A national gambling watchdog group has raised new concerns about lottery
scratch cards sold in Ontario, charging that current practices are unfair
and misleading to the consumer. The Gambling Watch Network filed a letter
with Ontario's ombudsman complaining that scratch tickets are sold even
after the top prizes have been won. Brian Yealland, the group's spokesman,
said retailers should stop selling tickets if the buyer has no chance of
winning the jackpot. (CBC) "People go on purchasing those tickets although
they have no chance of winning, and it seems to us that this is a breach of
the understanding one has in buying a ticket," Yealland said. This practice
has been the subject of scrutiny and lawsuits in the United States, causing
some state lotteries to include disclaimers on the tickets explaining that
some prizes may already be won. In Iowa, instant win tickets are pulled from
stores once the grand prizes have been claimed, said Tina Potthoff, a
spokeswoman for the Iowa State Lottery. "We want to make sure our players
have a chance to win the top prize every time they purchase a ticket,"
Potthoff said. "If by chance a top prize is missing and they only have a
second- or third-tier prize, we feel that's false advertising." A spokesman
for the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation said players can call a
toll-free number printed on the back of each scratch and win ticket to find
out which prizes are still available to be won.

The police team under the guidance of puttur assistant superintendent of
police Dr P S Harsha raided a gambling den at Kashigudde near Kokkada and
arrested nine persons. An amount of Rs 1,127 was confiscated from them.
Uppinangady sub-inspector R Ramesh, Sampya SI Nagaraj and police constables
Vishwanath Rai, Devraj, Raghuram, Deviprasad, Uday, Krishnaiah, Surendra,
Monappa, Lokesh, Krishnappa and Suresh were involved in the raid.2 injured
Puttur: Two persons sustained injuries in an accident between a car and a
motorbike at Daddalapalike near Periashanth. Kayarthadka Milk Producers
Society secretary Raghav Gowda and Venkappa Gowda were returning from their
relatives house at Hirebandady when a sumo coming from Bangalore moving
towards Dharmasthala knocked Raghav Gowda and Venkappa Gowda. Uppinangady
police have registered a case. Theft at temple Mangalore: Unidentified
culprits gained entry into Guru Vidyanatha Daivastana at Bejai Kapikad road
and broke the lock and stole gold and silver worth Rs 30,000 on Monday. A
theft case has been registered at Urwa police station on Tuesday. Suicide
Mangalore: Sunil (40) of Kollam of Kerala, who was residing in a rented
house at Minakalya in Panambur.He hanged himself on Monday. An unnatural
death report has been registered at Panambur police station on Tuesday.
Vandalism Kasargod: An unidentified person on Tuesday night allegedly beat
the temple priest at Madhur Madanantheshwara Siddivinayak temple. It is
reported that the person broke the idol of lord Shiva. The police arrived on
the spot. Inquiry is under progress.

BSF soldier missing

Hubli: Border Security Force (ESF) soldier Shekhappa Gulappa Navalgund is
reportedly missing since May 6. In a complaint lodged at railway police
station, his wife Neelamma stated that Shekhappa departed from Hubli station
by Delhi Express train but neither reported to the duty nor came back home
at Pashupathihal in Kundagol taluk.

The missing is 5'8" in height and of dark complexion. He was wearing sky
blue shirt and chocolate brown trouser while departing from Hubli station.
If any information about the missing is found, contact Hubli railway police
station or dial (0836) 2364751.

A South African judge gave online gambling optimists pause for thought this
week in a judgement that unlicensed gambling in the country was illegal.
Online gamblers in South Africa could be fined up to Rands 10 million (GBP
735 000) or jailed for up to 10 years in terms of current legislation, which
will hopefully be reversed if the government decides to follow
recommendations to legalise the pastime following extensive research. But
this week the ruling in the Pretoria High Court was against online gambling.
Judge Willie Hartzenberg dismissed an application by Casino Enterprises of
Swaziland to allow residents of the populous Gauteng province to gamble
online. The casino had taken the Gauteng and the National Gambling Board, as
well as the SA Minister of Trade and Industry, to court. The basis for the
application was that although the wagering was done on personal computers in
Gauteng, the gambling was in reality taking place in Swaziland. The casino
stressed that because of this, the punters were not contravening the Gauteng
Gambling Act. However, the application was strenuously opposed by the
defendants, who argued that Casino Enterprises was not licensed to operate
gambling activities in South Africa. In his ruling, Judge Hartzenberg noted:
"In terms of section 15(1) of the National Act, nobody is allowed to
advertise or promote any gambling activity in the Republic which is unlawful
in terms of that act or applicable provincial law, and in terms of section
71(1) of the Gauteng act, nobody is allowed to advertise or disseminate any
information relating to gambling in Gauteng in respect of which no license
was issued." When parliament passed the gambling laws, it took a number of
issues into consideration, including the fact that it had to guard against
people gambling irresponsibly and becoming addicted. "It was recognised that
gambling can be dangerous for individuals and that they have to be protected
by way of controls," stated the judge, adding: "It was recognised that
gambling can be a great source of revenue for the province, which, if wisely
spent, can improve the standard of living." To ensure that the government
achieved the goal of generating more revenue for its coffers, it had to
institute proper controls.

"One thinks of licensing of casinos and of a levy on turnover.

"All monies spent on casino gambling must contribute to the coffers of the
state or the province," said Judge Hartzenberg.

The only way that the government could ensure that it maintained proper
controls of casino gambling was if only licensed casinos were permitted to
operate, he added.

In dismissing the plaintiff's application, Judge Hartzenberg said: "It is
difficult to see why the Swaziland legislation, in terms of which the
plaintiff obtained its casino license, can have extra-territorial operation.

"In other words, why actions of the plaintiff within the borders of the
Republic are sanctioned by the Swaziland license."

In a statement, the Gauteng Gambling Board hailed the court's decision as a
groundbreaking one and maintained that online gambling was unlawful.

The board warned punters, organisations, banks and Internet providers which
advertise or facilitate online gambling that they would be prosecuted. It
said this would be enforced by monitoring Internet gambling.

Northampton County's human services department is trying to prepare for an
influx of gambling and alcohol addicts a Lehigh Valley casino may create.
During a council budget hearing Tuesday night, county Councilman Ron Angle
said it doesn't matter which Valley proposal is chosen, Northampton County
will be affected. Angle asked if officials have begun assessing costs and
programs. "The drain on human services is definitely going to be there,"
Angle said. "I think you need to get geared up for it." Sands BethWorks
Gaming LLC wants to create a South Bethlehem casino on former Bethlehem
Steel Corp. land and Tropicana Pennsylvania LLC is vying for an East
Allentown casino. Kathleen Kelly, the county's mental health program
administrator, said the county is collecting data and department workers
plan to attend free training seminars sponsored by the companies and run by
the Pennsylvania Council on Compulsive Gambling. The state has promised to
provide funding for the increase in services, but Kelly said she hasn't
received a figure from state officials. Kelly said Northampton County
contracts out for drug and alcohol services, and does not have specialized
services to handle gambling addicts. Officials said residents can use
self-help groups such as Gamblers Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous, but
Human Services Director Ross P. Marcus said the Valley has a limited number
of GA groups. Kelly said the state is also creating a hotline. "I hope we're
not relying on the state hotline to take care of our problems here," Angle
said.

Slot-machine casinos are opening in Pennsylvania despite the fact that the
state does not have a gambling-addiction program in place to handle an
expected rise in compulsive gamblers seeking treatment. Although the slots
parlors are required to advertise the existence of such services, the state
has not set up a compulsive-gambling hot line or a procedure to subsidize
gambling-addiction treatment services. Gene Boyle, who directs the state
Health Department's Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Programs, says both are
months away. In the meantime, he says the state will lean on existing
providers, such as the Philadelphia-based Council on Compulsive Gambling of
Pennsylvania. The state's first slots parlor opened November 14th at the
Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs racetrack in northeastern Pennsylvania, and
three more slots parlors are expected to open at racetracks in the next
three months.

As reported by Stuff: "A downturn in the number of gambling addicts seeking
help has led the Ministry of Health to review 12 problem gambling services
throughout New Zealand. "However, the ministry is not rushing into shutting
down the services just yet, because no one knows why the numbers of problem
gamblers looking for help are apparently dropping. "Nor does the ministry
know how long the downturn will last, deputy director-general for mental
health Dr Janice Wilson said. "...The smoking ban and gambling-limiting
legislation are both seen as contributing to lowering the numbers of people
contacting the help services, she said..."

The U.K. Gambling Commission said Monday that it has launched its new
conditions under which licences are granted to gambling operators and staff,
and new codes of practice, which all operators in the gambling industry must
follow if they want to run a gambling business in Britain next year. The
Commission said it will have significant new legal powers to monitor the
industry and to prosecute illegal gambling. It will also advise central and
local government on issues related to gambling. Set up in October 2005, the
Commission's remit is to regulate the gambling industry in the public
interest. The new regulations will be summed up in licence conditions and
codes for the industry, the regulator said. Peter Dean, the Commission's
chairman. "Britain's gambling laws are undergoing wholesale reform and from
September next year all operators must be licensed by the Gambling
Commission". "The conditions and codes set out the rules which operators
must observe to meet our three licensing objectives of keeping crime out of
gambling, ensuring that gambling is fair and open, and protecting children
and other vulnerable people", Dean said. The Commission has powers to
prosecute operators who fail to maintain standards and can impose unlimited
fines on operators that breach their licence conditions.

A contingent of nearly a dozen New York City police offers arrived in Miami
Beach Monday morning to transfer several defendants being held in an "online
gambling" bust back to New York for a Tuesday arraignment. The sophisticated
Internet-based gambling scheme took in $3.3 billion in cash wagers from
40,000 bettors nationwide since 2004, authorities said. They announced
charges against James Giordano, 26 other defendants and three companies,
including one in Hollywood and another in Davie. ''This is the largest
illegal gambling operation we have ever encountered,'' said New York Police
Commissioner Raymond Kelly two weeks ago when the indictment was made
public. ``It rivals casinos for the amount of betting.'' Armed with arrest
and search warrants, law enforcement climbed over Giordano's four-foot wall
and knocked on his front door. They arrested him and he remained in a Miami
prison awaiting transport to New York.
Gambling911.com sources located the plain clothed New York City police
officers at Miami Beach's famed Clevelander bar at around 1:30 pm Monday
afternoon. One of the officers was seen scaring off a Boston Red Sox fan
and the poor misguided sap's girlfriend. At the bar, officers met up with a
female FBI agent based out of Miami. She was not involved in the case. "The
Clevelander was like CSI New York Meets CSI Miami...but the officers brought
with them bad weather from the Northeast. The forecast called for clear
skies Monday but it rained the entire time the NYPD was at the Clevelander,"
our source disclosed.

Slot-machine casinos are opening in Pennsylvania despite the fact that the
state does not have a gambling addiction program in place to handle an
expected rise in compulsive gamblers seeking treatment. Although the slots
parlors are required to advertise the existence of such services, the state
has not set up a compulsive gambling hot line or a procedure to subsidize
gambling addiction treatment services.

If you were a con artist looking to separate an unsuspecting victim from his
or her life savings, what is the first thing you would do? Get your target
good and liquored up, of course. There's nothing like copious amounts of
free booze to dull the senses, lower the defenses and cause you to throw
caution to the wind. It is a cheap and effective way to soften your target
for the big shakedown. Inhibitions melt away, common sense goes out the
window. Let the fleecing begin! The Pennsylvania state legislature is doing
its part to help. In the legalized flimflam game known as slots gambling,
the last thing the parlors want are bettors with the sober good sense to
quit when they're behind. And so they asked for permission to dole out as
many free drinks as gamblers are willing to guzzle down. Inebriation has a
wonderful way of making the loss of the family milk money seem like a
brilliant idea. Lawmakers are citizens' representatives in government,
elected to protect the public good. So a proposal to allow unlimited free
drinks as long as you continue to feed the one-armed bandits would seem
destined for unanimous defeat. Right? Not in the land of bilk and money.
Chasing Vegas Lawmakers in both the state Senate and House of
Representatives handily approved the booze last week. It may not be in the
public's best interest, but it sure helps a few very important and
influential constituents - namely, the slots operators. They argued they
need to be able to give patrons free liquor to compete with other gambling
states, where bottomless drinks are part of doing business. "It's necessary
to make them competitive," Sen. Robert J. Mellow, the chamber's Democratic
leader, told the Associated Press. "It's that way in all the states that
have gambling."

And Lord knows we here in Pennsylvania aspire to be like those beacons of
western civilization, Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

Anyone who has ever spent time in a slots parlor knows there are two basic
life-forms drawn to them: the social gamblers who don't mind blowing $50 for
the excitement of trying to beat astronomical odds. They know they most
likely will leave poorer than they arrived, and they also know when to stop.
They can handle a few free drinks, no problem.

It's the second life-form that worries me. These are the desperadoes. The
working poor and fixed-income retirees who flock to the slots in hopes of
betting their way into a better life. The old women on scooters and old men
toting oxygen tanks. The young couples who take turns holding their babies
out in the lobby while the other pumps in tokens waiting for the big jackpot
that never comes.

Watching them, you have a sinking feeling they are betting money they can't
afford to lose. Rent money, medicine money, heat money.

Sheep to slaughter

Many of the desperadoes, at least many of the ones I've spoken to, don't
fully understand the huge odds against winning anything substantial. They
are seduced by the flashing lights, whirring sirens and clanging chi-ching
of coins dropping. They win just enough to keep pumping in more.

And when their pockets are empty, have no fear. An ATM is always nearby from
which to draw out more cash.

Let's call slots what they really are: an invisible tax on the uneducated,
vulnerable and downtrodden. They pay so the rest of us don't have to.

What could possibly be more irresponsible than to allow those who profit off
these poor shlubs to get a free pass to ply them with unlimited alcoholic
drinks? Drinks that make them even more prone to exploitation?

Men don't buy women drinks just to be nice, and neither do gambling
operators. Both have ulterior motives, plain to see.

Many of these desperate gamblers already are like sheep being led to
slaughter. Throw in five or six bourbons and see what happens. Instead of
protecting the sheep, Pennsylvania's illustrious legislature is doing its
part to deliver them to the wolves.

The free-booze bill next goes to Gov. Rendell, an enthusiastic cheerleader
for slots gambling in Pennsylvania. If he vetoes it, the drinks are on me.

Despite the potentially negative impacts of a federal online gambling law,
profits at Tyler Hancock's online poker Web site are almost back to where
they were before the law passed in October. Hancock, an interdisciplinary
studies senior, runs FuturePokerPros.com, which makes its money by taking a
percentage of the
winnings of each player it recruits for other online poker sites. Hancock
said U.S. players dropped from 85 percent of his customers to 65 percent
after they got kicked off sites where they had previously played. He has
recruited more European and Canadian players to make up for the loss. "My
big players are never going to quit playing poker no matter what happens,"
Hancock said. About 10 large online poker Web sites have stopped offering
service to U.S. customers because the new law requires American financial
institutions to block online gambling transactions, said Michael Bolcerek,
president of the San Francisco-based Poker Players Alliance. U.S. customers
represented between 60 percent and 75 percent of these sites' customers, he
added. The companies can make up for the loss by expanding their operations
in Asia and Europe, he said. Hancock said he will provide franchise Web
sites to some of his top European and Canadian customers so they can help
recruit other international players. These sites are identical to the
original. In return, Hancock gets 15 percent of the profits from the
franchises.
Attracting new recruits won't be a problem, he added. "I'm getting new
players just by playing poker," he said. Smaller, private companies like
Hancock's are still serving U.S. customers while waiting to find out how the
federal government decides to enforce the law, Bolcerek said. This means
banks may not start actually blocking transactions until next July, nine
months after the law was enacted, he added. Hancock said the law is unfair.

"It's a total invasion of freedom to do what we want as Americans," he said.

Banning online gambling is also counterproductive, said Keith Furlong,
deputy director of the Vancouver, British Columbia-based Interactive Gaming
Council.

"While the bill sponsors may have good intentions, they're not protecting
consumers," Furlong said. "They have turned some of the most responsible,
legitimate public companies out of the U.S. market."

Illicit companies could take their place, sparking the creation of the
online equivalent of speakeasies, Bolcerek said.

This could lead to an increased amount of fraud and unsafe online-gambling
transactions, he added.

The best way to deal with online gambling is by legally regulating it so
it's safe for consumers and taxing it so it benefits the government,
Bolcerek said.

The federal government could raise more than $3 billion in tax revenues
annually from regulated online gambling, he said.

No matter what happens, Hancock said he hopes the online poker industry
continues to thrive.

A new gambling tax proposal would be better for local gambling businesses,
city officials said. The proposal is for a lower tax on area businesses -
the Highway 9 Casino and some restaurants and taverns - than the one they
currently pay to Snohomish County. "This would be considerably less than
they are used to paying the county," Mayor Vern Little said. Snohomish
County taxes gambling businesses on their gross earnings. But come Dec. 20,
the Frontier Village area on the west side of the lake is scheduled to
become part of Lake Stevens. The city is in the process of annexing the
708-acre area. Now, the city is debating the best way to implement a
gambling tax that is fair to local businesses, the mayor said. The city
doesn't have a gambling tax on its books, but now is proposing one on the
businesses' net earnings. A gambling tax would help pay for police services,
Chief Randy Celori said. Word of the proposal prompted an outcry from area
gambling businesses last month. Fearful that a tax might cost too much and
force them to close, business owners and employees implored city leaders to
consider a lower tax than the one Snohomish County imposes. They asked for a
tax on net earnings instead of gross earnings. Under a gross tax, a customer
could spend $100 and win that money back, but the business still would be
taxed on the $100 in revenue. A net tax would tap into only the business'
actual proceeds. How those net earnings would be determined is unclear,
Little said.

Highway 9 Casino General Manager Carol Henry said she'd prefer to have the
city come in and audit her books to determine net earnings. The alternative
is to rely on the numbers filed with the Washington State Gaming Commission.
Those numbers are too high, she said.

Henry said she's willing to pay a tax.

"We're just hoping that they'll do some sort of a fair tax for us," she
said.

Under the city's proposal, the tax would be phased in over three years,
Celori said.

The City Council is scheduled to hold two more public hearings before voting
on the issue. The first of those hearings is scheduled for tonight.

In the meantime, Little, who became mayor on Nov. 6, said he's met with
businesses and is working to come up with an equitable plan.

"We want to do the right thing," he said. "This isn't about just collecting
the tax. We want to do the right thing by everybody."

An online gambling site called Gambling Portal recently published a press
release claiming their site was responsible for saving a couple's marriage.
The couple, "Debora and Mike from LA", according to the report, had no
common interests after 17 years of marriage. After Debora stumbled across
Gambling Portal and started playing online poker, she introduced it to her
husband, and the two became hooked. Taking pro lessons in poker, they even
play with their sons once a week, who are aged 12 and 7. Both parents hope
to play in the WSOP one day.

The Gambling Bill President Vladimir V. Putin proposed in October, with
plans to set up four gambling zones in Russia, has been approved at its
first reading by the Duma last week by a vote of 440-0 and one abstention.
The president had proposed the bill after the Interior Ministry launched an
operation to check the financial, tax and sanitary-epidemiological documents
of a variety of gambling establishments in the capital allegedly linked to
the Georgian mafia. The bill will tighten control on gambling and ultimately
ban gambling except in four special zones beginning 2009. The four special
zones are to be located in unpopulated regions: two in European Russia, one
in Siberia and one in the Far East. Federal authorities will grant five-year
licenses for operation inside the zones. Putin warned United Russia leaders
to resist lobbying attempts to increase the number of gaming zones beyond
the four he specified. Putin said, "I am calling on United Russia not to
concede to such lobbying." In response, the Duma's speaker and United Russia
leader Boris Gryzlov asked Putin to give Duma the responsibility to select
where the gambling zones will be located, versus the government. The
president has not given a response yet.The first zone will be created in
July 2007, Putin's representative to the Duma, Alexander Kosopkin, said
during his presentation of the bill. About 3 percent of Russians gamble at
least once per month, according to a survey by the independent Levada Center
in October. Most people who gamble are under 40, it said. Moscow does not
plan to apply for the status of a gambling zone, a Moscow deputy mayor,
Iosif Ordzhonikidze said last month. This means that the 537 gaming
establishments that are licensed to operate in Moscow would need to close or
relocate to a special zone by 2009.

Also under the bill, slot-machine halls smaller than 100 square meters and
casinos smaller than 800 square meters, and gambling businesses with net
assets below 600 million rubles would be shut down by July 2007. And a
minimum gambling age of 18 will come into effect. Duma deputies stressed the
need for national gambling regulations, but said the bill must clarify how
the four gambling zones would be set up, and are doubtful the zones could be
set up as quickly as planned.
The mechanism for creating the zones is a key to the legislation's success,
according to United Russia Deputy Igor Dines. The current version also does
not outline if any or how the zones might be established inside residential
areas.

Besides lack of specifics, the legislation has also been criticized for
prohibiting activities such as betting on friendly card games in private
homes, and for restrictions
on online activities.Because of these issues, many observers expect the bill
to undergo dramatic changes before it will pass a second reading, likely
later this year.

"There is no doubt the bill will change beyond recognition," said Yevgeny
Kovtun, a spokesman for the Gaming Business Association, whose members have
been operating in Russia for the past decade. Gambling is a hot topic
because of upcoming elections. Duma elections are scheduled for December
next year and the presidential vote is scheduled for 2008. "The reason we
are discussing this bill is clear. It is elections," Liberal Democratic
Party of Russia leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky said.

The Association for the Development of the Gaming Business predicted that
the national gambling industry, whose revenues surpassed $5 billion per
year, could shrink by at least 70 percent by July 2007 if the bill is
implemented. So gambling businesses in Russia are pushing to soften the
bill's provisions and extend
the gambling ban beyond 2009. Gambling businessmen met in the Trade and
Industry Chamber on Nov 17 to discuss amendments they have drafted.

