Category Archives: Gambling

The Texas Legislature is considering several bills that would legitimize daily fantasy sports gambling in Texas as legal, skill-based games in direct contradiction of an opinion issued by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last year that deemed the practice to be illegal gambling.

The members of Stop Daily Fantasy Gambling agree with Paxton. We will aggressively oppose all efforts to promote the unlicensed and unregulated daily fantasy sports gambling industry in Texas.

Online daily fantasy sports gambling has its roots in the casual office pools and rotisserie-style fantasy sports leagues long played among friends for fun and bragging rights. But the games the daily fantasy gambling operators want legislators to consider are quite a different animal. They are operated online by a relatively new, largely unregulated corporate industry that has been plagued by scandal in other states.

In an online daily fantasy sports contest, a bettor attempts to win money by simulating sports team ownership or management. After paying an entry fee wager to the website, they create their team from a menu of professional or amateur athletes, and then compile points based on the statistical performances of individual players. As with other forms of gambling, fantasy sports bettors can wager every day on multiple contests such as baseball, basketball, football, hockey or soccer. Money is awarded to the bettors who assembled the top teams in the online games. Losers forfeit their entry fees. The website operator profits by taking a cut of the total proceeds.

All this occurs in an environment where high-volume players using computer scripts and special software submit thousands of lineups at once, taking unfair advantage of new players and those with less experience. So much for friendly games among neighbors and friends; this is a cutthroat business where serious bettors stand to win big and losers often never have a chance. There are billions of dollars at stake, and relying on these companies, which stand to gain immense profits from these wagers, to self-regulate is not the responsible policy approach.

Many states across the nation are struggling with the question of whether and how to allow online daily fantasy sports gambling amid an aggressive legislative push by the big companies that run the games. Within the past few weeks, the Kentucky Legislature gave a thumbs-down to a bill seeking to re-establish a legal footing for paid-entry fantasy sports. Last year, similar legislation failed in Illinois after it was found that a major fantasy sports company had tried to exert inappropriate influence on the legislative process. Indeed, scandals linked to companies operating these games and their activities have surfaced in a number of states, including Rhode Island, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, New York, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada and Washington state.

In my own home state of Texas, the attorney general has already clarified existing state law and deemed daily fantasy sports gambling to be illegal. Yet major gambling industry companies like FanDuel and DraftKings are trying to persuade legislators to give them special treatment, allowing them to circumvent the gambling laws of the state.

The Texas Legislature and other legislatures around the country have an obligation to protect citizens from being exploited by an industry that purports to be a sporting event or game of skill but in fact is a new virtual form of gambling with betting identical to online poker and online horse races.

Legislators must say no to any legislation that would allow for a loophole to the legalization of daily fantasy sports gambling.

Grimes is executive director of Stop Daily Fantasy Gambling, a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization dedicated to stopping the proliferation of illegal gambling.

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Commentary: Legislators must say no to daily fantasy sports gambling - MyStatesman.com

Phil Mickelson's gambling pal convicted in insider trading scheme New York Post Famed Las Vegas sports gambler William Billy Walters was convicted on Friday of charges that he made more than $40 million through an insider trading scheme that prosecutors said involved a stock tip to star professional golfer Phil Mickelson ...

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Phil Mickelson's gambling pal convicted in insider trading scheme - New York Post

A proposal for a third video gambling cafe in Oswego has some village officials concerned.

"I don't want Oswego to be known for video gambling," Oswego Trustee Joe West said.

A representative of Hana's Hospitality, which operates a gambling cafe in Bradley and has plans to open another location in Park Forest, approached village trustees recently with a proposal for an Oswego location.

Fadi Mohammed said the business is interested in opening a 1,200-square-foot video gambling cafe in the Ogden Center strip mall near Routes 34 and 30 on the village's east side.

The village has two other video gambling cafes. Stella's Place opened earlier this year in the Townes Crossing shopping center at Route 30 and Douglas Road. PD's Place opened in the Mason Square shopping center at Route 34 and Douglas Road in 2015.

