Daily Archives: October 16, 2019

Imagine if, after watching the thrilling victory of the Chicago Cubs in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series over the Cleveland Indians a game in which the Cubs won their first championship in over a century you learned that the Indians had collaborated with gamblers to intentionally throw the series.

Would you trust the game, its umpires and its players, ever again?

That was the scope of the crisis that enveloped baseball a century ago, when key members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox, including pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude Lefty Williams, conspired to throw the series to their opponents, the Cincinnati Reds.

What became known as the Black Sox Scandal rocked professional baseball. But it wasnt an aberration in a sport that was otherwise clean.

Baseball became Americas national pastime because of and not in spite of gambling.

In his book Baseball in the Garden of Eden, historian John Thorn explains how gambling was far from an impediment to the games flowering; instead, it was the vital fertilizer.

In baseballs infancy, the sport was thought of as a boys game. But over the course of the 19th century, gambling deepened adult interest and investment in the sport, attracting cohorts of older fans.

Gamblings popularity was helped along by the spread of statistics, that particular lifeblood of baseball that still keeps fans hooked today. Developed initially to allow the results of a game to be printed onto the page in the form of box scores, statistics also created a pool of data that gamblers could use to inform their bets many of which were made from the stands, in the middle of games.

In his history of Fenway Park, Glenn Stout describes how, in the ballparks early years, the best seats were quickly taken over by a rabid contingent of gamblers who bet on absolute everything imaginable, ranging from the eventual winner to ball and strike calls and even such arcane issues as whether the wind would change direction. Fans waving dollar bills and barking out bets resembled brokers on the floor of the stock exchange.

This kind of gambling was so common in the stands that Ernest Lawrence Thayers iconic 1888 poem, Casey at the Bat, captured such a moment in one of its stanzas:

A straggling few got up to go in deep despair.

The rest clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;

They thought, "If only Casey could but get a whack at that

Wed put up even money now with Casey at the bat.

Some players also sought to get in on the action.

In 1919, the highest-paid player was Detroit Tigers outfielder Ty Cobb, who earned US$20,000 which equates to roughly $300,000 today, or less than Major League Baseballs current minimum salary.

Most of Cobbs peers earned far less than the future Hall of Famer. Working with gamblers was an attractive way to supplement their incomes and many of them did.

One of the most notorious was first baseman Hal Chase. Dubbed the Black Prince of Baseball by baseball historians Donald Dewey and Nicholas Acocella, Chase made a veritable career out of throwing games. Playing mostly with the New York Highlanders, Chase, as Charles Fountain noted, threw games for money, he threw games for spite, he threw games as a favor for friends, he threw games apparently for no reason at all other than to stay in practice.

But this wasnt the kind of gambling that brought baseball to the brink of disaster in 1919. That scandal saw the players themselves working in tandem with professional gamblers and gangsters fix the World Series.

The 1919 World Series was the best-attended Series at that point in the games history, but the play of the White Sox turned the games into elaborate theatrical performances.

Those in on it had to play to lose, and the statistics are telling.

Shortstop Swede Risberg hit .080 not a typo while committing four fielding errors. Outfielder Happy Felsch didnt do much better, hitting .192, with just five hits in 26 at-bats. He also committed two errors. Pitcher Claude Lefty Williams surrendered 12 runs in 16.1 innings of work.

While the players tried to pull off authentic performances for fans, they werent always successful. Felsch was chided by his fellow cheaters for his blunders in center, which they deemed too obvious.

Fundamentally, however, the games lacked the core drama and appeal of sports: the uncertainty of the outcome.

Sportswriters took notice. Rumors were already flying in the press box before the World Series conclusion that something was wrong. Sports journalist Hugh Fullerton had heard these rumors when he arrived to cover the series, though he tried to convince himself and his readers that the story couldnt be true. Still, once the series ended, Fullerton wrote worriedly in the Chicago Herald and Examiner that Yesterdays, in all probability, is the last game that will be played in any World Series.

Fullerton kept pursuing the story and became the first sportswriter to break the details to the public in December 1919, with an article in the New York World entitled, Is Big League Baseball Being Run for Gamblers, with Players In on the Deal?

As more details emerged, the scandal overwhelmed the sport and threatened to destroy it. If the World Series itself, baseballs premier event, could not be trusted, how would the sport survive?

