Topic: A Resident commissioner stops gambling operators. (Read 137 times)

From by personal point of view, kicking out gambling and betting operators from a town will not guarantee there will be an increase in the quality of life of those who life there, in the end those who decide to continue to gamble will always find other ways to avoid doing it at broad daylight, they go underground.
Instead attacking legitimate businesses, the mayor of a town which is facing economical problems should instead tackles the root of those economical problems: lack of employment, access to education, investment into infrastructure, anything which create wealth or added value to the resources and people of the nation themselves.
If we are talking about people who is willing to mug others for the sake of their addiction, restricting places to bet won't stop the problem completely.

Though, we must recognize, nobody within an economical position in which is considered to be poor should engage in gambling to begin with, but there is no way to stop the poor from gambling.

I am not sure if I can answer your question, especially since I am not a citizen of the country we are discussing in this thread. But usually criminal cases occur due to weak systems and laws in a region or country. In the case of your thread, there is a "spike" in theft and crime. Local authorities or law enforcement officials should be able to take action against criminal acts. However, if it is associated with gambling, casinos or gambling agents, the answer could be that things like this are the root cause. However, all of this must be supported by evidence and data, if gambling is the root cause of the problems that occur in the country concerned. Amazingly, a commissioner is involved in stopping or eliminating gambling agents, I am worried if there is political involvement. However, whatever it is, I cannot give a value, response or answer to your question. After all, criminal or criminal acts will always exist whatever the root cause, especially if there is an opportunity. In several developed countries that legalize gambling, it seems that acts that are criminal or cases of theft are not that large in percentage. So, I think this is a problem with human resources itself. However, the answers to this thread are more specifically aimed at people in the countries concerned.

Thieves know that where there is gambling there is money, so a strong possibility that gambling is what is bringing the crime to the area. Not sure why the town or area couldn't hire some security though instead of shutting down the gambling? Here is the USA casino's pay large taxes to operate, is that not the case in Uganda?

It might have been triggered because the gamblers were not making a profit and the casinos were not playing fair, meaning that no one was winning with the machines they were using, everyone was losing and it would only suck up public money, which might sound logical if that was the case.

It seems from what is written that the casino owners are only enriching themselves and that already proves that their machines are not fair or that they are deliberately doing so, which is why the commissioner made such a statement against the gambling industry there.

No matter how much effort they put into stopping the gambling business, the reality is that they will never succeed. Indeed, there are many cases of criminal acts that are still related to gambling, but it seems that the main thing that must be overcome is to provide education for  gamblers to have good control. Because after all, if they understand and realize that gambling is important for their lifestyle, then they should also maintain gambling to  be viewed well. After all, other countries that have made gambling an illegal activity, but in reality their people can still easily gamble. So, I personally believe that their efforts will not succeed, although they may succeed in closing the gambling business in that environment, but business people will  have it again in a different area.

Honestly, actually I really don't know whether in Uganda has a law that prohibits gambling.
But from what I know is only when a country has set a law to prohibit gambling, whatever the commissioner does can be justified. But if in a city there is no law that prohibits gambling, surely everyone will say what the commissioner did was very wrong.
And if this is related to the increase in the theft that actually depends on the economy of a particular country or city. If indeed gambling there is allowed, surely each casino will provide taxes and of course the economy will be better. Because what I know is that the casino tax is very large and is able to provide major changes to the economy of a country.
So that if in Uganda gambling is a freedom without law but some casinos are forced to close, I am sure it is only related to casinos that do not pay taxes.

It is no secret that corruption and high crime rates are rampant in most poor countries. I am sure that even if they completely shut down gambling, the crime rate will not decrease much. The problem is low incomes, high unemployment, low education, etc. The list is almost endless. If this commissioner thinks that he will solve the problem only by closing gambling, he is deeply mistaken. There is a need for comprehensive work, which depends more on the government than on the population.

In order to answer this question, we need to know on what basis the commissioner reached the conclusion that the increase in crimes is linked to gambling? It would be necessary for a research company to conduct a survey on the motivations that lead people to commit crimes and only after this research company publishes the results of the survey and we see how many crimes in total are committed and whether the greater number of criminals tend to commit crimes because they want to gamble. and we also have to see if Ugandan laws allow gambling machine operators to place these machines anywhere

Even if they can prove that gambling was actually the reason, they can't act like they just order everyone to shutdown it has to be passed as a law by the government and then notice every operator to stop operating within a given deadline then they can knock on doors that still has been running.

