"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.

Questions on Abortion

Coming into the unit of abortion I was uncertain of where I stood in terms of my stance for pro-life or pro-choice, but after viewing the film Unborn in the USA it gave me a little more closure to my opinion on this controversial topic. When watching this film I believe my views on the topic seemed to be leaning towards the pro-life side over the pro-choice side, but with regulations going along with it. I do believe that the government should have involvement with this topic because without government control only more violence would occur, and the actions of keeping it legal is the right thing to do. Though I am a pro-choice advocate I think the law should still be legal because it several situations the parents just do not have the ability to be able to raise a child and may be forced to have an abortion, so I believe this option should still be available to people in today's society. On the pro-life side of it where my opinion is swayed to, people should not have abortions because they are brutally ending the lives of infants who have a chance to succeed in this world and are not given any opportunities by the parents. This is a difficult topic for me to grasp because I am not strongly opposed to one side, but I think that the parents should at least give the children a chance to live and if they cannot afford to raise the child they can put it up for adoption and allow it to move on in their lives with another family. From the video Unborn in the USA there were clinics where abortions where occurring in the second trimester of pregnancy which is just completely unacceptable because they are causing extreme pain to these infants at this point and if mothers are going to have an abortion they should be having them way before the second trimester so that the infant doesn't feel any pain in the process. Abortion laws have been legal for years and the government should maintain this process, but I think that they have to step in and make some more regulations to the laws. They should make it illegal to have an abortion in the second trimester or later because through many researches the fetus feels pain at this point in the pregnancy and doctors should not have the ability to cause pain to these unborn children. Some states in the U.S. have different opinions on this topic causing them to avoid or promote the process of abortion by having more or less abortion clinics and it seems like the government cannot really do much to make a change to this process. The government should not be able to control how many abortion clinics there are in each state, but they should eliminate any abortion clinics providing late abortions. Overall this topic has been hard for me to be strongly opinionated on one side, but I believe that abortions need to stop occurring especially in the process of having them late in the pregnancy where it causes fetal pain and at the same time the government should keep abortion legal with regulations to give everyone the freedoms that are available in this country.

Newtown Shooting

On Friday December 14, 2012, 20 year-old Adam Lanza stormed into a elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut and killed the innocent lives of 20 children and 6 staff members making it the worse school shooting of all time. Prior to arriving to the school Lanza stole three guns from his mother's house where he shot her immediately. Lanza's mother was known for going target shooting with her sons on a regular basis which may have been one of the factors leading to Adam Lanza taking these guns and committing this terrible crime. This terrible tragedy can be compared to some of the shootings in the past such as the Columbine shooting, and Virginia Tech shooting, but this one involved the lives of several children that barely got a chance to live their life. There are many issues being discussed within this incident from gun control to mental illness, but I believe that the mental illness is the more important factor when dealing with these  problems. With the aspect of gun control people believe that since they have the right to bear arms from the Constitution that they have the ability to own these guns, but I think the restrictions for the people that own the guns needs to be much stricter and there needs to be an important reason for the owners to have the guns. Beyond the aspect of gun control is the problem of mental illness within the country that causes these psychos to act out and commit these unexplainable crimes. By some reporters on stations like ABC and NBC it was reported that Adam Lanza had a form of autism(aspergers) which may have been a factor into the choices that Lanza made in this crime. I did not see any full evidence yet that he had this condition, and I do not think this is the problem with his mental illness. I am not a doctor but Lanza must have had some mental illness going on in his head because people do not just go out and kill a bunch of innocent kids for no reason. There must something mentally wrong with him to go out and do this and there needs to be a change in this world so tragedies like this don't occur again. I believe President Obama should advocate to the world for people with any types of mental problems to go and see doctors/counselours to help solve their problems in some ways so this world could be much safer and can prevent these events from happening in the future.

Another Football Tragedy

On December 8, 2012 Dallas Cowboys Linebacker Jerry Brown was killed in a car accident involving a drunk driver. Early Saturday morning it was found that Josh Brent a close friend and teammate of Brown was intoxicated while driving his Mercedes-Benz on the highway at 2:30 in the morning where the car skidded off of the road, flipped at least one time and then went into burning flames. Brent who was driving the car was charged with intoxicated manslaughter after the incident and replied that he was "devastated with grief" as he was the man held responsible for the lost life of one of his best friends. Over the years there have been several incidents involving football players and their arrests of having DUI's and the numbers are only increasing. It is unbelievable of the stupid decisions that these players make as they work so hard to get to where they are in a successful position and then they throw it all away by choosing the make these decisions. The NFL has been cracking down of these players by suspending them indefinitely for their incidents with the law, but it doesn't seem as if they are making an impact on the decisions the players make. The NFL cannot do anything to make these players avoid these situations since they cannot tell them what to do, but I think the consequences should be more than a suspension of a few games. They should increase the amount of games the players are suspended and should fine them as well. The players are continuing to make these choices and a message needs to be sent by Commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL Association to try and make a change to the culture of many of these players lives. Tragedies seem to occur every year involving players with arrests and deaths and this needs to come to a stop because it is causing hardships on the families of these players. The Cowboys were able to overcome the weekend tragedies and hit a game-winning field goal at the end of the game to get a win yesterday against the Bengals, and these teams try to use this as motivation to play better and dedicate their hard work to the ones affected. If found guilty on this incident Josh Brent could face up to 20 years in prison and these actions made may have ended his career as a NFL football player.