Daily Archives: June 23, 2017

Labour and the Lib Dems are as much to blame as the Tories for Grenfell Tower – Spectator.co.uk (blog)

Posted: June 23, 2017 at 6:45 am

I havent been in Camden this afternoon, so I cant vouch for there being no marches of activists holding banners with the words Labour Out and Corbyn Must Go, but somehow I doubt there are and I certainly havent seen them on the news. But why not? Last week we saw no end of left-wing activists out on the streets trying to exploit the Grenfell Tower tragedy for their own party political purposes trying to present it as a case of callous Tories treating the lives of the poor as worthless as they slash their way through budgets with abandon.

Yes, Kensington and Chelsea is a Conservative-controlled borough but it turns out that is was far from alone in cladding its tower blocks with flammable cladding. Today, it emerges that five blocks in Labour-controlled Camden have also been clad with a similar material, which is now to be removed as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, fire officers will man the corridors 24 hours a day.

The cladding of tower blocks with flammable materials is a scandal, but it is one in which all three main political parties have their fingers. Across the country, 600 blocks have been clad (not necessarily with the same materials as those at Grenfell Tower, though many are now being tested). They span council areas of all colours. The cladding of tower blocks began under the Blair government whose Decent Homes Initiative, which demanded that 95 per cent of social housing be brought up to specified insulation standards by 2010 but which failed to lay down adequate fire standards. It was a Labour-controlled Southwark Council which was fined 570,000 for the fatal fire at Lakanal House in Camberwell in 2009 which was found to have spread as a result of renovation work. The practice of cladding continued under the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition and under a standalone Conservative government.

The fact that all parties might be culpable in cladding tower blocks hasnt stopped Jeremy Corbyn, however, who continues his attempt to turn Grenfell Tower into a parable about class oppression. From Hillsborough, to the child sex abuse scandal, to Grenfell Tower, the pattern is consistent: working-class peoples voices are ignored, their concerns dismissed by those in power, he said this afternoon. Yet Hillsborough victims werent all working class. While child sex abuse has been exposed among children in care in Rotherham, Oldham and elsewhere, it has also come to light in private boarding schools where childrens complaints were equally ignored.

If Corbyn is going to continue this line of attack he might at least check his facts first. Last week he said: The ward where this fire took place is, I think, the poorest ward in the whole country. Actually, it comes in at number 3823 out of 32,844 wards in the governments deprivation index: not even in the top 10 per cent. The most-deprived is Jaywick, on the fringes of Clacton, Essex, and the next two are in Blackpool. Corbyn might pitch himself as a champion of the working class, but in doing so exposes his own London-centric, middle class prejudices.

Read more:

Labour and the Lib Dems are as much to blame as the Tories for Grenfell Tower - Spectator.co.uk (blog)

Posted in Government Oppression | Comments Off on Labour and the Lib Dems are as much to blame as the Tories for Grenfell Tower – Spectator.co.uk (blog)

Why Being Saved By A Black Gay Woman Doesn’t Delegitimize Steve Scalise’s Politics – The Federalist

Posted: at 6:45 am

Once he gets out of the hospital, Rep. Steve Scalise ought to change his position on gay marriage and a host of other issues. Thus saith George Takei, MSNBCs Joy Reid, and a number of other liberal voices who are demanding that the Majority Whip see the error of his conservative ways after his attempted assassination was thwarted by Special Agent Gay Black Woman.

Gay Black Woman is not, as you might guess, the special agents given name. Its Crystal Griner. But considering Scalises politics, Griners name and bravery had to play second fiddle to her sex, sexuality, and race. It was just too deliciously ironic, you see, that a Republican now owes his life to someone composed of such non-Republican identities.

For those of us with a higher-than-Alanis standard of irony, however, this raises the question, um, wait, why is that ironic? Had Scalise ever said, I oppose same-sex marriage because those who engage in homosexual relationships are incapable of bravery, then, sure, the irony would be clear. Had this been the logic behind Scalises pro-traditional-marriage views, the first thing he should do when he gets out of the hospital is acknowledge that Officer Black Gay Womans bravery proved the goodness of gay marriage.

But Scalise never argued that homosexual unions shouldnt be considered marriage because gay sex renders people incapable of valor or selflessness. Nor has he ever suggested that gay marriage should be illegal because gay people dont deserve to have their lives protected. Like most conservatives, hes argued that, because homosexual unions are incapable of procreation, theyre incapable of being what marriage is. And Crystal Griners courage, commendable as it is, neither contradicts nor even addresses Scalises argument. So expecting her courage to change his position is just as illogical as expecting Pope Francis to convert to Lutheranism simply because a German mechanic fixed the papal golf cart.

