Transcript

4.5.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of Today's Washington Post. It is Saturday,
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April fifth of twenty twenty five. Your reader is Alistaina.
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With reminder that RADIOI is a reading service for those
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blind or with disabilities making it difficult to hold or
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read printed material. And Today's Washington Post. On the left
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part a moment of greatness as over checking tis Gredsky. Well,
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I remember Gretzky, the famous hockey player. The whole center
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part of the paper is taken up by a chart
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of the stock market, which on Wednesday or since Wednesday
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has since Wednesday has declined nine point three percent and
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since the inauguration fifteen percent. On Friday close it was
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down five thousand and seventy four point eight dollars. Is
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a big decline, a big called market turmoil. The S
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and P five hundred index shared nearly ten percent of
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its value in two days after US tariffs were announced.
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JP Morgan increased its estimated odds of a recession to
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sixty percent. That takes up the full center of the paper.
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It just looks like a mountain with sharp drops, peaks, peaks,
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sharp drop, sharp drop down all the way. On the
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very far right side, stocks dive as China strikes back
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on tariffs, a thirty four percent fee on US goods
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presages more pain, bedchair warms of higher cost and slower growth.
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Is by Christian Shepherd, Aaron Greg Lilly Cole, Rebecca Tan
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and Rachel Siegel below that US abandons eighty years of
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globalization policies. Trump gambles that his new system will top
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an era that brought wealth but left behind many workers
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by David Lynch below that article and that hold chart.
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On the very far left, Theodore McCarrick nineteen thirty to
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twenty twenty five ex Cardinal de froct and disgraced in
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abuse scandal. Bart Barnes and Adam Bernstein wrote the article
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In the middle, incentivized TI bet no matter the cost.
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As online sportsbooks boom, aggressive loyalty programs face growing push
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back by Rick Maizi and Albert Smaha. And on the river,
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there is a man walking towards a big looks like
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a phone winner Jackpot figures nine three Commas six 's
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five to two. He's on a red carpet. He's in
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black with his white heeled tennis shoe, walking towards this
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image of a phone. And on the far right judge
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orders return of man sent to prison in El Salvadol
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by Katie Mettler, Maria Sachetti, and Dana Munroe. My first article,
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Trump may have just ended globalization as we know it.
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Sky high tariffs mark a historic break with nearly a
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century of US policy. And there is a picture of
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President Trump walked towards Marine I, the helicopter with the
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iconic Washington Monument in the background as you see him
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walking across the White House lawn this past Thursday. The
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article is by David Lynch. The tariff barrage that President
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Donald Trump unleashed this week on the world economy marks
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a decisive end to an era of free wheeling globalization
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that was shaped by American policymakers, business executives, and consumers.
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The United States is now abandoning the system that made
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it rich and powerful, gambling that it can become more
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prosperous by waging a global trade war on friend and
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foe alike. Trump's new protectionism breaks with international economic policies
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that were pursued by more than a dozen American presidents
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as the New grew into a superpower that boasted a
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thirty trillion dollar economy, the world's largest and most inventive.
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This is a historical moment. Even if there is paddling
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back by the administration, and even if negotiations start to
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soften the ages, this is the nail in the coffin
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of globalization, said Carmen Reinhardt, a former Chief economist of
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the World Bank and now a professor at Harvard University's
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John F. Kennedy School of Government. From the end of
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World War II until Trump's twenty sixteen election, US leaders
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led a global effort to lower barriers to trade, investment,
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and finance. Spreading prosperity to distant lands was seen as
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an anecdote to the authoritarian movements that arose from the
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Great Depression to trigger a ruinous global conflict. The strategy worked,
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but after the Code War's end in nineteen eighty nine,
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when global integration expanded to encompass low age countries like China,
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the costs for factory workers in advanced economies like the
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US sparked a bipartisan backlash. Trump's announcement of the highest
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US taxes on trade since nineteen o nine capped a
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quarter century of domestic disquiet over a global economic system
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that lavished disproportionate benefits on educated Americans while leaving less
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skilled workers to the vagaries of the market. The President
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insists that high tariffs and unilateral American action will deliver
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a new golden age. As companies flood the US with
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trillions of dollars in investment, This dark market will soar
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and Gleaming new factories the best anywhere in the world,
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will replace the shuttered plants of an earlier age, the
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President promised in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday,
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Trump said, We're going to be an entirely different country,
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and it's going to be fantastic for the workers. It's
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going to be fantastic for everyone. Mainstream economists call that
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outcome unlikely, and the early reviews from All Street were brutal.
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On Thursday, the standard in pull S and P five
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hundred index dropped nearly five percent, its worst day since
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the first months of the pandemic. Economist at J. P.
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Morgan said that Trump's tariffs and the foreign retaliation meant
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a sixty percent chance of global recession this year. The
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globalization Trump decries for having ripped off Americans in fact
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produced remarkable benefits. It lifted one point five billion people
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in the developing world out of crushing property, according to
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the International Monetary Fund. In the US, it produced millions
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of well paying jobs, made available a wider array of goods,
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and long kept a lid on inflation. The nation grew wealthier.
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The economy more than doubled in size after the North
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American Free Trade Agreement, which joined the US, Canada, and
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Mexico in a trading zone, took effect in nineteen ninety four.
