Daily Archives: March 29, 2017

Bill could bring video gambling to...

Video gambling machines could soon be showing up at bars, bowling alleys and social clubs.

A new bill in Harrisburg would also legalize and regulate games that are being operated illegally now.

Lawmakers say there are roughly 15,000 illegal gambling machines across Pennsylvania, and the state is losing out on millions of dollars.

But, not everyone thinks the bill is a safe bet.

Eleanor Ruppert spends every Tuesday at the Haja Rose Bowl in Allentown.

"It all depends on the alley conditions," said Ruppert. "There's a little luck too."

Owner Jim Haja has his fingers crossed that soon his bowling alley will be filled with luck from video gambling machines.

He is already making enough from lottery tickets and scratchers to make a payment on his roomba-like lane cleaner.

Now, Pennsylvania legislators are considering allowing private clubs, bars, and bowling alleys, like the Rose Bowl, to have video gambling.

Senator Lisa Boscola said it's an activity that's already going on in backrooms and basements at establishments across the Lehigh Valley.

"In my opinion, they are not criminal and we shouldn't make them criminal, we should legalize them." said Boscola.

Boscola said the revenue would benefit state emergency services, opiod treatment and gambling addiction.

"I think that the state senator that is proposing this bill should go to the Gambling Anonymous rooms and see how badly gambling is destroying families," said George M., who is a Gambling Anonymous Group leader.

He said after the casinos opened, attendance at the meetings doubled. He said he fears what will happen if the bill passes and video gambling is more accessible.

Boscola said the bills would limit bars and clubs to five machines with a $5 maximum bet and a $1,000 daily limit.

Rest stops are also included in the bill, but they would be allowed 10 machines.

Boscola said this is just part of an overall gaming bill that will come out with the budget in June. She said there is also talk of online gaming in the state.

In the meantime, George M. said he is just waiting to see what happens.

He says anyone with a gambling problem can contact Gamblers Anonymous at 610-770-9588 or 888-442-7085.

See the original post here:

Bill could bring video gambling to bars, bowling alleys - WFMZ Allentown

Posted March 29, 2017 19:54:25

If you are a parent who was hoping those incessant gambling ads would be banned during sporting broadcasts, and were pinning your hopes on senator Nick Xenophon's private member's bill to ban them well, bad luck.

The bill has been all but killed off by a Senate Estimates Committee, with the Coalition and Labor recommending against the reforms.

The senator and his NXT party had proposed the ban, as well as the establishment of a national regulator and a national self-exclusion register for people struggling with a gambling habit.

Senator Xenophon's private bill is separate to the Federal Government's Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill, which was introduced last year after a review by former New South Wales premier Barry O'Farrell.

The Senate Committee concluded the measures were not necessary because of the Government's reforms.

Senator Xenophon "vehemently rejects" the committee's recommendations, saying "the current (regulatory) framework, even with the recent Government amendments, is woeful".

NXT had a win last week when its amendment to the Government's bill, banning bookies from offering a line of credit, passed the Senate with the support of Labor, the Greens and crossbenchers.

But it now needs to go back to the House of Representatives where it is expected to fail.

And just last week, the Senate knocked back Senator Xenophon's attempt to insert some of his proposals into the Government's bill, including the ban on gambling ads, and the establishment of a national regulator.

The Australian Psychological Society made a submission to the Senate inquiry, and said "the proliferation of gambling advertising, particularly sports betting, is positioning gambling as an integral and 'normal' part of enjoying sports, and is paving the way for young Australians to become the new generation of problem gamblers".

The Gambling Impact Society of NSW told the inquiry that gambling advertisements often created "triggers" for those already struggling with gambling problems.

Broadcasters and sports-betting organisations argued against a ban, saying people under 18 "comprise a very small proportion of the audience for live sports events on television".

They won the argument.

And with a bounty flowing to both, the betting ads do not look set to stop anytime soon.

Topics: gambling, sport, government-and-politics, community-and-society, federal-government, australia, adelaide-5000

The rest is here:

Nick Xenophon's proposed bill to ban gambling ads during sports broadcasts in doubt - ABC Online

A scheme to help gambling machine addicts will not properly protect at-risk individuals without significant changes such as the introduction of an electronic ID system, according to new research.

People who feel their gambling is out of control can register to exclude themselves from specified bookmakers, meaning they should be barred, but flaws in the system mean some individuals are able to continue placing bets, new research for leading charity GambleAware has found.

The report said the multiple operator self-exclusion scheme (MOSES) has been a positive step, but a minority of customers had dodged self-imposed bans which rely on staff recognising gamblers who have registered.

