Category Archives: Gambling

A day after the Philippine National Police chief, Director General Rolando dela Rosa, announced a war on illegal gambling, arrests were made in the neighboring cities of Malabon and Valenzuela.

Instead of busting bigtime gambling operators, however, the wars opening salvo settled for small fry. Eduardo Masagcay, an alleged kubrador or bet collector, was arrested in Malabon, while pedicab driver Daniel Reyes was arrested in Valenzuela for playing tong-its, a card game he was caught playing on the street.

Chief Supt. Roberto Fajardo, the director of Northern Police District, said the arrests were in line with Dela Rosas declaration. The war on gambling has always been there. But since thats the order, we will focus our efforts there, Fajardo told the Inquirer on Wednesday.

Fajardo said the police were still awaiting the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of President Rodrigo Dutertes Executive Order No. 13. The EO directed law enforcement agencies, freeport authorities and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. to intensify the campaign against illegal gambling.

Raids, raids, raids

Fajardo said the NPD would obey the EO through raids, raids, raids. But he said the police would need the publics help in pinpointing targets while were waiting for the IRR.

Reyes was arrested on Navarette Street, Barangay Arkong Bato, about 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 13 by PO1 Noel Caspe of Valenzuela police. A report by the officer in charge, Supt. Freddie Tejano, said Caspe chanced upon Reyes and his two female companions in the act of playing illegal cards called tong-its.

This game, the report added, is prohibited under Presidential Decree No. 1602 issued by then President Ferdinand Marcos in July 1978.

The same presidential decree was allegedly violated by Masagcay, who was described in a report by Senior Supt. John Chua, the Malabon police chief, as a kubrador for bookies karera, which is based on horse racing results.

Masagcay was taking a bet from an unidentified man when a team composed of SPO1 Damian Matalang, PO2 Francis Camuna and PO1 Ricky Lamsen arrested him on Sulucan Street in Barangay Hulong Duhat about 8:20 p.m. on Feb. 14.

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'War on gambling' starts with small fry - Inquirer.net

OSAGE | An Osage woman is accused of gambling with her mother's money and not leaving enough for the older woman's care.

Marilyn Jo Spartz, 58, was charged with felony second-degree theft.

She's accused of gambling with her mother's money from July to December at Diamond Jo Casino in Northwood, according to court documents.

Formal charges were filed last week by Assistant Mitchell County Attorney Aaron Murphy. Her next court appearance is Tuesday.

Investigators say Spartz, who lived with her mother, also used the money to buy a bus ticket to bring her boyfriend to Iowa.

They allege $2,315.50 was improperly spent.

The theft was discovered when Spartz's mother's health insurance company declined to pay her medical bills from a recent hospitalization, according to the complaint.

Police say the woman's health care plan had been canceled because there wasn't enough money in her checking account to pay for the insurance.

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Osage woman accused of stealing, gambling mother's money - Mason City Globe Gazette

A new Bitcoin gaming platform has been launched with a promise to deliver the most transparent and quick casino service.

A new Bitcoin gaming platform has been launched with a promise to deliver the most transparent and quick casino service.

Bitcoincasino.us, as the platform is titled, operates using only Bitcoin. Which implies that you wont have to wait long to receive your pay-outs; they are processed instantly. And if you win big, the pay-out will be processed within 5-15 minutes!

Bitcoincasino.us is a casino that cares about their players, which is rare in the world which is witnessing an increase in online frauds. Bitoincasino, however, has agoal of offering its visitors thebest time possible. Its their passion for casino games and entertainment that keeps them driven towards their goals.

Bitcoincasino.us provides its users with amazing high-quality games, secure transaction, quick pay-outs and excellent customer service. They offer an online gaming experience that compels the players to keep coming back for more.

All their casino games are handpicked by the team. This is to ensure that they offer only the best to their customers. The Bitcoincasino.us team is also confident in the stunning graphics and the sharp sound effects used in the games to attract more players and having them return for more.

Bitcoincasino.us has also set up a robust customer care where the players can contact them for any problems they face. They promise to address any problems faced by the players right away. Bitcoincasino.us strives to keep their customers happy and wants to assure them they wont have to worry about being left out in the cold when playing in their casino.

What further distinguishes the casino platform from its counterparts and further reiterates its message about caring for its visitors is their option to purposefully block the clients from their casino who feel that they are getting addicted to gambling.

In a gesture of care, they do not want their users to lose a healthy life balance. In order to do so, they offer a safeguard against gambling too much.

