Category Archives: Gambling

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10) Rivers Casino has been hit with a fine for underage gambling.

The State Gaming Commission says a minor went onto the gaming floor just after 10:30 p.m. on February 14 and won a $1,300 jackpot playing the slot machines.

When asked to show his ID to collect his winnings, casino staff then discovered that he was under the age of 18.

The Commission says its investigation revealed the following:

Rivers Casino released this statement regarding the fine:

Rivers Casino & Resort acted swiftly and appropriately once the underage customer was identified, and also self-reported this incident to the New York State Gaming Commission. Responsible gaming, including preventing underage gaming, is a top priority at our property, and we are continually making improvements to our operations to maintain our commitment to that mission. That is why we are glad to be partnering with the New York Responsible Play Partnership to present todays public meeting on Responsible Gaming.

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Rivers Casino hit with underage gambling fine - NEWS10 ABC

CONCORD After 18 years of trying, Manchester Sen. Lou DAllesandro is at it again, with another attempt to authorize casino gambling at two locations in New Hampshire.

Senate Bill 242 cleared the Senate during last Thursdays marathon session in a bipartisan 13-10 vote, and now needs to clear the five-member Senate Finance Committee today in order to proceed to the House.

Its prospects are uncertain, since three of the six senators on the Finance Committee voted against the gambling bill on the floor of the Senate. But that doesnt dissuade the Democratic dean of the Senate, who has fought this fight before.

If we have to bring it back to the Senate floor and pass it again, thats what well do, DAllesandro said on Monday.

The closest New Hampshire has ever been to legalizing casino gambling came in 2014, when Democrats controlled the House, and Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan included casino revenue in her two-year budget.

Despite support from the governor and the Senate, the 2014 bill failed by one vote in the House, 173-172. If he can get his latest bill out of the Senate, DAllesandro thinks he can make his case to the lower chamber.

I have reason to believe that if I can talk to them, and Ill go to them one on one, we have a good chance, he said. There are no big outside lobbyists involved now. We are talking about something thats totally New Hampshire. I have no ulterior motive but to do what I think is in the best interest of the state.

SB 242 calls for two casinos: one category one license and one category two license. The Category 1 license costs $80 million and allows for 80 to 160 table games and 2,000 to 3,500 slot machines, while the Category 2 license costs $40 million and allows for 25 to 80 table games and 750 to 1,500 slot machines.

Money would go to the host communities and neighboring towns, and the host county, and would enable the state to resume revenue sharing with cities and towns.

The bill as written prohibits the use of electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards at casinos, and would fund gambling addiction recovery programs.

The bill is opposed by the Attorney General and the Casino Free NH organization, which has successfully fought off previous efforts.

The fact that Massachusetts and Maine now have operating casinos only intensifies the urgency for New Hampshire to follow, according to DAllesandro.

While New Hampshire has done nothing, surrounding states now have gaming entities, he said. They advertise on our TV stations and we send buses of New Hampshire residents to those other states to gamble. Its time for New Hampshire to do something. No state that has done this has crumbled.

Alice Chamberlain with Casino Free NH testified that the group appreciates that SB 242 tries to address concerns raised in the past, but they still believe the revenue is unreliable, unpredictable and unsustainable, and that casino gambling leads to an increase in crime and diminishes property values.

The arguments on both sides are well-worn by now, but each new Legislature brings a new opportunity for DAllesandro to pursue the cause that has become associated with his lengthy tenure at the State House.

New Hampshire started the first state lottery, and has a long history of gaming going back to horse races at Rockingham Park and dog races in Seabrook, says DAllesandro, who points to poll after poll that show widespread support for casino gambling in New Hampshire.

How can 424 people in the Legislature deny the public what it wants, and deny it repeatedly? he said.

During the campaign, Gov. Chris Sununu said he was open to the idea of casino gambling, but has not staked out a clear position one way or the other.

I have talked with the governor about it, said DAllesandro. Hes not opposed to it, but he wants to see it, so well let him see it.

The House has a gambling bill of its own, HB 560, which would authorize Keno at locations licensed by the state lottery commission.

That bill passed the House on March 9 and is headed for hearings in the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.

Another gambling bill, HB 562, which would allow video gambling, has been retained by the House Ways and Means Committee for further study.

dsolomon@unionleader.com

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Casino gambling bill faces tough test -- again - The Union Leader

BBC News

What makes gambling wrong but insurance right? - BBC News BBC News Gamblers and insurers both place bets on the future, so how do they compare? and more »

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What makes gambling wrong but insurance right? - BBC News - BBC News

March means the madness of college basketball, the crack of the bats in baseballs spring training and getting back outside after winter. For the video gaming industry, it means recognizing some people find playing our machines to be more than simply entertainment.

