Some of you may remember that last month the Stars & Stripes was looking for feedback on gambling allowed on military bases overseas. Today they have a slew of articles about the current developments on this issue and reactions from the soldiers that would be effected by it:
1. Congressman Wants to Ban Gambling Machines on Base, Military Says They Aren’t A Problem
2. Who Gets What, and How Much?
3. Some Americans Would Miss Gambling
4. Stripes Readers Respond About Overseas Gambling
Some interesting facts from the articles is how the money from the slot machines is divided. Did everyone know that MWR only receives 7% of the slot machine’s profits? Also I don’t think the fact that a Southern Baptist Congressman is leading the charge against gambling is wise move because people will interpret this as him imposing his own moral views on the military even though he says he isn’t.
I for one think the slot machines should go not because of moral issues or protecting soldiers from gambling but because of the on base corruption it is promoting. The military’s MWR programs will take a hit without the slot machines, but the side benefit of reducing the corruption that surrounds it in USFK should be worth it.
Popularity: 4%
7:05 am on January 30th, 2008 1
What, gambling is for people that are poor, uneducated, lower-class and have a low IQ. That fits right in with the military.
8:28 am on January 30th, 2008 2
Funny how suddenly, like 2 weeks ago, they actually started cracking down on unauthorized users of the MWR machines. For the first time in the 15 years that I have been here they are actually activally keeping the Koreans out of the slot rooms. If they would just do that full time I would say keep the machines… but they won’t.. so they need to shitcan all of it.
“In Korea way too long” obviously gambles everytime he takes a breath… since he has a good chance of forgetting how to do it.
9:15 am on January 30th, 2008 3
The sudden crackdown on allowing only authorized personnel play the slots had me curious from the day they instituted the policy.
Are they simply trying to assess the actual use by authorized patrons? Are they trying to prevent the local Nationals that are not authorized to play from playing? I would truly like to know what the motivation behind it is.
No one seemed to care when the money was being exchanged, unauthorized users were being signed in to play, or when the unauthorized users would turn over a percentage of their winnnings to the individual that escorted them in. All of which were/are prohibited activities according to the rules posted in hte gaming rooms.
Take them away or leave them. It really makes no difference to me. My big pet peeve is that we have all sorts of rules and regulations in place but NO ONE enforces them.
Funny how at the Main Post Club in Yongsan they have paper signs that start with “Effective immediately..” but what follows has always been the rules as posted on their big brass placard.
If you are not going to enforce the rules, then in reality, they are not rules at all and need to be done away with.
Can’t wait to see where all this goes in the end.
10:44 am on January 30th, 2008 4
“What, gambling is for people that are poor, uneducated, lower-class and have a low IQ. That fits right in with the military.”
Troll bait?
I like the idea of Koreans throwing lots of money into MWR. Hell, we should secretly comp them to keep that money they win on base. They certainly can sustain larger amounts than some of us authorized users. As far as corruption goes, well, that gives the MP’s and CID something to do besides speed monitor. The other downside is the addiction and willingness of authorized users to gamble the housing money and Johnny’s college fund. I may be a little Machiavellian about this, but if they do it and destroy themselves in the process, I’d call that thinning out the herd.
I’m also for some consistency, dammit. If the good congressman wants to get into the Vice Squad, let’s do away with tobacco and alcohol and fattening foods. There are programs to deal with these addictions and more people die from alcohol related incidents than gambling, so why isn’t there a law to remove class-sixes?
Now…In Korea way too long…those people you describe are the ones that defend freedom (not in the GW Bush sense of pre-emptive defense). They may be young and unpolished, but weren’t we all, or were you born with a silver spoon in your mouth? Let’s show a little respect to those that serve.
1:35 pm on January 30th, 2008 5
Wow! S&S Thursday edition has some neat “we didn’t know and we can’t substantiate claims of unauthorized local nationals” article. To quote
“Stripes learned from numerous sopurces over several weeks of reporting that much of the slot machine gambling on bases is illegally conducted by South Koreans escorted by people with authorized base access.