If you reach the point where you feel that you can no longer trust yourself with using bitcoins to gamble on Bitcoincasino.us, you can mail them. They will purposefully block you from their casino.

They also offer to help in case you suspect your spouse or relative might have a problem.

Bitcoincasino.us wants their casino to be a fun and friendly place, where everyone gambles responsibly.

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BitcoinCasino.us Ensures Instant Payouts and Responsible Gambling - newsBTC

The amount of money people in America spent on gambling in 2016 was an estimated $116.9 billion, according to data from H2 Gambling Capital. Thats the amount won off of gamblers in areas including brick-and-mortar casinos, state lotteries and regulated online gaming sites.

The Economist first reported on the data, which showed that the U.S. is still by far the largest overall gambling market in the world. China was a distant second with an overall gambling market of $62.4 billion. About $30 billion of that comes from Macau.

The U.S. gambling sector has room for major growth. The American Gaming Association says that about $150 billion is wagered on sports (the handle) each year in the U.S., with nearly all of it coming through illegal channels. Traditional sports betting is only legal in Nevada, where bettors are now wagering about $4.5 billion each year.

Nevada casinos won about $220 million on those wagers last year.

There are efforts on Capitol Hill to legalize sports betting nationwide.

Silver State casinos won $11.26 billion from gamblers last year, a small uptick over 2015.

Online casino gaming is legal in just three U.S. states, but many more are still considering the activity. New York and Pennsylvania stand as the front runners to legalize internet casinos in 2017.

The size of the commercial casino market is worth about $40 billion annually, while tribal casinos win about $30 billion a year. The lottery is the next largest component of the U.S. gambling market, with annual sales in the tens of billions of dollars.

The popularity of the lottery has led to a handful of states bringing it to the internet.

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Americans Lost $116.9B Gambling In 2016: Report - CardPlayer.com

News Legislation Russia Proposes UIGEA-Like Legislation to Block Online Gambling

Russia is taking a page out of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), the 2006 United States federal statute that blocked financial institutions from facilitating online transactions related to internet gambling.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to make it harder for his citizens to gamble online, and is seemingly doing so by utilizing language from UIGEA, the US law that prohibits the digital transmissionof moneyfor use at internet casinos. (Image: Mikhail Metzel/Reuters)

Russias Ministry of Finance unveiled a piece of legislation this week that seeks to implement regulations on banks to curtail the countrys growing illegal online gambling problem. The nations government estimates that its citizens are spending roughly $3 billion annually playing internet casinos.

Should the statute become law, a blacklist would begin tracking both domestic banking groups that continue to processonline transactions for gambling, as well as international casino sites marketing their games to Russian citizens.

The proposal will receive additional consideration by the Finance Ministry later this week. The legislation was reportedlyrequestedby President Vladimir Putin.

Russias government and Putin have long opposed most forms of gambling. However, the worlds largest country in geographical terms, did relax some of its casino laws in recent months regarding land-based gaming.

Since 2009, gambling has been confined to four special zones: Azov City in the Krasnodar region; Primorye near the Pacific port of Vladivostok; Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea coast; and Altai in Siberia.

Earlier this year, Russias newest casino, the Sochi Casino and Resort, opened under the Krasnodar gambling blanket. The venue was authorized by the Kremlin to help the Black Sea resort city offset continuing expenses incurred from hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Sochis humid subtropical climate made it the warmest host city for a Winter Olympics in history. Though the nearby mountains provided plenty of snow-covered terrain, the 2014 spectacle became the most expensive Olympics (Summer or Winter), with total costs exceeding $50 billion.

Putin was initially against allowing Sochi to host a casino, instead preferringto keep the summer vacation spot more family friendly. The ruler changed his stance in order to help revitalize the local economy.

While Putin is letting up slightly on brick-and-mortar casinos, he remains against online gambling.

The Finance Ministrys proposal is eerily similar to UIGEA.Like the US law, Russia would make it a crime for a bank to transfer money on behalf of a customer to an online gambling platform.

Of course, when UIGEA was signed into law in 2006, not everyone adhered to its regulations.

The most infamous offenders were of course PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. The two online poker networks continued allowing players in the US to access their interactive rooms until the domains were seized by the US Department of Justice in 2011 on what became known as pokersBlack Friday.

The online poker companies were accused of engaging in bank fraud and money laundering in order to process financial transactions for patrons.

UIGEA is notorious in America for providing a fantasy sports exemption. The loophole has been the legal arguing basis for daily fantasy companies like DraftKings and FanDuel.Slightly similar, the Russian anti-online gambling measure would provide a carve out for payment transactions relating to the limited number of approved online sports betting platformsin Russia.

