Category Archives: Gambling

'I hate the thought of Balatro becoming a true gambling game': LocalThunk is making sure casinos can't get their hands on his game even after he dies by literally writing it into his will  PC Gamer

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'I hate the thought of Balatro becoming a true gambling game': LocalThunk is making sure casinos can't get their hands on his game even after he dies...

After burning down an iconic MMO casino, Old School RuneScape spends 2 years crafting a new anti-gambling bomb because 'Deathmatching' was a huge source of real-world trading  Gamesradar

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After burning down an iconic MMO casino, Old School RuneScape spends 2 years crafting a new anti-gambling bomb because 'Deathmatching' was a huge...

Brazil's Gambling Legislation Vote May Be Delayed Due to Changing Priorities and Social Concerns  Latest Casino Bonuses

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Brazil's Gambling Legislation Vote May Be Delayed Due to Changing Priorities and Social Concerns - Latest Casino Bonuses

The majority of voters want gambling advertising gone. Its time for Albanese to heed their calls  The Guardian

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The majority of voters want gambling advertising gone. Its time for Albanese to heed their calls - The Guardian

by Frank Cotolo

I wanted to consider myself an expert per James Quinns three simple ingredients. If I were near as smart as the company I kept in those days I may have been able to write an equation for it. But I could not even pass the written test to be a contestant on Wheel Of Fortune. Maybe I needed to construct a Rubiks Cube with only three matching sides; two representing my knowledge and experience and one for my intuition. My DNA refused all attempts.

Meanwhile my address found its way onto a mailing list targeting the legion of desperate and degenerate sports gamblers; or as the senders called it, The Sucker List. In a few days my personal Post Office box overflowed.

Youre going to need a bigger box or less friends, said actor/comedian Ron Carey (High Anxiety, Barney Miller) whose rented box was next to mine.

These are ads from fellas claiming to have winning formulas at the races. Look, I said, showing him one.

He read the envelope. Risk-Free Ricky releases his racetrack secrets. Make a thousand a day

And he only wants sixty-nine bucks.

Tommy Turfmaster, Big Bucks Profitable Picks, Sid Swifts Super Solutions at The Races and on and on It was nothing new but neither were suckers. Especially beginners.

When Off Track Betting (OTB) opened in New York in the 70s, there was an ad running in local newspapers promising winners from a phone call. A lady answered and said, Im going to give you a horse to bet. You can play however much you want; all I want are the winnings of a 10-dollar ticket which youll send in the form of a money order to a post office box Ill give you when you call back after winning. I agreed and she said, Corporal King in the fifth at Belmont.

I told a friend about it and he visited OTB and placed $20 to win on Corporal King at long odds. We listened to the race at an OTB parlor; Corporal King got a single call and lost. We were curious; if it were a smart scheme, why would it give out a loser?

Because she made money on the winner, my friend said Then he explained the simple brilliance of the fraud. She picks a single race a day. One with a big field. Like Corporate King was in a with 12. She gets a dozen phone calls. She gives each caller a different horse in the same race. One of the callers wins and sends her the winnings of a 10-dollar ticket.

Oh, my gawd, I said, youre a Sherlock. Shes winning every race on a program if she gets 10 calls.

The phone scheme had no overhead but the mail order pieces were carefully designed printed pamphlets and follow-up pieces that cost money to mail. But at 60-some-odd bucks a clip the senders knew there were plenty of suckers on their lists willing to take shots at crushing the races for big profits.

The guardians of gambling gimmicks mailed me ads in L.A. even while I earned a prolific profile as a writer in racing publications like American Turf Monthly and Harness Horse. I wrote back to a few of them more than once with the following offer:

If you send me a free copy of your formula and it lives up to its expectations, I will pay you ten (10) times the asking price and write a glowing review in publications where I contribute.

I never received a single response but remained on their mailing lists.

I guess a lot of desperate gamblers go for that stuff, Ron said.

I said, I understand the attraction. Doing a little work for big rewards.

This was my goal, too, but I did not buy into the myths of a secret formula or specific regularizer. Ultimately, I wanted to profit from pari-mutuel betting with as easy a formula as possible; one I would not construct into a so-called super system with strict rules and conditioned betting boundaries; one demanding precise race types to address; one promising a fair return-on-investment profit percentage; one I would not be able to package and sell to support its failure.

I was given time to ruminate

My writing career forced me to take a hiatus from pari-mutuel activity. I became involved with a surreptitious plan promising adventure and international intrigue with no connection to pari-mutuel racing. The plan was concocted by a tycoon (lets call him Sir Delaney) who reportedly lived somewhere in Great Britain. The plan included being stationed on a tanker-ship-turned-broadcast station sailing along the borders of international waters on the North Sea. Soon I was on my way to England via France to be a member of Wolfman Jacks clandestine crew of pirate radio broadcasters.

