Sexual Assault

After exploring more of sexual assault through the discussions we had in class and within the different articles read I have learned that there are so many sides to these stories and that the people involved in the incidents can vastly change the outcomes of what the consequences are to come in the future. With the article we read about the girl who got raped by two football players that attended Stubenville high school when she was out unconscious shows the impact of how the people involved with the incident significantly changes the outcome. In this town it seemed like the only thing the people cared about was the football and their success as a team and when this terrible event occurred everyone was focused on the players and not the humiliation and pain suffered by this young girl. The same things occur at these fraternities when sexual assault occurs they seem to only be focused on these frats being suspended and kicked off campus rather than what happens to stories of the people impacted by it. I think there needs to be a stop to this sexual assault around the country, but this is just not a reasonable thing that will happen because people will continue to make these choices but there should be a change to how these stories are presented as they should focus on the people impacted not on the other side of the stories that seem to be getting the media attention.

Armstrong becomes weak

After being on the top of the world for the majority of his life becoming on of the best cyclists of all-time winning the Tour De France 7 times, Lance Armstrong finally turned weak as he could not live his life with this lie his whole life and he confessed with his involvement with the most successful doping program in sports history. This story came to a surprise to everyone because it was different than the performance enhancing drugs the baseball players used as it was vivid that they became much bigger and stronger and had a huge impact on their success in the game. With Lance there were never visuals when seeing his body that he was using these performance enhancing drugs so investigations like the ones conducted in the MLB did not occur for him. The story of Armstrong being able to come back from cancer and succeed was a great story that inspired many, but the fact that he cheated his way to have this success loses all my respect I've ever had for him and I give him no praise for the success he had in this sport. It was also great that he was able to raise awareness for his campaign of Livestrong where he raised millions of dollars to do research for cancer, but I do not feel any sympathy for him as he did this in the wrong way and made people feel bad for him while he was cheating the sport. Armstrong threatened the ones that knew about his doping that if they told anybody about the performance enhancing drugs he was using that there would be major consequences for them. After hearing of this story I have lost all respect for him as he ran one of the largest successful doping programs in the sporting worlds history and cheating people into investing into his campaign I will never be able to look at him in a positive way again. 

Manti Te'o

Manti Te'o the Notre Dame Linebacker claims to have been a victim of a hoax in which a girl he created a close relationship and considered his girlfriend was a false person and the news of her death dying from leukemia was never a true story. There are so many skeptical parts to this story that are confusing and the fact that this story received so much media speculation questions my beliefs of Te'o through this story. The story of Te'o and his girlfriend claimed that the unfortunate events of this fake girl being diagnosed with leukemia motivated Te'o to play his best football ever which helped in leading his team to a BCS championship. The thing that makes this story so skeptical is the fact that one of the most recognized college athletes in the country would have a girlfriend through the Internet that he never had face to face interactions with the real person. He could probably be able to get plenty of girls at college, so why would he ever have an online girlfriend? There are many spins to this story and according to one source at deadspin.com that was quoted in the L.A. Times as they claimed they were "80% sure" that Te'o was involved with the whole story. I understand that I do not know how credible this source is, but the fact that this popular football player would ever have a cyber relationship with someone he barely knows. I am curious to hear more information about this investigation and to hear all the facts about it, but though I understand he may have a great heart I believe that he may have been involved with this whole story in order to get media attention as I think he knew about this all along

"Bad Bet" Blog Post Five

Now that I have finished up with Bad Bet by Timothy O'Brien, I have really been able to get a grasp and understanding about the entire gambling industry and all of the aspects that come along with it.  I was able to see all of the perspectives from the lives of the gamblers, owners, employees, and other residents living in these areas along with the impact that this had on their lives. It was interesting to see how the gambling industry impacted the lives of so many people from hearing stories about notorious poker players who dedicate their lives to understanding the strategies of the game and being able to read their opponents to help in making certain wagers throughout and having deception to simply beat out the weaker links in the game. It was nice to see the other perspective of the gamblers on the older side who enjoyed the thrill of playing the slot games when receiving the accommodations of free food and drinks to go along with them as they went to their usual spots with friends in hopes of making some cash. I was able to learn so much information about all of the games in the casinos in the ways to play games such as craps and roulette to learning the strategies that blackjack gamblers take in counting cards to give themselves better odds at winning. It was very intriguing to learn about all the things that go on with the gambling industry and all of the work done by the owners and their respective hotels/casinos. With the history of dealing with Mob members to generate revenue, to the present times of billionaires such as Donald Trump and his adventure of getting loans from several places in order to open many extravagant casinos to compete with the most luxurious casinos in Las Vegas. There are several dangers within the gambling business and with real life situations displayed in this book makes me want to not get too involved with the industry as it can impact my life and cause a downward spiral. I would highly recommend this book to anyone out there as it is  very informative about everything going on within the gambling industry and many perspectives are able to be seen through the different personal stories.