Were using Problem Gambling Awareness Month to draw attention to the needs of players with addiction and other challenges and highlighting our partnership to help bring the states hotline services into the 21st Century.

Today, were always connected and that means help needs to be always available. The Illinois Gaming Machine Operators Association, representing the owners and operators of the video terminals found in establishments around the state, is teaming with Morneau Shepell, the firm providing the gambling hotline for more than 20 years.

Were underwriting an expansion of hotline services to include live chat, a text a counselor helpline and a motivational messaging service. The Live Chat services will allow persons to connect with counselors 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The texting services will allow gamblers to text a counselor anytime.

Under the motivational messaging service, messages will be sent to consumers twice a week for 12 weeks to encourage them to resist the urge to gamble and provide tips on changing habits that could lead to a relapse.

As we get out and enjoy ourselves this month, think about those whose experiences go too far. Know that the IGMOA is serious about problem gambling and wanting to help, one text and live chat at a time.

Editor's note: Gelatka is president ofIllinois Gaming Machine Operators Association.

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Letter: Gambling industry helps addicts | Letters to the Editor ... - Quad City Times

The opening of del Lago Resort & Casino in Tyre has generated jobs and excitement throughout the region.

Its also brought the issue of problem gambling to the forefront.

Problem gambling will be the topic of a public meeting scheduled for 5 p.m. March 28 in the Training Auditorium at 2465 North Road in Seneca Falls. The event is free and open to the public.

The program is sponsored by the states Responsible Play Partnership and is one of three being conducted in areas where state-licensed casinos have opened. The RPP, which was formed in 2013, is made up of the state Gaming Commission, the state Office on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, and the state Council on Problem Gambling.

Anyone curious about how the new casinos promote responsible gaming practices or want to learn about the resources available to problem gamblers, their families and friends are invited to attend.

Now that resort destination casinos are operating in the state, its important to remind everyone in the community and beyond that there are procedures in place and avenues available for those who need help with problem gambling, said Robert Williams, executive director of the state Gaming Commission. These meetings are an opportunity for the public and community leaders to hear from treatment professionals, the regulator and the actual casino operators on the resources available within their respective regions.

By going to the casinos and meeting with their neighbors, we are illustrating the importance we put on problem gambling, said James Maney, executive director of the New York Council on Problem Gambling. These events are a great opportunity for the individuals who operate the casinos to meet those who provide treatment in the community so they can learn from each other.

Del Lago has agreed to pay for two counseling positions Seneca County is creating to focus on problem gambling and related issues.

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State agencies plan meeting on problem gambling | News | fltimes ... - Finger Lakes Times

Western Pennsylvanias first legal casino opened at The Meadows 10 years ago this June amid warnings from some opponents that a surge in the regions level of compulsive gambling was inevitable, leading to increased bankruptcy, divorce, crime and other societal ills.

If such an increase has taken place in the course of the decade, its hidden under the radar, just as is typically the case with gambling addiction itself.

The private, nonprofit Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania held its annual Pittsburgh conference Thursday coincidentally one of the biggest gambling days of the year, the first full day of the NCAA basketball tournament with nothing to indicate the clinicians attending it had been bombarded with gambling addicts in the past decade.

Gamblers Anonymous meetings and attendance in the region are down from what they were 10 years ago, according to the groups spokesman. The number of callers seeking help from the state compulsive gambling councils hotline dropped in 2016 from the year before. Individuals admitting their addiction keep adding themselves to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Boards self-exclusion list that bars them from casinos, but at a steady annual pace rather than surging.

For therapists in the region who have been in the gambling treatment field since casinos opened, there are patients to see some of them treated with state funds but no sharp increase occurred as casinos became more accessible, including the opening of the Rivers Casino on the North Shore two years after The Meadows.

Sabrina Heller, a licensed social worker with a Squirrel Hill practice who attended Thursdays conference, said eight of her current treatment clients have gambling problems, with just two of those tied to casino gambling.

I definitely did not see an onslaught from opening of casinos, she said.I dont know the reason why.

Norm B., a spokesman for the Western Pennsylvania-West Virginia region of Gamblers Anonymous, said that based on experience among GA chapters nationally, there had been a presumption that opening of local casinos would increase attendees. Instead, the 24 weekly meetings in the region currently are a few less than a decade ago, and their rolls of active attendees show about 20 fewer Pennsylvanians.

