Gambling News by House of Odds

A video gambling machine raid in Ashburn Wednesday night proves successful.
Police seized 28 machines at six different stores. Police say some customers
were using their welfare checks to gamble on the machines. "This was
something that was just taking their money and is a violation of the law.
This is the first successful operation. This is not the first time we've
tried something like this but it's been the first successful operation that
we've had," says Chief Ben Sumner. The store owners have not been arrested
and police wont say if they will be.

Ranong Province warns state officials not to get involved in all forms of
gambling, especially lottery. They will face both criminal charges and
disciplinary punishments if they do. Ranong Governor Kanchanapa Keeman added
that the province also bans officials from listening to or watching programs
broadcasting government lottery drawing. She said officials should set a
good example for the general public by exempting from immoral activities. As
for underground lottery operators, the governor said she had instructed
police officers to keep a close watch on them and deploy income tax and
money-laundering laws to punish them.
At present the Government Lottery Office (GLO) halts the distribution of
two- and three-digits lotteries as the government is considering the
amendment of the controversial GLO Act.

Sector leader PartyGaming said on Thursday it was in talks to buy part of
Empire, which confirmed it was selling gaming assets to become an investment
company.
"It'll include Empire's Noble Poker and Club Dice casino sites," said one
industry source, adding that the deal was expected to be completed by the
end of this week. PartyGaming is leading the race to consolidate the on-line
gaming sector, having moved into bookmaking by buying Gamebookers in August
and having held talks to buy 888. The group once towered over rivals with a
market capitalisation of nearly STG5 billion ($NZ14 billion), but when the
United States banned on-line gambling in November it lost over three
quarters of its value and began seeking ways to recover mass. Another source
said that after any deal was concluded, PartyGaming could strike a software
licensing deal with Playtech, which already powers Empire's sites. It would
be Playtech's first deal with PartyGaming.
PartyGaming shares gained 2.5 per cent to 30½ pence by 1245 GMT on Thursday,
while Empire's shares rose by as much as 7 per cent, but were later down by
2.3 per cent at 43 pence. The two companies have previously been partners,
but suffered an acrimonious split last year when PartyGaming ring-fenced its
own poker players from those of four affiliates including Empire, which
relied on PartyGaming software. The split hit Empire hard, knocking 10 per
cent off its profits, and causing it to sue PartyGaming last December. That
dispute was settled in February when PartyGaming bought assets including
Empire's damaged EmpirePoker business for $US250 million. Empire's Internet
casino generated revenues of $US30.2 million in the first half of 2006,
while its poker site generated $US8 million, but like most of its peers it
has since quit the world's most lucrative gaming market, the United States.
PartyGaming is planning to take on board some of Empire's marketing experts
who have helped it stand out against bigger rivals in the past, sources
said. Empire has been seeking to distance itself from on-line gaming since
September. On Thursday, Empire said, "Following any such disposal, the
company's intention is to become an investing company." "The proceeds of any
disposal would be used together with the company's existing cash of
approximately $US250 million to invest opportunisticly in both private and
public businesses and across the small, mid and large-cap range of
companies," it added.

Casino impresario Steve Wynn is so needed in Atlantic City that a state
senator has suggested turning Boardwalk Hall into a casino for Wynn, writes
the Inquirer's Suzette Parmley. There's no real legislation he's planning,
but he did float the idea to see how "anyone who has an interest" would
respond. His model for the $3 billion renovation he's proposing is Union
Station in Washington D.C., only he wants to do it with slot machines. The
kicker? A full-scale renovation would pave the way for ex-bitter rivals Wynn
and Donald Trump to kiss and make up and operate an expansion of Trump
Plaza. The rumor is Trump would sell Trump Plaza to Wynn in exchange for
good land in Las Vegas, where Trump doesn't have a casino, oddly enough. So,
basically, what does this mean? More places to gamble in Atlantic City.
Yeeha! Oh, and supposedly the developers are supposed to build a new arena
to replace Boardwalk Hall if they want to turn it into a gambling mecca.

Suffolk County, Long Island gambling probe uncovered more than just money
from illegal gambling proceeds. Newsday reports that Suffolk District
Attorney Thomas Spota stood yesterday before a table covered with more than
$1 million in neat stacks of hundreds and several large bags of marijuana,
and said that the seized loot may be just a hint of "three major criminal
enterprises" uncovered by Suffolk investigators. "Spota announced the
results of a yearlong investigation that began as a sports gambling sting,
but grew to uncover multimillion-dollar marijuana and illegal fireworks
trafficking rings operating in Nassau, Suffolk and Queens."
17 suspects were taken into custody on assorted gambling and conspiracy
charges, and continue to search for one more - a Freeport attorney charged
with helping run "hundreds of pounds" of pot from California to Long Island,
according to Newsday. Among those arrested were Salvatore Gerrato, 45, of
2337 Hampton Ave., Seaford, who authorities said ran all three rings; Frank
Lonigro, 33, of 745 Terry Rd. in Hauppauge, who helped run the marijuana and
gambling operations, and accountant Stephen Tarnofsky, 59, who Spota said
earned $6,000 a week running a Costa Rican wire room for the gambling ring.
The arrests come just one month after a heavily publicized gambling raid by
the Queens District Attorneys office, considered the "biggest of its kind".
While both cases have connections to the offshore gambling world (call
centers and servers based in both Costa Rica and St. Marten, respectively),
the two organizations are widely viewed as thriving in the shadows of an
otherwise legitimate billion dollar online gambling industry. These types
of businesses, which thrive primarily on the use of "agents" employed within
the United States to collect and pay out customers who bet via credit, are
not representative of the online gambling industry as a whole. Law
enforcement agencies throughout the US have orchestrated investigations into
these types of operations long before the advent of the World Wide Web. But
with the new technology, "criminal enterprises" have fully capitalized
through the creation of websites for gambling purposes. Local US law
enforcement has especially begun cracking down on "gambling call centers"
that claim not to handle any gambling cash transactions but rather act as
facilitators to manage local bookmaking businesses offshore, similar to that
of US corporations utilizing inexpensive call center contract employees in
countries such as India. Unlike the arrests involving Florida resident
James Giordano and other alleged co-conspirators, the Long Island case would
not require extensive jail time - 1 1/2 to 4 years maximum (Giordano is
facing close to 10 years in prison and has not been able to make bail).
Spota said prosecutors will convene a special grand jury "to conduct a much
more extensive investigation" and likely bring more serious charges,
according to Newsday. "Spota said 30 search warrants uncovered computer and
paper records indicating that the criminal operations go far deeper than
investigators knew. "Spota said nine tons of illegal fireworks, transported
from Maryland to Long Island, were seized in May, and that the gambling ring
alone took in an average of $165,000 a week in bets. During one trip, the
marijuana traffickers were found on their way to California with $300,000
cash in a Winnebago recreational vehicle - much of it in a hidden "trap"
compartment. "The owner of the vehicle, Jeffrey Ackerman, 43, of 9 Trapper
Lane, Levittown, was charged with conspiracy. His attorney, Edward Burke Jr.
of Sag Harbor, declined to comment.
"Spota said during each trip, the suspects returned with marijuana worth $1
million to $1.5 million on the street. "Investigators used phone and
electronic surveillance, including a first-of-a-kind in Suffolk computer
wire tap to collect data from suspects' computers that uncovered "details
that we've never seen before" on a sports betting operation."

Brian and Terry Leblanc were once a couple of average guys, spending their
days washing windows and their nights drinking beer and watching sports on
television. In the late 1980s, the brothers won about $90,000 at Toronto's
Woodbine race track and decided to put that money toward more sports
betting. Within a few years, the Leblancs were managing a full-time betting
operation from their home in Aylmer, Que., wagering up to $300,000 a week
mostly on games such as Pro-Line. Their strategy was simple: bet huge
amounts on events with incredibly long odds. Naturally, they lost most of
the time, but, when they won, they won big. They pocketed $1.7-million three
times - on two bets in 1996 and one in 1999 - and won about $5.5-million
from 1996 to 1999. During that period, they wagered $52-million. It wasn't
long before the Canada Revenue Agency took note. In 2000, the agency sent
them a notice of reassessment for the years 1996 to 1999, saying their
gambling was a business and subject to tax. The case ended up at the Tax
Court of Canada and, last week, Mr. Justice Donald Bowman ruled in favour of
the Leblancs. "It is true, they won but to say they won because they had a
system has no basis in the evidence at all," Judge Bowman said in his
ruling.
"They won in spite of having no system. If one is looking for a pattern, it
is that they bet massively and recklessly and in those games where they
could, they bet on long shots. Certainly it meant that if they won they won
big, but the converse is that if they lost, they lost big and, given the
astronomical odds against winning, their chances of losing were far greater
than their chances of winning." The judge said the Leblancs were compulsive
gamblers, but they were not running a business and their winnings were not
taxable. William Vanveen, an Ottawa lawyer who represented the brothers,
said the ruling was an important victory for gamblers everywhere. "What it
boiled down to was that luck is not taxable," Mr. Vanveen said Wednesday. In
order to win its case, he said the CRA had to prove that the men developed a
system to minimize their risk, something like a pool shark who practises by
day and then takes on unsuspecting drunks by night. "The mistake CRA made
was they just looked at the volume [of betting] and said all this volume
amounts to a business," Mr. Vanveen said. "These [lotteries] are advertised
and are accepted to be tax free. [The brothers] have a big win, they don't
work after that, so what's the problem?" The lawyer representing CRA was
unavailable for comment. The CRA could still appeal the ruling. They grew up
in the Toronto area and had little more than high-school education when they
joined their father's window-washing business in the 1980s. After winning
money on the track, they decided to jump into Pro-Line, which was launched
in 1992. They lost about $10,000 in their first year, but soon scored big
with two $1.7-million wins in January and February of 1996. By the
mid-1990s, they moved to Aylmer, near Ottawa, so they could play both
Ontario and Quebec lotteries. They kept their lives simple, driving old cars
and eschewing flashy jewellery. "They spent their time playing lottery games
or watching sports on television," the judge noted. "They also played Ping
Pong and golf and sat around the house drinking beer and eating pizza." Not
everything went well. Around 1996, Terry Leblanc fell in love with a
stripper named Josée Dubreuil and showered her with gifts, including an $850
engagement ring, $2,000 for breast implants and $14,000 in cash, according
to court records. The relationship ended after Ms. Dubreuil stole $124,000
worth of winning lottery tickets from a jar the Leblancs used to store
winning bets (the theft prompted them to buy a safe). Ms. Dubreuil was later
convicted and given an 18-month suspended sentence. In 2000, they also got
into a spat with dog-racing regulators in Australia who withheld nearly
$200,000 the brothers won via an online bet. The Australians alleged
manipulation but eventually backed down and gave the Leblancs their
winnings. Brian, now 35, and Terry, 41, were not available for comment
yesterday. According to Mr. Vanveen, Terry still lives in Canada while Brian
has moved to Britain.