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I'm old enough to remember when fruit was seasonal. I'm
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not eager to go back to that world, said economist
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Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute. But there were
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real problems too. Workers in basic manufacturing, those with the
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fewest skills and least education, were hurt. Labor unions blamed
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trade deals like NAFTA for encouraging corporations to move their
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factories abroad to take advantage of laborers who earned perhaps
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one tenth of American rages. The problem grew more acute
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after China's two thousand and one entry into the World
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Trade Organization. By twenty eleven, competition from Chinese imports had
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put two point four million Americans out of work. According
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to research by economists David Ottar, David Dorn, and Gordon Hanson,
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who dubbed the phenomenon the China Stock. The nation as
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a whole prospered and most Americans were better off thanks
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to globalization, but the gains from trade were spread across
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the country, whilst the lost jobs and sharter factories were
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concentrated in specific communities. Economists said three quarters of American
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benefited from trade with China, according to a twenty eighteen
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study by four economists led by Shi Wang of George
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Mason University, But for workers without a college degree, the
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China Shock meant declines in their inflation adjusted wages each
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year for almost a decade. Compounding the pain was Washington's
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failure to do much about it. Politicians, beginning with President
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Bill Clinton, had promised government assistance for such dislocated workers,
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warning that without it, political support for trade liberalization would evaporate,
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But the principal program for retraining workers hurt by trade deals,
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called Trade Adjustment Assistance, was chronic underfunded. The number of
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manufacturing jobs had been sliding since nineteen seventy nine in
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all advanced economies, not just the US, but in the
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first few years After China joined the World Trade Organization,
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the drop accelerated. Between two thousand and two thousand and three,
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about three million factory jobs finished, more than had been
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lost in the final two decades of the twentieth century. Automation,
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not trade, was responsible for most of the job losses,
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economists said, but trade agreements were a political choice, making
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their effort or making their effect more visible than company's
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decisions to replace workers with machines, and providing a focus
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for public iron, and those choices appeared to benefit some
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Americans at the expense of others. From nineteen ninety nine
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to twenty fifteen, median household income in the US flatlined,
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while after tax corporate profits, aided by low age foreign labor,
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roughly tripled. The global trading regime that US leaders had
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created under the auspices of the World Trade Organization ultimately
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failed to cope with the rise of a mammoth economy
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like China that did not adhere to the traditional free
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market playbook. The traditional approach of cumbersome global trade talks
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involving more than one hundred countries fell out of favor.
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By two thousand and eight. Anti trade sentiment was significantly
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enough that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama criticized NAFTA
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in the Democratic presidential primaries. The global financial crisis later
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that year only aggravated the suffering of many who been
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hit by the China Shock. When Trump ran for president
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in twenty sixteen, anti trade sentiment, along with the tax
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on immigrants, were his chief cudgels. The real estate developer
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and realty television star had long held protectionist views. He
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boasted of graduating from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School
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of Finance, whose founder, the nineteenth century industrialist Joseph Wharton,
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scorned free trade as a fungus and navigated that the
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advocated that the nation be self sufficient. In the nineteen eighties,
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the future president inveighed against Japan's mercantilis trade practices, foreshadowing
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his later complaints about China. Scrolling down, there's a picture
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of President Bill Clinton side agreements to NAFTA in September
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of nineteen ninety three at the White House, and the
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group gathered around him are former President Gerald Ford, host
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Speaker Tom Foley, Senate Majority Leader, George Mitchell Mitchell, former
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President Jimmy Carter, Senate Minority Leader, Bob Dole, former President
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George H. W. Bush. We have a Republican with the
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Democratic man there host Minority Leader Robert H. Michael, and
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Vice President Al Gore. What a picture that is of
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so many different parties together. The irony now is that
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the landscape has changed. The China Shock ended more than
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a decade ago. Trade as a share of the global
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economy has stagnated since the two thousand and eight financial crisis.
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Amid all Trump's attacks or trade cheating by foreign nations.
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Public opinion has warmed to global commerce. In a Gallop
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Pole conducted in February, eighty one percent of Americans called
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trade an opportunity, not a threat. The President says the
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nation will be better off making more of what it
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needs rather than buying it from others, even if costs
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go up. Greater domestic manufacturing will promote healthier communities and
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a stronger national defense. He said. Americans can no longer
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be the global economies consumers of last resort, absorbing the
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excess production of other nations. Administration officials say that some manufacturing,
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especially in the auto industry, can return quickly. US auto
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plants are operating at sixty eight percent capacity, down from
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eighty eight percent as recently as twenty fifteen according to
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the Federal Reserve. But Trump's hopes of repatriating all of
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the manufacturing capacity that moved offshore during globalization's heyday will
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almost certainly be unfulfilled. Economist said. The average car, for example,
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contains about thirty thousand parts, with roughly half coming from abroad.
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Activating the domestic suppliers capable of producing those may take
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years and cost billions of dollars. Confusion over the president's
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intentions could also freeze corporate decision makers, leaving them unsure
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where to invest in new production. The administration has given
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mixed signals about whether the tariffs will be used as
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leverage to reduce foreign trade barriers or be a lasting
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feature of a reconstructed economy. No nobody knows what the
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permanent tariff is going to be. You can't plan, you
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can't bet on that. You can't just count on anything here.