Nine other businesses in Oswego, which includes restaurants and bars as well as one fraternal organization and a club, have video gambling as a part of their operations.

Mohammed said the concept for the proposed new venue is to have a video gambling cafe with a New York deli style menu. Bradley-based Hana's Hospitality owns New York City Deli in Bourbonnais.

Oswego Village President Gail Johnson said the village is in the process of having a "philosophical" discussion of how many gambling cafes would be too many.

"There is a tipping point," she said.

However, Johnson said given the proposed location, she might be in favor of the proposal.

West said he thought the village was getting away from the original intent of video gambling, which was to help fraternal organizations and small eateries generate revenue and remain competitive with establishments in other communities.

Trustee Karin McCarthy-Lange said she would not be in favor of another video gambling cafe in the village.

Trustee Pam Parr said the proposed cafe would be in a shopping center in a low-profile area and in a retail space that has been vacant for a couple of years.

"I am leaning on supporting it because of this location and the fact that it would have a deli. If it would have been in any other location, I probably would not have been in favor of it," Parr said.

Trustees Ryan Kauffman, Judy Sollinger and Luis Perez said they would be in favor.

"We're talking about three (gambling cafes in Oswego) and not 30," Kauffman said.

"How can we say yes to one and no to another? I would prefer to say no to all of them," McCarthy-Lange said.

Johnson said she was in favor of the proposal solely based on the location.

"As the next petitioner comes before us we will struggle again with the question. If it was in a different (commercial) strip, my answer would have been very different," she said.

The village a couple of years ago changed the rules to require owners get final Village Board approval for video gambling parlors. The village has received nine other inquires from businesses interested in opening a video gambling parlor in Oswego, village officials said.

The new proposal will go back to the Village Board with detailed plans for the interior space and facade.

Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News

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Oswego debates plan for new video gambling cafe - Chicago Tribune

A care home boss who conned an elderly resident out of 9,000 to feed her 1,000-a-month gambling addiction has narrowly avoided a prison sentence.

Sharon Smith, 52, of Dellohay Park in Saltash, appeared at Truro Crown Court today to be sentenced after being found guilty after a trial of one count of fraud.

She was convicted of abusing her position as manager at Rowan House care home by taking resident Robert Berridge, now 68, to a local Lloyd's bank branch on numerous occasions between December 2014 and September 2015 and instructing him to withdraw cash that she said would go towards top up fees for his care.

During the trial prosecutor Philip Lee, for the CPS, revealed Mr Berridge already had direct debits set up which covered his care fees other than a small amount left in arrears due to a standing order alteration.

Read more: Newquay man jailed after terrifying staff during attempted store smash-and-grab

Smith was sentenced at Truro Crown Court

During the sentencing hearing Mr Lee referred to Mr Berridge's victim personal statement which stated that the offending had resulted in a deterioration of his physical and mental health.

The statement also described a "betrayal of trust" that affected Mr Berridge very badly and Mr Lee then described how Smith's actions resulted in suspicion falling on other innocent members of staff at Rowan House.

Smith first came under the spotlight when local Lloyds Bank staff became concerned because she was taking residents of the home into the branch to withdraw cash.

An investigation by officers from the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU) found Smith was using her position at the care home to take advantage of a resident by getting him to withdraw money from his account for her own benefit.

Between November 2014 and October 2015 9,007 was withdrawn from the resident's bank account.

After she was charged, Smith breached her bail conditions by returning to the care home and depositing three envelopes of money with the resident's name on into the safe, in an attempt to suggest the money had always been in the safe.

Defending Smith, Jason Beal said that she was of "previous unblemished character".

"She worked her way up from the bottom, first starting as a care worker when she left school at 16.

Read more: Bodyshamer Jowan Townsend-Trahair exposed for vile Facebook rant at another Cornwall woman

"People liked her and before what the jury found to be a period of criminal activity she went above and beyond the managerial requirements at the home."

Mr Beal also said that Smith currently acts as a carer for her step-father, who is in bad health, looking after him and making him meals.

Sentencing Smith, Recorder Andrew Maitland, said: "In the space of about a year you effectively stole 9,000 from Robert Berridge by abusing your position of manager at Rowan House.

