A UMass research on gaming attitudes and behaviors is said to be the largest in US history.
Gambling is definitely an topic that is important Massachusetts at the moment, as the state prepares for the coming of at least two large resort casinos in the next few years.
The University of Massachusetts at Amherst (UMass Amherst) has released a study that gives a baseline for the state of gambling in the state now, one that can then be used to track changes in long term studies in advance of that gaming expansion.
The study, which comes from the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at UMass Amherst, surveyed nearly 10,000 Massachusetts residents.
That’s enough to help make it the biggest gambling study ever completed in the United States.
Survey Establishes Baseline for Future Studies
The study had been praised by Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Steve Crosby, who stated that it should provide an objective way to understand the way the state has been impacted by gambling going ahead.
‘The most crucial point is that we are establishing standard conditions for every socio and economic variable that might be affected by the introduction of casinos,’ Crosby said. ‘Our scientists will then track alterations in those variables within the life time of the gambling enterprises in order to know to a certainty the consequences also to inform data-driven mitigation strategies for any potential negative consequences.’
The survey was conducted between 2013 and May 2014, with state residents being selected at random to complete the questionnaire september.
The outcome was a wide range of information detailing exactly how people in Massachusetts gamble and view different forms of gaming.
For example, it turns out that about 72 % of respondents reported gambling at least onetime over the previous year.
Many Massachusetts residents (about 60 per cent) stated they played the lottery, while 22 percent reported that they’d gone to a casino during the past year.
Residents Like Casinos, Although Not Locally
One hot topic in the spot was how Massachusetts’ brand new casinos will impact current casino operations in Connecticut. The study suggests that officials in Connecticut are straight to be worried: 65 percent of those Massachusetts residents who went to casinos visited resorts in Connecticut, a portion that should go way down once the Wynn Everett and MGM Springfield are operational.
The study also investigated exactly how residents experience the state’s gambling expansion, which includes a slots parlor and up to three casinos that are full-scale. The clear answer was the one that was heard in many communities throughout the state: not in my backyard.
A strong 59 % majority of adults in Massachusetts said they think gambling expansion will either have impact that is neutral be good for the state.
Nonetheless, 46 percent think that gambling expansion is harmful in their very own community, while just 28 percent trust casino expansion would be useful locally.
The study also found that illegal gambling was fairly typical in Massachusetts. About 13 percent of residents had bet on sports in the previous year, while two % reporting gambling on unregulated Internet gaming web sites.
More analysis that is in-depth of data collected is anticipated to be released in the months to come. However, major detective Rachel Volberg claims that the real value in this survey was gathering information before opinions could be shaped by the introduction of casinos.
‘Not many people realize just how uncommon it really is for the problem gambling study to be completed before some new type of gambling becomes available,’ Volberg stated. ‘The Commonwealth is fortunate that both the Expanded Gaming Act and the Massachusetts Gaming Commission therefore clearly and forcefully supported this kind of effort and I also am excited to share our findings before any casinos begin operations in our state.’
Interpol Disbands €20 Million Anti-Match-Fixing Relationship With FIFA
FIFA President Sepp Blatter (right) after which Secretary General of Interpol, Ronald Noble, seal the deal. Interpol has now figured FIFA doesn’t share the fundamental values associated with the statutory police force community.’ No shit! (Image: cnn.com)
Interpol has frozen a €20 ($22.5 million) donation, paid to it by FIFA, to fund a joint anti-match-fixing program.
The integrity that is 10-year Sport initiative was built to stamp out fixed games orchestrated by criminal wagering syndicates, but Interpol stated this week that the FIFA corruption scandal had made the relationship untenable.
‘In light of the context that is current FIFA, while Interpol continues to be committed to developing our Integrity in Sport program, I have determined to suspend the agreement,’ said Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock. ‘ All outside partners, whether public or private, must share the fundamental values and maxims of the organization, aswell as those of the wider law enforcement community.’
The terms and conditions regarding the deal, signed in 2011, state that that FIFA must remain ‘compatible utilizing the maxims, aims and activities of Interpol,’ but, following arrest of seven FIFA officials due to the fact outcome of a massive FBI corruption probe, Interpol may be forgiven for feeling that the soccer governing human body has not kept up its end of the bargain.
Why Now?