Military and MWR officials said those claims remain unsubstantiated, but a full investigation is ongoing with the goals of keeping the game rooms safe, abiding by the law and ensuring no one is using any MWR facility as an illegal business venture.”
Are you frickin kidding me? Next thing you know they will be trying to tell us that the survellience system that is installed in EVERY game room has not captured the activities of exchanging money and loan sharking. A simple review of the security tapes from before they started enforcing this policy should not be that hard to do.
As for the Illegal South Koreans that allegedly were escorted on poost to play machines it might be harder to prove BUT, am I the only one who seems to notice that the population of the game rooms has decreased by a minimum of 75% since the start of the ID checks?
And how about Mr. Rich Gorman saying that spots checks of ID cards have been the policy all along? I can honestly say that I recall the random checks that were done at the DHL but the last one that I remember was back in 2000 or so. It is my opinion that it became more profitable for those in charge to not conduct the checks and thus driving away a known source of income for MWR.
The article continues to say that one source said base employees warn the illegal players before the spot checks occured. Again, and please let me know if you know otherwise, I never saw any spot checks in the last 5 years. Not only that but one of Mr. Gorman’s own DHL employees is one of the money lending/money exchanging/local national escorting individuals that the article speaks of. Now what makes me think she wouldn’t warn those illegal patrons?
I say we stop pretending that we didn’t know this issue existed and take corrective action. I guess if you admitted to having knowledge then you would be held accountable for not taking action or at least reporting it up the chain.
Oh I can hardly wait for Friday’s installment in this three-part series.
And for all the whining about spouses in Korea Borrowing and/or losing all the family’s money because of on base gambling I say Phooey!!! Correct me if I am wrong here; a good game of Go Stop here in Korea can cost as much as an hour of playing the slots. Maybe we should ban the sale of Korean playing cards.
Addictions are addictions plain and simple. If you have a problem then you should get help. Stop placing the blame on the class 6 store or the tobacco industry or the slot machines or whatever else it is that you cannot control yourself when using!
2:35 pm on January 30th, 2008 6
I’m sure USFK would of investigated these illegal activities regardless of the proposed bill to stop gambling on military installations. NOT! Professor Kindt, CNN and everyone else know and have known about all of this. This is the Army’s only chance to try to keep the machines now. To be able to say we have stopped all the illegal activities and we should therefore be able to continue to operate the gambling business. MWR, KORO, CID, and all the previous Cdr’s have looked the other way, especially LTG Campbell. The heat is on USFK, stay tuned for the next CNN special.
8:50 pm on January 30th, 2008 7
Painful…
The only people more completely dense than slack-off Stars & Stripes reporters who just happen to have “learned from numerous sources over several weeks of reporting that much of the slot machine gambling on bases is illegally conducted” are the painfully incompetent, mind-bendingly stupid and shamelessly corrupt members of USFK leadership who “said those claims remain unsubstantiated” and “appreciate them coming to light so we can talk about aggressive action”…
…with “talk” being the appropriately operative verb…
…because, see, nobody knew it was going on (despite YEARS of open conversation about it on sites such as this about how open it all is)…
…and now, it’s time to take “aggressive action” to get ready to begin to formulate a preliminary plan to prepare to assess the possibilities of identifying steps necessary to complete the preparation of beginning to get ready to formulate a preliminary plan… etc.
And, somewhere, deep within that nested loop of bustling inaction, Britney Spears will kill herself, somebody will win the Super Bowl or
Stars & Stripes (under pressure of losing access for fluff stories) will just say, “Look! A butterfly!”
And… that will be the end of that.
7:40 am on January 31st, 2008 8
Chickenhead is right again…look at all the human trafficking that went on up until the Fox News exposé in 2002…only when dirty laundry gets publicized in such a fashion and the reputations of careerists get tarnished does action seem to take place.