I expected a deluge of new people, and that has not happened, said Norm B., who abides by GAs policy of keeping his full name confidential.

Thats not to say there arent gambling addicts with serious problems, as the following numbers attest:

The state councils gambling hotline, reached by several numbers but primarily 1-800-GAMBLER, received 1,422 calls last year from either individuals with a serious problem or someone who knows a compulsive gambler and sought advice on obtaining help.

The Gaming Control Board adds about 1,500 new people each year to its voluntary self-exclusion list, meaning they are willing to be arrested for trespass if they are found within a casino by security personnel. The list has nearly 7,800 people on it.

The state Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs used a portion of gaming funds from casinos to pay for compulsive gambling treatment for 261 Pennsylvanians in the 2014-15 fiscal year, the most recent year it made a figure available. An untold number of additional individuals had private insurance to cover treatment or paid for it with their own funds. Gambling addiction often overlaps with drug and alcohol problems and is treated in combination with them.

And there continue to be occasional news stories in which criminal activities are identified in court as connected to a gambling addiction, such as last weeks guilty plea by a former Matthews International Corp. cashier who admitted embezzling nearly $13 million from the company.

In explaining it to the public, I like to say gambling addiction is a huge, enormous problem for a very small percentage of people, said Elizabeth Lanza, the state gaming boards director of compulsive and problem gambling.

Surveys generally show about 5 percent of adults are susceptible to gambling problems, with 1 to 2 percent in the category of pathological gamblers who cannot help themselves. National studies have suggested that easier access to casinos by opening new ones creates more problem gamblers who may have been able to avoid the disorder and its effects previously. As there was no baseline study done of gambling problems in Pennsylvania before casinos were legalized, Ms. Lanza said, its difficult to make a true estimate of the extent of any change.

If problems have not grown locally in any visible way, those in the field offered several possible explanations:

The longtime exposure to other forms of gambling that became ingrained in Western Pennsylvania culture.

The access to casinos in nearby states that made people familiar with that form of gambling and any problems from it before the local openings.

The effectiveness of programs such as the exclusion list, state-funded treatment and the casinos required promotion of problem gambling awareness.

Compulsive gambling itself being a disease that is well-hidden until it reaches a crisis stage, so it may be more of a problem right now than anyone can see.

It may come down to a counselor [treating a client for other issues] just not asking the right question, not doing a thorough screening, said Josh Ercole, chief operating officer of the state compulsive gambling council.

Gary Rotstein: grotstein@post-gazette.comor 412-263-1255.

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Despite casino accessibility, no sharp rise in reports of compulsive ... - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

As much as some try to deny it, poker is a gambling game. All of poker strategy is rooted in basic gambling concepts. You gain an edge by winning your bets more frequently than the odds you are laid. If you can get 3:1 on your money, you want to win more than 1 in 4 times.

The complexity of poker can hide this underlying framework, so its often helpful to look at simpler gambling propositions to root out weak thinking. Because many of the strategic errors that amateur players make can be traced back to well-known gambling fallacies.

In this article I will cover two common forms of fallacious gambling thinking with examples from other forms of gambling. Then I will explain how each of these problems can creep into your poker thinking without you even noticing it.

Dont Try To Lock In Wins

This one is everywhere. In blackjack, they offer an insurance bet. When the dealer shows an ace, its a bet that pays 2:1 that the dealers hole card is a ten-value card. This bet behaves has insurance since you can make it for half of your normal bet, and if the insurance bet wins the payoff compensates you exactly for your loss.

For example, if you bet $100 on the hand and the dealer shows an ace. If you take insurance, you are betting $50 to win $100 that the dealer has a ten-rank card. If the dealer doesnt have one, you lose the $50 insurance bet but your original $100 is live. If the dealer does have one, you lose your original $100 immediately, but your $100 insurance win replaces it. Insurance.

The insurance bet is bad off the top, since four of the 13 ranks are ten-value, so the chance the dealer has a ten is approximately 4/13. Since this is less than the odds offered (2:1 or a break-even percentage of 4/12), its a bad bet.

Most players know this is a bad bet and usually turn it down. However, theres one case where players often cant resist. When they already have a blackjack.

Since blackjack (traditionally) pays 3:2, getting a blackjack wins $150 on a $100 bet. But if the dealer also has a blackjack, then instead the bet pushes. However you can choose to take insurance in this situation when the dealer has an ace up. If you bet $50 on insurance, you will win $100 for the hand ($150 minus $50) if the dealer doesnt have a ten, and you will also win $100 if the dealer does have a ten (because the original bet pushes, but the insurance bet wins $100). This is called taking even-money on the blackjack.

