Currently, Gordon Moody’s gambling addiction treatment center located in Wolverhampton is the sole location for the UK when it comes to treatment only for women. Besides being the only one in the UK, the charity’s unique treatment center is likely the single such location in the whole world, considering that men predominantly join gambling addiction treatment centers.

This creates an uneven ground for the treatment of gambling addiction among women while at the same time, more research on the matter is required. Now, a new report released by The Guardian suggests that while some women may reach out for help and disclose their addiction, they can sometimes receive antidepressants rather than effective treatment, a method that may exacerbate their issue.

Sarah Forshaw, Gordon Moody’s head of service development, who was interviewed by the publication, revealed that it is not uncommon for women to visit the gambling addiction treatment center and confirm that their previous attempts to treat gambling addiction were unsuccessful because they were misunderstood. Moreover, she warned that the addiction of many women may go on untreated. “Gambling addiction is still massively misunderstood and hidden, and women seem to be even more hidden within that,” added Forshaw.

“We’ve had a lot of women pluck up the courage to go to a doctor and talk about addiction and then be prescribed antidepressants, for example. Their addiction is almost swept under the carpet.“

Sarah Forshaw, head of service development at Gordon Moody

Additional Research into Women’s Addiction to Gambling Is Needed

According to Dr Rosalind Baker-Frampton, Gordon Moody’s evaluation and research lead, the development of the program available for women at the gambling treatment center started from zero. She explained that discussions with women who visited the center helped in the shaping of the program. Additionally, Baker-Frampton spoke about the insufficient research into women’s gambling addictions.

She said that while most research focuses on men, the same methodology cannot be applied to women since they have “different life experiences.” What’s concerning according to Baker-Frampton is that women, unlike men, can hide their addiction much longer. “Normally women have been gambling for an average of around seven years before they come to us. Our data shows 66% have children and 87% have some kind of mental health difficulty as well,” explained Baker-Frampton.

So far, the gambling addiction treatment center has collected data from more than 500 women. This data is going to be vital for further research into treatment specialized for women and Gordon Moody is actively seeking opportunities to join forces with researchers and universities that can play a vital role in this process.

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The war over the future of smoking at New Jersey’s casinos continues as proponents of a smoking ban announce plans for the formation of a new political action committee. The initiative is led by Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE), a group of Atlantic City casino employees that is determined to end indoor smoking in all NJ casinos.

The organization’s decision to form a PAC comes in the wake of Senator Vince Polistina’s alleged “political games with thousands of his constituents’ lives.” According to Pete Naccarelli, co-founder of CEASE and a table games dealer, Polistina has “revealed himself to be untrustworthy.”

After coming to our first rally in August 2021, recruiting co-sponsors to S264 and A2151, speaking out on our behalf at every turn, he’s now copying and pasting casino executive talking points and attempting to present them as a credible solution. It’s shameful and disgusting.

Pete Naccarelli, co-founder, CEASE

Naccarelli accused Polistina of choosing to be a “front for the casinos” instead of a “backstop for his constituents.”

Naccarelli added that CEASE is now stronger than ever and is supported by thousands of AC casino workers. While he admitted that most of CEASE’s members are new to politics, he said that they have all learned that pressure and accountability are critical. Because of that, the organization will now form a new PAC to support its supporters.

We are fighting for our lives and will battle on all fronts to pass this legislation to end indoor smoking at our workplaces.

Pete Naccarelli, co-founder, CEASE

Dealers Have to Bear with the Smoke for Hours Every Day

New Jersey lawmakers continue to receive pressure to pass a measure that would end casinos’ exemption from the state’s indoor smoking ban. United Auto Workers (UAW) president Shawn Fain added to the pressure, urging politicians to not make a compromise with casino workers’ health.

Fain emphasized that casino patrons blow tobacco smoke directly into employees’ faces for eight hours, thus exposing them to a variety of health problems. Because of the nature of their work, dealers cannot take their eyes away from the table and have to “bear through the thick smoke that surrounds their workplace,” Fain argued.

In spite of the arguments provided by proponents of a ban on smoking, casino representatives believe that such a measure may undermine their profits. While other casinos across the US have already banned smoking without losing revenue, AC’s casinos are still reluctant to accept such a change.

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UFC Fight Night 231 is going to be the first event held in Brazil in three years. More than ten Brazilians are expected to go in the Octagon on Saturday, most notably, Jailton Almeida, who’s fighting a heavyweight duel with Derrick Lewis in the main event of the evening.