4:10 pm on January 31st, 2008 9
And, now for…
ChickenHead’s Top Hundred “Unsubstantiated Claims” that have “Not Yet Come to Light”…
…because, you know, all local intel for USFK comes from Stars & Stripes and their team of relentless investigative reporters…
…and S&S has not yet “learned from numerous sources” and spent “several weeks of reporting” on issues that less-occupied journalists, diligently reporting on reports of reporting, would have had the time to stumble across on a 30 minute walk around town with their eyes closed…
…so USFK leadership has not yet been given the opportunity to “talk about aggressive action”, or even THINK about talking… as they are unaware there is any need for a “full investigation”…
…as, apart from this sudden and shocking revelation of very recent irregularities concerning the slot machines, quickly exposed in a massive two-prong attack by relentless reporters and crack military investigators, everything else around USFK is… well… just an “unsubstantiated claim”…
…and will remain so as long as none of the foxes around the hen house attempt to substantiate it.
So… let’s take a look at this partial and very incomplete list of Unsubstantiated Claims.
99. Curfew only works for the stupid and timid who hang out in the Villes. Everyone else goes into unsupervised Real Korea where they can irritate the locals until sunrise with drunk GI behavior best reserved for the GI bar districts. Usually, Koreans just shake their heads and quietly resent the American military more. Sometimes it leads to grandmother raape. Mmmmm, grandmother raape.
98. Pirate DVD/game carts/shops are not placed on blanket off-limits (like pharmacies or barber shops) even though GIs (including senior officers) are openly committing federal crimes to purchase, possess, view and export them… and there is even an FBI Warning spelling much of it out. Vendors freely admit they pay “membership fees” to associations run by “community leaders”… who play golf with USFK leadership who have the power over off-limits. Hmmm…
97. Clubs reuse their ice. Keep this in mind when you get tiny, rounded cubes as opposed to the large, jagged ones you might expect from a fresh bag of ice. Clubs reuse their beer. A pitcher with the last pitcher’s foam is topped off with new draft beer… maybe no problem until greed takes over and unfinished draft beer, and then half-bottles of backwashed bottled beer, make it into your waiting draft pitcher. Bottled beer is filled with draft and recapped before opening. Serving ajuma rips off the club by making one full bottle from two unfinished halves… then charging you 3 bucks and then tapping her foot until she gets the dollar tip. Nice. Drink up, fatboy.
96. Public stores right outside the American military posts/bases openly sell post/base-only products that can only be acquired through black marketing yet OSI/CID and Stars & Stripes haven’t noticed… well, at least not for the last 50 years or so. It’s understandable. Investigations of this scale take time. They don’t notice the AAFES trucks being unloaded into Bongos at 4am either… but that would require getting up early.
95. A naked GI is found dead in the road late at night… witnesses tell their stories of what, who and when… and it all… goes… away. Stars & Stripes makes sure it stays away. Maybe you CAN get away with murder.
94. GI Joe, USFK and the American taxpayer is getting ripped off by off-base/post landlords with “approved” housing… meaning they paid a hefty kickback to get on the List. While the kickback is large enough to feed long-term Koreans on post/base as well as their USFK counterparts, it is more-than covered by the grossly-inflated rents. The heating oil, hot water, gas and electricity which is pilfered, along with bogus utility bills, makes it all worth the effort. Funny how Leadership just goes along with this scam.
93. High-quality counterfeit goods, from sports clothing to designer bags, are being shipped back to the States via tax-subsidized military mail in industrial quantities by organized rings protected by higher-ranking leaders who get a cut of the ridiculous profits.
92. Certain officers are contracting outside companies to do work that GIs could/should do. The company being owned by a close friend, a Korean wife’s relative or a guy with a long history of paying kickbacks has nothing to do with it.
91. Clubs that confine their girls during non-working hours and subtract money from the girls’ pay when they refuse a barfine for sex are engaging in human trafficking and sexual exploitation. The ones not doing this are the ones where Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny drink. These places are never put off-limits. But they do pay “membership fees” to “associations” run by golf buddies of senior leadership… or they are OWNED by the golf buddies. Of course this doesn’t mean anything… and it would be a conspiracy theory to think it does.
90. Soju IS regulated!
Of course these are all Unsubstantiated Claims.
Feel free to add your own.
3:50 pm on February 9th, 2008 10
Here is one for you!