Why, then, are all these voices on the left conflating Griners courage with her gayness? Why do people believe that Scalises supposed anti-gay bigotry should be destroyed by Griners bravery? The answer, it seems, is intersectionality, a mindset that has spread like wildfire through many leftist circles in recent years.

If youre not familiar with intersectionality, think of it as Identity Politics 3.0. The first version of Identity Politics told us that there are two classes the privileged oppressors (rich, white, straight, etc.) and the disadvantaged oppressed (poor, black, gay, etc.). Identity Politics 2.0 then told us that your self-chosen identity is part of your humanity.

Those who engage in homosexual acts, for example, are not men who have sex with other men. They are gay men. Their gayness is part of their very being, and because of this, to oppose same-sex relations is to oppose them as human beings. Now, intersectionalityIdentity Politics 3.0tells us that these various identities are all interconnected and overlapping, forming an elaborate series of identity tunnels that effectively unionize the oppressed against their oppressors.

This is why, for example, the Values and Principles of the Womens March declare, we believe Gender Justice is Racial Justice is Economic Justice. In other words, the struggles of women are connected to the struggles of minorities, which are connected to the struggles of the poor. So if you rich white ladies dont check your privilege by supporting the political agendas of minority women and poor women, well toss you across the picket line with the oppressors where you belong and strip you of your feminist credentials.

But as the shooting in Alexandria makes clear, intersectionality doesnt simply insist on the connection of various identities. It also insists on the transfer of good works from one identity to another, a kind of moral Marxism that seeks the redistribution of virtue. Crystal Griner is Special Agent Gay Black Woman. Her various identities cannot be separated from each other, which means that the goodness produced by Griner the Police Officer can be attributed to Griner the Lesbian.

With a trick like that in your back pocket, why bother even engaging Scalises argument? If you want to prove the goodness of your political agenda, just hit the intersectionality button and youll teleport straight from the line of scrimmage right into the end zone!

To see this trick in action, consider how Rev. Dr. William Barbers master class on how to prevent Republicans from being victims, even after they were targeted for assassination. In response to Paul Ryans statement an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us, Barber said, This cant just be a moral ethic that you apply to congress. Thats why the real question is will one or two days of changes in personality mean a fundamental change in public policy? A black man from my alma mater saved their lives. Will they go back to work and restore the voting rights act and stop systemic racism against black people thats happening through voter suppression and racialized redistricting? A lesbian black woman saved them. Will they go back to work and promote laws that no longer attack the rights of the LGBT community?

In other words, the oppressed did something good, which proves that the policies supported by the oppressed are good, so Republicans better get on board if they want me to stop considering them oppressors.

Of course, if a conservative Christian saved George Takei from a psycho, knife-wielding Star Trek fan, the actor and LBGT activist would most certainly not be expected to reconsider his support of Obergefell v. Hodges. By design, intersectionality never works in a conservatives favor. Because privileged identities are oppressive by nature, and because all identities are connected, any good produced by those with privilege is always tainted with the oppressiveness flowing through the tunnels. This is why, for example, when white Christians adopt non-white children, they arent consumed with holy desires, but with a white savior complex.

Its also why privileged, conservative politicians cant offer up anything but corrupted fruit. Mitt Romney, by virtue of being a white male, was a sexist. And even his binders full of women, his attempt to actively include women in his cabinet, was evidence of his misogyny. By virtue of being a white male, John McCain was a racist, which is why his career-long praise of John Lewis didnt stop John Lewis himself from comparing McCain to George Wallace. Because they are Republicans, everything Republicans do is tainted with oppression. They have no good works. And the only way they can change that, as Dr. Barber noted, is by becoming Democrats.

The great problem with intersectionality, however, is not merely that it puts conservative politicians at a competitive disadvantage, but that it puts them at risk for violence. Political violence has always been rare in the United States, due in large part to the design of the American government, imperfectly as that design has been executed at times. When you cant be thrown in jail for airing a minority opinion, when you cant be fined for having the wrong religion, when you have the right to defend yourself from mob violence, violent revolution against the mob isnt necessary. When your political adversaries dont have the power to oppress you, you have the luxury of trying to convince them instead of having to kill them.

But intersectionality insists that your political adversaries do have the power to oppress you because our white-male-designed government issurprise, surprisean oppressive system. And because the privileged are oppressors by nature, they will use that system to oppress you. And because you cant convince these reprobates not to oppress you, you have only one option left to protect yourself: violence. Granted, the vast majority of those who embrace intersectionality have enough of a moral foundation to avoid this. Most of them wont take this doctrine to its logical end. But those looking to sanctify their bloodlust just might. In fact, it appears the shooter in Alexandria already did.