The new baseball commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, acted decisively and independently of the courts. Even after the players were acquitted in a trial that ended on Aug. 2, 1921, Landis a former federal judge had already made his decision.

Regardless of the verdict of juries, he announced, on the morning of Aug. 3, 1921, no player that throws a ball game; no player that undertakes or promises to throw a ball game; no player that sits in a conference where the ways and means of throwing games are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball.

The stunned White Sox players including stars like Shoeless Joe Jackson, who had hit .375 in the series but was nonetheless aware of what his teammates were up to were banned from baseball for life.

Seventy years later, commissioner Bart Giamatti acted in a similarly swift and punitive manner when he banned all-time hits leader Pete Rose from baseball in 1989.

Rose had admitted to gambling on his own games, even as a manager. Some thought Giamatti overreacted, given that Rose never bet against his own team.

That argument, as historian Bruce Kuklick wrote in a 1999 essay, doesnt hold up. Rose, he points out, didnt bet on every game. Its not inconceivable, then, that he would make decisions during games in which he didnt place bets say, not bringing in his best relief pitcher to make sure that reliever would be available for the games he did bet on.

Giamatti surely had 1919 on his mind when he meted out Roses punishment. With the game having barely escaped death once, Giamatti knew that organized baseball couldnt risk skating too close to that edge again.

And yet in August of this year, Major League Baseball made FanDuel a daily fantasy sports gambling service its official gambling partner.

It may be that baseball hopes that gambling will bring more adults back to the sport, just as it did in its early days. After all, attendance at games is down. Football, meanwhile, has become the most watched sport on television in the U.S. Six million viewers even tuned in for the 2019 NFL Draft.

Gambling may fuel more interest in the sport. But throwing on more fuel can result in a fire that burns out of control. In 1919, baseball came close to burning its own house down. One hundred years later, journalist Hugh Fullerton would surely be stunned to know that big league baseball has once again made a contract with gamblers, in full view of both players and fans.

Lets hope the story doesnt end in scandal this time around.

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How gambling built baseball and then almost destroyed it - The Conversation US

Steve Patterson @StevePatTU

WednesdayOct16,2019at9:22AM

A lawyer for three internet cafe operators asked for an emergency injunction to freeze enforcement of ordinances written to close scores of businesses.

A federal judge rejected a request for a temporary injunction stopping enforcement of Jacksonvilles laws banning casino-style electronic games the city calls simulated gambling devices.

A lawyer for three businesses operating internet cafes argued the ban illegally violated free-speech rights by restricting video games central to the cafes, but U.S. District Judge Brian Davis was unconvinced.

This court finds that plaintiffs are unlikely to show that the ordinances run afoul of the United States Constitution, he wrote in an order Tuesday.

Davis said similar arguments already were shot down in federal lawsuits in Tampa and Central Florida, where the internet cafes lawyer, Kelly Mathis, had represented part of the ill-fated organization Allied Veterans of the World.

Allied Veterans was the target of a state racketeering investigation that led to Mathis being arrested in 2013 and sentenced to six years in prison, although the conviction was later thrown out and his law license was restored.

Mathis went to state court last month on behalf of three companies Triad Venture Capitalists, LLC, The Grand Arcade, LLC and Chapman Enterprises of Atlantic Beach, Inc. fighting a law the city adopted in May that would have forced internet cafes to stop using simulated gambling devices by February. The case moved to federal court and the challenge became more immediate after the city adopted another ordinance making the ban effective immediately.

The city ordinances declared places using the banned devices public nuisances because of robberies and shootings that have happened around internet cafes, estimated to number 140 to 160.

Code-enforcement inspectors have been visiting the businesses and issuing cease-and-desist orders requiring them to remove devices that are their main source of income. The judges ruling only decided the immediate request to stop enforcement on an emergency basis, and didnt reach a final decision on the businesses suit.

Steve Patterson: (904) 359-4263

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Judge rejects injunction to stop Jacksonvilles simulated gambling ban - The Florida Times-Union

After repeated delays, the Oregon Lottery says its first foray into online and app-based gaming will launch as soon as tomorrow, Oct. 16.

Scoreboard, which will allow anyone in Oregon to place bets on professional sports, was supposed to be ready in time for the start of the NFL seasonand is now debuting.

But this may be just the start of the Lottery's move online.