The Brazilian fighter is a huge favorite to get his 15^th straight win, but Lewis mustn’t be underestimated. This is a guy with a nuclear option in his fists, who’s got a knockout-to-win ratio of 81.48%.

Jailton Almeida vs. Derrick Lewis Odds

*Odds taken from FanDuel on Monday, October 30.

When, Where, and How to Watch?

• Place: Ginasio do Ibipuera in Sao Paulo, Brazil
• Date: Saturday, November 4, 2023
• Time: 11:00 p.m. ET
• How to Watch: ESPN+

Reasons Why Jailton Almeida Is -560 Favorite

Jailton Almeida is 19-2 overall with those two defeats happening early in his professional career. In fact, this guy has all wins in his last 14 fights. Five of those wins happened in the UFC, and three of those earned him the Performance of the Night bonus.

He’s already fought two fights this year. In January, we saw him beat Shamil Abdurakhimov by a technical knockout. Four months later, he defeated Jairzinho Rozenstruik by submission. The win over Rozenstruik is important because the Surinamese athlete is a similar type of fighter to Almeida’s next opponent.

Both Lewis and Rozenstruik are famous for the devastating power of their punches, but this doesn’t seem to worry Almeida too much. This guy knows how to defend, the evidence being that he’s got hit only nine times since joining the UFC.

Can Derrick Lewis Stage an Upset at UFC Sao Paulo?

Derrick Lewis is the UFC record-holder for most knockout/technical knockout wins. He’s got incredible punching power, but he is slow. He lands just 2.60 significant strikes per minute, which might not be enough for Almeida.

Plus, he just isn’t great when it comes to wrestling, with his takedown defense being only 52%. The last time he lost a fight – last February to Serghei Spivac – we saw Lewis suffer six takedowns.

This could be a real problem for him given that Almeida is a real takedown king who makes 6.40 TDs per fight. That’s more than any opponent Lewis has fought in his nine-and-a-half years-long UFC career.

Jailton Almeida vs. Derrick Lewis Prediction

Our prediction for the UFC Fight Night 231 main event is that it won’t last too long. Instead, we predict that Almeida will take Lewis down and finish him. We can’t say we’re sure about how he’s going to do it, but classic ground-and-pound seems like the most probable scenario.

Pick: Jailton Almeida to win

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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), an international organization consisting of 10 states in Southeast Asia, received the support of China for a new initiative that seeks to address transnational organized crime groups involved in illegal gambling and scams. The initiative, organized in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), seeks to sever the activity of such criminal groups that have been growing their presence recently.

In particular, the initiative will fight against criminal activities in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, China, Vietnam and Myanmar, among other countries in the region. Ultimately, the plan seeks to prevent criminal groups from growing their presence, identify them and at the same time protect the victims that may be involved.

The strategic plan encourages effective collaboration between law enforcement and criminal justice officials for investigations related to, but not limited to illegal gambling, scams, human trafficking and migrant smuggling. A recent report released by UNODC revealed that forced labor and trafficking are only a few of the aspects of transnational organized crime groups operating across Southeast Asia.

The report reveals that transnational crime groups are often involved in large-scale money laundering, cybercrimes, as well as cross-border illegal gambling, among other related criminal activities. Additionally, such groups have also been involved in extortion and in some cases torture. UNODC’s report uncovered that transnational organized crime groups sometimes even present themselves as legitimate businesses and may have established relationships with influential officials and companies.

Robust Approach Is Required to Fight Transnational Crime Groups

While the total profits of organized crime groups in the Philippines are difficult to estimate, the scam industry alone may be generating between $7.5 billion and $12.5 billion, according to the report. This figure represents nearly half of the gross domestic product of the country. Additionally, the whitepaper revealed that ill-gained funds move through different businesses in the region, including casinos.

“Profits of organized crime groups in the region have reached unprecedented levels, and illicit money is increasingly moving through the regional casino industry and other large cash flow businesses, including through a surge in the use of cryptocurrencies,“

reads the recent report by the UNODC

Jeremy Douglas, UNODC’s regional representative, spoke about the increasing threat of trafficking of people who are forced to participate in scams and illegal gambling operations run by criminal organizations. He called for cooperation that can help reduce the crime rate in the region, particularly around the Mekong. Douglas explained that criminal organizations “are converging in the region where they see vulnerabilities.”

Rebecca Miller, UNODC’s regional advisor on human trafficking and migrant smuggling, added that the dismantling of transnational criminal groups requires a robust approach. According to her, the new plan seeks to implement a comprehensive and strategic approach to fight transnational crime.