What I find saddest about the Alexandria shooting is the perpetrators hatred. What I find saddest about the coverage of that shooting is that so many people dont view Scalise and Griner any differently than the shooter did (or at least would have, had he known who Griner was). Rep. Homophobe McBigotFace Gunned Down by Vigilante Hero in Defense of Blacks, Gays, Women and Oppressed People Everywhere is clearly the headline that Alexandrias shooter was writing in his murderous mind. Rep. Homophobe McBigot Faced Saved by Officer Black Gay Woman, the essential headline from many on the left, is not all that different.

Perhaps when Scalise and Griner have healed from their wounds, theyll sit down and have a conversation about gay marriage. If they do, Im sure theyll view each other as friends who disagree rather than as enemies in class warfare. Im sure that, instead of calling each the straight white male and the gay black woman, theyll call each other by name. We ought to do the same.

See more here:

Why Being Saved By A Black Gay Woman Doesn't Delegitimize Steve Scalise's Politics - The Federalist

Posted in Government Oppression | Comments Off on Why Being Saved By A Black Gay Woman Doesn’t Delegitimize Steve Scalise’s Politics – The Federalist

Trump Is Complicit In Saudi Arabia’s Extortion Of Qatar – HuffPost

Posted: at 6:45 am

Today, Saudi Arabia and its sycophant allies (Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt) have resorted to extortion in their dealings with Qatar. This internal dispute among the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council was joined by the United States when President Trump ignorantly supported the Saudi position of falsely condemning Qatar during and after his recent trip to Saudi Arabia.

To deflect attention from their own longstanding funding of Muslim extremists in Mosques and Madrassas (with ample proofOsama bi Laden, the creation of Al-Qaeda, 9/11 and funding of ISIS by Saudis if not by the Al-Sauds) and to expunge all criticism of their oppressive rule (absence of any political rights, free press and representative government), the Al-Sauds of Saudi Arabia falsely accused Qatar of being the main sponsor of terrorism. With his off-the-cuff comments and dangerous tweets, President Trump endorsed the Saudi position, a stand that now has global consequences.

An emboldened Saudi Arabia has embargoed Qatar, an act of war. It has threatened Qatar, a sovereign nation. And today, Qatar was given 10 days to comply with a list of demands or face unknown consequencesa rare case of blatant coercion from one country to another. The demands include:

- To shut down the broadcasting system of Al-Jazeera and stop funding other news outlets

- To close down a Turkish military base established by formal treaty by two sovereign nations

- To sever diplomatic and all relations with Iran

- To sever all relations with the Muslim Brotherhood and other organizations deemed threatening to the interests and legitimacy of the House of Saud

- To stop funding to any organization labeled as terrorist by the United States

- To expel citizens of a number of countries

- To follow the political, economic and other dictates of the Gulf Cooperation Council

- To pay an unspecified sum of money

While these demands are repulsive, they are even more outrageous coming from a regime that many consider to be among the most repressive in the world.

While some may think that this mafia-style extortion is thousands of miles away and of little concern to America, they should think again. President Trump has put the United States smack in the middle of this Saudi power play with consequences that go far and wide.

Saudi Arabia is essentially annexing a sovereign nation by telling it to do as the Al-Sauds demand or face possible invasion. Americas support of this muscular power play will earn it hundreds of millions of enemies around the world, endanger American interests and the United States be seen as a pariah nation.

The U. S. will offend an important NATO ally, Turkeysomething that could endanger the alliance by inducing a confrontation between Saudi Arabia and Turkey and also endangering the roughly 11,000 U.S. servicemen stationed in Qatar and also the future of the airbase where they are stationed.

Iran may renew its claim to Bahrain, a claim that the Shah of Iran was willing to rescind if there was a fair plebiscite (a fairness that was even questioned at the time) and if Bahrain was to remain an independent nation (something that has been clearly breached by Saudi Arabia in may ways with oppression of the Shia majority (65% of Bahrains population) that organizations have labeled as crimes against humanity. More broadly, Iran cannot stand by as Saudi Arabia with U.S. support is on a rampage in the Persian Gulf. Iran-U.S. relations will plummet to a new low and hostilities in the region will multiply.

Where will Iraq stand in all this? We believe that Iraq will in time stand squarely with Qatar, Iran and Turkey in opposing this American supported coercion, and this, in turn, will endanger U.S. servicemen and women in Iraq and U.S. interests even farther afield.

President Trump should take a deep breath, study a little history of the Middle East, consider what made America great in the eyes of much of the world in the immediate post-WWII era and what has reversed this admiration, put his own business interest aside, and pursue carefully considered policies to promote human rights, democratic values, peace and Americas interests in this dispute and more broadly in the Middle East.