The gamblers suggest putting off the deadline for leaving cities to 2011.
Experts say that two years is not enough to create proper infrastructure and
attract people to the zones. "What stance the presidential administration
takes on this situation is important," said Duma Deputy Alexander Lebedev,
an outspoken gambling critic.

Vladimir Putin has urged the deputies to adopt the law without change or
amendments by the end of the year. The Duma speaker has promised this.

Police are gearing up for a much-anticipated comeback of underground lottery
betting after the government suspended two draws of the two-digit and
three-digit lottery. Pol Lt-Gen Chongrak Chutanont, national assistant
police chief, said police have been told to strictly enforce the
anti-gambling law especially during the suspension. An extended
investigation is also required in cases where the value of seized wagers
exceeds 200,000 baht, he said. Police would face tough disciplinary action
if found to be involved in illegal betting, or turning a blind eye. The
digit lottery, suspended pending a legal amendment by the National
Legislative Assembly (NLA), would resume on Dec 30. Housing changes urged
URBAN POOR :A panel on housing rights under the National Human Rights
Commission yesterday proposed amendments to two laws in a bid to better
tackle housing problems for the urban poor. Panel head Aporn Wongsang told a
forum on housing problems that the law authorising forced evictions and the
Building Control Code pose obstacles. The forced evictions law allowed the
state and private property owners to relocate buildings and materials from
their property at will. Nationality questions PEOPLE'S ASSEMBLY :Fifty-six
people nominated to sit on the 2,000-member National People's Assembly have
nationality problems, according to a panel examining the qualifications.
Amara Pongsapit, head of the panel, said the individuals need to submit
documents to prove that they hold Thai citizenship as their parents are
immigrants. She said the required documents are papers stating that they
were born on Thai soil and their parents are legal immigrants. The deadline
is Tuesday. Lecturer jailed SHOOTING :A Chulalongkorn University lecturer
was sentenced to 13 years and six days in prison for the murder of a vendor
who urinated in public.
The Criminal Court found Santilak Thanyaharn, of the engineering faculty,
guilty of premeditated murder of Suthan Itthisurasing, 45, who was shot in
the chest.

On March 30, 2005, Suthan dropped by at a birthday party of a niece who
lived next to the defendant's Mister Stamp Building in Bang Sue district.

He was emptying his bladder in front of the building when the defendant
fired two warning shots, the court was told. A heated row followed and
friends of the victim intervened. Santilak fired a shot at Suthan and killed
him.

Fishermen get life

TOURIST MURDER :The Court of Appeals has commuted a death sentence to life
imprisonment on two members of a fishing crew convicted of murdering Welsh
student Katherine Horton who was on holiday on the tourist island of Samui,
said their lawyer Prompatchara Namuang,

Mr Prompatchara said the court granted leniency to the defendants, Bualoi
Phothisit and Wichai Somkhaoyai, after they confessed. The pair attacked the
victim who was holidaying on Samui island early this year. She was knocked
unconscious, raped, thrown into the sea and left to drown.

No DNA match

JUSTICE :None of the three human bones recovered from a dump site in
Ratchaburi matched the DNA of missing lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit, said
Central Institute of Forensic Science acting director Porntip Rojanasunan.

A new study of the Spanish gambling market, undertaken by consulting firm
MECN, has promoted Spain as a potential key region for future growth for
both the online and land based gambling industry. The report highlights the
potential for imminent growth over the coming years particularly within the
retail betting sector and online gambling, as companies eagerly search for
new markets following the collapse of online enterprise in the US. UK based
betting firm William Hill has already begun its expansion into Spain, whilst
Ladbrokes is reportedly working on a market entry strategy that could see it
join its British counterpart in the near future. Spanish football has also
seen a number of its major teams sign sponsorship deals with online gambling
companies as online operators look to less restrictive regions. Martin
Oelbermann, co-author of the study, explained, 'In nearly all of our surveys
and interviews the operators mentioned Spain as a particularly attractive
jurisdiction for future expansion.' So why Spain? The report highlights a
number of factors as to why the Spanish market would appeal to foreign
online operations, not least because major players such as William Hill
already have joint venture agreements in place. However, one of the
country's
primary attractions is that many of its regions are currently working
towards the liberalisation of its gambling market which is expected to grow
to around ?39 billion by 2010.

A former township chief in south China has been sentenced to 20 years in
jail after gambling away more than 110 million U.S. dollars of public funds
in Macao and Hong Kong. Li Weimin, 43, former head of Tangxia Township in
Dongguan City, a major manufacturing center in south China's Guangdong
Province, was convicted of embezzling more than 110 million yuan (13.9
million U.S. dollars) from public coffers, Dongguan Intermediate People's
Court heard.
Li lost more than 90 million yuan (11.4 million U.S. dollars) during 257
gambling trips to Macao and Hong Kong from 2000 to 2004. Li, who was
arrested in 2005, said he became addicted to gambling after business trips
to Macao in 1996. He admitted diverting public money from several collective
firms where he worked as manager. About half of the public funds had not
been repaid, the court heard. He was also convicted of receiving bribes
valued at 1.71 million yuan (216,000 U.S. dollars). The prison term was
handed down for embezzlement and corruption. Li's personal property was also
confiscated. Tangxia is one of China's richest towns in terms of gross
domestic product in 2005. Cases of government officials who gamble with
public funds have given rise to public concerns and complaints. The
government has conducted a nationwide crackdown since 2004 to punish civil
servants who squander public funds in gambling trips abroad.

The online casino industry has been faced with difficult decisions,
especially those catering to customers in the United States, since the
passing of the Unlawful Online Gambling Act. Although it has been a rough
ride for some, a report by the European Commission suggests that online
gambling, online casino business is still booming in Europe despite the
losses by their US-facing counterparts. Some of the particulars of the
report show that gambling amounts to 3 percent of the total EU GDP, and is
also set to rise even further as the US operators focus solely on European
opportunities. As well, the report suggested that following 2003, when more
than 51 Billion Euros was generated through gambling (45 percent lotteries,
and 17 percent betting), the European mobile gaming industry will be
exploding in 2007. CEO of Chartwell Games, Lee Richardson, said, "The
current drive towards licensing in Italy will offer new international
operators substantial retail and online betting and gaming opportunities in
a strong growth market; we are very excited by the new possibilities in what
has always been a key area of growth for Chartwell's clients." The European
market is ready to explode, and the new leading European online casino
firm's Cryptologic (CRYP), 888.com and partygaming can now focus on the
positives of the industry- It looks like it might be a very good time to buy
online gambling stocks.

The big story last week was probably the largest gambling bust ever made by
New York police, which involved the arrest of over 20 people including a
well known poker pro and a one time sports talent scout, and the
confiscation of some $500 million of property and equipment. In a sequel
this week, the suspected Las Vegas moneyman for the multibillion-dollar
gambling ring was identified as posting a million dollar bail after being
extradited from Las Vegas. Monte Weiner, 56, was extradited from Sin City
and stood briefly before Queens Supreme Court Justice Stephen Knopf
yesterday (Thursday). He was arraigned on enterprise corruption, promoting
gambling, money laundering and other charges. Last week, Queens District
Attorney Richard Brown and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly announced a
33-count indictment against 27 individuals and three corporations all
connected with the global gambling ring. Using the Web site Playwithal.com
and toll-free numbers, more than $3.3 billion in wagers on football,
baseball, hockey, horse racing, golf and other sports were collected over a
28-month period. Weiner's 27-year-old son Eric was also arrested last week
and faces the same charges. He, too, posted $1 million bail. Both are facing
up to 25 years in prison.

When most people think of the World Series of Poker, they think of
gambling - at least in the form of poker - but many may not realize the
gambling begins well before the first cards hit the air in Las Vegas. With
the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and Harrah's
Entertainment - the owner of the WSOP brand - refusing online qualifiers for
the 2007 WSOP, the question on everyone's mind is "how many players will
make the Main Event next year?" Enter the online sportsbooks and bookies.
Paddypower.com is the first, but likely not the last, to offer betting on
such items as "how many" will play and "how much" will the top prize go for.

Investigators confiscated gambling equipment from a professional card
player's home at Ripon the day after he was charged with killing his wife.A
search warrant shows that Ripon police took a slot machine, ledgers, hidden
cameras and other items from the home of 44-year-old Kevin Moore. Moore has
been charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the death of his
43-year-old wife, Dawn. Her body was found November 13th in a pool of blood
near the garage of the couple's Ripon home. Fond du Lac County District
Attorney Tom Storm has said she died of a blunt force trauma to the head,
and a cinder block was found next to her body. The search warrant says Kevin
Moore told police before he was arrested that he had ten thousand dollars
hidden in the slot machine in his game room. He told police he thought
whoever killed Dawn Moore wanted the money. The warrant says Kevin Moore
told police he made his living playing Blackjack and then poker and he now
only plays poker online in some tournaments.

As many as one million individuals each year might become addicted to
gambling on the Net due to a new piece of legislation, a professional has
suggested. Professor Jim Orford, of Birmingham University, feels that the
Government is "naive" and "playing dice" with the health of some members of
the public over its proposals to change gambling laws. The Gambling Act
2005, which will completely come into effect in September 2007, liberalises
some of the laws on this pastime. Prof Orford informed the BBC's Panoroma
series:"Gradually we're going to realise it's a much bigger problem than we
thought. "More people are going to know friends and family members who've
got problems. Health authorities are going to be under pressure to provide
treatment. "We could be talking about a million people affected by it in any
one period of 12 months, and that begins to put it on a par with drug
addiction problems."

Up to one million people a year could become hooked on internet gambling
because of a new law, a Birmingham addiction expert has claimed. Professor
Jim Orford, of Birmingham University, believes the Government is being
"naive" and "playing dice" with people's health over its plans to liberalise
gambling laws. The Gambling Act 2005, which will fully come into force next
September, relaxes some laws on the activity. Prof Orford told the BBC's
Panorama programme: "Gradually we're going to realise it's a much bigger
problem than we thought. "More people are going to know friends and family
members who've got problems. Health authorities are going to be under
pressure to provide treatment. "We could be talking about a million people
affected by it in any one period of 12 months, and that begins to put it on
a par with drug addiction problems." An average of 5.8 million people a
month visited online gambling sites between April and September, according
to the programme. In May alone there were more than six million visitors to
online gambling sites, the research by internet media and marker research
company Nielsen/Net Ratings found. Independent research commissioned by the
Government claims that there are only one million regular UK online
gamblers, the programme said. Minister for Sport Richard Caborn told
Panorama: "We have, I believe, acted responsibly in bringing an Act on to
the statute book which has three basic principles on which it is based;
protecting the vulnerable, keeping it crime-free, and making sure that those
who have a bet will be paid out and it'll be a fair bet. "That is what it is
predicated on because we believe that gambling is now part of our leisure
industry."

The German online gambling market is experiencing rapid growth, with
predictions that by the year 2010 German betting revenues will have
increased by Euro 7.6 billion, additionally spurred by the imperative to
replace lost American business with European and Asian opportunities.
Cashing in on this attractive business environment, Danish Internet company
SunCore Innovation A/S has made a strategic move this (November) month to
offer German language portal services in the sector. Casinoportalen.de will
benefit from the webmastering skills and experience of Suncore, which has
been active in the market since 2001 and also runs one of the oldest and
most developed online gambling portals in the dynamic Scandinavian market.
The gambling forum is the largest of its kind with more than 100 000
subjects and commentaries, and arranges its own poker tours and a diversity
of other events related to online gambling. The new German language site is
focused strongly on players, with wide ranging reviews and gambling guides
and a wealth of information on safe online casinos and poker rooms on the
Internet to help shield online gamblers from having bad online gambling
experiences. Casinoportalen.de is all about expert first hand impressions,
balanced reportage and general information about gambling, all written and
published by its own German speaking authors. Besides reviews and
recommendations, the site provides users with news from the gambling world
in German - online and land based - and through comprehensive guides
educates new players on the best way to safely enjoy online gambling. German
players using the new portal will be offered a range of private poker
tournaments arranged by the site, winning significant prizes like tickets to
the World Series of Poker and the European Poker Tournament, cash prizes and
other incentives. Activities include competitions and social events. The
site is built and run by professionals with a clean and easy to navigate
design that is appealing to the eye, and all facilities are offered free of
charge to visitors and members alike.
With a primary strategy of penetrating the European gaming market with
quality gambling products, SunCore Innovation today operates gambling
portals in Denmark - Casinoportalen.dk, Sweden - Casinoportalen.se ,
Germany - Casinoportalen.de, Turkey - Casinoportalen.com.tr - and the United
Kingdom - Guide2casino.com - with plans for further European expansion.

A top anti-addiction official in the western Canadian province of Alberta
skimmed nearly half a million dollars from his employer to feed his own
gambling habit, the province's top auditor said on Friday. Auditor General
Fred Dunn alleged in a report that Lloyd Carr, who ran the tobacco-reduction
unit of the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission, used five false
contracts to scam C$441,298 ($390,000) from the government agency, which
funds programs and treatment services for alcohol, drug and gambling
addictions. The auditor's report said Carr, who could not be reached for
comment, had admitted to misappropriating the funds and using part of the
cash to put a downpayment on a house, pay household expenses and repay a
vehicle loan. About C$116,000 was said to have been withdrawn from automatic
teller machines in casinos.

South Korea reiterated its tough stance on the gaming industry Friday after
an audit agency held the government responsible for rampant illegal gambling
and referred a list of big names to the prosecution. Controversy over video
arcades has rocked the nation since August, leading President Roh Moo-hyun
and Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook to offer apologies. The major opposition
Grand National Party accused the government of bending the rules to feed the
gaming industry. South Korea strictly regulates gambling. It has only one
casino available for locals, while 16 others exist for foreigners. While the
government loosened rules to help boost its game industry in recent years,
its loose oversight also let illegal gambling prosper in video arcades and
Internet cafes. The arcade game industry surpassed 20 trillion won (US$20.9
billion) last year, an amount that is almost equal to the country's national
budget, with the majority of consumers being in the lower-income bracket.
Current Culture Minister Kim Myung-gon accepted the criticism and reiterated
the current stance to crack down on illegal gambling.
"As the main government branch in charge of the gaming industry, we offer an
apology to the public for causing such a big controversy," Kim said in a
press conference. The intense inspection forced nearly 9,500 game parlors
and 5,000 Internet cafes nationwide to be closed for illegal operations, he
said, and the police have arrested over 3,600 illegal operators. Also, the
ministry will abolish all gift certificates circulating in game parlors.
Gift certificates, used as cash equivalents in arcades, have fed the game
operators with vast commissions. After a months-long investigation on
Thursday, the Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea held the government
accountable for failing to curb illegal gaming. It transferred a list of
former and incumbent top officials to the prosecution on allegations of
overseeing illegal gambling or bending the rules. The list reportedly
included Chung Dong-chae, the former culture minister and lawmaker from the
Uri Party, and two former vice culture ministers, Bae Jhong-shin, who held
the post from 2002 to early 2006, and his successor Yoo Jin-ryong.

The prosecution refused to disclose the names on the list, saying the
investigation is now in its budding stage, but suggested the accused may be
summoned for questioning.

"If they were on the list, the prosecution will decide whether to summon
them after analyzing related documents," a prosecutor who asked not to be
named said, referring to Chung and two others.

The controversy centers on the "Sea Story," an arcade gambling program
released to game cafes in 2005 with government permission. When a player
inserts cash into a machine with the program, images of squids, clams,
sharks and other sea creatures spin and stop. If they form a certain
arrangement, the player hits the jackpot.

The game machines paid out larger winnings than were legally permitted,
which made the program highly addictive.

The issue has gained public and media attention after the vice culture
minister Yoo Jin-ryong, who sought to curb illegal gambling, was dismissed
just six months into his tenure in August. The Grand National Party claimed
his dismissal was a retaliatory act by the presidential office because he
allegedly clashed with aides of President Roh over administrative issues,
including his initiative to root out gambling with arcade games.

EVERYBODY KNOWS we have a problem-gambling problem. And everybody's got a
different take on how to address it. As solutions go, mine is quite radical.
First, bring all the parking meters in from the cold - to replace all the
VLTs that have taken up residence indoors in our province, from taverns to
pool halls and casinos. Hey, people could still park their butts in front of
them and feed money into the machines. Their odds of winning wouldn't even
change much. But as a pastime, feeding the meters - especially if there are
no bells and whistles attached - would be deadly. Which is exactly what the
doctor ordered, right? Second, put one-armed bandits out on the sidewalk
where the parking meters used to be. That way, lucky motorists could win the
jackpot when they put any amount of change in. I'm willing to bet most would
rather take their chances on the meter than on the commissionaire coming by
with pen and pad in hand. City coffers would be bulging and the
parking-ticket bureaucracy would quickly become obsolete. Of course, I'm
half-joking. Which half I'm joking about, I'm not really sure.
Thankfully, there are serious people doing serious research on societal
attitudes towards gambling and making serious recommendations (unlike me).
One such person is Christiane Poulin, an addictions expert at Dalhousie
medical school, who makes an interesting argument in the current issue of
the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Her view, in a nutshell, is that
we should learn from our successes in the cigarette wars and apply those
lessons to gambling. She advocates limiting the number of lotteries you can
play, driving up the price of lottery tickets through taxation and forcing
retailers to keep tickets behind the counter. Go with plain packaging and
addiction warning labels. Further cull the VLT herd, she says, and ban new
casinos and gambling advertising altogether. Come to think of it, her answer
sounds almost as radical as mine. But there is good reason to contemplate a
crackdown. Gambling in all its forms is growing by leaps and bounds and
there is mounting evidence that kids are getting hooked younger and harder.
Betting on sports is the "gateway" drug here. Don't take it from me. McGill
University in Montreal actually has an International Centre for Youth
Gambling Problems and High Risk Behaviours. Recently, it even set up a
website which provides teens with a forum to anonymously discuss their
gambling problems with counsellors.

An estimated 70 per cent of kids under 18 have reported participating in
some kind of gambling activity over the previous 12 months. "We found that
four to six per cent are actually experiencing severe gambling problems,
what you would call an adult pathological gambler," McGill researcher Alissa
Sklar said in a recent interview with the Canadian Press.

"These rates are roughly three times the rate for gambling disorders in the
adult population."

You may counter that it's unfair to spoil the fun of the many to stop the
foolishness of the few. Fair enough. It does seem stupid to overreact to
what remains a statistically small problem, no matter how you slice it.
(Alcohol abuse, for example, has a far more pervasive and devastating social
impact. As such, it's harder to tackle head-on. Yet that should not preclude
us from doing something about lesser plagues, and the truth is gambling
addiction is burning a hole through pockets, families and communities.)

At issue is not so much the legalization of gambling, but its normalization
over the past decade. As a society, we have gone from tolerating it, which
is the most we should do, to promoting it, which is the worst we can do.
Some people argue it's a benign social activity, if not a beneficial one.
But that's short-sighted.

"In theory, government gambling revenues benefit all of society. In reality,
since gambling revenues go into general revenue pots, individuals who do not
participate in gambling activities end up being the biggest winners because
they benefit without having invested anything," Ms. Poulin writes.
"Furthermore, a disproportionate number of individuals who participate in
certain gambling activities (e.g., video lottery terminals [VLTs]) are from
disadvantaged groups in our society.

"Decisions and policy pertaining to gambling need to be based on a full
accounting of the health, economic and social benefits and costs of
gambling, rather than on only the short-term benefits of employment and tax
revenue."

I especially agree with Ms. Poulin's proposed ban on gambling advertising,
for the simple reason that the industry gets far more than its fair share of
free publicity as it is. Have you ever come home after work, turned on the
sports channel and wondered, "When exactly did poker become a sport?"

But that's not when I had my personal epiphany. I realized the gambling
ethic had become a tad too mainstream while watching Deal or No Deal. That
game show is in a league of its own. Gone is the pretence of rewarding
contestants for their qualities, intellectual or otherwise. The only true
qualification you need on Deal or No Deal is a healthy risk-taking gene. And
it's awfully easy to forget that it's the network's money that contestants
are playing with, not their own.

Deal or No Deal is actually a luridly fascinating look at the insidiousness
of gambling. If somebody off the street handed you $5,000 just like that,
you'd be ecstatic. Every contestant could at least walk away with that much
on Howie Mandel's program. Just making it on to the show is the equivalent
of winning the lottery. But it isn't very long before these "winners" are
turning down $165,000 offers as if it were parking-meter change. Of course,
if they didn't, it would be a very dull spectacle, indeed.

Don't get me wrong. I don't believe in prohibition or censorship. But I do
believe the pendulum of social attitudes has swung too far towards
permissiveness when it comes to gambling. It's time to bring it back.

Minister of Culture and Tourism Kim Myung-gon Friday said that the
government will ban video game arcades from using gift certificates for
payouts in April next year as part of the efforts to eradicate illegal
gambling. Kim also apologized to the public in a press briefing, accepting
criticism after the Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea on Thursday held
the government accountable for the recent video gambling game scandal over
``Pada Iyagi'' or Sea Story. ``As the main government body responsible for
the gaming industry, I apologize to the public for causing such a big
controversy with addictive games,'' Kim said. ``I feel totally responsible
for the audit result and as head of the ministry, I will try to improve the
gaming licensing system,'' he said. The nation's video arcades and slot
machine parlors have been unlawfully allowing their customers to cash their
vouchers, which is considered the main culprit behind the quick spread of
illegal gambling. Kim said that the government is also planning to come up
with stricter licensing regulations for companies. The ministry first
allowed game arcades to use gift certificates as payouts in 2002. The
vouchers, dubbed ``culture gift certificates,'' were supposed to be used to
purchase items such as books, music, and tickets for movies and the theater,
but instead were exchanged for cash. The ministry has been hit hard by the
gambling scandal, which involves ministry officials who were lobbied by
businessmen for licenses to sell the game machines or issue the vouchers.
The recent gambling scandal first erupted in August when prosecutors
indicted the chief executives of the two companies that manufactured and
distributed ``Pada Iyagi,'' video slot machines. The audit board on Thursday
sent a list of 36 people, including former high-ranking ministry officials
to the prosecutor's office for criminal investigation.