Records obtained by WW from the Lottery's correspondence with Gov. Kate Brown's office show Lottery officials hope to add to online gamingoffering Jackpot draws, Scratch-its and Keno online, as well as "second-draws" for losing tickets.

Lottery spokesman Matt Shelby says those ideas are in the early stages.

"Long term, we'd like to [offer other options online], but we don't have any specific roadmap to offer other products for sale via the digital channel," Shelby. "We have focused more on what we won't sell: Video Lottery-type games."

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Oregon Lottery Expects to Debut Online Sports Gambling Tomorrow - Willamette Week

The numbers are in and at first glance they look troubling.

Though there was already a sense that gambling addiction is an issue in Minnesotas Lao community, new research sponsored by Northstar Problem Gambling Alliance (NPGA) has discovered that findings from a community sample suggest elevated problem gambling behaviors.

Serena King, professor of psychology at Hamline University, conducted the two-year project in partnership with the Lao Assistance Center of Minnesota. She emphasized that because her surveys 200 participants were recruited the Lao Assistance Center, it is considered a convenience sample, and not a fully representative population sample of the Lao community in Minnesota.

But the findings were troubling nonetheless.

In our sample, King said, we found a rate of problem gambling behaviors of 24 percent. This number is significant, King explained, because the rate of problem gambling in the larger U.S. population is 1-5 percent.

In September, she discussed the surveys methodology, results and implications at a Problem Gambling and Addiction conference held at Hamline University.

King, one of a small number of academics studying gambling addiction nationwide, said that she was first introduced to this issue by Sunny Chanthanouvong, the Lao Assistance Centers executive director.

Serena King

Chanthanouvong told King that he was concerned because many community members had reported that their loved ones gambling habits had grown out of control since theyd settled in the United States. People told him that in some families, gambling addiction had caused financial ruin, threatened marriages and even resulted in children being separated from their parents.

In Minnesota, the Lao cultural tradition of gambling was intensified by easy access to glamorized legal gambling in the states many casinos, which, King said, are increasingly tailoring gambling options to appeal to the Southeast Asian community.

They have cultural foods, cultural music, culturally themed entertainment, she said. The concern is around a lot of casino gambling and slots. In the community, party betting was seen as common, but slots and casino betting have become the most preferred type of gambling. Slot machines have highly addictive properties. It is one of the most addictive forms of gambling, it can get very expensive.

This isnt the first time this issue had been investigated in Minnesota. About 15 years ago, inspired by reports from Chanthanouvong and others, the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) sponsored an official report on gambling addiction in the Lao community.

Five years ago, DHS commissioned an outside communications firm to hold listening sessions with members of the Lao community. The official DHS report, King said, described meetings with select community members and their perceptions of the serious impact gambling had on the community. Some of the stories people shared were very heart wrenching. It was clear that something needed to be done.

Susan Sheridan Tucker, NPGA executive director, said that while the DHS work was helpful, her organization wanted to take a closer look at the issue. They decided to fund a research project, and reached out to Chanthanouvong and King, inviting them to submit a proposal.

They said, King recalled, We want to support doing research and finding solutions. We want to be part of the solution. This felt like an exciting opportunity.

Chanthanouvong and King proposed conducting a series of in-depth interviews with a sample of 200 Lao immigrants. The interviews would be conducted by Lao Center staff and supervised and analyzed by King. When their proposal was given the green light, they got to work.

Susan Sheridan Tucker

The convenience sample had, King said, a really nice gender balance, with about half women and half men. Most participants were middle aged. Because language was an issue for many participants, interviews were conducted in Laotian by bilingual Lao Center staff.

Going into the research, King had been concerned that subjects might be reluctant to share their concerns if interviewers were not familiar with Lao culture or fluent in the language. Employing Lao Center staff made that concern irrelevant, she said.

Folks really were fairly open with the Lao staff when they answered the questions, which helped us realize that in a community assistance center when the trust is already there with interviewers and the organization, we can have truly open conversations around behavior. This was an important realization.

But that level of comfort and openness also revealed another issue: While interview subjects admitted that they felt gambling addiction presented a significant problem in their community, most said that they did not feel comfortable seeking help through available Western methods.

Even though the majority of our sample answered yes to the statement, I think treatment could help with problem gambling in general, King said, The preferred ways that folks wanted to seek help were more through a community center or a spiritual adviser or a peer or a family member. Not so many people wanted to seek professional, or outside, avenues of treatment for gambling addiction.

