Category Archives: Gambling

North Dakotas Legislature is doing its best to expand gambling and, possibly, punch the states charitable gaming in the gut. We hope the latter is an unintended consequence, but with this group of lawmakers you can never be sure.

You know about Rep. Al Carlsons last-second proposal to build state-owned casinos. While it seems obvious Angry Als goal is to teach those uppity Native Americans a lesson for protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline by removing their monopoly on casino gambling, a side effect of this ill-considered idea would likely be a reduction in charitable gaming and the proceeds that come from it. Its logical to believe if gambling Fargoans have the option to drive 15 minutes to a casino that allows cigarettes and booze, theyll spend less money playing blackjack or pull tabs at their favorite bar.

Flying under the radar is Senate Bill 2221, which would allow something called historic horse racing to be played at up to 10 locations in the state. It sounds interesting and innocent enough, but a little digging reveals it to be an oddball piece of legislation meant to benefit mostly the horse-racing industry in North Dakota. Charitable gaming and the charities they serve like Sharehouse, the Boys and Girls Club of the Red River Valley and hundreds of others again might pay the price.

Historic horse race betting, also known as instant racing, lets players use a slot machine-like device to bet on tens of thousands of horse races that have already been run. Bettors arent allowed to know the locations, dates and names of the horses although they may be provided some limited information to place their bets. Interesting note, though: If players want to forgo making choices on which horses to bet on, thats an option. They can choose to have the machine make their selections for them.

If betting on random old horse races with limited or no information seems odd, thats because it is. But theres a reason for it: It allows this type of gambling to be classified as pari-mutuel betting instead of casino gambling and therefore fall under the auspices of the states horse racing commission instead of the attorney general. This, then, would allow the bulk of the proceeds to go toward the horse racing industry instead of charities or the general fund. Funds from SB 2221 would specifically be earmarked for the racing promotion, purse and breeders funds of the horse racing commission.

Historic horse racing is active in only a handful of states and some Wyoming, Arkansas and Kentucky, for example have used it to prop up failing live racing. There is also a common theme in every state thats allowed historic horse racing: legal problems.

The issue is whether or not the machines required skill or were games of chance, the latter of which are illegal in most states. While horse racing advocates say the machines require bettors to use knowledge and skill to win against a pool of other players, courts have said otherwise.

Wyoming, for example, first allowed historic horse racing machines in 2003, but they were outlawed in 2006 when the state Supreme Court said the machines were a slot machine that attempts to mimic traditional pari-mutuel betting. The same question has arisen in other states. Wyoming tweaked its machines and historic horse racing is back. Money is being funneled to its horse racing industry.

The amount of money expected to be bet is not small. The fiscal note provided to the Legislature says there is an expectation of $100 million being bet annually on historic horse racing in 2018, jumping to $250 million in 2019 and leveling off at $200 million thereafter. This is what has charitable gaming nervous. Its estimated gamblers wager about $300 million a year at more than 300 charitable gaming sites statewide. Advocates believe that number will dip if historic horse racing is legalized.

The question for North Dakota legislators is whether this is a wise way to expand gambling in a big way. The main recipient will be the horse racing industry. Charitable gaming will likely suffer. Is this a good trade-off? Legislators have rejected historic horse racing in previous years. Will they do so again?

Readers can reach Forum columnist Mike McFeely at (701) 241-5215

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Another ND gambling bill flies under the radar - Minot Daily News

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Raleigh Amusements pleads guilty to gambling, but charges against ... - News & Observer

PUEBLO, Colo. - The doors are shut and the lights are off at three gaming centers in Pueblo County after police and the Colorado Bureau of Investigations discovered illegal gambling operations. "The illegal gambling was based on machines that are commonly known as fishing games, where people enter money into the machine and they win prizes in money and because of that, it's actually illegal gambling," said Sgt. Eric Gonzales of the Pueblo Police Department. Sixrteen games similar to these at two TableZ locations and Skillz Arcade were seized. "These ones, you don't know what you're getting into. You don't know what kind of payouts, or if you're getting any kind of payout," Gonzales said. Gonzales said the biggest concern is the games aren't regulated.

