Monthly Archives: July 2017

The NFL handles a variety of legal issues rather poorly, and two that I have found particularly problematic by the NFL are marijuana and sports gambling. Both have been in the news quite a bit in recent years, and both seem to be gaining public support.

Last week, an NFL writer posed an interesting question. He asked which would be legalized first, marijuana or sports betting. Im not surprised by the results of his poll, with sports betting getting 55 percent of the vote.

Which enemy of the NFL will be nationally legalized first?

The poll question came up in part because of the United States Supreme Courts decision to hear a case involving a New Jersey sports gambling law. Sports gambling is generally illegal under a law called PASPA. It grandfathered in some states, including Nevada, but has otherwise kept sports gambling illegal in most states. The court will potentially decide whether or not PASPA violates the Tenth Amendment, which protects state rights.

The Court will hear the case either this fall or early next spring. The four major sports and the NCAA are pushing for the Court to uphold the law, but the fact that the Court is even willing to hear the case is kind of a big deal.

Given the current political environment, Im inclined to think sports betting will be legalized before marijuana. Eight states have legalized recreational marijuana in some form or fashion, and another 21 states have legalized medical marijuana in some fashion. The momentum is there, but I am curious to see how the federal government approaches it. Under President Obama, they still left marijuana categorized as a Level I drug, but they cut back funding on the DEA going after states choosing to loosen the rules. The new attorney general wanted to go after it more, but the budget was not provided to do that, so well see what comes of it. While there is a states rights argument to be made, I doubt we see any improvement in how the federal government is willing to approach it anytime soon.

Leaders of the push to legalize sports betting want to get it legalized so as to bring it out of the darkness. A vast majority of money bet on sports happens on the black market, and legalizing it could bring a lot of that under regulation and taxation.

Two years ago, San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York offered some comments on both topics. He seems comfortable with the potential loosening of NFL rules on both issues of sports gambling and marijuana. I could see more of the younger executives being more comfortable with it compared to the old guard. Roger Goodell continues to talk about the issues (particularly marijuana) with language that seems to come from the days of Reefer Madness.

Marijuana in particular would be useful to the NFL in terms of trying to prevent players from getting hooked on pain medication. Former offensive tackle Eugene Monroe has been advocating for that for some time, but the NFL has not shown much interest in discussing that. The NFLPA might push for it in collective bargaining, but the owners would want some concessions in return. Even if it would help player health, NFL owners are not going to give in without financial concessions. They talk about player health, but an opportunity to really improve it is being ignored by the owners. Par for the course I suppose.

Given the NFLs move to Las Vegas, I imagine the league will be willing to make some adjustments there first. It will depend on how the national conversation goes, but there is plenty of money to be made from casinos and sports books. The NFL already does sponsorship deals with casinos, but it might take a big turn if things loosen up.

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Will the NFL give in on marijuana or gambling first? - Niners Nation

MURPHYSBORO In about 2014, Mary Frazer became aware that she knew almost every establishment between Southern Illinois and St. Louis with video gaming.

With that awareness, she realized that if she did not stop visiting these gambling sites, she was going to lose everything including her family, which included her eight younger children.

She took advantage of a system she'd heard of, a self-exclusion policy, in which a person willingly decides to ask gambling-establishment managers to forbid them to come in. By doing this, the person agrees that the business managers may have them arrested or otherwise removed from the property, possibly charging her with trespassing.

Frazer, who recently started a Gamblers Anonymous group at United Methodist Church in Murphysboro, would like to introduce the notion of self-exclusion to local businesses that have video-gaming terminals and to people who are struggling with an addiction to gambling.

She said she has already reported herself to three Murphysboro establishments with video gaming, asking them to turn her away if she shows up to gamble.

Their management was understanding and empathetic, she said.

Why should an establishment bear the responsibility of policing adults with their gambling issues?

Because self-exclusion works, Frazer said. If someone struggling with a gambling addiction goes to a place where they have selected to self-exclude themselves as persona non grata, they could experience embarrassment when the management, police officer, bouncer or other authority figure tells them they have to leave.

That, Frazer said in her experience, is a powerful deterrent.

"(Most) won't go back because they don't want the embarrassment," Frazer said.

A 2010 report that examined the self-exclusion programs noted that they were a growing trend that started in Missouri.

"Enrolling in a self-exclusion program is a form of help-seeking behavior, akin to attending a Gamblers Anonymous meeting or entering talk therapy," Glenn Christenson, then the chairman of the National Center for Responsible Gaming, wrote in an intro to the report. "Because most people struggling with addiction, including those with disordered gambling, do not seek external help, it is vital for scientists, health care providers and policymakers to understand what motivates the people who do seek assistance. "

Based on research from 2010, self-exclusion works, said Christine Reilly, senior research director with the National Center for Responsible Gaming in Massachusetts.