However, should the Russia UIGEA bill become law, banks might be understandably apprehensive in approving any such activity associatedwith internet betting.

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Russia Proposes UIGEA-Like Legislation to Block Online Gambling - Casino.Org News

Levine: Rick Hahn, White Sox Gambling On Right Trades At Right Time CBS Local (CBS) Arizona once boasted some of the craftiest gamblers. So when you consider what Chicago White Sox general manager Rick Hahn has up his sleeve, it had better be the fifth ace in the deck. The poker table is weighted toward Hahn. The gamble is ... and more »

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Levine: Rick Hahn, White Sox Gambling On Right Trades At Right Time - CBS Local

MARIETTA, Ga. - Luxury cars, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, and jewelry were all seized in an illegal gambling raid. Three people are in jail after what police are calling a substantial organized crime investigation.

Marietta police said this is a result of a two-year investigation. Detectives have been watching Gantts Food on Franklin Gateway and another convenience store on Windy Hill Road which police said is owned by the same man, Khubaib Hussain.

Detectives said the gaming machines in both stores were paying out cash, and thats illegal in Georgia.

What theyve been doing is paying people off in cash, anywhere from $5 to $5,000, said Marietta Police Officer Brittany Wallace.

Monday police obtained search warrants for the two stores and the owners home in Douglas County. Police said they seized five vehicles, $250,000 cash, jewelry, computers and a phone.

Hussain along with two employees were arrested and charged with felony commercial gambling. Tuesday night, they were in the Cobb County Jail, but the stores were open, minus the gaming machines. Those were seized by state authorities Tuesday afternoon.

VIDEO: Hear why police said they took down the operation and why

Nikki Tavares is a customer of Gantts Food. She said she often saw people playing the machines.

People come and sit at the machines and they smoke their cigarettes, but I didnt think they were doing anything wrong, said Tavares.

Marietta police said the investigation involved a number of agencies including the Cobb County Police Department, Douglas County Sheriffs Office, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Revenue. Authorities said they are also looking into possible money laundering and tax evasion.

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Massive felony gambling raid in Marietta - FOX 5 Atlanta

In this June 4, 2010 file photo, Kim Jong Nam, the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, waves after his first-ever interview with South Korean media in Macau, China.

AP Photo

The half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has died in Malaysia, police on the island nation have confirmed to CBS News, amid reports in South Korea that he was killed.

South Korean news agency Yonhap, along with other outlets in the country, reported Tuesday that Kim Jong-Nam had been assassinated. There were few details available, and the media all cited unnamed South Korean officials in their accounts.

Speaking to CBS News, Malaysian police would only say that the cause of death for the 46-year-old was currently listed as sudden death.

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CBS News Washington Bureau Chief Chris Isham and CBS News senior national security analyst Juan Zarate analyze what Kims latest purge means for ...

Kim Jong Un has had a number of senior North Korean officials executed for vague crimes of disloyalty, from education and defense ministers to intelligence chiefs, as he seeks to consolidate his power in the isolated nuclear kingdom.

In 2013, North Korea said it had executed Kims uncle, calling the leaders former mentor a traitor who tried to seize power and overthrow the state. The announcement came only days afterJang Song Thaek-- long considered the countrys No. 2 power --was removed from all his postsbecause of a long list of allegations, including corruption, drug use, gambling and womanizing.

More than a decade ago, Kim Jong-Nam, the casino-loving eldest son of late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, spoke out against his little brother Kim Jong Un inheriting power in the country.

Analysts said at the time, toward the end of 2010, that Kim Jong Nam was prone to spending so much time outside his native land that his opinion carried little weight within the Kim dynasty.

The oldest of three brothers who were then in the running to take over secretive North Korea, Kim Jong-Nam was the closest thing the country had to a playboy.

Unlike many of his countrymen back home who lack the resources and connections to travel overseas, Kim always traveled freely and spent much of his time in China or the countrys special autonomous region of Macau -- the center of Asian gambling with its Las Vegas-style casinos.

He sported the family pot belly and favored newsboy caps and an unshaven face, while frequenting five-star hotels and expensive restaurants.

2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Kim Jong Un's gambling half-brother reportedly assassinated - CBS News

The take down of a mafia run gambling ring in New York City threatens to trap a gaggle of high-profile celebrities who a source claims may have been caught on wiretaps making illegal bets, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned.

