Tag Archives: Topic: Gambling

AP: Private investment groups could place sports wagers on behalf of investors under a proposed law in Nevada that would allow the state to reap millions of dollars in untapped revenue.

AP: Gov. Chris Christie says he’ll take the fight to legalize sports gambling in New Jersey to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary.

AP: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has signed a bill legalizing Internet gambling, making his state the third in the nation to offer online betting.

Hawaii Family Forum: Today, around 150 people gathered at the capitol to demand what they are calling “marriage equality” (another name for redefining marriage.) Tomorrow, (February 12, 2013) they plan to visit the capitol all day. The timing is critical because if nothing happens by Wednesday, than the issue will be off the table for this legislative session. That’s why the push is happening so strongly all of a sudden.

San Francisco Chronicle: Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a bill Thursday that would have made New Jersey the third state to legalize gambling over the Internet, but said he would sign it if it had a 10-year trial period and a higher tax rate on casinos.

The Mississippi Press: A state lottery could be debated in the Mississippi Legislature next year if the issue gets past the House Gaming Committee, headed by a Gulf Coast lawmaker.

CBSNews: A campaign funded by a Hot Springs horse track asked the Arkansas Supreme Court on Tuesday to block a proposed ballot measure that would give a professional poker player the exclusive right to operate casinos in the state.

Salt Lake Tribune: Gov. Pat Quinn on Tuesday rejected a bill to expand gambling in Illinois that would have made way for a land-based casino in Chicago, saying the proposal lacked sufficient regulatory oversight.

NCPA Policy Digest: In the face of slow economic recovery, states are beginning to look to legalizing more forms of gambling as a means of generating revenue. But this approach is utterly misguided . . .

AP: The Maryland General Assembly has passed a measure that would allow a casino to be built in Prince George’s County, just miles from the nation’s capital.

Christian Institute: Betting shops should be allowed to install more high-stake gambling machines, according to a committee of MPs.

Washington Post: Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) really wants a deal to open a sixth casino in his state. So much so that he plans to unveil a draft bill for legislators to eyeball on Friday. His goal is to get it approved in a special session. And if that happens, then Maryland voters get the final say at the ballot box in November. It’s this prospect that has proponents of the state’s marriage-equality law very nervous.

USA Today: Delaware became the first state to enter the realm of legal online casino gambling Thursday with the governor’s approval of legislation that allows for full-service betting websites offering slots play and games like roulette, poker and blackjack.

ABC: Panelists at a major casino gambling conference in Atlantic City say the U.S. Congress is too badly divided to act on Internet gambling, so individual states will start approving it on their own within the next two years.

AP: Casinos are not like Starbucks stores: you really can’t have one on every corner. That’s the word from David Cordish . . .

Baptist Press: Reeling from slowed business and smaller coffers in the wake of a 2006 law to clamp down on the illegal practice of online gambling, the gambling lobby is roaring back in an effort to convince the government to license and regulate betting on the niche game of Internet poker; all online games involving wagering are currently illegal.

Christian Science Monitor: California and New Jersey, each seek more revenue, are leading the states toward Internet gambling, starting with online poker. But this all-too-easy form of gaming would come with at a high cost to society – and government . . . Californians should especially worry about the undue influence of money on lawmakers. Six online-gaming operators have spent $7.7 million on political contributions, gifts to officials, and lobbying in Sacramento over the past two years, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Robert Reich at Christian Science Monitor: Organized gambling is a scam. And it particularly preys upon people with lower incomes – who assume they can’t make it big any other way, who often find it hardest to assess the odds, and whose families can least afford to lose the money. Yet with new, relaxed gambling laws, America is now opening the floodgates.

Atlanta J. Constitution (includes video): Shrugging off increasingly direct calls from the campaign of Rick Santorum to drop out and unite conservatives behind one alternative to front-runner Mitt Romney, Gingrich is spending all of his campaigning time in the two Deep South states before they vote Tuesday.