With most gaming rooms unlawfully trading the vouchers for cash to lure more
customers, the country's video slot machine business grew beyond recognition
with the number of adult-only game arcades outnumbering 24-hour convenience
stores by 20,000 to 9,500.

Most of the gaming machines were illegally reprogrammed to allow higher
payouts than the legal limit of 20,000 won. Pada Iyagi was the country's
most popular slot machine game by far with more than 45,000 units sold.

Dan Gustafson, a former three-term state legislator from Haslett, has always
opposed casino gambling in Detroit. Yet for the past four years he has
served in an unlikely position: executive director of the Michigan Gaming
Control Board, the watchdog state regulatory agency that oversees the $1.2
billion casino industry in Detroit. Today, Gustafson is stepping down from
that post to become president and CEO of Health Care Association of
Michigan, a group that represents some 300 senior citizen nursing homes in
the state. Many believe Gustafson, 47, is leaving the gaming board in a
better position, with new policies and procedures in place that make the
105-member department more lean and efficient. "I think he's done a great
job," said Tom Shield, a Lansing lobbyist for MotorCity Casino who has
followed Gustafson's political career for the past 20 years. "This was a
position that was regulatory in nature but required someone to use good,
common sense. Gustafson did that. He also fine-tuned the regulations to make
them work better for everyone." Gustafson announced several months ago that
he was leaving the $113,000-a-year job, two years short of the six-year
appointment by former Gov. John Engler. Gov. Jennifer Granholm has not
announced Gustafson's replacement. Gustafson said he took the Health Care
Association job to give himself and his family job security for the first
time. "For the past 20 years, I've gone from election to election to either
hold office or be appointed to an office," he said. "I wanted something more
stable so I wasn't always looking over my shoulder to see who got elected to
determine where my next job might be." Despite his anti-gambling stance,
Gustafson said he has made significant accomplishments at the gaming board.

"The agency has matured in the past four years," he said. "We have become
much more efficient."

Gustafson said when he arrived in 2002 there was a backlog of more than
2,000 casino employees who needed extensive background checks before they
could obtain a permanent worker's license. He said the gaming board now has
a system in place in which a temporary license can be issued in three days
and a permanent license within a month. There is no longer a backlog.

He has also implemented a retraining program for all employees to keep them
abreast of new rules, regulations and procedures.

And he admitted he has mellowed his position just a bit on casino gambling.
He sees some upsides.

"Detroit casinos have created thousands of jobs and are paying hundreds of
millions of dollars in taxes to the state and city," Gustafson said. "As
long as the state can stay on top of the casinos and be very effective
keeping out organized crime and keep the games fair and honest, the casinos
are an asset at this point.

A former senior bureaucrat with Alberta's anti-addictions agency created
$634,000 in ''false contracts'' to spend most of it on his own gambling,
auditor general Fred Dunn reported Thursday. Lloyd Carr, the former
executive director of the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission's
tobacco reduction unit, also kept his past criminal record from him bosses,
and falsely claimed to have a university degree, Dunn also found. The RCMP
is conducting a criminal investigation and Alberta Justice and the drug
abuse commission are considering a civil action. Carr's job was terminated
in September. The ''diverted'' funds involved four commission contracts
with Alberta Lung Association, purportedly for a school anti-smoking
program, and a smaller one with anti-tobacco lobby Action on Smoking and
Health totalling $634,250. Carr, who signed the contracts, wound up
receiving $441,298 of it himself, Dunn's report said. Of that, $116,000 was
taken from banking machines in casinos, $91,000 was used as a house
downpayment and $60,000 to repay a vehicle loan, Dunn wrote in his special
report. Carr ''told us he had a gambling problem and confirmed his
involvement in the five contracts as described in this report,'' the report
said. Dunn also found the former director was ''able to take advantage of
weaknesses and circumvent controls in AADAC's contracting system.'' There
was no evidence the commission, Alberta Lung or Action on Smoking and Health
''knowingly supported'' the fund diversions, although the two contractors
and another consultant retained ''handling fees'' of their own, Dunn said.
The auditor general also conducted five other audits of government
departments or public bodies. Among the other findings:
- Lakeland College received $215,465 in fees from a private contractor to
provide training for foreign students. But for much of that payment, ''no
training was provided to any students under these contracts,'' Dunn wrote.
The RCMP is also probing this file, which the Edmonton Journal has
previously reported involved welders brought in from Poland.

- Dunn's office has referred a file to the chief electoral officer,
following its own probe of allegations Aboriginal Affairs Minister Pearl
Calahasen received a 2004 election contribution from a Metis
Settlement-owned corporation contrary to election finance laws.

- Grant MacEwan College announced a $250,000 ''donation'' from a
construction firm that was bidding to build the Robbins Health Learning
Centre, and would later get the contract. It created a bad perception, Dunn
wrote, even though it seems the money did not affect the tendering process.
In fact, the publicly heralded contribution was not a donation but a payment
based on another building project, despite what was announced.

Opposition parties are saying this all adds up to gross mismanagement and
lack of supervision of taxpayers' money.

With operations due to commence in the third quarter of next year to give
life to Britain's liberalised gambling reforms, the Gambling Commission has
clearly been kept busy checking out the initial batch of license applicants,
reporting this week that 29 companies had been successful in clearing the
first hurdles in a thorough and probing process. Casino operators now face
the second test for their applications - gaining approval from local
authorities, which will often refuse a license if it is proved that there is
no local demand. Reuters reports that the applications constitute around
half of those submitted, the remainder still being in the initial process.
Whether any of the applicants were from Internet gaming companies was not
clear. The rush came ahead of new legislation to open up and regulate the
gambling industry from 2007, which will initially limit the number of future
new casinos to 17, including one Las Vegas-style supercasino.

Two wrongs do not make a right. Thus, the decision by the government of
Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont to continue and legalise the sale of two-
and three-digit lottery tickets is on a par with that made by the Thaksin
administration three years ago when it launched the lottery scheme,
apparently in full knowledge that this was against the law. Given the
massive underground gambling in two- and three-digit lottery numbers, which
fetched illegal bookmakers a whopping revenue of billions of baht each year,
the Thaksin government envisioned the lottery scheme as a new cash cow
through which it could make fast and easy money to fund populist projects
and enrich cronies. After all, revenues earned from the scheme by the
Government Lottery Office (GLO) did not go to the state coffers. Neither was
spending regulated by the state. The rationale cited then for the launch of
the lottery scheme was to counter massive underground lottery gambling. In
other words: Why let the illegal bookmakers have the pie all to themselves?
To justify the continuation of the two- and three-digit lottery gambling,
which was temporarily suspended after the Council of State ruled it illegal,
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula reasoned
this was necessary to prevent the underground lottery business from staging
a comeback. Realising the social impact from gambling on the lottery, he
said the government would introduce measures to curb it, including a ban on
lottery advertising and the termination of live telecasts of lottery draws.
No matter the rationale cited for keeping the lottery scheme going, the
Surayud government has clearly shown it lacks the political and moral will
to right the wrong committed by its predecessor _ although this government
has a totally different view as to how revenues generated from the lottery
scheme should be spent. There is no denying that tens of thousands of people
have been making a living selling lotteries. These people would certainly be
affected if the lottery scheme were scrapped permanently. Also, it is true
that vast numbers of people, mostly in the low-income bracket, who are
hooked on gambling, would turn to the underground lottery anyway.
By legalising the lottery scheme, the government is giving a new lease of
life to the lottery vendors but, at the same time, is enabling gamblers to
continue trying their luck, albeit legally. The latest decision may also
spare the government from being confronted by possible protests from lottery
vendors _ which could be one of the chief reasons prompting the government
to quickly resume the sale of two- and three-digit lotteries.

Obviously, the government has taken the convenient way out in resolving this
problem, without proper consideration of the moral aspect and other measures
to deal with underground lottery gambling. The proper way to prevent
underground gambling from resurging is not to legalise gambling, but to make
sure the police do their job of effectively suppressing illegal gambling.

The lottery scheme is contentious and must not be rushed, even though the
government wants to see it re-launched by Dec 30. Members of the National
Legislative Assembly should be given enough time to debate the various
aspects of the issue without being pressured into meeting the tentative
deadline.

One assemblyman, Chamlong Srimuang, who opposes the lottery, has suggested
that the Assembly set up a committee to gauge public opinion on the matter.
He said the committee should be given a month to do the job.

Since the government has erred in its attempt to legalise the lottery
scheme, it must avoid making a second mistake by trying to ram its amendment
bill on this matter through the Assembly. At least, it should seriously
consider Mr Chamlong's suggestion.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida wants to upgrade to Las Vegas-style ''Class
III'' slot machines, like those now allowed at Broward parimutuels. Here's
the difference between the tribe's current Class II games and the more
desirable Class III. Class II games: bingo, poker and off-track betting, in
which gamblers play against other players. Though the machines in the
Seminole casino resemble slots, they are electronically connected to other
players. Class III games: Vegas-style gambling: slot machines, blackjack,
craps and roulette. Those are games in which a player plays against the
house.

The former mayor of Maple Park pleaded guilty Wednesday to six counts of
illegal gambling, the result of an undercover probe involving him and 12
others.
Mark Delaney agreed to serve a year of probation that prohibits him from
gambling and pay a $250 fine. "I'm just glad it's over," said Delaney on his
way out of Kane County Circuit Court. A yearlong investigation by the
Illinois State Police led to a May 2004 raid on D.J's Tavern, 221 W. Main
St., Maple Park, at a Friday night steak fry. The investigation revealed
slot machines illegally rigged to dispense cash, a spin-the-wheel lottery
and a bookmaking operation. Delaney pleaded guilty to illegal gambling, a
misdemeanor, after felony charges were dropped.

After a three-month audit, the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) on
Thursday forwarded to the prosecution a list of 36 people, including former
and incumbent government officials, who it said are involved in the video
arcade gambling machine scandal, often dubbed ``Pada Iyagi,'' or ``Sea
Story''. The 36 people include six former and incumbent officials of the
Ministry of Culture and Tourism and 13 officials of the state-funded Korea
Media Rating Board (KMRB), which is under the control of the ministry.
Between Aug. 21 and Oct. 29, the BAI dispatched some 30 officials to
government agencies and video game manufacturers as well as to voucher
distributors, who illegally allowed their customers to cash in their
vouchers, called ``Culture Gift Certificates.'' ``The ministry officials
were well aware that the video slot machines could be highly addictive and
cause serious social problems, but they neglected their duty to regulate
such illegal gambling machine parlors,'' a senior BAI official said in a
press briefing. ``The KMRB officials have also approved more than 3,500 reel
game machines since 1999, even though they knew that most of the games could
be illegally reprogrammed to allow higher jackpot winnings than the legal
limit of 20,000 won ($21) per game,'' he added. State auditors also found
out some KMRB officials manipulated documents to expedite the application
process for some 37 video game programs in September last year.

The gambling scandal erupted in August when prosecutors indicted the chief
executives of the company that manufactured and distributed the Pada Iyagi
machine. More than 45,000 units of the country's most popular video slot
machine were sold.

The Roh Moo-hyun administration has been criticized for allowing tens and
thousands of illegal gambling parlors, which have devastated the livelihood
of low income families, nationwide.

Gambling on football on Thanksgiving Day is almost as traditional as eating
turkey and yams. Thanksgiving Day sees more betting action on singular games
than any other day of the regular football season, and it also kicks off the
general happy and joyful mood that pushes the high season of gambling in the
United States.
Thanksgiving is also the day when people give thanks for living in a country
where freedom is cherished, and Ameicans seem to love to head to their local
casino to celebrate that sense of freedom. It is college students' time to
take a break from their studies and many of those students head to Las Vegas
or Atlantic City to release and relieve some of their schoolbook stress.
Other students head home to find that while they were gone slot parlors were
approved and new casinos were open up, such as in Hollwood, Florida and
Pennsylvania. "I feel so good this time of the year, everyone feels so good
and is in such a good mood," says Frank Taylor, a Hard Rock casino visitor
in Hollywood. "Thanksgiving Day is for the family," Frank said, "but the
rest of the weekend is for partying." Thanksgiving also kicks off the season
of spending money. People enjoy buying gifts for others to celebrate their
religious beliefs and in that same sense of giving they head to the casino
to try to find some loose slots. Even online casinos see a rise in bets and
total wagers through the end of the year. "This is typically our busiest
time of the year," says one Internet casino manager. "I don't know why
people love to gamble during the holidays... but it is something real and it
happens every year." However, gambling during the holidays could be more of
a problem for addicted gamblers than at other times of the year. Nancy
Petry, Ph.D professor of psychiatry and director of the Gambling Research
and Treatment Center at UConn Health Center agrees that problem gamblers
face a harder time during the holidays.

"Family-related stress can send problem gamblers to the casinos for an
escape during the holiday," Petry said. "Many people gamble because they are
lonely, bored or stressed. These moods can be more common during the holiday
season."

Petry is quick to point out that you should never bet more than you feel
comfortable losing, never wager with borrowed money, and she suggests that a
problem gambler find something else to do besides gamble during the
holidays.

Whatever your reason for gambling may be, be sure to be responsible to
yourself and to your close ones, and remember that gambling is only a form
of entertainment and should never be taken more seriously than such.

The son of a deceased West Virginia mobster has been charged in connection
with a multimillion-dollar bookmaking ring. Christopher Hankish, who is from
suburban Pittsburgh, is charged with gambling conspiracy. He is the son of
Paul "No Legs" Hankish, a Wheeling, W.Va., native who died in prison in 1998
while serving time for a racketeering and gambling conviction.Christopher
Hankish was charged Friday. He declined comment. Investigators with the
Pennsylvania State Police and the state Attorney General's Office came
across Hankish while looking into gambling activity involving former video
poker kingpin John "Duffy" Conley. Conley has not been charged, but was
sentenced in May to four years in federal prison for violating his probation
by placing millions of dollars in sports bets over the phone last year. He
was released in January 2004 after serving nine years in prison on a
gambling conviction.

Investors recently doubled down on gambling stocks despite a yearlong
winning streak, wagering that expansion will spur growth and bettors will
keep spending even as the economy softens. The Dow Jones U.S. Gambling Index
has surged more than 35 percent since the start of the year, easily
outpacing the broader market as represented by the Standard & Poor's 500
index, which has added about 12 percent. The gambling index, comprising 67
stocks weighted primarily toward large hotel-casino operators such as
Harrah's Entertainment and MGM Mirage, has generally tracked sentiment about
the overall economy. After rising through April, the index gave back most of
the gain amid worries consumers would be cash-strapped as oil prices climbed
steadily ahead of the summer months. "Those concerns didn't come to
fruition," said Robert LaFleur, a gaming, lodging and leisure industry
analyst with Susquehanna Financial Group. "Expectations were that higher gas
prices and a softening housing market would pressure the industry, but
visitation has remained strong." Part of the reason is that casino
performance does not necessarily track consumer spending, despite investor
reaction. "The Las Vegas strip market is driven more by overall economic
growth," said Morningstar equities analyst Sumit Desai. "The stocks are more
cyclical than the underlying business," he said. And gamblers don't
necessarily curb spending in economic slowdowns, anyhow. "The high-roller
business is always going to be strong because these guys don't worry about
short-term factors," LaFleur said.

Either way, there was more good news Monday when a leading economic
indicator edged higher, suggesting the recent housing slump was not enough
to offset lower gas prices and a rising stock market.

Another boost for the sector, said Frank Fahrenkopf, head of industry trade
group American Gaming Association, is casino operators' expansion into other
businesses.

"The industry has moved to the total entertainment package," he said.
"People come to destination resorts _ they come to shop, to see shows and to
play golf."

That trend in Las Vegas, which attracts more families and couples to what
was long considered a bachelor's paradise, has turned off some of the city's
more committed gamblers, but it has benefited the operators.

"It used to be that a casino's bottom line was about 65 percent gaming
revenue," Fahrenkopf said. That's down to around 40 percent now at some
companies, even as gaming revenue surged past $30 billion for the first time
last year, according to the AGA.

And casino operators are boosting investment into additional entertainment
venues. There are $20 billion worth of projects in Las Vegas alone that will
be completed by 2010, said Desai.

"They want to offer a resort experience instead of just gambling," he said.

The danger is that new casinos and hotels could lead to excess supply. "That
could be a hiccup for the industry, especially if it coincides with an
economic slowdown," he said. "But generally the industry does a great job at
managing growth."

Driving that growth _ in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, N.J., and also in the
numerous other states that license American Indian casinos _ is increased
social acceptance of gambling, Fahrenkopf said. The lobbyist traced the
start of public softening toward gambling back to the reintroduction of
lotteries in 1963 in New Hampshire. Now 48 states have some form of
legalized gambling, from lotteries to horse racing to casinos.

But the surge that benefited casinos most came as poker soared in
popularity, first through Internet sites and then, starting in 2002,
televised tournaments. The Poker Players Alliance, a player-based lobbying
group, estimates there are more than 70 million Americans who play poker.
The number of poker tables in Las Vegas has risen to 405 in 2005 from 142 in
2003.

"Poker clearly helps," said LaFleur. "It's a tough game for casinos to make
money on, but it attracts gamblers."

Harrah's, the country's largest casino operator, has turned the game's
popularity into a major revenue source with its annual World Series of
Poker. The company is currently being courted by private-equity groups with
a $15 billion buyout offer, excluding debt assumption.

The offer, which would be about a 25 percent premium, helped bolster the
sector, LaFleur said, because it sets a mark by which to determine the value
of other companies in the sector. "The stocks often trade up in anticipation
of other deals," he said.

The news helped Harrah's stock recover after it stumbled earlier this year
on investor concerns about its lack of a presence in Asia.

Las Vegas Sands Corp., run by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, and Wynn Resorts
Ltd., run by Steve Wynn, have licenses to operate in Macau, China _ the
former Portuguese colony on the Chinese mainland that is now considered the
next gambling paradise.

The expansion overseas marks the first time U.S. casinos have ventured
abroad, lured by a strong gambling culture in Asia and the Chinese
government's desire to attract foreign direct investment.

"The market trends are very strong in Asia and there are no indigenous
companies with the experience to operate on the scale they want in Macau,"
LaFleur said, adding that Singapore is also a growing market for U.S.
casinos.

The attraction of new markets is clear, but Desai warns that intense capital
spending could hamstring some companies. "A lot of times investors think you
can't lose with these stocks, but Trump went bankrupt two years ago.

"The problem is they require a lot of investment to keep them fresh and new
and they have a ton of debt on the balance sheets. They are inherently risky
investments," he said.

The world of gambling has come a long way since its early days. It is
unnecessary to describe today's gambling world, with land based casinos
hosting the best entertainment and most luxurious hotels, and online casinos
offering an equally terrific, virtual form of entertainment. But that is a
look at the present and future of gambling. A look back in time would take
us to a different place altogether. Long ago and far away.Casino dice games
have their origins based in Egypt. Archaeological evidence of dice games
have been excavated in Egypt, and date back 2600 years to 600 BC. Modern day
craps, at the core of many casinos and online casinos, are therefore
indebted to the ancient Egyptians. This history sheds new light on the Luxor
hotel and casino in Las Vegas, where dice games are popular and played by
gamblers who accept their presence with little or no afterthought. The Luxor
hotel casino, a stunning building designed like an ancient pyramid and
hosting the latest and most contemporary in hotel amenities in situated on
the Strip. A walk on the Strip - or more classy a limo ride - will lead you
from all the great casino hotels such as New York New York and Bally's, to
name a couple. Besides the Luxor Casino, the hotel also hosts the latest in
entertainment shows, including a full screen IMAX theatre. Dice games, too,
can be found at the Luxor.

The £25,000 a week West Ham goalie reportedly starting drinking heavily
after his gambling debts spiralled out of control. According to the Sun, at
first Carroll attempted to win the money needed to pay off debts to a fellow
West Ham player, when that idea failed he drowned his sorrows in a bottle of
Bacardi. Carroll is now in the care of a consultant psychiatrist and is
attending group therapy sessions and taking anti-depressants. A source said:
"Roy's hit the bottom of a very deep pit. It started when his gambling went
out of control and word is he's lost £50,000 in card games with pals." West
Ham boss Alan Pardew added: "We fully support Roy. He has gone about
tackling his issues in the right way."

A top March 8 politician recently told Walid Jumblatt, "the Syrians don't
want to hear about the [Hariri] tribunal." Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel
is the latest victim of an effort to ensure that that command is respected.
It would be irresponsible for Hizbullah to carry through on its threat to
take to the streets. A government of national unity cannot be imposed
through measures certain to heighten national discord. But worse, Hizbullah,
through its alliance with Syria and its repeated efforts to neutralize the
Hariri tribunal, is risking its own future as an accepted Lebanese party.
The tribunal is Syria's Achilles heel. Even if a mid-level intelligence
operative is accused, the centralized nature of the Syrian system is such
that prosecutors will soon end up at the peak of the security apparatus,
perhaps reaching into President Bashar Assad's inner sanctum. The fight over
the future of the Syrian regime is taking place now, and the only option
Assad might be left with if the process goes through is to rid himself of
essential pillars of support. This could be as damaging to him as being held
personally responsible for ordering the Hariri hit. Hizbullah's anxieties
are understandable. If Syrians are fingered by United Nations investigator
Serge Brammertz, Assad is unlikely to comply with a request to send them
before the mixed tribunal. The president has said several times that Syrian
suspects would be tried before Syrian courts. If that happens there could be
a showdown between Damascus and the international community, putting
Hizbullah in a tight spot. Not only might the party find that weapons
transfers from Syria and other forms of cooperation would come under greater
international scrutiny, it would be ever more difficult for Sayyed Hassan
Nasrallah to play up his support for Assad without risking an angry Lebanese
Sunni backlash. Syrian haste is pushing Nasrallah, but also his chief ally,
Michel Aoun, into a potentially perilous venture. No one doubts that
Hizbullah can mobilize a large number of supporters. The party's clients in
the various ministries might cease working, gumming up the country's
administrative system. There is a possibility that access to the airport
will be cut, as it was last summer when the party faithful protested against
a satirical show that dared poke fun at Nasrallah. Hizbullah doesn't need to
break heads or burn property to make things very difficult for the majority.

