Gambling in US - what's your view?

[tonywojo]

Gaming News: US to help it’s Racing Industry11 June 2009



FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Kentucky's horse racing industry would get a stimulus package of its own under Gov. Steve Beshear's proposal to allow video gambling in the state, with the bulk of the proceeds going to the tracks.

The Kentucky Lottery Corp. would oversee video slot machines to be allowed exclusively at race tracks in the state under the plan Beshear released Tuesday. Military personnel and people who own motor vehicles would also get a financial bonus under the plan.
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"Kentucky's signature horse racing industry is in a state of crisis," Beshear said in a statement. "I believe my proposal will help level the playing field for Kentucky's horse industry."

Beshear ordered Kentucky lawmakers to hold a special session this Monday to address the gambling issue and the state's looming $1 billion budget shortfall. The General Assembly also is to consider legislation to handle new bridge construction and economic development tax breaks.

But the gambling plan - heatedly debated in Kentucky for years - has become the session's hot-button topic.

Twelve other states - including Kentucky neighbors West Virginia and Indiana - allow betters to wager on video gambling machines, slot machines or other casino-style games, according to the American Gaming Association's 2009 State of the States report.

Source: Forbes

[Frank The Bunny]

I don't have a problem with gambling...or a gambling problem.

We have a state-run lottery plus a piece of multi-state Mega Millions, and soon the multi-state Powerball. We've had horse racing as far back as I can remember. In recent decades, indian tribes have been building up mega-casinos on their reservations. They dot the state, and it seems the tribes are flourishing. I remember as a kid, going every summer to the reservation to buy illegal fireworks with my dad and brother. Driving through the reservation past all the run down houses and trailers, it was sad. Seems the tribes are doing pretty well for themselves now.

[JackT]

Gambling should be legal. I do not believe in state-run gambling. I find gambling boring.

[tonywojo]

I don't have a problem with gambling...or a gambling problem.

We have a state-run lottery plus a piece of multi-state Mega Millions, and soon the multi-state Powerball. We've had horse racing as far back as I can remember. In recent decades, indian tribes have been building up mega-casinos on their reservations. They dot the state, and it seems the tribes are flourishing. I remember as a kid, going every summer to the reservation to buy illegal fireworks with my dad and brother. Driving through the reservation past all the run down houses and trailers, it was sad. Seems the tribes are doing pretty well for themselves now.

Thanks Frank - that was pretty damn interesting.

[black francis]

I use to do sports betting with some company in Costa Rica I think. Lots of fun till collection day inevitably came around. Although one week I bought 10 picks from Jim Feist? is it and 9 were correct. I made about $7000.00 that one week which was probably the worst thing that could have happened to me. I thought I was some kind of expert after that. Being hooked on oxycontin at the time probably didn't help my delusions of grandeur.

So long story short I love sports gambling. Indian Casinos not so much.

[tonywojo]

I use to do sports betting with some company in Costa Rica I think. Lots of fun till collection day inevitably came around. Although one week I bought 10 picks from Jim Feist? is it and 9 were correct. I made about $7000.00 that one week which was probably the worst thing that could have happened to me. I thought I was some kind of expert after that. Being hooked on oxycontin at the time probably didn't help my delusions of grandeur.

So long story short I love sports gambling. Indian Casinos not so much.

Again interesting - I have been in the industry since 1990 and im a statistician too much information around

Right on the $7000

What you bet on?

Casinos are deadly.

I see the guys at work falling into the same trap.

[black francis]

I did ten individual bets and parlayed all ten and the parlay missed by 1 point. That would have been an extra oh my God I don't want to think about it. I could be retired right now.

Fucking Dallas Mavericks. All they had to do was lose by one or better. They were up 24 with 12 minutes to go and I was calling friends, celebrating, dancing, drinking and the Lakers came back and beat them by 2.

We called our bookie "Lead Pipe Sean" some dude skipped out of town owing like $30,000. Our bookie flew to his home told him the money had better be in his account by the time his plane landed or he was coming back. I don't know how but the money was there.