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There's no certitude, said Christian Meisner, a professor of economics
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at the University of California at Davis. Trump's sky high
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tariffs could also result in a trading system organized along
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regional lines. According to Craig Allen, a senior councilor at
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the Cohen Group. Asian suppliers in countries like Vietnam and
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Cambodia must battle tariffs near fifty percent, but Latin American
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nations including Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica and Guatemala were all
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assigned the new minimum US tariff of ten percent. We're
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moving toward more regional trade and moving away from globalization,
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Alan said. The efficiency losses are going to be high,
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but greater regional integration is not a bad thing at all.
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For now, Trump's revolution in international economics is limited to
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the trade in physical goods, while cross border product flows
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face new headwinds from his historic tariffs. Trade in services
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such as portfolio management, travel and tourism, and digital entertainment
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shows no signs of slowing, according to Richard Baldwin, a
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professor of international economics at IMD Business School in Luzon, Switzerland.
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The diplomatic cost of Trump's abrupt economic reordering, however, are
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already apparent. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Kearney this week a
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Nunstan epitaph for American economic leadership, and said Canada will
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look elsewhere for commercial partners. Likewise, the europe Union is
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negotiating a free trade deal with India. Brazil and China
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are deepening their economic ties using the Chinese on The
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turn toward unilateralism by the Trump administration does not suddenly
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make everyone else a protectionist. It only leads them to
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want to protect themselves from the United States. Whatever international
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economic order emerges from the current chaos, the role of
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the United States in it will be fundamentally transformed, said
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Jeffrey Frieden, a political science professor at the Columbia University
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and author of Global Capitalism. Trump's team recognizes the significance
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of what it has done, and it is untroubled by
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the criticism. Briefing reporters as the President prepared to announce
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the sea change in US policy, one senior White House
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official said, today, we're in one era. Tomorrow we will
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be in a different era. Our next article, VP bettos
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say sports books keep them playing no matter the cost.
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With online betting booming, US gamblers and lawmakers of pushing
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back against sportsbook's aggressive loyalty programs. And again there's the
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picture of the man walking towards what looks like a.
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Speaker 2: Telephone winner jackpot with figures of a great magnitude in
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front of him by Rick Mays and Albert's Maha.
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Speaker 1: Two nights before the Super Bowl in New Orleans, Draft
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Kings hosted an invite only party at Remena's. The Chain,
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Smokers and Nelly performed as celebrities including Shannon Sharp, Flavor Flave,
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and Keegan Michael Key worked the room. Also in attendance
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at the famed French Quartal Haunt that night, hundreds of
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indistinguishable sports fans who had earned their way in by
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virtue of their status with the sports vetting company. They
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were Draft Kings v ips to encourage their best customers
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to keep betting. Many of the sports books legally operating
21:28
in the United States thirty or so companies fiercely battling
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from means of customers, assigned host to provide these VIPs
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with one on one customer service, lavishing them with troops
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in bed, tickets and promotional offers. It's no different from
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loyalty programs found across a variety of businesses. Sportsbooks say,
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including brick and mortar casinos, we wouldward our players for them.
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They're loyalty, and you know, the more loyal or the
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more engaged you are with the platform, the more opportunities
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and the more benefits that you receive, said Sean Henley,
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chief customer officer for Draft Kings. But addiction experts, some lawmakers,
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and many gamblers say the programs aren't designed to reward betters. Instead,
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they say they're designed to entice them to bet figure
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and more often, even driving some susceptible gamblers to the
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brink of financial ruin. Lawsuits are piling up accusing VFP
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programs of enabling addiction. Two Democrats recently introduce federal legislation
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seeking demand the VFP programs altogether, and some states are
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considering limits to the City of Baltimore cited the loyalty
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programs in its lawsuits again Fan Duel and Draft Kings
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on Thursday, accusing the companies of unfair and deceptive practices. Essentially,
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if you're a VIP, that's another word for being a sucker.
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The sports book views you as a sucker, a long
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term loser, says Gadune Spanky Piroles, a prominent New Jersey
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based sports featow. He also said they'll never say that
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because they are these very important, valuable assets to the
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sports books, so they're going to treat them like royalty.
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People struggling with gambling addiction are particularly vulnerable to the
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pull of VIP programs, says Harry Levant, director of gambling
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policy with the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University
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School of Law. Yet, while some countries, including the United Kingdom,
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have set strict limits on how gambling companies can incentivize customers,
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US regulators largely have left the rules in the hands
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of the industry. There's no other addictive product that I
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can think of of where a government sits back and says, Okay,
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we'll let the license tolls of this addictive product encourage
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people and entice them to continue to use it more.
