Category Archives: Gambling

Andrea Avedillo, Head of Legal at gaming, legal and fintech firm Lazcano Smano, talks about Mexican VAT law and some of the questions raised following an amendment made late last year that impacts foreign operators.

As of June 1 2020, an amendment to the Mexican VAT Law approved in December 2019 entered into force. This amendment creates a new section aimed to regulate digital services provided by foreign residents in Mexico.

Among the digital services contemplated in the VAT Law, the downloading or accessing of games, including games of chance, as well as other multimedia content and multiplayer environments has raised a great deal of questions.

A lot of people may think that the digital services provided in the form of games (gaming digital services) automatically supposes that Mexican online gambling operators will have to pay VAT from now on, or that foreign operators can legally offer their content in Mexico without a gambling license by just complying with the VAT Law. In my opinion, both affirmations are far from being accurate.

For starters, current online gambling operators that are licensed in Mexico are not subject to the VAT Law because they conduct their businesses through Mexican entities, whilst the new regulation of the VAT Law is focused exclusively to foreign residents, ie companies or entities located outside of Mexico.

Moreover, it is important to note that gambling is governed by a special Gambling Law (in Spanish Ley Federal de Juegos y Sorteos) and its regulations, and since those normative bodies have not been derogated, there is no reason to believe that gambling it is now governed by a different legislation such as the VAT Law.

On the other hand, what constitutes gambling in Mexico, according to the aforesaid special gambling Mexican legislation, is the existence of a bet and not the level of chance in which the result of a game is determined. Therefore, it is fair to assume that, at least from Mexicos legal perspective, games of chance are not necessarily gambling.

Furthermore, another misunderstanding about the new dispositions of the VAT Law is that the person obliged to pay the VAT at a tax rate of 16% is the provider of the gaming digital services, when actually this tax must be charged to the consumer of such services, because it is not an income or a gaming tax, but a tax over consumption.

Contrary to the belief that the VAT Law provisions impose additional taxes or charges to online gambling, it opens the possibility for foreign operators to expand their gaming offer in the Mexican market with a different approach, on the assumption that the provision of digital gaming services is carried out within the framework of compliance with the VAT Law.

In conclusion, we are now facing three different scenarios. The first one is current online gambling licensed Mexican operators that do not have to pay or charge VAT, because they are not subject to a new gambling tax. The second one is foreign operators that are seeking to enter the Mexican market with online gambling products, which shall explore the different licensing options available under the Mexican Gambling Law and its Regulations.

Last but not least is the scenario for foreign operators that, as of June 1, 2020, can legally offer all kinds of gaming products whose profitability model is based on pay-to-play schemes, without the presence of a bet (eg entry fees to contests, tournaments and competitions; sales of in-game products, digital advertising, etc), such as esports, poker tournaments, Daily Fantasy Sports, video games, real and virtual sports based games, games of chance, social games, etcetera.

The differences might be discreet, but it is important to understand them because each has its own legal and regulatory implications.

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Andrea Avedillo: is there really a new online gambling tax in Mexico? - SBC Americas

Constantly evolving, the variety of sports betting odds available today is more diverse than ever before. That said, standard wagering odds remain unchanged from their original format. Known as the big three betting options, moneylines, game totals and point spreads are offered on most sporting events. Understanding the intricacies of common odds formats, plus how they relate to straight bets, parlays, and prop options, is essential to cashing winning wagers.

Born in the USA, point spread odds were invented by Charles K. McNeil and were first offered to bettors in Chicago in the early 1940s. Often abbreviated to ATS, against the spread odds are designed to create equal action on both sides of a competition. From the NFL odds example below, in order to create betting interest on Cleveland, DraftKings Sportsbook posted the Browns as +8 point underdogs. Baltimore faced a deficit, prior to kickoff, as the Ravens were -8 point chalk.

Both ATS lines are posted with (-110) juice so bettors need to wager $110 to earn a $100 return. If the Browns upset the Ravens, or lose by seven points or less, Cleveland is the winning side. Baltimore bettors cash tickets if the Ravens win by nine points or more. If Baltimore wins by exactly eight points, the bet is graded as a PUSH and original investments are returned. Point spread odds are a best bet when research reveals a high scoring offense is facing a weak defense.

Moneylines are widely recognized as the most popular betting option for recreational players. Offered on most sports gambling markets, straight up odds require bettors to select the outright winner of a completion. Since a point spread isnt involved - prices are the great equalizer on moneyline options. Depending on the perceived talent gap, between the sides involved, straight up odds can range from +100 to upwards of +/-10000 or more. Prices vary by wagering markets.

Looking at the Miami vs. New England odds, bettors need to wager $290 to earn a $100 return on the Patriots. Players backing the Dolphins receive a $240 return, on $100 bets, if Miami pulls off the upset. Moneyline prices are also available on prop betting options and they are often preferred by parlay bettors. Rather than paying $580 to win $200, with single bets on the Patriots and Eagles, the -290 odds can be tied together to return a $161.71 profit on a $200 parlay bet.

Not dependent on selecting a side to win straight up, or against the spread, standard game total odds focus on the score of a competition. Favorites on two-sided totals, which feature OVER and UNDER options, are determined by juice prices. With the odds below, UNDER cashes if the final score is 44 points or less while OVER is the winner if 45 points or more are scored. Bettors should consider OVER, as a possible best bet, when two high-scoring teams face each other.

Totals are also popular on a variety of player and team prop options that are offered as futures bets. Following a 2-14 finish, during the 2019 season, Cincinnati was awarded the first overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. The Bengals selected LSU quarterback Joe Burrow and DraftKings set his total passing yards at 3700.5 during his rookie season. As an example of juice stipulating the favorite - the Bengals 2020 win total was set at 5.5 with OVER (-115) as slight chalk.

Proper research and sound bankroll management are key factors to a profitable betting experience. Checking recent form, current offense and defense rankings, plus injuries, weather and venue, are part of a solid research plan. Shopping for the best odds and prices, at more than one sportsbook, can help bettors increase returns and/or reduce initial risk. Recreational players should bet within their means and enjoy the entertainment value associated with betting on sports.