However, the party should be careful. First of all, even if the
demonstrations are non-violent, they will be perceived as acts of
intimidation. Intimidation in Lebanon usually has the opposite effect to
what its practitioners intend. On March 8, 2005, Nasrallah hoped to
intimidate those demanding a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon; instead he
produced March 14. The confessional system is a fine-tuned Maserati, not a
Trabant. You cannot bludgeon your adversaries into bowing to your priorities
if it means that theirs are disregarded. That's not how this society works.

A second reason is more prosaic: After taking Lebanon into a devastating war
last summer, Hizbullah now threatens to carry it into a domestic crisis with
prohibitively high economic costs. This will eliminate what little
confidence the country managed to salvage after the end of fighting in
August. If the airport is made inaccessible, if ministries are prevented
from functioning, if stores and offices are forced to close down because of
protracted actions by Hizbullah and its comrades, everyone will lose, at a
time when the country is in the delicate process of rebuilding.

The gambling industry is on the search for new growth regions - With an
anticipated size of ca. Euro 39 billion by 2010, Spain is expected to be a
key future market
New report about the Spanish gambling market analyses one of the most
promising online and land-based gambling markets London/Munich, November 22,
2006: The consulting firm MECN's new study "The Spanish Gambling Market -
Key region for future growth" analyses the Spanish gambling market in
detail. The expected growth drivers for the next years are above all the
retail betting sector and Internet gambling. William Hill has already
started its expansion into Spain, Ladbrokes is currently
working on a market entry strategy, more and more Spanish soccer teams are
sponsored by online gambling companies, . - these are just a few of many
clear signs that the gambling industry is starting to focus on Spain for
future growth. After the recent legal conflicts in traditional gambling
markets, an obvious key strategic option is expansion into less restrictive
jurisdictions or into regions where an increased liberalisation might be
possible in the short term. Martin Oelbermann, co-author of the study,
explains: "In nearly all of our surveys and interviews the operators
mentioned Spain as a particularly attractive jurisdiction for future
expansion."

Why is Spain so attractive?
The following are some of the reasons why Spain is perceived as so
attractive:
- Increasing liberalisation - Many autonomous regions in Spain are working
toward a liberalisation of the market, and particularly the betting sector
as well as interactive
gambling could benefit from that.
- William Hill and other big players are already poised for expansion into
Spain - Many international companies, such as William Hill or Betbull/BWin,
already have joint
venture agreements in place and are poised to take advantage of the market
in Spain.
- Growth potential, especially for retail betting and interactive gambling -
Overall, Spain's gambling market is expected to grow to Euro 39 billion by
2010. By 2010 the
retail betting market is expected to grow to ca. Euro 4.5 billion, which is
more than 750% larger than its current size (CAGR of 71%). The other growth
driver will be
interactive gambling, which is expected to reach ca. Euro 4.2 billion by
2010, a growth of ca. 240% (CAGR of 36%) over the current level.
- Lotto craziness - Spain's lottery market is one of the largest in the
world and can boast impressive per-capita sales.

Four former employees of an affiliate of Yamato Transport Co., a major
delivery company, have been arrested on suspicion of gambling on
professional baseball games at their offices, police said. According to the
police, on-duty drivers from the Kyoto and Osaka branches of Kyoto Yamato
Unyu delivery company placed bets via cell phone e-mail. The betting system
was started by another employee about a decade ago. More than 100 million
yen in bets has been collected annually in recent years. Part of the money
financed further gambling outside the company. Prosecutors received papers
on nine other employees who were also involved. The nine comprise a
50-year-old former manager of the company's Osaka branch and company
drivers. The four have been under arrest since mid-October and were
dismissed by the company along with the Osaka branch manager. Of the four,
Yoshinori Kato, 61, a former deputy manager of the company's Osaka branch;
Tadashi Kato, 33, Yoshinori's third son and a former section chief of the
branch's sales department; and Shinichi Ogawa, 50, a former section chief of
the Kyoto branch's sales department, have already been indicted.

The Supreme Court in Brisbane has been told a man jailed for life over the
murder of a Gold Coast book-keeper had a chronic gambling problem. Lydio
Monje Licera, 38, was managing the Seafire restaurant at Burleigh in May
last year when he stabbed to death the restaurant's bookkeeper, 32-year-old
Therese Pieper. The night before, he had stolen the day's takings and lost
the money playing cards at Jupiter's Casino. Defence barrister, Colin Reed,
told the court his client did not intend to kill Ms Pieper, but could offer
no sensible explanation for the murder, except that he has a long-term
gambling problem. Licera was sentenced to life imprisonment with a
recommendation for parole after serving 15 years.

The recent Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas saw a marked absence of
online gaming companies and executives discouraged from travel to the USA by
the recent passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, but
the industry nevertheless generated an abundance of media comment. Aside
from the widely reported comments of top land gaming executives like Terri
Lanni of MGM Mirage and Frank Fahrenkopf of the AGA who now favour a study
of online gambling's impact in the USA, other personalities were giving
their views on everything from the unorthodox manner in which the UIGEA was
rammed through Congress to the likely efficacy in the enforcement of the
legislation. Describing the Act as "cumbersome, confusing and potentially
ineffective," the Las Vegas Sun newspaper opined that while the bill is
unlikely to curb the public's appetite for online gambling, the legislation
will make it more difficult for Americans to find reputable sites that will
accept their money. The real purpose of the bill, convention goers said, was
to pander to religious conservatives. The House had earlier passed
legislation authored by Rep. Jim Leach, but passage of a Senate compromise
Leach-Goodlatte bill had appeared unlikely after senators objected to a move
by anti-gambling advocate Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., to fast-track the Leach bill to
a floor vote in the Senate. That led to the involvement of Majority Leader
Sen Bill Frist and the deployment of political manouevres that involved a
late-night, last minute attachment to an unrelated "must pass" security
Bill. "No meeting, no reading, no debate - no problem. Many members of the
Homeland Security Committee - not to mention most senators - hadn't read the
bill," the Vegas newspaper reported.

Hopeful views that a change in political power in Washington could bring
about a reversal of the UIGEA inevitably resulted in contrary opinions,
notably from one David Stewart, a legal eagle who counsels the American
Gaming Association. He felt that it could be many years before there was a
legislative change.

The Sun reported that Stewart said: "If it comes up again, they're going to
say, 'We've already dealt with that issue.' They were exhausted by this
latest effort."

The newspaper claims that although the association's two largest members,
Harrah's Entertainment and MGM Mirage, want to legalise Internet gambling in
the USA, other members may not be as comfortable with the idea. The group
expects to decide at a board meeting next month whether to push for
legislation that would study legalising Internet gambling. Rep. Jon Porter,
R-Nev., introduced such a bill in the last session of Congress that gained
support from more than 40 co-sponsors.

Among a slew of Democrats perceived as friendly to the industry is Rep.
Barney Frank, D-Mass., an outspoken liberal who will head the Financial
Services Committee and who voted against the Internet gambling prohibition
bill that originated in his committee.

Even if more libertarian minds prevail in the online gambling debate,
Stewart told the Las Vegas Sun that it could take at least a decade for
Congress to legalise Internet betting: "They don't have the appetite for
it," he said of members' desire to pursue a debate. Online gamblers are
growing in number but don't yet have the political clout to influence
legislation, Stewart told the newspaper.

Respected legal personality Professor I Nelson Rose presented an interesting
alternative to nationwide legalisation, suggesting that Congress may
eventually pass a law allowing states to opt into a regulatory system
enabling Internet betting for in-state residents. A similar system enables
gamblers to bet on horse races from remote locations in their home states as
well as other states that choose to participate.

Short of that, states will likely seek to regulate Internet betting within
their borders. "I think states will make it a state's rights issue," said
Rose, a professor at Whittier Law School in California. One effort is under
way in his home state, where poker rooms are working on legislation that
would legalise Internet poker wagering for California residents.

The Las Vegas Sun reviewed online gambling developments in Nevada, reporting
that in 2003 the Nevada Legislature passed a bill allowing regulators to
study whether Internet gambling could be regulated. The state Gaming Control
Board heard testimony from technology companies with software claiming to
pinpoint the location and identity of gamblers using satellites, online
background checks and account information. But regulators did not pursue the
issue after receiving a letter from the Justice Department restating the
federal government's position that internet gambling fell under the 1961
Wire Act and was therefore illegal.

Nevada regulators considered appeals to legalise online gambling for Nevada
residents but didn't pursue the matter. While Nevada casinos don't want to
run afoul of the feds, some local companies may seek the right to allow
Nevadans to bet online in the years to come, Rose said, adding that Nevadans
already can make sports bets from their home computers after registering at
a casino and transmitting bet information over a secure line.

"If at-home sports betting is legal, then Internet gambling should be legal
for Nevada residents," Professor Rose said.

The Professor is on record elsewhere as being strongly critical of the
UIGEA, saying it is confusing and contradictory with all its carve-outs, and
noting how a portion of the bill even sanctions Internet betting conducted
within states and tribal lands.

"It's a public embarrassment...it's a mess," says Rose. "Eventually I think
they'll get Congress to change the law to do for Internet poker exactly what
they did for Internet horse racing. It's an exemption but (based on) states'
rights."

Undeterred by some opinions that the UIGEA is here to stay, Ambassador Colin
Murdoch, permanent secretary in the Antigua and Bermuda Ministry of Foreign
Affairs told the Antigua Sun that he expected some progress in negotiations
on the gaming issue, once power shifts into Democratic Party hands in the
USA in January, when newly elected representatives take office in both
houses.

"I do not necessarily believe that there is much difference in the
Democratic and Republican administrations. In fact, some of the harshest
blows that the Caribbean has received in recent times, we got from the
Democrats - like bananas," he said. "That was done under a Democratic
administration.

"Having said that, I believe that when it comes to Internet gaming, there
will be some new opportunities, with the new Congress, after January, to
explore with them some change to the legislation that has been passed.
Either a repeal or an amendment of that legislation," Murdoch said.

However, Ambassador Murdoch acknowledged that the US legislative system
vests significant veto authority in President George W. Bush, who has gone
on record backing restrictions on Internet gaming and who signed into law
the recent legislation geared at blocking payments between online gambling
sites and their clients.

He said this system was a potential barrier to the furtherance of Antigua's
cause and described it as one of the obstacles that needed to be overcome.

Despite this, he expressed the hope that if some change can be pushed
through Congress, negotiations with the White House can effect a compromise
legislation that both Democrats and Republicans can live with.

"I think even the White House has seen the change in the American political
environment and I believe that they would be amenable to moving towards the
centre and have position based on compromise," Murdoch said.

Pennsylvania gambling regulators are hearing testimony from a Detroit casino
operator and two other bidders for a slot-machine casino license in
Pittsburgh, just one month before it could be awarded. The hearings started
Monday with presentations from two of the bidders. Testimony was scheduled
Tuesday for Detroit-based casino operator Don H. Barden. His proposal calls
for a $460 million slots parlor near Pittsburgh's sports stadiums and a $350
million redevelopment of the city's Hill District. The hearings were the
last chance for the applicants to make their case to the Pennsylvania Gaming
Control Board, which expects to award the license Dec. 20. Cleveland real
estate developer Forest City Enterprises and the nation's largest casino
operator, Harrah's Entertainment Inc., have joined together in an
application for a $1 billion development anchored by a casino next to
Station Square, an entertainment and shopping complex on the city's South
Side. The other applicant that presented testimony Monday was Isle of Capri
Casinos Inc., which has offered to build a $290 million hockey arena for the
Pittsburgh Penguins if it gets the license as part of a $1 billion
development in Pittsburgh's Uptown neighborhood. Barden and Forest City have
agreed to contribute some money to a new hockey arena but have not committed
to subsidizing the entire project.

The retired superintendent of Manhattan's Parks and Recreation Department
faces felony theft and gambling charges. A preliminary hearing has been set
for Ivan Wilkinson on December 20. Wilkinson is accused of stealing money
from city concession sales. The gambling charge stems from accusations he
organized fantasy sports leagues on city computers and city time. He turned
himself in to police in August after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Not so long ago, stories about gambling addiction dominated the news, as
pro- and anti-gaming troops battled for the hearts and minds of politicians
and the public. Strangely, as eight candidates vie for the leadership of the
Tory party, an issue that once caused so much uproar has fallen off the
radar screen. Problem gamblers are still ruining their lives - and the lives
of those who love them - but it scarcely causes a ripple anymore in wider
society. Not a peep has been heard about the issue from any of the
leadership candidates except Dave Hancock. And even Hancock only addressed
the subject because someone brought it up at a public meeting last week. But
at least he acknowledged there's a problem, saying he'd like to banish VLTs
from bars. Governments enact laws to protect the public from their baser
instincts in all sorts of ways. We don't permit people to drink and drive,
we restrict firearms and ban dangerous drugs. But gambling? Pretty much
anything goes, points out Robert Williams, co-ordinator of the Alberta
Gaming Research Institute. "There are virtually no significant restrictions
on how (gambling's) conducted," he says. "We need some minimal substantive
policies that would . put some brakes on that behaviour." VLTs out of bars
I've
long argued that we need to get VLTs out of bars, and I have no sympathy for
pub owners who whine that they'd lose money without VLTs. For heaven's sake,
if you need gaming machines to keep your bar afloat, you should find another
line of work. Williams wouldn't just pull VLTs out of bars, though. He
favours cutting - or even banning - VLTs and slots, which are responsible
for the vast majority of gambling problems. The province makes a big deal
about capping VLTs at 6,000, but it's the overall number of gaming machines
that feeds people's addiction, he says. In Alberta, there are now 10,000
slot machines in 19 casinos and three racing entertainment centres. And,
essentially, there's no difference between VLTs and slots, points out
Williams. They're both poison to problem gamblers but there's no cap on the
number of slot machines. The research Williams has done shows that the total
number of gaming machines per capita in a jurisdiction is one of the best
predictors of problem gambling prevalence. And guess what? Alberta's 6,000
VLTs and 10,000 slots have had terrible consequences. There's more
opportunity to gamble here than in most other places, and Alberta has one of
the highest rates of problem gambling in the world.

The province is forecast to bring in $1.4 billion in gaming revenue this
fiscal year. And where's this money coming from? A study co-authored by
Williams a couple of years ago estimated that the provinces derive 23% of
their gaming revenue from problem gamblers.

Cash machines

And Alberta doesn't even have the decency to ban cash machines from VLT
venues or add substantial harm-reduction features - like loss limits - to
gaming machines.

"The purpose of government is to serve the people, not exploit the people,"
says Williams.

Canada is the only country in the world, he adds, where the state regulates,
owns and operates most gambling. And, of course, government grabs the
proceeds as well.

The machines also tell players how much they will spend each game if they
make a particular choice, as well as their spending per minute and per hour.
Launching seven of the Aristocrat brand machines at Brisbane's Conrad
Treasury Casino today, Jupiters Ltd managing director Xavier Walsh said the
company recognised some customers had difficulties gambling responsibly.
This could lead to problems with family, friends and communities, he said.
"We don't want customers with gambling problems to be using our products and
we are committed to responsible gambling," Mr Walsh said. The Parliamentary
Secretary to the Treasurer, Neil Roberts, said the spending displays would
be installed progressively on new games as machines were updated.
Legislation was introduced in Queensland last year making it compulsory for
gambling venues to exclude patrons if they asked to be excluded. Since then,
virtually all venues have put staff and procedures in place to keep problem
gamblers out. "This clearly shows that venues and the industry as a whole
are committed to responsible gambling and that responsible gambling measures
are having a positive impact on patrons," Mr Roberts said.

More than 6 percent of Korean adults are gambling addicts. Korea Leisure
Industry Center said that some 2,400,000 Koreans or 6.6 percent of the adult
population were addicted to gambling as of December last year. Among them,
79.2 percent were men while 33 percent were in their 40s. While blue-collar
workers made up 54.2 percent of the total, white-collar workers were 16.7
percent. Crimes by gamblers such as homicide, robbery, burglary, and
violence are increasing. Thirty-five percent of thefts and 40 percent of
non-violent crimes were related to gambling. Seo Chun-bum, a director of
Korea Leisure Industry Center, said the figure is now estimated to be much
more higher, after ``Sea Story,'' a gambling scandal that shocked the nation
last summer. Seo added that the legal gambling industry has suffered from
decreasing income since 2004, and pointed out the growing number of illegal
game rooms are the main reasons for the trend. He also stressed that the
government needs to get involved in the gambling industry more aggressively.
Pastor Kim Kyu-ho also said that he will protest against lawyers who show a
timid approach to gambling issues.

ONLY a week after voters in Ohio once again made clear their opposition to
the expansion of legalized gaming in the Buckeye State, thousands of
residents of Pennsylvania were moving in entirely the opposite direction as
the Keystone State's first slot-machine parlor opened, and gamblers seeking
easy money poured through the doors. The Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs near
Wilkes-Barre has almost 1,100 gambling machines on two floors, plus a bar
and restaurants. But that's just the beginning. Plans call for the casino to
increase the number of machines to 2,000 and add retail shops and a
nightclub, among other facilities. At that time, revenues are expected to be
almost $168 million a year. The purported beneficiaries of revenues from the
casino, which is operated by the Mohegan Indian tribal council, are
homeowners, workers, and seniors. Plans are for gaming monies to cut taxes,
help a rent rebate program for seniors, and increase horse-racing purses.
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell describes the casino as a step toward providing
property-tax relief. But at what cost? That's the issue raised by opponents
of gaming, including the head of CasinoFreePa, who said "convenience
gambling is the worst gambling." Of course, convenience is one of the sales
pitches made by supporters of introducing gambling across the country. Why
go to neighboring states to spend your money, providing them with the jobs
and tax revenue, when you can spend it at home, they trumpet. But that's a
chimera. Along with the revenue and the jobs come the potential for
increased crime, for men and women to spend money they can't afford to lose
in gaming parlors where they think they can place a bet or push a button on
a machine and immediately end their financial woes.

Not going to happen. For every winner, most other players lose more than
they can afford, sinking deeper and deeper.

And just because other states have legalized gambling - Pennsylvania became
the 36th to have electronic gaming - does that mean Ohio should have jumped
on the bandwagon?

We don't believe it should, and the voters of this state have made it
perfectly clear that they do not, either.

The defeat of Issue 3 on Nov. 7 showed that Ohioans were able to sift
through the verbiage and the smokescreens, and see the proposal for exactly
what it was: A scheme to boost gaming, to fatten the wallets of gambling
operators, and start on the slippery slope to full-fledged gambling casinos
in Ohio by permitting two in Cleveland.

Issue 3 would not have been a panacea for funding education, any more than
we suspect the opening of casinos in Pennsylvania will be the answer to that
state's push for property tax relief.

The big winners in legalized gambling are the people who own the machines,
not those who play them. Ohioans recognized that, and made the right call on
Issue 3.

Expect to hear a lot about gambling expansion in the coming months. West
Virginia's four racetrack casinos should make another push in the
Legislature for local option elections to allow table games. They want
people in the four counties with racinos -- Kanawha, Ohio, Hancock and
Jefferson -- to vote on allowing games such as blackjack, poker and roulette
along with the slot machines they have now. Gambling supporters will argue
that West Virginia is about to fall behind in the arms race for gaming
entertainment dollars. It's an argument West Virginians should be very wary
of. On Tuesday of last week, Pennsylvania's first slot casino opened for
business. According to The Associated Press, hundreds of gamblers, mostly
senior citizens who had waited hours in a foggy drizzle, poured into the
casino near Wilkes-Barre. Most of the 1,100 slot machines were occupied
within 10 minutes of the doors opening. Gov. Ed Rendell praised the casino's
opening as an important step in delivering property tax relief. Opponents of
gambling expansion predicted an increase in crime and other social problems.
The Pennsylvania Legislature has authorized as many as 61,000 slot machines
at 14 locations. Meanwhile, gambling supporters in Maryland hope Gov.-elect
Martin O'Malley will be more successful in bringing legal slots to that
state than outgoing Gov. Robert Erlich has been. O'Malley opposes casino
gambling and favors only a limited number of slot machines at tracks, and
even then mainly to preserve the horse racing industry and the farms that
support it, according to the AP. Maryland track owners say they are hurt by
competition from tracks in Delaware and West Virginia, which also have
slots. That sounds similar to what the racetrack casino owners in West
Virginia say about the upcoming competition from Pennsylvania slot casinos.

In at least one case, a casino owner is protecting itself by investing in
both states. MRT Gaming Group Inc., which owns Mountaineer Racetrack and
Gaming Resort in Hancock County, has an $80 million slot casino under
construction near Erie, Pa.

So the pressure for West Virginia to get ahead in this gambling version of
an arms race will be there for legislators this coming year. It might be out
in the open. It might be behind the scenes. But a lot of arm-twisting will
be going on.

Nothing we have heard leads us to change our position on table games. The
topic needs a full debate. It must be discussed statewide, because the
benefits and the social costs will be felt statewide. It requires a
statewide vote.