A video gambling machine raid in Ashburn Wednesday night proves successful.
Police seized 28 machines at six different stores. Police say some customers
were using their welfare checks to gamble on the machines. "This was
something that was just taking their money and is a violation of the law.
This is the first successful operation. This is not the first time we've
tried something like this but it's been the first successful operation that
we've had," says Chief Ben Sumner. The store owners have not been arrested
and police wont say if they will be.

DETROIT Scott Swiercz smoked a cigarette and drank a beer at The Final Score
lounge in Brownstown Township, Mich., mulling the biggest gamble of his
life. Ford Motor Co. had offered him and its 75,000 other U.S. hourly
workers a choice of buyout packages. One option: A $100,000 lump-sum payment
to sever his relationship with Ford. Taking the money would mean no job and
no health care. For Swiercz, 40, who has two ex-wives and pays $157.50 each
week in child support for his 14-year-old son, taking the buyout would be
the equivalent of a third divorce. The math just didn't work. The cheapest
health insurance he found cost $450 a month. With child support, he'd pay
$1,080 each month before he paid rent or put gas in the car. Like all hourly
workers, he had to make a decision by Nov. 27. He chose to stay on the
production line at Ford's Woodhaven Stamping Plant, where he's weeks away
from hitting 11 years seniority. He's gambling that the plant will stay
open. He's gambling that, if it does, enough workers will take buyouts so
Ford can avoid layoffs there. He's gambling that a worker from a closing
plant who has more seniority won't bump him off the job. For hourly workers
at Ford, making a decision on the buyout offers required a combination of
economic calculations and soul searching. Some 38,000 Ford workers roughly
half of Ford's U.S. hourly work force said they would take one of Ford's
eight buyout packages. The workers who are staying are every bit as nervous
as those starting over. The buyout and the future have been the dominant
topic of conversation at the Woodhaven plant for six months, Swiercz said.
"You talk to 25 people a day, that's what 10 people are talking about," he
said. "Not, 'How are your kids?' or 'What are you doing for Christmas?'
(It's) 'You taking the buyout? Everybody's worried about everything now."
Hard times at Ford, General Motors Corp., DaimlerChrysler and their
suppliers mean hard times for Michigan, where all three are based and where
the auto industry dominates the economy. The state is on track to lose
336,000 jobs between mid-2000 and the end of 2006, the longest stretch of
job losses since the Great Depression.
Contracts expire between the United Auto Workers and the Big Three in 2007,
and some argue union concessions are the only way the Big Three can compete
with Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.

UAW critics say union work rules make it nearly impossible to fire a bad
worker. A 21/2-hour lunch for a union worker at one of the bars near a plant
wasn't unheard of. And union workers didn't pay a penny for health insurance
until last year; now a family pays only $700 a year, said Donald Grimes, an
economist at the University of Michigan's Institute for Labor and Industrial
Relations.

Auto workers counter that it's punishing work.

Cynthia Allison was a single mother raising a daughter, Donielle, and
getting welfare before she got a job at Ford's Dearborn Truck plant. Nothing
had prepared her for how physically punishing it would be.

Her first day, "I kept saying, 'The money, Cindy, the money. A future for
you and for Donny.' When I got off that 4 a.m. shift, each step I took, my
head said, 'Boom. Boom. Boom.'"

She's stayed at Ford 12 years. She's popped her knee, she's popped her back,
she cut herself, she got hit in the head with a Mustang.

Allison, 41, who also raised one of her nieces, is taking the $100,000
buyout.

"I think I would be more afraid to stay than I am nervous to leave," she
said.

Online gambling firm Partygaming has confirmed it is in talks to buy the
gaming assets of smaller rival Empire Online. Analysts said the deal could
be worth about $40m (£20.4m), and would probably include Empire's Noble
Poker and Club Dice Casino websites. Shares in Partygaming rose 2.5% on the
news in mid-day trading in London. The company has been refocusing its
business after it pulled out of the US market following the tightening of
anti-gambling laws there. Partygaming previously made 75% of its earnings in
the US. Analysts have been expecting a wave of consolidation in the industry
ever since the US moves began.
Empire said it planned to become an investment company after selling off its
internet gambling assets. The firm's Online Casino generated revenues of
$30.2m in the first six months of 2006, while its Online Poker site made
$8m.

A sophisticated Long Island gambling ring that took in $8.6 million a year
was broken up with the arrest of 14 people, the Suffolk County district
attorney said on Wednesday. The district attorney, Thomas J. Spota, said
that the 14-month investigation also uncovered lucrative marijuana and
fireworks smuggling rackets that were run by the chief bookmaker, Salvatore
Gerrato, 45, of Seaford. In addition, three people were charged in the drug
case. "Surveillance of phone and computer communications established that
the gambling ring took in an average of $165,000 a week in bets," Mr. Spota
said. He added that the operation, which involved betting on professional
and college sports, had a wire room in Costa Rica. Mr. Spota said that a
59-year-old accountant, Stephen Tarnofsky of Merrick, was the leader of the
wire room. The gambling case eventually led investigators to the marijuana
and fireworks operations. According to the authorities, Mr. Gerrato oversaw
the smuggling of fireworks from Maryland and marijuana from California, and
these were distributed throughout the New York metropolitan region.
In May, the Suffolk Highway Patrol seized nine tons of illegal fireworks
from a vehicle returning from Maryland, according to Mr. Spota. The
authorities also confiscated more than $300,000 in cash from a recreational
vehicle that the smugglers planned to use to buy 100 pounds of marijuana in
California, Mr. Spota said. He added that on a typical cross-country run,
the smugglers could stash the vehicle with enough marijuana to yield $1
million to $1.5 million in street sales.
In raids on Dec. 14, investigators seized $1 million in cash, including
$600,000 from Mr. Tarnofsky's home, Mr. Spota said. Of the 17 people
arrested, 14 have been charged with promoting gambling in the first degree,
including Mr. Tarnofsky, Mr. Gerrato and Frank Lonigro, 33, of Hauppauge.
Three others were charged with fourth-degree conspiracy to possess
marijuana. Both charges are felonies and carry a maximum prison sentence of
four years, the district attorney's office said.
Mr. Gerrato was previously convicted of promoting gambling and, in 2001, was
sentenced to five years' probation, Mr. Spota said. Detectives were still
looking for Andrew Petrone, 34, of Freeport, a lawyer who, according to the
authorities, participated in the marijuana operation. He was arrested in
June for possession of a controlled substance in an unrelated case, Mr.
Spota said. He pleaded guilty and was scheduled for sentencing next month.
All the defendants were released on desk appearance tickets, and were
scheduled to appear before a judge in March, the authorities said. Mr. Spota
added that the investigation was not over. "I am sure it's a much larger
operation," he said.

Brian and Terry Leblanc were once a couple of average guys, spending their
days washing windows and their nights drinking beer and watching sports on
TV.
In the late 1980s, the brothers won about $90,000 at Toronto's Woodbine race
track and decided to put that money toward more sports betting. Within a few
years, the Leblancs were managing a full-time betting operation from their
home in Aylmer, Que., wagering up to $300,000 a week mostly on games such as
Pro-Line. Their strategy was simple: bet huge amounts on events with
incredibly long odds. Naturally, they lost most of the time, but, when they
won, they won big. They pocketed $1.7-million three times -- on two bets in
1996 and one in 1999 -- and won about $5.5-million from 1996 to 1999. During
that period, they wagered $52-million. It wasn't long before the Canada
Revenue Agency took note. In 2000, the agency sent them a notice of
reassessment for the years 1996 to 1999, saying their gambling was a
business and subject to tax. The case ended up at the Tax Court of Canada
and, last week, Mr. Justice Donald Bowman ruled in favour of the Leblancs.
"It is true, they won but to say they won because they had a system has no
basis in the evidence at all," Judge Bowman said in his ruling.
"They won in spite of having no system. If one is looking for a pattern, it
is that they bet massively and recklessly and in those games where they
could, they bet on long shots. Certainly it meant that if they won they won
big, but the converse is that if they lost, they lost big and, given the
astronomical odds against winning, their chances of losing were far greater
than their chances of winning." The judge said the Leblancs were compulsive
gamblers, but they were not running a business and their winnings were not
taxable. William Vanveen, an Ottawa lawyer who represented the brothers,
said the ruling was an important victory for gamblers everywhere.