The incompetence of government to maintain the security of civilians just deflect the blame onto something else, something that people will believe with no questions asked and when in that situation Gambling always get caught in their political game.

I can somewhat understand the point of view of the commissioner and unless the gambling operators are going to employ their own security (which might not be feasible or even useful if they are unarmed versus armed assailants) or fund a police force at arms length, then this might be the only way to tackle this crime. In an ideal world the police would have enough resources from central government taxation to investigate and stop these crimes at a low level, but it does not seem to be effective here, so in order to secure the safety of the general public - this may be the only option. Gambling operations can channel a lot of money into machines and premises, so they do become easy targets if word gets out around criminal circles.

Instead of gambling operators, why don't they attack those drug lords that spread out drug addiction and push these individuals to do different crimes?2 I think that should be given close attention rather than putting the blame into gambling operators who's only running small businesses in town. Unless if these commissioners also accept under the table funds which I know for sure this is really happening in most areas.

I am surprised to read about this because I have not seen a news like this before where just a commissioner will be given such huge power to ban businesses in the area that he is controlling. Commissioners should not been give such power. If a country and a state legalize gambling, a commissioner does not have the right to ban any gambling in that area. I do not know of Uganda but that is how gambling is in my country.

Could be. We don't have the facts and the records but maybe he does. If something changes in their economy and most of the money is flowing in gambling then there's a reason to stop all of them.
I think that the resident commissioner is just doing his job and I applaud him because he is thinking about the community and not the profits of the local government. I mean, think about it, if the gambling place is making money that means the tax is growing too because it's in percentage.

Then of course there's the crime rate changing. If there's a surge of crime in that same gambling site over and over or anything near its territory then I guess they must stop it first and increase the security there so that they can prevent it. I don't think he is halting the profits of the gambling place, he just want more security for his community.

I think it might be yes because there are some gamblers, particularly those who are addicted and so greedy in gambling that they can hardly stop themselves from gambling just to achieve the desire of their passion. Where others commit crimes such as stealing money, robbery, and others just to gamble.

Though, I also believe that not all gamblers do this or think this way, because I will repeat that the only ones who do this are usually those who are very addicted to casino gambling.

A district commissioner may lead the investigation about the root causes of increasing thefts and crimes, and has the authority to order to stop gambling operation once it's proven the root cause. A district commissioner is in charge of public order and safety, so he can certainly do that as long as it follows the existing laws and regulations on that certain region. However, I don't really think that gambling is the root cause, but it could also contribute to the increasing crimes in that certain district.

gambling might have been the reason for some of the crimes commited but they are not the root cause of the problem.

anyway, I am curious what their plan is after banning the gambling shops, I mean, banning the gambling shops might reduce the crimes but it doesn't really sovle the root cause of the problem of the crimes being commited.

Is there any link between gambling and crime rate? I don't know about this but I will tell you that the resident commissioner is very wrong. Why didn't the resident commissioner push for the creation of more jobs. If people in the community get busy they would not have the time to gamble to make money. How about of the resident commissioner think of ways that will improve the standard of living of the people in the community. It is not rocket science. Less corruption a d more caring about the people and you will not need to blame gambling operators for your failures as the government.

Same scenario in my country when POGO was always involved on crimes in my country. They are now shutdown by the government due to the public demand.

Gambling itself is not the problem rather the people that doing shady things and try to hide in the shadow of gambling. Even without this casino people will still do their crime! The only difference is they will do it in different way but they are still same crime.

Banning casino is just a band aid solution. It’s better to have proper regulations like strict police policies to control crime in the streets.

What happens is that some gambling operators also run side businesses, which may include thefts and drugs dealing. I'm not saying that is the case mentioned on this thread, but it's a real possibility, also present in another places. Probably everyone here know about those famous mafias ran by families which control different illegal and criminal activities such as gambling, prostitution, smuggling and much more.

The issue with physical gambling shops is that in countries where they are clandestine, people also use such places as hubs for every kinds of illegal practices. By stopping these houses from working, authorities are trying to stop every other criminal activities which come with this. The problem isn't gambling itself, but the side activities being practiced in gambling houses.

What was the substantial evidence that linked the recent surge in theft to gambling? or is the district commissioner acting out of prejudice?

Also, because of the political system that is practiced in Uganda, I am not surprised so much because in a fully democratic system, it is an abuse of power/office.