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12/23/2008: Canada’s Gambling Watch Network’s Newsletter
Volume 10 Issue 018 CWE December 22 2008
Crime
A 12/27/08 Toronto Star article shows that all sorts of gambling encourage crime. A woman got $80,000 settlement plus interest after a store manager allegedly stole her winning ticket. The story refers to Ombudsman André Marin’s scathing report of last year on questionable wins by lottery ticket sellers. The item’s final line disappoints us: ‘And the first thing she did when she left with her prize was buy another lottery ticket.’ Lotto winner paid four years later
Cyber
The 12/17/08 Edmonton Journal says Website founder faces jail over U.S. bets. A founding member of UK’s gambling firm PartyGaming Plc pleaded guilty to violating the law against Internet betting in the USA. He admitted to the felony in U.S. District Court in Manhattan under a U.S. law on gambling, and agreed to forfeit $300 M.
He has already paid $100M and agreed to pay a further $100M within three months.
Finance
The 12/16/08 Toronto Star writes: “MGM Mirage said yesterday it agreed to sell the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas strip to magnate Phil Ruffin for a total of $775 million (U.S.).”
Casino industry’s luck has finally run out, an AP article’s heading in The 12/18/08 Toronto Star, writes:
Reeling from the recession and online competition, U.S. gambling resorts are slashing their payrolls’. One of the laid-off employees said: ‘”This Christmas is going to be a lot like the first Christmas I had in this country.” said the 62-year-old man. “I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have any money, no anything. The only difference is now I have a mortgage and bills”.
Horse Racing
Are horses racing toward oblivion? asks a 4-page article in the 12/14 New Jersey On-Line LLC. Fewer fans mean less cash being wagered, which results in less prize money.
Skimpier prize money results in fewer good horses, which attract fewer fans, who bet less money; and so on. And if the tracks go into a tailspin, horse breeders and trainers will move to states where they can earn better prizes.
Then we read that an agreement was signed this summer; its terms are that casinos will pay the tracks $90 M to subsidize horse racing. In exchange, racetracks will not add slot machines till the end of 2011. According to the agreement an appointed panel would produce a study on the situation by July 2010.
One day later an article in Ontario’s Niagara Falls Review reports that the Fort Erie Race Track is preparing to close. As many as 190 employees have been issued layoff notices by employer Nordic Gaming and track may not open for the new racing season in 2009. The 12/16/08 Toronto Star says: ‘Fort Erie Racetrack’s string of 111 consecutive years of live horse racing is in danger of coming to an end, while the NF Review of that day says:
It’s just the way it is, and it has been this way for well over a year-and-a-half that people have been completely aware at every level that this would be the eventuality if there wasn’t interdiction by higher government.
On 12/17 this paper says MPP sees some hope in talks about track.
Following a two-hour meeting yesterday at Queen’s Park of the track’s owners and high-level politicians, Craitor said proposals were put forward to address the problem. He believes a solution might happen in the next two weeks to keep the … track running in 2009.
On the same day The Chatham Daily News says:
The cancellation of live racing at the Fort Erie Race Track in 2009 will have no impact on operations at Dresden Raceway.
Hiawatha not impacted by Fort Erie closure, says The 12/18 Sarnia Observer.
There is no reason to think Sarnia’s Hiawatha Horse Park faces impending doom … The thoroughbred business is very different from the standardbred business … It’s much more expensive to operate a thoroughbred track … We don’t require anywhere close to the same amount of staff or resources to run our live racing.
From now on we (and our readers) will try to remember this cost difference.
Harness racing body lifts ban on racetrack, says The 12/19/08 PEI Guardian, but makes it clear that the threat of ‘the strangles’ infection will be over after two more negative test results.
Horse Race Betting on Phones OK With Wire Act, says the 12/20/08 Online Casinos. ‘The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which supervises state horse racing tracks, is moving to allow mobile phone betting on horses’.
British Columbia
BC Lottery meetings with Kinsella shrouded in mystery is a The Tyee piece telling that the BC’s Liberals’ powerful former campaign co-chair was repeatedly scheduled to meet with the BC Lottery Corp.’s president and chief executive officer between ‘05 and ‘07. These meetings are still a mystery although, the article states Kinsella has long been connected with the province’s gam(bl)ing industry.
Alberta
‘Former clinic manager lied to judge about$ 500,000 fraud’, says The 12/17/08 Calgary Herald. Many cheques made their way into the manager’s secret Apex account and money was withdrawn using her debit card, including cash purchases at Cash Casino, a casino and dinner club on Blackfoot Trail S.W.