"Other casinos in the state that are regulated require that you have an 80 to 100 percent payout. These aren't regulated in any way. They can have a zero percent payout," Gonzales said. Dan Corsentino,a former Pueblo County sheriff and now a lobbyist for sweepstakes operators, said he believes these businesses have legs to stand on in court. "Skill games are legal in the state of Colorado and games of chance are not. So is this software a game of chance? Or is this software a skill game?" Corsentino said. Corsentino said as the technology involved in the games develops, the conversation will continue.

"It's almost like a shell game. You know, legislation comes out, new technology is developed," Corsentino said.

So far, the businesses are facing 12 counts of sales tax and zoning violations. Gambling charges are forthcoming.

At the time the warrants were served, police said half the people using the establishments had unrelated warrants for their arrests.

Gonzales said these businesses should stay closed unless they have other operations besides the games to keep them open.

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Eight arrested in Pueblo illegal gambling operations - KRDO

EL CERRITO There is nothing on the exterior of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Hall on Carlson Boulevard that hints at the buildings former identity as a gambling hall.

The hall, known as the Wagon Wheel during its gambling days, opened in 1935 and closed in 1951, during a time when El Cerrito was notorious as a center for gambling, dog racing, prostitution and other entertainment and vice.

That era was recounted at the Eagles hall last week as part of the citys 2017 Centennial Celebration by East Bay Times editor Chris Treadway, who is writing a book about the colorful period in El Cerritos history.

These operations were tolerated as one of the few stable parts of the local economy that otherwise had little industry or employment opportunities in town, Treadway told a group of about 90 at the event.

Gambling and prostitution had existed in El Cerrito prior to the citys incorporation in 1917, but a dog racing track that opened in 1932 on the site of the present-day El Cerrito Plaza shopping center attracted more gamblers from outside the city, Treadway said.

The track brought more than just the general public to town, he said. Gamblers and petty crooks began to hang around, attracted by people with money at the track.

Gambling interests began catering to that crowd with other forms of gaming, particularly in the unincorporated area near the Albany border that was called No Mans Land.

In 1933, a well-known racketeer and bootlegger named Walter Big Bill Pechart opened a nightclub called the Rancho San Pablo in the historic Castro Adobe, the home built by Spanish settler Don Victor Castro in 1839.

The club opened less than a month after the end of Prohibition, making the downstairs bar legal, with card tables, roulette and slot machines in the second-floor gaming area. Big-name entertainers were often booked at the nightclub.

Pechart was also behind the founding of The Wagon Wheel, which was to become a headquarters for gambling operations around Contra Costa County.

An array of nightclubs sprang up on San Pablo Avenue during the 30s, including the Kona Club, Club Rio, Club Compiano, the Acme Club, The Cave, The Miami Club, The 90 Club, The 333 Club and the It Club.

The clubs received a boost during World War II when thousands of war workers arrived to work at the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond and other defense operations.

The war allowed gambling and prostitution to flourish like never before, Treadway said.

Housing for war workers joined the deserted dog track and the Castro Adobe on the current shopping center site, giving the new residents easy access to the clubs and gambling halls and prompting a spurt of new growth.

Carl Nealis, the man in charge of slot machine operations at the Wagon Wheel, was found to have accumulated more than $655,000 in coins and cash as his share of slot machine revenue after his death in 1946.

Such outsized profits drew organized crime to El Cerrito looking for a share.

Elmer Remmer, an associate of mob boss Bugsy Seigel, formed an alliance with Pechert and his Wagon Wheel partner Dave Kessel, with the intention of trying to control gambling operations throughout Northern California.

But, Remmer ran afoul of federal authorities who began an extended prosecuted of him for income tax evasion in 1950.

The downfall of gambling began right after the war when a group of citizens formed as the Good Government League, which recalled the incumbent City Council and replaced it with candidates who refused to take payoffs from gambling interests and got clubs within the city limits to end wide-open gambling.

Unable to offer gambling and with the growing popularity of television as entertainment, the clubs began to close one by one.

The dog racing track was demolished to make way for a drive-in movie theater in 1948 and the theater, in turn, gave way to the shopping center in 1958.

The next Centennial history talk, El Cerrito Athletics A History of Victory, will be given by former baseball coach Larry Quirico on April 19 at the Community Center, 7007 Moeser Lane, beginning at 7 p.m.

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El Cerrito era of gambling, vice and racketeers recounted in talk - East Bay Times

By Christopher Hunt, University of Sydney

Posted March 17, 2017 14:45:32

The Turnbull Government is reportedly considering banning the advertising of gambling during televised sporting broadcasts.