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Can you imagine hearing about a bar doing this, They'd
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shut the bar down on the spot, said Levont, a
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recovering gambling edict and licensed addiction counselor. Since the Supreme
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Court struck down the federal law outlawing sports betting in
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most of the country in twenty eighteen, thirty eight states
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plus the District of Columbia have legalized sports gambling, fueling
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the proliferation of online sports books such as Fan Duel
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and Draft Kings, and business for those companies and others
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is booming. Americans raged nearly one hundred and forty eight
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billion dollars on sports in twenty twenty four, according to
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the American Gaming Association, generating more than thirteen point seven
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billion dollars in revenue for the sports books. That's up
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forty five percent from just three years ago. Much of
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that revenue comes from a small handsful of customers. As
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much as eighty percent of sports books profits is generated
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by the most active gamblers, as few as twenty percent
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of all betters, according to industry estimates. Many of those
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betters might be struggling with addiction. Advocates say. A twenty
25:50
twenty four study funded by the state of Connecticut found
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more than half of that state sports vetting revenue came
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from the people with a gambling problem, but nationally exact
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numbers are hard to come by. Gambling companies keep most
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of their data secret, including on VIP customers, leading unknown
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the number of vetters invited into the programs and the
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amount of money they wager. Sports folks defend the VPP programs,
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saying that most customers report positive experiences. Their host are
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trained to identify signs of addiction, they say, and their
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app followers, allows users to limit their spending or voluntarily
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ban themselves from wagering. Jeff Lowich, vice president for VP
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and Retail Experience at Van Duel, said, our approach to
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VP is rooted in customer service and prioritizes responsible play,
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compliance and building professional relationships with customers that emphasize is
27:00
playing within their means. But some betters and their loved
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ones are blaming VP hosts for their gambling losses and
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turning to the courts to recoup their money. Among the
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recently fouled lawsuits, a psychologist who says Draft Kings ignored
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signs of herd addiction and kept plying her with incentives
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to keep her playing, and an next employee of NFL
27:26
team who is now imprisoned for stealing to fuel his
27:29
gambling habit, says his fan dul host was trying to
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extract as much money from me as possible. Draft Kings
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in Fan Duel, which have broadly denied responsibility for their
27:44
customers gambling habits, declined to comment on ongoing litigation for
27:49
this story. In another lawsuit, Lisa Della Sandro, a thirty
27:56
two year old mother of two from New Jersey, says
28:00
her husband gambled nearly fifteen million dollars through draft Kings
28:05
without her knowledge, losing nearly one million from their shared accounts.
28:11
Their savings was plundered, their checking overdrawn, her two children's accounts,
28:18
money from baptisms, christmases, and birthdays were emptied. Subpoenaing draft
28:25
Kings to earn to learn the depths of her husband's habit,
28:30
she discovered he went from wagering one hundred and seventy
28:34
four thousand and twenty twenty to more than six million
28:38
in twenty twenty three. According to her lawsuit, in twenty twenty,
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he had never waged more than twenty five thousand owned
28:46
sports in a month. In twenty twenty three, he raged
28:49
more than five hundred thousand in six of twelve months.
28:55
The husband is identified by his draft Kings user name
28:59
in the lawsuit, and Delassandro declines to name him on
29:03
the record to protect her children. The Washington Post is
29:07
not naming him because he is not a defendant in
29:09
the lawsuit. He did not respond to messages seeking comment.
29:15
At the root of the record, she says was the
29:18
BP Loyalty program. Draft Kings assigned her husband to a
29:22
host to facilitate his gambling. Instead of identifying that her
29:27
husband was betting beyond his means, she says the program
29:31
loaded him up with promotional office and encouraged him to
29:34
deposit more money. The housse sent Gibson offered to pay
29:38
for a vacation, often sending hand signed letters. They really
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make these players feel like they're elite, Della Sandro said
29:49
in an interview, like David Chief something, and that they're
29:54
part of a cool gambling group. They're sending prizes to
29:58
look like you're the biggest winno, but really you're the
30:01
biggest loser. I mean this means you are losing the
30:04
most money and they want to keep you going in
30:09
your ear twenty four to seven. From airlines to coffee shops,
30:14
fast food to clothing stores, loyalty programs have become a
30:18
stable of American businesses over the past several decades. The
30:22
gambling industry is no different. For decades, casinos famously have
30:27
offered sweetheart deals to keep active gamblers at their tables,
30:32
From comped hotel rooms to free shows and VPP hosts
30:36
have been around since the earliest days of casinos, said
30:39
Anthony Lucas, a UNLV professor who specializes in casino management
30:45
and operations. Their jobs getting on the phones and hustling
30:51
to get players to make the trip, Lucas said, but
30:55
the VFP programs offered by online sportsbooks are distinct the
31:00
loyalty programs in other industries and from brick and mortar casinos,
31:05
said Brianne Dura Schwawal, a responsible gambling consultant, because of
31:11
the accessibility of mobile betting makes a host influence particularly potent.
31:19
It's instantaneous, in your pocket and accessible twenty four to seven,
31:24
and the same with your host. They're able to text
31:27
you and call you pretty much in your ear twenty
31:29
four to seven. There's an extra layer of enabling that
31:33
happens when host can reach out from your pocket any time.
