
A UMass study on gaming attitudes and behaviors is said to be the largest in US history.
Gambling is definitely an important topic in Massachusetts at the moment, as the state prepares for the coming of at least two large resort gambling enterprises 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 through the educational school of Public Health and Health Sciences at UMass Amherst, surveyed nearly 10,000 Massachusetts residents.
That is sufficient to make it the largest gambling study ever completed in the usa.
Survey Establishes Baseline for Future Studies
The study ended up being praised by Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Steve Crosby, who said that it should provide a way that is objective understand the way the state has been impacted by gambling going ahead.
‘The most crucial point is that we are establishing baseline conditions for every socio and economic variable that would be impacted by the introduction of casinos,’ Crosby said. ‘Our researchers will then track changes in those variables over the entire life of the casinos in order to know up to a certainty the effects and also to inform data-driven mitigation strategies for almost any potential negative consequences.’
The study was conducted between 2013 and May 2014, with state residents being selected at random to complete the questionnaire september.
The result was a wide range of information detailing exactly how people in Massachusetts gamble and view different forms of gaming.
As an example, it turns out that about 72 % of respondents reported gambling at least onetime within the previous year.
Most Massachusetts residents (about 60 %) said they played the lottery, while 22 per cent reported that they’d gone to a casino during the year that is past.
Residents Like Casinos, But Not Locally
One hot topic in the spot is how Massachusetts’ new casinos will impact current casino operations in Connecticut. The study suggests that officials in Connecticut are straight to be worried: 65 percent of these Massachusetts residents who went to casinos visited resorts in Connecticut, a percentage that should go way down once the Wynn Everett and MGM Springfield are operational.
The study also looked at just how residents feel about the state’s gambling expansion, which includes a slots parlor and up to three full-scale casinos. The solution was one that was heard in many communities through the state: not in my own backyard.
A very good 59 % most of adults in Massachusetts said which they think gambling expansion will either have a impact that is neutral be advantageous to the state.
However, 46 percent think that gambling expansion could be harmful in their community that is own just 28 percent trust casino expansion would be beneficial locally.
The study additionally found that illegal gambling ended up being fairly common in Massachusetts. About 13 percent of residents had bet on sports in the year that is past while two percent reporting gambling on unregulated online gaming web sites.
More in-depth analysis for the data gathered is expected to be released into the months to come. However, principal detective Rachel Volberg states that the true value in this survey was gathering information before opinions could be shaped by the introduction of casinos.
‘Not many people realize exactly how unusual it’s for the problem gambling study to be completed before some brand new type of gambling becomes available,’ Volberg stated. ‘The Commonwealth is lucky that both the Expanded Gaming Act and the Massachusetts Gaming Commission therefore clearly and forcefully supported this kind of effort and I 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) and then Secretary General of Interpol, Ronald Noble, seal the deal. Interpol has now figured FIFA doesn’t share might values regarding the police community.’ No shit! (Image: cnn.com)
Interpol has frozen a €20 ($22.5 million) donation, paid to it by FIFA, to fund a joint program that is anti-match-fixing.
The integrity that is 10-year Sport initiative was designed 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 is still committed to developing our Integrity in Sport program, i’ve decided to suspend the agreement,’ said Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock. ‘ All partners that are external whether public or private, must share the fundamental values and concepts of the company, aswell as those of the wider law enforcement community.’
The terms and conditions associated with the deal, signed in 2011, state that that FIFA must remain ‘compatible with the maxims, aims and activities of Interpol,’ but, following arrest of seven FIFA officials while the outcome of a massive FBI corruption probe, Interpol may be forgiven for feeling that the soccer governing human body has not held up its end of the bargain.
Why Now?
It begs the question, though, why ended up being casino-online-australia.net Interpol, with its wide-reaching access to an expansive network of police force agencies, unaware of FIFA corruption in 2011?
The British press was crying foul as far straight back as 2006. This was the year that journalist Andrew Jennings published Foul! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote-Rigging and Ticket Scandals. The name says it all.
Also in 2006, Panorama, a BBC affairs that are current, 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 don’t.
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 international police agency constituted more than a quarter of its annual budget.
Finally, though, with FIFA exposed and indicted by the usa, the only nation that dared to hold the organization to task, it had been too much, or to embarrassing, for Interpol to stomach.
On a lighter note, the FIFA communications director Walter De Gregorio cracked a ‘joke’ about his employers on Swiss television this week, and think us, it is a zinger!
‘ The FIFA president, secretary general and communications director are all traveling in a motor car,’ grinned De Gregorio.
‘But that is driving?’ he quizzed.
‘The police,’ he zinged.
Briefly afterwards FIFA announced that De Gregorio had selected 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 attempted 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 over a £2 million ($3.1 million) bounced check.
Based on the Ritz’s filing, Safa Abdulla Al Geabury composed out the check to invest in a gambling session one night in February last 12 months, but it ended up being a dud when the casino tried to bank it the morning that is following.
The Ritz normally seeking an extra £200,000 ($310,000) in accumulated interest on the debt.
This has been reported that the casino, that is owned by reclusive billionaire twins that are identical Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, has been plunged into the red by a variety of unpaid gambling debts, forcing it to pursue its debtors aggressively into the courts.
In line with the London night Standard, the casino has litigated against 10 high rollers in the year that is last in an effort to recoup 2013 losses of £12.5 million ($19.4 million).
Al-Daher Case
Al Geabury’s protection is he is a gambling addict and their staff needs to have known this and stopped him from playing.
He desires the debts written off, but he’s on shaky ground with this line; in 2014 the casino won a similar tall Court battle against Noora Al-Daher, the spouse of the Omani minister that is foreign.
The Ritz sued Al-Daher after she had visited 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 financial obligation. She quickly counter-sued the casino, claiming that the casino had taken advantageous asset 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 alert to her gambling addiction, and also allowed her to cash checks, which she claimed was illegal.
She also said that the casino had been under a ‘duty of care’ towards her, a responsibility which it had failed to fulfill.
Psychiatric Reports
Nonetheless, the court heard that Al-Daher and her family had apparently happily gambled away $5 million in Las Vegas a months that are few her visit towards the Ritz.
In ruling in favor of the casino, the judge said he was certain that, had Al-Daher been refused permission to carry on gambling at the Ritz, she ‘would happen eager and inclined to gamble at other casinos thereafter, and very most likely during her stay in London throughout the days or weeks after 3 April 2012.’
The judge in the Al Geabury case, Mrs Justice Simler, meanwhile, said at a initial hearing that psychiatric reports happen commissioned to assess Al Geabury’s state of head regarding the day he lost the money and whether he had been in charge of his actions.
‘The essence is whether Mr Al Geabury features a gambling addiction and also the claimant’s understanding of that,’ she said.