Late Saturday night, California Governor Gray Davis vetoed a bill (AB 2760) that would have allowed Internet betting on horseracing in California.
The bill would also have provided new protections for racetrack “backstretch” employees including badly needed standards for living conditions such as housing, establishment of a health and welfare fund, and the right to organize for collective bargaining purposes. In a message addressed to the California Senate, Davis explained, “If this bill contained only the backstretch provisions, I would sign it. However, I cannot support the provisions lifting the State ban on Internet and telephone wagering.”
Racing interests strongly sought advance-account wagering to compete with Internet betting sites. If Davis had not acted late Saturday, the bill would have automatically become law at midnight.
The Thoroughbred Information Agency has the report.
Crime at Crown Casino Exposed
The illegal activities of hundreds of criminals at Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia — owned by the Packer family company PBL — are revealed in previously suppressed documents obtained by the Herald Sun newspaper. The documents detail crime at the casino during an 18-month period between 1998 and 2000, and include descriptions of 274 thefts, 45 fraud and extortion cases, two armed robberies, 34 bashings, sexual assaults, possession of counterfeit money and five bomb threats. Police are currently investigating loan sharking, a practice they are concerned is widespread. Victorian Council on Problem Gambling spokesman Rob Wootton says loan sharks charge as much as 10 percent interest a week on cash loans to Crown gamblers. He says gamblers sell their cars, jewelry, and other possessions in and around the casino to loan sharks to continue gambling. Wootton knows of two people who were assaulted after failing to repay loan sharks on time. “It is pretty standard for organised crime to become involved; it’s standard around the world (at casinos),” says Wootton. “But I must say the casino and the VCGA [Victorian Casino and Gaming Authority] are pretty good at observing it, studying it and minimizing it.”
News Limited has story from the Herald Sun.
Gaming Regulations: A Summit Topic of Interest
The evolution of gaming regulations will be the topic of one of the more than 20 seminars and keynote addresses that will be delivered at the 8th Annual Southern Gaming Summit, to be held at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center in Biloxi on May 9 and 10 with casino en ligne. Bill Eadington, economics professor and director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno, will lead the seminar, “Gaming Regulations: Are the Strings Too Tight?” Eadington explains, “Regulation now days is done in the ‘velvet hammer’ context, where regulators say to the industry, ‘Do it yourself or we’ll do it for you.’ The gaming industry is realizing it is best to act in its own enlightened self- interest, becoming proactive and pre-empting the need for further regulation.” Eadington’s seminar will educate gaming operators on the importance of solving serious issues before the debate on those issues travels up the regulatory chain. “If you don’t deal with an issue that is a serious concern, then someone else will deal with it for you, and it typically follows the chain from operator to regulator to legislature. Unfortunately, the competence decreases as hierarchy proceeds,” maintains Eadington.
PR Newswire has the complete press release regarding the Summit.