She said the concept could be used as part of a "cocktail therapy" approach to dealing with gambling addiction, an approach that could also include medical treatment, counseling and talk-therapy, among other means.

Based on what we know from the research, it is safe and can be effective for some people, not all, Reilly said. You should not load the program with great expectation.

Frazer might not be too far off, according to information from the Illinois Gaming Board's office on self-exclusion.

The Illinois Gaming Board has submitted proposed rules on self-exclusion in establishments with video-gaming to the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, or JCAR, said Gene O'Shea, director of the state's self-exclusion program. He said that process of approval would take some time, as it took time, two years, to approve the state's casino self-exclusion rules. The public, he said, will have a chance to respond to the proposed rules once the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules makes them public.

Since the state adopted its casino gamblers' self-exclusion policy in 2002, some 12,651 people have registered to exclude themselves from the state's 10 casinos. There have been 4,317 arrests, with gaming officials seizing $1,958,293.43 in seizures from those who previously self-excluded, O'Shea said.

Within the past week, authorities arrested a woman who had abandoned $16,000 she won in summer 2016 at Casino Queen. She had returned to that casino, where she had self-excluded herself, and been arrested. The most seized at one time was $23,000, O'Shea said.

"They're addicted," O'Shea said.

According to the Illinois Gaming Board, there are a handful of Southern Illinois cities and villages where video gaming is not allowed or has limited use.

Baldwin in Randolph County and Campbell Hill in Jackson County do not permit video gaming at licensed truck-stop establishments.

Some don't allow it at all: De Soto, Elkville and Makanda in Jackson County; Brookport in Massac County; Bush, Cambria and Colp in Williamson County; Cave in Rock in Hardin County; and Karnak in Pulaski County.

It is, however, allowed in Murphysboro and nearby Carbondale.

Carbondale's 88 video-gaming terminals, in 20 establishments, netted $3.016 million this past year, with $150,806.88 going to the city. (Carbondale has a cap of 100 video gaming terminals in the city, according to the Illinois Gaming Board website.)

Murphysboro's 39 video-gaming terminals, in eight establishments, netted $1.328 million this past year, with $66,443.90 going to the City of Murphysboro.

Also for this past year, Du Quoin had 48 terminals, in 10 locations, that netted $1.785 million: some $89,283.95 of that went to the city.

Two weeks ago, Frazer held her first meeting of Gamblers Anonymous, a 12-step program that attracted three people she's hoping for many more. Though the program stresses anonymity, Frazer said she is publicizing her identity and struggle to help others facing the challenge in this area. She said those who struggle with gambling addiction face many challenges, including stress and broken marriages and families, money and job loss and even suicide.

In an online group that she is a part of, she says nine people, unable to find ways to deal with their gambling addictions, have taken their own lives in the past six months.

She said this area needs a local chapter of Gamblers Anonymous. According to the Gamblers Anonymous website, the closest meeting to Southern Illinois is in Belleville.

Murphysboro Mayor Will Stephens said he hasn't heard of gambling being a problem in the city.

"Although gambling brings with it certain challenges for individuals with addictions, the city council has not heard any complaints about video gambling in bars, fraternal organizations, or video gaming parlors," Stephens shared in an email to The Southern.

"I think Mary is on the right track," Stephens wrote. "It will allow her to establish relationships with those business owners, and allow her to better accomplish her goal of helping those who need help. Mostly because it will be the business owners who will most easily be able to identify problem gamblers."

Now that she's no longer gambling, Frazer said she is filling that void with a transportation business she and her husband have established.

They provide rides, to and from work, for people who frequently work for some local employment agencies and don't have their own vehicles.

"What I'm doing is helping families that don't have transportation (so) they can get to work," she said.

Additionally, she noted, "My house is more in order."

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Woman who started gambling-recovery group wants businesses to adopt self-reporting model - The Southern

South Florida racetracks that offer certain types of card games are trying to hold onto the lucrative business after the state of Florida reached a settlement with the Seminole Tribe.

The state agreed not to appeal a 2016 court decision that allowed the Seminoles to offer blackjack through 2030. In return, the tribe will make revenue-sharing payments to the state until the end of the 2018 legislative session but only if Florida takes aggressive enforcement action against designated player games that operate as banked card games at pari-mutuel casinos around the state.

But the pari-mutuel industry maintains its games are in keeping with state regulations, leaving the state in the position of cracking down on a practice that the industry says is perfectly legal.