Managers said the system is not always effective because employees don't spot people who have registered andself-service machinesare often sited out of view.

More than half of the bookmakermanagers questioned said the biggest issues was the volume of gambling addicts staff had to keep tabs on. This is a particular problem for shops with large numbers of customers or a high turnover of staff, the report said.

Controversial fixed-odds betting terminalspresent by far the biggest danger, staff said. The machines allow customers to wager up to 100 every 20 seconds and have come under fire for their addictive potential.

One manager questioned told researchers: The volume of exclusions, all of which seem to be FOBT, makes the situation more difficult to manage due to the location of most FOBT zones in our shops.

The scheme began in April 2016 and around 2,800 problem gamblers have now registered. There are plans to expand it, meaning identification issues could get worse as staff have to recognise more customers.

There are challenges in upholding 100 per cent of exclusions in the current scheme format, which cannot be overcome unless there are significant changes to the systems used by operators, the report stated. It said there was appetite to introduce membership cards or an electronic ID requirement.

A spokersperson for gambling charity GamCare said there would "always be problems with a self-exclusion system, but these are much less common in casinos than bookmakers because most have membership schemes in place".

Louise Duffy, lead researcher at Chrysalis Research, which carried out the analysis, told The Independentthat membership cards were a common suggestion from staff she interviewed.

She said: "The idea is that all customers are given an ID or membership card that will need to be used in order to use the machines. Customers who have self-excluded would not be able to use the machines because their card would be registered as having self-excluded." However, Ms Duffy acknowledged that this would require "significant investment".

Gambling addicts also reported that they wanted to ban themselves from all betting shops in an area but under the scheme they must specify particular shops, allowing the potential for gaps to emerge.

"[You] should be able to just say all betting shops in a 30 mile radius of your address, instead of trying to explain to someone on the phone various addresses when they don't live in your area," one customer told researchers.

Iain Corby, deputy chief executive of GambleAware told The Independent: As the industry expands self-exclusion to protect more vulnerable people, we encourage them to find ways to make it work on a larger scale, which will involve addressing issues like anonymous play, staffing levels and machines being out of sight of staff.

This takes us one step closer to a universal self-exclusion scheme, which should strengthen the protections available for at risk individuals wherever they gamble. We encourage the industry to tackle some of the areas identified in this research, including the potential to notify all shops in their local area rather than a shop at a time.

Mr Corby added: For those most at risk of gambling related harm, the report shows that linking self-exclusion to treatment makes the greatest difference."

The Senet Group, the industry body that runs the scheme and is backed by bookmakers including Ladbrokes Coral, William Hill and Paddy Power, agreed that a more joined up approach is needed to protect those with addictions.

"Establishing a fully integrated system would enable customers to exclude from any form of gambling with a single click or call. This should surely be our long term goal," said Wanda Goldwag, chair of the group.

"The same companies who fund MOSES are amongst those investing in an equivalent scheme for online gambling. It must make sense to look at how far we can go in delivering these schemes in as joined up a way as possible.

Trade body, the Association of British Bookmakers, hailed the self-exclusion scheme as a success, pointing out that more than four in five customers surveyed said it had helped them reduce their gambling and 71 per cent had not used the betting shops from which they had banned themselves.

Malcolm George, ABB chief executive, said it was "a highly encouraging result and another example of why betting shops offer gamblers the safest and most responsible place to have a bet."

Bookmakers have come under increasing pressure to crack down on problem gambling, particularly on FOBTs, as the Government undertakes a review of the machines. In January MPs on the the All-Party Parliamentary Group on FOBTs recommended far stricter controls, including cutting the maximum stake per spin from 100 to 2 and increasing the time between bets.

Carolyn Harris, APPG chair, said in January: The time for prevaricating is over. These machines are easily accessed in the most deprived areas, sucking money out of the pockets of families. I support a responsible gambling industry, but there is nothing responsible about how FOBTs are currently being operated. I urge the Government to take action now.

Bookmakers have been accused of being slow to take action because the machines are so lucrative. The UK's biggest bookmaker, Ladbrokes Coral, today announced full-year revenues for 2016 of 2.3bn, up 11 per cent on a year earlier. Fully 36 per cent of group sales and 56 per cent of UK retail sales, came from FOBTs.

Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown said the Government's upcoming review was "concerning". He added: "Reforms that undermine profitability, such as significantly reducing the amounts that can be staked at any one time, would have serious consequences for the group."

