Saturday, March 10, 2007

Howard E. Daniels II has been arrested for stealing more than $20,000 from
Colchester during his duties as gatekeeper at the transfer station. In the
affidavit for his arrest, Daniels admits to the theft to fund his and his
wife's gambling losses at Mohegan Sun, which totaled more than $50,000.
Daniels is not the first town employee in Eastern Connecticut to steal from
the town that employed them to fuel casino gambling. Sprague, Norwich and
Ledyard have all had money stolen from municipal coffers. Daniels, likely,
will not be the last, either. Connecticut has failed to study the effects of
legalized gambling since 1996. It has put the state at a great disadvantage
to understand the nature of problem gambling and the other impacts legalized
gambling has had on the state. Marvin Steinberg, executive director of
Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling, said stories involving the theft of
town money are just a small part of the story. He has seen bank managers,
comptrollers of private businesses and small business owners lose it all to
gambling.