"Bad Bet" Blog Post Four

As I have progressed further in this book I have seen some of the issues that the casinos encounter through their journey of the hundred million dollar revenue generating business. Now that these casinos have moved past their involvements with Mob affiliated associates because of the problems they encounter with them they are not able to generate an enhanced rate of revenue with millions of dollars being exchanged sketchily. While this has not impacted the casinos these days, the strategies by the gamblers have negatively impacted some of the gains by these companies. The aspect of card counting has been a way for gamblers to play of the game of blackjack differently as they count cards in order to give themselves a better chance of winning more money. Players can count cards by assigning -1 to high cards and +1 to low cards and then keep a track of their count while playing the game and place their wagers and make decisions during the game based on the current count. There are no laws that exists that disallow the ability to count cards, but if the casinos suspect you of counting cards they could kick you out of the casino and other consequences could occur to those gamblers. In the late 1970's and throughout the 1980's the casinos would deal with these people differently as on top of kicking them out of the casino they would take them outside and beat them brutally trying to teach them the lesson to not count cards in a way the casinos think they are cheating the system. As lawsuits started to pile up because of this physical damage the casinos ended these physical messages sent to the card counters as they were losing more money when being sued by these customers. For some players that card count they are never count because they are not placing large enough wagers at the casinos which are not impacted the money lost in the casino, but the card counters who are making the big bucks are the ones that these casinos crack down on. Tom Hyland a notorious blackjack card counter is recognized is several casinos as he and a group of trusted others place large bets in their success to making a lot of money. Hyland and his team wear wigs and mustaches to cover up their image, but as they are well known by many casinos and have had many bad interactions including being held at gunpoint and being threatened for his card counting. Hyland and his associates have wiggled their ways out of these situations and have continued to make money in different casinos. There is the issue that casinos feel they are being cheated by these gamblers by this strategy, but I do not believe it is a corrupt way to manage your money because just since a gambler may know how to count cards does not mean they will be making a lot of money because a huge part of the game of blackjack is luck through being dealt good cards. Counting cards doesn't guarantee anything and many of these gamblers have lost thousands of dollars also through this strategy. This method takes intelligence and confidence as these customers have to think on their feet and react quickly during the game while having to make their decisions and keeping the count in their head with each card. Many of these gamblers do this as their main job and make up to $100,000 a year but this aspect of life takes in too much stress with the ability to lose thousands of dollars every day along with the anxiety of getting kicked out of the casino if the gambler is recognized when making too much money.

"Bad Bet" Blog Post Three

Gambling is a game that has the compulsive and addicting aspect to it that keeps customers at tables and sitting at their computers for hours in hopes of eventually getting on a roll to make some money. In this book Timothy L. O'brien stated that on the basis of a Harvard study conducted back in 1997 there were 14.82 % of adolescents were considered to have a gambling problem as they were considered as active risk-taker when participating in this activity. The problem in this case here is that gambling disorders have been increasing vastly since this study was conducted around fifteen years ago and these Casinos are striving to keep these customers to coming back. The gambling industry is attacking this problem by doing everything in their power to grab the customers attention and continue to poke at these customers problems. On top of continuing to take money from these people, though they are doing well themselves they are making a negative impact on the current economy. Compulsive gamblers are taking any money that they have on them and this leads to problems being created with the IRS. These risk-takers are deciding to use their money on gambling and are not able to pay off their own bills. This creates problems with the IRS and only makes a bigger debt towards the overall debt that has topped over trillions of dollars and has added on to one of the main problems that the government is trying to deal with. The casino is not the only place that these companies are making money from, but they are also generating millions of dollars from their five-star restaurants, health spas, beauty salons, shopping center, and huge showrooms. According to this book some of the large casinos such as the Mirage are making over 2 million dollars a day and these facts were recorded in the 90's so you can only imagine that they are making even more everyday in these modern times. Hopefully one day I will have the luxury to be able to stay in one of these nice Las Vegas hotels one day and spend some money like they want me to do, but for now there is no need to be blowing any cash on unnecessary things like these compulsive gamblers are continuing to do.    