Graham Jones, MP for Hyndbournaccused the gambling industryof "behaving like the tobacco industry".

"Its aim is to hoodwink the public, he told The Independent. "It claims it is taking measures but in reality its main toxic product, FOBTs are now generating the majority of their profits."

People who feel they might have a problem with gambling should visit the GambleAware website, or alternatively call the national gambling helpline on 0808 8020 133

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Betting machines should require ID cards to protect vulnerable gambling addicts, report says - The Independent

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates The president of the United States holds a trademark in Jordan for a Donald Trump casino, despite the fact that gambling is illegal in the kingdom. It is one of four he received before he ran for office, and suggests that the former casino executive may have had wider hopes for businesses across the Middle East than was previously known.

To keep the trademarks active, the Trump Organization would need to reapply for them during Trump's four-year term, raising potential ethical concerns for his company in Jordan, a stalwart U.S. ally in the fight against the Islamic State group and a mediator in relations between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Trump Organization told The Associated Press that its "decision to enforce its intellectual property rights is nothing new," while declining to discuss whether it knew how controversial gambling was in the kingdom.

Jordan's government acknowledged the trademarks, but that doesn't mean gambling is in Jordan's future.

"That does not give any right to the company to practice any activities unless it is formally registered as a company in Jordan and licensed to practice," government spokesman Mohammed Momani wrote in an email. "Needless to say, gambling is illegal in Jordan, so if a company applies for this, it will be disapproved."

Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush, said the casino trademark raised new concerns about the Trump Organization's international entanglements. He is part of a lawsuit alleging Trump is violating the U.S. Constitution by allowing his business to accept payments from foreign governments

"We don't want foreign governments in a position to pay off our politicians with special treatment," Painter said.

Trump for years tried to enter the Mideast as a businessman, seeing it as an open market for his profitable business of licensing his name to construction projects. He applied for and received trademarks in Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Trump shut down some of his companies in the days after beating Hillary Clinton in the November election, including several connected to a possible venture in Saudi Arabia. While most recent presidents have sold their financial holdings to avoid conflicts, Trump has said that is not necessary. Instead, he has turned managerial control over to his two adult sons, vowing not to pursue more deals abroad and appointing a lawyer to screen his business for conflicts.

Meanwhile, his sons recently opened a new Trump golf course in Dubai as a developer there still plans for another. The developer, DAMAC Properties, offered $2 billion in new deals after Trump's victory, which Trump declined.

As the Trump Organization remains composed of hundreds of companies in a complex, interconnected web, it makes the full scale of his deals before becoming America's 45th president difficult to understand, a mystery only deepened by the president's unwillingness to release his tax returns.

In Jordan, Trump applied for four trademarks with the Industry, Trade and Supply Ministry in June 2008 and won its approval in February 2009. Those trademarks, retained by an organization under Trump called DTTM Operations LLC, include holding his name for developing commercial, residential and hotel property, as well as running restaurants, bars, cafes or a golf course.

The trademarks expire in February 2019, about halfway through Trump's term in the White House.

Among those businesses listed was "gambling and casino services, and the provision of casino facilities," according to one of the trademarks.

Trump once owned three Atlantic City casinos, but the businesses nearly destroyed him financially.

Jordanian law explicitly bans gambling. However, a secret deal in 2007 signed by Jordan's then-tourism minister would have allowed a Britain-based developer to open a casino on the Dead Sea. It also made the government potentially liable for hundreds of millions of dollars to the developer if it breached the 50-year agreement.

The deal caused a major political scandal that reverberated for years in Jordan, a nation ruled by King Abdullah II. Amid the 2011 Arab Spring protests, the king appointed as prime minister Marouf al-Bakhit, who personally signed off on the 2007 casino deal. Al-Bakhit's appointment outraged Islamists and he stepped down from the role eight months later. The deal was rescinded.

It's unclear whether Trump knew the controversy surrounding the casino proposal when his company sought the trademark a year later. Alan Garten, an executive vice president and chief legal officer at the Trump Organization, described the company's decision as "broad trademark protection" to guard against others using the Trump name.

"While the trademark registration also included casino-related activities, the company has never pursued a casino," he said.

In the Middle East, Jordan remains a crucial partner for the U.S. The kingdom hosts more than 650,000 Syrian refugees displaced by that country's grinding war, while also taking part in the U.S.-led coalition battling the Islamic State group. Jordan has hosted Americans training Syrian rebel fighters.

