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Woman earning $750 a week gambles $3.7M

abc.net.au

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Re: Woman earning $750 a week gambles $3.7M

#11

Post by lupire »

polartx wrote: post #7
noodlesUK wrote: post #2

I don’t know what the solution is, but gambling (and particularly online gambling and video gambling) is a scourge on our society. I don’t think it should be outlawed, because adults should be free to make bad choices if they want to, but the level to which it is exploitive and harmful needs to be reduced. Does anyone have any good answers here?

I think everyone can agree that the employee is the #1 scumbag in this story. I think a 4 year sentence is woefully inadequate for someone who effectively stole her employers retirement years, years he cannot replace. Some blame can be assigned the business owner. How can you go so many years without a 3rd party audid, or Some kind of second opinion to your finances? Though trust shouldn’t be so harshly criticized. T…

Make gambling losses refundable unless the bettor posts a bond in advance. Only allow one purchase of chips per day. This prevents bleeding people drip by drip, while still allowing gambling.

Mandate that all chips display actual cash value.

Require signed disclosures with big warnings about the risks and costs of gambling, every time chips are purchased, like required on mortgages.

Apply Accredited Investor rules to gambling.

Mandate warning labels like on cigarettes.

Re: Woman earning $750 a week gambles $3.7M

#12

Post by akudha »

polartx wrote: post #7
noodlesUK wrote: post #2

I don’t know what the solution is, but gambling (and particularly online gambling and video gambling) is a scourge on our society. I don’t think it should be outlawed, because adults should be free to make bad choices if they want to, but the level to which it is exploitive and harmful needs to be reduced. Does anyone have any good answers here?

I think everyone can agree that the employee is the #1 scumbag in this story. I think a 4 year sentence is woefully inadequate for someone who effectively stole her employers retirement years, years he cannot replace. Some blame can be assigned the business owner. How can you go so many years without a 3rd party audid, or Some kind of second opinion to your finances? Though trust shouldn’t be so harshly criticized. T…

it’s also not necessarily fair to its investors

Maybe not fair. But they invested their money into a business whose business model is to rip off its customers. They could have invested in a thousand other businesses that actually produce something useful to the society, yet they chose to put their money into a business which removes clocks on its premises so people would stay longer and gamble more and lose more.

Casinos maybe legally good, but they are ethically/morally bad.

On a related note - I find it funny that I need to be an accredited investor to invest in a huge range of businesses, but I can just walk into a casino and gamble away all my money, even if I am a minimum wage earner. Never understood that part.

Re: Woman earning $750 a week gambles $3.7M

#13

Post by lupire »

nonameiguess wrote: post #9
polartx wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think everyone can agree that the employee is the #1 scumbag in this story. I think a 4 year sentence is woefully inadequate for someone who effectively stole her employers retirement years, years he cannot replace. Some blame can be assigned the business owner. How can you go so many years without a 3rd party audid, or Some kind of second opinion to your finances? Though trust shouldn’t be so harshly criticized. T…

I think it would set exactly the right precedent. Anyone else who receives stolen goods, whether knowingly or not, has to give it back, and might be found liable.

So I should require a full investigation of every customer's finances before any purchase?

If you want to make the victim whole, that's what insurance is for.

Re: Woman earning $750 a week gambles $3.7M

#15

Post by bjourne »

polartx wrote: post #7
noodlesUK wrote: post #2

I don’t know what the solution is, but gambling (and particularly online gambling and video gambling) is a scourge on our society. I don’t think it should be outlawed, because adults should be free to make bad choices if they want to, but the level to which it is exploitive and harmful needs to be reduced. Does anyone have any good answers here?

I think everyone can agree that the employee is the #1 scumbag in this story. I think a 4 year sentence is woefully inadequate for someone who effectively stole her employers retirement years, years he cannot replace. Some blame can be assigned the business owner. How can you go so many years without a 3rd party audid, or Some kind of second opinion to your finances? Though trust shouldn’t be so harshly criticized. T…

I think the casino is the #1 scumbag not the employee. The employee was a gambling addict and the casino willingly exploited her addiction:

> Clerke is now in prison and none of her close relatives would talk to ABC Investigations for this story. The closest we can get to understanding her behaviour is through what was said in court, and through Hannah*, a gaming attendant who worked in the club back when Clerke was obsessively playing the poker machines there.

> "She was quiet and pretty much kept to herself. But she was lovely. She would come in at night and would often leave at closing, at 4am," Hannah says.

> "She was one of the big spenders. I was told [by a colleague] she was the number 1 gambler in the club."