But first things first, President Trump should immediately undo the mess that he has helped create before tensions escalate and matters get out of hand.

The Morning Email

Wake up to the day's most important news.

Original post:

Trump Is Complicit In Saudi Arabia's Extortion Of Qatar - HuffPost

Posted in Government Oppression | Comments Off on Trump Is Complicit In Saudi Arabia’s Extortion Of Qatar – HuffPost

Jeff Sessions wants a new war on drugs. It won’t work. – Washington Post

Posted: at 6:44 am

By David Cole and Marc Mauer By David Cole and Marc Mauer June 22 at 2:45 PM

David Cole is national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. Marc Mauer is executive director of the Sentencing Project.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is right to be concerned about recent increases in violent crime in some of our nations largest cities, as well as a tragic rise in drug overdoses nationwide [Lax drug enforcement means more violence, op-ed, June 18]. But there is little reason to believe that his response reviving the failed war on drugs and imposing more mandatory minimums on nonviolent drug offenders will do anything to solve the problem. His prescription contravenes a growing bipartisan consensus that the war on drugs has not worked. And it would exacerbate mass incarceration, the most pressing civil rights problem of the day.

Sessionss first mistake is to conflate correlation and causation. He argues that the rise in murder rates in 2015 was somehow related to his predecessor Eric Holders August 2013 directive scaling back federal prosecutions in lower-level drug cases. That policy urged prosecutors to reserve the most serious charges for high-level offenses. Holder directed them to avoid unnecessarily harsh mandatory minimum sentences for defendants whose conduct involved no actual or threatened violence, and who had no leadership role in criminal enterprises or gangs, no substantial ties to drug trafficking organizations and no significant criminal history. (Mandatory minimums can lead to draconian sentences, as in the case of Ramona Brant, a first-time offender sentenced to life imprisonment for her part in distributing drugs at the direction of an abusive boyfriend). Individuals who met the stringent criteria of Holders policy would still be prosecuted, but they would be spared overly long mandatory minimums. Sessions offers no evidence that this policy caused the recent spikes in violent crime or drug overdoses. There are three reasons to doubt that there is any significant connection between the two.

First, federal prosecutors handle fewer than 10 percent of all criminal cases, so a modest change in their charging policy with respect to a subset of drug cases is unlikely to have a nationwide impact on crime. The other 90 percent of criminal prosecution is conducted by state prosecutors, who were not affected by Holders policy.

Second, the few individuals who benefited from Holders policy by definition lacked a sustained history of crime or violence or any connections to major drug traffickers.

Third, the increases in violent crime that Sessions cites are not nationally uniform, which one would expect if they were attributable to federal policy. In 2015, murder rates rose in Chicago, Cleveland and Baltimore, to be sure. But they declined in Boston and El Paso, and stayed relatively steady in New York, Las Vegas, Detroit and Atlanta. If federal drug policy were responsible for the changes, we would not see such dramatic variances from city to city.

Nor is there any evidence that increases in drug overdoses have anything to do with shorter sentences for a small subset of nonviolent drug offenders in federal courts. Again, the vast majority of drug prosecutions are in state court under state law and are unaffected by the attorney generals policies. And the rise in drug overdoses is a direct result of the opioid and related heroin epidemics, which have been caused principally by increased access to prescription painkillers from doctors and pill mills. That tragic development calls for treatment of addicts and closer regulation of doctors, not mandatory minimums imposed on street-level drug sellers, who are easily replaced in communities that have few lawful job opportunities.

Most disturbing, Sessions seems to have no concern for the fact that the United States leads the world in incarceration; that its prison population is disproportionately black, Hispanic and poor; or that incarceration inflicts deep and long-lasting costs on the very communities most vulnerable to crime in the first place. As of 2001, 1 of every 3 black male babies born that year could expect to be imprisoned in his lifetime, and while racial disparities have been modestly reduced since then, African Americans are still a disproportionate share of the prison population. Mass incarceration has disrupted families, created even greater barriers to employment and increased the likelihood that the next generation of children will themselves be incarcerated. Advocates as diverse as the Koch brothers and George Soros, the Center for American Progress and Americans for Tax Reform, the American Civil Liberties Union and Right on Crime agree that we need to scale back the harshness of our criminal justice system.

Rather than expanding the drug war, Sessions would be smarter to examine local conditions that influence crime and violence, including policing strategies, availability of guns, community engagement and concentrated poverty. Responding to those underlying problems, and restoring trust through consent decrees that reduce police abuse, hold considerably more promise of producing public safety. Sessionss revival of the failed policies of the past, by contrast, has little hope of reducing violent crime or drug overdoses.