Defence lawyer Joan Blumer and Crown prosecutor Deven Singhal are expected to make their sentencing submissions March 13.
Saskatchewan
Casinos gamble on English is an item in the 12/19/08 Prince Albert Daily Herald which is the lesson two Francophones learned recently at one of the province’s casinos in southern Saskatchewan after a CBC report claimed the pair was speaking to each other in French. The dealer told them they could only speak English while they played.
Two articles in The 12/20/08 Regina Leader-Post report that the former sports hero George Reed is now the front man for the province’s casinos. His new title and new position will be “corporate event host” for the Saskatchewan Gaming Corporation.
Ontario
Anyone who wants to join a legal action against the Ontario Lottery Corporation should use this link.
Casino boss returns to his roots, reports The 12/16/08 Niagara Falls Review. Art Frank The Fallsview CEO, got his start in the casino business as a dealer at the Resorts Hotel - the first casino in Atlantic City - more than 30 years ago.
County looks to establish addiction treatment centre, an article in The 12/18/08 Woodstock Sentinel Review deals only with substance abuse in Oxford and does not mention gambling.
Newfoundland and Labrador
We quote: ‘On December 12, 2008 Justice Dymond of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, Trial Division, released his decision on an application by Atlantic Lotto Corporation that the Trade Practices Act of Newfoundland and Labrador does not apply to a Crown agent’. The Court agreed, and decided that the Trade Practices Act does not apply to ALC as a Crown agent.’ If we understand this decision properly the province is declared to be not legally responsible for the horrible consequences of using the extremely addictive Video Lottery Terminals in its irresponsible gambling practices!
Nova Scotia
The 12/18/08 Halifax Herald reports that a Cape Breton man, who says he gambled away about $800,000, has filed a lawsuit against the province and the former operator of the Sydney casino to try to recoup his life savings. What hits us in this article is the fact that our provincial governments’ mobster attitude (it caused them to set up the pirate gaming industry) also has infected their employees.
Casino operators are required to remove players who appear to be addicted to gambling, according to provincial legislation. Mr. Burrell was not banned until 2004, about nine years after he began going to the casino. An ombudsman’s report released last year found that casino staff do not often enforce those regulations and the provincial Labour Department’s alcohol and gaming division told The Chronicle Herald at the time that it would implement the recommendations made in that report, which included stricter means of dealing with problem gamblers.
Lotto bosses living it up - Globetrotting execs rack up 549,000 in expenses two years. The 12/19/08 Halifax Herald that reports on the spending of Atlantic Lottery Corp. executives and board members. They rang up more than half a million dollars in travel and entertainment expenses over the past two years including trips to Singapore, Athens, London, Paris, Nevada, California, Florida, Louisiana, Kentucky and Colorado.
We wish all our readers a blessed Christmas and a happy 2009!
No reader comments yet - add yours See related articles: Canada, Gambling Watch Canada Network Newsletter 
J. Deviet11/6/2008: Canada’s Gambling Watch Network’s e-mailed Newsletter
Volume 10 Issue 011 CWE November 3 2008
Addiction
Online world lures young gamers, a story in The 10/27/08 London Free Press, tells that a 15 year old boy left his home on Oct. 13. And his parents, who disciplined him by cutting him off briefly from friends he’d made online, haven’t seen him since. Steve and Angelika Crisp would eventually have returned the gaming console to the Barrie teen, who would resume playing his favourite game: Call of Duty 4, late into the night.
(Brandon Crisp’s body was found November 5th near his home by hunters. Foul play is not suspected. -admin)
Think you know the gamer type? an article in The 10/28/08 Ottawa Citizen claims positive qualities for those who play video games. ‘They have better family lives, are more social and make more money than people who do not’ according to two new studies.
Finance
MGM Mirage Profit Falls as Gamblers Desert Vegas (Update 1), is a 10/29/08 Bloomberg article reporting that billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, said that third-quarter profit tumbled 67 percent as cash-strapped U.S. gamblers stayed away from Las Vegas.
An article in The 10/30/08 National Post headed Pension funds still gambling on stocks deals basically with the same subject.
Horseracing
Fort Erie betting on help from the government, an article in The 10/28/08 Toronto Star, writes that Nordic Gaming Corporation will submit a conditional application for race dates next year, albeit with an option to withdraw before the meet begins unless the government provides financial support.
One day later the Niagara Falls Review writes in Track gets gloomy update at council :
…Judging by the news delivered to councilors last night by the town’s Economic Development and Tourism Corp. general manager, it could be the final day -ever -for horse racing at the 111-year-old venue.