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Attack of the self-acclaimed guardians of gambling gimmicks - Harness Racing Update

In summary

Californias rival gambling interests gave the 22 members of an obscure legislative committee more than $1 million in campaign donations. Did the cash infusion to this juice committee influence members votes?

Californias tribal casinos won a key vote on a gambling bill earlier this month after showering members of an obscure legislative committee with more than $1 million in campaign donations since the start of last year.

That included funneling $92,500 in campaign donations to key members of the committee in the weeks before the vote.

The tribes competitors, private card rooms, see the legislation as an existential threat both to their businesses and to city budgets across the state. But the card clubs lost the vote despite giving members of the committee nearly $393,000 in campaign donations over the past year and a half.

They did get support from the committees chairperson, who received the largest share of the card rooms cash.

Her opposition wasnt enough to kill the bill, which needed 12 of the 22 members of the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee to pass. In the end, Senate Bill 549 passed with 15 aye votes including two from legislators who unexpectedly broke with local governments in their districts, and one from a legislator who was temporarily placed on the committee to fill in for an absent member.

It is illegal for legislators to pledge a vote in response to a cash contribution. Members of the committee told CalMatters the influx of gambling money to their campaigns didnt influence their decisions.

But the fact that two influential interest groups showered committee members with so much money in the lead up to a key vote suggests spending big makes a big difference, and the public should assume it does, said Sean McMorris, the transparency, ethics and accountability program manager for California Common Cause.

No politician is ever going to tell you that money affects their vote, but the public isnt stupid, McMorris said. Its pretty darn suspicious that most of them voted based on where they got the most money from.

The vote also shows why the Governmental Organization Committee is known as a juice committee, which typically considers high-stakes legislation for businesses likely to try and influence the vote by donating to committee members. The committee has twice as many members as most legislative committees, and it provides the leaders who make committee assignments with a way to reward political allies.

Thats why theyre called juice committees, so you can squeeze the money out, said Stacy Fisher, a former political scientist who studied juice committees as a professor at University of Nevada, Reno.

For the lawmakers on the G.O. Committee, as its commonly called, there are few issues as juicy as this gambling dispute. The fight has become one of the most expensive political battles in California. Combined, the competing gambling interests have donated at least $1.4 million to the committees members since 2023.

Its been part of a years-long lobbying blitz. Last year, one card room alone, Hawaiian Gardens Casino, spent $9 million on lobbying the second most any group spent to influence state policy. Only the international oil giant Chevron spent more.

Meanwhile, both sides spent a combined $176 million on a failed, tribal-sponsored sports betting initiative in 2022 that included a provision that would have allowed the tribes to sue card rooms.

The tribes, however, outspent their rivals on the initiative three-to-one, nearly the same ratio they outspent the gambling halls in the months before the G.O. Committee voted to advance the measure.

The tribes and card rooms have been fighting ever since voters in 2000 approved an initiative that gave tribes the right to negotiate compacts with the state to host certain house-banked, Las Vegas-style gambling on their lands.

The tribes argue that the states 80 or so privately-owned gambling halls have been cutting into their exclusive gambling rights by illegally offering games such as blackjack, baccarat and pai gow poker. By doing so, the tribes contend, the card rooms have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue from historically disenfranchised tribal communities across California.

They want to sue the card rooms for allegedly breaking the law. But because the tribes are sovereign governments, California courts have found they lack the legal standing to take their business competitors to court. Senate Bill 549, authored by Fullerton Democrat Sen. Josh Newman and 20 bipartisan coauthors, would give tribes a brief window to file a case.

James Siva, chairperson of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association, representing 52 tribal governments, framed the issue as a matter of legal and social justice for native peoples.

Noting that Gov. Gavin Newsom has acknowledged the past atrocities and issued a formal apology for the state sanctioned genocide of native people, Siva argued that passage of the bill would help California atone for the crimes purportrated against tribes. He said card rooms should also want a judge to settle the matter for good.

If card rooms are confident in the legality of the games they operate, they should welcome the chance to prove it in a court of law, he told the committee.

The card rooms say the measure and the lobbying push behind it from the states 70 tribal casinos is unfair. They say card rooms annual earnings are barely 10% of what tribal governments make. They argue that if the tribes are allowed to sue, the card clubs wouldnt be allowed to sue tribes back, and they could go out of business from the ensuing legal fees.