This is not a new idea: Senator Nick Xenophon has long championed a ban, as have many who work with problem gamblers.

It has been reported that more than one-in-six ads shown during AFL matches are gambling-related.

So, could advertising be linked with rates of problem gambling?

Increases in problem gambling linked to sports betting have been reported in recent years, particularly among young men.

The numbers of 18-to-25-year-old men with problems related to sports betting doubled between 2012 and 2015 at the University of Sydney's Gambling Treatment Clinic (where I work).

At the same time, gambling odds and prices have become a central part of sporting culture.

The "gamblification" of sport is now seen as both a normal and central component of it.

In pre-game reporting, the prices and odds are seen as being as important as player injuries and weather conditions.

Being able to draw a clear line between increased promotion of gambling and rates of problem gambling is not easy.

Given there are always multiple factors why someone develops a gambling problem, it is never as clear-cut as blaming advertising.

However, some evidence exists to suggest advertising has impacts on problem gamblers.

Interview research and large-scale survey work have both suggested that gambling ads during sport strongly affect many problem gamblers by increasing their desire to gamble when trying to cut down.

Therefore, restrictions on advertising may be effective in helping those with problems to manage their urges to gamble.

Another widespread concern about gambling advertising during sports broadcasts is the impact it might be having on young people.

There is evidence this advertising can have an impact.

A study of Canadian adolescents found the majority had been exposed to gambling advertising.

It also found this advertising was leading to the belief that the chance of winning was high, and that gambling was an easy way to make money.

These findings are particularly concerning. In our work with problem gamblers, we have found these beliefs are crucial to the development of gambling problems.

Typically, when examining a problem gambler's history, we find they were exposed to gambling at a young age and developed positive attitudes toward gambling at the time.

In particular, a distorted belief in the likelihood of winning appears to be a key driver in many of our patients who developed problems.

Thus, advertising that promotes the idea that gambling is an easy way to make money is likely to prime our kids for developing gambling problems in the future.

Would a ban on the advertising of gambling during sport broadcasts change attitudes toward gambling and gambling behaviour?

Here, evidence on the impacts of tobacco advertising is instructive.

Tobacco advertising has been progressively restricted or banned in many countries. Thus, considerable evidence is available to make conclusions.

There appears to be clear evidence that tobacco advertising does result in increased rates of smoking in adolescents.

It has also been found that bans on tobacco advertising appear to be effective in reducing tobacco use but only in the case of complete bans.

In contrast, attempts to limit bans on advertising to certain mediums such as banning ads on TV appear not to be effective, as this simply results in increases in tobacco advertising in non-banned media (in print or on billboards, for instance).

This suggests that for any restriction of gambling advertising to be effective, it needs to be widespread.

Such displacement has already been seen with gambling. There is evidence of increased social media promotion of gambling, which has resulted in increases in positive attitudes toward gambling in those exposed to these promotions.

There is not yet any demonstrated definitive link between increases in gambling advertising during sports and problem gambling.

However, the research that has been conducted indicates that advertising may result in increased gambling by problem gamblers and increases in distorted beliefs about gambling in young people.

If the Government chooses to go down the path of increasing restrictions on gambling advertising, it is important that any restrictions are wide-ranging enough to have a clear impact on gambling behaviours and attitudes.

Support is available through the Gambler's Help website gamblershelp.com.au or by calling the free Gambling Help Line on 1800 858 858.

Dr Christopher Hunt is a clinical psychologist working at the University of Sydney's School of Psychology. He has worked at the University's Gambling Treatment Clinic since 2007.

Originally published in The Conversation

Topics: gambling, government-and-politics, community-and-society, australia

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Wide-ranging ban on gambling ads during sport broadcasts will help those with problems: expert - ABC Online

Desperate for a starting-caliber cornerback, the New York Jets are expected to sign the oft-injured Morris Claiborne, ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter reported. Claiborne, 27, was drafted sixth overall by the Dallas Cowboys in 2012, but he has disappointed, partly because of injuries.

Contract terms: Not immediately available.

ESPN 150 ranking: Claiborne is No. 42.