MORE GAMBLING TERMS YOU NEED TO KNOW

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Gambling 101: What are the Most Common Betting Odds? - Sports Illustrated

2020 was supposed to be the year sports betting exploded. But a pandemic hit, the economy tanked, and major sporting events were canceled across the country.

As states start to loosen their pandemic restrictions and businesses begin to reopen, some states are weighing sports gambling legislation to bolster their economies and normalize an activity many participate in illegally.

Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). The act, which outlawed sports betting in virtually all states (with the exception of Oregon, Montana, Delaware, and licenced casinos and sports pools in Nevada), was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1992. But the Supreme Courts 2018 decision said that PASPA violated the 10th Ammendmants anti-commandeering clause that says the government cant enforce states to adopt or enforce federal law. The ruling, thus, directed the question of legal sports gambling to the states.

Since 2018, the legalization of sports gambling has picked up momentum. Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia have legalized sports gambling in various forms. Some offer mobile sports betting, others offer in-person gambling at sportsbooks, casinos, or racetracks.

Just two years after the 2018 supreme court decision, most states have legalized, or taken steps toward legalization. Only three states, Utah, Wisconsin and Idaho, have not introduced a sports gambling bill.

Virginia is the most recent state to approve legalization. And in November, Maryland will ask voters whether or not they want sports gambling in their state.

In addition, state senators from California recently announced that they are lobbying to put a constitutional amendment in the November election to legalize sports betting. The state was on track to consider legislation in 2021 but, due to the pandemic, California lawmakers are looking for new ways to prop up their state budget right away..

The legalization of sports wagering gives California an opportunity to provide much-needed revenue to our state during tough economic times, Sen. Dodd, a co-author of the California bill, said to Courthouse News. We cant afford inaction.

Authors of the legislation say the state could raise $500 million to $700 million dollars in revenue and may help fill the states estimated $54 billion deficit caused by the pandemic.

Obviously, sports gambling will not be an economic vaccine for cash-strapped states in the wake of a pandemic. But it can offer a much needed revenue boost to state and local economies in a post-COVID world.

Although sports gambling can be done in casinos, at racetracks and other physical sportsbook locations, its mobile betting that attracts state lawmakers. For one, online sports gambling generates far more revenue.

States have a few incentives to authorize online sports betting, Chris Grove, a gaming industry expert who oversees sports betting at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, told Deadspin.

Online sports betting generates significantly more activity [than sportsbooks] and therefore more tax revenue than retail betting alone. In states like New Jersey, for example, online sports betting accounts for some 80 percent of the total sports betting market.

Another reason states are interested in mobile sports gambling? Licencing fees from online bookies such as DraftKings, FanDuel, and others. Online sports betting can command much higher license fees than retail sports betting alone, added Grove. Pennsylvania was able to charge operators a $10 million upfront license fee for a sportsbook license covering online and retail sports betting.

Currently, there are two state legislatures expected to pass a sports gambling bill by the end of this year: Massachusetts and Ohio. Both states are proposing laws for in-person and online sports wagering.

On May 29, Ohio state representatives overwhelmingly passed House Bill 194. The bill would allow Ohioans to bet on live sports on their phones and on location at a sportsbook. H.B. 194 is now onto the Ohio Senate. State Sen. John Eklund is one of two lead sponsors of a bi-partisain senate bill to legalize sports gambling in Ohio. He and Sen. Sean OBrien are looking to pass Senate Bill 111 at some point this year.

Eklund told Deadspin he believes sports gambling could be a piece of the economic recovery in his state, but not the whole pie.

I want to avoid giving the impression that the economy will rebound on the back of sports gaming, he said. Its like any other business opportunity that is made available anywhere, right? Economic development is important to every state. And part of economic development means encouraging new business.

Eklund has fought for sports gambling for over a year. Long before the virus, he argued for legalization. But the rest of the country could consider sports betting sooner rather than later.

If states with large populations like Florida, Texas, and California legalized, sports betting would be legal for the majority of the country. The three states alone would account for approximately 90 million people.

The largest state with legal sports betting is New York. But New Yorkers can only gamble at physical sportsbooks. One N.Y. lawmaker is trying to change that.

State Sen. Joseph Addabbo has been vocal about the need for online sports gambling. He even advocated for the state to use this time to Plan, Pass, and Prepare sports gambling legislation.

The pandemic certainly has affected and increased our deficit in the budget and has wreaked havoc economically, Addabbo told Deadspin. And with professional sports on pause, Addabbo thinks now is an opportune time to certainly seriously consider mobile sports betting.

You dont have to go far literally to notice how much New York State is losing by not legalizing mobile sports gambling. Just across the George Washington Bridge in New Jersey, the first state to legalize mobile sports betting, over 60 million dollars in taxes alone have been collected, since legalizing.

New York, a state where you can only gamble on sports at sportsbooks, has not even collected $1M in taxes on sports betting.

Addabbo is not naive. He knows New Yorkers are traveling across state lines to gamble in Jersey. And he estimates that New Yorkers have spent nearly $800 million gambling on sports in the Garden State last year.

Another reason Addabbo wants New Yorkers to place online bets in their home state is to bring illicit sports gambing, and gambling addicts, out of the shadows.

Right now we dont know who these people are, theyre going to Jersey, theyre going to do it illegally, off the grid. Once you provide these individuals in our state, with a safe, regulated, legal way of doing mobile spending, then you can help them.

Arnie Wexler used to be one of those individuals. The co author of All Bets Are Off a book which details his compulsive gambling addiction, Wexler today speaks out against the dangers of legal gambling, including legal sports gambling.

You put legal gambling into any state [and] youre going to see people looking for help, he told Deadspin.

Wexlers last sports bet was in 1968, but he continues to attend a twelve-step program to fight addiction. In these meetings Wexler says he has seen more folks come in to talk about sports gambling problems since the 2018 legalization.

And he does not think state lawmakers share his perspective when it comes to sports gambling.