Visit link:

Jeff Sessions wants a new war on drugs. It won't work. - Washington Post

Posted in War On Drugs | Comments Off on Jeff Sessions wants a new war on drugs. It won’t work. – Washington Post

OURS: War on drugs just got tougher – Rapid City Journal

Posted: at 6:44 am

It was just 14 months ago when Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom told a state oversight council that meth use had gone off the charts and was out of control in parts of South Dakota.

Since then, the state has appropriated several hundred thousand dollars to bolster treatment opportunities, start a marketing campaign to warn youth and others of the dangers of meth, and to incentivize those on probation and parole to stop using a drug that is almost instantly addicting.

It appears, however, that these efforts have been akin to putting a finger in a dyke that is about to crumble. Meth use has skyrocketed in the past year and is often a key ingredient in violent crimes.

Now, however, meth and the madness and mayhem it creates has a rival and experts say its potency makes it far more dangerous. It's called fentanyl analog and should alarm everyone who is concerned about public health and public safety.

On Tuesday, the Lawrence County State's Attorney's Office announced that nine people were indicted on 50 felony drug charges. The primary drug cited was fentanyl analog. The investigation that led to the indictments came after two Spearfish residents, ages 23 and 38, died in January after using the synthetic opioid that the National Institute on Drug Abuse says is 50 to 100 more times potent than morphine, making it extraordinarily lethal.

The Lawrence County indictments come just one week after a 19-year-old Chamberlain man was arrested for possessing 20,000 fentanyl pills worth $500,000.

Until recently, fentanyl has been seen as primarily a big-city problem in a few states. In 2014, the Centers for Disease Control reported that 80 percent of fentanyl seizures occurred in 10 eastern states.

Since then, however, this killer drug has swept through the nation and now has surfaced in central and western South Dakota where many of us feel insulated from drug epidemics and their fatal consequences. The drug, however, has the potential to sweep through a state like a plague. In New Hampshire, for example, the number of fentanyl-related deaths climbed from 145 to 283 from 2014 to 2015, according to the National Drug Early Warning System. The state's population is only around 1.3 million people.

In Lawrence County, 37-year-old Eric Reeder now faces 20 felony charges, including two counts of first-degree manslaughter. Spearfish police said the suspect told them he ordered the fentanyl on the darknet and they were delivered to him. Also facing a first-degree manslaughter charge is 32-year-old Ashley Kristina Kuntz.

The Lawrence County Sheriff's Office, the Lawrence County State's Attorney's Office and Spearfish police are to be congratulated for pursuing this case and seeking convictions on manslaughter charges. It's become all too clear that our ongoing war on drugs has become a lot tougher and the stakes are even higher.

It is a problem that requires an immediate and strong response from law enforcement. In the meantime, we all have a duty to report any suspected drug activity to law enforcement and to do everything possible to protect our families and loved ones from this devastating drug.

The rest is here:

OURS: War on drugs just got tougher - Rapid City Journal

Posted in War On Drugs | Comments Off on OURS: War on drugs just got tougher – Rapid City Journal

State Poised To Launch Biggest Expansion Of Gambling In Decades, But Some See Trouble Ahead – Hartford Courant

Posted: at 6:44 am

Connecticut is poised to launch the biggest expansion in gambling in two decades: a trifecta of building a third casino, adding more off-track betting venues and laying the groundwork for online sports betting.

But those who advocate for problem and addicted gamblers and others who research the causes don't see the same kind of payoff as some Connecticut lawmakers eager to preserve state revenue and jobs.

They only see trouble ahead.

"What we've seen in many, many jurisdictions that get major introductions of gambling is a sharp uptick in problem gambling for one or two years and then a decline in prevalence," said Rachel A. Volberg, president of Gemini Research in Northhampton, Mass., who studies gambling. "But these people still remain at a greater risk, and that's more people in population with a potential problem with gambling."

The gaming expansion backed by the state legislature two weeks ago does not compare with the introduction of two southeastern Connecticut casinos Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun in the 1990s.

Even so, Volberg and others say the prospect of more access to gambling shouldn't be ignored, despite the already strong presence of the gaming in Connecticut. Hartford-area residents, for instance, can take a short drive to a casino in East Windsor rather than driving to the southeastern corner of the state.

The satellite casino in East Windsor is expected to add 2,000 slot machines and up to 150 table games.

"It's important for people not to be complacent because we've had casinos here and other forms of gambling for several decades," Marc N. Potenza, a professor of psychiatry and director of the Center of Excellence in Gambling Research at Yale University in New Haven.

