Casino Folk Pages

DAVID AMMONS ,AP Political Writer, source http://ap.org/

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Problem gambling activists, concerned about teen gambling and a television-promoted poker craze, are pushing legislation to lift the gambling age from 18 to 21, to match the legal drinking age.

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, and Rep. Mary Helen Roberts, D-Edmonds, introduced legislation in both houses on Friday.

The measure is championed by Second Chance Washington, an advocacy group that secured financing last year for treatment and prevention of problem gambling.

“This is a sensible step that brings Washington’s gambling age in line with the drinking age, and the laws of most other states,” said Jennifer McCausland, the group’s director.

“Nobody wants to go to the bank with profits earned turning teens into gambling addicts, and that is why the bill has earned such broad bipartisan support in both houses,” she said.

The legislation would raise the gambling age on all forms of legalized gambling, including racetracks, cardrooms and mini-casinos, the state Lottery, church bingo, punchboards and pulltabs, and Reno nights by charitable groups and high schools.

Second Chance spokesman David Goldstein said most tribal casinos and many cardrooms already have a minimum wage requirement of 21. Tribal compacts prohibit minors in casinos that serve alcohol.

Goldstein said the tribes and most cardroom operators aren’t expected to oppose the legislation. Racetracks, the state-run lottery and other forces probably will line up against the bills because they don’t want to lose revenue, he said.

Gambling is the nation’s fastest-growing teen addiction, in part caused by the poker craze that is promoted on television by celebrity players and big jackpot matches, Goldstein said in an interview.

The group cited a 1999 study that showed 70 percent of teens reported gambling, with an estimated 6 percent possibly addicted.

“Gambling can be just as addictive as drugs and alcohol,” McCausland said in a statement. “Teens and their parents need to know that they’re not just gambling with money, they’re gambling with their lives.”

Kohl-Welles said Internet gambling and poker have become the rage and that some youth get hooked, literally. She recalled seeing stores promoting poker sets as a family gift at Christmas.

“The apparent increase in gambling among youth is staggering,” she said. “All of the West Coast states and Idaho and Nevada have set the age at 21 and only two of our Indian casinos allow people under age 21 to gamble.”

Roberts said new brain research that shows some adolescents lack the development they need to comprehend the link between action and consequences, and get into addictive behavior.

“Since there is a potential for a (gambling) problem, just as we treat alcohol, let’s delay that experience to allow three more years of maturity that hopefully will bring them greater judgment and more discipline,” she said in an interview.

The Senate bill will be heard by Kohl-Welles’ Labor and Commerce Committee on Jan. 26. Marty Brown, Gov. Christine Gregoire’s legislative director, said the administration has no position on the legislation yet. The lottery and legislative staff are developing an estimate of the revenue loss if the bill passes.

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The bills are Senate Bill 6523 and House Bill 2872.

This is one of the worst casino’s i have played at! It is supposably a “clasiic”, “going to stick around for a while”, casino. But although I have gotten my cashouts each time, they say 5-7 business days, AFTER the 7 days has come and gone I contact customer support via liveperson (this is one of the good features) most of the time i end up waiting for 20 minutes after i type in my question to even get an acknolegde that i am even there, then they always follow with “let me check your account” which aperently their computers are from the 1950’s because it takes them half an hour to access my account, then they almostalways reply with “your withdrawl will be processed by the end of the business day today, for sure”. well i do wait the day, then the next day (99% of the time wasnt processed) i contact them back. i wait the same 20 mins before they know I’m alive,, the same half hour to access my account, and then get the responce “your withdrawl will be processed b!y the end of the business day today, for sure”!!!! by the 3rd day i usually phone their 800# and when i talk to someone the usually say
“please contact us in a couple hours via liveperson”. Well i’m not gonna repeat it again but your know what happens when i contact them in a couple hours. By the 4th or 5th day SUPRIZE…… it gets processed. Then i have to wait 24-48 hours for the funds to get to my online account . Since i started playing here I have cashed out a total of about 50 times, the first 5 or so went smoothly, but after that, there wasnt a single one that was processed on time.

Matthew Lynn , http://quote.bloomberg.com

Interested in owning a casino? Or cultivating yogurt? Or making some high-quality sparkling wines?

Well, stay out of France. Even if you think it’s the best country in which to do business in those fields, forget it. Unless you’re French, you’re banned.

When you look at the industries that France thinks are vital to its future, it’s helpful to remember that surrealism was originally a French movement.