The only reason why [politicians] want to legalize sports betting in any stateis so the state can grab more money from people. Thats what its about.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has hesitated on moving forward with a sports gambling bill, in part because he views it as a complicated issue. On May 22, Cuomo was asked about the states $13 billion deficit, and whether or not he considered passing recreational marijuana and mobile sports betting to alleviate the economic burden.

I support legalization of [both] he said. I worked very hard to pass it. I believe we will, but we didnt get it done this last session because its a complicated issue and it has to be done in a comprehensive way.

But there is a clear economic advantage to states who have already legalized sports gambling, or marijuana for that matter. Colorado, one of the first two states to legalize recreational marijuana, has profited off a billion-dollar pot industry. And New Jersey, the first state to legalize after PAPSA, has become one of the nations hubs for sports gambling.

States that have been on the fence with sports betting and marijuana will likely move forward, Joe Ostrowski, a sports gambling radio host at 670 The Score in Chicago, told Deadspin. A recession may slow down the proliferation of sports gambling, but it will be more readily available.

The momentum of sports gambling legislation comes at a unique time in American life, to say the least. But sports gambling stocks are on the rise. And sports gambling companies are poised to benefit from legalization and live sports returning.

In May, Penn National Gaming CEO, Jay Snowden, told CNBC how he thinks the current economic climate will help push the legalization of sports gambling.

We think that this legalization process that is happening at the state level stands to accelerate, and we really think well benefit from that because we operate in more states than any gaming company in the world, Snowden said.

Another sports betting company, Draftkings, saw record betting interest for the NFL draft, a day before the company debuted on the Nasdaq. That was in April, when the idea of live sports still seemed far off.

Since the economic downturn, its stocks like Penn National Gaming, DraftKings, and Flutter Entertainment, which owns FanDuel and Fox Bet, that are making a better comeback than the S&P 500. Even one sports betting company says they will not feel any long-term effects from the pandemic. DraftKings, which went public in April, is valued at roughly $13 billion, according to a CNN Business report.

Theres a myriad of reasons that sports betting stocks are booming, says Ostrowski. The biggest reason is because one-third of the country already has legalized sports betting with many more to come, since so many states are strapped for cash.

In a statement provided to Deadspin, FanDuel commented on the states looking to legalize sports betting in light of COVID.

Sports betting has proven to be a key revenue drive for the states and, although many state legislatures face uncertainty about when and how they will reconvene in 2020, there is no doubt that the economic pressure of the COVID-19 crisis has legislators looking for new revenue sources. When legislatures return in earnest, we firmly believe the number of states ready to consider accelerating mobile sports betting and online gaming legislation to drive tax revenue will expand substantially.

As more states begin to legalize, the floodgates are opening for more sports gambling content on TV, radio, and even editorial platforms with The Athletic and Bleacher Report considering betting deals.

And as the pandemic ensues, bet on states to legalize and capitalize on sports gambling.

But if states roll the dice, their constituents will need sports to bet on first.

While researching this story, Deadspin reached out to Gamblers Anonymous to inquire about the negative impact legal sports gambling could have, particularly on those suffering from gambling addictions. A spokesperson for the organization said Gamblers Anonymous will not take a position on legal sports gambling. According to the spokesperson, the organizations focus is to find help for those who have a gambling problem.

If you have a problem, you can get help.

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The Odds of Sports Gambling Legalization in a Pandemic - Deadspin

Authorities said an altercation over gambling led to a triple shooting in Merritt Island Wednesday.According to authorities, they received reports of a shooting at an apartment on Courtenay Parkway around 6:30 p.m.Officials said two of the three men who were shot had guns, but they are still trying to figure how the altercation happened.Two of the men who were shot ran for help but collapsed in the process, deputies said. All three men sustained injuries that deputies described as life-threatening. The men have not been identified. There is no danger to the community and investigation into the shooting is ongoing. This story is developing.

Authorities said an altercation over gambling led to a triple shooting in Merritt Island Wednesday.

According to authorities, they received reports of a shooting at an apartment on Courtenay Parkway around 6:30 p.m.

Officials said two of the three men who were shot had guns, but they are still trying to figure how the altercation happened.

Two of the men who were shot ran for help but collapsed in the process, deputies said. All three men sustained injuries that deputies described as life-threatening. The men have not been identified.

There is no danger to the community and investigation into the shooting is ongoing.

This story is developing.

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Gambling altercation leads to triple shooting at Merritt Island apartment, deputies say - WESH 2 Orlando

A pregnant woman in the western Ratchaburi province, west of Bangkok, was shot and killed yesterday, and her husband seriously wounded. Police there say a 70 year old man has turned himself in for the crime, claiming a land dispute drove him to open fire on their car.

Krit Thanathavornrit surrendered to authorities late last night and handed over the .38 calibre pistol he allegedly used in the fatal shooting to the station chief. The shooting happened in broad daylight in tambon Yang Hak of Pak Tho. He was taken for a crime re-enactment today.

After being alerted at around 2:30pm, police and rescue workers arrived on the scene to find a white Honda Jazz lying in a ditch at a guava plantation. The driver, 31 year old Pitak Sukmak of the Ratchaburis main city district, suffered gunshot wounds to his neck and his left hand. His wife 28 year old Jindarak Khunnut, who was 4 months pregnant, was shot dead in the front passenger seat. She had 3 gunshot wounds, to her head, left ear and left arm.

Police immediately launched a manhunt for the gunman, who had fled in a Honda with Nonthaburi licence plates. Krit later contacted police and arranged to surrender. Officers say he confessed to shooting the couple in a fit of rage over a land dispute. He told police that he had bought a plot of land from Jindaraks mother and built a house on the site. Jindarak, who did not want her mother to sell the plot, filed a complaint, and this led to a dispute.

Krit says he was with a worker who was building a gate at the entrance of his property when the couple arrived in their car. A quarrel broke out, during which he pulled a .38 pistol and fired on the car.

He claims he didnt know whether the bullets hit anyone. The driver sped off but the car rammed into the fence of a nearby house, about 100 metres from the scene of the shooting, and plunged into a ditch. After seeing what happened, Krit told police, he decided to flee in his car, but later turned himself in.