AP: The gambling website Bodog was shut down and four Canadians were indicted, including founder Calvin Ayre, for illegal gambling . . .

Baptist Press: Kentucky Baptists were victorious in their effort to stop seven casinos from entering the state when a bill fell short of the votes it needed in the state Senate Feb. 23.

WBTV 3: Move over Cherokee Casino, the Catawba Indian Nation wants a piece of the action and plans to go to great lengths to do so.

Baptist Press (includes video of the prayer): When pastor and seminary professor Hershael York took the podium to offer a prayer prior to the Kentucky governor’s address to state legislators, senators and representatives likely didn’t expect to hear an appeal to God to defeat one of the governor’s chief legislative proposals. But they did.

News from The Associated Press: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has signed a bill into law legalizing sports betting in his state – but only after a federal ban on such gambling is overturned.

NYTimes.com: It has been more than four decades since states first began putting numbers runners out of business by starting their own legal lotteries, which now yield them about $18 billion a year. Now several states are thinking about trying to plug budget gaps by profiting . . .

Eastern Pennslvania Citizens Against Gambling: With less than a month’s notice, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has scheduled a public input hearing to be held on a proposal by the developers of a Valley Forge mini-casino to include table games. Eastern Pennsylvania Citizens Against Gambling (EPCAG) formally opposes the proposal . . .

The Washington Post: The state Division of Gaming Enforcement ruled Friday that it would be OK to have a strip club inside the Taj Mahal Casino Resort. It would be Atlantic City’s first so-called “gentlemen’s club” inside a casino in the 33-year history of legalized gambling here.

MinnPost: The state should be protecting its citizens, rather than encouraging them to do something not in their best interest, Prichard adds.

Philadelphia Inquirer: The deadline was 5 p.m. Monday for Philadelphia Entertainment & Development Partners L.P. to appeal its license revocation to the state Supreme Court.

KOLD.com: The summary of the initiative argues that allowing only Indian tribes to run casinos in Arizona has created an unacceptable monopoly.

The Republic: The promotional dollars are slot machine credits that casinos give away to entice people to play.

The Christian Institute: Children as young as twelve should be taught how to gamble “safely”, according to controversial proposals which have been welcomed by the Labour Party.

Boston.com: Massachusetts lawmakers on Tuesday passed a final version of a bill designed to license up to three resort-style casinos and a single slots parlor in the state.

The Hill: The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade will hold a hearing Tuesday to discuss the issue of Internet gambling, which became a hot-button topic in April after the Obama administration cracked down on online poker and other betting sites.

Christian Civic League of Maine: This wide disparity between casino licensing fees in the two states is just one of the reasons why Maine’s casino and racino proposals – Questions 2 and 3 on November’s ballot – are such bad deals, said Dennis Bailey, executive director of CasinosNO!, the grassroots organization opposed to the expansion of casino gambling.

The Boston Globe: The bill would authorize three Las Vegas-style casinos in three regions, and a fourth gambling hall with up to 1,250 slot machines that could be located anywhere in Massachusetts – all of which backers say would generate much-needed jobs and income for the state.

Rasmussen Reports: A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 47% of American Adults still believe states should run lotteries to generate revenue. But that’s continuing a downward trend from 56% in October 2009 and 52% in August of last year.

USATODAY.com: Going to the local convenience store to buy a lottery ticket might be the next common practice to give way to technology.

The Illinois House of Representatives on Monday passed a gambling expansion bill that would bring a casino to Chicago.

Rasmussen Reports:
“The Justice Department recently cracked down on three top online poker websites, but Americans still appear to have more faith in the private sector than in the government when it comes to gambling on the Internet.”

AP: “The crash is illuminating how casinos around New York in many ways treat the city’s Chinese-Americans as their bread and butter, a population with an ancient gambling tradition that will reliably hand over money.”

