Addiction Cited as Cause for Fraud
With the rise in gambling, there are inevitably going to be new issues to deal with. Almost every city and state is toying with the idea of legalizing and regulating online gambling and gambling in general. They see the huge tax-revenue dollar potential of the move and most don’t have other options in terms of bringing in the millions of dollars needed to overcome the repercussions of the recent recession. Despite the huge dollars attached to legalizing gambling, there is still a portion of legislators who want to tread with caution into gambling territory. They believe that legalizing and regulating online gambling will inevitably bring more problems than possibly it is worth. They believe that it will bring a natural increase in crime, corruption, money laundering and addictions. Without the proper safeguards in place, this could mean a bigger issue to deal with after gambling is legalized. For example, if you increase the gambling pool by one-million people, statistics show that fifteen percent will have some type of gambling problem and need some type of treatment—whether outpatient or in-patient. That means that a huge segment of the population will now need the resources addiction services afford and that means big dollars. Opponents of legalizing gambling believe that the cost for these resources could all but usurp the money being brought in by gambling in the first place.
Thanks to the gambling changes that have already been made, some interesting cases are in place. For example, in Albuquerque, New Mexico a unique issue has arisen. A stockbroker from the city confessed to theft. He stole more than $400,000 from his clients and now has been found guilty and has to repay the money. How is he going to do that? The court approved an interesting deal for him. If Samuel McMaster Jr. is able to earn back enough money via tournaments to repay the debt, he can remain a free man. That is a tall order though due to the amount of money needed but it still offers him an interesting way of maintaining his freedom. McMaster has a 6-month long period to earn the cash from poker tournaments and if he is unable, then he will go to jail. This is just one more case of a person who is working an uncommon deal for gambling-related missteps.