Pitak, who is being treated at Ratchaburi Hospital, is reportedly declared out of danger.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

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224 arrested in another Mae Sot gambling raid - The Thaiger

Simply stated, and as the name suggests, prop options ask bettors to decide on a proposition posted by a bookmaker. Also known as exotic or novelty side bets, prop wagering offers may ask, which team will score first? Which player will score last? Or, how many touchdowns will player X score?

Anything that can happen during a sporting event: from the opening coin toss, to the post-game Gatorade shower may be posted as a proposition betting option.

Proposition wagering has been around for decades and the concept is always evolving. Once viewed as gimmick bets, prop betting gained worldwide attention during Super Bowl XX that featured the Chicago Bears and New England Patriots. Aiming to attract action from casual bettors, Caesars Palace bookmaker Art Manteris is credited with opening the prop wagering floodgates. A single YES or NO prop offer has morphed into a mainstream sports betting market.

Prior to Super Bowl XX, bookmakers like Manteris and Jay Kornegay posted a YES or NO prop on whether defensive tackle William Refrigerator Perry would score a touchdown. Having already posted two rushing and one receiving touchdown, during the 1985 regular season, Perry had become a pop culture icon. That gave Manteris the idea to post a prop on whether he would score in the Super Bowl. Betting odds opened at 20/1 and dropped to 2/1 prior to kickoff.

Already up 37-3, late in the third quarter, Bears head coach Mike Ditka sent Perry into the game to line up in the backfield with superstar running back Walter Payton. Facing first and goal from the 1-yard line, instead of Payton leaping into the end zone, Perry plowed straight ahead for the score. Although Vegas bookmakers lost a boatload of cash, the publicity the Perry prop received along with the growth of prop betting today makes it the best money the books ever paid out.

Prop betting options, which get more creative every year, are available on a variety of sporting events. Props are offered as futures in the preseason, player and team bets during the regular season and playoffs, plus as LIVE in-play betting options. Props are also plentiful on individual sports like golf, tennis and motor sports. In the example below, from the 2020 RBC Heritage golf tournament, Bryson DeChambeau was the favorite on this Top USA Player prop.

While bettors can wager on prop options throughout the year, its wise to set aside some betting cash for Super Bowl Sunday. Increasing in amount and variety every year - prop offers on the NFL Championship game are more plentiful than any other single day sporting event. As outlined in our SI Super Bowl LIV prop betting preview, the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas offered eleven pages of prop wagering options. Plus, additional prop bets were available online.

Whether at land-based sportsbooks, or at online betting sites, players have access to a wealth of prop betting options daily. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, props were the focus of bettors everywhere.

With live sports on lockdown, betting boards were loaded with props of all sorts. For example, the 2020 NFL Draft was the heaviest bet draft in sports history. Wagering on college draft prop options helps bettors become more familiar with potential stars of the future.

Players are wise to keep props in mind when researching standard betting options. For instance, if research shows a high scoring NHL team is facing a weak defense, a prop like anytime scorer should be considered. Props offered prior to and during the NBA and MLB seasons are also popular. Open an account at a couple of trusted sportsbooks to gain access to a broad range of props. Stick with SI Gambling for prop betting picks and tips from a variety of sports.

MORE GAMBLING TERMS YOU NEED TO KNOW

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Gambling 101: What is Proposition Betting? - Sports Illustrated

DUBLIN, June 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Gambling Report Platinum Subscription" newsletter has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global gambling subscription includes the comprehensive Global Gambling Report and the Interactive Gambling Report, which between them cover all sectors and jurisdictions of the US$ 450 billion global gambling industry: betting, casinos, gaming machines, lotteries and bingo.

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The reports include several detailed datasheets with a decade's worth of historic gambling revenues (gross gaming yield) by gambling activity and forecasts until 2022.

Alongside the discussion of gambling tax and regulatory issues, hundreds of tables and graphs help show the trends taking place in each market by gambling sector: betting, casinos, gaming machines, lotteries and bingo.

The specialist gambling reports provide valuable market intelligence for gambling operators, investors, and regulators:

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Interactive Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) by product and region, with data on offshore and local licences (2004-2019f)GGY data for more than 50 individual countries in Europe, Asia and Americas by product (2004-2019f)

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For more information about this newsletter visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/q3jhik

About ResearchAndMarkets.comResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

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Interactive Global Gambling Report and Subscription 2020: Data on the Betting, Casinos, Gaming Machines, Lotteries and Bingo Sectors - PRNewswire

Editors note: In celebration of Golf Digest's 70th anniversary, were revisiting the best literature and journalism weve ever published. Catch up on earlier installments.

Damon Runyonno relation to the short-hitting, one-putting Paul Runyanwas an American newspaperman who wrote about colorful Prohibition Era characters with funny nicknames. One of his greatest lines was a warning: Son, no matter how far you travel, or how smart you get, always remember this: Some day, somewhere, a guy is going to come to you and show you a nice brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is never broken, and this guy is going to offer to bet you that the jack of spades will jump out of this deck and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not bet him, for as soon as you do, you are going to get an ear full of cider.

The guy who Damon Runyon had in mind was probably Titanic Thompson. Sam Snead called him the greatest hustler ever. Minnesota Fats called him the greatest action man of all time. Its been said that Titanic was the model for Sky Masterson in the musical Guys and Dolls. We know Thompson was a gambler and a golfer in the long-ago days before Las Vegas became Ground Zero for sports wagering. In the 1920s and 30s, playing for money was a traveling roadshow, and Thompson mainly worked the backroads from Texas across the Deep South. Known for walnut throwing (weighted with lead) and guessing the combined weight of a diner waitress staff (he weighed them the night before), Titanic took up golf later in life and won big-money matches ambidextrously.

He died in 1974 at age 80, the stuff of legend, and was always a subject of intrigue for Golf Digest contributing editor Dave Kindred, who spent years researching this profile for the May 1996 issue.