Tecton Architects / HANDOUT

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy must still sign the legislation. And it could be months before ground is broken, and it could be another two years before the casino actually opens. Court challenges also loom. The Hartford-area gambling venue would be jointly run by the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes that have built vast gambling empires just outside of New London.

The East Windsor casino is intended to blunt the competitive effects of a $950 million casino and entertainment complex under construction in Springfield. The state's 25-percent share of slot revenue has been eroding as casinos in neighboring states have challenged the dominance of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun. Gaming industry jobs also are at risk, supporters of gambling expansion argue.

But to push through legislation, the addition of OTB sites and setting up a regulatory framework of future, but not yet legal, online sports betting were both critical to gathering enough votes for casino expansion.

The state now draws revenue from OTB operations and regulating sports betting would also bring funds to state coffers, a potent lure for a state that has come to depend on gaming revenue to help balance its budget.

Cloe Poisson / Hartford Courant

Tucked into the legislation creating the third casino, the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans have agreed to contribute $300,000 a year for research and treatment for problem gambling.

One gap in understanding gambling problems is knowing the extent of the trouble. No statistics exist for Connecticut because a comprehensive study has gone unfunded, said Marlene Warner, acting executive director at the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling.

The council now has an annual budget of $800,000, compared with about $2.5 million for a similar council in Massachusetts, said Warner, who describes the council's budget as "woefully underfunded."

Warner said the bulk of the Connecticut council's funding, $600,000, is split evenly by Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun. Those funding levels date from when the casinos first opened, a time when the state's gambling landscape was far different from what it is today, Warner said.

The additional $300,000 for the third casino will help, but it will only go so far, Warner said.

Rep. Fred Wilms, R-Norwalk, pushed for more funding for treatment and research for problem gambling when casino expansion was considered by the House earlier this month, his voice joining others warning about the social costs of increased gaming.

Wilms proposed that the East Windsor casino deposit 5 percent of its gross gaming revenue annually into a chronic gamblers fund. The figure, he said, was drawn from statistics showing 2 percent of all adults nationwide are gambling addicts and another 3 percent are considered to be problem or chronic gamblers.

"My familiarity with this is unfortunately a family member of ours has been a gambling addict for the past 35 years," Wilms told his House colleagues. "And so, we have had to spend a lot of time in the addiction and recovery community."

Wilms said he was troubled about casino expansion when the website of state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services notes that problem gambling is twice as high for individuals who live within 50 miles of a casino.

A Google search yielded 19 towns and cities where Gamblers Anonymous meetings for scheduled for the next week. Two of the towns, Middletown and Norwich, had two meetings.

"And it goes to show it's not somebody else's town, it's not some other place far away," Wilms said. "It's pretty close to where we live."

Wilm's amendment was ultimately defeated, and he voted against the multi-pronged gambling expansion.

Cloe Poisson / Hartford Courant

'Very Few' Become Problem Gamblers

Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun downplayed the affect of casino expansion, arguing that "very, very few people become problem gamers." But the state's original agreements with the tribes that gave the state a share of slot revenue also required the tribes to financially help problem gambling support programs.

Since the casinos opened in the 1990s, Foxwoods has contributed $5.5 million and Mohegan Sun, $6.7 million to the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling.

Just to the north, in Massachusetts, the state is drawing direct links between casino expansion and problem gambling in a 21st-century environment where gambling is increasingly widespread and legal.

Legislation in 2011 allowed three commercial casinos in Massachusetts. One, Plainridge Park Casino, opened in 2015 and two others on are on the way, in Boston and Springfield.

Cloe Poisson / Hartford Courant

As part of the legislation, the casinos must pay up to a $5 million assessment, plus 5 percent of gross gaming revenues annually into a public health trust fund focused on problem gambling. Once all three casinos are open, those contributions could amount to $15-$20 million a year.

Warner, the acting director of Connecticut's problem gambling council who also serves as the executive director of the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling, said the Bay State will have the most aggressive approach to dealing with the problem gambling in the country.

Although the Connecticut problem gambling council operates on a shoestring budget, Warner did note good efforts by the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

Connecticut benefits from $2.5 million in Connecticut Lottery Corp funding for gambling treatment and prevention, Warner said. Those services are provided through the state mental health department, she said.

More OTBs

State regulated gambling in Connecticut dates back to 1972 when the lottery sold its first ticket. The introduction led to the opening of the first OTB parlors four years later.

Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun later brought glitz to the state's gambling scene. But there have been other, more recent pushes into gaming, smaller than what is envisioned by the recent legislation.

In April of last year, the state lottery launched Keno, which brought the casino-like game to all its 2,900 retail locations in the state, including some bars and restaurants.