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Excessive smoking and alcohol consumption impact millions of American adults and even teens. While getting hooked on nicotine or booze is worrying, people who get addicted easily can consume food excessively or engage in gambling, making such abuses just as worse as alcohol and smoking. Amid such concerns, modern medicine continues to actively seek and test drugs that can help people quit smoking, consume alcohol or even help with combatting addiction to gambling and food.

One drug, called Ozempic, has helped millions of Americans lose weight. However, unconfirmed online reports suggest that the drug also helped others get off drinking, stop smoking and even helped fight gambling addiction. An estimated of 50 million Americans have already seen the benefit of the aforementioned drug when it comes to weight loss, a report released by DailyMail reveals.

But what is Ozempic and what does it do? Ozempic is a prescribable diabetes drug that consists of semaglutide, its active ingredient. The injectable drug is known to have positive results when it comes to weight loss with diabetics but some anecdotal reports also claim that it can be beneficial when treating addictions to food, alcohol and even gambling.

A discussion posted on Reddit earlier this year tells the story of a person that was addicted to Adderall, as well as gambling. The person claimed that once he started taking Ozempic, they immediately saw how “stupid” gambling is and significantly decreased the intake of Adderall which stemmed from surgery. “Almost immediately the thought of gambling seemed so obviously stupid – not just dumb financially but a waste of time. It actually seemed boring to me for the first time ever,” wrote the person who claimed that Ozempic worked “almost like a literal miracle.”

Evidence about the Effectiveness of Semaglutide against Addiction Is Insufficient

The Harvard psychiatrist who explores the connection between metabolism and mental health, Dr Chris Palmer, explained: “The exact same brain circuits that are regulating our food intake are also playing a role in our addictive behaviors.” He said that actions or substances that are related to survival and reproduction result in a dopamine award and this is precisely what addictive substances can trigger as well. According to Dr. Palmer, substances that can trigger this dopamine reward system can be considered addictive and those can include food, alcohol, nicotine or even foods with lots of fat or sugars.

While there are other unconfirmed reports and claims about the miracle benefits of semaglutide when it comes to combatting addiction, hard evidence and trials with humans are insufficient. Without any doubt, people affected by problem gambling or addicted to smoking or alcohol need to first consult with an expert rather than taking prescription drugs that may have unexpected long-term effects on their health.

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Gambling streamers have become very popular in recent years – but why is that, and what have popular platforms Twitch and Kick done to increase their popularity?

Twitch’s popularity

Tom Waterhouse from Waterhouse VC decided to research this topic and compare two of the most popular streamers. Twitch was launched in 2011, but its biggest growth was recorded after Amazon bought the platform for $970 million in 2014. At the time, there were very few streamers in the whole US market.

There awaited various thrilling features, including many tutorials and chat rooms hosted by famous gamers from all over the world. The money comes from both ads and premium subscriptions, as well as a few merchandise sales, and the platform and the streamer used to split the subscription revenue 50/50 until June when it changed to 70/30 for the streamer.

Among other things, Twitch offers Bits – it’s an internal currency that users can give to steamers as a sign of support, and that revenue is also split. However, according to the source, the streamers believe they’re underpaid. In 2021, some information about the network was leaked, and according to that, only 0.01% of streamers were paid more than the minimum wage. This is the main reason for the different split percentages, along with increased competition from the new platforms.

Kick – a serious threat

Another major platform is Kick, which is relatively new, with the launch in January 2023. However, it rapidly became popular among streamers and viewers. Streamers love it because of the 95/5 split, along with keeping all the tips to themselves.

Kick also allows gambling. After the 2022 scandal, when Twitch borrowed money from creators to pretend to fund gambling expenses, Twitch decided to ban most of the popular gambling streaming, starting in October last year.

Back then, the company claimed: “We’ll be making a policy update on 18 October to prohibit streaming of gambling sites that include slots, roulette, or dice games that aren’t licensed either in the US or other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protection.”

On Kick, however, gambling content is beyond popular, which has drawn streamers to the platform. Since fans keep finding new ways to gamble, the ban didn’t help – many of them simply transferred to Kick, which likely won’t ban gambling content from the platform since its popularity keeps growing.

In January, the platform had 9.000 active channels, and in April, that number increased to 67,000. Also, there were 12.8 million viewing hours in January, and that number increased to 51.8 million until April. It is still only 2.8% of Twitch’s hours, but the company keeps growing, and gambling streaming helps a lot.