"What it boiled down to was that luck is not taxable," Mr. Vanveen said
yesterday.

In order to win its case, he said the CRA had to prove that the men
developed a system to minimize their risk, something like a pool shark who
practises by day and then takes on unsuspecting drunks by night.

"The mistake CRA made was they just looked at the volume [of betting] and
said all this volume amounts to a business," Mr. Vanveen said. "These
[lotteries] are advertised and are accepted to be tax free. [The brothers]
have a big win, they don't work after that, so what's the problem?"

The lawyer representing CRA was unavailable for comment. The CRA could still
appeal the ruling.

As Judge Bowman noted, the Leblancs led unusual lives.

They grew up in the Toronto area and had little more than high-school
education when they joined their father's window-washing business in the
1980s. After winning money on the track, they decided to jump into Pro-Line,
which was launched in 1992. They lost about $10,000 in their first year, but
soon scored big with two $1.7-million wins in January and February of 1996.
By the mid-1990s, they moved to Aylmer, near Ottawa, so they could play both
Ontario and Quebec lotteries. They kept their lives simple, driving old cars
and eschewing flashy jewellery.

"They spent their time playing lottery games or watching sports on
television," the judge noted. "They also played Ping Pong and golf and sat
around the house drinking beer and eating pizza."

Not everything went well. Around 1996, Terry Leblanc fell in love with a
stripper named Josée Dubreuil and showered her with gifts, including an $850
engagement ring, $2,000 for breast implants and $14,000 in cash, according
to court records. The relationship ended after Ms. Dubreuil stole $124,000
worth of winning lottery tickets from a jar the Leblancs used to store
winning bets (the theft prompted them to buy a safe). Ms. Dubreuil was later
convicted and given an 18-month suspended sentence.

In 2000, they also got into a spat with dog-racing regulators in Australia
who withheld nearly $200,000 the brothers won via an online bet. The
Australians alleged manipulation but eventually backed down and gave the
Leblancs their winnings.

Brian, now 35, and Terry, 41, were not available for comment yesterday.
According to Mr. Vanveen, Terry still lives in Canada while Brian has moved
to Britain.

Both are still gambling, he said. "Not like they were before."

The hottest gambling action in Washington would get even hotter under a new
compact proposed between the state and the Spokane Tribe of Indians. Under
the deal, to be announced at a news conference in Seattle today, the tribe
would be the first in the state to legally operate cash-operated,
single-push-button video-gambling machines that have been popular cash cows
elsewhere but have been banned in Washington. For the Spokanes, the compact
would end 15 years of litigation over the tribe's gambling operations, which
have been running without a formal compact. And that would help the tribe
expand to better compete with neighboring tribes. "This is a real good day
for the tribe," said Gerald Nicodemus, secretary of the Spokane tribal
business council. It may benefit other tribes, which could also make a play
for the new machines, potentially triggering an explosion in the video-slot
business statewide. Washington's tribal casinos are generating about $1.2
billion a year, or 65 percent of all annual gambling revenue, using the
older, more cumbersome machines that take paper tickets instead of cash.
That's one reason the proposal has some powerful detractors, such as state
Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Seattle, who chairs the Senate Ways and Means
Committee and sits on the State Gambling Commission that will vote on the
compact. Wednesday she called the proposal "really offensive." "This is way
beyond what the public wants to swallow," Prentice said. "I can't imagine
how we can possibly approve this."

Part two in a series of news reviews covering the online casino and gambling
sector. May - Las Vegas Sands win a casino licence to build the first
casino in Singapore, costing three billion dollars. A bid from Coventry to
operate one of the super casinos in the U.K was thrown out by the
government, leaving the city's officials demanding answers. Kent town,
Dartford, suffered similar fate, where as Sheffield went the over way and
was put on the shortlist of candidates. The full list of candidates in
competition for the UK's first super casino was announced: Blackpool,
Wembley Stadium, Cardiff, Glasgow, the Millennium Dome, Manchester,
Newcastle upon Tyne and Sheffield were all short-listed. Two men were jailed
in Nottingham after they raided a casino and escaped with £45,000. They
received a total of 22 years in prison. Kerzner International sells their
casino operation to its management in a $3.2 billion deal, netting the
Cayzer family $237 million. June - As the world cup begins, bookies reveal
they are having a hard time as all the favourites seem to be performing as
expected. However, they appear to be crocodile tears, as a survey conducted
by Nielsen/Net Ratings showed that approximately 2.5 million Britons went on
to gambling sites, with bookies doubling their winnings to over £1 billion
from the last world cup in 2002. Lads' mag, Maxim, agrees to lend its name
to a £640 million Las Vegas hotel and casino. 32Red buy Littlewood's ailing
Bet Direct in a deal for over £11 million and was met with open arms by
investors. However, that optimism would not last the whole year as Bet
Direct turns into the industries hot potato. There are calls in Australia
for revenue gained from betting on sports events by gambling companies to be
put back into the sport. The French National Lottery is accused of cheating
players by printing scratchcards in a predetermined fashion. A successful
businessman, Robert Riblet, went on to file a two million Euro lawsuit
against the lottery. Tessa Jowell confirms that the UK will host an
International Gambling Summit, scheduled for October, in an attempt to unify
the various legislations of the numerous regulatory bodies. July - In a
massive shock to the gambling industry, David Carruthers, chief executive of
online gaming group BetOnSports, was arrested as he changed planes in
America en route to Costa Rica. He was charged by American federal
prosecutors with racketeering, conspiracy and fraud.

Shares in online gambling companies plummet as panic spreads throughout the
industry and many close their US facing businesses. Sportingbet were amongst
the worst hit, losing 50% of its revenue as almost £1 billion was wiped from
the market in days.

UK Deputy Prime Minster, John Prescott, reacted angrily to claims of
corruption over his friendship with Philip Anschutz, as the US tycoon looks
to open a super casino at London's Dome.

Top Irish jockey, Kieren Fallon, loses his appeal over allegations he was
involved in a betting scam but always maintained his innocence.

The government announce that casinos, betting shops and online gambling
websites will be allowed to advertise on television from next year, under
new proposed laws in the Gambling Act.

Ladbrokes return to the casino industry after a gap of more than five years
when it opened the £5 million Ladbrokes Casino and Sports Bar at the Hilton
in Paddington, London.

Rank look into the possibility of selling its world-renowned restaurant
business, the Hard Rock Café for a potential £500 million.

August
The government face more criticism as it's revealed that Anschutz
Entertainment Group (AEG) have admitted they have started building work on a
casino at the Millennium Dome. AEG claimed it would be too costly to wait
for a decision on the location of the UK's new casinos. Many see this move
as antagonising and somewhat presumptuous.

The world's very first strip poker tournament was hosted by Paddy Power in
London. Winner John Young from Slough generously gave the £10,000 prize
money to charity.

After the world cup in Germany, bookies report record figures with over $2
billion wagered would wide. William Hill announced that punters were betting
almost £30 million per day.

Spain begins to look more closely into the possibility of regulating
gambling as a partnership between William Hill and Codere hint at a possible
relaxing of laws.

Harrah's eyes a potential buyout of the UK's Stanley Leisure and London
Clubs International.

Ladbrokes announces that it will not be entering the US market, although the
decision was not final and would be up for review in the coming months. That
review would turn out to be very brief indeed.

There is speculation that PartyGaming is the prime candidate for acquiring
the Victor Chandler Group which includes an online casino, online poker
room, sportbook and telephone betting operation.

Although youth appears to be in charge at both Allegheny County and
Pittsburgh city government levels, the "Old Boys' Network" is alive and
well -- along with some poor math skills. Let's revisit some key points
related to the awarding of Pittsburgh's slots license: Why did the state
award a slots license for $50 million that many gaming experts agreed would
fetch between $300 million and $500 million? I have to suspect that $250
million to $450 million would have built a nice arena and left several
million for developing the lower Hill District. Because of the political
allies that Forest City engaged for its Station Square bid and its ties to
our political leaders, neither County Executive Dan Onorato nor Mayor Luke
Ravenstahl (who personally favored the Isle of Capri casino proposal) had
the wherewithal to support the Capri bid for fear of upsetting their
political friends. They also lacked the foresight to strategically negotiate
Plan B. While Don Barden's bid and Majestic Star's North Shore location may
ultimately appear to be the best plan for the region, does anyone at the
county and city understand the time value of money? The sum of $290 million
today is worth a whole lot more than $7.5 million a year over 30 years. If
Isle of Capri could afford to offer $290 million to build an arena, did
anyone think that asking the other two casino companies for $7.5 million a
year over 30 years might be too low? Now that the license has been awarded,
Barden is under no pressure to increase his contribution. Maybe we should
have asked before the license was awarded? Now Dan and Luke are upset that
the Pens will not return their phone calls. THEY are willing to negotiate.
Negotiate with whose money? If the original intent was to use slots money to
reduce property taxes, I am glad to hear that my relief is now being reduced
because our visionary leaders cannot add.