And more gambling now may be on the horizon.

Sportech Venues Inc., the state only licensed OTB operator, has its eye on what many experts say is the inevitable legalization of state-regulated sports betting. Sports betting has long existed in a shadowy world, much the way alcohol production and consumption did during Prohibition.

New Jersey is now leading the charge against a federal ban, and Connecticut and other states have joined a growing list of states preparing for legalization. Gamblers have online access to sports betting tied to sites some of them outside the country where they are legal.

Cloe Poisson / Hartford Courant

In recent years, Sportech has worked to remake the image of OTB, once predominantly sought out by older men.

In 2014, Sportech invested nearly $5 million at Bradley Teletheater in Windsor Locks to bring a Bobby V's Restaurant & Sports Bar to the venue. Bobby V's is intended to also attract visitors who aren't necessarily interested in gambling and a wider range of ages and families.

Ted Taylor, Sportech's president, said he sees sports betting as a logical step for the company. The legislation on Malloy's desk would increase the potential number of OTB locations to 24. Sportech now operates 16 sites, including its newest in Stamford.

"We are already licensed and regulated to manage gaming, so we could implement sports betting rapidly under a new sports betting regulatory framework," Taylor said. "If this occurs, it will strengthen our position against increasing out-of-state competition and provide much needed jobs and revenue to Connecticut."

But Taylor said Sportech also is paying attention to problem gambling.

"Sportech wants to ensue that everyone is playing responsibly," Taylor said. "However, to combat problem gambling, Sportech contributed $180,000 last year to supportive programs."

See the original post here:

State Poised To Launch Biggest Expansion Of Gambling In Decades, But Some See Trouble Ahead - Hartford Courant

Posted in Gambling | Comments Off on State Poised To Launch Biggest Expansion Of Gambling In Decades, But Some See Trouble Ahead – Hartford Courant

Live Casino hosts event to connect small firms to gambling industry … – Baltimore Sun

Posted: at 6:44 am

Live Casino & Hotel in Hanover teamed up with the American Gaming Association Thursday to promote business opportunities for small, minority-owned firms and highlight the industry's economic impact in Maryland.

Association representatives are touring U.S. casinos to highlight gambling's impact on local businesses. Events at the Hanover facility included a minority business outreach fair and panel discussion with industry, state and county officials led by Donald Fry, president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee.

"I've seen firsthand the positive impact the industry has had in Maryland" in creating jobs and spurring economic development and tourism, Fry said.

The casino has spent about $100 million for services and products from local and minority-owned businesses and continues to seek such vendors out, said Rob Norton, president of global gaming for casino owner Cordish Cos.,

Panel member Tony Hill, a managing partner of Annapolis-based office furniture supplier Edwards and Hill, said the casino has given his business a boost.

"There are lots of clients where you have some work and have to move on ... but they continue to make sure they are good partners," Hill said. "It helps small businesses like mine to create a pipeline of business, which is what we need to be able to grow."

The U.S. gambling industry supports 350,000 small-business jobs, according to research by Spectrum Gaming Group for the association. The report looked at nearly a dozen markets in the U.S. to assess gambling's direct and indirect impact on small local businesses. It found gambling has the largest impact in small to midsized communities.

The five-year-old Live Casino employs 3,000 people and was the top taxpayer in the state last year, casino officials said.

Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of the gambling association, said the group is trying to correct misconceptions and "shine a light on what the industry's doing."

lorraine.mirabella@baltsun.com

Read the original here:

Live Casino hosts event to connect small firms to gambling industry ... - Baltimore Sun

Posted in Gambling | Comments Off on Live Casino hosts event to connect small firms to gambling industry … – Baltimore Sun

Give gambling firms the boot: Xenophon – NEWS.com.au

Posted: at 6:44 am

Australia's football codes should follow the lead of the English Football Association and sever ties to gambling companies, says Nick Xenophon.

The FA has ended its sponsorship deals with betting company Ladbrokes and confirmed it will cease all commercial arrangements with gambling firms.

Senator Xenophon said he believed all Australian football codes should follow the FA's lead.

"The UK has recognised the potential of gambling to undermine and compromise sport and the harm it can do to fans," Senator Xenophon told AAP on Friday.

"Some of the biggest gambling addicts in the country are the AFL and NRL because of their deals with gambling companies."

He said if the codes did not act voluntarily he would seek to legislate the ban.

A "weaning off" period of three to five years would be appropriate, the South Australian senator said.

In April, former Manchester City and Burnley midfielder Joey Barton was banned for 18 months after he was found to have made more than 1200 bets on football matches.

Barton, who said he had a gambling addiction, had pointed out the heavy involvement of the gambling industry in British football where bookmakers act as sponsors at several levels.