Will Twitch be replaced by Kick? It’s early to say for sure, but the games have just begun.

Source: “Waterhouse VC: Twitching into gear”. iGaming Business. August 22, 2023

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The latest group of people to team up against the legal loophole are Virginia casino workers who have joined Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE), a national group that is dedicated to putting an end to smoking on gaming floors.

Band Together to Stop Indoor Casino Smoking

CEASE was formed during the COVID-19 pandemic as a response to the dangerous conditions that workers were forced to work in, notwithstanding casino smoking exemptions. Interestingly, the organization was formed after workers decided to fight for an extension of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s order that effectively prohibited indoor smoking as part of the anti-COVID measures.

Workers and advocates for smoke-free casinos used this as a catalyst to begin a national movement, that has already spanned several other states, and that insists that casinos should not be exempted from the public space indoor smoking policy that is in place in most states.

The movement has helped a lot in helping bust some myths about ending casino smoking, such as the potential loss of revenue for companies, which CEASE argued, is not true, as well as opponents’ arguments that ventilation systems filter toxic fumes efficiently enough – another claim that was shot down by scientists and engineers.

Casinos have been doing their best to adapt and use preemptive measures. For one, Rivers Portsmouth has introduced several changes to its gaming floor, including the allocation of smoke-free areas. In fact, the casino now features 80% smoke-free areas and has reported no decline in revenue directly related to the imposition of smoke prohibition mandates. Some states have indeed been more proactive in the matter.

No Legal Change Achieved Just Yet by CEASE

CEASE Virginia though is just the latest chapter in this nationwide movement, which includes similar chapters in New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. CEASE though has not been particularly successful in enacting actual legislative change, although its vociferous arguments have indeed ruffled the feathers of some more obstreperous lawmakers in the process.

Ending indoor smoking is still a long process and one that will undoubtedly invite its own challenges. Lawmakers have been paying lip service to the issue and there has been little action momentum through legislative bodies.

In New Jersey, Gov. Murphy has pronounced himself in support of workers’ health, but the powerful gambling industry has cautioned that ending smoke prematurely could further depress results and slow down recovery from the pandemic. Workers have responded by arguing that their health should come first.

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Caesars Entertainment joined National Problem Gambling Awareness Month with an official press release detailing the company’s continued commitment to the cause. Its updated self-exclusion program and enhanced 21+ gaming policy aim to create a better betting environment and ensure the operator’s continued commitment towards integrity and customer care.

Self-Exclusion Receives a Substantial Update

The first update to Caesars’ policies concerns the company’s self-exclusion program. The initiative will see significant expansion by the end of March, making it the widest-reaching exclusion option available in the USA. Large-scale integration among Caesars Entertainment’s brick-and-mortar and iGaming operations aims to ensure universal country-wide coverage.

Caesars Entertainment CEO Tom Reeg noted that the company’s position as a leading North American operator entailed a lot of responsibility to maintain a solid foundation and a sustainable, user-friendly business model. He lauded the updated measure and noted it benefited the company and community equally.

When a person tells us that playing with us is no longer in their best interest, we will be able to ensure that they are… excluded from every gaming platform we offer, in one simple step.

Tom Reeg, Caesars Entertainment CEO

Any person whose name is present in a self-exclusion accessible to Caesars will be added to the operator’s universal registry and be unable to bet on any of its gaming facilities and platforms. Furthermore, individuals considering this measure can register themselves, opting out of all online, retail, marketing, and complementary benefits.

Individuals under 21 Will Face Significant Restrictions

The other significant update to Caesars’ safe gaming efforts is the so-called 21+ gaming policy. It entails restricting users from jurisdictions that allow gambling under age 21 from using the operator’s services where permissible by law. As per the new rules, only individuals over that age can access iGaming and sportsbook content.

In jurisdictions that do not permit such restrictions, Caesars will limit all reward programs to individuals over 21. Company president and COO Anthony Carano highlighted the operator’s unwavering dedication to battling underage gambling by implementing proven and working solutions. He added that the new policy would ensure compliance across all sectors and jurisdictions.

Establishing consistent standards regarding age restrictions underlines our commitment to our guests and to the industry.

Anthony Carano, Caesars Entertainment COO

The company’s press release underlined the many ways Caesars contributed to local communities. The operator remains dedicated to providing responsible gambling training to all its employees and donates significant sums to charities and organizations dedicated to gambling harm prevention and research. The recent introduction of Caesars’ Responsible Gaming Council will help oversee all aspects of the company and help it maintain its place as a leader in safe gaming initiatives.

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