This is just as bad a play as taking insurance any other time. (In fact it may be slightly worse since one of the ten-value cards is sitting in your hand and out of play.) But players love to do it because it locks in a win.

Sports bettors also frequently do this. Theyll bet a five-or-more team parlay, and when the first four legs hit, they bet against their fifth team to try to lock in a win. The problem is that theyre paying the vig on both bets, so taken together the pair of bets (one on a team, one against) loses money. But its attractive to many bettors because once you place the hedge bet, you have locked in your win.

Locking in a win is rarely free. You will usually have to pay a house edge, a vig, or some other kind of tax to lock in your win. If you just let all your good bets ride rather than hedge them, at the end of your life your gambling results will be much bettereven though some of your good-looking bets end up turning into zeros.

This concept hits poker players in tournaments. The stakes in tournaments can be deceptive, because the amount of money you are theoretically playing for increases as the tournament progresses. So if you are playing a $200 entry fee event, at the beginning it may feel as if you are playing $1-$2 level stakes. But once you get to the final table and are fighting over a $20,000 first prize, it can feel more like youre playing $100-$200.

This fact causes many players to become desperate to make a deal. They feel like they have no business playing for $100-$200 stakes, and so they want to lock in as much of their win as they can.

Negotiating from a position of desperation, however, rarely gets you the best deal. If other players are less risk-averse than you, they can slant the deal in their favor, and just like in the previous examples, you are paying a price to lock in your win.

The way to avoid this is to have some foresight and select to play tournaments where the final table money will be exciting, but not intimidating. Many tournament players do the opposite they try to find the biggest possible first place prize they can. But youre probably better off doing the opposite. You want a tournament you will feel comfortable playing from beginning to end. This can mean a smaller entry fee or a smaller field so the final table money isnt so much you cant just play for it.

Dont Wait For A Better Price

Sports books now tend to offer live betting during events. So along with the traditional pregame bets, you can now place bets on the result after the game is underway. I will frequently hear people say something like, Dont bet team X before the game. Wait until the game starts and theyll probably get behind at some point, and then bet them at a better price.

Or, worse still, people will suggest that you try to hedge away your risk by waiting until the team youve bet on pregame gets a lead, and then bet the other team at a better price than you could have pregame. This tactic often gives you a middlea pair of bets that perfectly hedge one another, but for which a small range of outcomes allow you to win both bets.

This thinking is fallacious because the price you are getting on the proposition is better only because the chances of winning have gone down. The reason you get a more attractive price on a losing team is because the team is already losing! Since there are so many comebacks in sports, people think its no big deal to bet on the team thats behind early, but the bets are usually priced so that the price is discounted proportional to the chances of winning.

In poker, players often want to wait for a better spot by passing on a gamble they think is good, but risky. The thinking is that a better opportunity will come along. But theres always a chance the better opportunity wont come along, and you will regret your passivity.

Usually the best strategy is to take good bets as they come, and then if you see another good bet later, take that one also.

Eds newest book, The Course: Serious Hold Em Strategy For Smart Players is available now at his website edmillerpoker.com. You can also find original articles and instructional videos by Ed at the training site redchippoker.com.

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Poker Strategy With Ed Miller: Two Gambling Fallacies - CardPlayer.com

The familiesof Parkinson's sufferers must be warned about dangers of sex and gambling addictions caused by drugs used to treat the disease, doctors have been told.

New NHS guidelines, due to be released next month, include impulse control disorders for the first time, stating that health professionals should discuss the potential for dramatic change in behaviour with the "family and carers" as well as the patient.

It comes amid growing evidence that the drugs can lead to secret gambling or shopping addictions, which have been shown to destroy people's relationships and financial security, and in extreme cases have led to criminal convictions.

The Nice guidelines have emerged as one woman in her early 60s revealed how her life was torn apart when her partner suffered from hypersexuality - a focus on sexual feelings and thoughts - after taking dopamine agonists.

Around 127,000 people in the UK live with Parkinson's, a progressive brain disease that causes uncontrollable tremors, slow movement, and impaired speech. Studies suggest that around five to 10 per cent of those taking common drugs have an impulse control disorder.

The side effects are most likely with dopamine agonists, which mimic the effect of dopamine in the brain to suppress symptoms, but can occur with other medication used to treat the disease.