Together, the counties with the four tracks with slots have about 18 percent
of the state's population. That is too small a group to make such a large
decision for everyone. Anyway, what happens at a racetrack casino in one
county affects neighboring counties. Most of Cabell County is closer to the
Cross Lanes racetrack than parts of Kanawha County are.

Earlier this month, Ohio voters turned down a proposal to have slot casinos
in their state. The result is not as important as the fact that people
everywhere got to vote on this important issue. West Virginia voters -- all
of them -- deserve that shame chance.

Expanding gambling is an important decision that goes beyond jobs and
tourism dollars. It deals with who we want to be and what we want our state
to be. That's too much for the people of four counties to decide.

More than 6 percent of Korean adults are gambling addicts. Korea Leisure
Industry Center said that some 2,400,000 Koreans or 6.6 percent of the adult
population were addicted to gambling as of December last year. Among them,
79.2 percent were men while 33 percent were in their 40s. While blue-collar
workers made up 54.2 percent of the total, white-collar workers were 16.7
percent. Crimes by gamblers such as homicide, robbery, burglary, and
violence are increasing. Thirty-five percent of thefts and 40 percent of
non-violent crimes were related to gambling. Seo Chun-bum, a director of
Korea Leisure Industry Center, said the figure is now estimated to be much
more higher, after ``Sea Story,'' a gambling scandal that shocked the nation
last summer. Seo added that the legal gambling industry has suffered from
decreasing income since 2004, and pointed out the growing number of illegal
game rooms are the main reasons for the trend. He also stressed that the
government needs to get involved in the gambling industry more aggressively.
Pastor Kim Kyu-ho also said that he will protest against lawyers who show a
timid approach to gambling issues.

The machines also tell players how much they will spend each game if they
make a particular choice, as well as their spending per minute and per hour.
Launching seven of the Aristocrat brand machines at Brisbane's Conrad
Treasury Casino today, Jupiters Ltd managing director Xavier Walsh said the
company recognised some customers had difficulties gambling responsibly.
This could lead to problems with family, friends and communities, he said.
"We don't want customers with gambling problems to be using our products and
we are committed to responsible gambling," Mr Walsh said. The Parliamentary
Secretary to the Treasurer, Neil Roberts, said the spending displays would
be installed progressively on new games as machines were updated.
Legislation was introduced in Queensland last year making it compulsory for
gambling venues to exclude patrons if they asked to be excluded. Since then,
virtually all venues have put staff and procedures in place to keep problem
gamblers out. "This clearly shows that venues and the industry as a whole
are committed to responsible gambling and that responsible gambling measures
are having a positive impact on patrons," Mr Roberts said.

Expect to hear a lot about gambling expansion in the coming months. West
Virginia's four racetrack casinos should make another push in the
Legislature for local option elections to allow table games. They want
people in the four counties with racinos -- Kanawha, Ohio, Hancock and
Jefferson -- to vote on allowing games such as blackjack, poker and roulette
along with the slot machines they have now. Gambling supporters will argue
that West Virginia is about to fall behind in the arms race for gaming
entertainment dollars. It's an argument West Virginians should be very wary
of. On Tuesday of last week, Pennsylvania's first slot casino opened for
business. According to The Associated Press, hundreds of gamblers, mostly
senior citizens who had waited hours in a foggy drizzle, poured into the
casino near Wilkes-Barre. Most of the 1,100 slot machines were occupied
within 10 minutes of the doors opening. Gov. Ed Rendell praised the casino's
opening as an important step in delivering property tax relief. Opponents of
gambling expansion predicted an increase in crime and other social problems.
The Pennsylvania Legislature has authorized as many as 61,000 slot machines
at 14 locations. Meanwhile, gambling supporters in Maryland hope Gov.-elect
Martin O'Malley will be more successful in bringing legal slots to that
state than outgoing Gov. Robert Erlich has been. O'Malley opposes casino
gambling and favors only a limited number of slot machines at tracks, and
even then mainly to preserve the horse racing industry and the farms that
support it, according to the AP. Maryland track owners say they are hurt by
competition from tracks in Delaware and West Virginia, which also have
slots. That sounds similar to what the racetrack casino owners in West
Virginia say about the upcoming competition from Pennsylvania slot casinos.

In at least one case, a casino owner is protecting itself by investing in
both states. MRT Gaming Group Inc., which owns Mountaineer Racetrack and
Gaming Resort in Hancock County, has an $80 million slot casino under
construction near Erie, Pa.

So the pressure for West Virginia to get ahead in this gambling version of
an arms race will be there for legislators this coming year. It might be out
in the open. It might be behind the scenes. But a lot of arm-twisting will
be going on.

Nothing we have heard leads us to change our position on table games. The
topic needs a full debate. It must be discussed statewide, because the
benefits and the social costs will be felt statewide. It requires a
statewide vote.

Together, the counties with the four tracks with slots have about 18 percent
of the state's population. That is too small a group to make such a large
decision for everyone. Anyway, what happens at a racetrack casino in one
county affects neighboring counties. Most of Cabell County is closer to the
Cross Lanes racetrack than parts of Kanawha County are.

Earlier this month, Ohio voters turned down a proposal to have slot casinos
in their state. The result is not as important as the fact that people
everywhere got to vote on this important issue. West Virginia voters -- all
of them -- deserve that shame chance.

Expanding gambling is an important decision that goes beyond jobs and
tourism dollars. It deals with who we want to be and what we want our state
to be. That's too much for the people of four counties to decide.

It has been five weeks now since the signing into law of the Unlawful
Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. Here is an update of online casinos,
sports books and online poker rooms that still welcome USA customers...The
list of online gambling sites that accept USA players seems to be settling
down for the moment. We will continue to update the list as required. The
links below will either take you to our reviews of the sites listed, or
directly to their websites. The lists below draw a distinction between sites
that accepts ALL USA based players, and those that restrict certain states.

THERE are many similarities - and a substantial difference - between the $4
billion media joint venture Kerry Stokes and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts entered
into yesterday and the deal James Packer struck with CVC Asia Pacific only a
month ago. While at face value they appear identical, with both media
proprietors selling half-shares in their media business, built around a
leading free-to-air network, to private equity firms, the key difference is
what they plan to do with the vast amounts of capital released. Unlike
Packer, who plans to deploy the $4.5 billion released from the sale of a 50
per cent stake in PBL Media into his faster-growing and higher-returning
gaming operations, Stokes has no gaming business or anything similar to it.
For Packer, the deal was a financing exercise driven by financial logic -
extracting capital from mature and low-growth assets to fund expansion into
an immature and high-growth sector. Acquisition currency was a secondary
benefit. For Stokes, the emphasis is on creating a currency for expansion in
a media sector that, thanks to Helen Coonan's reforms, is set for a
convulsive realignment of ownership. It was instructive that in announcing
the deal yesterday, Seven Network and KKR referred to the creation of a
vehicle with "the strategic and financial flexibility to take advantage of
the dynamics of the Australian and New Zealand media landscape". The
partners plan an expansion of their Australasian media interests in an
environment where, once the changes to cross-media and foreign ownership
rules are proclaimed, large slabs of the media previously denied to Stokes
and foreigners will be available.

Stokes already has a $200 million seat at the table, having snatched a 14.9
per cent stake in West Australian Newspapers last month. That stake will
remain within Seven Network, along with some pay TV rights and the C7
litigation - and the $3.2 billion of cash released by the deal with KKR.

Seven Media Group will have $350 million of initial acquisition funding
capacity, but that doesn't even hint at its actual capacity. Stokes says
Seven has no plans to return cash to shareholders, and with a balance sheet
that will contain no net debt and more than $2.5 billion of cash, he clearly
plans to redeploy the capital.

If Seven's $3.2 billion war chest were matched on a dollar-for-dollar basis
by KKR, one of the world's largest and more aggressive buy-out firms, and
geared on the same basis as Seven Media, the partners would have $17 billion
to spend. They could roll up WAN and Fairfax and still have half that $17
billion left to play with.

The relationship creates flexibility. Private equity firms, because of the
gearing - Seven Media will have $2.5 billion of debt sitting on $1.5 billion
of equity - need access to the underlying cash flows of any acquisition.
Stokes doesn't.

If the anticipated takeover frenzy does break out next year, Stokes will
have the capital and capacity to participate through Seven Network without a
guarantee of ending up with 100 per cent ownership. That gives him tactical
flexibility.

If he makes acquisitions and succeeds in achieving full ownership, the
assets can be on-sold into Seven Media and most of the capital extracted.
Equally, Seven Network and KKR could, where the situation dictates or where
there are no prospective synergies, create new vehicles and potentially
involve other investors.

KKR, the losing bidder for the half-share of PBL Media, must be glad it
missed out. Not only do Seven's TV operations have momentum, Stokes and his
team are focused almost exclusively on the sector.

There is potentially more growth and acquisitions in prospect for Seven
Media than its PBL counterpart, given PBL has competing demands for its
capital.

Like PBL, Stokes is a veteran deal-maker who traded media assets during the
last outbreak of takeover activity in the sector in the 1980s. This time,
both have found a way to keep their feet on their businesses while cashing
in on the bonanza created by the coincidence of the private equity
phenomenon and the frenzy around media assets - and the protection the
Coonan "reforms" provided for free-to-air network cash flows.

With CanWest considering its options for Ten Network, ownership of all three
networks might change even before the new laws are proclaimed.

The media joint ventures created by PBL and Seven create a currency for
otherwise high-priced acquisitions, thanks to their leverage, which greatly
reduces their cost of capital.

If the joint ventures go well, they will generate leveraged returns on the
capital contributed. If they don't go well, the media partners are
positioned to buy back the outstanding interest cheaply. In the meantime,
they have the use of the billions of dollars released.

For Seven, KKR's vast global network, its practically unlimited access to
cheap capital and its extensive experience in media businesses mean that
there are other possible value-adding dimensions to the relationship, both
in terms of the value that might be added to Seven's Media assets and the
possibility of expanding with KKR overseas.

Unlike PBL, Stokes did not conduct an auction for the interest in Seven
Media. That signals that in the aggressive KKR, he believes he has found a
partner that has more to contribute than cheap funding. There were
references to the "cultural fit" of the organisations - which could be
regarded as an indirect reference to their shared vision for really
aggressive expansion.

If no gambling zone appears in Krasnoyarsk Territory, there will be no
slot-machine in the region by 2009, Deputy-Governor Sergey Sokol announced.
Speaking about possible arrangement of a gambling zone in Krasnoyarsk
Territory, Sokol said the administration has ready proposals to build a
gambling zone in a southern district of the region. "We are not striving at
this, yet we have got ready proposals in compliance with all the
requirements set,' the deputy-governor stated. As KNews reported earlier,
Russia's President Vladimir Putin had introduced a bill to the State Duma.
According to the bill, all the casinos, betting companies and slot-machines
will be moved to four special zones: two in European Russia, one in Siberia
and one in Far East.

Rumors of another online gambling company indicted by the US Justice
Department have sent shockwaves through an industry still reeling from the
takedown of 33 stateside bookies and agents utilizing various offshore
gambling components. The stories circulating remain vague at this time,
however they have nothing to do with the high profile New York case that
came to light on Tuesday. "An attorney for the individual indicted confirmed
the story but would not reveal the identity or his/her relationship to a
specific company," said a Gambling911.com source. He suggested that more
news would become available on Monday but failed to elaborate further.
Gambling911.com was the first to report on 33 arrests by the Queens DA
office Tuesday. DA Richard A. Brown held a press conference the following
day to announce the indictments, considered the biggest case of its kind to
date with its focus on transportation of gambling proceeds between New York
and Las Vegas. The case scared many industry analysts after authorities
announced the first ever indictments of web designers in a case revolving
around online gambling. The Bronx-based enterprise offered "credit" betting
via a website located on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten. A defendant
in another high profile internet gambling case from last year provided
authorities with ammunition to go after the Bronx organization, headed up by
James Giordano, who resided in both New York and Miami. Giordanno is an
accomplished poker player. His Pro5 Sports and BetWithAl.com web gambling
companies are alleged to have been fronts for a major money laundering
outfit.

Labor immigration, anti-extremism measures and the decriminalization of the
gambling business were among the key issues the Russian president discussed
during a meeting with the leadership of the pro-Kremlin party Friday.
"Russia is interested in attracting workers and experts from abroad, and we
will consistently develop civilized relations in the labor migration field,"
Vladimir Putin told United Russia. The president called for the labor
migration environment to be improved to attract foreigners to the country
suffering an increasing demand for workforce. United Russia is the country's
best-represented party with 2,555 branches nationwide and 999,546 members
(as of March 6, 2006). The party dominates the State Duma, parliament's
lower house, many regional legislatures, and claims many governors as
members. In his speech, Putin highlighted the issue of social and cultural
adaptation of foreign employees in Russia, whose healthy integration in
society can root out the problem of interethnic and religious conflicts. The
problem came into the spotlight after the murder of two Russians in an
interethnic brawl in the northwestern town of Kondopoga sparked a wave of
racial violence in early September. The local community accused authorities
of failing to protect them or safeguard their interests, and of taking
bribes from criminal immigrant groups. Putin said the number of illegal
migrants in Russia may have reached 15 million. "According to current
information, only 500,000 out of 10 million foreigners working [in Russia]
are [officially] registered," the president said adding that their number is
likely to have been understated. Putin hailed amendments to migration laws
initiated by the party. "They simplify the registration of immigrants, on
the one hand, and envisage tough sanctions for illegal activity, on the
other," he said. Putin backed party leader Boris Gryzlov's idea to hold a
meeting between different parties on the problems of extremism. He spoke out
against using any extremism-provoking elements in political campaigns.
The Duma approved a bill this week on setting up four gambling zones to
tackle the rise in gambling outlets throughout the country. The president
proposed the new law after the Interior Ministry launched an operation to
check the financial, tax and sanitary-epidemiological documents of a variety
of gambling establishments in the capital allegedly linked to the Georgian
mafia.

Putin warned United Russia leaders of possible attempts to lobby for
increasing the number of gaming zones. "I am calling on United Russia not to
concede to such lobbying," he said.

A pub with three machines would see initial fees rocket from £32 to £200
when the Gambling Act goes live next September. Councils are asking for even
steeper fees. The proposed changes are included in the consultation on the
gambling fees from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). It
suggests fee levels for the new Licensed Premises Notification permits to
replace Licensed Premises Gaming Machine permits, which cost £32 with a £32
annual renewal fee. For pubs with one or two machines, the new permit would
cost £50. Pubs with more than two machines would have to fork out £150, plus
an extra £50 "annual maintenance" cost, which must be paid upfront. Councils
have already called for permits to operate more than two machines to
increase to a £439 - with annual maintenance costs of an astonishing £1,793.
Business in Sport and Leisure chief executive Brigid Simmonds said the
proposed price hikes would be felt most at the type of pubs likely to be
affected by next year's smoking ban. "We want people to go back to DCMS and
say, 'these fees are far too high, we want to have something that's far more
realistic for our pubs," she said.

A former part-time scout for the Washington Nationals who was arrested
Wednesday on charges of taking part in a major sports gambling operation was
not in position to affect Major League Baseball games, prosecutors in the
case said yesterday. The scout, Frank Falzarano, whose contract with the
Nationals was not renewed last month, was one of 27 people charged in what
New York prosecutors and police said was a lucrative, wide-ranging gambling
and money-laundering operation headed by Florida-based poker player James
Giordano. "I have no reason to believe that Frank Falzarano was in a
position to fix games based on his job with the Washington Nationals,"
Queens County District Attorney Richard A. Brown said through a spokesman
yesterday. Falzarano, 52, was charged with multiple "B" felonies, according
to Queens County prosecutors. Police said two handguns were seized from
Falzarano's Long Island home at the time of his arrest.Falzarano posted
$500,000 bail yesterday in Queens County Supreme Court. He faces a minimum
of one to three years and a maximum of 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison if
convicted. Prosecutors said Falzarano was known as a "distributor," or
"super runner," in the sprawling gambling operation that included betting on
football, baseball, basketball, golf, horse racing and hockey. "I can tell
you he entered a plea of not guilty and is looking forward to defending
himself in court," said Peter Tomao, Falzarano's attorney. "There's no
allegation in the indictment that he was fixing games." Nationals officials
yesterday referred to a statement issued by the club Wednesday evening. That
statement said Falzarano "was a part-time scout who worked for an area
scout, who is no longer with the club. Falzarano's contract with the
Nationals expired on October 31 and was not renewed." Falzarano also had
served as a scout for the San Francisco Giants and Florida Marlins,
according to law enforcement sources. Rich Levin, a spokesman for MLB, said
yesterday that the league had just learned of Falzarano's arrest and was
looking into it.

The Nationals' scouting staff numbered around 30 last season, according to
the team's media guide. The team recently added an additional 10 scouts.
Falzarano was not listed in the media guide, and the date of the start of
his association with the club could not be learned yesterday.

Falzarano had been a small-time scout, known as a "bird dog," with the
Nationals organization until his contract expired, according to team
sources. Former Nationals president Tony Tavares, who left the club in July
when local businessman Theodore N. Lerner bought the team, said he had never
heard of Falzarano.

"I don't know him," Tavares said yesterday. "He might have been a stringer
but was not on the payroll."

Prosecutors allege Falzarano supervised several "runners" who collected bets
from individuals. Falzarano then passed that money along to a bookmaker.
When bettors won, according to prosecutors, Falzarano passed money from the
bookmaker to the bettors. When bettors lost, Falzarano shared the winnings
with the bookmaker. Prosecutors said he was very active in the operation and
participated in the collection of millions of dollars per week from gamblers
throughout the country.

Rumors of another online gambling company indicted by the US Justice
Department have sent shockwaves through an industry still reeling from the
takedown of 33 stateside bookies and agents utilizing various offshore
gambling components. The stories circulating remain vague at this time,
however they have nothing to do with the high profile New York case that
came to light on Tuesday. "An attorney for the individual indicted confirmed
the story but would not reveal the identity or his/her relationship to a
specific company," said a Gambling911.com source. He suggested that more
news would become available on Monday but failed to elaborate further.
Gambling911.com was the first to report on 33 arrests by the Queens DA
office Tuesday. DA Richard A. Brown held a press conference the following
day to announce the indictments, considered the biggest case of its kind to
date with its focus on transportation of gambling proceeds between New York
and Las Vegas. The case scared many industry analysts after authorities
announced the first ever indictments of web designers in a case revolving
around online gambling. The Bronx-based enterprise offered "credit" betting
via a website located on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten. A defendant
in another high profile internet gambling case from last year provided
authorities with ammunition to go after the Bronx organization, headed up by
James Giordano, who resided in both New York and Miami. Giordanno is an
accomplished poker player. His Pro5 Sports and BetWithAl.com web gambling
companies are alleged to have been fronts for a major money laundering
outfit.

A pub with three machines would see initial fees rocket from £32 to £200
when the Gambling Act goes live next September. Councils are asking for even
steeper fees. The proposed changes are included in the consultation on the
gambling fees from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). It
suggests fee levels for the new Licensed Premises Notification permits to
replace Licensed Premises Gaming Machine permits, which cost £32 with a £32
annual renewal fee. For pubs with one or two machines, the new permit would
cost £50. Pubs with more than two machines would have to fork out £150, plus
an extra £50 "annual maintenance" cost, which must be paid upfront. Councils
have already called for permits to operate more than two machines to
increase to a £439 - with annual maintenance costs of an astonishing £1,793.
Business in Sport and Leisure chief executive Brigid Simmonds said the
proposed price hikes would be felt most at the type of pubs likely to be
affected by next year's smoking ban. "We want people to go back to DCMS and
say, 'these fees are far too high, we want to have something that's far more
realistic for our pubs," she said.

The Poker Players Alliance and executives for the American Gaming
Association (AGA) say they are hopeful that the recent political changes in
the U.S. Congress will help them overturn the Unlawful Internet Gambling
Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA). You may recall how the UIGEA was appended
onto to the sure-to-be-passed Safe Port Bill when most Senators had already
cast their votes and left, in the final hours before the
Republican-controlled Congress adjourned for mid-term elections. The UIGEA,
while not making online poker illegal, did made it illegal for banks and
financial institutions to process transactions for online gambling sites
from U.S. customers when it was signed into law on October 13. Regulations
that banks need to comply with have yet to be defined. A Government board
has until July 2007 to define them. AGA President Frank Fahrenkopf said the
AGA previously opposed online gambling, saying, "Our policy changed back in
April when we took a position that we thought the best way to go was to have
an independent commission look at it." Many analysts around that timeframe
noted how online gambling actually lead to previously hesitant players
coming to the physical casinos, swelling the number of overall casino
visitors, which likely helped change AGA's perspective. So the AGA board of
directors will meet December 6, said Fahrenkopf, to consider whether "to
support legislation in the new Congress calling for an independent study of
Internet gambling to see if it can be properly regulated, controlled, taxed
and licensed here in the United States." Fahrenkopf pointed out, "My guess
is that they are going to say let's go ahead and do it." This past week
Terry Lanni, chief executive of MGM Mirage who is an AGA board member, said
the UIGEA is "ridiculous" because it was signed into law Oct. 13 as part of
a larger port security bill -- and because it exempted horse races and
lotteries, and online bets placed while on American Indian land. Nevada
Representatives Jon Porter and Shelly Berkley had previously introduced a
bill to create a Congressional Commission to study Internet Gaming this past
May. But the bill died. Noteworthy is that both Porter and Berkley were
re-elected last week.

In contrast to the prior Congressional Commission proposed, if the AGA votes
for a study it has already said it prefers an independent commission such as
the National Academy of Sciences to do the study, noted Fahrenkopf, so
results are free from the influence of lobbyists.

AGA's board includes CEOs from some the biggest live casinos in Las Vegas,
such as Boyd Gaming CEO William Boyd, Harrah's Entertainment CEO Gary
Loveman, MGM Mirage CEO Terri Lanni mentioned above, and Wynn Resorts CEO
Stephen Wynn, amongst others.

