Casino rumblers

You can bet the ponies, buy a lottery ticket, play bingo, head to a casino or maybe soon play video poker at the corner bar (legally).

Add to those gambling opportunities the latest plot to save horse racing in Illinois: Online and on-the-phone horse race betting.
The Illinois Racing Board on Tuesday OK’d the plan. Board Director of Mutuels Robert Lang said the estimated handle is conservatively $60 million but could hit $100 million a year.

The state’s gain from letting you bet at home: $1.05 million on the conservative end and $1.75 million on the high end.

Sounds to us like sustenance for poultry, not horses.

A few numbers to chew on:

* In 2008, the total amount bet at or on Illinois horse races was $818.6 million, a 12 percent drop from 2007. The state put $7.3 million in its coffers from it.

* The state’s casinos that year took in $1.57 billion, a drop of 21 percent. They paid $566 million in taxes.

* The Illinois Lottery took in $2.08 billion during 2008 — its highest tally ever. The state’s schools got $657 million from it.

The point of all this is that online race betting is being touted as the newest boost to Fairmount Park Race Track in Collinsville. Past efforts to help it have included failed proposals to install slot machines at the track and giving it a slice of the casino revenues, the legality of which the U.S. Supreme Court is pondering.

We can’t get specific numbers because of contracts and lawyerly advice to the state racing board, but here’s some voodoo math based on guesses. Say Fairmount’s online partner, tvg.com, takes in one-third of the estimated $60 million Illinois handle. The track stands to make about 4 percent of that $20 million, or about $800,000.

Will $800,000 fix what ails Fairmount Park? Unlikely, but it might make them feel better.

The question is, how lucky do you feel knowing the state is sponsoring yet another come-on for you to be a gambler?

That office betting pool might not be such a good idea after all.

According to the National Council on Problem Gambling, as many as 12 million Americans could have some sort of gambling problem. And it turns out at least some of that gambling could be happening in the workplace, either through office pools or through online gambling.

“There is some blocking software available, so administrators can take some steps,” said Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling.

Online gambling is one of the most visible signs of gambling problems among employees and perhaps one of the most easily remedied. But the fact remains many signs are not as apparent, which put employers in a difficult position for identifying and getting help for employees in need of it.

The first thing to keep in mind is that gambling can be addictive. However, the social stigma of it being a personal problem makes some employers reluctant to address it in the same way they might address depression or drug addiction among employees.

“While many offices will not have a policy (addressing problem gambling), or look on something like a college betting pool as a team-building thing, be aware that for some people that can be an addiction,” Whyte said.

Just how common is it? Roughly 66 percent of callers to one Employee Assistance Program indicated that employees gamble in the workplace, according to data collected by the council. At the same time, 46 percent of callers said it negatively impacts workplace productivity.

Warning signs of problem gambling include borrowing money from coworkers, unexplained financial problems, substance abuse and mental health problems, mood swings due to winning and losing streaks and suggestions by co-workers that an employee has a gambling problem.

Employees with gambling problems might make excessive use of telephones to call bookies or get credit, take company vehicles to casinos and other gambling establishments, regularly arrive late to work, refuse to take days off, organize betting pools among co-workers and, in perhaps the worst cases, embezzle and defraud customers to get money.

Sometimes distinguishing between problem gambling and other mental health problems isn’t easy.

“The hard part is (the symptoms) are the same for anxiety, depression or any other mental health issue,” said Steve Burton of the Problem Gamblers Help Network of West Virginia. “The difference is the need for money.”

That’s why experts recommend making problem gambling one of a host of health issues for which employers offer assistance. They should have brochures and posters in the workplace directing employees to places they can get help, including the hotline 1-800-GAMBLER. Plus, experts say employers can schedule workshops or luncheons to address the issue of problem gambling and other mental health issues.

“The key to it all is to have information in the workplace,” Burton said.

Everyone will agree, even the online casinos themselves, that it’s always good news when a player wins a big jackpot. And when I say big jackpot, I mean really big jackpot. In the online gambling world, there are millions up for grabs at any given moment, and the reality of actually becoming a millionaire gambling at an online casino does indeed exist.