On Dec. 31, the French government published a decree that allows the state to block foreign takeovers in 11 designated industries linked with national security. It will have the power to prevent anyone buying companies in areas such as defense equipment, private corporate security, cryptology and the production of vaccines against bio-terrorism.

And casinos.

Hold on, casinos are vital to the national interest?

It seems so. Perhaps French politicians have been watching too many James Bond films where the suave spy nails the villain at the roulette wheel while sharing a martini with a Russian temptress.

Not quite. According to French Finance Minister Thierry Breton, casinos were added to the list closed to foreigners because such establishments could be used for money laundering and financing terrorism.

Of course, once you use a brush that broad, just about any industry can be added to the list. How about pizza delivery or kebab shops? Couldn’t they be used to finance terrorism? And banks — aren’t they sometimes unwittingly involved in money laundering?

Champagne Takeover

There are some strange things regarded as vital to the security of the French state these days.

Rewind to last September. Champagne house Taittinger SA was facing a potential takeover from Belgian tycoon Albert Frere, after it had fallen into the hands of Starwood Capital Group LLC. According to Les Echos newspaper, a meeting was convened in the French president’s Elysee Palace in Paris to find a way of keeping the brand in domestic ownership. The quest was for a “French solution,'’ the newspaper said.

That’s champagne off-limits. And don’t even think about trying to buy a yogurt company.

Last July, market traders were excited by speculation that PepsiCo Inc. might make a takeover bid for Groupe Danone, the world’s largest yogurt producer. French President Jacques Chirac immediately swung into action.

`Vigilant and Mobilized’

“As regards a large French company like Danone, the government and I are particularly vigilant and mobilized,'’ Chirac said on television. “The priority for France is to protect its industrial competitiveness and the strength of its companies.'’

A takeover of Coca-Cola Co. would have been easier for Pepsi than a purchase of the French company. Even if Pepsi had been contemplating such a move, it was understandably frightened off.

The government continues to pour money into preserving in aspic the national identity of the French economy. In his New Year’s address to the nation, Chirac announced more tax breaks to encourage companies to keep factories in France. Relocating production to countries with lower costs or more flexible labor laws is always an option for French companies.

There are two charges to be leveled at the latest French outburst of hyperactive protectionism.

Double Standards

The first is hypocrisy. The second, and more serious, is that the state has misunderstood how to nurture the industries that are vital to its economic future.

Nobody could dispute that France is guilty of double standards. After all, plenty of French companies have been busily acquiring international competitors.

Last year, France’s Pernod Ricard SA completed the takeover of the U.K.’s Allied Domecq Plc, the owner of beverages such as Beefeater gin and Ballantine’s whiskey.

Aren’t those brands intrinsically British properties?

Indeed, when you pause to look at the holdings that Pernod has built up, it includes Jacob’s Creek wines and Wild Turkey bourbon. Both of them are brands that are undeniably Australian and American, respectively. Likewise, how is it that Accor SA operates the Motel 6 chain in the U.S., a trademark that is about as American as Elvis Presley and hamburgers.

French companies have done well establishing themselves in global markets. Shouldn’t firms from other countries have the same rights?

Wrong Approach

The French government has got it wrong. There is something comical about protecting industries such as casinos, champagne and yogurt, no matter how good Chirac’s intentions are.

In a world of fast globalizing manufacturing, it is hard to see how a high-cost, regulated economy such as France can prosper, particularly now that euro membership has ruled out the option of devaluing its currency.

In time, French car manufacturers such as Renault SA may be forced to move all of its production out of France. Even the world- beating Airbus SAS may struggle to carry on assembling its planes in Toulouse.

In a post-industrial economy, the French will still be world leaders in tourism, luxury goods and food. You can’t take a casino from the Cote d’Azur to New Delhi and preserve its magic. You can’t make a sparkling wine in Argentina and expect it to be champagne.

That will be true whoever owns French companies. The industries in which the French lead the world will do fine, whether they are protected by the government or not. Indeed, they will do better if they are exposed to competition, instead of being shielded by the walls of Fortress France.

I am having problems getting a casino that I have played at for some time now to send me a withdrawal and I found our web site and found it very interesting. The casino I am reffering to is BlackWidow. I feel as if I am getting the run around with these people and what concerns me is that at there casino they have these progressive slots that have not had in play for some time now and they say that its temporaly and some of there card tables cant be played

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