What is the best way to help Lao people overcome gambling addiction?

The impulse to avoid Western-style treatment for mental health concerns isnt limited to the Lao community, said Don Feeney, NPGA co-founder and board president. Many immigrant and minority communities report that classic Western forms of addiction treatment dont work for them.

Don Feeney

How much have we learned about the Lao community? Feeney asked. Can we transfer that knowledge to other immigrant communities that we find in Minnesota? Or to what degree do we have to come up with new modules for every individual culture we work with? It is extremely apparent that the model for treatment and prevention that weve been using in the U.S. in many ways does not apply.

Tucker theorized that creating a culturally sensitive approach to addiction therapy may require starting over from the beginning.

Right now, the standard treatment for problem gambling is talk therapy, she said. But even the words talk therapy dont translate well into Laotian. So, there is a great need to really open this up and understand the problem from the peoples perspective.

To do this, Tucker added, researchers and mental health experts must dig deeper, finding answers to questions like, What are the best messages that we can put out to the community for prevention purposes? How can we destigmatize addiction overall and certainly destigmatize gambling?

While gambling is traditionally rooted in the Lao community, Tucker said, some of the studys interview subjects expressed shame around the idea that members of the community have become addicted.

Within Southeast Asian communities and the Lao community, gambling is very much imbedded into the lifestyle, Tucker said, This is just a part of who they are. That is not to say they are all people with gambling addiction, but some are addicted. What can we offer for those that are addicted? We need to turn to the community for some of these answers.

King said that she hopes that she and Chanthanouvongs research will help move addiction research in that direction.

This study really is an example of how and why we do need to do the work of looking at the cultural embeddedness of addiction and mental health in general, King said. This is a perfect example of how within a community, behaviors may be culturally specific.

For instance, the accepted Western recovery notion that in order to develop a healthy relationship with addiction, an individual must completely cut the addictive substance or behavior out of their lives, may not apply.

So much of addiction treatment in the U.S. is focused around an abstinence requirement, Feeney said. Your treatment is not considered successful unless you no longer gamble or drink or use, but in the Lao community, gambling is very much a part of the culture. It is part of every major event. If we are to tell people who are struggling with gambling addiction, You cant gamble or associate with people who do, you are saying you have to cut yourself out of your own culture. That clearly wont work.

Feeney said that King and Chanthanouvongs research underscores an issue that has been simmering in the addiction treatment community for years: If we want more people to find a life free of addiction, we need to make addiction treatment work for everyone.

In the 12-step approach to addiction recovery, Feeney said, There are tremendous generational differences that we havent begun to accommodate. There are gender differences that we are only starting to accommodate, though I think we are further along in that than we are in other areas. Then there is the whole slew of ethnic differences, even within people who have been in the U.S. for multiple generations.

Add immigrant communities to the mix, and the issue gets even thornier, Feeney added: There are all kinds of cultural differences that havent been factored in. Ive had some people say to me that the 12 Steps are basically a Christian model. There are ways it is completely incompatible with Buddhist culture.

Developing approaches to addiction treatment that meets the needs of all Minnesotans is essential, Tucker said.

As our state becomes more diverse it is really important that we understand how different communities respond to mental health issues. We need to ask ourselves, How can we best create services that are accessible and culturally appropriate?

King said she hopes that her studys findings will be the start of something bigger.

What Im hoping for is a larger initiative, a larger agenda around bringing community leaders and organizations together to be thoughtful about how do we make gambling treatment or intervention or harm reduction accessible to communities that are not traditionally served or typically reached by our Western methods. she said. How do we bridge that gap? How do we take what science knows and make it accessible? The issue there becomes that we are so far apart from each other and the ways in which we talk.

The more than 140 attendees at the Hamline University conference all had different perspectives on the issue of gambling addiction, but there were some points on which most agreed, Tucker said.

Part of what we heard in the panel discussion at the conference is that when were talking about addiction treatment, we need to be listening to the people in the community, Tucker said. They know themselves best. There needs to be communication with health professionals, but theres got to be this really collaborative effort that that takes place whereby the design of any treatment program is reflective of their culture.

Tucker also emphasized that conference organizers made it clear that the Lao community shouldnt be singled out as a community of gambling addicts.

We are being very careful, Tucker said. We dont want people to think, Those Lao people are a bunch of gamblers. We want to be careful of how that gets characterized. The study was a key first step, she said, but there is more work to be done, not only in Minnesotas Laotian community, but also in other communities as well.