Card room lobbyist Ed Manning told the committee that the California Attorney Generals Office has permitted the disputed games for years. The tribes, he said, are merely looking to kill their competition.

This is sort of the equivalent of a local government giving a land-use permit to Starbucks, Manning told the committee. Starbucks opens up, operates, but the coffee shop down the street doesnt like it, and so they want to sue Starbucks instead of the city government that gave them the permit.

Learn more about legislators mentioned in this story.

Josh Newman

Democrat, State Senate, District 29 (Fullerton)

Evan Low

Democrat, State Assembly, District 26 (Cupertino)

Gregg Hart

Democrat, State Assembly, District 37 (Santa Barbara)

Blanca Rubio

Democrat, State Assembly, District 48 (West Covina)

Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer

Democrat, State Assembly, District 57 (Los Angeles)

Blanca Pacheco

Democrat, State Assembly, District 64 (Downey)

Laurie Davies

Republican, State Assembly, District 74 (Oceanside)

The card rooms also have allies in cities across the state whose budgets are tied to card room revenue, the largest being San Jose. The cities say that if the card rooms stop offering the disputed table games, it could force the municipalities to cut police, fire and other city services because their budgets are propped up by the taxes and fees that the card rooms pay local governments.

San Jose City Councilmember Sergio Jimenez told the committee that the city receives $30 million each year from card rooms, enough to fund 150 police officers or 133 firefighters.

This bill would inject uncertainty into city budgets across the state at a time when revenue levels and economic activity are just beginning to stabilize after the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

Card room lobbyists thought the July 2 vote by the G.O. Committee would be closer, but two members surprised them by voting with the tribes. One was Oceanside Republican Laurie Davies, whose Assembly district has a card room, Oceans Eleven Casino in Oceanside. Both the city and the card room oppose the bill.

Her campaign received $53,000 from tribal casinos and $12,000 from card rooms since January 2023. She didnt discuss her position at the hearing, and her office declined to comment.

The other surprise was from Assemblymember Evan Low, a Democrat from Cupertino. He voted to support the measure over the objections of San Jose, which is in his Assembly district.

Its pretty darn suspicious that most of them voted based on where they got the most money from.

Low is running for Congress and is leaving the Assembly at the end of the year. His campaigns received at least $18,100 from tribes and $12,000 from card rooms since January 2023.

Despite voting for the bill, Low told the committee he had concerns about the potential for the loss of revenue and also the loss of jobs. He urged the bills author to consider amending it and he suggested he might vote against it if the bill advances to the Assembly floor.

Lows spokesperson Eddie Kirby said the lawmaker explained his vote in the committee and that suggesting any other motive is not factual.

One other potential swing vote was absent from the committee vote.

Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a Democrat from Los Angeles, was recovering from a knee surgery. He told CalMatters he wasnt sure how he would have voted, though he said he does have concerns about anyone using the courts to extinguish a business.

In his absence, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas subbed in Gregg Hart to temporarily take Jones-Sawyers seat. The Democrat from Santa Barbara voted to pass the measure. Hart has received $43,000 from tribes and no money from card rooms in the past year and half.

Rivas didnt respond to CalMatters request for comment. Hart told CalMatters that Rivas didnt make any mention of why he chose him, but he was glad to take the assignment to support tribes, including one in his district. Hart said the tribes members pulled themselves out of abject poverty thanks to their casino. He said they deserve their day in court.

I think this question about gaming is a legitimate question that needs to be resolved, he said.

Jones-Sawyer is leaving the Assembly at the end of the year, and he placed last during the March primary as he sought a seat on the Los Angeles City Council. His city council campaign received at least $9,000 in donations in near equal amounts from tribes and card rooms, according to donations reported to Los Angeles County elections officials. He has no card rooms or casinos in his Assembly district.

Jones-Sawyer has been on the G.O. Committee for much of his time in office, and he told CalMatters that both factions have donated to his Assembly campaigns over the years.

Its been very fortunate that theyve both been able to help me get back into the Assembly, and then having faith in me running for city council, he said.

Another Los Angeles County Democrat, Blanca Pacheco, who received $19,126 from card rooms and $43,500 from casinos, told the committee that given the importance of card rooms in her district, she had no choice but to side with them.

It is a very, very, very tough vote, and I feel for both sides, she told the committee. At some point, I would love to see both sides just come to the table, have more discussions, and hopefully everything can be worked out. But at the end of the day, I do have to vote my district.

Pacheco ended up not voting, which counts the same as voting no. Her office declined to make her available for an interview, but a spokesperson told CalMatters in an email that often, a decision not to cast a no vote is a courtesy to the author.

