The Discover Magazine blog helps explain the allure of slot machines and the difficulty that some gamblers have in walking away by highlighting that, to a gambler’s brain, a near miss provides almost the same high as a win.
Slot Machines Near Misses Are Perfectly Tuned to Stoke the Addiction
According the New York Times: “States are also trying to bolster the number of ‘core’ players, according to interviews with lottery officials in several states. Such players typically represent only 10 percent to 15 percent of all players but account for 80 percent of sales, according to Independent Lottery Research, which does research and marketing for state lotteries.”
Prior to the massive crash of the highly-predatory subprime lending business which nearly every state Attorney General sued for their predatory practices, former Harrah’s top executive Rich Mirman boasted to Wall Street Journal reporter Christina Binkley: “I worked in the subprime lending industry. At least casinos are open about what they do.”
The infamous subprime lender Countrywide Mortgage made a lot of money and employed a lot of people by selling bad loans to citizens who could never afford to pay them back. Countrywide’s “success” was phony prosperity and it caused major damage to our economy which all of us are still paying for today. Presently, our state governments across the U.S. are full partners with corporate gambling operators whose business practices go far beyond failed subprime lenders like Countrywide.
Atlantic City, perhaps more than anywhere else, is a microcosm of what goes wrong when casinos are adopted as the main source of revenue for a city. The city now faces competition from other casinos in the northeast, which is leading to plummeting revenues and soaring unemployment rates, because the city put all of its proverbial eggs in the basket that is casinos, opting not to attempt to revitalize the city a whole, which may have prevented the city’s current economic tailspin. This article from the New York Post argues that the only way to save Atlantic City is to drop the failed casino experiment and try investing in a long-term solution to the difficult economic problems the city faces.
This editorial by The Nation declares legalized sports gambling operators play an equal if not greater role in corrupting popular sports than illegal, underground gambling.
This MarketWatch article outlines the move by app developers to tap into the large and growing U.S. sports gambling market by developing ‘freemium’ models for users as young as 13 years old. These models include no purchase required apps where users must view advertising to enter pools and free virtual currency based apps.
This news story from Willamette Week explores how hundreds of millions in casino dollars haven’t lifted Oregon’s Native Americans out of poverty.
This blog post from TruthOut.org points out the devastating economic conditions that still exist on Native American reservations and how casinos will not solve the problem.
Olbermann’s Support for South Dakota Tribe Points to Way More Inclusive Indian County Coverage
Max Galka of Metrocosm compiled data from the New Your State Lottery which illustrates the deceptive methods used by the state governments to advertise, distribute revenues, reveal expenses and inflate ticket costs.
2015 The lottery is a tax, an inefficient, regressive, and exploitative tax
The Oregonian reports that the state of Oregon is “cutting programs that serve poor families, threatening to close highway rest stops and laying off teachers.” But this has not stopped the Oregon Lottery from spending $8.9 million on messaging during the 2011 fiscal year in its effort to encourage more Oregonians to gamble.
Whatever Oregon’s Trying to Communicate, It’s Costing You Millions