Thirteen members and associates of the Genovese Organized Crime Family were nabbed in the Dec. 15 bust, which included Vincent Vinny Taliercio, a long-time Brooklyn bookie who collected wagers from a Whos Who of Hollywood elite, a well-placed source told Radar.

The list of New York City born celebs may include: The Godfather star James Caan; Taxi actor Tony Danza and Paul Sorvino, who played a mafia boss in the wise guy drama Goodfellas, the source told Radar.

James Caan is a big gambler he bets on anything. Hell even bet on which elevator doors open first, the insider claimed.

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Some of the other high profile gamblers may include: Bronx born TV talker Regis Philbin; Two and Half Men star Charlie Sheen; the late Law & Order star Jerry Orbach; Seinfeld co-creator Larry David; the late Wise Guy actor Ray Sharkey and famed producer James L. Brooks, an Oscar winning director, and Ed Weinberger, who both created Taxi and numerous other television classics.

They probably caught some of these celebrities on the wiretaps, the source said, adding the gamblers would usually place their bets with Vinny by telephone if they werent in New York.

Vinnie is not just a bookie everybody who is anybody in the gambling world would call him up because hes the best handicapper in the world, the source told Radar. He has dealt with all the big celebrities.

Everybody went to Vinny for advice even the members of all five crime families. Anything you needed to know about sports that guy Vinny knew about it he was like a walking encyclopedia an almanac!

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Vinny was arrested during the gambling and loansharking investigation dubbed Operation Shark Bait by the New York Attorney Generals Offices Organized Crime Task Force and the NYPDs Criminal Enterprise Investigations Section, who used wiretaps to secure the indictments.

The ringleader Salvatore Sallie DeMeo, 76, and the others are accused of running the gambling site 4Spades.orgbased in Costa Rica along with a lucrative loansharking and illegal cigarette smuggling business that raked in millions, according to a 56-page indictment obtained by Radar.

Vinny, who operated his family owned grocery store, the Smith Union Market in Brooklyn, served as the money collector/distributor of illegal gambling proceeds, according to the indictment.

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In one chat tape recorded on Feb. 14, 2015, Vinny is heard giving the spread to college games: Michigan States two-and-a-half, 37-and-a-half, Clemson is nine, no total. Xavier is eight and 48.

The celebs relied on Vinny for gambling advice and enjoyed betting on college basketball and football games because they enjoyed the spread, the inside source told Radar.

According to the source, they also gambled on professional sports, boxing and horse races a favorite of the Brooklyn born Sorvino, who also starred on the television series Law & Order.

Some sports superstars who placed bets with Vinny include: Yankee great Mickey Mantle, disgraced hitting champ Pete Rose and famed L.A. Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda.

Vinny plead not guilty in Brooklyn Criminal Court and was released on a $20,000. He scheduled back in court on February 15th.

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Celeb Gambling Ring Members Fear They've Been CAUGHT On Wiretaps Making Illegal Bets, Source Claims - Radar Online

The U.K. Gambling Commission late last year released updated data on its gambling market, which highlighted the fact that now a third of all gambling dollars in the country come over the internet.

The Commission said that online gambling generated 4.5 billion over a 12-month period (April 2015 to March 2016), which was 33 percent of the entire gambling market. That includes the lottery, the 148 brick-and-mortar casinos and nearly 9,000 betting shops in the country.

That means that gamblers now lose about 13.6 billion ($17 billion USD) each year in the U.K., an increase of more than 20 percent since 2014. For comparison, the entire casino gambling market in America (commercial and tribal) is worth about $70 billion annually.

Growth in the U.S. casino gambling sector has been much less dramatic.

Online casinos in the U.K. represented 29 percent of the overall market between April 2014 and March 2015, the government said. The Commission also noted that the number of brick-and-mortar betting shops has decreased by about two percent over the aforementioned period. No additional land-based casinos have opened up during the time frame.

Online sports betting is regulated in the U.K., leading the country to crack down on illegal betting on games, whether they are real life sporting events or even video games.

The breakdown for online gambling in the U.K. is as follows:

Table Games: 2.6 billion Sports Betting: 1.6 billion Slots: 1.8 billion Bingo: 153 million Betting Exchanges: 152 million

James Green, program director for the Commission, said in a statement:

Our latest statistics show that with the growth in online gambling the industry is increasingly taking a creative approach to using technology to engage consumers. As the online sector grows operators will also need to demonstrate that they are taking an equally innovative approach to ensuring gambling is safe for all online consumers.

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Online Casinos Generate A Third Of UK Gambling Dollars - CardPlayer.com