Fort Erie Race Track owner to apply for 2009 racing days, an article in The 10/29/08 Niagara Falls Review contains these lines:
A $300-million project – billed as the saviour to all that ails Fort Erie Race Track – has been shelved. But the track’s owner is still willing to bring live racing back to the Thompson Road facility next year on condition that it gets help from its partners.
No cash support, no horse races is the title of an article in the 10/30/08 Niagara Falls Review that contains this line: ‘We will apply … we’re looking for help from various stakeholders in the track.’
Canada
The Hypocrisy Of Government Gambling is an article in The 11/1/08 National Post written by columnist Robert Fulford. We cannot remember another article wherewith we totally agreed as we do with this one. THANK YOU, Mr. Fulford!!
British Columbia
New Burnaby casino targets high rollers is the title of the 10/31/08 item in The Vancouver Sun announcing that the old Villa Hotel property in Burnaby becomes Metro Vancouver’s latest and last glitzy casino next week when it opens as the Grand Villa Casino.
The 100,000-square-foot gambler’s paradise with 50 gambling tables and more than 1,000 slot machines is the first phase of a $180-million Gateway Casinos & Entertainment Inc. project that includes a spring 2009 opening of a 200-room Delta Hotel & Conference Centre.
Manitoba
Casino plan finds home - Newest to open near Brandon, an article in The 11/1/08 Brandon Sun, reports that a casino twice rejected by Brandon residents is to be built just north of the western Manitoba city.
The gambling house will have 300 to 400 slot machines and will be built little more than a stone’s throw from city limits in the Rural Municipality of Elton, said Dave Chomiak, the provincial minister responsible for gaming. As soon as we have this minister’s e-mail address we’ll send him the National Post’s article!
Ontario
OLG’s slot machines income payments to the municipalities amounted to more than $19 million for the second quarter of this year, according to the OLG’s letters to the municipalities. News like this causes us to wonder if Ontario’s citizens are aware that - along with their voluntary payments of ‘idiot tax’ for lottery tickets – (that’s $1.6 billion per year) their casino and racino gamblers waste so much on their gambling? Can we imagine how Ontario’s business records would look if all that money was not wasted on their mobster minded government’s piracy businesses? Would they be patient enough to wait for the next election to kick them out if they suddenly realized what’s really going on?
Racino vote divides town leaders - attracts outside support, a 4 page item in The 10/25/08 Reporter, clearly shows that the opposition to more gambling is still very much alive.
Toronto police arrested 63 people at two illegal gaming houses Wednesday following a five-month investigation is an article in The 10/17/08 Toronto Star. It clearly shows that our so-called legal ‘gaming’ does not prevent illegal gambling.
On 10/28/08 articles in several papers made it clear that the public hasn’t much confidence in the honesty and fairness of the province’s Lottery Corp.
Gaming company backs slots ad campaign, an item in The 10/28/08 Community Report, writes:
New financial reports filed by parties in the struggle over putting slot machines at Scarborough Downs show the Pennsylvania company that would own the machines has poured money into an advertising campaign to convince voters of the potential benefits.
The organization reported that it spent $56,274 from this pool since Aug. 18, with about $34,000 going to various forms of advertising and publicity.
Casino carves up some Halloween goodies, an article in The 10/30/08 Niagara Falls Review, writes that the chefs of the Niagara Falls two casinos use their skills and imaginations to make special Halloween items.
Toronto Man Wins Incredible $4.7 Million Jackpot On Dollar Slot Machine At Woodbine is an item on s 10/31/08 Rogers Broadcasting outlet. It does not give the name of the winner. We’ll be looking for more particulars on this broadcasted news.
Quebec
The 10/31/08 Montreal Gazette has an article saying that a national assembly committee has concluded that lifting the requirement to relocate Hippodrome de Montréal off the island might be a way to help resolve the current crisis gripping Quebec’s horse racing industry. The item makes it clear that so far no real solution has been found to improve the situation of horse racing in this province.
Attractions Hippiques discontinued live racing at Hippodrome de Montréal this summer, and although it has since resumed one day a week, no racing is scheduled beyond Nov. 30.
Singapore sees more bad debts from gambling, a 10/27/08 article by Imelda Saad, on the News Asia channel, reports that more people are falling into bad debt as a result of gambling, and experts say that such cases may rise given the current economic crunch
Australia
A Reuters article in The 10/30/08 Calgary Herald reports that a gambler who lost millions in a $1.16-billion (Can) gaming spree is suing one of the country’s largest casinos, claiming he was targeted by managers despite a known gambling addiction.