AP: “Some Nevada lawmakers want the state to be the first to regulate the multibillion dollar, quasi-legal Internet poker industry.”

National Catholic Register: “Edmonton Catholic Schools’ trustees have voted to abolish gambling activities as a source of school funding.”

WNCT: “South Carolina senators are considering whether to legalize friendly games of poker.”

Associated Press: “New Jersey’s governor has signed legislation to allow construction of smaller, ’boutique’ casinos in Atlantic City.”

Associated Press: “New Jersey casino regulators are set to hand out $115,000 in fines Wednesday to Atlantic City casinos who failed to immediately catch a cheating dealer and customer, had a malfunctioning alarm system that let a robber walk away with $8,000 after holding up a cashier, allowed someone other than the winner to fill out tax forms for five slots jackpots, and allowed underage patrons to gamble and drink.”

Associated Press: “Federal officials have indicted the owner of Alabama’s largest casino, four state senators and several top lobbyists in a scheme to buy and sell votes to get electronic bingo legalized.”

USA Today: “Welfare recipients have long been banned from using their benefits for alcohol and tobacco. Some state lawmakers are eyeing the vice of gambling, a move some advocates for the poor see as unnecessary and unfair. Michigan legislators are debating a ban on using public assistance debit cards at ATMs in casinos. In June, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, issued an executive order banning the practice. Minnesota and Arizona also ban it.”

The Olympian: “In a unanimous ruling issued this morning, the Washington state Supreme Court denied a challenge to the state ban on Internet gambling. Two lower state courts came to the same conclusion . . . Justice Richard Sanders wrote the 9-0 opinion which is posted here. Seattle lawyer Lee Rousso, who the court said had played poker online, ad challenged the state law on grounds it violated a part of the federal commerce clause governing interstate business.”

Boston.com (AP): “Six years after the state Legislature legalized gambling, Philadelphia is set to become the largest U.S. city with a casino.”

CBC: “Catholic schools in Edmonton are being told to find new ways of raising revenues outside of casinos and other types of gambling. Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith has ordered all Catholic schools, community groups and other organizations to stop raising money through casinos and other types of gambling starting Oct. 1.”

Breitbart (AFP): “‘Wall Street is, in my view, a bunch of greedy people who control a lot of money with large investment companies who can manipulate the market,’ he says. ‘I don’t have that ability, I am at the mercy of these people and with their automatic trading and the other things they can take advantage of, I don’t know what can happen to the market because, you know, it can happen in milliseconds with the automatic trading,’ he said.”

Tom Strode writing at Baptist Press: “When they resume business, the Senate or House, or both, will have the opportunity to advance not only the lifting of a ban on homosexuals in the armed services but other proposals opposed by pro-life and pro-family advocates. Such measures that could receive votes this fall include the authorization of federal funds for stem cell research that destroys embryos; elimination of a restriction on elective, privately funded abortions in military health-care facilities; solidifying repeal of a ban on government grants for organizations that perform or promote abortions overseas, and legalizing Internet gambling.”

Associated Press: “A divisive plan to build a casino near the site of the Civil War’s Battle of Gettysburg is in the mold of many other communities that have successfully meshed gambling with historical tourist destinations, the developer told state regulators Tuesday.”

AP: “The town where the Civil War’s tide-turning battle was waged is fighting dissension in its own ranks, with even hard-core preservationists split over a proposed casino that would rise near the historic battlefield and be named for the line that divided North and South.”

Associated Press: “Vending machines that dispense lottery tickets are headed to Arkansas retailers, after a legislative committee reviewed rules governing the machines but took no action.”

Reuters: “New Jersey’s Atlantic City should be brought back to life by refocusing on its sandy beaches and historic boardwalk rather than increasing state control of its casinos, a poll showed on Friday.”

WTOP: “Proponents of a project to convert Gettysburg’s Eisenhower Conference Center into a gambling casino received new support from a surprising corner — the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association.”

