Gambling and Government Corruption

17 January 2007

141

On 15 January, the Daily Mail revealed a leaked study by the Metropolitan Police, showing that a supercasino will attract organised crime and encourage children to bet.

The Government has sustained sharp criticism for suppressing the report.

‘It is astonishing that such a vital report should have been suppressed’ said Hugo Swire, Tory culture spokesman.

The Government has also kept silent about evidence from Atlantic City USA where the legalising of gambling led to an increase in bankruptcy, sleaze, white collar crime, divorce, homelessness and credit card fraud.

Making Money out of Children

While the Gambling Bill was before Parliament, the Culture Secretary said ‘Gambling is a massive global industry and is entitled to a regulatory framework that ensures continued growth’.

Our Government has certainly kept its word, a rare occurrence indeed. So concerned has Labour been to increase the gambling market that it is now encouraging children to be sucked into it.

The Gambling Act 2005 permits children to gamble on Category D gaming machines, which include machines that are identical to those found in casinos apart from a smaller stake.

In their Statement of Principles on Licensing and Regulation, The Royal College of Psychiatrists has commented witheringly that ‘Only commercial considerations would allow children to have access to such machines. The evidence that they are harmful to children, especially those at risk of antisocial behaviour, is considerable.’
Vested Interests

The RiGT

The Gambling Commission has put The Responsibility in Gambling Trust (RiGT) in charge of researching ‘whether such gambling gives rise to harm or exploitation’, in children. The trust is also responsible ‘to make it less likely that people will become problem gamblers and more likely that those who do will be able to seek and to secure effective help.’ (From the homepage of their website).

Despite these high sounding ideals, the RiGT is funded by the gambling industry. Furthermore, many RiGT trustees are senior executives of gambling trade organisations. Because of their vested interests, Christian Voice believes RiGT is not an appropriate body to undertake research on the harmful effects gambling has on children.

National Director of Christian Voice, Stephen Green, commented, ‘Given the level of political corruption we have witnessed, I am not surprised to find the Government putting the RiGT in charge of helping, so called, “problem gamblers.” The Trust has just as cushy a relationship with the casino industry as has the Labour Government.’

Casino Advisory Panel

On 10 July it emerged that all five members of the Casino Advisory Panel (the body that was responsible for choosing the locations of the casinos) had a conflict of interest. Members of the group have declared 44 interests, which include shareholdings in leisure companies.

One panel member, James Froomberg, had so many conflicts of interests that he was not able to take part in the initial evaluation of 13 applications.

All five members have had to remove themselves from the process of assessing applications at some point because of invested interests.

John Prescott

Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, has also been criticised for having vested interests. Mr. Prescott used his position on the Domestic Affairs Cabinet Committee to deregulate gambling laws and has also chaired the cabinet sub-committee responsible for creating the Casino Advisory Panel.

Mr. Prescott was good friends with Philip Anschutz, whose company is bidding to open England’s first super casino in the Millennium Dome. The two men met socially a number of times. On one of these occasions, Mr. Prescott accepted expensive gifts from Mr. Anschutz, thus breaking the Ministerial Code, which prohibits a public servant from ‘accept[ing] gifts, hospitality or services from anyone which would or might appear to, place him or her under an obligation.’

Mr Prescott acknowledged the meetings but said they had not discussed the sale of the Dome. However, on 6 July, Mr. Prescott admitted he had a formal role with the Dome, and that Mr. Anschutz did give him regular updates.

Advertising

To guarantee the ‘continued growth’ of gaming, the Labour Government has changed the laws on gambling adverts. On the eve of the Super Casino announcement, the Government relaxed a ban that prohibited gambling operators from advertising on television.

At the present time, advertisements by online gaming operators are breaking the law. This is an offence according to the Gaming Act 1968, which is still in force. The gambling advertisements on billboards across the nation are also illegal.

On November 10, 2005 the Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, issued a press notice in which she said, ‘it’s clear that some adverts have been breaking the existing law. I am not willing to turn a blind eye to this and have agreed with the Gambling Commission that we should crack down on advertisers and publishers who knowingly break the law.’

Still this illegal activity continues. The Government has done nothing about it because they don’t want to upset their friends in the powerful gambling industry.

The Bible says those who rule should be: ‘able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness.’ (Exodus 18:21)

WRITE:

If you live in one of the areas chosen for a casino, write to the mayor.

Write to your MP. Even though it is assumed that Parliament will eventually rubber stamp the Casino Advisory Panel’s advice, ask your MP to vote against. Point out that:
Figures produced by a BBC Panorama program last year revealed that as many as 5.8 million Britons visited online gambling sites every month. In January, a Government report announced that the average UK family spends more on gambling than fresh vegetables, fresh fruit or holidays abroad. These figures suggest that the people of Britain already have more than sufficient access to gambling without needing to build even more facilities.
Evidence from other countries show that casinos often lead to an array of social problems, including debt, family breakdown and increased crime.
Statistics show that those on low wages are the ones most likely to lose their money while a handful of wealthy casino owners get richer. Usually it is wealthy foreign corporations that exploit the gambling market, sucking profits out of a local area.
Even if gambling does promote tourism and social regeneration in an area, the end does not justify the means. Gambling teaches the principle of getting something for nothing and it encourages financial waste, greed and lack of self-control. These wrong values are antithetic to a healthy community regardless of whatever benefits we imagine a casino might be bring. But casinos are shown to depress an area anyway.
In their report on the effects of gambling, The Royal College of Psychiatrists noted that occurrences of pathological or problem gambling in a population is directly related to the accessibility of gambling and commercial pressures to take part. It follows that by allowing more gaming facilities and advertising, our Government will directly contribute to an increase in problem gamblers.
The majority of casinos are going up in poor areas even though research from the British Gambling Prevalence Survey shows that those on lower incomes are three-and-a-half times more likely to become problem gamblers.
Statistics show that gambling puts children at risk as parents leave or neglect them to gamble. In the American state of South Dakota, during the fiscal year preceding the legalisation of gaming there were approximately 300 reports of children in need of protective services, while in the following year (after gambling was legalised) that number rose to 500 reported cases, while cases of neglected children rose by 15%.
The Creighton Bankruptcy Study in America found that ‘those counties that legalized casino gambling during the 1990s experienced a cumulative growth rate in individual bankruptcies that was more than double the growth rate for corresponding non-casino counties.’ Business become reluctant to invest money in areas that sustain large gambling industries because of bad debts, delinquent time payments and bankruptcy.