Jordan also serves as custodian of the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, the third-holiest site of Islam, located in east Jerusalem on the same spot that Jews revere as the Temple Mount. Jordan routinely mediates in conflicts over access to the sites and has warned that moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is a "red line" that would inflame the Arab and Muslim worlds.

On Feb. 2, King Abdullah II briefly met with Trump in Washington. The same day, the White House issued a statement saying "the construction of new (Israeli) settlements or the expansion of existing settlements beyond their current borders may not be helpful" in achieving peace between Israelis and Palestinians. However, the White House stressed it hadn't "taken an official position on settlement activity."

The casino trademark, however, raised new questions about what the White House could ask for, said Painter, the former chief White House ethics lawyer.

"If we're going to get involved in trying to work out Middle East peace, Jordan is a key player," Painter said. "We're going to have a lot of different things on the table and I guess this casino is going to be part of what's on the table. ... That's just corruption."

___

Associated Press writer Karin Laub in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jongambrellap . His work can be found at http://apne.ws/2galNpz .

Read more:

Trump has casino trademark in Jordan but gambling is illegal - Fox News

Graham Messner, For Public Opinion 4:47 p.m. ET March 28, 2017

Raiders owner Mark Davis, center, meets with Raiders fans after a speaking engagement in Nevada recently. The NFL has approved a move from Oakland to Las Vegas.(Photo: Associated Press)

Can we quit pretending that legal gambling is a bad thing?

Do we realize that what is worse is what we have now? Our current system (wink, wink) is called illegal gambling. Illegal gambling is where the muck lives. Illegal gambling is, at its highest level, where match fixing scandals are born.

Thats all about to change.

The first salvo across the bow is the Oakland Raiders' move to the United States gambling capital of Las Vegas.

Think about it.

The NFL was so against legalized gambling that it wouldnt even let Las Vegas host the Pro Bowl in 2013. That was absurd. The Pro Bowl isnt even a real game.

But Las Vegas is giving the Raiders $750 million in love money. Funny how things change.

Of course, the NFL isnt admitting it is heading the way of giving the nod to legalized gambling, but no private or public entity ever tells you that allowing a little gambling is truly the path to full-blown gambling. Slot machines lead to table games and table games lead to video gambling in bars (at least thats the Pennsylvania model).

Its all in the name of revenue.

I guess its easier to make money on peoples vices than to tighten the belt and get rid of redundant programs and/or jobs.

I get it.

I also understand where people get skittish about legalizing sports gambling, but I can guarantee you that legalizing sports gambling would actually legitimize the whole thing. Legalized gambling allows for the point spread to shift and is monitored in real time. If some crazy betting occurs on a certain games, thats a red flag and the odds can change in real time and even the game can be blacked out from wagering.

Plus, legalizing it everywhere would cut off a major money stream to organized crime. Its not like legalizing marijuana, whereas illegal marijuana is actually still sold on the black market for a cheaper price than what the government sells it for legally. A bet is worth the same amount any way you slice it.

Thats the way it works in Las Vegas.

The fact that this Commonwealth of Pennsylvania sells lottery tickets and gets revenue from casinos while cracking down on Super Bowl pools and/or the number of fish tickets a veterans organization sells is whacky. Just legalize it all, monitor it, profit share and be done with it.

Both NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman have given a wink and a nod toward moving forward with being OK with more legalization of sports gambling. The NFL is right on their heels. Its free money.

Im just not surethe opposition for keeping the current national illegal system makes sense. Who cant make a bet if they really want to? Everybody knows a guy who will take a wager and anyone who has problem with gambling is still going to have a problem with gambling. Just go online if you dont think you can bet on sports. Lottery tickets are gambling.

Of course, while everyone focuses on the gambling aspect of moving an NFL team to Las Vegas, there areso many, many more ways to get into trouble in Sin City. A young player who has a propensity for getting into trouble is going to be at the trouble smorgasbord every night. Money will fly out of their hands and their bank accounts.

There isnt anything you cant do in Las Vegas if you want to take part in spooky deviant behavior. If I were the NFL, thatd be a much larger concern than legal betting. Its the (insert bad behavior description here) capital of the USA.

And by the time the Raiders actually move to Las Vegas (2019 or 2020), it wouldnt have mattered what city they decided to move to would have been, because legalized gambling will have likely spread to a city near you.

After all, its free money and were running out of vices to tax.

Things have gone too far for too long.

Graham Messner has been a writer for many years and has also been involved in real estate, fundraising and coaching. He can be reached at toofar@gmx.com.

Read more:

Too Far: With Raiders' move, legalized gambling is on its way - Chambersburg Public Opinion