"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing but only after
they've exhausted every other possibility." --Winston Churchill(1874-1965),
former Prime Minister of England Sometimes, when a snake tries to swallow a
porcupine, it gets stuck in its throat and the predator has no choice but to
spit it out. The neoconservative Bush-Cheney administration, under the
pro-Israel Lobby's influence, thought that Iraq would be an easy meal, to be
savored while doing an easycakewalk, in the words of neocon Ken Adelman: "I
believe demolishing Hussein's military power and liberating Iraq would be a
cakewalk." Now, the Bush-Cheney administration will spend the next two years
it has left attempting to extricate itself from the morass they have brought
upon Iraq and upon the United States. According to former U.N. General
SecretaryKofi Annan, the U.S. is 'trapped in Iraq', and faces a no-win
situation. This is reminiscent of what former Secretary of State Colin Powel
is reputed to have said to George W. Bush before the military invasion of
Iraq: "If you break it; you own it!" How long and after how many more deaths
will this Iraq quagmire last? The geopolitical consequences of having a
country like the United States trapped in Iraq are enormous.
The Iraq conflict is turning into another Vietnam war-like fiasco. Already,
the Iraq war costs more in nominal terms than the Vietnam war and 58 percent
of Americansnow believe that George W. Bush led them into a new Vietnam-like
mess. Even though the 10-wise-person Baker-Hamilton Commission has
unanimously recommended that the U.S. terminate its open-ended presence in
Iraq and begin its disengagement and "redeployment" from the country, and
even though fewer than 30 percent of Americans approve Bush's policies in
Iraq, you can bet the house that George W. Bush will not follow the
recommendation of his father's advisors. Instead of beginning an orderly
troop withdrawal in 2007, as recommended by the Baker-Hamilton Commission,
G. W. Bush would rather gamble and raise the ante, and will risk turning
Iraq into an even bigger mess than it is today. It's like Bush's SUV has no
reverse gear! In a last attempt to salvage a losing and misguided
enterprise, and deep in his continuous state of denial, Bush will throw good
money after bad and will send thousands of additional American troops to
"secure Baghdad" and give the impression of some stability in Iraq. In
reality, Bush's "new approach" for Iraq may well have the consequence of
enlarging the conflict, possibly bringing Iran, Syria, Turkey and Saudi
Arabia into the inferno. In other words, the neocon inspired Bush-Cheney
team will do exactly the reverse of what the Baker-Hamilton Commission has
recommended. No wonder former president George H.W. Bush is crying aloud in
public. The Bush-Cheney administration invaded a foreign country illegally
and now thinks that its presence there has become indispensable. That takes
some gall. Trying to save face with "a last big push" to give the impression
of "salvaging" the situation is not a real policy for solving the Iraq mess.
This will only perpetuate the on-going civil war in that country and pile up
more deaths on the already high mountain of deaths. It is a cop-out, but
sadly in line with what one would expect from a dysfunctional
administration.

A small village in Lishui, Zhejiang Province, has been following a special
rule since 1843 anyone in the village who wants to gamble must invite all
the local families for a meat-filled meal. The rule was established by the
ancestors of the village's Xie family during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)
and has been duly followed since. Senior residents read the rule to
villagers on December 10 every year. According to one senior resident, the
rule was set up in the 19th century because the villagers had become
impoverished through gambling. Inviting all the other families to eat a meal
of meat would have cost any gambler dearly and was considered a hefty
punishment.

In this column, we'll unleash the best gambling stocks in 2007 and give you
the 5 companies we believe will help your portfolio. Each stock is evaluated
and assessed based on a variety of factors, including management philosophy,
growth opportunity, risk and price per share. We'll give you company
background, contact information, stock and ticker symbols, Web site
addresses, as well as insider tips on reasons to purchase, possible
shortcomings, and a snapshot of historical financial figures. 1. Churchill
Downs Current Price >> $40.65 With the passing of the Unlawful Internet
Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in October 2006, the United States
horseracing industry stands to benefit the most. There is no other company
better positioned than Churchill Downs. Over the past 5 years, the company
has traded in a tight range between $35-$45 per share. The new law blocking
financial transactions to offshore gambling companies stands to benefit the
racing and pari-mutuel companies. We believe Churchill is poised to break
out of the 5 year trading range. Churchill Downs 2007 expectation: $54.50 2.
Las Vegas Sands Current Price >> $89.03 Sands is the largest gambling
company in the world, with a total outstanding market cap of around $31
billion dollars. They own and operate The Venetian, The Sands Expo and
Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, and The Sands Macao Casino in Macao,
China. The Company is also in the process of developing additional casino
resorts and properties in Las Vegas and Macao, including The Palazzo Resort
Hotel Casino, which will be connected with The Venetian. There is no other
gambling company that possesses the shear cash as Sands. Their return on
investment (ROI) in Macau has been unbelievable. We expect them to continue
their dominance throughout 2007. Las Vegas Sands 2007 expectation: $112.80
3. Penn National Gaming Current Price >> $41.59 Penn is probably the most
diversified gambling company in the industry. They own and operate top-notch
casinos in Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi,
Missouri, Ontario and West Virginia. Penn National Gaming also owns 1
racetrack and 6 OTWs in Pennsylvania, a racetrack in Ohio, a racetrack in
West Virginia and a racetrack in Maine, and through a joint venture, owns
50% of a racetrack in New Jersey. This Pennsylvania based gambling outfit
has all the makings of an industry leader. We expect continued growth in
2007 and additional real property investment for the company. Penn National
Gaming 2007 expectation: $51.29 4. Harrah's Entertainment Current Price >>
$82.79 What would the industry be without Harrah's? They are the flashiest
casino-entertainment provider in the world, owning 39 gambling casinos in
the USA. They operate gambling casinos primarily under the Harrah's, Caesars
and Horseshoe brand names, and include 20 land-based gambling casinos, 11
riverboat or dockside casinos, 4 casinos on Indian reservations, 2 casinos
on cruise ships, a combination greyhound-racing facility and casino, and a
combination thoroughbred racetrack and casino. The Company's facilities have
an aggregate of approximately three million square feet of gaming space and
40,000 hotel rooms. They're strategic acquisitions around the world make
them a viable candidate for 2007. We expect a 10-15% growth rate from the
company next year. Harrah's Entertainment 2007 expectation: $95.00 5. Isle
of Capri Casinos Current Price >> $26.77 We feel the most underpriced stock
in the group is Isle of Capri. They have consistently proven themselves
year-in and year-out. At just under $30 dollars per share, ISLE is a
bargain. They are a developer, owner and operator of branded gaming
facilities and related lodging and entertainment facilities in markets
throughout the United States and internationally. Isle of Capri Casinos
wholly owns and operates a pari-mutuel harness racing facility in Pompano
Beach, Florida, a location with double and possibly triple digit growth
rates for 2007. The company is based out of St. Louis Missouri and manages
casinos all across the US and in the Bahamas. They're CEO, Bernard
Goldstein, is considered one of the most intelligent executes in the entire
industry. Isle of Capri Casinos 2007 expectation: $33.60

Noam Lanir, owner of the Empire Online, will sell his remaining shares in
the gambling company to rival PartyGaming for USD 40 million. A year and a
half after the company was put up on the London Stock Exchange, Lanir seems
to be heading out of the gambling business. Lanir will use revenues from the
sale of Empire, which total USD 300 million, to invest in real estate. The
sale deal with PartyGambling, the world's largest operator of gambling Web
sites, is expected to be finalized by the end of the week. Experts said
Lanir's decision is a signal that the two remaining Israeli online gambling
companies traded on the London Stock Exchange, 888.com and Playtech, will be
selling their shares in the future over US law banning online gambling. The
US Senate approved a the law on September 29, making it illegal for US
banks, credit card and companies to make transactions carried out in the US
to online gambling companies. Empire was worth USD 928 million when first
traded in London, but its shared fell significantly in recent months. The
company is estimated at USD 244 million today after its shares fell by 80
percent.