Breitbart: “The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has recently granted the pornography industry with a domain dedicated solely to pornographic sites. Analysts are wondering if the same thing will happen in the online gambling industry as well.”

Boston.com (AP): “Rhode Island lawmakers don’t expect to reconvene to override the governor’s veto of a proposed ballot question authorizing full-scale casino gambling, a spokesman for the House of Representatives said Tuesday.”

Associated Press: “Victoryland casino closed voluntarily Monday as a court ruling loomed that could allow a raid of Alabama’s largest electronic bingo operation, the last non-Indian casino doing business in the state.”

NBC San Diego: “According to Whittier Law School professor I. Nelson Rose, legal sports betting could bring California about $1 billion annually. That’s a big number (see first paragraph). Wright’s committee has a bill on hold that would legalize Internet poker. Would doing so help open the door for sports gambling and the estimated 10,000 jobs it might create?”

Associated Press: “The blame game swung into full fervor Monday as Massachusetts politicians tried to position themselves amid a stalemate over legislation proposing to bring casino gambling to the state.”

Center for Arizona Policy: “This report provides a summary of Center for Arizona Policy’s (CAP) work during the 2010 legislative session.”

Committee on Financial Services Press Release: “Today, the House Financial Services Committee passed legislation to enable Americans to bet online and put an end to an inappropriate interference with their personal freedom. H.R. 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act of 2009 would establish a federal regulatory and enforcement framework under which Internet gambling operators could obtain licenses authorizing them to accept bets and wagers from individuals in the United States. The legislation comes in response to the enactment of Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which restricted the use of the payments system for Americans who gamble online.”

Associated Press: “Senate leaders tried Wednesday to break a legislative logjam over a proposed gambling expansion in Massachusetts, offering two options to their House counterparts.”

The Boston Globe: “[Massachusetts] lawmakers have generated little data to estimate the downside of casinos, the toll that crime and addiction would take on individuals and the expense of additional government services to combat those problems. Now, as the state Senate begins debate today on casino legislation, opponents are seizing on a study done by neighboring New Hampshire in which researchers went to great lengths to calculate the tradeoffs of expanding gambling. By comparison, the opponents argue, Massachusetts legislators have not done enough to consider the fallout from casinos.”

Atlanta Journal Constitution: “An online site, YouWager.com, is allowing people to wage money and opinions on possible outcomes of the federal lawsuit Keeton filed against Augusta State last week.”

BusinessWeek: “Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said Monday that he’s going to court to block a gaming development proposed by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and will hire an outside attorney.”

Associated Press: “Tax revenue figures for the 2009 fiscal year collected by The Morning Call of Allentown show Pennsylvania took in nearly $1.1 billion from its nine casinos. That outpaces the $878 million collected by Indiana and the $831 million by Nevada.”

“The Court of Appeals order reversed a lower court ruling last month that concluded the local ordinance was part of an appropriation package for maintaining state and local government and thus is not subject to a referendum.”

NC Family Policy Council: “After more than two hours of debate, and by a vote of 86–27, the North Carolina House gave final approval Wednesday night, July 7, to an enhanced ban on video gambling in the state. HB 80—Ban Electronic Sweepstakes now goes to Governor Perdue to be signed into law.”

Associated Press: “Massachusetts lawmakers enthralled with the lure of easy casino cash are having a tough time squaring the 24-hour world of smoke-filled, free-booze gambling haunts with the state’s Puritan roots and high-minded liberal reputation.”

Boston Globe: “State senators passed an amendment to the casino bill this afternoon, on a 33-5 vote, that would set aside about $3 million to help needy senior citizens with their property taxes.”

AP: “Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri vetoed legislation that would ask voters to decide whether the state’s two slot parlors can become full-fledged casinos, saying it left ‘critical financial information’ unknown and complaining that it took too much power out of the hands of communities.”