We would encourage more Canadian gamblers to sue our mobster minded governments for their gambling debts. It’s our belief that gambling games are a piracy business that ought to be illegal in any decent country!
Think this is Vegas - Think again is a 5-page article promoting trips to Macau. It was found in The 11/1/08 Ottawa Citizen.
No reader comments yet - add yours See related articles: Activism, Gambling Watch Canada Network Newsletter
J. Deviet5/31/2007: Singapore
Singapore is betting on its casinos and tourist expansion to bring money to the country.
Administrator4/16/2007: Japan
As Japan looks at changing strict gambling laws, the southern island region of Okinawa and Tokyo are being looked at by gambling developers wanting to establish super casinos to compete with Singapore and Macau.
Lawmakers from Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are already drawing up proposals to allow a handful of huge Vegas-style casinos, which could open their doors within a few years.
Almost half of the lower house of parliament — including some opposition lawmakers — supports the general idea of legalising casinos, said Toru Mihara, adviser to the LDP’s casino study group.
“If we can create legal structures within one or two years to come, maybe in 2012 casinos in Japan will start to operate,” he told AFP in an interview.
The major US casino operators are already regular visitors to Japan, networking and lobbying behind the scenes to try to secure a lucrative contract in the world’s second-largest economy, Mihara said.
“They are totally keen on this potential big market,” he added.
But local entertainment companies are also expected to be involved as the government will be reluctant to hand over to foreign operators alone what some experts say is almost a licence to print money.
So US giants such as Las Vegas Sands and Harrah’s Entertainment could team up with Japanese companies such as Sega Sammy, Konami or Aruze to build huge entertainment complexes including casinos, analysts said.
Although illegal backroom casinos exist in Japan, the only gambling officially open to the country’s population of 128 million is on horse, speedboat and bicycle racing and lotteries.
But anyone in doubt of Japan’s love of a flutter need look no further than the nation’s multi-billion dollar pachinko industry, which attracts some 17 million punters, from salarymen to pensioners and even young women.
Pachinko, a Japanese version of pinball played in thousands of noisy parlours across the country, is not officially defined as gambling, because prizes have to be exchanged outside the premises for cash.
9/10/2006: Gambling Battle for Britian
With the British Gambling Act set to be in place next year, international companies are stampeding to the UK.
It is anticipated there could be 208 casinos in the UK by 2008.
Macau, Singapore, Slovenia and Spain have become key territories for firms such as Las Vegas Sands, Harrah’s and MGM Mirage. Now, after one hugely embarrassing false start, a new battle for Britain has begun.
Four years ago, the world’s biggest casino giants aggressively lobbied Tony Blair, and the schmoozing paid off. The Prime Minister gave US gambling chiefs the green light to build dozens of supercasinos full of slot machines in Britain.
Two years ago, the same companies were forced to leave with their tails between their legs after the government backtracked on its casino liberalisation plans. Now the Yanks are back in town.
This time the gameplan has changed. Before, US giants such as MGM and Las Vegas Sands boasted loudly about the billions of pounds they were prepared to invest in Britain. It was a big mistake. Instead of impressing MPs that thousands of jobs were about to be created, it scared enough of them to force the government to water down its reform.
So a rethink has led to a new strategy: buying British gambling companies. The strategy is now being activated.
Harrah’s, the world’s biggest casino firm, is set to snap up London Clubs International (LCI) for £280m - loose change for the $12bn company. And there is little doubt that Harrah’s won’t stop at LCI, which owns a string of upmarket London casinos, three key venues out of the capital and, crucially, has several more in the development pipeline. Those familiar with the company suggest LCI will be the first but certainly not the last UK acquisition.
Industry insiders believe that MGM Mirage, the giant US entertainment combine, will move to buy a UK firm. It is unlikely to counterbid for LCI, but analysts believe it could pounce on the Rank Group, the one-time conglomerate that owns 35 UK casinos and is the second biggest bingo operator through its Mecca brand.
Las Vegas Sands - the most successful American company at winning licences overseas - may also look to break into the UK. It already has plans to open casinos at several British football clubs.
‘The Americans have to come here,’ says the boss of one major British gambling firm. ‘Harrah’s and MGM have to buy. MGM initially wanted to do it on their own, but they need local management. The banks will definitely lend them money. They’re all looking at what Las Vegas Sands has achieved. It is half the size in Vegas of its rivals, but is trading at multiples of three times its earnings because it won licences in Singapore and Macau. The bigger rivals are thinking: “I want a piece of that”.’