See the rest here:

Give gambling firms the boot: Xenophon - NEWS.com.au

Posted in Gambling | Comments Off on Give gambling firms the boot: Xenophon – NEWS.com.au

Jamaica gaming commission to allow gambling – No timeline yet for completing regulations – Jamaica Gleaner

Posted: at 6:44 am

The Betting, Gaming & Lotteries Commission (BGLC) is drafting regulations to legalise online gaming in Jamaica, but is mum on the entities that are lined up for licensing and unsure of the timeline for implementation.

Legalisation would allow local gaming companies to enter the near US$40-billion global market.

The agency said security concerns would be addressed under the rules being drafted, and signalled that it would include online casino gambling.

The research site statistica.com, to which the Financial Gleaner was referred by the BGLC, indicates that in 2015 the online gaming market accounted for US$38 billion worth of bets, a figure forecast to increase to nearly US$60 billion in 2020.

Statistica's research captures data on wagering something of value, usually money, on the outcome of an event or game, using the Internet.

Interactive gambling online includes poker; casino games such as roulette and blackjack; sports betting; bingo; and lotteries.

Statistica said "casino games and sports betting make up the largest share of the market" for online wagering.

The research site noted, however, that despite the rapid growth of online gaming, land-based gambling still dwarfs Internet activity, with a spring 2016 survey

by Nielsen Scarborough indicating that almost 83 million Americans admitted to having visited a casino in the past year.

The BGLC, whose new Executive Director Vitus Evans was appointed on May 1 of this year, said there are no operators approved to offer interactive gambling in Jamaica.

"However, being responsive to the interest that has been shown to offer this type of product, initiatives are being made to introduce the legislation for the licensing regime for interactive gaming," the regulator noted.

As to other potential players in this market segment, the BGLC said it could not "disclose any information related to licensees' operations or business plans."

Top lottery and gaming company Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL), which is known to be among the interested companies, declined to speak to its plans ahead of the writing of the regulations, "as we are unable to do anything on the SVL side until they are firmly in place," said SVL Assistant Vice-President for Group Corporate Communication Simone Clarke-Cooper.

In July, SVL launched a new technology platform - the Enterprise Series system - that it announced would allow the company to deliver interactive gaming options as soon as it got the green light from the regulator.

As to when the regulations will be finalised and debated into law, the BGLC said: "The process is not yet at a stage where the commission can provide any specific time frames."

avia.collinder@gleanerjm.com

See the article here:

Jamaica gaming commission to allow gambling - No timeline yet for completing regulations - Jamaica Gleaner

Posted in Gambling | Comments Off on Jamaica gaming commission to allow gambling – No timeline yet for completing regulations – Jamaica Gleaner

UK CMA takes enforcement action against gambling firms – iGaming Business

Posted: at 6:44 am

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today (Friday) confirmed it will launch enforcement action against a number of online gambling operators suspected of breaking consumer law.

The move comes as a result of a joint programme of work with the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), regarding the treatment of customers by internet gaming brands in the UK market.

Last year, the UKGC contacted the CMA over concerns related to potential breaches of consumer law, such as misleading promotions and unfair terms being used by companies to block players pay-outs.

The CMA has now found that various operators have been engaging in practices likely to be breaching consumer law and, as such, will take action against these companies to bring any illegal activities to an end.

In addition to the enforcement cases, the CMA said that its joint work with the UKGC could lead to further action in order to help improve practices across the wider online gambling market in the UK.

Nisha Arora, senior director for consumer enforcement at the CMA, said: We know online gambling is always going to be risky, but firms must also play fair; people should get the deal theyre expecting if they sign up to a promotion, and be able to walk away with their money when they want to.

Sadly, we have heard this isnt always the case; new customers are being enticed by tempting promotions only to find the dice are loaded against them.

And players can find a whole host of hurdles in their way when they want to withdraw their money.

Thats why we are today launching enforcement action where we think the law has been broken.

We are also asking people who have had difficulties withdrawing their money when theyve gambled online to tell us about it, and help probe this issue even further.

Sarah Harrison, chief executive of the UKGC, added: Gambling operators must treat customers fairly but some have been relying on terms that are unclear with too many strings attached.

Whilst the CMA takes enforcement action on how consumer legislation is followed, the gambling industry should be under no illusion that if they dont comply with consumer law, we will see this as a breach of their operating licence, and take decisive action.

Related article: CMA to probe online gambling in UK

Continue reading here:

UK CMA takes enforcement action against gambling firms - iGaming Business

Posted in Gambling | Comments Off on UK CMA takes enforcement action against gambling firms – iGaming Business