"He's now 68 and both his physical and mental health are fail. By any stretch of the imagination he was a very vulnerable victim.

"The reason you committed this appalling breach of trust was to feed your own gambling addiction on which you spent 34,000 either directly or on loans to feed your habit.

"It is quite clear to me that there does not exist one iota of remorse from you about your actions. Robert Berridge trusted you and felt you were honest and you betrayed that trust, it is solely your actions which have caused such distress."

Recorder Maitland also expressed his reservations that Smith does not accept the true extent of her gambling addiction.

Read more: Three men jailed for attempting to ship more than 80 million of cocaine into Cornwall

Nonetheless he handed her a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, along with 200 hours of unpaid work and a rehab activity requirement of 15 days to address the gambling addiction.

DC Fiona Roope, who investigated the case for the DCPCU, said: "Sharon Smith exploited the trust of her employers and, most importantly, a vulnerable resident of the care home where she worked who now faces financial hardship. The police will take swift action to protect vulnerable victims and the staff at Lloyd's Bank should be commended for spotting and reporting her behaviour.

"I would remind anyone thinking of committing a similar crime that there are very real consequences in doing so and police and banks will do all they can to ensure you are brought to justice."

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Saltash care boss and 1,000-a-month gambling addict Sharon ... - Cornwall Live

Over the past year, the once underground phenomenon of betting on e-sports hit the mainstream. Valvedeveloper of the first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, one of the biggest games in e-sportsfound itself on the receiving end of angry parents, civil lawsuits, and government intervention that accused it of facilitating unregulated third-party gambling websites.

It didn't help that prominent CS:GO players and popular YouTubers Syndicate and TmarTn (who boast tens of millions of subscribers between them) were found to be actively creating videos that promoted the skin gambling website CSGO Lottoa site the pair jointly owned. The problem hasn't been limited to CS:GO either, with Craig Douglas (aka NepentheZ on YouTube) pleading guilty to running an unlicensed FIFA betting website that the court found was "used by children."

When games like League of Legends attract viewerships as high as 14.7 million peopleand when the prize pools for competitions now hit tens of millions of dollarsthe rise of e-sports gambling was inevitableThe question is: how do you deal with it? While Valve succumbed to public pressure and began issuing cease and desist orders to CS:GO websites (most of which are still online today), the reality of the situation is that gambling sites, government-regulated or otherwise, will continue to runthere's simply too much money on the table.

One estimate puts the size of the CS:GO skin betting marketwhere virtual goods like cosmetic skins are used as a virtual currency to bet on the outcome of matchesas high as $7 billion.

The solutionor at least part of the solution, if the ethical and moral questions around gambling as a whole are put asideis a deeper relationship with the industry, not a weaker one. That's according to Faceitowners of the Esports Championship Series (ECS), a 20-team-strong CS:GO leagueand Genius Sports, a sports data provider to the likes of the FA, the Premier League, and La Liga. In a surprise move, Faceit is following in the footsteps of traditional sports and partnering with Genius Sports to provide real-time match data to regulated bookmakers like SkyBet, Bet365, and Betfair.

The aim, according to Faceit, isn't for the company to offer gambling services itself, but to provide accurate match and player data to bookmakers via Genius Sports in order to help regulate the market. For example, once Genius Sports are able to pull and organise data from the ECS league, it won't just provide it to bookmakers, it will also analyse it for irregularities. By comparing the results to betting activity, Genius Sports can in theory help point out irregularities that indicate match fixing has taken place. The presence of such monitoring may even be enough to deter match fixers from targeting the ECS in the first place.

Naturally, Genius Sports charges bookmakers for its services, but Faceit has much to gain too. Aside from Genius Sports' analysis potentially pointing out irregularities within the ECS, the partnership will be a boon to potential advertisers worried about the scandals that have rocked e-sports over the past year. With more advertisers comes more prize money, more teams, and in theory more viewers. Genius Sports will also run workshops for players and teams as part of the dealas it already does for its partners in traditional sportswhich will educate them on the rules, regulations, and ethics of gambling.