They remembered Titanic Thompsons blue eyes. The hustler has been dead 20 years now, and the time of his fame is half a century past. But people who knew him, who played golf with him and drove down dusty roads with him, now talk about him as if he were still alive; not only alive but plotting a new hustle. You hear a thrill in their voices.

An old U.S. Open champion tells you Titanic Thompson could have been the best golf ever. One of todays great players tells you about Titanics beautiful hands, and another man tells you how those hands made cards fly through a transom and made dice sit up on a bedspread.

You track down one of the hustlers old road partners from the 1930s, and the man says, no, no, NO, he doesnt want to talk about that sumbitch Titanic Thompson. He calls him a thief and tells you he saw Titanic right before he died. And that man tells you he wanted to shoot the sumbitch on the spot.

You find Titanics last wife, a sweet woman, and she says her mans story is more phenomenal than all the legends written about him. She tells you he lived to gamble, that gambling meant more to him than food, sleep or love. You trust people who talk that way, people who were there and saw things happen. And all these people tell you the same story: The man could do things.

So before you write your Titanic Thompson tale, you arrive at a state of mind called the willing suspension of disbelief, which means you might not believe every word of a story, but you are willing to listen. Youve heard enough to think, maybe, some things did happen.

You know he never hit a golf shot into Babe Ruths beer. He never threw Amelia Earhart over the Brooklyn Bridge. He never bottom-dealt to the Queen of Sheba. He never married Gypsy Rose Lee, never shot J. Edgar Hoover, and never caused a one-eyed jack to squirt cider in a suckers ear.

But you get the feeling that if money talked, soft and sweet, Titanic Thompson could have and would have done it all. For when the money talked, however preposterous the proposition, Titanic Thompson always found a way to do it. He was Americas Robin Hood, sort of. He stole from the rich. And kept it.

Born to nothing in the Ozarks of Missouri, he came to wear diamonds before dying with nothing in a Texas nursing homenot that he didnt try to fleece his buddies out of their Social Security checks.

I could outsmart, outcheat, out-connive, and roll higher than em all in my day, he said. And thats no lie.

The son of a wandering gambler he never met, Titanic Thompson took gamblers money any way they wanted it taken.

One story is he threw a lemon onto a high roof to win $500 from Al Capone. Another insisted he sat at a dice table with Howard Hughes and walked away $10,000 ahead. Testimony under oath had him playing poker all night with the thief who fixed the World Series, and when the thief was shot dead, the prosecuting attorney, who smelled a rat, asked Thompson what he did for a living.

There in the witness-box with diamonds on his finger, handsome as daybreak and resplendent in a fine suit with a silk tie, the hustler who had put his hand on a Bible and promised to tell nothing but the truth, testified: I play a little golf for money.

Thompson married five women and killed five men, not because he heard money talking, but because he could do it and because, he said, sunshine in his smile: They needed it.

One day in the Arkansas of 1928, the seven of diamonds sailed through a transom-window space and fluttered to the floor, followed soon after by the deuce of hearts. Each card spun in the air as if controlled by an agency with supernatural powers.

Titanic Thompson was that agency. He sat in an easy chair halfway across the room. Thirty-five years old, a thin man with a delicate face and shining dark hair, he wore a white dress shirt and a silk tie. His last wife thought of him as a fern or a willow, a litheness to him.

He held the deck of cards in his right hand and with his left snapped cards across the room, over the transom and into the hallway.

What are you doing? said a man at the door.

Titanic Thompson said, You cant tell when some suckerll bet you $1,000 you cant sail 51 out of 52 cards through that transom.

Paul Runyan became one of professional golfs great players. That day in 1928 he was a kid invited into a big-money match. Two Little Rock businessmen bet $3,000 that Runyan and another club amateur could beat Titanic Thompson and an Arkansas teenager, Dutch Harrison. With side bets, the kitty came to about $4,000.

I was fortunate that match didnt ruin my career, Runyan said 66 years later. I was on the practice tee and Ty comes by and, in a voice loud enough to be heard by the 30 or 40 people standing right there, he tries to buy me. He says, Kid, if you dont win any holes this afternoon, Ill give you half the money.

No way would I be crooked with Titanic Thompson. But I was scared to death somebody heard him. I made five birdies that day, so nobody could say I was crooked. But I was so scared I played badly, and we broke even.

Runyan is one of the last men alive who teed it up with Thompson. He was crooked and unscrupulous, Runyan said. He also was the most fascinating human being Ive ever met, so skillful at what he didand I saw it with my own eyes.

Alvin Clarence Thomas became Titanic Thompson one night in a Joplin, Mo., poolroom. It was the spring of 1912, shortly after an iceberg interrupted the maiden voyage of the ocean liner Titanic.

Thomas won $500 from a local shark who compounded his mistake by accepting a further proposition: double or nothing, that Thomas could jump across the pool table without touching it.

Tall, lean and strong as a wild razorback hog I could jump farther than a herd of bullfrogs, Thomas took a running start, dived headfirst across the table and landed on the far side, never so much as brushing an edge. As the country boy collected the extra $500 and some side bets, a loser asked, Whats the strangers name?

Dont rightly know, the pool shark said. But it must be Titanic, the way he sinks everybody.

The backwoods-rogue Alvin C. Thomas liked the sound of that. And when a newspaper later jumbled with his name, he went along. The rest of his life, he strutted on a stage of his own in a persona of his making. He became Titanic Thompson.

He made himself such a master of odds that he knew which card was likely to show up at any seat around a poker table. Should he lose at poker, he offered to lose even more by betting he could hit a silver dollar with his .45 pistol eight out of 10 times from 10 feet away. He carried a bowling ball in his car trunk, there with his golf clubs, a rifle, pool cue and a throwing rock with a flat side and edges beveled to fit his fingers. As for dice, years of practice on hotel beds made him sure a six or ace would sit up only once in 10 rolls.

What he called his smooth propositions came to be the surest sign that Thompson had passed through a town and identified its sucker. He perpetrated an especially smooth proposition at age 14, barefoot in the Ozarks, a dog his accomplice.