Ford Motor Co. had offered him and its 75,000 other U.S. hourly workers a
choice of buyout packages. One option: A $100,000 lump-sum payment to walk
away forever. No job and no health care. For hourly workers at Ford, making
a decision on the buyout offers required a combination of economic
calculations and soul searching. For Swiercz, 40, who has two ex-wives and
pays $157.50 each week in child support for his 14-year-old son, taking the
buyout would be the equivalent of a third divorce. The math just didn't
work: The cheapest health insurance he found cost $450 a month. With child
support, he'd pay $1,080 each month before he paid rent or put gas in the
car. He chose to stay on the production line at Ford's Woodhaven Stamping
Plant. The decision feels "100 percent" like a gamble, he said. He's
gambling that the plant will stay open. He's gambling that, if it does,
enough workers will take buyouts so Ford can avoid layoffs there. He's
gambling that a worker from a closing plant who has more seniority won't
bump him off the job. "A lot of people I talk to say, 'It's just like craps:
It's a roll of the dice,' " he said. Some 38,000 Ford workers -- roughly
half of Ford's U.S. hourly work force -- said they would take one of Ford's
eight buyout packages.
The last will be gone by fall. Workers who are staying are every bit as
nervous as those starting over. The Woodhaven plant still runs three shifts.
Workers there got good news the Friday before Christmas that it will stay
open. The buyout and the future have been the dominant topic of conversation
there for six months, Swiercz said. "You talk to 25 people a day, that's
what 10 people are talking about," he said. "Not, 'How are your kids?' or
'What are you doing for Christmas?' (It's) 'You taking the buyout?'
"Everybody's worried about everything now," Swiercz said. Auto workers, who
can make $60,000 a year without overtime, and more than $100,000 with it,
"know they're never going to make this kind of money again," said Denise
Brooks, who has worked for 131/2 years at the Brownstown Ford plant. Cynthia
Allison was a single mother raising a daughter, Donielle, and getting
welfare before she got a job at Ford's Dearborn Truck plant. Nothing had
prepared her for how physically punishing it would be. Her first day, "I
kept saying, 'The money, Cindy, the money. A future for you and for Donny.'
When I got off that 4 a.m. shift, each step I took, my head said, 'Boom.
Boom. Boom.' " Allison is taking the $100,000 buyout and planning a future
without her $27 an hour salary. She's moved from a $1,200-a month apartment
in suburban Southfield to a $700 apartment in Detroit. She has no home
phone, no cable, she's stopped shopping for everything but necessities, she
no longer eats at restaurants and she's bartending nights. She's not bitter,
saying: "Thank you. Thank you, Ford, for helping me raise my daughters,
making it possible as a single parent. I don't want them to think I didn't
appreciate the time. Without them, I couldn't have done a lot of the things
I did for my daughters, or my family."

Alabama football players in town for the Independence Bowl didn't waste time
getting into one of the prime attractions in Shreveport: casinos. Oklahoma
State coach Mike Gundy has prohibited his team from visiting the gambling
halls. But The Oklahoman newspaper reported Tuesday that some Crimson Tide
players spent Christmas Eve in casinos after arriving for the game, which
will be played Thursday afternoon. The newspaper said Alabama players age 21
and older were seen ordering alcoholic drinks and betting at blackjack,
roulette and poker tables. Alabama's interim coach, Joe Kines, advised his
players not to waste their money but didn't prohibit them from visiting
casinos. "We set up a box at the door and told our players to drop their
money in and we'd give it back (after the bowl game)," Kines said. Informed
that several Alabama players were seen with a stack of chips, a few turning
a profit at the Horseshoe Casino, Kines smiled: "I didn't hear that," Kines
said. "Three-fourths of our team is under 21 which shows you how young this
team is." Only about one-third of Oklahoma State's 90 or so players who made
the bowl trip are 21 or older, which is the legal age for gambling in
Louisiana. State law mandates two days in jail and a $500 fine for minors
who try to visit a casino. Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy prohibited his
players from visiting casinos. "If our guys want to play poker or gamble,
they have the rest of their lives to do that," Gundy said. "I don't have
anything against it. But they're still on our time. "Our opinion is this
isn't a professional team. They're representing a university and they're
students. We're down here to enjoy each other and win a football game."

Oklahoma State linebacker Rodrick Johnson said he would resist the
temptation of sneaking out to a casino.

"All the guys were pumped because we knew casinos were here, and then they
told us we weren't allowed to go," Johnson said. "I guess it's for the best.
But I'd love to go to the casino one day and play a little poker. Blackjack
is my game."

Rhode Island's minimum gambling age would be changed from 18 to 21 under
legislation that a freshman state lawmaker plans to introduce in the General
Assembly next week. "It's just a vice that might be with them for a long
time," Fellela, a mother of four, said Tuesday. "I think it's a way of
protecting them a little bit longer."
The bill would raise the minimum age required to gamble in the state's
licensed betting facilities, to buy state lottery tickets, and to bet at
racetracks or play Keno.
Larry Berman, a spokesman for House Speaker William Murphy, D-West Warwick,
said similar legislation was introduced in 2002 but failed to advance. He
said Fellela's bill would be formally introduced next week and then assigned
to a committee. Messages left at Lincoln Park and Newport Grand, the state's
two gambling parlors, were not immediately returned Tuesday. The Rhode
Island Lottery does not have a position on the bill, said lottery
spokeswoman Jennafer Rampone.

Israeli police have begun to crack down on internet gambling operators,
including those who run backgammon websites. Some of the more prominent
online gambling firms are run by Israelis including PokerStars, 888.com and
Titan Poker. While the majority of Israeli owned online gambling businesses
are based out of places like Gibraltar and The Isle of Man (similar to US
businessmen running internet gambling companies from Costa Rica and
Antigua), many of these websites contract employees within Israel for
marketing purposes. According to OnlineCasinoNews.com, reports suggested
that Major General Yohanan Danino, head of the Police Investigations and
Intelligence Unit, had notified Interlogic, which operates the Play 65
internet site, that both the police and the attorney general consider the
operation of a gambling site for backgammon games a criminal offence. The
official warned the company that it must cease to allow players on the site
to gamble real money on the results of the game, even though the game of
backgammon itself, or gambling with virtual money, is not prohibited.

Documents filed in a criminal gambling case in Grady County indicate that
Sheriff Kieran McMullen and his wife paid more than $10,000 to the Elks
Lodge during the year preceding a September gambling raid. Helen McMullen
also received numerous payments ranging from $50 to $550 for winning on the
lodge's electronic gambling machines, records indicate. The documents are
among nearly 600 pages of discovery filed last week by District Attorney
Bret Burns. Attorneys for the McMullens and seven other law enforcement
officers facing criminal charges also received downloadable hard drives
showing 20 hours of video shot inside the lodge during a yearlong undercover
investigation. Kieran McMullen, the sheriff since 2003, faces felony charges
of conspiracy, conducting illegal gambling and engaging in illegal gambling
as a peace officer, along with two misdemeanors. The felonies carry
punishment of up to 10 years in prison upon conviction.
Facing the same charges are his wife, Helen, 51, who was a Chickasha police
lieutenant until her firing earlier this month; sheriff's deputy Robert
Clinton Cacy, 57; and Jerry Don Tyler, 51, who retired as a Chickasha police
officer after his indictment. Three Grady County deputies face charges of
engaging in illegal gambling, a felony, and neglect of duty, a misdemeanor.
A fourth faces only the misdemeanor neglect of duty charge. Earlier this
month, a judge denied a defense motion to remove Burns from the case. The
defendants and their attorneys have alleged Burns has a long-standing feud
with Kieran McMullen, 57, and that he frequented the Elks Lodge and
sometimes participated in the lodge's lottery drawings. The judge agreed to
consolidate the preliminary hearings for the McMullens, Cacy and Tyler. All
face hearings Jan. 5. The others' preliminary hearing will be Jan. 4. Burns
has claimed that Sheriff McMullen tipped off lodge members of an impending
inspection after an Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enforcement Commission agent
notified him that he was in Chickasha.

Lodge secretary Don Stephens conceded in a Sept. 12 interview that the
sheriff suggested turning off the machines before the inspection.

"Nothing was said like ABLE's coming...He said, uh, I think that uh, you
know, we need to make sure that everything is copasetic and that might
include um, just to be on the safe side, shut down the machine room,"
Stephens was quoted as saying.

Stephens, a state Department of Human Services employee, estimated the
machines produce $4,000 to $6,000 per month in revenue. The sheriff, who is
an Elks Lodge trustee, told investigators the lodge takes in $25,000 to
$30,000 per month from a membership of about 360 people.

Contacted Friday, Kieran McMullen said, "We haven't done anything wrong. The
truth will come out." He declined further comment, citing advice from his
attorney.

The sheriff told investigators he never has played the lodge's electronic
games. Several other lodge officials backed that claim.

Bank records filed in the case show Kieran and Helen McMullen wrote checks
totaling $10,453 between August 2005 and July. In many instances, Helen
McMullen wrote multiple checks of $100 on the same night, records show.

The court discovery also includes copies of several dozen slips for cash the
lodge paid out to winning gamblers in late June and July. It includes 14
payouts totaling $3,160 to Helen McMullen.

A new bill being introduced in the General Assembly next week would raise
Rhode Island's minimum gambling age from 18 to 21. The bill is being
introduced by Deborah Fellela, a Johnston Democrat who was recently elected
to her first term. She says the legislation is aimed at helping teenagers
steer clear of gambling addiction and preventing them from wasting their
money. The bill would raise the minimum age required to gamble in the
state's licensed betting facilities, to buy state lottery tickets, and to
bet at racetracks or play Keno. Similar legislation failed when it was
introduced in the House in 2002.

Mitch Garber, Chief Executive of PartyGaming, said he was unfazed by the
threat of Las Vegas casino operators stepping into the online gambling
market in Europe. "It's a very positive sign for our business and should be
for our stock," he said. Garber also commented on PartyGaming's appetite for
mergers and acquisitions. "We will continue to pursue deals that are
accretive and can add either management or product expertise to any of our
operational lines, and we will be pushing further into new territories as a
main and key objective of M & A and in our organic business plan," he said.
Dresdner Kleinwort, PartyGaming's company broker, reduced the share price
target from 56p to 50p, while Swiss broker UBS upgraded its advice on the
online poker operator to 'neutral' from 'reduce'.