31:37
She said. Hosts stay engaged, often via text messages, with
31:43
the most active betters, extending promotional offers that are available
31:48
to non VIPs. They might serve as a customer service
31:52
rep and help troubleshoot problems, but they also dangle gifts
31:56
to keep the vipps engaged. Said her husband received whiskey glasses,
32:02
a Duffel bag, and iPhone in trophies from his host
32:06
ostensibly rewarding him for his betting proclivity even as his
32:11
losses men did. The whole model is, we will keep
32:16
giving you more taste of the good life the more
32:19
you gamble with us, Levant said. Sports Books say these
32:25
personal connections allow hosts to monitor for problem gambling. All
32:30
hosts undergo responsible gambling training when they're hired and in
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regular refresher courses, the company's representative said at DraftKings that
32:40
immense to quarterly training sessions, said Laurie Colani, the company's
32:44
chief responsible gaming officer. It also employs a I. Colannie said,
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us looking for words that might indicate there is some
32:54
sort of crisis event, that there's a real problem. We
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care about the customer, so we're looking for signs of
33:02
abnormal play, and we're engaging with those players and not
33:06
just the VPPs, but everybody from the person who comes
33:09
in and is playing five dollars, she said. Representatives of
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the three biggest operators, Draft Kings, fan Duel, and Fanatics
33:21
told the Post that compensation for VPP hosts is not
33:25
tied to the gambling activity of any one better and
33:28
that hosts are not necessarily incentivized to encourage a gambler
33:33
to bet bigger or more often, no one gets anything
33:39
to squeeze out an extra an x amount of dollars,
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said one veteran VP host, who spoke on the condition
33:47
of anonymity because he was not authorized by his employer
33:50
to speak publicly. I don't want to be the one
33:54
that's defending everybody. There are for sure bad apples out there,
33:59
no doubt of it. But for everybody who's a VIP host,
34:04
it's kind of ingrained in you that responsible gambling matters.
34:09
Kevin Hennessy, a spokesman for Fanatics, whose businesses include retail
34:14
and trading cards in addition to its growing gambling operation,
34:19
said it doesn't function as a traditional casino. Hennessy said,
34:26
we look at our loyalty program through the lens of
34:29
the sports fan, not a gambler. The goal of any
34:33
loyalty program is to keep customers engaged, and at Fanatics
34:37
that means across an ecosystem of team merchandise, collectibles, and betting.
34:42
We want customers around for five, ten, and fifteen years,
34:48
so it's in our best interest to always encourage healthy play.
34:53
But responsible gaming experts say problem gamblers are disproportionately affected
34:58
by the VIP programs, lured by regular promotional officers offers,
35:03
and incentivized to keep chasing their losses. According to the
35:08
National Council and Problem Gambling, sixteen percent of sports betters
35:12
meet the criteria for clinical gambling disorder, with men between
35:17
ages of eighteen and twenty four at particularly high risk
35:23
and experienced letters say the more you win, the less
35:26
attention you receive from the VP host. Parker James is
35:31
a twenty five year old sports better who has had
35:34
VP status with three online sports books, but he says
35:38
the VPP title has little significance to a winning gambler,
35:42
as the benefits keep shrinking or disappear altogether. One VP host,
35:48
he says, told him there were no bonuses available because
35:52
he had been winning recently. They do not like to
35:56
award the winners, just the losers, he said. If you're winning,
36:01
you get bare minimum, and if you're losing, you'll get
36:05
great rewards and trips potentially, but the money you will
36:09
be losing will be far more substantial than whatever reward
36:13
they could possibly offer. Corollos, the New Jersey based better says,
36:19
all the legal operators know he's a sharp, a professional
36:24
gambler who tends to win, so they limit his bets,
36:28
sometimes suggest a dollar or two, a common industry practice.
36:33
He now runs a thirteen person betting operation, recruiting vaps
36:38
who have higher limits and access to promotional office to
36:42
bet on his behalf. If you're smart, they're essentially going
36:47
to limit you so heavily, which comes down demanding you.
36:51
If you're a dummy, they're going to allow you to
36:53
bet the way beyond your means and essentially bankrupt you.
36:58
It's either banned or bankruept that's the model. This industry
37:03
is a paradox. Your most responsible gamblers are your best customers,
37:08
so it's very difficult for a sports book to try
37:11
to adopt to effective or adapt to effective, responsible gambling
37:17
strategies and at the same time maximize profits Corollos, said.
37:26
Chaz Donati, a thirty four year old sales manager in Arizona,
37:31
was in recovery for a gambling addiction in twenty twenty
37:34
one when he came into a financial windfalt. It came
37:39
at the worst possible time, he said. Sports books had
37:44
just opened in Arizona and ads were everywhere. The Nati relapsed,
37:49
he signed up for an account on Van Duel, he said,
37:53
depositing thirty thousand dollars. The next day, he said he
37:57
got a text message from a VPP host inviting him
38:01
into the loyalty program. Over the coming months, as Donati
38:06
deposited more and lost more, he enjoyed the perks of
38:10
the program. He got tickets to a Blink one eighty
38:14
two concert sat courtside at Phoenix Sun Games and watched
38:19
the Arizona Cardinals from a luxury suite. He received tens
38:24
of thousands of dollars worth of free bets, which helped
38:27
him keep playing in between paychecks. He said his VP
38:33
host joined him at some events and took him to
38:35
steak dinners nearly every day. They exchanged text messages, which
38:40
Noddy said he deleted for fear of his girlfriend discovering
38:44
that he was still gambling. It turned into a friendship.