Take, for example, the recent Ј1,031,985 progressive jackpot win by a player in the UK. Struck on the popular Microgaming software network, which quite frankly, has the largest aggregate jackpots of any other online casino software network in business today, the news wasn’t that surprising considering just how many millionaires have been spawned over the short 10+ years online gambling has been in existence.

Details of the win show that it was hit on the popular King Cashalot video slot, which can be played from any Microgaming Casino (so long as you are not from the U.S.) See the OCS Microgaming Casinos page for our top picks. Currently, the largest aggregate progressive jackpot is the wildly popular Mega Moolah video slot, no valued at approximately $/Ђ/Ј 5.25 million.

The player, who is known only as Mr. S. due to privacy laws, made a Ј2.25 wager to get the reels to relinquish their prized wares. Not a bad return at all. While he most likely spent more than that leading up to the jackpot, Mr. S. surely got his money’s worth and should be considered very lucky being in the right place at the right time.

Now, all he has to do is wait patiently for his one-time payment. While the typical procedure at online casinos is to pay out large jackpots in installments, since this was a true progressive jackpot, the player receives all the cash up front. Not even tax money is taken out, although it is highly advised players do so on their own. It’s safe to say that after winning a Ј1 million plus jackpot, hiring an accountant would hardly make a dent.

According to a preliminary press release, the player is on record saying that he wasn’t just shocked when he saw the payout, but that he was flabbergasted. He called in the nighttime early morning hours to verify if it was true and when told, yes, Mr. S. he was going to enjoy a celebratory brandy nightcap.

Online slots tournaments are a pretty common find these days. In other words, it’s not difficult to join a slot tournament on the internet, for just about every online casino (at least the better one’s), offer a slots tournament schedule.

Now, if you’re happy playing small stakes games with small guaranteed jackpots, your options are much better in terms of which online casino(s) you can join. But, if you’re out for the big winnings – I’m talking hundreds of thousands of Euros – there are only a small handful of slots tournaments that will satisfy your winning potential. And, there’s just one online slots tournament that guarantees to turn the first place winner into millionaire (that is, of course, unless they are not already a millionaire to begin with!).

The slots tournament being referred to is none other than the Grand Slam of Slots – and it’s right around the corner. Scheduled for October 22nd through November 2, 2009, the nearly two week long slots tournament is the biggest held all year long. In essence, the tournament started early in the Summer when many of Microgaming’s online casino licensees began hosting qualifier satellite tournaments still taking place to this day.

All Slots Casino, for instance, is hosting daily feeder tournaments, several of which are free rolls. Euro Casino, Ladbrokes, is also hosting qualifiers and has 100 seats to the final which they are giving out by draw. Players need not even join a slot tournament to enter. Simply wager at least 10 pounds inside the online casino between tomorrow and October 20th, and you will be entered into the draw.

In total, 8,700 players will compete in the Grand Slam of Slots, with the top 450 finishers guaranteed cash winnings. That’s the top 5%, which is certainly achievable to a dedicated and smart slots player. Of course, luck always helps out too! As mentioned, the first place winner will take home 1 million Euros, second place nabs a hefty 50,000, second runner up gets 25,000, fourth place grabs 10,000 Euros, and the list goes on. The minimum cash prize is 100 Euros.

There are several Microgaming online casinos participating in the Grand Slam of Slots, but OCS’s topmost recommendation is the Jackpot Factory’s eCOGRA approved, All Slots Casino.

Two major casino companies have been fined by the Missouri Gaming Commission for allowing underage gamblers to play on their properties. Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc., the firm that owns the downtown St. Louis casino Lumiere Place, was fined US$60,000. Ameristar Casino, Inc., the company that owns the Ameristar Casino Resort in Kansas City, Missouri, was fined US$25,000. According to reports, underage players are getting past inattentive security guards.

A MGC investigator testified that he caught six underage players entering the Ameristar Kansas City casino after a security guard allowed them onto the gaming floor. The commission reported that part of the problem comes from a recent referendum that passed a vote in November that repealed the US$500 per day loss limit. The same proposition also repealed the requirement that new customers must sign up for a casino identification card.