While the holidays are supposed to be a festive time, they can often be
problematic for people who have a gambling addiction, researchers say.
"People gamble when they have time on their hands," said James Whelan, an
associate professor and psychologist who researches and treats problem
gambling at the University of Memphis. Though no known statistics link
gambling to the holidays, Whelan's colleague Andrew Meyers, said "people
often use vacation time to focus on gambling." Whelan and Meyers founded The
Institute for Gambling Education and Research in the University of Memphis
psychology department in 1998.
The program includes The Gambling Clinic, which offers five-session
treatment for problem gamblers for $150 with a promise of $75 back if the
patient returns in six months for a follow-up. The clinic, which is one of
two research-based clinics in the country, has treated more than 300
gamblers. Whelan said the clinic often sees an increase in business after
the holidays because "breaking bad habits is usually a priority for people
following the New Year." To help their patients do that, the researchers say
they use a method similar to one used in dieting. "The assumption is that
people can change and that they canregulate behaviors," Whelan said. "They
can learn to take control of their lives." Whether it's gambling or another
type of addiction, Whelan has outlined some strategies for taking control.
One of them, he said, involves looking for alternatives to the addiction.
For example, he told the story of a man who gambled while his wife was away.
To kill the urge, Whelan said the man turned his attention to reading books
because "this guy could read and be entertained." "Addictions can be
impossible to replace, but not impossible to find alternatives to," Whelan
said. New research from the University of Connecticut Health Center
inFarmington found that people who gamble are more likely to develop health
problems, such as heart and liver disease. The study surveyed 43,000
Americans and found that people who gamble at least five times a year showed
higher rates of liver disease, high blood pressure, and high heart rate and
chest pain caused by blocked arteries. It also found that gamblers had
increased rates of obesity and alcoholism and were more likely to smoke.

Online Gambling Insider wishes everyone a very happy and prosperous festive
season. May all your dreams come true, may the reels stop in the right
places, the cards fall right and the right teams win when you want them
to....Merry Christmas and plain old happy holidays from all of us here at
Online Gambling Insider!
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you haven't played there, we recommend you click here to visit the All Slots
Casino website, or read our All Slots Casino Review.

The group collected pools from gamblers in Vietnam and transferred the bets
to betting firms abroad to earn a discount. At weekends when European
football matches play, the men averagely received pools around VND100
million (US$6,250) a night. All payments were made via banking system. Three
men seen as organizers of the ring include leader Nguyen Van Phu, 34, and
two assistants Nguyen Bao Khanh, 35, and Pham Quoc Hung, 35. Two other
offenders are identified as Doan Tien Giang, 40, and Pham Dinh Phong, 27.
The ring began its illegal affairs early this year, police said. In related
news, police in Ho Chi Minh City busted a major Internet football betting
ring Sunday, arresting 14 bookmakers and seizing money worth over VND7
billion (US$437,500). The 14 offenders confessed they were bookies working
for a major gang with close connections with betting firms abroad.

Despite a lot of gambling buzz around the Capitol, it's probably safe to bet
that the latest effort to give Texans more opportunities to lose their money
closer to home will fail. But the gamblers have friends in high places,
enough friends to make some gambling opponents nervous and the upcoming
legislative maneuvering interesting to watch. The Republican majority in the
Texas House has been a huge obstacle to gambling proposals in recent years
because the GOP officially opposes gambling. Add to that some Democratic
lawmakers who don't like it either, and a two-thirds vote for the necessary
constitutional amendment has been out of reach. Speaker Tom Craddick's
position on the latest push to either legalize video slot machines at
racetracks or establish wide-open casino gambling in Texas (the gamblers
aren't united on their goal yet) isn't clear. But the speaker's chief of
staff, Nancy Fisher, is a former lobbyist for dog track owners, and her
sister, Nora Del Bosque, is a lobbyist for Multimedia Games Inc., a major
provider of gaming devices. Bill Messer, one of Craddick's closest friends
in the lobby, also has represented dog track owners. Do those associations
mean Craddick (if he survives a challenge to his speakership) will actively
promote gambling legislation? Not necessarily. Are they enough to trouble
gambling opponents? You bet, particularly since the speaker also is
suggesting that he is at least open to more gambling. "I have always
believed that the issue is an important one that should get thorough review
and debate, so that all Texans can get a clear picture of exactly what is at
stake," he said in a statement issued through his office. Lt. Gov. David
Dewhurst "personally opposes the expansion of gambling in Texas," said
spokesman Rich Parsons. Less clear, however, is whether Dewhurst would
attempt to block a gambling vote in the Senate. Gov. Rick Perry, who angered
fellow Republicans by endorsing video slot machines at racetracks as part of
an unsuccessful school funding proposal in 2004, now opposes expanded
gambling.
"I think that with a record budget surplus looming, that some say will be
$15 billion or more, the governor is going to be hard-pressed to entertain
ideas about a massive new revenue source," spokesman Robert Black said. It
is interesting to note, though, that retiring state Sen. Ken Armbrister,
D-Victoria, who will be the governor's new chief lobbyist with the
Legislature, was a strong proponent of expanded gambling as a lawmaker. And
Mike Toomey, Perry's former chief of staff, will be a major force in the
pro-gambling push as a lobbyist for Sam Houston Race Park, the horse track
in Houston. But Perry, not Armbrister, will set the governor's legislative
priorities, Black noted. And he dismissed the notion that Toomey will have
any influence with Perry on gambling. "Just because a particular individual
who has known the governor for a long time proposes an idea doesn't mean the
governor is going to go along with it," Black said.

In previous unsuccessful efforts, advocates promoted expanded gambling as a
major source for new education funding. But that horse has been ridden to
death, mainly because the Texas Lottery never has lived up to the public's
expectations that it was going to forever put the public schools on Easy
Street.

This time, gamblers are proposing the state spend a huge chunk (as much as
$2 billion a year) of new gambling revenue on expanded health care for the
poor and maybe to help young people with college tuition payments.

Democratic Rep. Garnet Coleman, whose inner-city Houston residents are some
of the poorest people in Texas, is a strong advocate for more health care,
but he isn't buying the pitch.

More gambling, he said, would make "a few people very, very rich, and
they're not going to be my constituents."

Penny Mann was just 15 years old when her father died in an automobile
accident. William Tejes, 45, was the manager of the water-treatment plant in
South Beloit, Ill., and a school board member. He was on his way to Chicago
for work when he lost control of his truck on an unsealed, wet county road
and hit a tree. In addition to daughter Penny, Tejes left behind a wife and
a son in college. But he also left behind a good life insurance policy, one
that carried the stricken family financially. "We could just grieve him and
not ... worry about the financial stuff," Mann said. "I knew [my dad] had
done what he needed to get done." But insurance agents say many Americans
put off buying life insurance. Nearly a third have no coverage at all,
according to a survey by LIMRA International, an industry trade group. It's
not surprising why: Few people are eager to consider their own mortality.
Cost is another reason why many people avoid buying an individual policy.
Wage earners need insurance most when their families are young, precisely
the time when they're most strapped, said Don Thompson, a Prudential
Financial agent who worked with the Tejes family. That's why term insurance
is so popular. A $500,000 policy for a young, healthy nonsmoker can cost
less than $300 a year. Term insurance allows level payments for the length
of the contract, usually 10, 20 or 30 years. The drawback is, once the term
is up, there is no more insurance.
Although buying term young keeps the premiums low, trying to get a new term
policy in middle age can be much more expensive, especially if health
problems such as diabetes or heart disease have cropped up.

Permanent insurance avoids those problems, but it costs a lot more. Several
different varieties -- whole, universal and variable life -- all use
premiums to build a cash value that can be borrowed. Different types provide
choices such as flexible premiums, investment options and guaranteed
returns.

After her experience as a teenager, Mann is a big believer in life
insurance. She has a $100,000 term policy that she bought with her husband
when they got married.

The couple are divorced, but her ex-husband became diabetic and would now
find it difficult to get an affordable policy, Thompson said.

State Duma adopted in the final reading the law on the organization of four
gambling zones in Russia, one of which will be organized in Primorje.
Pursuant to the law, the organization of gambling outlets outside such zones
is prohibited. In Primorje, the borders of the zone will be set by the
government in accordance with the proposal of the territorial
administration. The activities of gambling outlets outside the zones will be
terminated starting from July 1, 2009.

It is hard to fault Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels for wanting to improve
funding for higher education. Whether privatizing the Hoosier Lottery is the
way to accomplish that, however, remains to be seen. It's a complicated
proposal. Daniels wants to franchise the lottery for a fixed term. The
contractor would be licensed and regulated, just like casinos and
racetracks, and would continue current payment levels to the state. In
addition, the state would seek an up-front payment and a percentage of the
operator's revenue above a certain amount. The current funding levels for
police, fire and teachers' pensions as well as motor vehicle excise tax
replacement and state and local capital projects would continue. Sixty
percent of the amount paid up front would be placed in a permanent
endowment, with the interest paying for scholarships that could be forgiven
if the student stays in Indiana for three years after graduation. Of course,
there are many other strings attached to the scholarships. The remaining 40
percent would be used to attract outstanding faculty to public colleges and
universities in the state. Attracting top talent takes money. The plan has
distinct benefits, including improving the state's lagging educational
attainment level, improving the quality of education and keeping the
brightest high school graduates in Indiana. However, there are many
questions that need to be asked. The state's funding for higher education
hasn't increased at the robust level it ideally should. But the universities
and colleges have rapidly increased tuition and fees, citing reasons like
the need to attract top talent.
With this boost from the privatization of the Hoosier Lottery, what
guarantees will be made by the universities' trustees to hold tuition
increases low and for how long? Without a guarantee, there's no way to know
college costs will be controlled to help students ineligible for the
scholarships. And what does this outsourcing proposal mean for controlling
the expansion of gambling in Indiana? While the lottery would still be
regulated by the state, a pause to reflect on the state's already high
reliance on gambling as a revenue source is worthwhile. To what extent would
additional products and perhaps marketing efforts be regulated?