38:49
That's where it's very manipulative. He was a nice guy
38:53
and his job was to find people like me, d
38:56
Nati said. Within four years, he said, I lost everything
39:01
in my life, savings around four hundred thousand dollars on
39:05
fan Duel alone, according to screenshots of his account, plus
39:09
more across other betting apps. Van Duel declined to comment
39:14
on specific customers. Last year, the NATTI signed up for
39:18
the self exclusion feature on every gambling app he could
39:23
think of, barring him from placing bets for five years.
39:27
The NATI declined to share the name of his VP
39:31
host at Van Duel to protect him. I don't blame
39:36
him for it, because that's what his job responsibility was,
39:40
the NATI said. Legal blowback in recent months, courts have
39:47
been asked to determine whether gambling operators have a duty
39:50
to identify signs of addiction and stop incentivizing those customers
39:55
who to keep betting. The name is about to break,
40:01
said Matthew Litt, a New Jersey based attorney who has
40:04
filed multiple cases related to VIPP programs. It just can't
40:10
continue the way it's going. One high profile case involves
40:15
i'm At Patel, a former Jacksonville Cougar's employee who was
40:20
convicted of embezzling more than twenty two million dollars from
40:24
the NFL team to fund his gambling. He's serving a
40:28
six and a half year prison sentence. In October, he
40:33
sued Van Duel for two hundred and fifty million, saying
40:36
the company's VP host bore responsibility for his high priced habit.
40:42
Patel gambled more than twenty million dollars with Van Duel,
40:46
mostly on daily fantasy sports, from late twenty nineteen to
40:51
early twenty twenty three. In a written response to questions
40:56
from prison, Patel said his host played a large role
41:01
in the escalation and problematic nature of my wagering. The
41:06
two shared a close relationship, according to Patel, and they
41:10
communicated daily as much as a hundred times some days.
41:15
At the time, I felt very close and friendly with
41:18
my VIP host. In retrospect, now that I am in
41:23
recovery from my addiction, I can see how it did
41:26
not feel like a genuine relationship at all. I know
41:30
now that he was just trying to extract as much
41:33
money from me as possible with any any concern from
41:36
my well being, Patel told The Post. Patel, thirty two,
41:42
said in court filings that as his losses mounted, the
41:46
VP host offered lucrative benefits to continue gambling to create
41:51
the illusion that I was winning, including more than a
41:55
million dollars in gambling credits, lavish gifts, and all expense
41:59
paid trips to the Masters College Football's National Championship game
42:04
and a Formula One race in Miami. My VIP host
42:09
even came on some of these trips to help create
42:12
the facade of a genuine relationship. Patel said. On days
42:18
when Patel hadn't placed a ragia, the host would reach
42:21
her to ask why, and then ultimately offer customized incentives
42:26
to play. Patel said Van Duel should have known he
42:31
had a gambling addiction, he contends, and helped curb his problem,
42:35
not exacerbated. Things would have been very different if I
42:40
never had a VIP host, Patel said. Van Duel has
42:45
asked the court to dismiss the case and move it
42:47
to arbitration. In a filing, it called Patel's claims outlandish,
42:53
saying with nothing but time in federal prison to dream
42:56
up unsupported conspiracy theories. LLUS now filed a complaint premise
43:02
largely on the wild and unsubstantiated association assertion that Van
43:07
Duel knew that Patel was stealing from his employer. Others
43:12
have described a similar pattern, a pastime that quickly escalates,
43:17
ultimately ending in financial devastation, all with the aid of
43:22
encouragement of a VIP host. Kubeda Fisher a psychiatrist and
43:27
mother of two in Pennsylvania, started playing Draft Kings casino
43:32
games on her phone during the pandemic. Online casino games
43:37
are legal in eight states, far fewer than sports betting,
43:40
but many state legislatures are considering bills to legalize them.
43:46
By December twenty two, twenty twenty two, Fisher said she
43:52
was invited to the VIP program and the office for
43:55
free bats and bonuses came immediately. It feels like you
43:59
say when special, you feel like you're doing something positive.
44:04
They say things like congratulations. They make it seem like
44:07
it's an honor, recalled in an interview. Over the next
44:13
four months, she made four hundred and forty six deposits
44:17
into her coat, totaling around two hundred and eighty thousand dollars,
44:21
according to court documents. She spent the money playing slingo
44:26
again that combined slots in bingo. Some days, she made
44:30
two dozen deposits within four hours, adding up to around
44:34
fifteen thousand dollars, chasing her losses each time. After making
44:39
one hundred and forty seven deposits nearly eighty thousand dollars
44:44
in a month, Fisher signed up for Draft King's self
44:47
exclusion program, barring herself from making any bets for five days.
44:53
The day her exclusion ended, though, she was back on
44:57
the app and the Exclusive Bonus Office soon followed. It
45:03
was constant emails every day, and I would ask for
45:06
credits and they would continuously provide them. It seems like
45:10
you're going to get rewards with it, but it's just
45:13
a way to lose more money, she said. By March
45:17
twenty twenty three, Fisher's depths were spiraling and she couldn't
45:21
make her mortgage payments. She emailed DraftKings saying whether they
45:25
would give her her loan, she said, probably means I
45:28
need to quit gambling soon. Also, she wrote to her host.
