Ken Rodriguez:
The sad truth about gambling is made clear daily in the news
Web Posted: 03/13/2005 12:00 AM CST
San Antonio Express-News

Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner wants to bring video slot machines to Texas.

I wish someone would tell him about the woman who lost more than $30,000 at Joliet, Ill., casinos.

I wish someone would tell him that Dina Abdelhaq was convicted of suffocating her 7-week-old baby to collect insurance money and feed her gambling habit.

I wish someone would tell Turner about addiction in Wisconsin. That there were six Gamblers Anonymous meetings in the state when Indian tribes opened casinos in 1992 — and 13 years later there are 61.

I wish someone would talk to Democratic Rep. Ismael "Kino" Flores. He wants to expand the presence of casinos in the state.

(Inserted by Dawn Nettles (The Lotto Report) - Rep. Flores was the chair person who was "suppose" to hold the TLC accountable for cheating and over paying Lotto Texas winners. Rather than to dig deeper or call for an "unbiased" investigation of this issue, he chose to take the TLC solely at their word. What a sad mistake. It appears to me that most of our (TX) legislators will do anything for the almighty dollar. Read cheated winners stories.)

I wish someone would tell him about the despairing Mississippi woman who killed her mother and husband after the three of them lost $50,000 at Gulf Coast casinos.

I wish every lawmaker who wants to bring more gambling to Texas would read the news.

I wish every politician who grows giddy about the money it would generate would be sobered by the lives it would ruin.

The truth about the cost of gambling is in police reports, court records and graveyards. There are too many stories to count. Clip and mail the following few examples to your legislators:

(To find your TX Legislator)

"A Hillsborough County (N.H.) Superior Court jury yesterday returned two first-degree murder convictions against Uno Kim in the strangling deaths of two well-known city residents, Theodore and Gary Joseph. ...

"Prosecutors said Kim, who was deeply in debt, looted the Josephs' house of about $87,000, then headed to the Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods casinos to pay off gambling debts and try to increase his take." (Union Leader, Oct. 2, 2004)

"A former Stonington (Conn.) town employee has been sentenced to a year in prison for stealing $257,000 in town funds for gambling." (Associated Press, Jan. 25, 2005)

"A Michigan man who once had a $100,000-a-year job and assets of $1.5 million succumbed to the lure of baccarat and now is accused of robbing banks. .... Police said (Blake Christopher) Wilms told them he has a gambling problem." (UPI, Dec. 19, 2004)

"At least five people in Michigan have robbed banks in the past year to get cash to repay casino gambling debts, the FBI reports." (Associated Press, July 15, 2002)

"A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted a former Nevada football player who admitted he robbed two Reno banks to help support a gambling habit." (Associated Press, Aug. 11, 2004)

"A New Orleans man who said he needed money to cover gambling losses was convicted by a federal jury Tuesday of robbing a bank in Mandeville and firing a gun during the robbery." (Times-Picayune, Oct. 1, 2003)

"One-third of Oregonians who have sought help for gambling report they committed crimes to gamble." (Associated Press, March 2, 2005)

"Authorities say Karen Yontz, plagued by a $100,000 gambling debt and thoughts of suicide, walked into New Mexico Bank and Trust at Riverside Plaza with a gun and demanded money." (Albuquerque Journal, July 15, 2003)

"A gambler losing big dollars in the high-roller area of the MotorCity Casino in Detroit pulled out a gun Wednesday, shot himself in the head and died, police said." (Detroit Free Press, Jan. 27, 2000)

"A decade ago police and prosecutors in Louisville saw very few criminal cases for embezzlement and fraud linked to gambling debts. But that has changed in the past five years. ...

"Officials blame the 1998 arrival of casino gambling in the region. Gambling 'is just a huge driving force behind embezzlements now,' said Allan Cobb, an assistant commonwealth's attorney. ....

"Cincinnati, which is within 45 miles of two Indiana riverboat casinos, has experienced another crime-gambling connection. Of 30 bank robberies in the city this year, five involve defendants who traveled shortly thereafter to the nearby Argosy and Grand Victoria casinos. ... In one instance, a robber traveled by taxi from the bank to the boat." (Courier-Journal, Dec. 2, 2002)

A Texas parolee made news in 2003. William Edward O'Neal killed a California casino security guard, shot a sheriff's deputy and a parking valet, then took his life with a bullet to the head near slot machines at another casino.

O'Neal, relatives say, was a problem gambler.

To find your TX Legislator

To contact Ken Rodriguez, call (210) 250-3369 or e-mail krodriguez@express-news.net.

Thank you Ken for sharing the facts with us ... Maybe Texas Legislators will wake up.