> The court heard that a forensic psychologist had found that Clerke suffered from fear and anxiety, and that she played the poker machines to help her cope with her distress.

> As someone who suffered from low self-esteem, Clerke would have appreciated the VIP treatment and attention she received at St Marys Leagues club.

> "Vicki was at the highest level in the rewards program which is called Pink Diamond," says Hannah. "That meant she got VIP service from a personal attendant, free soft drinks and coffee, meals from her rewards points. All those on the top rewards tier are made to feel special."

I used to work next to a company that ran an online gambling site. They were about ten employees, some developers, a few graphic designers and project managers. One of them revealed that almost all their profit came from a dozen whales. One girl who worked there was their chat moderator. Her job was to greet the whales in their virtual lobby, cheer for them when they won and "comfort" them when they lost.

Re: Woman earning $750 a week gambles $3.7M

#16

Post by ryandrake »

akudha wrote: post #12
polartx wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think everyone can agree that the employee is the #1 scumbag in this story. I think a 4 year sentence is woefully inadequate for someone who effectively stole her employers retirement years, years he cannot replace. Some blame can be assigned the business owner. How can you go so many years without a 3rd party audid, or Some kind of second opinion to your finances? Though trust shouldn’t be so harshly criticized. T…

it’s also not necessarily fair to its investors Maybe not fair. But they invested their money into a business whose business model is to rip off its customers. They could have invested in a thousand other businesses that actually produce something useful to the society, yet they chose to put their money into a business which removes clocks on its premises so people would stay longer and gamble more and lose more. Cas…

I’m largely convinced that the accredited investor rules are there to gatekeep the best / most lucrative investments and limit them to the already rich club. No other explanation makes sense when you also consider that casinos exist.

Re: Woman earning $750 a week gambles $3.7M

#17

Post by scintill76 »

lupire wrote: post #13
nonameiguess wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it would set exactly the right precedent. Anyone else who receives stolen goods, whether knowingly or not, has to give it back, and might be found liable.

So I should require a full investigation of every customer's finances before any purchase? If you want to make the victim whole, that's what insurance is for.

The courts will do the investigation for you. Why not have insurance on your end, in case the government seizes the money because it wasn't the criminal's to give to you?

Re: Woman earning $750 a week gambles $3.7M

#18

Post by polartx »

nonameiguess wrote: post #9
polartx wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think everyone can agree that the employee is the #1 scumbag in this story. I think a 4 year sentence is woefully inadequate for someone who effectively stole her employers retirement years, years he cannot replace. Some blame can be assigned the business owner. How can you go so many years without a 3rd party audid, or Some kind of second opinion to your finances? Though trust shouldn’t be so harshly criticized. T…

I think it would set exactly the right precedent. Anyone else who receives stolen goods, whether knowingly or not, has to give it back, and might be found liable.

I wonder if this might unintentionally incentivize _more_ cases of embezzlement. After all, gambling addicts with dysfunctional moral compasses could say, “and if I lose, grandma can still get her money back”. Much in the way that employees/friends/family members justify stealing credit cards because ‘they can just report it as fraud’.

Re: Woman earning $750 a week gambles $3.7M

#19

Post by ryandrake »

lupire wrote: post #13
nonameiguess wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it would set exactly the right precedent. Anyone else who receives stolen goods, whether knowingly or not, has to give it back, and might be found liable.

So I should require a full investigation of every customer's finances before any purchase? If you want to make the victim whole, that's what insurance is for.

If I rob a bank and use a bunch of marked bills to buy a nice dinner, the restaurant doesn’t get to keep that money when the police come knocking, does it?

Re: Woman earning $750 a week gambles $3.7M

#20

Post by polartx »

bjourne wrote: post #15
polartx wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think everyone can agree that the employee is the #1 scumbag in this story. I think a 4 year sentence is woefully inadequate for someone who effectively stole her employers retirement years, years he cannot replace. Some blame can be assigned the business owner. How can you go so many years without a 3rd party audid, or Some kind of second opinion to your finances? Though trust shouldn’t be so harshly criticized. T…

I think the casino is the #1 scumbag not the employee. The employee was a gambling addict and the casino willingly exploited her addiction: > Clerke is now in prison and none of her close relatives would talk to ABC Investigations for this story. The closest we can get to understanding her behaviour is through what was said in court, and through Hannah*, a gaming attendant who worked in the club back when Clerke was…

There are many vices in the world. The underlying commonality is that they’re all addictive. In spite of that, I don’t subscribe to the belief that their addictive qualities exonerate their participants. Nor does it transform thieves, addicts, or delinquents into victims.
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