1/22/2006: Next stop - Taiwan
Every year hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese nationals travel to Australia, Macau and the US in order to have a flutter and the amount of revenue casinos earn from these gamblers is phenomenal.
Fifteen-percent of the US$230 million taken by the Sands Casino in Macau in its opening year came from Taiwanese gamblers and 20 percent of the US$100million taken on the Baccarat tables of Los Vegas’ MGM Grand annually comes from Taiwanese nationals.
Regardless of whether future casinos attract overseas gamers from the 350 million people who live 1.5 hours flying time from Penghu, or simply generates a locally based gambling industry, the stakes are huge.
While it is still a hypothetical situation, industry insiders estimate that a US$300 million casino could break even in a mere in six months.
“Hong Kong has a population of 6 million and of these, those who travel to Macau spend US$1 billion a year in casinos,” said Larry Woolf, one-time CEO of the MGM Grand and chairman of the Los Vegas-based gaming development agency, The Navegante Group. “Taiwan has a population of 22 million people. Most of them have a decent disposable income so it doesn’t take a lot of math to work out that [Taiwan] is a huge market.”
The numbers speak for themselves and neighboring countries are also aware of them. Singapore has decided to legalize gambling and other Asian nations, including Japan and Thailand, are set to follow in the not so distant future. If Taiwan doesn’t act soon then it could blow its chance of grabbing a piece of the lucrative gaming market.
According to news reports two weeks ago, when Singapore finalized its bidding process for the construction of a casino in preparation for the March 31 deadline, only four companies of the original 14 wanted to continue with their bids, citing problems with the destination and stringent guidelines as reasons behind their sudden lack of interest.
11/1/2005: Singapore
The Singapore National Council on Problem Gambling is seeking public input into it’s assessment of the impact the introduction of legalized gambling will have on citizens. One of the issues the Council is going to look at is a request by a family member for exclusion of a loved one at a casino.
For those who can’t afford to gamble or those who just can’t stop, the exclusion order by family members to have them banned from the premises, as spelt out in the Casino Control Bill, might just offer a precious lifeline. These applications will be assessed by a panel of three based on criteria that are still being worked out. It will comprise one member from the Council, and two others from the public, out of a pool of up to two dozen people. Lim Hock San, Chairman, National Council on Problem Gambling, said, "The assessors will be drawn from members of the public, including social workers, across a spectrum of people, diverse skills, people who are independent; and objective and the purpose of this panel is really to look at the whole issues of whether a person should be excluded in the best interest of the family." For now, there is no telling how long they will be banned, but a system will be in place for those who want to appeal against the exclusion. But some sociologists are concerned about the backlash on family members who take out an exclusion order against their loved ones. Associate Professor Paulin Straughan, Sociologist, National University of Singapore, "That potentially may cause conflict within the family. Can you imagine if a husband shows up and finds that oh my god, his wife has put his name up there, and then there’s a contention of "why do you think I am risk"…the notion of at risk is a very tricky one." So the National Council on Problem Gambling says it may consider providing counselling for family members where necessary.
The Council is also beginning an extensive public awareness campaign. Casino Control Bill public input site
10/14/2005: Singapore
The first casinos aren’t set to open in Singapore until 2009.
But already the issue of problem gambling is being addressed by this website.
58% of Singapore residents over 18 admit they have gambled.
1/15/2005: Singapore
One of gaming hotspot Macau’s newest glitzy casinos – Greek Mythology – has bid to operate a proposed gambling resort in Singapore.
The company said it had put in a HK$5bil to HK$6bil offer to build a casino, hotel, convention facility, shopping malls and other leisure facilities in the resort.
If the Singapore Government gives the project the nod, the huge development will be built on one of the city-state’s offshore islands.
Although the resort plan faces stiff opposition from welfare groups which fear the nation’s first casino will lead to social problems, the government says it will put in place restrictions to curb problem gambling. It will also limit the size of the casino to 15,000 sq m, larger than the average casino in Las Vegas.
1/15/2005: Singapore
One of gaming hotspot Macau’s newest glitzy casinos – Greek Mythology – has bid to operate a proposed gambling resort in Singapore.
The company said it had put in a HK$5bil to HK$6bil offer to build a casino, hotel, convention facility, shopping malls and other leisure facilities in the resort.
If the Singapore Government gives the project the nod, the huge development will be built on one of the city-state’s offshore islands.
Although the resort plan faces stiff opposition from welfare groups which fear the nation’s first casino will lead to social problems, the government says it will put in place restrictions to curb problem gambling. It will also limit the size of the casino to 15,000 sq m, larger than the average casino in Las Vegas.
