Charlie and the casino shake-down

This doesn’t really have anything to do with either the Johnny Depp or Gene Wilder versions of Roald Dahl’s books about Charlie Bucket and Oompa-Loompas, but something about this story seems positively Wonka-esque. Someone tried to blackmail Sydney’s Star City casino with chocolate. Seriously.

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news about gambling

Harry Potter spoiled…thanks to gambling

The latest Harry Potter book sold something like 7 million copies on its first day, as readers were eager to find out which “major character” dies or something like that. I haven’t read the books, so I’m not sure what that’s all about, but here’s an interesting story: two months ago, newspaper reports gave away

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gambling & culture

Nowhere, PA

Some people think that the perfect place to live does not exist. They’re wrong–it’s Moorestown, NJ, according to Money magazine. With average SAT scores of over 1150, students there, I’m sure, will have no problem overcoming the stigma of being from New Jersey. It’s a stigma, to be sure. As a native of Atlantic City,

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atlantic city

Canadian gaming illegal?

Today, nearly every nation or state grants some sort of gambling franchise, usually in the name of revenue enhancement, i.e., cash. With the police cracking down on illegal rivals, these gambling monopolies are usually pretty lucrative for everyone involved. In Canada, though, the authors of a new report believe that Ontario’s state-sanctioned gaming industry may

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news about gambling

Written up

More write ups for the casino carpet mania! Even the New York Times had a piece, which I guess is the pinnacle of recognition. Anyway, if this is your first time here, enjoy this site, and check out the carpets here. There are some other photo galleries as well, and of course this blog.

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what's new

Solid socio-economic research

I get people asking me all the time for quantative measures of the “social impact” of gambling. I try to convince them that such a thing is hard to measure. But, if you’re unhampered by standards of academic rigor, it’s easy to make wildly inaccurate claims based on second-hand evidence. Take, for example, this letter

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gambling & culture