Another notable non-vote came from Assemblymember Blanca Rubio, the committees chairperson. Her campaign reported $27,500 in contributions from card rooms and affiliated groups in the three months leading to the vote, bumping her total donations from card rooms to $125,000 since January 2023. She also received $95,000 from tribal casinos.

Rubio, who doesnt have a card room or a tribal casino in her district, told the committee she couldnt recommend voting for the bill, given the harms the bill posed to communities that depend on the tax revenue from card rooms.

Her office declined to make her available for an interview, but in a written statement she said her position wasnt influenced by the card rooms cash.

During the last eight years in the Assembly, I have sat on over a dozen committees and voted on thousands of bills, she said. Campaign contributions have never been a consideration during any of those votes.

The bill will next be heard before the Assembly Appropriations Committee, another juice committee.

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Gambling interests gave $1M to California lawmakers. Did it influence their votes? - CalMatters

Apparently, July is the month that I give back all of my profit earned over the year. I wish someone tipped me off in advance. The time to stop the bleeding is NOW. For my best bet for Saturday (July 20th): UFC Predictions, were hitting up the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

Regardless of the sports, the Sports Gambling Podcast Network has you covered. Weve got shows and winning picks for every sport under the sun. No one around is delivering free picks for the entire year and working with you to battle Corporate Gambling. Today and every day, we are delivering best bets, free picks, and stone-cold locks. Sean and Kramer also are ready to Let it Ride, check out their best bet video below.

CHECK OUT THE SPORTS GAMBLING PODCASTS DAILY BEST BETS

Start Time 5:00 PM EST

The sport I know the most about is going to help me snap my slump. Were going with my lock pick for UFC Fight Night: Lemos vs Jandiroba as my best bet tomorrow Steve Garcia.

The featherweight is in the co-main event against the skidding Seungwoo Choi. Choi has only won one of his last four fights, while Mean Machine Garcia has knocked out three straight opponents. Hes going to be a way better and dangerous striker tomorrow night.

Best Bet: Steve Garcia (-150)

Overall Record: 72-64 (53%) Profit (based on $100/bet):$47.38 Return on Investment: 0.3%

MLB NRFI and YRFI Picks

Underdog Fantasy Daily MLB Pick Em

SGPN Parlay of the Day

NBA Summer League Best Bet & Underdog Fantasy Play

NBA PICKS UPDATED DAILY

COLLEGE BASKETBALL PICKS THE PICKS POWERHOUSE

NHL PICKS LET IT SLIDE

SOCCER PICKS KICK IT ON THE PITCH

NASCAR PICKS FEEL THE THUNDER

UFC PICKS TAKE DOWN CORPORATE GAMBLING

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Best Bet For Saturday (July 20th): UFC Predictions - SGPN

Citywide mobile sports betting returned to D.C. on Wednesday morning, more than 24 hours after FanDuel suspended online operations in the city as it waited for Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) to sign the citys fiscal-year 2025 budget, which reauthorized sports betting in the nations capital.

Bowser never actually signed the budget, returning it to the D.C. Council without her signature or veto and expressing concerns about certain tax and spending measures. But the move in essence allowed sports gambling to resume in the city.

FanDuel previously had been the lone company to offer citywide mobile sports betting in D.C., but a new law written into the 2025 budget opened the door to as many as six other companies. On Wednesday morning, Caesars began taking online bets throughout the city (mobile betting on that platform had been limited to gamblers who were within a two-block radius of Capital One Arena), and BetMGM did the same Wednesday afternoon.

The final sports betting licenses seem likely to be filled soon. DraftKings which is available in 25 states and led the nation in sports gambling market share for the second quarter of this year said June 25 that it was looking forward to the potential opportunity to introduce D.C. sports fans to our mobile sportsbook product.

On Tuesday, FanDuel posted a message on its app saying that it had paused online sports betting in D.C. The company told The Washington Post in a statement that it was waiting for final approval of the FY2025 DC Budget, which included a bill to expand the citys sports betting offerings. Intralot, the Greek company that operates the citys lottery, previously had subcontracted with FanDuel to be D.C.s lone citywide sports betting option after the failure of GambetDC, the citys original betting platform.

Moving forward, gambling companies that operate in D.C. will pay the city 20 percent of their gaming revenue, plus the costs of acquiring a license. Under the terms of its former agreement with Intralot, which has expired, FanDuel paid the city 40 percent of its gaming revenue as the lone company offering citywide mobile sports betting in D.C.