Since both Leadership and Stars & Stripes don’t notice anything until it “comes to light”, a.k.a. “congress gets involved”, here is a great heads-up for them to beat congress to the punch…
…well, if that’s what they actually want to do.
According to today’s Stars & Stripes, “Housing allowance skyrockets north of Seoul”.
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52331
“Servicemembers in pay grades E-1 through O-4 can receive between $1,047.71 and $2,037.22 per month with a $500 to $700 per month utilities allowance, according to the Pentagon’s housing allowance Web site.”
In typical Stars & Stripes fashion, even when a story is reported, the REAL story is ignored.
Apart from the rent overcharge scams in a buyers’ market, the REAL story here is, “How is it possible to spend $500-$700 per month in utilities?” By what process and “research” was this determined to be the Correct Amount… and what lazy, or corrupt, flack authorized it?
My water bill is never over ten bucks. My wife complains if the electric bill is over a hundred… and I bet I have at least one more continuously-running 4D CNC milling machine than the average GI.
For $500 per month, a Korean house can be kept at Philippine temperatures all winter… or Death Valley temperature, with some o’ that nice subsidized GI heating oil.
There must be crackheads at all levels to not notice this.
O.K., O.K… I don’t expect any sympathy on this one. Most of the readers here, civilian and military, are personally benefiting from fraud, waste and abuse, such as this… and certainly don’t want any attention brought to it…
…even though the money you are all pocketing takes away from a guy in Iraq who just wants better body armor… or a guy with a head injury who needs better medical care… or a guy with no legs who probably deserves some disability… etc.
Funny how, “I support the troops” is easier to say than to do.
5:54 pm on February 9th, 2008 11
Well I, for one, appreciate it when you raise these sorts of issues….
Funny how a brand new Julie’s Realty (one of the Area II “approved” brokers) popped up right across the street from Camp Red Cloud main gate as soon as these changes were discussed a few months ago in an attempt to make Area I housing “more like Area II” (read: shady)….
I can see it now…as soon as leases expire, they’ll be re-negotiated to take advantage of the max OHA ceiling, with the lessees and realtors splitting the difference!
3:06 pm on February 23rd, 2008 12
Mark,
Not only is it good to see someone who actually cares about rampant fraud, waste and abuse, instead of blindly defending the “leadership” which allows/encourages/benefits, it is also a pleasure to see someone who can almost predict the future. Do you use tea leaves or chicken bones?
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52757
Looks like Julie is on the hotseat… but only the Yongsan branch… because, you know, the others are squeaky clean… and this is just a “misunderstanding”… (maybe one concerning the thickness of the little, white envelope). Who knows.
GI,
It might be worth a post on this story… so some of the readers can compare notes as to what they are paying and, perhaps, avoid being defrauded while saving the military a bit of money.
I’m sure you enthusiastically support any action which could expose fraud, waste and abuse on this scale… especially when it negatively affects training and equipping guys on the front so that ajushi can drive a bigger Hyundai. Actually, you won’t just support it, you will actively peruse it, right? Right?
Eric & S&S,
If Stars & Stripes wished to do a true service to its military readers, the United States Armed Forces and the American taxpayer, a bit of investigative journalism and a no-BS, front-page, multi-part series about market prices of rent and utilities in the different areas, would be fantastic.
In typical S&S fashion, no toe-stepping conclusions need be expressed and no difficult questions that might cast certain involved parties in a bad light need to be asked. This story can be reported only with hard facts and figures as well as suggestions on how to negotiate better housing at a lower price and recognize utilities fraud.
Of course, members of leadership are looking out for the best interests of America, receive no benefit from inflated housing costs and never are involved in questionable ethics concerning this incredibly large and poorly-accounted-for amount of cash so I expect you will not only have the full cooperation but also the encouragement of leadership at the highest levels of USFK.
And, after a few months, when the follow-up is run, the results will be striking.
I’d hold my breath… but I prefer to look like Prince Charming… not Little Boy Blue.
3:56 pm on February 23rd, 2008 13
Even better methods…tea houses and chicken heads.
6:29 pm on February 23rd, 2008 14
Chickenhead,
I have a posting up now about Julie’s being put off limits. Thanks for the heads up.