Whittaker Sued Over Teen's Death

Associated Press
3/11/2005

The lawsuit alleges that the Powerball winner's negligent supervision of his granddaughter, Brandi Bragg, contributed to the death of Jesse Tribble.

The family of a young man who died of a drug overdose at Jack Whittaker's home has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the record Powerball winner.

The lawsuit also names the estate of Whittaker's late granddaughter, Brandi Bragg, a person Jesse Tribble's family believes could have prevented the 18-year-old man's death.

Authorities found Tribble's body at the millionaire businessman's Putnam County home on Sept. 17.

The lawsuit alleges that Bragg took Tribble to the Scott Depot house the night before, used drugs with him and was with him until he passed out. The lawsuit further alleges that Bragg should have known her friend needed medical attention but failed to render aid.

The Tribble family says Whittaker provided his granddaughter with large sums of money, despite her drug habit, and was negligent in her supervision.

A lawyer for Tribble's father, Jimmy Tribble, says Whittaker is to blame for Bragg's actions because she was 17, and therefore a minor under his control.

Whittaker won a Powerball prize of nearly $315 million, the largest undivided lottery prize in history, on Christmas Day 2002.

His granddaughter died almost two years later, on Dec. 5. Her cause of death hasn't officially been released.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in Putnam County Circuit Court. It seeks an unspecified amount in damages.

Calls to Whittaker and his lawyer were not immediately returned.

Model Maggie Rizer's stepfather sentenced ...
Rizer's stepfather stole as much as $7 million from the family.
By Jennifer Graylock, AP

WATERTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — The stepfather of model Maggie Rizer has been sentenced to up to four years in jail for allegedly stealing millions from her and other family members.

John R. Breen Jr. pleaded guilty last October to charges of grand larceny and scheming to defraud. He was sentenced Monday to between 16 months to four years in jail and was ordered to pay restitution.

According to Breen's statements in October, he stole money from Rizer while acting as her business manager and also forged his wife's name on numerous checks. He said he gambled away most of the money playing the state lottery at area bars.

Prosecutors have estimated he stole as much as $7 million. Breen was also ordered to repay more than $100,000 to local businesses for bad checks.

Rizer, 27, did not attend the sentencing, but she and other family members have written letters seeking leniency for Breen.

Gambling can bring problems
Effort to raise revenues will come at high social cost, some fear
By HIRAN RATNAYAKE / The News Journal
03/08/2005

At 19, after only a week of playing the Pennsylvania lottery, Robin S. had won $290.

At 26, playing in an office football pool, she won $3,000.

At 31, she again won the Pennsylvania lottery, this time for $20,000.

In more than two decades of gambling, Robin S., a former Wilmington resident who lives in Philadelphia, estimated she took home nearly $35,000 in winnings from lotteries, football picks and slot machines.

Problem is, in that time span, she lost almost $70,000 gambling at those same games.

"And I can almost prove it because I'm in $25,000 worth of debt now," said Robin S., who wouldn't divulge her last name because she is a member of Gamblers Anonymous. "When I played, I only told people the times I won. I didn't tell them I was spending $60 a day on the Delaware lottery and the Pennsylvania lottery. I was losing every day."

Robin S., a 44-year-old black woman, was one of about 40 people at Deborah Haskins' lecture Monday on gambling in the African-American community at the Police Athletic League Center in Wilmington. Haskins is an associate professor of psychology at Loyola College in Maryland and a nationally recognized gambling counselor.

Gambling is in the news these days, not just because National Problem Gambling Awareness Week runs through Saturday. Attention on problem gambling comes at a time when Delaware is looking to shore up its income from slot machines and lottery games, which account for about 8 percent of state revenues - about $222 million dollars. Proposals range for a casino on the Riverfront in Wilmington to one in Georgetown to a floating casino in the Delaware River.

The pressure is mounting to expand gambling venues in Delaware because surrounding states are looking to get in the game. Currently, the biggest percentage of out-of-state gamblers comes from Maryland, where Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich has pushed for slots to generate funding for education and other state priorities. Two bills have been proposed, but Maryland's House and Senate have yet to reach a compromise.

In Pennsylvania, a law passed in July authorizes up to 61,000 slot machines in 14 different locations, not all at racetracks as they are in Delaware. Gov. Ed Rendell says slots could generate $1 billion in revenue for the state, enabling the average homeowner to save $330 in property taxes annually. The law is being challenged by gambling opponents and good-government advocates who say the procedures used to approve the bill violate the state constitution. Pennsylvania's Supreme Court will hear arguments on it this week. Click here to read the entire story