Plagued by technical glitches and lousy odds, GambetDC brought in just $4.3 million over a four-year period, well short of the $84 million that was projected. In April, Intralot announced it was shuttering GambetDC and turning the citys mobile sports gambling operation over to FanDuel, which also operates a brick-and-mortar sportsbook at Audi Field. In its first 30 days alone, FanDuel brought in $1.9 million to the city.

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Online sports gambling is back in D.C. after one-day pause - The Washington Post

BOSTON, July 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ --As the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) gathered for their annual conference in San Diego this week, the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI)a nonprofit research center for public health laws affiliated with Northeastern University School of Law released a new video to highlight the ethical and scientific failure of the "Responsible Gambling" model.

Under the direction of its president, Professor Richard Daynard, Executive Director Mark Gottlieb, and Director of Gambling Policy Dr. Harry Levant, PHAI is leading the efforts to replace the Responsible Gambling model with a comprehensive public health response to the unprecedented expansion of the gambling industry and online gambling.PHAI will be advocating for and advancing much-needed public health reform and regulation at both the federal and state levels.

The new video, which can be found on the PHAI website here, analyzes key flaws in the Responsible Gambling modelan approach favored by both the gambling industry, and the gambling-industry-funded NCPG.

In the video, Dr. Levant highlights the situation's urgency, stating "The expansion of online gambling without appropriate safeguards and regulation is an industry-driven 'wild west' environment, resulting in a looming public health crisis."

President Daynard echoed this statement by criticizing the current Responsible Gambling model: "The Responsible Gambling model puts the onus on the customer, rather than focusing on the irresponsible design and marketing decisions of the gambling industry."

Professor Gottlieb also emphasized the need for change. "The time has come to expose the failures of the Responsible Gambling model and move forward with a public health approach to regulation and reform," he said.

PHAI continues to establish itself as a critical voice for proper regulation and restraint as the gambling industry grows. In December 2023, PHAI's Center for Public Health Litigation filed a class action lawsuit against online gambling giant DraftKings, alleging false advertising related to DraftKings promotional offerings. The lawsuit made national headlines and was featured in such media as CBS News' 60 Minutes, CNN, and National Public Radio (NPR).

About The Public Health Advocacy Institute

The Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) is a non-profit legal research center focused on public health law located at Northeastern University School of Law. In 2014, PHAI formed the Center for Public Health Litigation, a nonprofit law firm, which uses the civil justice system to improve public health by focusing on litigation targeting tobacco industry products, unhealthy foods, deceptive health marketing, and deceptive gambling practices.

To learn more about PHAI, visitphai.org.

Primary Contact:

Public Health Advocacy Institute

617-373-2026

Dr. Harry Levant, [emailprotected]

Media Contact:

PRCGHaggerty LLC

(212) 683-8100

Sandra Prendergast, [emailprotected]

SOURCE Public Health Advocacy Institute

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Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) Calls for Overhaul of "Responsible Gambling" Model - PR Newswire

Locks

No locks today.

NBA Summer League LA Lakers/Cleveland Cavaliers Over 178.5 (-110; Odds via Caesars): 8:00 PM CT on ESPN

It was a rough start in Summer League for Bronny James and his Lakers team as a result, with a couple lopsided losses where the offense looked lost. But things seemed to turn around a bit last night against the Hawks, and if any of that carries into today theyll have a decent night offensively. That will be made easier by this Cavaliers defense that has been torched for 94.3 PPG this week.

The Cavs are also on a back-to-back here after playing last night, so defenses for both teams might not be putting forth their best efforts. This is a total that early in the week wouldve definitely been in the 180s but lower scoring has depressed totals across the board. That puts it in a very reachable range that I think poor defense and improved offense can help to clear tonight.

NBA Summer League LA Clippers -4.5 vs Utah Jazz (-110; Odds via Fanduel): 8:00 PM CT on NBA TV

What Ive seen out of the Clippers so far in Summer League has impressed me, and while this game will probably be their toughest test, I think theyre up to the challenge. With Cam Christie and RayJ Dennis, LA has a dynamic backcourt for this level of basketball, and that gives them a significant edge over just about any other team.

Its kept them very consistent over the course of this week, which is something that cant be said for Utah. The Jazz have been very inconsistent from long range, and could easily be 0-3 this week if a couple bounces hadnt gone their way. So Im going to roll with the team that has rolled all their competition so far, at a shorter number than whats been the typical margin this week.

Tiny Nick is 2381-2193 ATS (+88.7 Units) on his Locks since joining Zone Coverage.

Every day he will offer his Locks and Degenerate picks. Locks are the games hes confident in. Degenerates are entertaining but riskier picks.

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Tiny Nicks Gambling Picks: 07/18 - Zone Coverage