So-called designated player games such as Three-Card Poker and Ultimate Texas Holdem are major money-makers for the pari-mutuels. A study of 10 cardrooms estimated they made $55 million in revenue over five years, according to The Innovation Group.

As the games are currently dealt, they are in keeping with Florida law, said Palm Beach Kennel Club attorney John Lockwood.

The Palm Beach Kennel Club, Miamis Magic City Casino and Pompano Beachs Isle Casino all offer some form of the games. Casinos in Broward and Miami-Dade offer slot machines, unlike the rest of the state, which make the card games less popular.

The Seminole Tribe is supposed to have the exclusive right to offer banked card games games in which every player plays against the dealer instead of playing against each other as they do in poker.

Its really not complicated. If the players around the table are playing against one person, a bank, its a banked card game. If they all have the same bet in a pile and only ones going to win, then its not a banked card game, said Seminole Tribe lawyer Barry Richard. The tribe is paying a huge amount of money more than twice as much as all the pari-mutuels put together for exclusivity, and thats what they want. Theyre paying for it, theyre entitled to it.

While previous iterations of pari-mutuels designated player games only had one player act as a banker, these days, the designated player who acts as a banker can rotate, just like the dealer rotates in a game of poker.

No fixed banker, no banked card game, according to the pari-mutuels.

It doesnt matter what you label it, Richard said. If what theyre talking about when they say a designated player game is a poker game in which the dealer rotates around the table, then thats fine. But if, in any hand, everybodys playing against a banker, thats the issue. It doesnt matter what they call it.

The agreement between the tribe and the state settled a long-running lawsuit over blackjack. Under the terms of the agreement, the tribe will continue to offer blackjack at its casinos through 2030, while the state will get about $340 million over the next year.

In a 2016 federal court ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle called designated player games an egregious example of the cardrooms' attempt to evade the prohibition on banked card games.

As long as the state cracks down on these games with aggressive enforcement though whats considered aggressive is open to interpretation the tribe will continue to make payments until after the 2018 legislative session.

After the session or at any time before that it if the tribe doesnt feel the state is shutting down the games aggressively enough it could affect the tribes payments to the state.

If the Legislature does nothing, it will be status quo unless the tribe believes there are still table games out there past the 2018 session. And then, they can stop making payments, said state Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, the Florida Senates point man on gambling legislation.

Galvano fears that a coming crack down on pari-mutels will mean pushback by the industry and incredible pressure during next years session, especially as the pari-mutuels think they are now in compliance with the law.

Its a tough position for the state to be in, Galvano said. There are many pari-mutuels that have already started designated player games, and they are quite profitable. So, youre going to have an enforcement challenge, and then from a legislative policy perspective, the choices have now been significantly narrowed. Do you maintain the status quo of gaming in Florida and rely solely on tribal payments, or do you now look to the pari-mutuel industry for the revenues in lieu of what you have with the tribe?

dsweeney@SunSentinel.com, 954-356-4605 or Twitter @Daniel_Sweeney

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New gambling deal leaves racetracks and Seminoles at odds - Sun Sentinel (blog)

Police on Friday busted an illegal online casino at Kotla Mubarakpur in south Delhi and arrested four persons in this connection. Sleuths suspect the racket could be linked to money laundering.

The alleged mastermind of the racket, a woman named Neetu, is absconding. Police seized cash Rs 35,800, seven CPUs, a laptop and a landline telephone set among other items.

Even though online gambling is illegal in India, the market is estimated to be a few thousand crore rupees. Only Sikkim has laid down regulations for controlled and monitored online gambling, police said.

Four persons Deepak Chandra, Raj Kumar, Arif Khan and Prakash have been arrested. Deepak used to operate the gambling den and handle all the cash and maintain transaction details. We are now searching for Neetu said a senior police official.

Police said for the past few days, information was pouring in about an online gambling racket operating from Kotla Mubarakpur area.

Acting on the tip-off, a special team was formed and the sleuths zeroed down on the house on Friday.

Preliminary investigations revealed that Neetu was linked to an organised online casino syndicate. She had provided Deepak with login ID and password of an online account created on the website. The website had links to another gaming portal. Deepak used to handle the daily transaction and report to the kingpin Neetu

The most popular gamble was on the game of Roulette where the winner was assured a return which was 18 times the bet money, said a police officer.

Cops are now trying to find out whether the master account on the gaming website was created using an Indian identity or otherwise and whether the linked bank details are Indian or off-shore.

Raids are being conducted and further investigation is going on, said the officer.

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Online gambling racket busted in south Delhi, four arrested - Hindustan Times