Grade C: The cornerback market was drying up, so the Jets had to do something quickly. It's hard to make a risk-reward evaluation without knowing the exact contract information, but you have to believe it'll cost them about $5 million in 2017, based on the market. Presumably, the guarantees won't impact their ability to dump Clairborne after a year if it's a multiyear deal. If they're handcuffed by the money, it's a bad signing because Claiborne, who has missed 33 out of 80 games, is a big gamble. He's never healthy.

What it means: This shouldn't preclude the Jets from drafting a cornerback with the sixth overall choice. Coach Todd Bowles needs more than one starting-caliber corner to make his secondary whole again. They still have Buster Skrine, Marcus Williams and Juston Burris, but they're not projected as No. 1 or No. 2 corners. Such is life after Darrelle Revis. Claiborne, 27, is a man-to-man corner, so he fits from a scheme standpoint. One AFC scout said, "Injuries have been a hurdle on a yearly basis. If he can stay healthy, he has a chance to earn a starter's role. If he doesn't start, he can be your three. In [the Jets'] situation, he should compete for a starter's job or at the very least be in their top three. Perhaps he's worth a flier."

What's the risk? Claiborne was a stud at LSU, but it hasn't translated to the NFL. He has 32 penalties in 47 games, according to NFL stats. He never has played a full season, and he's missed 26 of 48 games over the last three years. He has injured almost every part of his body, most notably a torn patellar tendon in 2014. As a result, his production has suffered. A total of 20 players picked in the 2012 draft have more career interceptions than Claiborne (four), including 14 defensive backs. That said, he was playing the best ball of his career last season before a groin injury cost him nine games. Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan is hoping seven games played last season can turn into 16, helping the Jets' leaky secondary. Thing is, if a player is injured for five straight years, it probably won't change in the sixth.

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Jets begin life after Darrelle Revis by gambling on Morris Claiborne - ESPN (blog)

Multiple law enforcement agencies raided a group of illegal gambling establishments on March 15, 2017. Photo: Pueblo Police Department

Multiple law enforcement agencies raided a group of illegal gambling establishments on March 15, 2017. Photo: Pueblo Police Department

PUEBLO, Colo. - After months of investigation, several law enforcement agencies raided a group of illegal gambling sites in Pueblo on Wednesday.

Pueblo police narcotics detectives along with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation Gaming Agents and the Pueblo County Sheriffs Officeconducted search warrants in the City and the County of Pueblo in regards to illegal gambling establishments.

The investigation began after authorities got several complaints, including the fact that minors were being allowed into the businesses to gamble.

Two of the places under investigation, TableZlocated at 4929 N. Elizabeth and SkillzArcade at 315 N. Santa Fe, were known to use digital and internet gambling games known as "fish games." Investigators with the Pueblo Police Department searched both of them on March 15 and found several guns and gambling items.

A third establishment located in Pueblo West, which was also named TableZ, was searched by the Pueblo County Sheriffs Office on March 15, leading to the discovery of gaming machines guns, and other illegal items.

In a press release issued by the Pueblo Police Department on Wednesday, the following statement was made towards those gambling at these unlicensed sites:

"The public should be aware that the gambling that occurs at these types of establishments is nonregulated. Therefore, none of the protections that are afforded to players at legal gaming sites in Colorado, such as surveillance and tracking of wagers and payouts, are not applicable."

Owners of the two TableZs and Skillz Arcade are facing charges for operating without a city tax license as well as various misdemeanor gambling charges which are being referred to the District Attorneys Office.

While searching the businesses, authorities spoke to seven individuals that were gambling. After further investigation, it was discovered that they were already wanted on unrelated warrants and were immediatelyarrested.

The investigation is ongoing.

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Authorities raid illegal gambling sites in Pueblo - KRDO - KRDO

The NCAA championship basketball tournaments are now underway and Americansas they do every yearhave undertaken a massive distributed illegal gambling conspiracy to wager on the outcomes of the games.

Since the tournament draw was announced, about 10% of public transactions on money-transfer app Venmo have been at least superficially basketball related, according to a Quartz analysis of such transactions. This morning (March 16), minutes ahead of the first game, was apparently the peak time to buy in. NCAA betting pools, known as March Madness pools, could have accounted for more than a third of total transaction volume on Venmo at that time.

PayPal-owned Venmo is only available for use in the US and there is little disagreement that these pools are illegal there, running afoul of a litany of laws. Authorities have not made small-scale gambling pools an enforcement priority.