Many bloggers have remarked if these well known casinos launch their own
online gambling sites then a large majority of players will play at them
because of brand recognition and huge marketing budgets, causing yet another
re-alignment in the online gambling industry.

In an interview with Reuters news service, Fahrenkopf also remarked how the
stated goal of the UIGEA was to protect American citizens. Instead, he
noted, it caused many legitimate and responsible operators to pull out of
the U.S. opening the way for unregulated companies to fill the void, since
most US players were likely to continue gambling online.

He did not go as far as many others have to call the legislation Prohibition
II, as did Pulitzer Prize-winning writer George F. Will in Newsweek's Oct
23rd edition and U.K. culture secretary, Tessa Jowell.

President of the 120,000-member Poker Players Alliance (PPA), Michael
Bolcerek, said that results of the Congressional election have emboldened
the PPA.

"Our members and other poker players went to the polls. They influenced the
federal election," he said. "In the next 12 months we're confident that
we'll get a study commission bill. We think an exemption [for online poker]
is in order, as well."

Legal expert professor I. Nelson Rose, of the Whittier Law School, harshly
criticized the UIGEA, saying how it is confusing and contradictory with all
its exemptions, and noting how a portion of the bill even sanctions Internet
betting conducted within states and tribal lands.

"It's a public embarrassment...it's a mess," said Rose. "Eventually I think
they'll get Congress to change the law to do for Internet poker exactly what
they did for Internet horse racing. It's an exemption but (based on) states'
rights."

US prosecutors charged 27 people on Wednesday after breaking up what they
described as a criminal international Internet gambling operation that had
taken billions of dollars in wagers. The network, which operated several
gambling Web sites including Playwithal.com, was alleged to be based in New
York with satellites in the Caribbean and Central America and to have taken
more than US$3.3 billion in wagers since July 2004 on a variety of sporting
events. Police and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested
suspects in an operation stretching from Las Vegas to New York and seized
hundreds of millions of dollars in property and assets. "Internet gambling
is a multibillion dollar worldwide industry that for too long has operated
with impunity," New York District Attorney Richard Brown said in a
statement. He said it was the first time Internet gambling charges had been
brought in the US since President George W. Bush signed the Unlawful
Internet Gambling Enforcement Act into law last month. He described the
alleged ring as "a tightly-knit and an incredibly lucrative -- and
illegal -- global gambling operation." Charges were filed against a Costa
Rica-based Internet company and suspects arrested in Las Vegas, Florida, New
Jersey and New York.

The proceeds from the operation were allegedly laundered through casinos,
shell corporations and bank accounts in locations around the globe,
including Central America, the Caribbean, Switzerland and Hong Kong.

"So massive was the enterprise that only with the assistance of federal law
enforcement, police authorities in sister states and other nations have we
been able to bring these defendants to justice," New York City Police
Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

Police involved in the case described the network as the largest illegal
gambling operation they had ever encountered.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in assets, including four Manhattan
apartments, millions of dollars in cash, tens of thousands of dollars worth
of casino chips and a rare art collection were seized in the operation.

It was the high-tech key to a massive, illegal gambling kingdom a laptop
computer that authorities say was owned by professional poker player James
Giordano.
Giordano, who rarely let the laptop out of his sight, unknowingly took a
gamble earlier this year by leaving it behind while attending a wedding in a
New York suburb, said police. In the three hours he and his wife were away
from their Long Island hotel room, New York Police Department investigators
armed with a search warrant and computer expertise sneaked in, found the
laptop on a desk and made a digital copy of the hard drive before the couple
returned.
The covert operation helped unlock a sophisticated online US$1
billion-a-year gambling scheme that rivaled casino sports books, authorities
said at a news conference announcing charges against Giordano and 26 other
defendants on Wednesday. Giordano, 52, was arrested early in the morning by
FBI agents who had to scale the walls of his fortress-like compound in Pine
Crest, Florida. "This is the largest illegal gambling operation we have ever
encountered," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. "It rivals casinos for
the amount of betting." Giordano and his accomplices allegedly laundered and
stashed away "untold millions of dollars" using shell corporations and bank
accounts in Central America, the Caribbean, Switzerland, Hong Kong and
elsewhere. Property seized since the bust includes four Manhattan
condominiums, millions of dollars in cash, tens of thousands of dollars
worth of Las Vegas casino chips and a football signed by the 1969 New York
Jets following their Super Bowl victory. Before his arrest Giordano was best
known for winning a Texas Hold 'em tournament at Las Vegas' Bellagio casino
worth nearly US$100,000 earlier this year.

THE Bracks Government has buckled to pressure over the integrity of its
gambling licence reviews, rushing out a confused policy late yesterday to
put a retired judge in charge of the process. Opposition Leader Ted
Baillieu, who called for a judicial inquiry into gaming issues on Wednesday,
said the Government's reaction was the "boldest admission" something
"stinks". Mr Bracks was accused this week of being too close to Tattersall's
lobbyist David White, a former Labor minister and Right-faction heavyweight.
Mr White boasted to his employers at the gaming company in 2003 about his
contacts in the top level of Government after dining privately at Lorne with
Mr Bracks and his wife, Terry. But even yesterday different arms of
Government seemed uncertain of the terms of its new policy. A press release
said the review would be into "gaming machine licences" - apparently
ignoring the recent storm of criticism over the renewal of the separate
lotteries licences. "While tenders are yet to be called for the gaming
licences, the Panel will add a final independent layer of scrutiny to the
process," Mr Bracks said in the statement. But a spokeswoman for Mr Bracks
later announced the review would cover all aspects of gambling, including
the lotteries licences review. This review, which was due to deliver a
finding two months ago, was delayed until after the election amid
allegations that the process had been unfair, had suffered political
interference, and that one or more participants had failed the probity
requirements. That process is now back before the Victorian Commission for
Gambling Regulation (VCGR), and Mr Bracks' spokeswoman confirmed the
commission's decision was also subject to review by the judicial panel. VCGR
executive commissioner Peter Cohen said he was "quite satisfied with its
processes", adding it would "cooperate fully with the panel". The panel will
also consider poker machine licences, due to be renewed in 2012, wagering
(racing) and club Keno licences.

Mr Baillieu responded to the review policy by calling for an "urgent
inquiry", and assurances that "all the documents associated with this are
not trashed, are not shredded".

"This stinks and the Premier knows it," Mr Baillieu said. "This is the
boldest admission when you are still trying to conceal what's going on. This
is a scandal and this is the evidence of it."

Opposition scrutiny of Government spokesman Richard Dalla-Riva said: "If
there is something that is highly corrupt by this Premier then there should
be a police investigation."

He said two Labor MPs were being investigated by police - member for Keilor,
George Seitz, and member for Ivanhoe, Craig Langdon. The matters do not
relate to gaming licences.

Mr Bracks said his licence review panel would be "an independent and
pristine process which will follow all the probity arrangements".

Its processes, unlike most others in the gambling area, would be conducted
openly, providing "assurances of transparency".

A Tattersall's spokesman said the company would work under any rules imposed
by whichever party won the election.

Gaming industry leaders say Internet gambling will thrive despite a recent
law effectively barring online betting in the United States. In October,
President Bush signed legislation making it illegal for U.S. banks and
credit card companies to process payments to gambling Websites But some
traditional U.S. casino operators view the rules as temporary and say a
shift away from online gaming is unlikely over the long-term. Internet
gambling has become illegal in the U.S. In 2005, Americans bet $8 million at
Websites. But legislation passed by the U.S. Congress has made it harder to
gamble online -- at least for now. Industry leaders, like Frank Fahrenkopf
from the American Gaming Association, doubt it will be enough to stop U.S.
gamblers. "I think what's going to happen is, number one, they will continue
to bet. They'll find other means to get their money to these offshore
sites". In Las Vegas, the home of American gambling, there's a different
view of the 'Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act' from the one in
Washington. While lawmakers aim to curb online gaming, Vegas is skeptical.
Casino operators believe demand will force Congress to permit online
gambling -- under strict government supervision. Rob Stillwell Rob
Stillwell, from Boyd Gaming, predicts American companies will eventually be
allowed to enter the market. "I think what it comes down to is a matter of
licensing and a matter of regulation. So to the extent that we can create
the mechanism by which to fairly regulate this business then I could see the
more traditional, commercial gaming companies getting involved". As U.S.
officials work toward a June 2007 deadline to find ways to enforce the new
rules - other countries are easing restrictions. The U.K. is looking to
regulate rather than restrict online gaming, bolstering the hopes of
Internet gambling businesses. Britain has warned that the U.S. legislation
could drive the industry underground.

Frank Fahrenkopf
Fahrenkopf adds, "Money always has a way of finding its way to where it
wants to go, so that's why I'm hopeful that the legislators, even those
legislators who are opposed to all forms of gambling, will realize, number
one, they're not going to stop it. Prohibition has never worked in this
country. It's better to regulate it. It's better to control it, it's better
to tax it".

The casino industry, fearing competition, has not always supported online
gambling but now it sees the Internet as a way to attract new gamblers

Rob Stillwell hopes lawmakers reverse course and permit U.S. companies to
get a slice of the action. "I think what the government may come to realize
is that people are gambling on the Internet anyway. And just because there's
this legislation that maybe prevents U.S.-born companies from profiting from
that type of activity, it's already happening".

Government proposals for gambling fees for premises and permits have been
slammed by trade officials as "outrageous". The Department for Culture Media
and Sport (DCMS) has published its long-awaited consultation on the fees,
which detailed a number of gambling price hikes. Business In Sport and
Leisure, an umbrella group which represents over 100 private sector
companies in the sport, hospitality and leisure industry, has criticised the
proposals, and warned that many British businesses may disappear as a
result. Brigid Simmonds, BISL chief executive, said: "DCMS has proposed
quite ridiculous fees for premises licences and gaming permits under the
Gambling Act 2005. Moreover, unlike liquor licensing, where local
authorities have sole responsibility for a bar or pub in terms of licensing,
responsibility for gambling is shared with the Gambling Commission. "To
charge small, family entertainment centres of even adult gaming centres over
£1,000 for the local authority to ensure that their premises is in full
working order is just a licence for local authorities to make money."

The shock news that Fairground Holdings is to terminate business as a result
of having to abandon US-facing online gambling activities arrived as the
week ended, a sad close to a brief but promising business future for the
agglomerator. In a public announcement Fairground reports that it is
voluntarily winding up its affairs following the need to halt US-facing
online gambling activities in the wake of the enactment of the Unlawful
Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Before taking this drastic course, the
directors of Fairground Gaming focused on finding ways of maximising
shareholder value and in doing so has considered a wide range of alternative
strategies. The board has now unanimously agreed that the best way forward
is to dispose of its gaming operations and infrastructure, notably the Spin
Palace group of online casino and poker venues, says the announcement. The
company has therefore entered into an agreement, conditional on shareholder
approval, to dispose of The Spin Palace Group in its entirety to Seahouses
Holdings Limited, the original owner and seller of the business, and a major
shareholder in the company. The main features of the proposed transaction
are a total selling price of GBP 11 095 000 satisfied by a cash payment of
GBP 5 090 000 and a complicated rearrangement of shares already held within
Fairground by the buyer. Once completed, these arrangements will enable
Seahouses to acquire The Spin Palace Group with all liabilities including
player balances, all leases and the group's obligations to all employees.

The Executive Directors of Fairground Gaming will not remain with the
operations which are being disposed of, but in any case Seahouses has
advised the Fairground that it has no intention to operate the business of
the Spin Palace Group in the United States.

The deal must be approved by Fairground shareholders, and to this end an
Extraordinary General Meeting is to be held on December 11 this year.

Effective from the date of the announcement, announcement, Fairground has
received irrevocable undertakings to vote in favour of the sale resolutions
from shareholders representing approximately 9.7 percent of shareholders
eligible to vote.

Fairground intends to liquidate Fairground Gaming and to distribute the cash
balance to the remaining non-Seahouses shareholders, who in aggregate will
hold 28 626 324 ordinary shares in the company, as a return of capital.
Once the sale has gone through Fairground expects that it will be left with
approximately GBP 6 160 000 in cash after providing for winding-up costs and
fees related to the sale.

It is estimated that this will yield approximately 21.5p per ordinary share
in the company and it is expected that this liquidation distribution will
take place by the end of February 2007. This payment would represent a
premium of approximately 68 percent to the average weighted price of an
ordinary share in the company from the period of 13 October 2006 when the
Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was signed into law to 16
November 2006 being the latest practicable date prior to the date of this
announcement.

Commenting on developments, Evan Hoff, CEO of Fairground Gaming said: "The
closure of our US-facing activity and the impact of that legislation on the
listed company environment continues to be deeply felt, with our business
now only marginally profitable. Accordingly, in the interests of maximising
value for our shareholders, we believe it is in the best interests of all
our shareholders to accept this offer for The Spin Palace Group and for the
Company to proceed along the lines announced today."

If this past election was a referendum on congressional budget earmarking
and good, old-fashioned pork-barreling, West Virginians did their part in
endorsing those practices when they re-elected certain congressional
incumbents. Now that Democrats have regained control of both houses of
Congress, you can bet West Virginia is about to see the federal dollars flow
once again. Remember the dire predictions of a funding crunch limiting the
Department of Transportation with its highway projects? Maybe some of those
much-needed road projects will become reality much sooner than we expected.
The people have spoken. They know what they like. Let the earmarking begin.
Ohio voters gave West Virginia racetrack and casino operators something of a
reprieve on Election Day. Buckeye voters turned down State Issue 3, an
amendment to the Ohio Constitution that would have permitted up to 31,500
slot machines at seven horse racing tracks and at two Cleveland non-track
sites and allow expanded gambling in the four Cuyahoga County locations if
that county's voters agreed. The proposal would have channeled 30 percent of
the revenue to the state's Board of Regents for college scholarships and
grants to eligible students and the administration of the program. Of the
3.7 million ballots cast, about 57 percent of Ohio voters -- and 82 of 88
counties -- rejected the initiative. That means Ohio's decision eliminated
the arrival of additional competition for West Virginia's racetracks at
least for the time being. Interestingly, voters in some of Ohio's largest
counties favored State Issue 3. Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), Hamilton County
(Cincinnati) and Trumbull County (Warren) favored it, while the issue went
down by two-to-one margins in many small, rural counties. But Ohio's
decision is hardly the end of the story. Pennsylvania has kicked off its
gambling enterprises, and those new slot operations are sure to compete with
West Virginia's Northern Panhandle tracks in particular. West Virginia
racetracks have tried for years to usher table games legislation through the
West Virginia Legislature. Lawmakers have run in fear in the past, wary of a
voter backlash if they expand gambling in the state. But time is running
out, and more and more legislators are aware the state has an interest in
protecting its gambling revenues.

Ohio may be off the table for now, but Pennsylvania will squeeze the
Northern Panhandle tracks and their revenues. Track managers support local
option voting on whether to permit table games at the Mountaineer and
Wheeling Island complexes. Track operators argue that table games, such as
blackjack and craps, will allow them to attract new customers, maintain and
even expand employment and preserve the amount of money they generate for
the state.

Moralists in the Legislature have argued they oppose gambling. That's a
hollow argument. West Virginia is up to its eyeballs in gambling, and the
Legislature is faced with an obvious choice: Act now to legalize table games
at the tracks and preserve state revenues or prepare to raise taxes or
reduce government services. That's a fairly simple equation.

And while they're at it, maybe they could find a way to get rid of the 8,500
or so limited video lottery slot machines that operate in gambling parlors
on street corners from Newell to Bluefield. The racetracks generally are
isolated destinations that appeal to many out-of-state patrons. Video slot
parlors, on the other hand, are lined up next to the local barber shop,
drugstore and dry cleaners. For my money, they have been a pox on the fabric
of West Virginia neighborhoods.

Speaking of Ohio, voters also approved by a 58 percent to 42 percent margin
State Issue 5, which drastically restricts smoking in public places. Unlike
West Virginia, whose anti-smoking forces have waged their war one county at
a time, Ohio's anti-smoking army won with a statewide vote.

The Toledo Blade on Nov. 12 quoted Patrick Reynolds as predicting that
America one day will be smoke-free. The grandson of the founder of R.J.
Reynolds Tobacco Co., a former smoker and now an anti-smoking activist said
passage of smoking bans in Ohio, Arizona and Nevada on Nov. 7 was the
"tipping point" in the movement.

"Ohio is very important," the Blade quoted Reynolds as saying. "It's
heartland. As Ohio goes, so goes the nation, according to popular lore. It's
a bellwether state. If you can convince Ohioans, then it's an idea whose
time has probably come."

The new law is scheduled to go into effect Dec. 7 and will prohibit smoking
in restaurants, bars, workplaces and all other indoor public places with
some exceptions, such as private clubs that don't serve or employ nonmembers
and wholly family-owned and family-operated businesses.

Twenty-seven people, including a Pince Crest man and a former pro baseball
scout, were charged in a billion-dollar-a-year gambling ring. New York City
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says the illegal gambling ring quote --
"rivals casinos for the amount of betting." The massive betting ring was run
through a web site called Playwithal-dot-com, run by the poker player, James
Giordano, of Pine Crest, Florida. A break in the case came last year when
New York Police Department investigators secretly hacked into a laptop
computer that Giordano had left in a Long Island hotel while attending a
wedding. Also arrested was Frank Falzarano, of Seaford, on Long Island, a
one-time scout for the Washington Nationals. He allegedly was a top earner
in a network of two-thousand bookies who took more than three-point-three
billion dollars in cash bets since 2004.

WEB SECURITY FIRM ScanSafe has detected a 40 per cent increase in US-based
requests for online gambling sites, even after legislation was passed by
Georgey Bush with the "Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act." The act
makes it illegal for US banks and brokers to transfer funds to and from web
gambling sites. The firm delivered its findings in its Global Threat Report
covering instant messaging, spyware and viruses. Vice president of product
strategy at ScanSafe, Dan Nadir said that a drop in visits to gambling sites
was expected following the new law. "However, we actually saw an increase in
web requests from the US for online gambling sites," he said. Nadir added
that a fair few of the web requests were related to betting on the October
World Series, which could have been "compounded by gamblers looking to
register with alternative providers before further regulations clarifying
the Act are put into place."

Critics of the recently released study on problem gambling are being
needlessly harsh in their dismissal of the research. The study by UPEI
professor Jason Doiron is neither misleading nor irrelevant. Rather it is
incomplete. Doiron looked at the prevalence of problem gambling in the
spring of 2005 and compared it to the numbers from a similar study conducted
in 1999 and found there was no significant difference. Since there was no
significant change in the availability of gambling products over that same
time period, the result is not shocking. If nothing changes in gambling,
nothing changes in problem gambling. That's good to know, because something
significant has changed in gambling since the spring of 2005. That something
is the Charlottetown Driving Park Entertainment Centre. Unlike the
environment in 1999 or early 2005, there now exists a facility purposefully
built and promoted as a gaming centre. The CDP has a room set aside for
nothing but video lottery terminals -giving the city a casino/arcade where
once gamblers had to lay their bets at either the track, the bar or the
cornerstore. Backers of the CDPEC have said it won't contribute to gambling
addictions. Opponents have predicted that social and familial decay will
emanate from the facility. Now Doiron or some other researcher has the
necessary ingredients for a study looking at what happens to problem
gambling in a community when there is a major and controversial change in
the gambling market. Hopefully government and the Atlantic Lottery
Corporation have the courage to fund such a study. It would be useful to add
some objectivity to the lingering debate about whether the CDPEC is a plague
or a panacea. Both of these parties have invested a lot of money at the
track and have an interest in seeing it succeed. But all Islanders have an
interest in knowing if a gaming hall built to help the racetrack is leading
vulnerable people into crippling addictions.

Michael Jordan could become an investor in a slot-machine parlor in
Philadelphia, state gambling regulators were told Wednesday. The
Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board concluded hearings on applications by five
groups competing for licenses in what could be the nation's largest city
with stand-alone casinos. Las Vegas-based Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. said
if it gets a license, Robert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment
Television, would be a partner. Johnson told regulators he would sell part
of his one-third stake in the slots parlor to Jordan, a partner of Johnson's
in the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats. Attaching a celebrity's name would help
improve its draw, he said. The gaming board vote is Dec. 20.

With the opening of the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, Pennsylvania's
slot-machine era is officially underway. For better or for worse, the
Poconos racino proudly announced "Phase One of casino project is now open."
It features two floors packed with nearly 1,100 slot machines, from the
popular Wheel of Fortune to Double Diamonds to the brand spanking new Deal
or No Deal. For more than a few gamblers, however, the availability of slots
will prove to be a bad deal.
We've all heard the stories. Stories told by the likes of Billy Maguire, a
Louisville, Ky., resident who lost all his money, his wife and almost his
life. After years of video gaming losses, divorced and bankrupt Maguire put
the business end of a shotgun in his mouth and prayed for the courage to
pull the trigger. He managed to develop a different kind of courage instead.
He picked up a phone and called a gambling-addiction hotline for help.
Experts say that about one in 15 people who play slot machines will develop
a gambling problem, if not a full-blown addiction. Pathological gambling has
ruined countless lives. And yet, so has alcoholism and we allow people to
drink in this country. The social costs are huge but then so are the social
costs of trying to outlaw such behaviors. Slot machines have come a long way
since the first one was invented by Charles Fey in 1887 in San Francisco.
Rarely anymore do you hear the sound of real coins hitting a metal tray,
even if you are lucky enough to hit a jackpot.

Today it's all sound effects, beeps and boops! And machines pay out in
vouchers instead of cash. As the Mohegan Sun points out, it makes for a
"more hassle-free gaming experience."

Anything that takes the "hassles" out of gambling is a good thing,
especially for the casino owner. The fewer the hassles, the faster players
can slide their hard-earned money into the bill slot. But don't take us for
bunch of blue-nose scolds.

