A research team at the University of Waterloo has done extensive studies of the psychology of gambling including the manipulation of music and sound effects to create the sensation that a user won even though they actually lost their money on the spin.
2014 Quest to Legalize Sports Gambling Could Destroy Professional Athletics
This story by David Frum, former advisor to President George W. Bush and current Senior Editor with Atlantic Monthly, spotlights how casinos hurt local economies: “The towns and cities that turned to gambling to escape their problems may discover that they have accepted a sucker’s bet: local economies that look worse than ever, local residents tempted into new forms of self-destructive behavior, and a dwindling flow of cash to show for it all.”
The three casinos in the state of Delaware are about to put in motion the first phase of their online gambling operations, which will be run through Facebook. The first phase will include only free games but within months, these casinos hope to have up and running full-fledged casino games online, running through Facebook. Delaware is now the first state in the nation to have legal casino games online. These two articles, from the USA Today and Delaware Online, describe this development, which will allow problem gamblers to throw their money away from the comfort of their own couch and allow America’s kids to get sucked in through Facebook.
Delaware’s 3 casinos launch free online gaming
Delaware casinos’ online gambling will be run through Facebook
According to this story from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “Casinos have long reaped profits from what can politely be described as plausible deniability when it comes to identifying the source of their large cash customers’ income.” Jennifer Shasky Calvery, director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), wants to put a stop to that. In a speech at the annual gambling trade show, G2E, Shaky Calvery called for a cultural change inside the casino business to root out and stop financial crimes, such as money laundering. This comes as an ominous warning for casinos, who often benefit from some shady deals.
This article from The Topeka Capital-Journal details the arrest of five Kansas residents after they used slot machines in Kansas City, Kansas to launder $200,000 from marijuana sales. According to the article, “The office of U.S. Attorney for Kansas Barry Grissom said Wednesday that investigations showed some members of the group would deposit large sums of money in small denominations into casino slots, cash out without playing and receive a voucher for the money deposited, then cash the voucher at ATM machines throughout the casino, getting their cash back in large denominations.” These residents have been indicted on 12 counts including money laundering and conspiracy to distribute marijuana.
A recent $4.3 million ad campaign from the Ohio Lottery aims to show players how fun and exciting it is to play scratch tickets, even while making no implication as to whether the people in the commercial won anything. Scratch ticket sales in the US totaled $37.5 billion last year, disproportionately from poorer Americans who are playing these instant scratch tickets as a path to wealth. The fact is, even the Lottery realizes that these games are a poor and almost impossible way to achieve wealth, so these ad campaigns are looking to get players to play just for the instantaneous “buzz” or “high” people can get from these games, which, along with their money, is gone in seconds.
Ohio Lottery Trades the Promise of Riches for the Joy of Instant Gratification
Philadelphia is hoping to buoy the economic prospects of its Center City area with a second casino, despite the fact that the state’s first casino has failed to produce economic growth and despite the fact that time and again, casinos hurt, not help, urban economies. This opinion piece from Next City explains why more casinos won’t make their economic effects any less harmful. Philadelphia’s Center City needs a breath of new life but casinos will not and cannot provide it.
Architectural Gimmicks Can’t Make Casinos Safe Economic Bets
This article from the CBC News explains the Nova Scotian government’s recent decision to abandon its “My-Play system” where players, using a card to activate the machine, would be able to set spending and time limits on a VLT (video lottery terminal) and see their spending habits. Gambling interests argued that this system wasn’t working because people would use multiple cards- even despite a 2011 study that found that this system is effective. Gambling critics argue that this is the work of gambling interests upset about their bottom lines being hurt. The My-Play system has already been adopted and has been working quite effectively in places like Norway but now, just two years after the system as made mandatory, the system is gone and Nova Scotian gambling interests can continue to profit more and more from problem gamblers.
VLT cards that track gambling habits abandoned in Nova Scotia