PayPal and Venmo take compliance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations seriously, a spokesman for Venmo told Quartz in an email. If there is ever a situation where evidence of gambling activity is brought to our attention, Venmo works quickly to take appropriate action. Using Venmo for gambling is prohibited by its terms of service.

Nevertheless, an email sent to this reporter soliciting participation in a pool specifically instructed that a Venmo payment make no mention of basketball or the NCAA tournament. (For what its worth, I did not buy in to any betting pools this year.)

Digital payment platforms like Venmo have made collecting these wagers significantly easier across larger geographic areas, let alone a corporate campus. But Venmo isnt only processing transactions; its a social network where people can make their payments viewable to their friends or the public.

Our analysis aggregated these public posts when they contained terms like ncaa, bracket, madness, and in payment messages. Many of the more than 250,000 posts matching these terms explicitly stated their purpose as a betting pool buy-in, others were clearly not, and still more were entirely ambiguous. More than 43,000 transactions had a message of a single basketball emoji, .

The number of transactions matching these criteria during the period between the announcement of the draw and the first game has drastically increased from last year.

However the proportion of those transactions related to the betting pools is similar.

These figures only account for Venmo posts that are made public on the platform. PayPal CFO John Rainey told CNBC today that 90% of Venmo transactions are viewable at least to a payers friends. The company would not provide Quartz a similar figure for posts that are entirely public.

It is possible transactions about these betting pools are more likely to be made private, and thus these figures would understate the amount of gambling activity on the platform. In the case that the transactions are more likely to be made public than other payments, these figures would overstate the popularity of using Venmo for betting.

The public transaction data also does not include information on the size of a payment, but if assuming an average $10 buy-in, Venmo has possibly facilitated over $2.5 million in betting this year. Thats a negligible contribution to total betting on the tournament: The American Gaming Association estimates that $10.4 billion will be wagered (legally and illegally) on March Madness games and in pools this year.

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Are a third of Venmo transactions right now illegal gambling payments? - Quartz

GambleAware said one person had lost 13,777.90 in a marathon seven-and-a-half-hour session on an FOBT. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Seven gamblers lost more than 10,000 in a day while using controversial fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) during a 10-month period, it has emerged.

The losses, revealed in a submission to the governments gambling review by the GambleAware charity, has sparked renewed criticism of FOBTs.

The charity analysed data from betting sessions, including cases where punters bet the maximum allowable amount of 100, which can be staked every 20 seconds under existing regulations.

It found that in 5.4m sessions over 10 months, 3% of the total included at least one bet of 100, while those who staked the maximum typically did so more than once per session.

It also reported several extreme outliers, cases where gamblers lost huge amounts of money in a single session.

Seven sessions saw customers lose more than 10,000 within a few hours, with one gambler losing 13,777.90 more than half the UKs national average wage in a marathon seven-and-a-half-hour sitting.

Staff in bookmakers high street shops, which took 1.7bn in revenues from FOBTs last year, are meant to intervene if they are concerned about a customers losses or the source of their funds.

Social responsibility requirements mean all operators must interact with customers where they believe they could be at risk of problem gambling, but also where any transactions could be linked to crime, said the industry regulator, the Gambling Commission, which has signalled a tougher stance against firms that fail to prevent problem gambling.

Carolyn Harris MP, who chairs a cross-party group that has recommended slashing the maximum stake on FOBTs to 2, said examples of such large losses, though rare, were concerning.

Those are obscene losses, she said.

For me, if anybody can sit there for that long and lose that much money, theyre not being watched and there is no intervention.

She also questioned whether firms were implementing anti-money-laundering controls properly in the light of recent examples of criminals using FOBTs to launder the proceeds of crime.

She said it was unfair to put shop staff in the position of having to stop someone from betting when they were losing a lot of money.

Why should cashiers be forced to intervene? Its above their pay grade.

There has to be a better way, such as having specialist individuals to deal with problem gambling.

GambleAware said there was not sufficient evidence to suggest that problem gambling was being caused by FOBTs.

But it said it was irrefutable that gaming machines are associated with harms.

The charity also found that problem gamblers and the unemployed were more likely to place a 100 bet than other players, as were loyalty card holders.

It said the proportion of sessions including a 100 bet also doubled after 10pm, rising from 3% of sessions to 6%.

