lobbyists do not, typically, make for thrilling television. I won't pretend that Mike Huckabee's weekend interview with Blanche Lincoln, who rebounded from her 2010 landslide defeat to work with the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling, was the exception. Huckabee's discussion with Lincoln was totally without hostility. He agreed with the premise.

"Online gambling websites are preying on every kid with a smartphone or a tablet," warned Huckabee. "This is frankly one of the most important topics that I don't hear anybody talking about."

It's very likely that Huckabee believes this. It's also simply true that he's endorsing Sheldon Adelson's lobbying stance. Lincoln is a lobbyist retained by Adelson's Las Vegas Sands corporation; the Coalition is an Adelson front group, as has been known for most of 2014. Its less-than-secret mission is to bring social conservatives like Huckabee—and his viewers—into the trenches, to pass the Restoration of America's Wire Act, ban Internet gambling, and thereby direct more profits to brick-and-mortar casinos. Like—oh, let's just pick one at random—the Venetian.

Huckabee's fresh enthusiasm for this cause sets him against his eternal intra-Republican Party enemies, the libertarians—or, as he calls them, the "faux-cons." Opposition to the online gambling ban has been fomented and endorsed by the likes of FreedomWorks, Grover Norquist, Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty (through president John Tate), and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. "This bill allows the federal government to take a heavy hand in regulating the Internet, opening the door for increased Internet regulation in the future," those groups' leaders said in a letter to legislators this year.

The hard-working scolds of Media Matters saw Huckabee's online gambling settlement as a feint toward Adelson, and 2016; they point out that Huckabee never mentioned the financial backing for Lincoln's group. That was just another way for him to take the side of the righteous against libertarians, as he declared that anyone who opposed an online gambling ban be "thrown out" of politics. And he has a TV show and an upcoming book and a following.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Dad admits leaving kids in car at Sands casino

Dad admits leaving kids in car at Sands casino

By Riley Yates, Of The Morning Call

Maurice J. Cook is apparently an optimist.

Asked Tuesday by a Northampton County judge why he left his three young children alone in the car while he gambled at the Sands casino in Bethlehem, Cook said he was focused on the benefits — winning money to support his family — and not the negatives — the risk posed to his kids.

"I was thinking good. I wasn't thinking about the bad," a handcuffed and shackled Cook told President Judge Stephen Baratta.

"You weren't thinking good enough," Baratta shot back.

Cook, 30, of Easton was in court to plead guilty to recklessly endangering his children — ages 1, 5 and 8 — when he left them in his sport utility vehicle on Aug. 20 for about 45 minutes while he played blackjack.

He received a time-served to 18-month jail sentence from Baratta, who ordered him to attend parenting classes and seek counseling for the gambling addiction that Cook told police he has.

Cook was on parole at the time for shoplifting, and he won't be released until he completes a 90-day sentence that he previously received for the violation, according to defense attorney Christopher Shipman.

Sands security officers patrolling the casino's parking garage around 10:15 a.m. found the children on the first deck, the doors to the vehicle locked. Video surveillance showed Cook going into the Sands around 9:30 a.m., according to court records.

Cook told Baratta that the children are in the care of their mother.

As Cook was brought before the judge as his hearing began, Baratta said he recognized the defendant.

"You were in the newspaper, right?" Baratta asked. "They always write about people who leave their kids in the Sands."

http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-bethlehem-father-left-children-in-car-gambled-sands-casino-20141125-story.html

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Authorities seek information in Harrah's casino death

Crime? Suicide?

Authorities seek information in casino death

11:16 p.m. EST November 21, 2014

Authorities seek information in casino death

ATLANTIC CITY – The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office is seeking information on an incident earlier this month that led to the death of a 27-year-old Howell man.

Emergency medical personnel were called at 1:19 a.m. on Nov. 1 to Harrah’s Hotel and Casino for a report of a man injured in a fall, according to a news release issued by the prosecutor’s office. The victim, Thomas J. Walker, 27, of Howell, suffered a head injury and was taken to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center–City Division.

Walker died of a head injury in the hospital on Nov. 15, the news release said.

The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s major crimes unit and the Atlantic City Police Department are investigating the circumstances of the death. Anyone with information is asked to call the prosecutor’s major crimes unit at (609) 909-7666.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/story/news/local/south-jersey/2014/11/21/authorities-seek-information-casino-death/19382165/

Police Look Into Deadly Fall at Atlantic City Casino

By Dan Stamm

Friday, Nov 21, 2014 • Updated at 8:47 PM EST

A week after a New Jersey man died from a fall at an Atlantic City casino, prosecutors announced they would investigate the death.

The fall occurred around 1 a.m. on Nov. 1 at Harrah’s Hotel and Casino on the AC Marina.

Medics transported Thomas Walker from the scene with a head injury.

Walker died at AtlanticCare Regional Medical Center on Nov. 15. He was 27.