Better all those who would travel to Atlantic City or Delaware to lose (or
win) a few bucks, did it here instead. That way, at least, the money stays
in state to help pay for the sort state programs taxpayers have come to want
and expect.

Yes, gambling is a regressive way to tax citizens. And yes, a certain number
of people will end up like Billy Maguire or worse.But, in the long run, the
jobs the gaming industry will provide, plus the entertainment value for
those of us who will never gamble away our mortgage payments, will make it a
bet worth taking.

Besides, as Eddie Felson said in "The Color of Money," "Money won is twice
as sweet as money earned."

There is a perverse truth in that.

For better or for worse gaming is here to stay in Pennsylvania.

Make that for better and for worse. And it's soon to be at a racino near you
(in Chester).

In the 1930s, it was the New Deal.

Today, it's the Deal or No Deal era.

Just remember, you don't have to play.

Twenty-seven people, including a Pince Crest man and a former pro baseball
scout, were charged in a billion-dollar-a-year gambling ring. New York City
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says the illegal gambling ring quote --
"rivals casinos for the amount of betting." The massive betting ring was run
through a web site called Playwithal-dot-com, run by the poker player, James
Giordano, of Pine Crest, Florida. A break in the case came last year when
New York Police Department investigators secretly hacked into a laptop
computer that Giordano had left in a Long Island hotel while attending a
wedding. Also arrested was Frank Falzarano, of Seaford, on Long Island, a
one-time scout for the Washington Nationals. He allegedly was a top earner
in a network of two-thousand bookies who took more than three-point-three
billion dollars in cash bets since 2004.

Criminal charges have been brought against more than two dozen people and
corporations in four states in connection with a billion-dollar-a-year
gambling website, authorities said yesterday. Authorities declined to name
any of those charged. One of the corporations is an offshore Internet
company with an American counterpart, said Kevin Ryan, a spokesman for
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. Ryan said the case is "one of the
first times that a web designer corporation and the companies that maintain
the websites have been charged." He said the arrests by the DA's office and
the New York Police Department represent the first time that Internet
gambling charges have been brought since President George W. Bush signed
into law last month the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Ryan
said arrests had been made in four states, and "we have initiated a
$500-million asset forfeiture case," one of the largest in state history.
The charges come after a two-year international investigation that focused
on Internet gambling.

The fate of a stalled plan to bring the largest video gaming parlor in the
country to Queens could rest in the hands of Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer.
The 4,500-Video Lottery Terminal parlor was set to open this year at
Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, but is now on indefinite hold after the
track's owner declared bankruptcy.
"The delay in approving this is what drove us to bankruptcy in the first
place," said Aqueduct spokesman Bill Nader, referring to the racetrack's
owner, the New York Racing Association. "Once we do get approval, the
revenue going to New York state from these machines will be the same revenue
as all the Atlantic City gambling combined provides the state of New
Jersey." The devices look like traditional slot machines but are actually
"video lottery terminals," or VLTs, and use a different equation than slots
to calculate winners. Players can't tell the difference. The racing
association filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, preventing the New York
Lottery, which supervises the eight other video lottery sites in the state,
from approving the Aqueduct parlor. The delay stemmed in part from the
financial problems at the racing association. Now the fate of what would be
the city's first legal gambling hall is in the hands of Spitzer, who will
decide whether to find new management for Aqueduct. Representatives for
Spitzer's transition team were not immediately available for comment
Wednesday evening. "If and when the VLTs open at Aqueduct, they will be a
huge draw," said Bennett Liebman, coordinator of the Racing & Gaming Law
Program at Albany Law School. "You have such an enormous market to draw from
in New York City, and a regular player will not be able to tell the
difference between that and Atlantic City."

Extremely profitable VTL halls are up and running at Yonkers Raceway and
seven other racetracks upstate. They are all open seven days a week, from 10
a.m. to 2 a.m, and brought in more than $12 million last year.

The State Supreme Court recently validated the legalilty of the video
terminals, half of whose proceeds benefit public schools.

Seventy years ago, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia lifted a sledgehammer and
personally wrecked dozens of slot machines confiscated from gangster Frank
Costello. Now the city is poised to have a legal video terminal parlor with
yearly profits beyond Costello's wildest dreams.

A massive online gambling operation was shut down Wednesday with the
indictment of 27 individuals and three corporations on charges of unlawfully
operating a highly sophisticated operation in Queens County and elsewhere in
the world that booked more than $3.3 billion in wages over a 28-month period
on a wide variety of sporting events ranging from horseracing, football,
baseball, basketball and hockey to NASCAR, PGA golf and professional tennis,
among others. "Internet gambling is a multi-billion dollar worldwide
industry that for too long has operated with impunity. This case represents
the first time Internet gambling charges have been brought against anyone in
this country since President Bush signed into law last month the Unlawful
Internet Gambling Enforcement Act which prohibits American online gamblers
from using electronic funds transfers, credit cards and checks in placing
bets with gambling sites worldwide", Queens district attorney Richard Brown
said. "The case also marks the first time that a web designer and an
offshore based Internet company have been charged with directly
participating in a criminal enterprise. In addition, the $500 million asset
forfeiture case commenced against the defendants is among the largest such
cases ever filed", he added.
"The defendants are accused of running a tightly knit and an incredibly
lucrative - and illegal - global gambling operation. It is alleged that they
were as savvy and adept in the use of computer technology as they were
proficient in the art of secreting and laundering untold millions of dollars
in unlawfully earned proceeds through casinos, shell corporations and bank
accounts in a variety of locations around the globe, including Central
America, the Caribbean, Switzerland, Hong Kong and elsewhere. So massive was
the enterprise that only with the assistance of federal law enforcement,
police authorities in sister states and other nations have we been able to
bring these defendants to justice", Brown said.

A 33-count enterprise corruption indictment filed in Queens County Supreme
Court charges that the gambling ring promoted illegal sports betting in
Queens County and elsewhere and that the defendants were involved with
gambling wire rooms in both Miami and St. Maarten. Twenty of the defendants
are also being sued civilly and have been named as respondents in a historic
$500 million civil forfeiture action filed in Queens Supreme Court by the
District Attorney's Special Proceedings Bureau which alleges that they
engaged in a criminal enterprise that promoted illegal gambling activities
and generated illegal wages.

Brown said that detectives assigned to the New York City Police Department's
Organized Crime Control Bureau, as well as federal agents throughout the
country arrested the defendants over the past few days on charges of
enterprise corruption, a violation of New York State's Organized Crime
Control Act, as well as money laundering, promoting gambling, possession of
gambling records and conspiracy.

The investigation leading to the indictment began in July 2004 when NYPD
officers assigned to the Queens Major Case Squad and the Queens Narcotics
District developed information about an illegal betting ring and began a
joint investigation with the District Attorney's Organized Crime and Rackets
Bureau. The investigation included physical surveillance, intelligence
information and court-authorized electronic eavesdropping on nearly 30
different telephones that intercepted tens of thousands of conversations.

According to the indictment, between July 14, 2004, and Nov. 2, 2006, the 30
defendants conspired to acquire money illegally through the operation of an
unlawful gambling enterprise involving the use of an Internet website.

The indictment also alleges that the ring used a non-traditional "wire room"
in the form of an off-shore, Internet-based gambling service used by bettors
and runners to actually place their wagers. It is alleged that the ring used
the off-shore wire room to maintain the gambling accounts of numerous
runners and bettors through the Internet website in an effort to evade law
enforcement detection through traditional methods.

Law enforcement crackdowns on traditional mob-run wire rooms have led to the
use by illegal gambling rings of off-shore gambling websites where action is
available around the clock. Bettors can click on an off-shore gambling
website over the Internet and be assigned individual login codes and
passwords.

Their wagers and win-loss amounts are recorded in "sub-accounts" maintained
in the accounts of "runners" and "agents." These gambling websites typically
store their information on computer servers outside the United States, such
as in Costa Rica, and "bounce" their data through a series of server nodes
in an effort to evade law enforcement.

In carrying out the alleged conspiracy, it is charged that Primary
Development, Inc., and its chief executive officer, Maurice Freeman,
developed a sports betting website,specifically tailored to meet the needs
of James W. Giordano and his son-in-law, Daniel B. Clarin. The website,
which is literally a computerized betting sheet, is known as "Playwithal
Sportsbook" and is advertised as an "innovative sports gaming company."
Playwithal is accessible both online and via an "800" toll-free telephone
number. Although the web page is hosted in Tampa, Fla., its web servers and
wire room terminal are situated outside the United States - on St. Maarten
in the Caribbean or, more recently, in Costa Rica.

In furtherance of the alleged conspiracy, Prolexic Technologies, Inc.,
allegedly provided security of Playwithal's web servers by screening
bettors' Internet protocol addresses to search for viruses or tracking
programs that could be used to hack into Playwithal's servers. Digital
Solutions, S.A., a company incorporated under the laws of Costa Rica, and
its American counterpart, D.S. Networks, S.A., Inc., allegedly provided the
site with its servers, data and software.

The indictment charges that Giordano was the "bookmaker" and boss of the
enterprise who controlled and oversaw the entire operation. The indictment
further charges that Clarin worked as the "controller" and was responsible
for managing the day-to-day operations and handling bettor disputes and
accounting discrepancies, as well as managing account information of the
various runners and bettors.

According to the indictment, Giordano's wife, Priscilla Ann Giordano, and
their daughter, Melissa Clarin, who is Clarin's wife, worked as "financial
officers" and facilitated the transfer of monetary instruments representing
gambling proceeds through accounts under their control in financial
institutions overseas and elsewhere.

The indictment also charges that five defendants, Frank Lobascio, Frank
LaMonica, Ralph Piccirilli, Monte Weiner, and Steven C. Tarantino, worked as
"money collectors" and were responsible for exchanging, distributing,
delivering and transferring gambling proceeds between members of the
organization, including to and from agents/runners. Some of the collectors
were also allegedly involved in exchanging, distributing, delivering and
transferring gambling proceeds through various financial institutions.

State Duma deputies unanimously gave tentative approval Wednesday to a bill
that would tighten the screws on gamblers and ultimately ban gambling except
in four special zones from 2009. But the legislation -- criticized for
clumsy wording and prohibiting activities such as betting on friendly card
games in private homes -- is widely expected to undergo drastic changes
before it passes a second reading, probably later this year. "There is no
doubt the bill will change beyond recognition," said Yevgeny Kovtun, a
spokesman for the Gaming Business Association, whose members have been
operating in Russia for the past decade. The bill, submitted by President
Vladimir Putin last month, sailed through a first reading Wednesday by a
vote of 440-0 and one abstention. Under the bill, small slot-machine halls
and casinos will be closed next July, when a minimum gambling age of 18 and
other restrictions come into effect. Duma deputies stressed the need for
national gambling regulations, but said the legislation must clarify how the
four gambling zones would be set up. The current version does not outline
how many of the zones would be established inside residential areas. Also,
it does not provide a mechanism for creating the zones, which is also key to
the legislation's success, United Russia Deputy Igor Dines said. Federal
authorities would grant five-year licenses for operation inside the zones.

The exact locations of the four zones have not been chosen, but Duma Speaker
Boris Gryzlov has said two zones will be in European Russia, one in Siberia
and one in the Far East.

The first zone will be created in July, Putin's representative to the Duma,
Alexander Kosopkin, said during his presentation of the bill on Wednesday.

Moscow does not plan to apply for the status of a gambling zone, a Moscow
deputy mayor, Iosif Ordzhonikidze said last month. This means that the 537
gaming establishments that are licensed to operate in Moscow would need to
close or relocate to a special zone by 2009.

The national gambling industry, with revenues surpassing $5 billion per
year, could shrink by at least 70 percent next summer, according to the
Association for the Development of the Gaming Business.

Slot-machine halls smaller than 100 square meters and casinos smaller than
800 square meters would be outlawed beginning in July.

The bill does not address how businesses that took out loans or began
expansion before the Kremlin drafted the legislation would recoup their
investments, Kovtun said.

The bill, nevertheless, easily passed the first reading because gambling is
a hot-button political issue.

"The reason we are discussing this bill is clear. It is elections," Liberal
Democratic Party of Russia leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky said.

Duma elections are scheduled for December next year and the presidential
vote is scheduled for 2008.

Communist Deputy Sergei Reshulsky said approving the current version of the
bill was "the lesser of two evils." An imperfect law is better than no
federal law at all, he said.

About 3 percent of Russians gamble at least once per month, according to a
survey by the independent Levada Center in October. Most people who gamble
are under 40, it said.

Gambling businesses are pushing to soften the bill's provisions and extend
the gambling ban beyond 2009.

"What stance the presidential administration takes on this situation is
important," said Duma Deputy Alexander Lebedev, an outspoken gambling
critic.

The fate of a stalled plan to bring the largest video gaming parlor in the
country to Queens could rest in the hands of Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer.
The 4,500-Video Lottery Terminal parlor was set to open this year at
Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, but is now on indefinite hold after the
track's owner declared bankruptcy.
"The delay in approving this is what drove us to bankruptcy in the first
place," said Aqueduct spokesman Bill Nader, referring to the racetrack's
owner, the New York Racing Association. "Once we do get approval, the
revenue going to New York state from these machines will be the same revenue
as all the Atlantic City gambling combined provides the state of New
Jersey." The devices look like traditional slot machines but are actually
"video lottery terminals," or VLTs, and use a different equation than slots
to calculate winners. Players can't tell the difference. The racing
association filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, preventing the New York
Lottery, which supervises the eight other video lottery sites in the state,
from approving the Aqueduct parlor. The delay stemmed in part from the
financial problems at the racing association. Now the fate of what would be
the city's first legal gambling hall is in the hands of Spitzer, who will
decide whether to find new management for Aqueduct. Representatives for
Spitzer's transition team were not immediately available for comment
Wednesday evening. "If and when the VLTs open at Aqueduct, they will be a
huge draw," said Bennett Liebman, coordinator of the Racing & Gaming Law
Program at Albany Law School. "You have such an enormous market to draw from
in New York City, and a regular player will not be able to tell the
difference between that and Atlantic City."

Extremely profitable VTL halls are up and running at Yonkers Raceway and
seven other racetracks upstate. They are all open seven days a week, from 10
a.m. to 2 a.m, and brought in more than $12 million last year.

The State Supreme Court recently validated the legalilty of the video
terminals, half of whose proceeds benefit public schools.

Seventy years ago, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia lifted a sledgehammer and
personally wrecked dozens of slot machines confiscated from gangster Frank
Costello. Now the city is poised to have a legal video terminal parlor with
yearly profits beyond Costello's wildest dreams.

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 won't stop online
gambling but it will cause consolidation in the industry and a further
example of this was announced today as Bodog is now the proud new owner of
Betcorp's operating subsidiaries. Bodog agreed to buy out Betcorp for a
reported $9 million. Betcorp operated the highly successful online
sportsbook BetWWTS.com as well as the lesser-known Oasis sportsbook. In
addition Betcorp operated BetHoldem Poker, an online poker room, and three
online casinos, most notably Thunderbolt Casino. The deal was finalized
earlier today when Betcorp's shareholders agreed to sell. It must come as
small consolation to them as the company was decimated by the new internet
gambling law in the United States. The valuation of Betcorp is a fraction of
what the company was worth a few months ago. 85% of the company's revenue
was generated by US gamblers and following this new online gambling bill
they decided to ban Americans from betting on their websites. Bodog, which
is privately held and does not have to answer to shareholders, has no such
problems and scooped up these various online gambling operations for an
absolute song. If you hold a BetWWTS account or an account at any of the
other operations previously owned by Betcorp then you now have a Bodog
account as they have migrated all the old accounts over.

Bodog is owned by the maverick billionaire Calvin Ayre who appears unlikely
to back down to the US government as he continues to build his gambling
empire, safe (for now) in his mansion in Costa Rica.

There is serious talk that a new riverboat casino may be coming to
Kentuckiana. But while riverboat gambling has the approval of Clark County
voters, it still faces opposition up and down the Ohio. WAVE 3 Investigator
Eric Flack has more. Officials say it's not a matter of "if" riverboat
gambling is coming to Clark County. "I think it's a matter of when," said
Doug England, President of the Floyd County-Clark County Tourism Bureau.
Less than a week after 61 percent of voters approved a referendum to
legalize riverboat gambling in Clark County, three different gaming
companies have reportedly expressed interest in coming to Jeffersonville.
That came as no surprise to tourism officials, who see the waterfront as
prime real estate for a casino. "It's Indiana, it's Kentucky, it's 65, 71
and 64," England said. "I mean it's such a great location for it." Not so
great for Churchill Downs, which has already seen a 24 percent drop in
betting and an 18 percent drop in attendance since Caesars opened eight
years ago. "Certainly, any new form of competition, considering the impact
its already had on our business here locally, is something for us to be
concerned about," said Churchill Spokeswoman Julie Koenig-Loignon

That concern is now shared by both Caesars, which stands to lose money if a
new boat comes to town; and state representative Bob Bischoff of
Lawrenceburg, whose district includes three riverboats near Cincinnati.

Some believe Clark County will try to lure one of those boats here.

"Oh, I would have a lot of reservations about that," Rep. Bischoff said.

"I think they have the cart ahead of the horse here."

But Clark County is confident the gaming companies will bet on them.

"Their purpose in life is to give their investors back a return on their
money," England said.

And they say the money is right here in Kentuckiana.

Insiders think it is a long shot that the Indiana Gaming Commission would
create an entirely new license, which is why Clark County would have to hope
someone wants to relocate.

It will probably not be Caesars, which has just started a $50 million
renovation to its Harrison County facility.

The general manager at Caesars also said there has never been a gaming
license transferred from one county to the other, so there are a number of
hurdles still remaining for this to happen.

The CEO and president of the American Gaming Association, Frank Fahrenkopf
sounded a positive note on the wider industry this week in an interview with
Reuters news agency on the political changes arising from the recent US
mid-term elections. The top gambling executive said that the new
Democrat-dominated Congress will put pro-casino politicians in key
leadership positions as the American Gaming Association considers a push to
study the legalisation of Internet gambling. "I think the change on balance
is positive," Frank Fahrenkopf, a former chairman of the Republican National
Committee told Reuters, adding that a major challenge of the trade group has
been educating legislators about the business, and "the new leadership is
familiar with our industry." Sen. Harry Reid, a moderate Nevada Democrat and
former casino regulator, was elected by colleagues this week as U.S. Senate
majority leader for the 110th Congress that will convene in January. "He
probably knows our industry better than anyone," Fahrenkopf said. The new
Republican leader in the Senate is expected to be Mitch McConnell of
Kentucky, a "gambling state" in Fahrenkopf's words. Sen. Trent Lott, a
Republican from Mississippi, where casinos dot the U.S. Gulf Coast, is
angling for the job of assistant minority leader in the Senate. In the
House, there will be "dramatic changes in committee chairmanships,"
Fahrenkopf said. Rep. Charles Rangel, the New York Democrat expected to
chair the Ways and Means Committee, has been to Las Vegas to tour the inner
workings of casinos "many, many times," according to the head of the gaming
association.

Rep. John Conyers, expected to head the Judiciary Committee, is from
Detroit, where he has seen "how casinos can benefit the economy," Fahrenkopf
said. Conyers was also the politician who attempted to interest Congress in
a study of online gambling last year.

Fahrenkopf also noted that Bennie Thompson, expected to chair Homeland
Security, is from Tunica, Mississippi.

And Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank, who is expected to chair the
Financial Services Committee, has a libertarian approach to gambling and
does not believe that the U.S. should be telling people how to spend their
money, Fahrenkopf said.

The Gaming Association is expected to decide in December whether to pursue
legislation calling for an independent study of online gambling, says
Reuters.

"We think it might be time to see if there is a way to regulate and control
online gaming," Fahrenkopf said.

The arrests in the United States of executives from British companies
involved in online sports betting and passage in October of a U.S. law
barring banks from transactions involving Internet gambling have led most
legitimate operators to pull our of the U.S. market, he said.

"The goal was to protect U.S. consumers, but I think the impact has been the
exact opposite. The responsible companies have pulled out, only leaving
about 2 000 fly-by-night Web sites," Fahrenkopf said.

The gambling bill submitted by President Vladimir Putin in October spells
out really tough measures. The idea is moving all gambling houses of Russia
to four special zones by January 1, 2009. The zones are to be created by
July 1, 2007. Moreover, the gambling houses with assets below 600 million
rubles won't survive at all.
But the bill is likely to be softened. The sources say once the State Duma
passes it in the first reading, the deputies will come up with certain
amendments authorizing the government to extend the transition period at its
discretion. The transition period is to take from seven to 12 years, said
Oleg Zhuravsky, president of Internet Gambling Association and National
Association of Bookmakers. Moreover, the government will have no time to
create a single zone by July 1, 2007, said nearly everyone involved in the
bill's discussion in the State Duma. So, the ministers will hardly miss the
chance to prolong the time of transition.

Internet gambling sites saw a drop in traffic last month as President George
W. Bush signed a measure aimed at banning most online wagering in the U.S.
Measurements of online traffic by Nielsen/NetRatings show that the number of
unique U.S. visitors to any of 10 Web sites tracked dropped 56 percent from
September. Nielsen/NetRatings said the decrease followed a year of steady
growth - and there still was a growth of 19 percent recorded in October
compared with the same month in 2005.