It begs the question, though, why had been Interpol, using its access that is wide-reaching to expansive network of police agencies, unaware of FIFA corruption last year?
The press that is british crying foul as far straight back as 2006. This was the year that journalist Andrew Jennings published Foul! The Key World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote-Rigging and Ticket Scandals. The title says it all.
Also in 2006, Panorama, a BBC present affairs program, broadcast a documentary asserting that Sepp Blatter was being investigated by Swiss police for attempting to wallpaper over a FIFA bribery scandal.
The former chairman of the English Football Association, described FIFA as an organization that ‘behaves like a mafia family’ in it, Lord Triesman,
Swiss Humor
A Panorama that is follow-up documentary 2010 accused Issa Hayatou, Vice President of FIFA, of taking bribes. He threatened to sue the BBC, but he did not.
Interpol’s willingness to bury its head in the sand may have been more in regards to the fact that the €20 million FIFA paid to the law that is international agency constituted more than one fourth of its yearly budget.
Finally, though, with FIFA exposed and indicted by the US, the nation that is only dared to support the organization to task, it was too much, or to embarrassing, for Interpol to stomach.
The FIFA communications director Walter De Gregorio cracked a ‘joke’ about his employers on Swiss TV this week, and believe us, it’s a zinger on a lighter note!
‘ The FIFA president, secretary general and communications director are all traveling in a motor automobile,’ grinned De Gregorio.
‘But who is driving?’ he quizzed.
‘The police,’ he zinged.
Briefly afterwards FIFA announced that De Gregorio had chosen to ‘relinquish his office.’
Ritz Club Sues Tycoon Safa Abdulla Al Geabury Over £2 million Gambling Debt.
Safa Abdulla Al Geabury, whose £2 million dud check bounced when Ritz staff tried to cash it the time after his gambling spree. (Image: standard.co.uk)
The Ritz Club, London’s famously high-end, high-roller casino, is suing a property that is swiss more than a £2 million ($3.1 million) bounced check.
According to the Ritz’s filing, Safa Abdulla Al Geabury had written out the check to fund a gambling session one night in February last year, but it turned into a dud if the casino tried to bank it the following morning.
The Ritz can also be looking for an additional £200,000 ($310,000) in accumulated interest on your debt.
It’s been reported that the casino, which can be owned by reclusive billionaire twins that are identical Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, has been casino-online-australia.net plunged into the red by way of a number of unpaid gambling debts, forcing it to pursue its debtors aggressively in the courts.
According to the London night Standard, the casino has litigated against 10 high rollers in the last 12 months alone in an effort to recoup 2013 losses of £12.5 million ($19.4 million).
Al-Daher Case
Al Geabury’s protection is which he is a gambling addict and his staff needs understood this and stopped him from playing.
He desires the debts written off, but he is on shaky ground with this line; in 2014 the casino won an identical tall Court battle against Noora Al-Daher, the wife regarding the Omani international minister.
The Ritz sued Al-Daher after she had checked out the casino in April 2012 and proceeded to lose £2 million ($3.3 million) in a hours that are few. Al-Daher failed to honor £1 million ($1.65) of her debt. She quickly counter-sued the casino, claiming that the casino had taken benefit of her.
Al-Daher had claimed in court that Ritz Club employees encouraged her to continue playing a game title of chemin-de-fer, despite having been made aware of her gambling addiction, and also allowed her to cash checks, which she claimed was illegal.
She also said that the casino have been under a ‘duty of care’ it had failed to fulfill towards her, a responsibility which.
Psychiatric Reports
Nevertheless, the court heard that Al-Daher and her family had apparently happily gambled away $5 million in Las Vegas a few months after her see to the Ritz.
The judge said he had been specific that, had Al-Daher been refused authorization to keep on gambling during the Ritz, she ‘would have been eager and inclined to gamble at other casinos thereafter, and very probably during her stay in London during the days or weeks after 3 April 2012. in governing in favor associated with the casino’
The judge into the Al Geabury instance, Mrs Justice Simler, meanwhile, said at a hearing that is preliminary psychiatric reports were commissioned to evaluate Al Geabury’s state of head in the day he destroyed the money and whether he was accountable for their actions.
‘The essence is whether Mr Al Geabury includes a gambling addiction as well as the claimant’s understanding of that,’ she said.