"Bad Bet" Blog Post Two

Now that I have gotten further in this book I have been able to learn about the gambling industry and how it came up throughout the years and has become one of the largest money making industries in the world. In the 1930's when Las Vegas started to separate themselves from all the other states in the U.S. there was a ton of competition among the casinos to have the most appealing place trying to attract the most customers as possible. Instead of the normal casinos containing just the usual blackjack, poker, craps, and other gambling tables many owners decided to make a change to the outlook of their place in order to get everyone to come so that they could generate more revenue. With the majority of gamblers having the likability of losing money the owners and general managers of these casinos wanted to do anything to wipe out those negative aspects of the game so they could just have a good time and not think about how much money they would be losing. Casinos were willing to lose some money to their customers because they felt enticed that they would make the money back from the gamblers so they offered their customers free food, drinks, and even lodging at their hotels. This was already intriguing for the customers that they would get all these free accommodations if they would gamble, and on top of this they would have entertainment to attract them even more including acts by famous musicians such as Frank Sinatra, entertain them with cocktail parties, trapeze acts at the front of the casinos, merry go rounds, and more. As the casinos like Caesars, Desert Palace, Circus Circus, and others competing against each other for customers they were willing to do anything in order to get them to attend their place. It seems like there are no issues going on with the casinos, but on the other side of it there were  reasons for the casinos being able to afford all of these expensive entertainment. The Mob was highly involved with much of the success of these Las Vegas casinos at these times. Many of the biggest casinos had sketchy business transactions with Mob members and were able to make up from any of the money they lost by being connected with these criminals. Later through investigations by the FBI and discoveries by the IRS where millions of dollars had not been recorded in the casinos books but were part of their revenue. As they cracked down on these members such as Frank Costello, Edgar Hoover, and Michael Sarno the casinos had to pull back on some of the entertainment and other accolades of the casino. Some casinos stayed away from the high roller methods of betting and were able to attract more people based on the lower wages that many people in the time were interested in. It is clear that all these casinos were able to make up for the problems they had with the involvement with Mob members, but this was a major issue in these times. There are schemes going on in everyday businesses and though they will have their luxury for the time being they will eventually get caught for these actions and they will serve major consequences (like Bernie Madoff). The possibility of being on top for a certain time is not worth the risk because when these criminals are caught their life makes a 360 and they will be leaving their families with uncertainty of where to go in the future. Hopefully the large industries can continue to stay clean and these investigations will not have to occur again.

"Bad Bet" Blog Post One

The gambling industry is one of the most successful businesses in the world because of exciting thrill of having a chance of winning money creates an addicting activity that brings in millions of dollars in revenue every year. In Timothy O'Brien book of Bad Bet, he explores the variety of places where the gambling business is striving and how the Internet is starting to take over around the world. With sportsbetting and other types of gambling being illegal in all states in the U.S. besides Nevada, many websites from countries all over the world are beginning to create large revenues within their businesses when people are confound to the ability to gamble within their own home on websites based outside the U.S. In one of the websites talked about in this book, Centrebet, an online sports betting site based in Australia has had success bringing in revenue from customers all around the world to join this virtual casino. One of the General managers of the company said, "I think it's a great innovation that people can sit in the confines of their own home and disseminate information and place a bet without the stigma of walking down to the corner and placing a bet with a bookie"(Ian Loughlin, general manager). This is the issue right here because as the United States is trying to crack down on this addiction of gambling, there are so many different escape routes to get back into this game and end up losing money when having several options of virtual casinos online based in different countries. This gambling addiction can immediately ruin any happiness in a persons life as these places are so inviting and intriguing to play the games and within an hour thousands of dollars can be washed down the drain as these online casinos continue to make millions. I understand these possibilites first hand as I enjoy making bets within my friends and family to make the games more enjoyable and competitive when money is on the line. The way that this has not become a problem within my lifestyle is because the wages I make are at low amounts and I do not let it get into the way of my daily routine. The outcome of if I win or lose does not impact my life significantly and these gambles have not become an addiction to me. Casinos and online sports betting websites will be available to me once I am of age, but I know that I cannot let them get in the way of my life to a significant amount because if a lot of money is wagered it can change the way I live and go about things and can change who I am as a person. The Casino industry will continue to have success because of the addicting aspect of the game, but people need to find better ways to invest their money in gambling situations. I have a different way to gamble that is a safer and smarter way to manage my money which is in the stock market. Any day I can lose or gain a thousand dollars here or there, but since I know my money is in a safe place I try to stay content with my money flow everyday as I am confident that I will be making a profit in the end, and so far the strategy has worked out well for me.