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Gamblers 'lost more than 10,000' on fixed-odds betting terminals ... - The Guardian

Discarded betting slips at the Cheltenham Festival, which last year drew a record total crowd attendance of 260,579. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

They say there is more Guinness spilt annually at the Cheltenham Festival than champagne quaffed at Royal Ascot. Its a hoary old saw that probably isnt true, but helps add to the sense of chaotic ribaldry with which National Hunt racings annual March jamboree is associated compared to its supposedly more genteel and moneyed Flat equivalent. In the coming days scenes of bawdy triumph and utter despair will unfold in what us hacks are obliged to refer to at least once per year as the great natural amphitheatre of Prestbury Park, where racing enthusiasts from both sides of the Irish Sea will convene for drinking, gambling and high-quality sport that is unrivalled in its sheer intensity for those of us who are into those kind of things.

While the Cheltenham Festival is a carnival of top-class racing, it is difficult to get away from the notion that without the attendant vices it would just be predominantly Irish men riding horses around an otherwise very sparsely attended field: a noble but ultimately futile pursuit that becomes a whole lot more fun with the introduction of hundreds of thousands of excitable, liquored-up punters clutching betting slips and roaring their fancies home. When the fun stops, stop, the bookies are obliged to tell us in their promotional material these days although one gets the feeling that were your fun to stop three races in when youve just done your nuts on Tuesdays Festival Handicap Chase, these less-than-rigorous enforcers of what does and does not constitute fun would not be at all adverse to you handing over even more money, money you might not necessarily be able to afford in an effort to recapture that warm and fuzzy glow of carefree optimism in which you found yourself enveloped before the tapes went up for the first race.

While it is all well and good to encourage people to stop gambling when it has become a source of teeth-grinding, potentially life-ruining misery and anguish, the simple fact of the matter is that even when the fun stops, there are plenty of punters out there who just cant resist throwing good money after bad, loading themselves with so much debt that their own lives and the lives of those around them are utterly destroyed by a craven inability to stop betting. Weve all seen the pictures of the former England full-back Kenny Sansom, homeless and passed out in a park or shuffling to and from the bookies that accompany tabloid stories detailing his desperate pleas for help on the grounds that he feels utterly incapable of helping himself. Its probably safe to say the fun stopped for Kenny a long time ago, but still he continues to fill out those betting slips.

The fun almost certainly came to an abrupt halt for Cathal McCarron when he was encouraged by the IRA to leave Northern Ireland for London after gambling so much money he could not afford that he took to stealing from friends and neighbours. A top-level Gaelic football player with County Tyrone in Ireland, McCarron continued with his punting to such an extent that he found himself agreeing to star in a gay porn movie, for which he was paid 3,000 and assured that his debut screen performance would be shown only on pay-per-view channels in a chain of American hotels.

Appalled by what he had done, but with the consolation of a few quid in his pocket to help him try to get his life back on track, McCarron treated himself to a chocolate bar and proceeded to blow every remaining penny of his appearance fee in the betting shop within two days. A short time later, when news of his cinematic escapades had inevitably made headlines in the papers back home, McCarrons life was saved when he received a supportive call from a family member as he tried to work up the courage to throw himself under a London tube train. He has since faced, if not completely conquered his demons and revealed the pitiful depths of self-loathing to which he was reduced by his gambling habit in a harrowing autobiography.

Ultimately it is the problem gambler, not the bookmaker, who is responsible for dealing with their addiction once what bookies label the fun has stopped and it would be churlish to suggest otherwise. However, for all their commitment to tail-ending their increasingly intrusive adverts with a catchy and largely meaningless platitude, the sheer volume of relentless promotion with which the giants of the bookmaking industry assail sports fans on a daily basis suggests that, for all their talk, they are not hugely interested in discouraging anyone from making a regular donation.

During a splendid week of sport in which highlights include an FA Cup tie between Chelsea and Manchester United, several Champions League matches, four days of thrilling racing and the denouement of the Six Nations, sports fans will find themselves driven to distraction by bookies falling over themselves to win the custom of regulars and the all-important potential new customers with various adverts, promotions and the usual tediously unfunny stunts that may involve an overweight footballer and a pie. Across the bookmaking industry more than 350m is expected to be wagered on Cheltenham alone and we all know where most of that will end up. The fun never seems to stop for the bookies.

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Enjoy Cheltenham but the gambling fun never stops for the ... - The Guardian (blog)