It was important information because there is little to no data around immigrant populations and problem gambling. This is one particular community where we are seeing that there is significant impact. I can tell you if we do some further digging in other communities, we would find similar kinds of statistics.

Ongoing research on the topic has to be carefully conducted, she added: Just talking to people is not enough. You have to do scientific surveys. It has to be properly done. You dont want to throw out anecdotal information. That is not helpful to a community.

Another concept that was discussed at the conference was cultural perspectives on mental illness and addiction.

In certain cultures, in particular in Southeast Asian cultures, the definition of mental health is very different than what is perceived in Western culture, Tucker said. The idea of going to treatment is a foreign concept. In the Lao community, they look at themselves in a more holistic way. They think about mind, body and soul being connected. That doesnt always jibe with traditional Western treatment. That may be why there has been a reluctance among many immigrant groups, particularly the Lao, to seek out treatment for gambling addiction.

In some cultures, even calling an anonymous help line for assistance and advice on gambling addiction may be a hard sell, Feeney said.

You also have varying degrees of stigma from culture to culture about the whole idea of seeking treatment for mental health issues. There are some cultures where you dont take that thing outside of your immediate family. The idea of calling a help line and talking about your problem with a stranger or going to a group therapy session is inconceivable.

In many ways King said the conference felt like a launching point for her research. Now that the larger addiction community has seen what she and Chanthanouvongs interviews uncovered, shes looking forward to the next step, and hoping that others will join her.

What Im hoping for, King said, is a larger initiative, a larger agenda around bringing community leaders and organizations together to be thoughtful about how do we make gambling treatment or intervention or harm reduction accessible to communities that are not traditionally served or typically reached by our Western methods. How do we take what science knows and make it accessible to individual communities? The issue is that we are so far apart from each other and the ways in which we talk. We need to put our heads together to figure out how to bridge that gap.

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Study of problem gambling in MN's Laotian community suggests the need for fresh treatment approaches - MinnPost

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The gambling market size is expected to post a CAGR of close to 5% during the period 2019-2023, according to the latest market research report by Technavio. Request a free sample report

The high penetration of smartphones is one of the major reasons for market growth. The number of smartphone users is expected to cross 3.6 billion by 2023. This increase in smartphone penetration is attributed to the declining average selling price (ASP) of smartphones and developments in communication network infrastructure. Moreover, users are rapidly shifting from desktop to mobile devices for playing casino games. Smartphones are becoming one of the major platforms for online gambling as they provide ease of access to casino games and e-sports betting.

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As per Technavio, the use of AI in online gambling will have a positive impact on the market and contribute to its growth significantly over the forecast period. This research report also analyzes other important trends and market drivers that will affect market growth over 2019-2023.

Gambling Market: Use of AI in Online Gambling

Enterprises across various industries are implementing AI solutions to improve their business processes. Gambling operators are also incorporating AI technology into their online gambling websites to improve user experience. Land-based casino operators are using AI to analyze the risk appetite behavior of the users, find the most lucrative player, and predict the winners and losers during casino games. This helps in making the decision to provide incentives and freebies to users. Thus, the increasing use of AI is expected to drive market growth during the forecast period.

Apart from the use of AI in online gambling, other factors such as the use of bitcoins in gambling, and the growing number of mergers and acquisitions will have a positive impact on the gambling market growth during the forecast period, says a senior analyst at Technavio.

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Gambling Market: Segmentation Analysis

This market research report segments the gambling market by platform (offline gambling, and online gambling), type (lottery, betting, and casino), and geography (APAC, EMEA, North America, and South America).

The North American region led the market in 2018, followed by APAC, EMEA, and South America respectively. The growth of the gambling market share in North America can be attributed to factors such as the increasing demand for offline and online gambling games, rise in the number of mobile application platforms, and the increase in casinos, sports betting, online lottery, and online horse betting.

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Some of the key topics covered in the report include:

Market Landscape

Market Sizing

Five Forces Analysis

Market Segmentation

Geographical Segmentation

Market Drivers

Market Challenges

Market Trends

Vendor Landscape

About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions.

With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavios report library consists of more than 10,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavios comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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Global Gambling Market 2019-2023 | Use of AI in Online Gambling to Boost Growth | Technavio - Business Wire