What would be the effect on the casino industry? What would be the effect on
society?

Why would a private company be able to operate the Hoosier Lottery more
efficiently than the state? And if it cannot, and if a gambling expansion is
not in the offing, why would privatization make sense?

There are many other questions that need to be addressed. That cannot easily
happen if the lottery privatization is rushed through the General Assembly
at the same hectic pace as the Indiana Toll Road privatization.

Recent developments indicate the state-run lottery may be headed toward
participation in a gigantic global online gaming system - with giant
jackpots - never envisioned by California voters, says a watchdog group. At
the same time, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - who appoints lottery
leaders - is on record in support of expanding the games to some unspecified
degree, as well as the revenue it brings public education. "We learned in
litigation last year \ that there are people at the lottery who believe
current law allows them to enter into international lottery games," Fred
Jones, an attorney for the California Coalition Against Gambling Expansion,
told lawmakers at a recent hearing. Lottery officials have said such a move
is not part of current plans. Even so, Democratic lawmakers are seeking to
rein in a lottery they feel is running amok after controversial decisions to
join the multi-state Mega Millions lotto game and approve the takeover of
California's lotto contractor, which is now indirectly controlled by two
Italian families. "They \ make decisions and we get to react to them," said
Sen. Dean Florez, a Fresno-area Democrat, who grilled lottery officials at
the hearing Florez said afterward he will introduce a bill that would
subject big changes in the state lottery to a vote of the Legislature. "We
ought to be in a more proactive situation," he said. The struggle over
control and oversight of the lottery is not new. It began with voter
approval of a state-run lottery in 1984. The outcome of the latest and
biggest surge in the battle, however, may well shape California's lottery
for years to come and determine whether it maintains the trust it says is
essential to its success. "What is important to us is the continued
integrity of the lottery," the agency's legal counsel, Donald Currier, told
lawmakers. The Lottery Act places integrity as second only to the sale of
tickets. At least one-third of the lottery's revenue goes to public
education and half is returned to players in prizes. Industry experts say
that without an untarnished image, gamblers lose trust in whether they have
a fair chance at winning lottery prizes, sales fall off, and schools don't
get the comparatively small but important stream of money they receive from
the games.
But lottery officials have consistently argued over the years that their
operation is unique - the only government entity set up solely to make
money. It's more like a business, they say, that needs independence from
legislative and political meddling to do its job. The tug of war has gone on
for years, until the lottery's recent approval of joining Mega Millions.

The move triggered an outcry from lawmakers and a lawsuit by a public-policy
advocacy group that resists gambling expansion, alleging the lottery had
exceeded its constitutional authority by extending a game outside the state.

A judge ordered a minor change in prize-claim periods to make Mega Millions
more fair to Californians.

But in the wake of the flap, the Schwarzenegger administration replaced many
of the lottery's top officials.

On the heels of that controversy, the new clash came over Italy-based
Lottomatica's purchase of U.S.-based GTECH, the lottery's on-line game
operator.

Despite questionable business practices by both firms, lottery officials
have assured critics that operations in California will continue unchanged.

The now foreign-owned GTECH is an industry giant, serving lotteries in 26
states and 50 countries.

"Our lottery has now taken on an international scope" and with it, the
possibility of global games, said Jones. Jones said voters over two decades
ago had no way of knowing where the lottery was going.

After putting the gang under watch for a period, the police, assisted by
forces from the central police department, moved in with 100 officers,
simultaneously raiding 13 premises. They caught bookies taking billions of
dong in bets. The 14 offenders confessed they were bookies working for a
major gang with close connections with betting firms abroad. The police said
some of the arrested men were skilled at using computers and were in charge
of classifying and summing up bets before sending them abroad. The gang's
clients were from the city and nearby provinces. The 13 offices in districts
10, Binh Thanh, Phu Nhuan, and Thu Duc were all well-equipped with
high-speed Internet, LCD monitors, and laptops, the police said. They are
continuing with their investigations.

Inside this arcade, with its dim lights and cigarette smoke, 70 game
machines are running non-stop with their brilliant screens and electronic
sounds. There are 15 customers in the arcade. However, each customer is
using four, five machines at a time, so none of the machines are idle.
Across a two-lane road, not even 20 meters away, is a police box that
belongs to the public safety division of a police station nearby in charge
of gambling arcade regulation duties. After the "Sea Story" sensation this
June, gambling arcades disappeared following the nationwide extensive
crackdown drive by the prosecution and the police. However, they are back
now, and they are thriving. As gambling arcades begin to make their
comeback, people who had lost large sums of money on games such as Sea Story
are again gathering at the arcades, hoping to win back what they lost.
Consequently, the arcade owners are doing extremely well to the point that
there aren't enough machines to go around. Most arcades do not have
signboards outside and have covered their windows with black vinyl so that
the inside cannot be seen. At another arcade around the same time in
Donam-dong, Seongbuk-gu, a female employee is explaining in detail to the
customers about various functions such as "foreshadowing" or "successive
hits." "If you see a white diamond in the middle, you get the highest score,
and if the screen becomes dark with sounds like water bubbles popping, it's
a "foreshadowing" of a big score that is soon to come. We have "successive
hits" as well. It's really not that different from Sea Story."
"Foreshadowing" and "successive hits" are standards for judging whether or
not the game is a gambling game, and are subject to regulation. The games
that have become widely popular after the Sea Story incident are "Diamond"
and "Iceland Adventure." The titles and screens are slightly different but
the game process is nearly identical to Sea Story. Illegal exchanges of gift
certificates used as prizes into cash are also still going on. At an arcade
near Yeongdeungpo Station, a small change booth is located right next to the
entrance of the arcade. There, gift certificates with a face value of 5,000
won were being exchanged for 4,500 won in cash.

Most of the people who frequent these arcades are small business owners in
their 30s to 50s, and people who do manual labor. A few matrons in their 40s
or 50s could also be seen. Most of them said, "I've come to win back the
money I lost playing Sea Story."

A man we met in an arcade in Bongcheon-dong, Gwanak-gu, who said he was in
his 40s and did manual labor, said, "I lost 10 million won playing Sea
Story. I've come back in hopes of winning back my capital."

Following the recent reopening of such gambling arcades, the prosecution and
police have decided to extend the crackdown period, which had been scheduled
to end by December 31, until April 28, 2007, when the gift certificate
system will be abolished.

The only sign of Christmas on the casino floor is the poker dealer in the
Santa hat, and Darren White is glad for that: the subcontractor from Georgia
didn't come here to be reminded of the holidays, or anything, for that
matter, outside these flashy, noisy walls. He came for the distraction. And
Boomtown Casino in suburban New Orleans, like other casinos along the Gulf
Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi, is glad to provide it. Casinos, some of
which emerged from last year's damaging hurricanes as bigger, better
properties, are trying a range of tactics not only to draw players in _ and
make them feel at ease _ but also to get an edge in an increasingly
competitive marketplace. Heading into what is traditionally one of
industry's busiest weeks, halls are decked with decorations, both tasteful
and gaudy, holiday music is in rotation and casinos are trumpeting
traditional giveaways, dance parties and invitation-only soirees to bring in
players. "It's been a hell of a year," Boomtown's general manager, Dave
Williams, said in an interview at the casino in Harvey, La. This time last
year, many of the casinos, particularly in Mississippi, had not yet
reopened. Those that had, like Boomtown, had all the business they could
handle: construction workers here for the post-hurricane reconstruction
played Christmas Day, and folks in line waited, six-wide, to board the
riverboat on New Year's Eve, Williams said. Riverboat gambling revenue in
Louisiana hit a post-Katrina peak last December of $177.3 million, up from
$124.7 million in December 2004, said Wade Duty, executive director of the
Louisiana Casino Association. Since then, and as more casinos have come back
online, revenues have dipped nearer to pre-storm levels, he said. Meanwhile
in Mississippi, where there's an all-out effort to market Gulf Coast casinos
with hotels and other amenities as tourist destinations, gross revenue is
seemingly on pace to top last year, in spite of dips recorded this fall by
that state's tax commission. There are also two fewer casinos open now on
the Gulf Coast than before the hurricanes, 10 versus 12, said Becky Clark, a
staff officer with the Mississippi Gaming Commission. Casino operators are
confident heading into 2007, when further industry expansion is set to help
fill what some managers see as an almost insatiable appetite for the kind of
escapism _ from gambling and shopping to pampering _ casinos are peddling.
Boomtown is eyeing both a new gambling boat and hotel as part of its
proposed, $145 million expansion. One more casino also is set to open on
Mississippi's Gulf Coast sometime next year, Clark said. Casinos hope to
draw in crowds this coming week, building from low-key Christmas buffet
specials to pull-the-stops New Year's parties, meant as much to hail the
industry's rebirth as to draw in new customers with music and drinks and
to-be-announced promotions. Some casino hotels are completely booked leading
to New Year's Day.

