Daryl sent a message to Daniel “Dan” Gilbert – chairman and founder of Rock Ventures – email address that said:
Dear Mr Gilbert,
I am writing you as both a concerned citizen and as an aspiring politician, and because I read you have a casino in Ohio and are planning to acquire an interest in Greektown casino. I am concerned with the many people I know or have known who have a gambling problem, both those who know they do and those who don’t. It seems to me that not enough is done that can be done to curtail the problem. I have a solution I wish to propose, which I ran on in the fall.
I suggest a policing action on the part of casino’s. My suggestion would be that a database be set up with financial data of gambling participants, and that participation in the database would be mandatory for all gamblers. The database would have each persons previous years w2’s, as well as info on assets and liabilities, or bills owed. Also included would be martial status and number of dependants including elderly parents.
Limits would then be set on the amount that persons can lose on a monthly and yearly basis. The limits would vary based on a persons income, assets, and family situation. A higher limit would be set for a single person with no dependants than a married person with children. A card would be assigned, just like the present players card, that would track the amount lost. Once a person lost to there limit, they would be unable to play anymore.
In this way true problem gamblers could be kept from losing to much, and adversely affecting themselves and their families. This database of gamblers information could easily be shared statewide by all casino’s. The idea of the limits would be that no person would be allowed to lose more than their financial situation would allow.
So my question to you is would the casino’s be agreeable to a situation like I’ve described above? Could a casino stay in business with such a situation? Has such a solution ever been tried before or is such a solution in existence elsewhere in the world. I would appreciate any reply.
Thanks.
Daryl