45:32
The office kept coming, she said, including one for a
45:36
mystery reward if she gambled more than twelve thousand dollars
45:40
when a certain timeframe. Her lawsuit stated. They only stopped,
45:45
she said, when her accounts were drained and she stopped
45:48
depositing money. Eventually, Fisher said she received an email unfilming
45:53
her she was no longer a VIP. Once you're not
45:58
useful to them, they Fisher said. She filed a lawsuit
46:03
in federal court in February alleging raft Kings actively and
46:08
intentionally targeted and preyed on her with incentives, credits, and
46:13
gifts to create, nurture, expedite, and or exacerbate her addiction,
46:18
despite and are because of their knowledge of her addiction.
46:23
Draft Kings has yet to respond to the lawsuit. On
46:28
the verge of losing her house, Fisher contacted Pennsylvania's Gaming
46:33
Control Board to get herself on a list that would
46:36
prohibit her from gambling in the state. She went to
46:39
Gambler's anonymous meetings too. Then she took out a second
46:43
mortgage and picked up a second job working evening ships
46:47
after clocking out of her full time job. She said
46:51
she worked sixty five or more hours per week to
46:54
chip away at her debts, which include around ninety thousand
46:58
dollars on credit cards and fifty thousand dollars from other lenders.
47:03
The debts are shrinking very slowly, she said, but they're
47:08
moving in the right direction. Hope on the Hill. Representative
47:15
Paul Tonko, Democrat on New York and Senator Richard Blumenthal,
47:20
Democratic Connecticut held in news conference in March on the
47:24
eleventh announcing the Safe Bet Act, a bill they say
47:28
would bring accountability to US sports betting. They reviewed the
47:33
rise in online betting as a public health issue, they said,
47:37
and had worked with LEVANT and the Public Health Advocacy
47:40
Institute to craft the legislation. The bill would bar VPP
47:45
programs and advertising of bonus offers, require sports books to
47:50
limit deposits and conduct affordability checks on users, and prohibit
47:57
the use of AI to track a gamble a's betting
47:59
habits and offer individualized promotions. Sports betting has become a science.
48:06
It is the science of exploitation and targeting and tracking
48:10
individuals who are prone to addiction, targeting and detracting losers,
48:16
and inducing and enticing them to bet more and drive
48:19
them into ruin, Bluementhal said. And there is a picture
48:24
of Congressman Paul Tonko and Senator Bluementhal listening to speak
48:31
at a press conference to reintroduce the Safe Vet Act
48:35
in March. In twenty twenty, the United Kingdom's Gaming Commission
48:43
reviewed how it's two thousand and five gambling legalization laws
48:48
were playing out and revised its guidelines to put restrictions
48:52
on how companies can treat VP customers. The new guidelines
48:56
required companies to conduct rigorous financial background checks before granting
49:02
VIP status, ongoing monitoring for evidence of sustainable gambling, and
49:09
executive level approval for a customer to get labeled a VP.
49:13
In the years since, according to the Commission, the number
49:16
of VP customers has dropped by ninety percent across the industry. Denmark,
49:22
which legalized sports gambling in twenty twelve, banned individualized discounts
49:27
and other incentives by requiring that all inducements must go
49:31
to at least one hundred customers. The Netherlands meanwhile orders
49:36
operators to conduct financial checks on players who deposit at
49:40
least seven hundred euros or three hundred euros for players
49:44
under twenty five. Gambling is regulated differently from state to
49:49
state in the United States, and state lawmakers are just
49:53
starting to take note of VPP programs. Massachusetts is conducting
49:58
a study of legalized gambl that includes looking into the
50:01
impact of VFP hosts, an effort that has the intention
50:06
of the entire industry. Delassandro said she hopes regulators take
50:12
action because she doesn't trust sportsbooks to address the issue voluntarily.
50:17
She and her husband are separated and their divorce proceedings
50:21
are all ongoing. Her children are two and five, and
50:25
she's living with family in New Jersey as she rebuilds
50:27
her life. I am nowhere near back on my feet,
50:32
she said. In December, she sued Draft King's ledging consumer
50:37
fraud and saying the company was complicit in her husband's addiction.
50:42
In asking the court to dismiss the claim, Draft Kings
50:46
said that Della Sandro lacks standing to foul her claims,
50:50
and then, even if her husband stole from the family
50:52
to sport his habit, Draft Kings was simply service providers
50:58
receiving deposits in exchange for gaming services. Like the Fisher
51:04
and Pateel lawsuits, Della Sandro's complaint does not include the
51:08
back and forth text exchanges with the VFP host, and
51:11
Della Sandro said she was unable to provide them to
51:14
the post. In a court filing, Draft Kings noted that
51:20
in New Jersey, gaming operators owe no legal duty to
51:24
identify and exclude problem gamblers, much less a legal duty
51:29
to the family members of said get problem at gamblers.