"The main thing is building up awareness," explained Genius Sports VP Sean Conroy to Ars. "Sometimes you have athletes that don't necessarily understand exactly what the rules and regulations are. They don't don't know about passing information to an outside person that's mining for information for an upcoming event. Once that person has acquired that information, they take it away, they place bets, and they come back and say 'here's your money, thanks for passing me all that information.' Suddenly the athlete realises they've been duped. That sort of thing is common in traditional sports, and the first line of defence is the players. Education and really understanding what they can and can't do is the number one thing."

Of course, even with the best of intentions and with the right data at their disposal, numerous sports are affected by match fixing. Just yesterday, Filippo Vito di Perrothe Italian manager of third division Spanish football club Eldensewas arrested for for suspected match fixing following a 12-0 defeat to Barcelona in La Ligaone of the leagues that Genius Sports works with. In 2014, an investigation by the Mail on Sunday revealed that footballers suspected of being involved in match-fixing regularly played at English clubs with the knowledge of the FA.

E-sports presents some unique challenges too, not least of which are the close relationships players have with fans, and thus potential fixers.

"In the wake of skin gambling, we monitored all the big websites and we saw liquidity there," explained Genius Sports' head of e-sports Moritz Maurer. "Something you see that wouldn't be possible in football or basketball is that you have a pro-player that's friends with someone on Steam that's a high-roller on CSGO Lounge. That's the sort of connection that invites misconduct. Because skin gambling came out of nowhere to become a billion dollar industry, the structure isn't there, and the education level is very low."

Partnerships like Faceit's with Genius Sports won't change the skin gambling industry overnight, nor will it ultimately solve any of gambling's ethical or moral quandaries. But as e-sports continues its march towards mainstream acceptance with slots on TV networks like ESPN and growth outside of Twitch on YouTube, the need for tighter regulation becomes far greater. Faceit might be leading the charge in helping to legitimise e-sports, but other teams, players, and leagues will no doubt soon follow.

"If you're serious about your business, you take any threat to it seriously," says Faceit's chief strategy officer Kurt Pakendorf. "If you're serious about e-sports and you're serious about a league, you also take that seriously. And to make sure your e-sports league is successful, you have to make it appealing to the teams and the players and the brand and sponsorships and so on. For us, this is a step that's critical to what we're doing. It's a step that brings certainty to the business. If we talk to big endemic and non-endemic brands we are able to address this issue head-on. It's the right thing to do."

This post originated on Ars Technica UK

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How do you deal with CS:GO gambling? Legitimize it - Ars Technica

April 5, 2017 2:32 PM

(Photo Credit: KDKA)

PITTSBURGH The State House approved a bill on Tuesday that would allow limited gambling in some airports in western Pennsylvania.

According to the Tribune Review, tablet gambling would be allowed at eight local airports, including Pittsburgh International and Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.

Gambling would be limited to the boarding areas of the airport. By limiting the amount of people who can gamble, officials say the risk of turning the airport into a casino-type establishment would be low.

Standard gambling laws would apply; Travelers would still have to be at least 21 years old to play.

Casinos which currently have slot machines would be allowed to apply for an airport gaming certificate. Approved casinos would then pay a one-time, $1 million fee, as well as 14 percent of their daily gross revenue from their airport games.

The bill still has to be approved by the State Senate.

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State House Approves Airport Tablet Gambling Bill - CBS Pittsburgh / KDKA

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (NSF) - In a decision that opens the door for a poker room in downtown Miami --- and possibly others throughout South Florida --- an appeals court on Tuesday decided that gambling regulators were wrong to deny a new pari-mutuel permit to a Miami operator.

The 1st District Court of Appeal decision is a major victory for West Flagler Associates, which operates Magic City Casino in Miami and plans to open a cardroom downtown.

The dispute between West Flagler and the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation, centers on summer jai alai permits, the source of several previous legal challenges. The permits allow pari-mutuels to operate lucrative cardrooms.