He said, I used to watch these dudes come to fish in their elegant casting outfits, and I wanted one of those things. I had trained my spaniel to dive to the bottom of the fishing hole and bring back a rock I tossed in. So one day I told a dude my dog could do that and offered to bet the dog against his casting outfit.

The dude said, Mark it so I know its the same rock you throw in. I did, and the spaniel leaped into the water, swam out of sight and came up with the marked rock. What the dude didnt know, of course, was that the bottom of that pond was covered with marked rocks.

The famous road-sign proposition began outside Joplin when Ty saw workmen putting up new signs on the highway. His friend Hickory McCullough owned a fishing camp out that way, 30 miles from town. Tys story:

That night I dug up a sign that said JOPLIN 20 MILES and replanted it five miles closer to Joplin. Next day we were riding along, and I remarked to Hickory as we passed the sign, Those boys are crazy. Its not 20 miles to Joplin.

Hickory and Beanie [Benson] bet me $500 each the sign was right. Of course, I won the bet. Hickory and Beanie used that same sign to win plenty of bets later.

Biographer Jon Bradshaw wrote of Thompson: In the period between 1912 and the end of the First World War, Ty became famous in the netherworld of gamblers and confidence men for the success of his improbable propositions. By changing the common hustle into a pure and elegantly constructed con, Ty earned an envious respect among his fellow gamblers. Tales of his feats were recounted so often they acquired the legitimacy of legend.

Such as the walnut throw:

Thompson sat on the porch of the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs, Ark., eating walnuts from a bag. A local merchant fell into conversation, and Titanic offered him a walnut, eventually giving him the entire bag and saying, casually enough:

Ive got an interesting proposition for you. What odds will you give that I cant throw one of these Danish walnuts over that hotel across the street?

The hotel was five stories. Ty, the merchant said, you are some thrower, but not even Ty Cobb could throw a walnut over that hotel.

Maybe not, Titanic said, but Im willin to bet I can. Shucks, Im willin to bet a hundred dollars if you could see your way to givin me odds of, uh, three-to-one.

One of these walnuts, Ty?

Yep. You can pick any walnut in this here bag.

Sure enough, a walnut flew from Titanics hand over that five-story hotel. And the muttering merchant reached for his wallet. He was neither the first nor the last who would fail to discover that Thompson, preparing to throw, had replaced the chosen walnut with the one he carried everywherethe one filled with lead. It was easily thrown over a hotel, tree or barn that begged for a proposition.

GOLF AS EASY AS BREATHING

And propositions werent even his best game. Thompson was almost 30 years old before he discovered golf. After all-night poker games at the Kingston Club in San Francisco in 1921, he sneaked out to the clubs practice range. In a few weeks, the master of hand-eye coordination could play. He played left-handed, with one exception. If he heard money whispering, he often started out right-handed, and when he heard the money talking, he would say, I tell you what. Ill play you double or nothingand Ill play left-handed.

He told Bradshaw, It was the easiest thing you ever saw. I played golf almost as well as I breathed.

Not that Titanic said as much to his poker buddies, one being the local pro Buddy Brent. To Brent, he denigrated golf. A childs game, he said. Probably pick it up in a morning. Shucks, he said, he could probably go out and now beat Brent.

The pro beat Thompson every hole in a nine-hole wager, $90 in damages. On the way home, Titanic moaned that his luck had been bad, the clubs were borrowed, his back ached from the all-night poker, hed have done better if he felt better.

At the next nights poker, Titanic fumed. When Brent dropped in again, he asked for a rematch, this time $1,000 a hole, but he had to get three shots a hole. The pro gave one shot. With side bets, $60,000 was at stake. As Titanic told it, gamblers by the first tee greeted him with sympathetic applauseuntil his tee shot went 275 yards down the middle. Brent blanched. A shot or two the winner, Titanic picked up $56,000.

I never shot more than a stroke or two bettern the opposition, he said. If a man shoots 89, I shoot 88. If a man shoots 68, I shoot 67. I never liked to add insult to injury.

Titanic Thompsons salad days were the Prohibition years of 1920-33. Declaring liquor illegal served best to add a sense of illicit adventure to finding a drink. That pleasure of guilt spilled over to gambling as well, with clandestine games of chance available to players in roadhouses and in secret back rooms of fancy hotels.

Gambling and sports were intertwined so casually that in the 20s the New York baseball manager, John J. McGraw, owned a pool hall with Arnold Rothstein, the gambler whose money bought the Chicago White Soxs cooperation in the 1919 World Series.

In the early part of the century, Jon Bradshaw wrote, the professional gambler was still a romantic figurea fallen man, perhaps, and evil, if the melodramas of the period are to be believed. He was a freebooter, a man who took the long chance at a time when the country still believed in dark horses. Titanic Thompson was at the heart of that belief.

WITH JUST A SCHEME IN HIS HEART

Alvin C. Thomas was born in Monett, Mo., on Nov. 30, 1892, and grew up in the Ozark Mountain woods near Rogers, Ark. His stepfather and a grandfather taught him to hunt, fish and play cards.

He left home at 16 and caught the train to Monett. There he worked as a shill and sharpshooter for a traveling medicine show operated by a Buffalo Bill look-alike who introduced the young schemer to a world filled with suckers.

For the next 25 years, Titanic Thompsons life was a blur of gambling frenzy that took him from his Arkansas roots to Chicago to San Francisco, from New York to New Mexico, from horse-racing tracks to ringside at the Jack Dempsey-Jess Willard fight. Resourceful and energetic, he once said, Ive been broke, but never for more than six hours at a time.

He was flush on Sept. 7, 1928, for a poker game on New Yorks West Side, attended by a rogues gallery of gamblers, bookmakers, horseplayers and organized-crime muscle. The game included Arnold Rothstein, who would lose $475,000$30,000 to Thompson.

But Rothstein didnt pay; he handed out IOUs. Six weeks later, he turned up murdered by a gunman. The New York newspapers had a time with it.

Of the poker players arrested as material witnesses, it was Titanic, then and later, who caught the publics fancy, the columnist John Lardner wrote in 1951. Maybe because he was said to be a Westerner, a lone wolf, a romantic and single-duke gambler of the old school.

