Wanna bet on it?
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Published by - the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
alcohol and drug abuse Administration, 1990
There are 50,000 pathological gamblers in Maryland
Pathological gamblers cost Maryland and its citizens about $1.5
million annually in lost work productively and embezzled, stolen or
otherwise abused dollars.
Regardless of the form of gambling or length of time involved the,
legal and financial Problems, medical and mental health complications,
and impact on the gambler, family member, employer or community, makes
pathological gambling a devastating, costly illness.
Valerie C. Lorenz, Ph.D., CCMHC, CPC Executive Director Compulsive
Gambling Center, lnc.
1 1/2 to 3%, of the population in a state with two or more forms of
legalized gambling will become compulsive gamblers .
Between 5 and 11% of the teenagers will become compulsive gamblers.
25% surveyed attempted suicide
60% planned how they would commit suicide
99% compulsive gamblers commit crimes
25% end up in the legal system
Bad checks, forgery, fraud, embezzlement from job, theft, bank
robbery, selling drugs, street crime, prostitution, etc..
80% drive over 80 miles an hour.
100 % of compulsive gamblers becomes physically abusive, especially
towards children.
State of Mo. could possibly face 60,000 compulsive gam. in next two
years at a cost to the justice and social service systems of over $1
billion paid for by taxpayers.
Electronic slot machines are the crack cocaine addiction of the 90's
Prof. John Kindt
Business Dept. of the University of Illinois
For every $1 the gambling revenue brings into the state, it will cost
the residents between $3 and $7 in hidden costs.
For every 1 job created by casino boats the surrounding community will
lose from 1 to 2 jobs. The jobs just shift to the boats as local
restaurants, theaters, car dealers lose sales. (This is such a basic
principle that it is in the World Book Year Book )
Utah, which has no legalized gambling has the healthiest growing
economy in the nation.
Businesses prefer locating in gambling-free states because of their
lower taxes and better community and business environments.
Crime
"Gambling itself.. .is probably the biggest producer of money for the
American la Cosa Nostra (that) there is."
James Moody, Chief of the Organized Crime Section, FBI (1992) as
quoted in video tape/transcript of "60 Minutes", Dec. 13, 1992
Steven P. Perskie: A Report on Casino Gambling In Atlantic City., New
Jersey Casino Control Commission (1992). The Atlantic City police
department states that since the advent of casino gambling they are
having increased problems with the traveling criminals, youth gangs
and street level narcotics dealing.
The traveling criminal, has caused a crime and image problem for the
city and has also brought problems of compulsive gambling, drug abuse,
prostitution,. loan sharking and numerous financial scams.
From the Illinois State Police Division of Criminal Investigation
Intelligence Bureau 1992 The commission's report provides examples of
organized crime figures being involved in legalized gambling. The
report refers to the conviction of three Chicago mob men (Joseph
Aiuppa, John Cerone and Angelo La Pleura) along with the leaders of
the Milwaukee and Kansas city mob families for skinning money from Las
Vegas casinos. (it should also be noted that many of Chicago's
mobsters have gambling convictions.)
Another example cited involved two Chicago mob men (Cominic Cortina
and Donald Angelini) who were indicted in 1990 by federal authorities
in Maryland for money laundering at a commercial bingo parlor. The FBI
revealed the Chicago bosses had muscled into the cash rich bingo
operation with the intent of laundering one million dollars from
illegal loan sharking, robbery and stolen property {. This indictment
charged four other associates with using revenue from Florida gambling
and juice loans to fund the operation and launder money. All
defendants were charged with hiring arsonists to burn two rival bingo
halls. One of these men (Cortina) runs gambling operations in
California and Florida.
In 1991, a reputed San Diego mobster and nine other men including the
alleged bosses of the Chicago mob were charged with trying to
infiltrate Indian reservation gambling operations in Northern San
Diego county in order to skim prowl profits and launder illegal money.
The indictment stemmed from a lengthy investigation by the FBI.
Besides involvement in the management and investment areas of casino
gambling, vending businesses have historically been a target for
organized crime and often unscrutinized and unregulated. Obviously
relationships with ancillary and vending services can affect key
casino operations through influencing casino ownership, investment,
management and finances. By controlling the supply of: alcoholic
beverages, food and nonalcoholic beverages, garbage handlers, vending
machine providers, linen supplies, maintenance service and
construction companies. Casino management can be placed in a
compromising position by organized crime.
Professor Grant Stitt, University of Nevada - Reno, A Criminal Justice
Expert: Experience has shown the casino industry will have a direct
impact on legislative initiatives. Casino management will be able to
exert a powerful lobbying effort to directly influence laws that will
either benefit them or block laws that would negatively affect the
industry.
Economy
In Cripple Creek, CO. The number of retail shops have shrunk from 60
to 10.
Rocky Mountain News 9/92
Newsweek, March 28, 1994
"It s part of the American conservative landscape,"- says analyst
William Thompson of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. "They'll
trade morality for dollars." (politicians)
"The real gambling addicts are the politicians" says Terry Brunner of
the Better Government Association in Chicago, where a riverboat
gambling project is under consideration. "They're addicted to the
money."-
But as Black Hawk has discovered, gambling generates as many crises as
it solves: crime and congestion now plague this peaceful mountain
town. "We thought we'd studied the problem thoroughly" admits Mayor
Kathyrn Ecker, a retired grade school teacher. "I don't think we'd
studied it enough."
Black Hawk expected a higher crime rate, and the town hired 22 new
cops (up from one half-time marshal in the old days). But the
residents weren't prepared for the kinds of crimes they're getting: in
addition to assault and criminal mischief, says police spokeswoman
Dixie Lovinger, "We have an inordinate amount of urinating in
public".- Her alderman husband, Bill gets a little embarrassed when he
talks about the new sewage plant Black Hawk has to build. "Basically,
uh, people tend to drink while they're gambling, and the sewage has a
particular quality." A high alcohol content kills the bacteria that
eat sewage.
"The big boys can do anything and everything for as long as they like,
until the little guy is gone," says Bill Lorenz, a former mayor whose
family runs one of the few locally ally owned casinos in town.
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