The case stems from a Florida law that creates the possibility of converting other pari-mutuel permits to summer jai alai permits. The law allows Miami-Dade and Broward pari-mutuels that have the lowest betting handle for two consecutive years to convert to summer jai alai permits. But if those pari-mutuels do not seek conversion, other facilities can seek the permits.

In 2015, West Flagler applied for a summer jai alai permit based on the handle from 2012 and 2013 after Hialeah Park Race Track did not seek to convert its permit to a summer jai alai permit.

But gambling regulators rejected West Flagler's application, arguing that the statute only allowed the granting of a new summer jai alai permit based on "the two consecutive years next prior to filing an application."

Because West Flagler's application was filed in 2015, "your application is incapable of being approved," the Division of Pari-mutuel Wagering wrote to John Lockwood, a lawyer representing the pari-mutuel, in September 2015.

But, siding with Lockwood's arguments Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal found that the language in the statute regarding the "two next years prior" only applied to pari-mutuels that want to convert their permits to summer jai alai permits, not to pari-mutuels seeking new permits.

The "plain meaning" of the law "creates two separate ways for permittees to obtain a summer jai alai permit," and "the Division's conflation of these two distinct permit opportunities improperly imposed unrelated timing requirements on the 'new permit' language, Judge Harvey Jay wrote in a six-page opinion joined by judges Timothy Osterhaus and Allen Winsor.

The appellate court ordered gambling regulators to reinstate West Flagler's summer jai alai application.

"The decision frees up the opportunity for new permits with the potential for multiple new cardroom locations, provided they conduct the jai alai activity, Lockwood told The News Service of Florida on Tuesday.

Industry experts estimate that Tuesday's decision could open the door for at least a half-dozen more summer jai alai permits in Broward or Miami-Dade counties and could even allow the new permit-holders to add slot machines at some point in the future.

"It's just further chaos that creates more uncertainty," said Marc Dunbar, an attorney with the Jones Walker law firm who specializes in gambling law.

The appellate decision came as lawmakers struggle to reach consensus on a new broad gambling plan in an attempt to strike a new gambling deal, known as a compact, with the Seminole Tribe. It's also the latest in a string of court rulings that could affect how much money the state receives from the tribe. The Florida Supreme Court is poised to decide on a separate case that centers on whether pari-mutuels can add slot machines in counties where voters have approved them, without the express permission of the Legislature.

"Obviously, every single court decision that's happened over the last few months has to be taken into account when we're negotiating the compact in the coming weeks," said House Commerce Chairman Jose Felix Diaz, a Miami Republican who's representing the House in the negotiations on a gambling deal.

Information taken from The News Service of Florida.

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Court ruling could boost South Florida gambling - Story | WOFL - Fox 35 Orlando

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House OKs tablet gambling for those flying out of Arnold Palmer ... - Tribune-Review

In Slovakia, the city council for the nations capital and largest city, Bratislava, has reportedly passed a measure that will ban gambling from the first day of next month although current license holders are to be permitted to continue operating until their existing authorizations expire.

According to a report from The Slovak Spectator newspaper, the body passed the measure against casinos and other gambling venues such as slot parlors on March 30 following months of debate although the license for the citys Banco Casino inside the Crowne Plaza hotel is not due to expire until 2021, which will be three years after the nearby facility operated by Olympic Entertainment Group in the Eurovea Galleria shopping mall is to be forced to close.

It will not work in such a way that we will wake up tomorrow and all the gambling venues will be closed but we finally have an instrument to begin pushing them away, Bratislava mayor Ivo Nesrovnal reportedly stated following last months vote.

The newspaper reported that the upcoming ban is expected to see the city lose almost $3.2 million a year in tax revenues for a budget that last year amounted to $365.9 million although Nesrovnal declared that this would not present a problem for the capital or its 433,000 residents.

We will replace the drop in revenues, Nesrovnal told the newspaper. This was not a vote about money but about values.

The Slovak Spectator reported that the city council attempted to pass a similar prohibition in February but failed to gain enough votes while the looming ban is due to come under scrutiny after the Slovak Association Of Amusements And Games declared that it was prepared to go to court in order to have the move overturned.

