The odds aren't favorable with online gambling

TheGeneral+ · Aug 23, 2003

Football season is around the corner, and though placing a bet over the Internet is tempting, it is illegal.

The convenience of online wagering has caused a growing addiction to online sports betting.

Internet gambling is considered a federal offense, but is legal in other countries, where most betting Web sites are run.

Todd* doesn't want people to know he has a gambling problem.

"I was just looking for something to do. Bored at work. Figured, I like sports. Why not try a little online gambling?" he said.

Fortunately, Todd just lost money before deciding to seek help. Others lose their loved ones and sometimes everything else.

"It wasn't like I was spending my house payment on it. It got to the point I was spending [up to] $600 on a game of college basketball. And I didn't even like college basketball. I wouldn't even watch the game. It was because I had to bet that day," he said.

Psychologists say their visits from gambling addicts have grown 10 times in the last few years.

Bill Dubin explains why Internet gambling has become so addictive.

"The magnetic force of earth influences a compass needle to point to the North Pole. If I put a magnet near the compass, the greater the influence over the compass needle than the magnetic force of the earth because it's so close. The desire to gamble is analogous to the magnet. It's not that a person wants to gamble more than be a good dad or a good husband. But, the desire to gamble could have a bigger influence over their behavior because it's so close," he said.

Gambling became too strong for Joe,* who lost his wife and the company he built.

"There's probably a lot more compulsive gamblers than there are going to Gamblers Anonymous. But, I think when you're 18, 19 years old, it's hard to admit that you have a problem," he said.

It takes a big loss for gamblers to turn themselves around.

For Todd, it was losing hundreds of dollars on that college basketball game.

"It wasn't even fun anymore. It was just stressful. And it was boring," he said.

*Names have been changed.

http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=81541&SecID=2

ericdixon · Aug 23, 2003

I have been gambling 20 years and I only know one person that was as big a degenerate as the examples listed above, in fact you all know him, I just happened to go to college with him. He did turn it all around and is a very good ESPN commentator! But he is the only one, most just quit or just hack away at it like me and make some fun money but it mostly for entertainment purposes. I have to be honest, if I did not bet on the games I would not even watch!

I just upsets me that gambling is such an issue and if they want to stop it, well stop it all from bingo to the lotteries not just sports gambling! Las Vegas and all the other gambling endeavors msut be shut down, its either that or shut up and let people live!

oldmantime · Aug 23, 2003

General,

Do you think maybe you could find a news article where someone lost the family savings, etc playing the stock market?
I'm just curious. Does the government not consider buying shares of stock to be gambling? When you buy shares of Coca Cola or Pepsi or GE or etc. ; can you see what's going on inside that company as an outsider. If I buy shares of the Chicago Bears + 10, I can at least SEE what's going on.
I'm so tired of these stories about Joe Schmo, from Pocomo being addicted and loosing at gambling , while stories about people who lost money on Microsoft, etc and cried the blues is never mentioned.
It's not about proctecting anybody--it's about-where's my share? Like Eric above I would rarely watchsports without a little action. So, maybe Pepsi will pay less for their Superbowl ads next year. Get your money out now folks--for you are the same ones that hate anyone else having any fun!!

ericdixon · Aug 23, 2003

Good point oldmantime, I know plenty of individuals whom have suffered much more related to the stock market vs. gambling and you talk about incidious mediums!

RPM · Aug 23, 2003

oldman,

the gov. doesnt mind that form of gambling because they get to double tax it...

TheGeneral+ · Aug 23, 2003

“It’s hard to imagine how one cow has caused so much grief and turmoil.”

That’s what Eugene Brahaney, a Campbellford-Seymour Township cattle/calf farmer, said Monday about the mad cow disease disaster affecting Canada’s beef industry.

Mr. Brahaney sells his calves and young cattle to area feed lots, where they finish off their life cycle before being shipped to the slaughterhouse or live to the United States.

But with beef trades on hold between the U.S. and Canada, his calves will likely be given away or sold for less than half of what they’re worth.

“We’re certainly not making a living off of it,” Mr. Brahaney said. “If it wasn’t for my wife’s nursing job, we’d be starving.”

Canada’s beef industry injects $30 billion a year into the economy. That was slashed to practically nothing when beef exports to the U.S. — this country’s biggest customer — and 33 other countries were halted on May 20, after bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was discovered in one cow in Alberta.

No other cases of the disease have since cropped up in Canada.

Gaye Hoskin, president of the Northumberland Federation of Agriculture, is a good example of just how much money has been lost individually.

Mr. Hoskin said he sold seven steers this year for a total of $2,600. Last year, each steer would have been worth $1,500.

“I don’t think people realize how hard farmers are getting hit by this,” he said. “It’s hard to say what’s going to happen in the future.”

Sid Atkinson, president of the Northumberland Cattlemen’s Association, said the situation in Canada is pathetic. And if his theory is true — that the U.S. government is using the crisis as a scapegoat to get back at Canada for not supporting the war on terrorism — the beef industry will never recover from its current state.

Mr. Atkinson went so far as to say that the single animal infected with BSE in Alberta was owned by a man from Texas. He said he and some other people suspect the Texan was sent to Canada with the sick cow for a reason.

“What a better way to break the Canadian economy than go to the grassroots,” Mr. Atkinson said. “The Canadian herd is safe, but the Americans have something on us now.”

Coincidentally the Texan didn’t have proper records to indicate where the cow was from — it could have been from the United States, Mr. Atkinson said.

What will save the industry are leaders who are going to be team players, he said.

“We really need to elect leaders that are going to be team players and the team is North America,” Mr. Atkinson said.

He also encourages the public to buy meat locally.

“You’re going to hear buy Alberta beef or buy Ontario beef. I say buy Canadian beef.”

Until the mad cow disease scare, the trade in live and slaughtered animals was continuous between Canada and the U.S.

With the border reopening in stages — the U.S. is currently open to only slaughtered, deboned cattle — many feedlot farmers will be hugely affected to start.

It will eventually trickle down to impact truckers, retailers, farm equipment dealerships, feed suppliers and all kinds of other Canadian businesses.

Mr. Hoskin said he’s not even sure if Canada has the facilities to debone cattle.

The feedlot farmers will suffer the most because Americans will, rather than purchase the older prepared cattle as they have done, buy calves from calf/cattle farmers and do the rest of the work themselves, Mr. Atkinson said.

“Those are the guys that are really feeling the point of the spear,” he said.

Mr. Atkinson said he will get a rude awakening in November. He would normally sell his calves to the feedlot then but, he said, there won’t be room. Eventually, he said, he thinks Americans will buy calves and take them to U.S. feedlots, making them redundant in Canada.

“Once the Canadian guys are out of this, (the U.S. will) have the market,” he said.

The market for spent dairy cattle will likely never return, or at least it won’t for a long time, he added.

“In a couple of months I will have more cattle than I need and then I will be in trouble,” Mr. Atkinson said.

A huge over-capacity in the whole country will have to be dealt with.

The Northumberland Federation of Agriculture, Northumberland Cattlemen’s Association, Northumberland Holstein Club and Northumberland Milk Committee are sponsoring a BSE Crisis Rally at which everyone affected by the border closure — including consumers — is invited to come for information, share concerns, offer suggestions and ask questions.

The rally is set to take place at the Warkworth Arena Aug. 29, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Alex Glover, a retired dairy farmer from Warkworth with two sons in the cattle business, encourages as many people to attend the rally as possible.

“It’s been real hard,” he said of the mad cow crisis. “And it’s going to be a slow recuperation.”

http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=40866&catname=Local+News