On Friday, Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit and the Atlantic City Police Department announced they would be looking into the death.

Investigators didn’t reveal how far Walker fell or where the fall occurred.

Anyone with information into Walker’s death is asked to call the Major Crimes Unit at (609) 909-7666.

Sheldon Adelson as the devil

Sheldon Adelson as the devil

Sheldon Adelson listens as New Jersey Gov. Chris

Christie speaks during the Republican Jewish Coalition,
Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Las Vegas. Several possible
GOP presidential candidates gathered in Las Vegas as
Mr. Adelson, a billionaire casino magnate, looks for....

By Bruce Fein - - Saturday, November 22, 2014

Mega-billionaire Sheldon Adelson is a reminder that even the devil can quote scripture.
He has acquired a $36 billion fortune by catering to the human cravings for casino gambling and illicit or promiscuous sex. As the advertising jingle goes, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”

In Dante’s Inferno, gambling lands you in the fourth circle of hell, while lust lands you in circle two.
These vices routinely destroy or impoverish families. Children are left without proper role models or support.

In 2013, Mr. Adelson’s operations extracted more than $13 billion from the pockets of adults to gratify sordid pleasures. The Venetian alone in Las Vegas corrupts 50,000 patrons daily.

The casino billionaire is the last person on the planet qualified to sermonize about business morality — indistinguishable from Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich crooning about the virtues of marital fidelity.

But his craving for wealth by any means is beyond embarrassment. Consider the following spectacle.
Mr. Adelson’s casino riches could be diminished if the current legal restraints on Internet gambling are relaxed or eliminated. In the manner of a deathbed conversion, Mr. Adelson is preaching against competition for casinos in the guise of a belated passion for moral virtue but in reality to preserve his opulence.

He has pontificated: “My moral standard compels me to speak out on this issue because I am the largest company by far in the industry and I am willing to speak out. I don’t see any compelling reason for the government to allow people to gamble on the Internet and nobody has ever explained except for the two companies whose special interest is going to be served if there is gaming on the Internet, Caesar and MGM.”

True enough. There is no compelling reason for Internet gambling. But there is equally no compelling reason for casino gambling and sister debaucheries. The nation would profit if both were discouraged or stigmatized. Gambling does not gain in its depravity by its movement from the casino floor to an Internet cafe.

Mr. Adelson insists that he would never enter the business of Internet gambling — no matter how profitable — because “it’s a moral issue for me. If a stockholder said to me ‘your morality can’t count when it comes to making money for shareholders,’ I see it from a business point as very harmful to all the companies that go into it.”

Does Mr. Adelson think we were born yesterday? He is refraining from Internet gambling not because of moral scruples — assuming he has any — but because he believes it’s a losing business proposition.

He taxes our credulity even more by arguing that his opposition to Internet gambling pivots on his weeping concern for the young, the indigent, and alcohol and drug addicts. He suggests he is traumatized by the propsect that they will squander money online that they cannot afford to lose. In contrast, Mr. Adelson insinuates, his land-based casinos vet patrons for their financial ability to withstand gambling losses. Only a dunce would believe that.

Mr. Adelson is an improbable candidate for sympathizing with the poor. He revels in ostentation. He owns several private jets, including a Boeing 747. He supported Republian Mitt Romney’s bid for the presidency, along with his sneering assertion that 47 percent of the people are sponges who believe they are entitled to a cushy life at government expense.

When Mr. Adelson descends from his bejeweled moral pedestral, his ulterior motives become apparent. He maintains that online gambling is “suicidal” for the U.S. casino industry in the long run and will destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs. (Here, Mr. Adelson sounds like the reactionary Luddites who opposed the introduction of labor-saving machinery for the identical reason.)

Mr. Adelson also preaches that his online casino gambling oppostion derives from his worries as a concerned father, grandfather, citizen, and patriot for the general welfare. But his lavish support for the morally odious Mr. Gingrich in his 2012 presidential fling discredits Mr. Adelson’s claim that his life is dicatated by moral concerns. Ditto for locating his prime casinos in Las Vegas, which is synonymous with sin, not piety.

The casino mogul should stick to making money.

There is no role for him in a morality play.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/nov/22/bruce-fein-sheldon-adelson-devil/?page=1

Bruce Fein

Bruce Fein, who served as associate deputy attorney general and general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission under President Reagan, is president of the law firm Bruce Fein & Associates Inc. at www.brucefeinlaw.com. He also is the author of “American Empire Before the Fall and Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy.”

Meetings & Information

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Morriss Partee

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Two words: Tim Donaghy

BACCARAT winnings on the Las Vegas Strip fell 36% to $97 million in October, echoing declines in Macau where an anti-corruption drive in China has crimped high-end play.

Lavish Chinese wedding leaves social media stunned amid anti-corruption crackdown

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Mike Huckabee's Fight Against Online Gambling (and Libertarians)

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Sunday, November 23, 2014

By Dan Stamm

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