"New Year's Eve sets the tone for your property," said Kerry Andersen, a
spokeswoman for southwest Louisiana's L'Auberge Du Lac casino, near the
Texas border.

This year, the offerings will include, among other things, an
invitation-only show with The Temptations and The Four Tops and a dinner.
The night tends to be the casino's biggest of the year, she said.

"You want to have the Golden Ticket," Andersen said, "the party everyone
wants to be at."

That's true nationwide, said Andy Holtmann, editor of the Casino Journal, a
trade publication. "For a lot of casinos, it's kind of a necessity," he said
of a New Year's Eve bash. "You have to take some marketing risks here," and
aim to set the casino apart from the competition, he said.

Some Gulf Coast casinos are preparing for an influx of customers as early as
Christmas Eve, a traditionally quiet day, and certainly by Christmas Day.
Many places are decorated, if not on the playing floor, where Christmas
lights would almost surely be dimmed by the flashing lights of slot machines
anyway. Visitors to Boomtown are greeted by faux alligators pulling Santa
and his sleigh.

For many families, cooped up in close quarters such as a federally issued
trailers, "It's almost like a savior thing," said Beverly Martin, executive
director of the Mississippi Casino Operators Association. "'The casino's
open, let's go down there, because there's a limit on what we can do here.'"

That daily game of toto might just become 10 per cent more expensive.
Organiser of chance events, toto, lotto and betting games will pay a 10 per
cent income tax on the outcome of sport competitions and chance events,
Bulgaria's Parliament resolved, giving final approval to the new Corporate
Income Tax Act. The National Assembly budget and finance committee proposed
that the rate of this tax be eight per cent, but the Cabinet, which moved
the bill, proposed a 10 per cent tax rate for all gambling activities,
Bulgarian news agency BTA reported on December 18. Deputy Finance Minister
Georgi Kadiev told Parliament that about 25 million leva were collected in
income tax from gambling organisers in 2005. A reduction of the tax rate to
eight per cent for all types of gambling activities would lead to a 2.5
million leva loss for the exchequer, while a 10 per cent rate for all such
activities would result in an extra budget revenue of 5.5 million leva, two
million of which would come from the Bulgarian sport totalisator, leaving a
net revenue of 3.5 million leva, Kadiev said. The rate of tax on income from
organised lotteries, raffles, bingo and keno games will be 12 per cent, the
MPs resolved. The same rate will apply to income from organised games of
chance where the value of the bet consists of an increased charge for a
telephone or other telecommunications link. Parliament also set taxes on
organised games of chance played on gambling devices. Meanwhile, an entirely
new Value Added Tax (VAT) Act and regulations for its application were voted
on in view of Bulgaria's European Union membership. The VAT rate remains 20
per cent and will apply to all realised goods and services on Bulgaria's
territory, excluding the tax-exempt ones. After Bulgaria's EU accession, the
mandatory threshold for VAT registration will stay unchanged at 50 000 leva.
Some of the existing provisions in the current VAT Act are also present in
the newly adopted law. New names have been introduced for many of the
concepts, such as: place of delivery, tax event, internal delivery in the
community and internal acquisition within the community.

Bulgarians are already talking about taxable deals and zero-rate taxable
deals. VAT shall be charged on almost all goods and services that are bought
and sold within the EU.

However, a number of countries have accepted, in addition to the standard
VAT rate, a reduced tax for more sensitive groups of commodities.

Therefore, Bulgarian firms trading with EU companies should be aware of the
procedures and rates followed by other EU members.

The VAT rate cannot be lower than 15 per cent, while reduced tax cannot be
lower than five per cent, according to EU legislation. On goods and services
exported from the EU, there will be no VAT charged.

VAT is calculated on the imported commodities and services to equalise their
value with that in the community.

VAT is levied on goods imported from third countries to any EU member state,
from which moment they become internal for the community and are VAT exempt
when moving within EU territory. The new VAT Act eliminates the customs
offices at Bulgaria's borders with EU countries. From January 1, they will
only function in case of export to or import from third countries.

Two new concepts will be introduced for the trade between EU firms
registered under VAT - internal delivery in the community that will
supersede the export, and internal acquisition within the community that
will supersede the import. In fact, that means that when a Bulgarian company
supplies commodities to another country and the recipient is also registered
under VAT, that delivery shall not be treated as export any more but as
internal delivery, taxable by a zero VAT rate. In this case the Bulgarian
supplier will have to issue an invoice without charging VAT. The tax will be
calculated by the recipient in compliance with the efficient rate in the
country for which the goods are intended.

The situation will be the same in the reverse example. The European supplier
will effect an internal delivery in the community without calculating VAT
and the Bulgarian company that will receive it will charge VAT in compliance
with the efficient VAT rate in this country.

But if a firm registered under VAT supplies commodities to another country
and the recipient is not registered under VAT, the regime of internal
deliveries in the community and acquisitions cannot be applied.

Distant sale will be then the case, i.e., the supplier sells the commodity
with VAT calculated according to the rate efficient in the country of its
registration.

When a firm from the EU effects supplies to Bulgarian companies, which are
not registered under VAT and for each one of the previous and the current
years the turnover of distant sales exceeds 70 000 leva, that company will
have to register under the VAT Act in Bulgaria.

The new VAT Act maintains the threshold for obligatory registration - annual
turnover of 50 000 leva, including in it already taxable by zero-rate
deliveries.

The possibility for voluntary registration, irrespective of the size of
turnover remains, i.e., non-registered persons engaged in economic
activities who did not have grounds for that by the end of 2006, will be
able to register under the VAT Act as of January 1 2007.

After Bulgaria's EU accession, all companies registered under VAT will be
given a new unique identification number that will replace the existing VAT
numbers. For Bulgarian companies it will be formed as BG + BULSTAT of each
company.

Parents are being urged to think about the gift of time, rather than
materialistic items this Christmas. The Problem Gambling Association says it
is very common for people to gamble in an attempt to get themselves enough
money for presents but they often end up in a worse position. Youth Services
Project team Leader Lauren Cundall says many people underestimate how
valuable time spent together is. She says things such as reading stories and
parents talking about how they spent Christmas as a child can mean so much
more than the latest ipod or CD. Ms Cundall says homemade vouchers for
something like a day at the beach, is a great idea which could create
memories to last a lifetime.

These may be dark days for the online gambling business, but you would never
know that from talking to Calvin Ayre, the founder and president of Bodog
Entertainment Group, the online sports book and casino. A recent crackdown
on Internet gambling by U.S. regulators and lawmakers has seen several
online casino executives thrown in jail and has plunged the industry into
chaos. But none of that fazes Ayre, the 45-year old Saskatchewan-born
entrepreneur who turned Bodog into one of the most recognizable Internet
gambling brands. "The power of our model is now being realized as we are
witnessing a surge in popularity in all of our digital entertainment
properties - including gaming - and we don't see this changing," he said in
an e-mail interview from Bodog's headquarters in Antigua. Both Bodog and
Ayre have been flying high for the past year. In addition to growing its
gambling business, the company has continued moves into mainstream
entertainment with a record label, a poker TV show that aired on the Fox
Sports Network in the U.S., and Bodog Fight, a pay-per-view extreme fighting
competition. Ayre has also graced the covers of both this magazine and
Forbes, where he proclaimed himself one of the latest additions to the
exclusive billionaire's club. Of course, that boast was based on the value
of Bodog before the U.S. authorities began cracking down and before the U.S.
government enacted the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in
September, effectively banning Internet gambling by making it illegal for
U.S. financial institutions to process the Internet wagers of American
citizens. While some have called the new legislation unenforceable and
riddled with loopholes, it has been enough to convince many Internet gaming
companies and investors to fold their hands, sending the shares of publicly
traded gambling operations into free fall. On Oct. 2, the first day of
trading after the passage of the new U.S. law, shares of Gibraltar-based
Party Gaming PLC - which runs PartyPoker.com and trades on the London Stock
Exchange - plummeted from US$2.08 to US$0.87 per share. On the same day, 888
Holdings PLC shares dropped from US$2.86 to US$2.11, while Toronto-based
Cryptologic (TSX: CRY), which produces software for the online gambling
industry and recently announced it will be moving its headquarters to
Ireland, fell from $24.63 to $19. Whether online gambling is illegal in the
U.S. boils down to a matter of interpretation. Prosecutors maintain that
using the phone - or the Internet - to take bets from American gamblers is
illegal. As a result, most publicly traded companies have said they will no
longer do business in the lucrative U.S. market. But Ayre - and other
private gaming companies - maintain that U.S. authorities have no
jurisdiction over their business, since they operate in countries where
online gambling is legal. What isn't in dispute is how devastating
abandoning the U.S. market will be to online casinos. Party Gaming, for
instance, reported that in the first six months of 2006, more than US$512
million, or 77% of its US$661 million in revenue, came from U.S. wagers.
Gibraltar-based 888 Holdings PLC, operators of Casino on Net - one of the
largest online casinos - reported that during the same period more than 52%
of its US$165.3 million in revenue came from Americans. Bodog has no plans
to abandon the U.S. As a private company, it doesn't have to reveal its
earnings, but Ayre says last year it processed a total of about US$7.3
billion in wagers - more than three times the volume from 2004. That
translated into revenue