Gambling News by Gambling Headquarters

At 32 years old, Bill Kearney was a self-made millionaire who had overcome the limits of his ninth-grade education to own a thriving business. At 33, his life began to disintegrate. He was a compulsive gambler who was well on his way to losing his wealth, his drapery manufacturing business in Philadelphia and his marriage. "I was using every means possible of getting money to gamble, except robbing a bank," Kearney said. Kearney's spectacular self-implosion was caused by his lust for the blackjack tables. In the early 1980s, he began gambling at Atlantic City casinos and racked up more than $2 million in losses in only four years. Kearney blames only himself for his downfall, but wonders whether he could have avoided financial ruin if the casinos would have sent him a simple statement each month listing his winnings and losses. Now he is working with Pennsylvania lawmakers on legislation that would require the Keystone State's new slot parlors to issue monthly, credit card-like statements showing gamblers how much they have spent. "This whole crusade that I'm doing with the statements is to prevent other people from destroying their lives," said Kearney, now 55 and a mortgage broker in Philadelphia. Kearney, who has since stopped gambling, said compulsive gamblers may be too far gone to be helped by monthly statements. But the statements would serve as a wake-up call to casino novices who are at risk of betting over their heads, he maintained. "This is for the virgins, the sheep who never gambled before," Kearney said. "They're the ones who are going to be slaughtered." Facing intense opposition from casinos, the legislation has stalled in the Pennsylvania Legislature and seems a longshot for final approval, but the very idea of monthly gambling statements is shaking the gaming industry.

"You can understand why the casinos are against it," said Frances Gizzi, a clinical social worker who counsels compulsive gamblers at her private practice in Red Bank, Monmouth County. "If you're keeping your gambling in check, the casinos don't want that. It would prevent them from making money."

Atlantic City casino operators, hoping the proposal will die in Pennsylvania, are not saying much about the gambling statements while the issue is being debated by Pennsylvania lawmakers.

"If it ever comes to pass or is ever discussed here, then we'll comment on it. But it's a Pennsylvania issue. It's not a New Jersey issue," said Joseph A. Corbo Jr., president of the Casino Association of New Jersey, a trade group representing Atlantic City's gaming industry.

Robert M. Pickus, executive vice president and general counsel for Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., argued that monthly gambling statements are unnecessary and would be too intrusive - a type of "Big Brother."

"To some degree, in my mind, I would equate these statements to a bar owner mailing out statements to patrons about how many drinks they've had," Pickus said.

Trump Entertainment, owner of three Atlantic City casinos, is competing for a license to operate one of two slot parlors that have been approved for Philadelphia under Pennsylvania's 2004 gaming law. Overall, there will be 14 slot parlors and racetrack casinos throughout Pennsylvania, with the first site preparing to open Nov. 14 near Wilkes-Barre.

Trump Entertainment has been negotiating with neighborhood groups for community benefits that would make its proposed Philadelphia slots parlor more palatable. In earlier drafts of the proposed agreement, Trump had consented to sending out gambling statements to customers on a quarterly basis. Pickus said the proposal was later dropped at the request of neighborhood groups after the negotiations focused on other issues.

Kearney said the gaming industry fears the monthly statements because they would create a paper trail allowing gamblers and their families to sue the casinos for gambling losses.

Nationwide, the full extent of the compulsive gambling problem is anyone's guess. The American Gaming Association, the casino industry's national lobbying group, estimates compulsive gamblers represent about 1 percent of the customers. The New Jersey Council on Compulsive Gambling says 5 percent is the figure for Atlantic City's casinos, with another 10 percent to 15 percent of the gamblers in danger of becoming addicts.

States and some casino companies have programs to help compulsive gamblers kick their habit. In New Jersey, for instance, gamblers may voluntarily place themselves on a "self-exclusion list" that bans them from entering casinos. More than 500 people have signed up for the program, according to the New Jersey Casino Control Commission.

"New Jersey is very concerned about the issue of compulsive gambling," commission spokesman Daniel Heneghan said. "We want to see everyone who comes here to the casinos to gamble responsibly. We think the programs we have to help people who have a gambling problem are indeed helping them. And we're always open to suggestions for better, more efficient and more effective ways of doing that."

Atlantic City casinos must include a toll-free number - 1-800-GAMBLER - in their advertising to direct people to a 24-hour hot line run by the New Jersey Council on Compulsive Gambling. Each year, the first $600,000 in fines that are imposed by the Casino Control Commission on the casinos for gaming violations go to finance the Council on Compulsive Gambling, Heneghan said.

When Kearney talks of his compulsive gambling, he stresses that he is a reformed compulsive casino gambler. He says he did not succumb to other forms of gambling - the blackjack tables were his vice.

Now, nearly 20 years after beating his addiction, Kearney is fighting the powerful casinos to get legislation passed in Pennsylvania for the monthly gambling statements.