Prosecutors believed Thompson and Rothstein had conspired to cheat George McManus out of $51,000, and that a vengeful McManus murdered Rothstein. At the trial, a prosecutor asked Thompson what he did for a living.

I run a cafe, Titanic said.

You have other means of income, do you not?

Titanic smiled. I play a little golf for money.

The prosecutor continued, Isnt it right that you are, in fact, a man who makes rather large sums of money by gambling at golf and that you bet on the horses and sell jewelry at racetracks and that you have played in a number of high-stake poker games ?

Titanic Thompson was a states witness, cooperating in exchange for reduced bail. Once under oath, though, his memory failed, and he told the prosecutor:

You see, I just dont remember things. If I bet on a horse today and won 10 grand, I probably would not be able to recall the horses name tomorrow.

To no ones shock, Titanics memory improved under cross-examination. He declared that George McManus, the accused, was really a swell guy, even a swell loser, never upset by anything at all, certainly not upset by losing only $51,000 to Rothstein, whose IOU, as all of New York knew, was as good as gold.

The next day, McManus was acquitted of Rothsteins murder.

BONNIE AND CLYDE TIME

After the trial, famous if not infamous, Titanic went back on the road and often found himself in the company of professional golfers. The tour in the 1930s was little more than an excuse to go gambling, if not on the course then in a hotel room rolling dice and dealing poker.

It was all gambling, said Jack Burke Jr., the 1956 Masters champion who learned the game during the Depression from his father, a prominent Texas pro. They had bookmakers at every tournament. Theyd make more gambling with each other than there was in the purse. Ben Hogan would play you $50 nassaus. Thompson wasnt alone gambling on golf. There were a lot of Titanic Thompsons loose out there. It was Bonnie and Clyde time.

The early years of the Depression left 30 million people with no income at all. They were desperate people whose tolerance of crime was the highest in American history. By robbing banks and shooting his way out, John Dillinger became a folk hero. People who had never seen a pistol, a historian wrote, spoke casually of the rod, the roscoe, the equalizer, or the heat.

Titanic Thompson carried a .45 with adhesive tape on the butt to make the grip surer.

He had killed his first man on a riverboat by hitting him in the head with a hammer and allowing him to fall overboard. The next four he did with the .45, each time dropping to one knee and firing up at the poor fellows who thought to rob him.

Sam Snead had heard the stories, not only of the sharpshooting but of Titanics golf game. He knew Thompson played left-handed with a baseball grip and was a good short-iron player who made every putt he needed. When Snead met him in 34, one hustler apprizing another, Sam asked, Just how good are you?

Play me and find out, Titanic said. Ill take four strokes a side.

Oh, no, Snead said. Not until I see your honest swing.

They should live so long. One of his traveling partners, Herman Keiser, who later beat Hogan to win the 1946 Masters, said Titanic seldom gave a sucker an even break.

Tyd get a Hungarian lock on em before they hit the first tee ball. Oh my, hed be moaning about his bad back and his stiff hands and how he hadnt played for so long. They didnt have a chance.

Hed even talk em into letting Tall Boythat was mehave two putts on every green. Well, hell. I didnt need but one most of the time.

Runyan calls Thompson the best left-handed player in the world until Bob Charles came along. He could really play. He was deft, is the word, at hitting any shot in the bag.

Tommy Bolt, the 1958 U.S. Open champion: He couldve been the greatest. He had great everything, a good, solid, compact swing. Not one of those long swings like Hogans where you had to practice every day to keep it; Ty had a gamblers swing. No telling how great that guy couldve beenexcept back then he made more money hustling oilmen in east Texas than he could have made on the tour.

Byron Nelson had heard the name but until 1934 had never seen Thompson. Members at Nelsons club in Dallas arranged a money match between the two best players they knew of in Texas: Titanic Thompson and Byron Nelson.

The way Thompson told it, he shot a 29 on the back nine at Ridglea to win $3,000.

Now, wait a minute. Thompson wants us to believe he was good enough to beat Byron Nelson?

So you go to Nelson under the big oak trees at Augusta National the day the 1994 Masters starts. You ask one of historys greatest players if he ever played Titanic Thompson.

I saw him once, Nelson says. Hed been out in the east Texas oil fields. Those fellas had so much money, it was easy for Titanic to make money out there.

Id turned pro a couple years before when I was 20, 21. The members said they wanted me to play Ty, and I told them I wasnt a gambler. They said, Well take care of that. Ty was backing himself. I had to give him three shots. He shot 71 and I shot 69. The money? I dont have any idea.

What Nelson also remembered were Thompsons eyes. He was a nice-looking man, pleasant and polite, with very sharp eyes. Those eyes could look a hole through you.

The eyes also come up in conversation with Keiser. You find the old man at his driving range in Ohio, 80 years old. You ask if you can talk to him about Titanic Thompson, to which Keiser bellows, Noooo.

I have got nothing good to say about him. He never gave me a dime.

He was a thief. Playing poker, hed mark the cards, and he could see his mark. He had wonderful eyes.

You mumble something about how everyone remembers the eyes. Then Herman Keiser starts talking.

I was with him for one trip across the country. We played 10, 12 places. Good short-iron player, pretty good player all around.

He had fun every minute every day. But all the money he made, I never got a dime. I never wanted it, never took as much as a $10 bill.

Read more:

Golfs killer gambler: The legend of Titanic Thompson - Golf Digest

As investors bid up shares of the probably worthless shares of the bankrupt Hertz ninefold for seemingly no reason at all, some speculated that the truly senseless move was the result of boredom: Too many day traders with too much government stimulus/enhanced unemployment money and too much time on their hands buying things for the sake of buying them, or for the adrenaline rush that comes when those shares collapse once more because the New York Stock Exchange is not as easily fooled as some guy who has run out of things to get mad about on the internet.

Well, they were on to something. Whats more, it wasnt only day-trader boredom driving things. Gambling, as you may have heard, is pretty addictive, and one of the main things people gamble onsportsis not happening right now. Some of those peoplequite a lot, in facthave apparently heard the old saw that investing in stocks is simply gambling, and taken that as an invitation rather than a warning.