51:34
When Della Sandro studied the betting ledgers she saw one
51:37
month when her husband appeared to slow his betting activities,
51:40
it was the month, the couple learned they were expecting
51:43
a second child. For a couple of weeks, he didn't gambole,
51:48
and then he got an email from the VP host, Hey,
51:53
I have a promo for you. Come back if you
51:56
notice they have a problem. Why are you incentified them
51:59
to keep going instead of giving them more promotions to
52:02
keep betting. Why don't you use that data and say, hey,
52:06
do you need some help? But that's not how their
52:09
business works. Whatever Draft Kings is doing, they've got the
52:14
secret sauce to get these people addicted and to keep
52:18
them pouring in more and more money, Alessandro said in
52:24
their last article. Judge orders Trump administration to bring back
52:29
man mistakenly deported. The case of kilmar Abrego Garcia has
52:35
spurned criticism that the Trump administration has imprisoned people for
52:39
matters that are typically civil violations of emigration law by
52:44
Katie Mettler, Maria Succhetti, and Dana Munroe. A federal judge
52:50
on Friday ordered the Trump administration to secure the release
52:54
of a man wrongly deported to a mega prison in
52:57
Alsalvador last month and return him to the United States
53:00
after his lawyers argued he was an imminent risk of
53:04
death in that country. US District Judge Paula Zinnies in
53:09
Maryland directed the administration to arrange the return of Kilmar
53:14
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant married to a US citizen,
53:19
by no later than five eleven fifty nine pm on Monday.
53:24
As the judge order issued her order from the bench,
53:27
his supporters outside the courtroom cheered. The Trump administration immediately
53:33
appealed to ruling Friday. Officials have argued that they have
53:36
no power to return Abrego Garcia because he is in
53:40
the custody of El Salvador President Naab Bukelly. We suggest
53:45
the judge contact President Bukelli because we are unaware of
53:49
the judge having jurisdiction or authority over the country of
53:52
Al Salvador. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said in
53:57
an email. Mukelly posted a moo of a confused looking
54:01
cartoon rabbit in response to a report on the judges
54:05
ruling from an exit count called end Wokeness. The judges
54:09
ruling followed an extraordinary admission from a Justice Department lawyer
54:13
at the hearing Friday that even he has struggled to
54:16
obtain answers of a y officers deported a Barrego Garcia
54:20
despite a court order forbidding it because he had filed
54:24
death threats from gang members in al Savadoor. The Trump
54:28
administration deported the longtime Maryland resident to a prison filled
54:32
with an alleged gang members. The state Department, which had
54:36
said it negotiated with al savador to host deportees, referred
54:41
questions to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS reiterated its
54:46
argument that Obarago Garcia is a member of the MS
54:49
thirteen gang with ties to the United States and Al Savadol.
54:54
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the agency has intelligence reports
54:59
that he has also involved in human trafficking, without providing evidence.
55:04
At the hearing Friday, Zinnis said she would not consider
55:07
discussion of the government's alleges of the man's alleged gang activity.
55:13
Allegations of the man's alleged gang activity, saying no evidence
55:17
has been presented to support that. The case drew dozens
55:21
of Abrego Garcia's supporters to the federal courthouse in Greenbelt
55:25
on Friday. Demonstrators called on Maryland lawmakers who are weighing
55:30
immigration related legislation to restrict state and local cooperation with
55:34
US immigration and customs enforcement at a time when the
55:38
Trump administration is trying to carrate the largest number of
55:41
deportations in US history. Lawyers had filed an emergency lawsuit
55:47
seeking of Brago Garcia's return last month. US officials argued
55:52
that beyond the administration being powerless to effectuate his return,
55:57
of Brago Garcia's lawyers have not clearly shown that he
56:02
would face harm in the prison of Rego. Larsia's lawyer
56:07
argued in court records that the government's claims are outrageous
56:11
and alleged that the Trump administration has washed their hands
56:15
of him, his wife, and their autistic and nonverbal five
56:18
year old son, a US citizen, their coming before this
56:23
court and saying we've tried nothing and we'ret of all options.
56:27
Simon Sandibal Mussenburgh told usinnis an Obama nominee at the
56:33
Friday hearing. The hasty removal of Obrego Garcia and hundreds
56:38
of other immigrants to El Savado's notorious terrorism confinement center,
56:43
where human rights groups have said inmates have faced beatings
56:47
and shortages of food and water, has spurred criticism that
56:51
the Trump administration has imprisoned people from matters that are
56:54
typically civil violations of immigration law. Government officials have argued
57:00
that they are deporting serious offenders, but they have not
57:03
identified most of them or proved evidence of or provided
57:07
evidence to support their allegations. During the hearing, US lawyer
57:12
Erez Renvini receded conceded that the US government should not
57:18
have deported Abuago Garcia, but said he was unable to
57:22
answer the Jesus questions about the government's legal authority to
57:26
do so. On what authority was he seed seized in
57:30
this asked, my answer to a lot of these questions
57:33
is going to be frustrating, Revenue said, and I'm frustrated
57:37
that I don't have answers to a lot of these questions.
57:41
Zenus noted that the government lacked and arrest warrant or
57:44
other documents to support his detention, assigned that from the
57:48
moment he was seized, it was unconstitutional. And that is
57:53
the end of today's reading of The Washington Post for Saturday,
57:57
the fifth of April of twenty twenty five. Be back
58:01
next Thursday. Have a good weekend, stay dry, and I
58:05
hope that you are not being flooded out of your
58:08
home by