Comments on: The Casinos and the Whale

By: Jack Marshall

Jack Marshall — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:01:54 +0000

When is the book coming out, Mary…and the title?

By: Mary Sojourner

Mary Sojourner — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:52:41 +0000

Gambling addiction is as much a neurochemical phenomenon as alcoholism and ingested drug addiction. In addition, some people are born with a genetic predisposition (an inability to effectively metabolize dopamine) to gambling addiction. When you add in the brilliant programming within slot machines – variable interval reinforcement, you have the perfect template for addiction. The gambling industry, in its own terms, programs machines to take players down to extinction.
I just finished a year’s researching and writing a book on women’s gambling addiction. The information is chilling.
Thanks for addressing this.

By: Jack Marshall

Jack Marshall — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:08:12 +0000

Slot machines are essentially mechanical devices created to cause addiction; they perfectly embody B.F. Skinner’s research on how intermittent reinforcement locks in conduct. The entire casino environment, as you know, is created to encourage self-destructive behavior profitable to others. Thanks for the comment—I see this as a major cultural ethics issue that needs exposure.

By: Sandy Adell

Sandy Adell — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 12:32:42 +0000

Thank you for this insightful commentary. My one concern about all the attention Watanabe is receiving from the press is that he is (was) so fabulously wealthy that readers and the public will dismiss him and his troubles, which is why I felt it was so important to tell my own story of slot machine addiction. I’m no “whale,” just a hard working university professor who had no idea how addictive slot machine gambling can be. I spent over two years trying to break the habit and not completely lose control. I hope that as more of us speak out about the negative effects of casino gambling, people will think twice and twice again before they let their local and state politicians sneak a casino into their neighborhoods.

By: cryingcall

cryingcall — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:14:42 +0000

great post and it brings up some interesting topics that I will most likely discuss with my husband over dinner tonight.

By: Jack Marshall

Jack Marshall — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:32:52 +0000

No. Gambling is a legitimate form of recreation, just like drinking alcohol is a form of sensory relaxations and pleasure for the palate. Gambling or drinking in moderation poses no ethical issues at all, but doing either so that one cannot fulfill one’s obligations and threaten the welfare of others is unethical, and the state’s facilitating/promoting/ profiting from that kind of gambling is also unethical. The BUSINESS of providing drink or gambling opportunities easily becomes unethical when the profit motive inspires conduct aimed at encouraging unethical levels of drinking or gambling.

By: Neil A. Dorr

Neil A. Dorr — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:56:39 +0000

Jack,
Is all gambling unethical?

-Neil

By: Tim LeVier

Tim LeVier — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:58:19 +0000

You’ll bet Watanabe loses, eh? I’m thinking the pun was intended.

I’ve never quite known the laws around drinking and gambling and this is eye opening. Casinos serve gamblers in their seats and some gamblers sit in the same seats for hours on end drinking at every pass of a cocktail waitress. So what is the definition of “visibly intoxicated”? If you see someone put a toxin in their mouth…. (See where I’m going with this?)

I live in Colorado, and we recently voted as a state to let the gambling towns of Blackhawk and Central City decide what games to permit and what limits to allow. Before the vote, there was a $5 limit, and games were limited to cards and slots. No craps or roulette.

Since the vote, the limit is $100 and there is now craps and roulette. There is also now a beautiful new 34 floor hotel (though they cut into the mountain to find space to build it…I think.)

In 2000, the population of Blackhawk was 118, and 515 for Central City. I guess we’ll find out next year if they’ve grown any.

By: Jack Marshall

Jack Marshall — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:45:11 +0000

Thanks Josh, especially for the clarification on the law in Nevada. I reflected this in an edit—another source stated that the law is simply not enforced as written.

I’m likely to write a lot on the issue of legalized gambling, beacus my views on it are essentially identical to yours. But I’ll bet Watanabe loses.

By: Josh Axelrad

Josh Axelrad — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:53:02 +0000

This is a great post, Jack, and I’m glad you note that state government “sullies itself by permitting and profiting from casino gambling.” The relationship between casinos and government is an extraordinary and mutually dependent one everywhere gambling is legal in the US. Casinos benefit from government-enforced licensing restrictions (usually including very low limits on the total number of casinos permitted in a given state), enjoying a government-protected quasi-monopoly status that inflates profits, obliterates competition, and entrenches established gambling concerns. Governments benefit from special taxes, well above ordinary business taxes, applicable to casinos. Wherever gambling is decriminalized, the result is a public-private partnership in which the state (and its citizens) becomes enmeshed in the gambling industry in a way it’s not enmeshed in typical free enterprise.

This why we can’t forget about it. A business as unethical as this one is not something I as a citizen want any involvement in. With gambling expansion continuing nationwide (Ohio just approved its first four casinos in a November referendum, and Pennsylvania is in the process of adding table games to the casinos legalized a few years ago on the premise that, because they would only offer slot machines, they wouldn’t present the problems of full-blown casinos), citizens have an ethical obligation to learn how casinos really operate and prevent their governments from becoming entwined in this garbage.

A quick correction on Nevada law: Casinos can’t legally take bets from visibly drunk people. Effectively, they are in fact obligated to force such people to stop gambling in their establishments. The regulations cite, as a cause for disciplinary action, “permitting persons who are visibly intoxicated to participate in gaming activity.” (The relevant section is here, in PDF form: http://gaming.nv.gov/stats_regs/reg5.pdf) This, I would think, bolsters Watanabe’s case, especially if some of the casino employees who talked to the Wall Street Journal in the article you linked testify in court. They claim they were instructed by Harrah’s/Caesars managers to continue dealing cards to Watanabe no matter how drunk he became. This violates Harrah’s own policies, Nevada law, and any ethical scheme I can imagine.