Monthly Archives: March 2017

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

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

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

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

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)