Millions of small-time investors have opened trading accounts in recent months, a flood of new buyers unlike anything the market had seen in years, just as lockdown orders halted entire sectors of the economy and sent unemployment soaring.

Its not clear how many of the new arrivals are sports bettors, but some are behaving like aggressive gamblers. There has been a jump in small bets in the stock options market, where wagers on the direction of share prices can produce thrilling scores and gut-wrenching losses. And transactions that make little economic sense, like buying up the nearly valueless shares of bankrupt companies, are off the charts.

Investors are increasingly asking us about the participation of individual investors in the shares and options market, analysts from Goldman Sachs wrote in a note published late last month. Our data suggests that individual investors are indeed a significant proportion of daily volume.

Depending on how much illegal sports wagering you believe there is, and on how little of it has flowed to Korean baseball books, theres $145 billion or so sloshing around, and a sudden embarrassment of free trading options to pour it into, well.

There has been a surge in small investors using option trades to make pure win-or-lose bets on where stock prices will be at a specific time, said Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak, an asset management firm.

Thats another sign that its these gamblers, he said.

It all sounds like another disaster waiting to befall our already battered and benighted world. But, as it turns out, those bored gamblers are doing pretty well for themselves.

A portfolio of stocks popular among individuals has surged by 61% since the bear market trough compared with a gain of 45% for both hedge fund and mutual fund favorites and a 36% rise in the S&P 500 Index The narrative of Main Street weakness versus Wall Street asset inflation is misleading, the strategists said. The surge in retail trading activity has amplified the market rotation toward cyclicals and value stocks.

Trading Sportsbook for Brokerages, Bored Bettors Wager on Stocks [NYT]Goldman Says Mom-and-Pops Stock Picks Are Trouncing Wall Street [Bloomberg]

More here:

Yup, Its Gamblers - Dealbreaker

Gambling welfare campaigners have warned of a potential frenzy in betting on football when the Premier League and Championship restart, with all 92 remaining top-flight games televised live to supporters still largely in lockdown.

Betting companies are expected to resume sustained advertising and marketing, particularly via the apps on which people have accounts to gamble on sport, and TV broadcasts will also prominently show advertising around the grounds and on club shirts. Of the 44 clubs in the Premier League and Championship, 27 61% have a betting company as their main shirt sponsor.

Research by the Gambling Commission into betting habits during the Covid-19 lockdown, published this month, has found they remained quite resilient despite the lack of sport and large numbers of people suffering a drop in income, with only a 5% decrease in active player accounts.

A finding that has worried campaigners is the large proportion, 62%, of engaged gamblers people who participate in three or more gambling activities over a four-week period who in March and April increased the time or money they spent on at least one gambling activity. The research also found a significant increase over the last year in the number of different gambling activities by people who bet online, from 26% engaging in more than one online activity in April 2019 to 42% during the full lockdown month this April.

We know from previous studies that engagement across a larger number of activities can correlate to higher levels of moderate-risk and problem gambling, the commission said.

Charles Ritchie, who co-founded the charity Gambling with Lives after his 24-year-old son Jack killed himself in 2017, told the Guardian: During lockdown people with gambling problems have increased the amount of time and money they spend gambling. We fear that the situation is going to get worse because alongside the welcome return of football and televised live games, we face the awful prospect of a massive boom in gambling advertising and marketing.

Most people will deplore the constant parade in this marketing of the usual celebrities, false glamour and excitement, and incomprehensible offers. But for many people this could spell despair and disaster, lured back into the 90-minute non-stop in-game frenzy of betting on any and every aspect of the game, which is the reality of modern football betting.

Ritchie has consistently sounded the alarm about the increasingly addictive nature of betting on football, due to the growth of in-game offers on the next goal, booking or other event. Research has shown that rapid-outcome betting is more addictive than gambling on longer outcomes, such as a matchs result.

James Grimes, a recovering gambling addict who formed the Big Step gambling awareness campaign, has called on the government to ban gambling sponsorships and advertising in football, and in February completed a 100-mile walk between six Premier League and Championship clubs that have betting companies as sponsors.

The increased opportunity to watch games from home and for free has the potential to cause gambling harm, he said. The social aspect of football has gone for the time being and solitary viewing, with a bookmaker effectively on your phone in your pocket, is a recipe for harm.

As a recovering gambling addict, I think back to when my life revolved around betting on football. I didnt need an excuse to stay home, losing all my money on in-play, high-intensity gambling products associated to football. I dread to think of the consequences for my addiction if I was still gambling now, with the prevalence of betting opportunities and relentless marketing.

Tranmere Rovers chairman, Mark Palios, has spoken out against gambling sponsorship, which he says he has turned down for Tranmere, and the club are working with the Big Step and NHS on initiatives to combat increases in online gambling during the pandemic.

The coronavirus crisis is predicted to increase the commercial pressure for clubs to have gambling sponsors, as other consumer businesses suffer financial difficulties.

In February the Premier Leagues chief executive, Richard Masters, said he acknowledged that gambling required stronger governance, particularly to protect the vulnerable and that the league would cooperate with the governments promised review of the 2005 Gambling Act. However, he said the league would resist moves to ban advertising on clubs shirts.

The EFL has said of its association with Sky Bet that it is happy to work with a responsible, properly regulated bookmaker who recognises the importance of having the right safeguards in place.

A spokesperson for the Betting and Gaming Council, which represents gambling companies, said they had implemented several measures to protect against problem gambling during lockdown. With the return of some sports, the whistle-to-whistle ban on TV advertising during live sport will remain in place and we have further committed that 20% of all advertising will be safer gambling messaging, he said. This is in addition to implementing a ban on gambling with credit cards, new strict age and ID verification checks and providing additional funding for research, education and treatment.

GamCare (gamcare.org.uk, helpline: 0808 8020 133) offers free information, support and counselling for problem gamblers in the UK. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at http://www.befrienders.org.

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Fears for gambling frenzy as Premier League and Championship return - The Guardian