The first vote failed to ban gambling but in todays vote the regulation passed and the mayor chose the result according to his preferences, Slovak Association Of Amusements And Games spokesperson Dominika Lukacova told the newspaper before pointing out that the prohibition would most likely lead to a proliferation of illegal gambling.

For its part, Olympic Entertainment Group, which operates four casinos in Bratislava that last year reported gross gaming revenues of $8.7 million, proclaimed that it intended to join with gambling proponents to help overturn the coming ban. The Tallinn-based operator moreover stated that it runs eight casinos in Slovakia that employ some 324 people and chalked up 2016 takings before tax of just over $17.5 million.

The Bratislava city council has this year adopted two completely contradictory decisions regarding a petition to ban gambling operations, read a statement from Madis Jaager, Chief Executive Officer for Olympic Entertainment Group. The position of the Slovak Association Of Amusements And Games is that the second decision adopted by the city council is null and void because it is not possible to adopt multiple decisions concerning the same petition and, therefore, the first decision not to satisfy the petition has to be considered valid. The Slovak Association Of Amusements And Games is planning to challenge the decision from March 30 in court.

Bratislava passes measure to ban gambling from May was last modified: April 5th, 2017 by Adam Morgan

EstoniaSlovakiaolympic entertainment grouptallinnmadis jaagerbratislavabanco casinoivo nesrovnalslovak association of amusements and gamesdominika lukacova

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Bratislava passes measure to ban gambling from May - World Casino Directory

CHRIS DORST | Gazette-Mail Photoillustration

Many West Virginia legislators and governors have had a love affair with different forms of gambling to generate revenue over the years. The West Virginia Legislature first passed legislation to establish the state lottery in 1983, and legalized gambling began soon after.

Former Gov. Bob Wise broke new ground by legalizing the gray machines, the slot machines found in local convenience stores statewide.

And lets not forget the racinos, with traditional horse or dog racing paired with table games and hundreds of slot machines.

By way of explanation but not excuse, one can easily see why this form of revenue generation is popular with incumbent officeholders: More money is poured into the state governments coffers without raising taxes. What could be better for a politician, you know? Manna from heaven.

Along the way, they even created a 1-800-Gambler hotline for those who get addicted through these various gambling outlets. Perhaps this assuages our state officials consciences, and the states liability, as poor families lose more than they earn regularly on such state-sponsored, get-rich-quick temptations.

Now a novel bill has made its way through the Republican-led House and Senate and awaits Gov. Jim Justices signature. Justice himself is involved in the West Virginia gambling industry through the casino at The Greenbrier. So it will be interesting to see what he does with this bill.

House Bill 3106, the Limited Video Lottery bill, does, in fact, provide for a modest decline in the number of video lottery locations in places like private clubs and convenience stores across the state. This is good news for anyone with concerns about the spread of gambling. Some locations simply wont have video lottery machines in future years.

The problem is that the main thrust of the legislation is to reward other outlets. Those locations with a brimming slot machine business would be able to apply for a total of seven video lottery machines, instead of five, the current maximum number. An additional $10 million to $12 million in revenue could be generated annually through this legislation.

In a tight budget year, legislators and the governor are looking for creative ways to generate revenue other than raising more taxes. We get that.

However, this convenience gambling revenue, brought in from players who can ill afford it, is different than, say, casino gamblers at The Greenbrier. A bad night at that casino doesnt bankrupt anyone because The Greenbriers clientele can afford to play. Not so with the video lottery machines, with convenient locations in communities across the state. Their clientele include the poor, the jobless, even young people looking for a temporary thrill.

Is it too much to ask for our Republican legislative leaders to find more responsible ways to raise revenue? Heres an even better suggestion: Make some more budget cuts.

Cuts make for tough but honest work. Raising revenue from gambling addicts is poor public policy because, as soon as more gamblers lose their shirts, the state can be on the hook to take care of their children.

State-sponsored gambling was never a visionary endeavor, but was, like its namesake, a gamble. Balancing the states budget on the backs of gambling addicts is unwise on more than one level.

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Daily Mail editorial: Good news, bad news for gambling addicts statewide - Charleston Gazette-Mail (subscription)