ProfRichard Walker, a consultant physician and one of the four doctors who contributed to the new guidelines, said that when the first instructions were written in 2006, the evidence surrounding impulse control disorders was only just emerging.

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Warn families of risk of sex and gambling addictions with Parkinson's drugs, doctors told - Telegraph.co.uk

Four people were arrested and more than $244,000 in cash seized after Gwinnett County police raided abookie style gambling operation Thursday, an official said.

Officers served warrants at the H&S Gift Shop on Old Norcross Road in Lawrenceville and the owners home, Gwinnett police Cpl. Deon Washington said.

Vanhdy Soukthivong, 59,Somphone Somphonephackdy, 61, Fongsamuth Siharath, 38, and Hai Somphonephackdy, 41, were arrested, Washington said.

They were charged with six felonies for commercial gambling violations, three misdemeanors for counterfeit trademark violations, and an alcohol license violation at the business, Washington said.

Police also seized four vehicles andnumerous counterfeit items, Washington said.

The investigation began after police received complaints about illegal gambling at the gift shop, Washington said.

Detectives are still working to determine the magnitude of the gambling operation, Washington said.

A car crashed into Malone's Bar and Grill on Virginia Avenue and now there are questions surrounding the driver.

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Gwinnett police raid 'bookie style' gambling operation; 4 arrested - Atlanta Journal Constitution

The results give a remarkable insight into a blossoming of a diverse -- and in some cases dark -- political life.

Yet the results reveal his football analogy as misleading. A decade ago, Dutch politics might have been more easily defined as a two-sided tussle. Today there are many more teams on the field.

Twenty-eight parties were on the ballot and some saw remarkable gains. Rutte's VVD, on the other hand, wracked up significant losses, though not enough to see it ousted from the top spot on the podium. But his coalition partner PvdA, the Dutch Labour Party, has been near eviscerated.

And that's the story of the Dutch election: Traditional parties lost votes to smaller political outliers, including Left Greens and D66. Despite the incumbent holding on, the Dutch election does little to suggest the appetite for radical political change is abating.

The evolutionary outcome will be recognized by many aging Northern Hemisphere democracies.

Yet this appetite for something new that I heard about so often around the time of the Brexit vote and continue to hear today reveals a deep counterintuitive dependence on the very structures that voters seem to want to change.

The taxi driver who drove me home from 10 Downing Street in the early hours of June 24 last year, as the day and reality of Brexit dawned, asked me -- as sterling had already started to tumble -- would the politicians and bankers be able to fix it all. He'd voted leave.

A few hours later, retracing the same route, another driver, also a Brexiter, asked me the same question. He wanted a better future for his kids, had not known whose arguments in the heated pre-referendum debate to trust. Whatever happens next, they'll be able to make it all OK, he asked.

In a well-heeled North Yorkshire town days before the Brexit vote, I heard logic being stood on its head. Immigration, one man told me, would make him vote to leave the European Union, yet he readily admitted that his town didn't have an immigration issue.

Indeed, the spa town had yet to receive its first Syrian refugee. A few minutes later another voter told me he was voting for leave quite simply for change.

All this has been explained at length by me and others as a kick at globalization, voters frustrated they're fears are being ignored by mainstream politicians; a choice between engaging with and hoping to reform globalists, or turning your back on them and hoping they'll go away and be replaced by something new and better.

It will most likely be a contest between nationalist Marine le Pen and the youthful, left-of-center Emmanuel Macron, a choice that eclipses France's traditional left/right parties.

Denied the evolutionary political spread of the Dutch election, voters will have to hope that whatever the outcome -- Macron's difficulty finding the allies to form an effective government able to push through his agenda or le Pen's destructive tilt at a Frexit -- France's economy can withstand the turmoil.

Having spent enough time in war zones over the past few decades, I've seen what gambling with the future can look like -- and it's ugly.

First security, then the economy, peace of mind, health care, schools, electricity, food, water, your own roof. Each eroded, slipping uncontrollably from your grasp like sand between your fingers.

Perhaps it has jaded my view, perhaps just shaded it with reality. Whichever it is, Europe's political evolution, regardless of the hardships some voters feel, seems to be coming from a position of relative comfort, blind to potential pitfalls.

It's a testament to the traditional left and right politics upon whose backs democracy has evolved that voters today want to -- and can -- think outside the box in such numbers.

Yet while evolution by its very definition knows no bounds, democracy does have its limits. It's easy enough to vote in change for the sake of change, but how effective your new political reality is in cleaning up the mess of myriad political protozoa is another matter entirely.

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Europe is happy gambling with its politics - CNN