Gambling and corporate social responsibility (CSR) : re-defining industry and state roles on duty of care, host responsibility and risk management

During the 1990s, states embraced legalised gambling as a means of supplementing state revenue. But gaming machines (EGMs, pokies, VLTs, Slots) have become increasingly controversial in countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand, which experienced unprecedented roll-out of gaming machines in casino and community settings; alongside revenue windfalls for both governments and the gambling industry. Governments have recognised that gambling results in a range of social and economic harms and, similar to tobacco and alcohol, have introduced public policies predicated on harm minimisation. Yet despite these, gaming losses have continued to climb in most jurisdictions, along with concerns about gambling-related harms. The first part of this article discusses an emerging debate in Ontario Canada, that draws parallels between host responsibility in alcohol and gambling venues. In Canada, where government owns and operates the gaming industry, this debate prompts important questions on the role of the state, duty of care and regulation ‘in the public interest’ and on CSR, host responsibility and consumer protection. This prompts the question: Do governments owe a duty of care to gamblers?

The article then discusses three domains of accumulating research evidence to inform questions raised in the Ontario debate: evidence that visible behavioural indicators can be used with high confidence to identify problem gamblers on-site in venues as they gamble; new systems using player tracking and loyalty data that can provide management with high precision identification of problem gamblers and associated risk (for protective interventions); and research on technological design features of new generation gaming products in interaction with players, that shows how EGM machines can be the site for monitoring/protecting players. We then canvass some leading international jurisdictions on gambling policy CSR and consumer protection.

In light of this new research, we ask whether the risk of legal liability poses a tipping point for more interventionist public policy responses by both the state and industry. This includes a proactive role for the state in re-regulating the gambling industry/products; instituting new forms of gaming machine product control/protection; and reinforcing corporate social responsibility (CSR) and host responsibility obligations on gambling providers – beyond self-regulatory codes. We argue the ground is shifting, there is new evidence to inform public policy and government regulation and there are new pressures on gambling providers and regulators to avail themselves of the new technology – or risk litigation

Object focused simultaneous estimation of optical flow and state dynamics

The framework of differential optical flow has been built upon to enhance the performance of motion estimation from optical flow. By coupling optical flow and object state parameters, an effective procedure for object tracking is implemented with the dasiaSimultaneous Estimation of Optical Flow and Object Statepsila (SEOS) technique. The SEOS method utilizes dynamic object parameter information when calculating optical flow for tracking a moving object within a video stream. Optical flow estimation for the SEOS method requires minimization of an error functional containing object physical parameter data. The convergence of an energy functional to a feasible or optimal solution set is not guaranteed. Convergence criteria is often assumed and not shown explicitly. Convergence of the SEOS method for both the Jacobi and Gauss-Seidel numerical resolution methods is evaluated.

Vulnerability, trade, financial flows and state failure in small island developing states

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are very different to other developing countries. Relative to GDP they have the highest levels of foreign trade and aid receipts of all developing countries. Remittances from abroad are a far more important source of income for SIDS, and some depend very heavily on export revenues. The quality of governance varies tremendously among SIDS, they are over-represented among countries classified as fragile states and many are prone to state failure. These and other factors combine to make SIDS highly vulnerable to external economic shocks. Achieving development in SIDS is as a consequence an especially complex task that requires an understanding of the roles played by aid, trade, remittances and governance in these countries. This paper looks at these issues, along with providing various stylised facts about SIDS. In so doing it serves as a background and broad contextual setting for the papers that follow in this Special Issue on 'Fragility and Development in Small Island Developing States'.

Perpetual revolution : people and state in socialist Cuba

This thesis examines the definition of “Revolution” in Cuba, exploring the political and social system that is associated with what people in Cuba call “the Revolution”, and placing special emphasis on people’s daily experiences of such systems. Through an analysis of organic movements of urban agriculture, alternative therapies emerging within the framework of a state-centred biomedical health system, and emigration this thesis aims to understand the lived experience of the Cuban Revolution

Comparing personality type profiles of primary teachers in the Catholic and state school systems

Convergence of object focused simultaneous estimation of optical flow and state dynamics

The purpose of this study is to prove the convergence of the simultaneous estimation of the optical flow and object state (SEOS) method. The SEOS method utilizes dynamic object parameter information when calculating optical flow in tracking a moving object within a video stream. Optical flow estimation for the SEOS method requires the minimization of an error function containing the object's physical parameter data. When this function is discretized, the Euler-Lagrange equations form a system of linear equations. The system is arranged such that its property matrix is positive definite symmetric, proving the convergence of the Gauss-Seidel iterative methods. The system of linear equations produced by SEOS can alternatively be resolved by Jacobi iterative schemes. The positive definite symmetric property is not sufficient for Jacobi convergence. The convergence of SEOS for a block diagonal Jacobi is proved by analysing the Euclidean norm of the Jacobi matrix. In this paper, we also investigate the use of SEOS for tracking individual objects within a video sequence. The illustrations provided show the effectiveness of SEOS for localizing objects within a video sequence and generating optical flow results.

On the efficiency of private and state-owned enterprises in mixed markets

We examine oligopoly models of vertical product differentiation in which producing firms face variable costs of quality development. We show that comparing to private oligopoly, mixed oligopoly – whereby state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private firms coexist – enhances social welfare but reduces firms' profitability. We also demonstrate that Bertrand competition makes firms better off under mixed oligopoly but it makes firms worse off under private oligopoly compared with Cournot competition. These findings help to justify both the existence of SOEs and the efficiency of SOEs and private firms in mixed markets in transitional economies.

Parent, child and state in Chinese children’s books

The representation of the relationship between parent and child, the moral cornerstone of Chinese society, is uniquely influential in Chinese children’s literature. After an extended period of almost two thousand years during which depictions of this relationship were static and unchanging, the beginning of the twentieth century ushered in a dynamic series of changes which responded to political needs. In this study we focus on these changes, examining four distinctive periods: the pre-modern dynastic period until 1911; the Republican and Nationalist phase from 1911 to 1949; the phase of Mao’s socialism from 1949 to 1976; and the post-Mao phase from 1976 to 2000.