I remember my buddies, grown men, tough guys in tears cause they didn't know where they'd come up with the money.

God I miss that.

[withahip]

I don't care - just wish New York State would quit selling U.S. land to the Indians for their gambling revenue and hollow promises of kick backs.

[JackT]

I use to do sports betting with some company in Costa Rica I think. Lots of fun till collection day inevitably came around. Although one week I bought 10 picks from Jim Feist? is it and 9 were correct. I made about $7000.00 that one week which was probably the worst thing that could have happened to me. I thought I was some kind of expert after that. Being hooked on oxycontin at the time probably didn't help my delusions of grandeur.

A month later you were giving zjs behind the 7-11.

[zabird]

I don't care - just wish New York State would quit selling U.S. land to the Indians for their gambling revenue and hollow promises of kick backs.

I got no problem with gambling, casinos, betting on whose pirogue is gonna come in first in the pirogue races on the bayou. That said, my great-grandfather won my great-grandmother in a card game (or so my grandma hinted a few times) and then years later lost his land in another hot game of bourré.

Lot of fighting in some of the so-called casino tribes over profits. whole families getting removed from the tribal rolls against their will, etc. On the other hand, didn't the Bunnyboys play at that Indian casino near Palm Springs a few years ago?

[Dr Evil]

I am deadly to casinos.

[tonywojo]

Its great to see the view from across the water.

I sometimes get lost in the sea of information I have to deal with every day.

But it's fun - better than working.

Some good and sad stories there.

[tonywojo]

International iGaming: California to flirt with iGaming?18 June 2009


California’s urgent need for cash to prop up state coffers after a proposed US$25bn budget deficit presents online poker with its best chance of being legalized.

IF ANYTHING is going to get US politicians engaging with the toxic topic of legalising online gambling, it’s cash. And nowhere in America more so than in California, where a range of emergency measures to fix the state’s projected US$25bn budget deficit was rejected by voters this month.

As reported on EGRmagazine.com, the failure to pass the measures could see America’s most populous state, which would be the world's eighth largest economy if it were a country, go seriously into debt by the end of this financial year, providing a boost to a framework bill proposing licences for legal, taxed intrastate online poker to swell state coffers.

Jim Tabilio is president of grassroots gaming advocacy group Poker Voters of America (PVA), which sponsored a framework bill in 2008 which passed the state's lower house. He said: “The framework bill has a majority in support of the concept in both the Assembly and the Senate, and has a group of legislators including people in the leadership in both houses ready to take it forward.”

The bill was introduced by California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine last year, but dropped down the legislative agenda when the economic downturn diverted attention elsewhere and Levine left office at the end of his maximum second term.

Tabilio said he had been instructed by members of the California legislature to continue working on this bill in order for it to meet its goals of consumer protection and raising state revenue. He said the proposal would only allow the approximately 60 native Indian tribes with gaming compacts and 91 licensed land-based card clubs in the state to apply for licences remains in the framework bill.

“It’s a case of writing the bill so that it maximises revenue to the state and participating tribes and clubs. Once that is successful, it becomes a simple matter of having the vote because if everyone is in favour of it, it will pass. This means we’re probably going to be able to get the bill through in mid-summer,” he said.

Temporary regulation

Given the mounting financial pressure California finds itself under, Tabilio thinks the state government would then opt to file for temporary regulatory structures to push the initiatives through, so licence holders could be offering online poker to California residents from as early as January 2010.

If the pro- and anti-lobbies in Cali-fornia can find a way around their differences and the state can focus on the much-needed cash at hand, the bill might have a better than average chance of going through.

As California-based independent gaming lawyer Martin Owens says: “The state of California now can’t afford to ignore anything that might turn into a reasonable source of revenue, and here you have a multibillion dollar industry that is volunteering to be taxed.”

Source: eGaming Review.


money talks!