“Trying risky behaviors is a normal part of being an adolescent but becomes problematic when it starts to cause harm. While one in 62 youth were gambling problematically at age 17, a quarter of them (were) gambling in a harmful way three years earlier.”
—Maria Bellringer, Gambling and Addictions Research Centre, Auckland University, who says gambling is a generational problem among Pacific youth
“The blocking of transactions that are registered under a gambling and lottery merchant code as well as capping cash advance balances are just some of the steps we’re taking to support the financial wellbeing of our customers.”
—Ben Perham, head of personal banking at Macquarie, on the bank’s decision to ban customers from using credit cards to pay for gambling transactions
“Australian banks have been gouging millions from gamblers by treating credit card deposits as cash advances which carry high up-front fees and instant excessive interest charges running to nearly 20 percent. Rather than collaborating with a largely foreign-owned predatory industry and joining with them to make excessive profits from debt-funded gambling, Macquarie demonstrated great social leadership.”
—Tim Costello, Alliance for Gambling Reform, calling on the Big 4 Australian banks to follow Macquarie and “dump the global gambling companies”
“Operating an IR casino over the objections of an unpersuaded public is totally unacceptable.”
—Letter to Yokohama Mayor Fumiko Hayashi from the Yokohama Harbor Transport and Harbor Resort associations, both opposed to an IR in the Japanese city
“I’m giving it to my mom. All of it. She is always worried about me going overseas to play poker tournaments. That’s why I will give it to her.”
—Jiyoung Kim, the first South Korean to win a World Series of Poker bracelet. A coffee shop owner from Seoul, she outlasted a field of 968 players to win $167,308
“There are police officers who celebrate birthday parties in these premises for free. That is corruption. If we receive information about their presence at entertainment outlets, they will be subject to the same process as civilians and undergo urine and blood tests.”
—Abdul Hamid Bador, Malaysian inspector-general of police, who has reiterated a ban on police officers patronizing entertainment and gaming venues
“We bring the William Hill and the Stars Group access partnerships. Caesars has a plethora of sports partnerships, including league partnerships, team partnerships, ESPN… and we see them all fitting together. We would see William Hill and TSG rolling into access deals across the Caesars portfolio to the extent that they’re not already offered in our portfolio. But we think the opportunity in sports betting in the combined company is as good as there is out there at this point.”
—Tom Reeg, CEO, Eldorado Resorts, telling reporters how the company will reconcile its sports betting agreements with those signed by Caesars Entertainment as the companies merge
“I can see where it’s headed. Every gas station has a casino in their windows. That’s probably where Wyoming is headed. It’s the Wild West. What we’re doing here is sending a signal out that until somebody shuts you off, you can do anything you want to out here.”
—Ogden Driskill, a state senator in Wyoming, calling for regulating gaming machines in the Cowboy State
“Whether we like it or not, Californians are already betting on sports through illegal and often unscrupulous websites in foreign countries.”
—Adam Gray, an assemblyman in California, and author of a bill that would allow California voters to amend the state constitution to allow sports betting in the Golden State
“We’re in a city. It’s had its own challenges and its own rewards by doing a lot of things we’ve never done before. It’s almost like having a child. You never forget the day you opened one of these and the challenges and the love that you feel.”
—Wynn Resorts CEO Matt Maddox, on how opening the Encore Boston Harbor differed from opening a casino resort in Las Vegas
“It’s all about the money and the power, nothing about the people and the fact that each one of us is a gift even to be here existing.”
—Cathy Cory a former member of the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians, commenting on a new series of disenrollments of at least 60 members of the tribe, who operate the Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino in California