MGC Chairman James Matthewson said that the state’s casinos should implement uniform procedures for verifying a player’s identification. Currently, each casino has different processes for checking a player’s age and eligibility to play. MGC Executive Director Gene McNary said that, since the casinos wanted the referendum passed, they should shoulder the responsibility of insuring that underage players do not step on the casino floor.

Michael Winter, executive director of the state’s casino association, said that the underage offenders in Kansas City were quickly caught by on-site security and escorted off the premises. He also said that, of the nineteen million players who have visited Missouri casinos since the passage of the referendum, less than forty players have been cited for being underage.

In the case of each fine, the commission stiffened the penalty over what investigators recommended. With the violations at Pinnacle’s Lumiere Place, investigators recommended a fine of US$25,000, but commissioners increased the severity to US$60,000. In the case of Ameristar Kansas City’s violations, the staff recommended a fine of US$10,000, but the commission upped it to $US25,000.

A spokesman for the Ameristar group stated that the fines were “excessive” and that “mistakes happen”. He also said that the security guard who failed to verify the underage player’s identification was summarily fired

A panel of three judges in the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to stop the increase of slot machine licenses for Native American casinos in the state. While permitting the slot licensing to go forward, the judges turned down a claim made by state attorneys that the slots would cause trouble for the tribes, including traffic congestion and a spike in crime.

According to Stephen Warren Solomon, an attorney representing the tribal operators of the Valley View Casino, the tribe will put the additional slot licenses to use “as soon as possible”. He also mentioned that the tribe has plans for a hotel in conjunction with the casino and that tribal leaders are “ready to go”. Valley View will soon have two thousand slot machines, up from just fewer than five hundred now.

One aspect of the dispute comes from Governor Schwarzenegger’s 2003 campaign, when he told voters that he would make tribal leaders “pay their fair share” of gambling revenues generated on reservation casinos to help aid the state during its budget crisis. Governor Schwarzenegger called for much larger payments from tribal casinos than had his predecessor, Gray Davis, and also called for tribal cooperation with local governments.

Governor Schwarzenegger also sought to use the tribal casino’s request for more slot licenses as a bargaining chip in the negotiations over payments due to the state. A federal judge ruled against the state in August, but Schwarzenegger wanted to delay the process until next year. The appeals court panel refused to allow for the delay, so the California Gambling Control Commission must make the licenses available immediately.

Given the state of the economy, especially in a state beset by budget problems like California, the increase in slot licenses may not be such a boon. Each slot license costs the tribe US$1,250. With gaming revenues down all over the world, any tribal casinos themselves that are looking to expand their banks of slot machines may be in for a big gamble themselves.

A Minnesota state lawmaker has proposed the idea of adding slot machines to the state’s racetracks. Tom Hackbarth, a Republican state legislator for Cedar, Minnesota, said that the increased revenue from slot machines could help to create the revenue to finance a new stadium for the National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings. Experts estimate the cost of a new stadium at nearly US$1 billion, with US$700 million coming from state funds.

Hackbarth recommended that the state amend its constitution to allow slot machines at two Minneapolis-area racetracks, Running Aces Harness Park in Columbus and Canterbury Park in Shakopee. He said that slot machines would be a preferable alternative to raising taxes to generate money for stadium construction. The state has recently finished work on new facilities for Major League Baseball’s Minnesota Twins and for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers football team.

Hackbarth mentioned in a radio interview last week that the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, the indoor facility formerly used by the Twins and the Gophers and currently in use by the Vikings, is no longer up to the task of hosting sporting events or major concerts. The Metrodome was constructed in 1982 as a multi-use facility with artificial turf and a roof inflated by air pressure.

Local residents have expressed concern that, when the Vikings’ lease at the Metrodome expires in 2011, the team’s owners may consider moving the franchise to another city. If Hackbarth’s proposal were successful, the measure would be put before the voters in next year’s general election. If slot machine income were sufficient to cover stadium construction costs, the continued revenue stream would go into the state’s general fund.

A group of native tribes who operate casinos in the state are against Hackbarth’s proposal. A spokesman for the Minnesota Indian Gaming Commission said that his group has doubts as to the level of income such slot machines could generate for the state and if it would be enough to cover stadium construction. With gaming revenues down across the globe, the idea itself could pose a big gamble for the state.