In an interview with the publication WWMT this week Professor Bill Eadington
of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming says that
the publicly traded companies from the UK have become very significant
players in the business and this has increased integrity and trust levels in
the industry in general. WWMT points out that growth estimates on Internet
gambling tend to be conservative, since nobody really knows how many sites
are out there, how many new ones open each week across the globe, or
possibly each day. Analysts are often not even sure how many people are
playing, since many sites don't release statistics on players, or even money
earned. Professor Bill Eadington can make an educated estimate, however.
Eadington uses Party Gaming as an example of the potential of online gaming
public companies, commenting that when the company went public over a year
ago its value was estimated around $10-billion. "That's the same size as
Harrahs or MGM - two major American companies," Eadington said adding that
Party Gaming [prior to the recent clampdown through the Unlawful Internet
Gambling Enforcement Act] earned $1.5 billion primarily from internet
poker - 75 percent of its business originating in the United States.
Eadington is quick to note that many countries have decided to legalise,
regulate and tax online gambling sites. He says the goal is to legitimise
the business and make money from it, and "....a lot of publicly traded
companies from the UK have become very significant players in the game. What
this has done is increase integrity levels, the trust in the game. Sites
have benefited from becoming a legal regulated industry. There have been a
number of publicly traded companies in the UK, Gibraltar or Malta who have a
level of confidence with players especially around internet poker and sports
wagering."

Ten years ago Internet gambling sites were often viewed as shady operations,
comments WWMT. Players never really knew if the games were legitimate, who
was really running the site and whether they'd even get paid.

Now with major sites running as businesses listed on Stock Exchanges around
the world, many gamblers see them as trustworthy.

But online gambling may be in jeopardy in the United States, WWMT reports,
referring to the recent passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling
Enforcement Act, which seeks to disrupt financial transactions between US
player and online gambling sites.

Professor Eadington says this law may be unenforceable since almost all of
the online gambling industry is located overseas, and outside U.S.
jurisdiction.

"It's very reminiscent of prohibition in the 1920s. The law is going to work
in the sense it's become much more inconvenient for customers to get money
into online wagering games. What the real challenge is, is a lot of
subterfuge to get around the law for example establishing bank accounts in
Canada or the UK or entities abroad that will facilitate."

Eadington says the law may not signal the demise of online gambling in the
USA. "Ultimately we will see legal internet gambling. And part of it is just
consumer demand, and what technology brings us."

Churchill Downs Inc.'s chief financial officer said Monday that the
racetrack company would fare better in its efforts to pursue expanded
gambling in Kentucky if Democrats were in charge of state government. "I
don't
think anything will happen, first of all, until there's a change in the
gubernatorial situation," said Mike Miller, the racetrack company's
executive vice president and CFO. "The best thing that could happen for us
would be to have a totally Democratically controlled state, and I don't see
much happening before then, to be honest with you. It's not impossible."
Miller's comment came during a question-and-answer session at the Gaming
Investment Forum in Las Vegas. Miller and Mike Anderson, Churchill's
corporate finance vice president, addressed the forum. The forum is part of
the American Gaming Association's annual Global Gaming Expo. Kentucky's
governor's office and state Senate are led by Republicans. Bob Evans, the
company's president and CEO, said Tuesday afternoon he was "kind of
surprised by the remarks," adding that they were "certainly not my own
personal point of view or the company's point of view, or the board of
directors point of view." Evans said Miller was traveling and he hadn't had
a chance to discuss the comments with him in person. "I assume it's his
personal view because we didn't authorize that as a company position," Evans
said.

Evans, who took over in August from longtime CEO Tom Meeker, said he has not
met all of Kentucky's legislators yet -- but of those he has met, "some are
probably for the idea and some of them are against it. I don't think it
breaks down by party line necessarily."

Gov. Ernie Fletcher is in Japan. Fletcher spokeswoman Jodi Whitaker said the
governor's position has not changed on the issue and declined to comment
further. Fletcher has said he personally opposes expanded gambling but would
not block the issue being submitted to Kentucky voters in a referendum.

State Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said he wasn't
offended by the comment.

It is not a "secret that gambling interests such as KEEP (the Kentucky
Equine Education Project, of which Churchill is a member), organizations
that want to expand gaming particularly at racetracks, have put tens of
thousands of dollars into state legislative races in order to try to
accomplish the takeover of the Kentucky state senate in particular for the
Democrats," Williams said.

"He's just being more candid than other people," Williams said. "So I don't
agree that's the route Kentucky ought to take, but I don't necessarily get
mad at people that don't agree with me about it. You know, I mean it's just
a different idea of what kind of Kentucky we want and what we think it would
do to Kentucky to have expanded gaming."

CENTREBET chairman Graham Kelly yesterday questioned whether the new US
internet gambling laws would be enacted under a new Democrat-led Congress,
after he indicated that the company might exceed its 2007 financial year
forecast. Speaking at the company's first annual general meeting since
listing in July, Mr Kelly said that trading had started "strongly in FY 2007
for the four months up to October 2006 and we remain ahead of our
forecasts". The waging and gaming company finished the last financial year 8
per cent above its prospectus forecast. Mr Kelly talked up the company's
prospects in the 2007 financial year, underpinned by what he described as "a
defined strategy" of cross-selling gaming products to existing clients,
mobile phone betting, affiliate programs and expansion into Spain. He said
later: "We are ahead of them (2007 prospectus forecasts) at the moment and
frankly I see no reason why that will change." Centrebet previously flagged
a 2007 net profit after tax of $11.6 million. Mr Kelly said he was
disappointed the stock was not trading above its $2 issue price, blaming it
on an excessive response to the new US Internet Gambling Enforcement action
legislation, "notwithstanding the fact that we have never targeted the US".
He reiterated that Centrebet would not be affected by the US gaming laws,
which prohibited banks from making or taking payments from locals within
online gaming operators.
He questioned whether the new gaming laws would stand under a Democrat-led
Congress. "That legislation was enacted by a Republican Congress whether
that legislation will be enacted when the new congress assembles will be a
very different matter," he said. "One should not necessarily assume that
will stay the same in the US." Mr Kelly said that while being listed made
the company more vulnerable to a takeover, it too was on the look out for
"opportunities".

Managing director Con Kafataris said Centrebet was in discussions with some
partners in Asia.

Mr Kelly highlighted the company's potential in the mobile phone betting
arena, described as the "fastest growing sector".

An outspoken gambling critic who will be featured in an upcoming British
Broadcasting Corp. news program on Internet gambling also is working to keep
the multistate lottery out of Wyoming. But lottery supporters say players
are already driving to other states to bet their dollars, and public opinion
supports bringing a lottery to Wyoming. Retired dentist David Robertson is
chairman of the state anti-gambling group Wyomingites for a Better Economy
Today and Tomorrow.
He sat down Monday for an interview with BBC reporter Declan Lawn, who is
working on an Internet gambling segment for "Panorama," the network's
flagship investigative public affairs program. "The show is about
legislation in the United Kingdom that would put in place specific measures
on Internet gambling, allowing it to be taxed and strictly regulated," said
Lawn. The newly passed law, set to take effect next year, has been the
subject of much public debate, said Lawn.
He has taped interviews in Costa Rica, a nation with friendly online
gambling laws where many companies are based, as well as Gibraltar, a
European haven for the burgeoning industry. "We came to speak to David
because of his involvement and expertise in this issue," Lawn said.
Robertson is also a board member of the National Coalition Against Legalized
Gambling. He said he got involved in the issue in 1993, when Nevada casino
gambling companies were seeking to expand to other states.

"I love my state, and I didn't want to see casino gambling here," he said.
"It would completely change the whole tenor of what Wyoming is. Gambling
brings in crime, lowlifes and corruption, and people don't want it here."

Robertson said he also had personal reasons for opposing gambling, after a
cousin suffered financial ruin following a long bout of compulsive betting.

"I've seen what it can do," he said.

He credits work by organizations like WyBETT and NCALG in getting recent
federal legislation passed banning U.S. banks from engaging in financial
transactions with online casinos.

Robertson also praised the arrests this year of two British online gambling
executives visiting the U.S.

Lawn said some in the U.K. see such enforcement actions as a prohibition by
the American government on how British gamblers may place their bets.

Robertson said online gambling is too addictive to be made legal.

"It's so addictive because it brings a casino right into the home," he said.
"It brings about suicide, bankruptcy and crimes to support the habit. It
destroys families and destroys individuals. I can't say it any plainer than
that.

"If Internet gambling were legalized in the U.S., the economy would have the
effect of a major recession. It would create so many addicts, and be
devastating," he said.

Some of the arguments he makes against online and casino gambling also apply
to a state-run lottery, Robertson said.

"Why in the world would the government want to sponsor and tax something
that would cause so much damage?" he asked. "The government has some
responsibility to provide for the common good."

Rep. Pat Childers, R-Cody, co-chair of the Joint Travel, Recreation,
Wildlife and Cultural Resources Interim Committee, said opinion polls have
shown that while residents are against casino gambling, they support a
lottery.

One recent poll showed that 62 percent of state voters support a lottery,
according to the Casper Star-Tribune.

Childers' committee endorsed last week a bill that would allow Wyoming to
join a multistate lottery.

Other legislation endorsed by the committee would establish a state gambling
commission to oversee games like bingo, and set ground rules for churches
and other nonprofits using such games for fundraisers.

Expected to net less than $10 million a year, the lottery would not be a big
moneymaker for the state, said Childers.

"It's about those people in the state that want it, that are already playing
it, and who don't want to have to drive out of state to do it," he said.

"The biggest sales point in Colorado for the multistate lottery is the first
little store south of Cheyenne," he said, adding that Wyoming residents are
also big lottery players along the Nebraska border and in Belfry and
Billings in Montana.

Childers said the bill includes a provision for spending up to 1 percent of
gross proceeds to fund community-based gambling addiction treatment
programs.

"I think it makes a lottery a lot more palatable to most people, knowing
we're going to dedicate some money to take care of the problems that might
come with it," he said.

Childers said that, besides the lottery, there are no plans to expand
gambling in the state.

But trying to stop online gambling through state or federal legislation is
difficult, if not impossible, he said.

The American Gaming Association's board of directors will meet next month to
consider whether to lobby the next [Democrat-controlled] US Congress to
establish an independent research study of Internet gambling policy. "The
board will consider whether or not to support legislation in the new
Congress calling for an independent study of Internet gambling to see if it
can be properly regulated, controlled, taxed and licensed here in the United
States," said AGA President Frank Fahrenkopf. "My guess is that they (the
board) are going to say let's go ahead and do it." Representing the U.S.
commercial casino industry, the AGA strongly opposed Internet gambling
throughout the late 90's, but its position grew unclear after the turn of
the century. "Our policy changed back in April when we took a position that
we thought the best way to go was to have an independent commission look at
it," said Fahrenkopf.AGA board members who will meet in Las Vegas on
December 6 to discuss the matter include MGM Mirage CEO Terri Lanni, Boyd
Gaming CEO William Boyd, Harrah's Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman and Wynn
Resorts CEO Stephen Wynn, among others. In May of 2006, Nevada
Representatives Jon Porter and Shelly Berkley introduced a bill calling for
the creation of a Congressional Internet Gaming Study Commission as an
alternative to legislation aimed at prohibiting online gambling in the U.S.,
but the bill made little headway. Both Porter and Berkley won re-election
last week.

Fahrenkopf said the last time the AGA revisited the issue it preferred to
have the study conducted by the National Academy of Sciences rather than by
a Congressional Commission so that the researchers are devoid of lobbying
influence.

"If it came back saying that it can be regulated and controlled then we
would then take the next step I assume, and see if we couldn't get some
support for legalization by states" he added.
"But that's a long way down the road."

Legislation aimed at prohibiting Internet gambling financial transactions in
the U.S. was signed into law last month amid heavy criticism.

Online gambling group 888 Holdings PLC, which is in talks with bookmaker
Ladbrokes about a possible sale of the business, said Tuesday that net
gaming revenue at its non-U.S. operations rose 20 percent in the third
quarter. Income from non-U.S. business rose to US$38 million (?29.6 million)
in the three months through Sept. 30 compared with US$32 million in the same
period a year earlier, the company said in a statement. 888 is trying to
prop up its business after the United States effectively banned Internet
gaming. The company was among several London-listed gaming groups to close
or sell their American business after U.S. Congress added to an unrelated
bill a provision that would make it illegal for banks and credit-card
companies to settle payments for online gambling sites. "Despite the
suspension of our real money gaming operations in the U.S., following the
enactment of the Safe Ports Act in October 2006, our business continues to
be sound and exhibit healthy growth in non-U.S. regions," Chief Executive
John Anderson said.

Dow Jones Newswire reports that against a background of full hotels and an
influx of gambling industry bosses, the absence of online gambling will be
noticed at the Global Gaming Expo this week. Commenting on the absence of
online gambling at the AGA conference, Dow Jones says that it is one source
of possible growth that the big names had been eyeing, but that it seems to
have crapped out, at least for the foreseeable future. It remarks that many
top industry leaders, among them MGM Mirage's Terry Lanni, had been
agitating to get Internet wagering legalised and regulated so they could get
their share of the billions of dollars that were going offshore in the
industry due to the position taken by US legislation. "Executives at those
[online gambling] companies....may be sparse on the ground at this week's
festivities. The recent arrest of former BetonSports.com Chief Executive
David Carruthers as he was changing planes in Dallas has made most, if not
all of them, unwilling to visit the United States under current
circumstances," the article points out. While the Democratic takeover of
Congress has raised some optimism that there might be progress in easing the
ban, at least one e-gambling expert doesn't think so, adds the report, going
on to quote gambling law expert Anthony Cabot who opines: "Anytime you have
anti-gambling legislation passed, it is very difficult for a legislator to
seek a repeal." The public-relations price for being tagged as pro-gambling
is just too high, he continued: "Even the person who introduced the bill [to
legalise gambling in Nevada] got voted out of office."

He believes that one immediate consequence will be "far less participation
in land-based poker tournaments, since the majority of the players come from
online tournaments. The World Series of Poker will be interesting to watch
next year."

The new law and Carruthers' arrest are also muting turnout at the
convention, although a representative for the American Gaming Association
was quick to point out that overall exhibitor and visitation levels are
still expected to be higher than last year.

"We've had about five companies out of 15 drop out on the exhibitor side,
but our [Internet] pavilion is still robust," said spokeswoman Holly
Thomsen. "On the attendee side, it's hard to gauge the impact. ... We're
sure there will be some drop-off as well based on what's going on."

She noted that the trade show has never allowed actual e-gaming companies to
exhibit; their suppliers were permitted.

City police and federal law enforcement drew a royal flush Saturday when
they bet the house on a raid that folded an underground poker game. Six
months after learning that high-stakes, invitation only Texas Hold 'Em games
might be occurring in Warren, local police - with the help of federal
authorities - raided a Woodland Street N.E. building early Saturday morning,
finding and taking a large amount of cash and poker-related items. ''We
received information about some gambling going on over time, so we conducted
an investigation,'' said Warren police detective Jeffrey Hoolihan, who led
the investigation. Hoolihan said the investigation is continuing. It's
unclear at this point what charges may be filed. No one was arrested
Saturday. That investigation brought police and the FBI to Cox Contracting
Inc., 715 Woodland St. N.E., where they found some 13 players bellied up to
two tables, some drinking beers and playing Texas Hold 'Em, a version of
poker that has gained immense popularity in recent years due in part to
television coverage of high money tournaments across the United States. The
owner of Cox Construction did not return a message seeking comment. Warren
Municipal Judge Thomas Gysegem signed the warrant Thursday. The raid
happened at 1:05 a.m. Saturday.

According to the office of Attorney General Jim Petro, Texas Hold 'em is
considered a game of chance, defined by Ohio law as a ''game in which a
player gives anything of value in the hope of gain, the outcome of which is
determined largely by chance.'' The good news for many players is that home
games are perfectly legal as long as the house doesn't take a cut and any
money bet is paid out to the winners.

The bad news in this case, police say, is that the operator was taking a cut
of the money bet and charging a buy-in for players to participate.

According to police, the buy-in to participate was $100 between 7 and 9 p.m.
and $200 after 9 p.m. Police believe the invitation-only game was dealt held
on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and one day during the week, and, since
May, between 50 and 60 different players participated.

Police seized two tables, a number of chips and cards, more than $15,000 in
cash and other gambling-related items, Hoolihan said.

As the rain whips leaves against the window, 10 women gathered around a
conference room table describe how gambling destroyed their lives. "I went
through my daughter's college fund," says one. "I've committed crimes,
stolen from employers, lost $100,000," says another. "My mother, who was
dying of cancer, came to the casino at 4 a.m. to get me," says a third. "I
was in a casino when she died." Collectively, the members of this
confidential support group have gambled away $3 million. They've hocked
jewelry, lied to their husbands, stolen from friends, threatened suicide.
Before they blew their savings and mortgage on video poker and line games,
they worked as writers and office managers, and instructed new lawyers. For
the first time since 1995, when researchers began studying Oregonians'
gambling patterns, more women are seeking treatment for addiction than men.
The most high-profile Portland-area case is Elma Magkamit, the former West
Linn finance director who will be sentenced this week for stealing $1.4
million from city funds to feed her slot-machine addiction. Magkamit's game
of choice was not unusual, experts say. Women prefer the privacy of video
slots to card games, sports betting or other forms of gambling that men
typically pursue. And since last year, when the Oregon Lottery legalized
video line games, the machines are easier to find. That worries addiction
counselors, who say the number of women seeking treatment will increase.
"We're just beginning to see the slots players coming into treatment," said
Peter Walsh, program manager at Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare, which treats
problem gamblers. "You don't have to go to the Coast; you can go to the
corner restaurant or delicatessen, and each is like a minicasino in itself."
Oregon appears to be mirroring an international trend, said Rachel Volberg,
president of Gemini Research, a company that specializes in studies of
gambling and problem gambling. She said the number of women calling gambling
addiction help lines in the United States and abroad has increased in the
past five years. "Part of it probably is a function of more women gambling,"
she said, "but I think it's also a function of the problem gambling advocacy
community getting the word out to people." In many ways, Magkamit, 53, fits
the profile of a typical problem gambler in Oregon, studies show: Most are
between 45 and 54 years old, married, have attended college and earn $50,000
or more a year in a professional or technical field.

Britain-based betting exchange Betfair, has teamed up with local operators
Capital Events for the six-day Asian Poker Tour. More than 370 players have
paid the $US5000 buy-in for the main event which begins on Wednesday at the
Meritus Mandarin Hotel. Qualifying starts today, and players from 32
countries, including Singapore, will be after the prize pool of about $US2
million, the company said. "Betfair has become the first gaming company
permitted to present a poker tournament in Singapore," the company said in
an earlier statement. The Straits Times newspaper quoted Oliver Chong, an
official of the Singapore Tourism Board, as saying the event brings
"significant opportunities to profile Singapore." The city-state is a
majority ethnic Chinese country where betting is allowed through official
outlets. Last year Singapore lifted a four-decade ban on casinos despite
strong domestic opposition, saying two planned casino projects would boost
the tourism sector and draw more visitors. Singapore awarded Las Vegas Sands
a licence to build one casino development, which is to open in 2009. The
winner of the second licence is to be announced next month.

People will gamble even if you don't let them. And if you want to earn a
living off other people's wagers, the odds are in your favor. The world
never lacks for corrupt public officials and clueless gamblers, both of whom
will help you toward your goal. Those are three of the lessons of Roll the
Bones: The History of Gambling, David G. Schwartz's remarkably detailed but
unremarkably written history of games of chance. This book covers thousands
of years and a large chunk of the globe in its pursuit of morsels of
information. The locales are exotic, with extended stays in places such as
Monte Carlo. Schwartz starts with the ancients and works his way to Atlantic
City (his birthplace) and beyond. Famous characters - from Augustus Caesar
and Mark Antony to Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy to Frank Sinatra and Elvis
Presley - wander on and off the stage. There's also a colorful supporting
cast. "Honest" John Kelly, for example, was a small-time gambler/grifter
from Iowa who left a diary that followed his up-and-down adventures, which
never quite led to the wealth or respectability he sought. At his dying
moment, after collapsing at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, he said to his
wife: "I almost was a big shot." Schwartz, a University of Pennsylvania
graduate now at the Center for Gaming Research in Las Vegas, doesn't neglect
the big picture. Ambivalence toward gambling is a theme that runs through
Roll the Bones. The pattern is a common one: Community (or state or nation)
embraces gambling, then shuns it, taking steps to ban it before letting it
crawl back in. Even when the debate finally seemed to be over, it rarely is.
Schwartz perceives that the current tide is toward a full embrace of
casinos, lotteries, horse racing and other gambling. Governments might not
like them, but they can't afford to discard the revenue from taxes and
tourism. The path toward acceptance has been smoothed by those who have
turned betting from a seedy vice into a solidly American pastime. "Harrah,"
Schwartz writes of casino operator William Fisk Harrah, "had a simple
philosophy: Provide a pleasant atmosphere for middle-income gamblers, and
let the house advantage take care of the rest." Steve Wynn is saluted for
trying to be innovative, attracting gamblers by making his casinos
spectacular. The book concludes with the opening of Wynn Las Vegas last
year, and the author treats that event as if it were meant to give his book
an appropriate ending. "A perceptive visitor," he writes, "walking through
the property, could see the resort as the culmination of 7,000 years of
gambling history."

That's a bit over the top, and it stands out because Schwartz is generally
restrained, probably too much so. Roll the Bones certainly didn't need to
read like The Green Felt Jungle, the brutal and breathless 1963 expose of
Las Vegas, but there's a sameness to Schwartz's writing that weighs it down
at times.

That's particularly true near the end of the book when the author is
bouncing from nation to nation, writing about the recent worldwide boom in
gambling by talking about casino after casino. At that point, switching
gears and going off on some interesting tangents - there's little or nothing
on Gamblers Anonymous, portrayals of gambling in American culture, or the
universality of NCAA basketball office pools every March - might have made
the book more readable.

All 23 people charged with offences relating to an illegal gambling den at
Senegal's consulate in Singapore have posted bail and are scheduled to
return to court, news reports said yesterday. The five people accused of
assisting in managing the consulate's premises as a gambling house each
posted S$20,000 ($19,600) bail on Friday and were scheduled to return to
court on December 8. They include retired businessman Tan Kim Sing, 59;
logistics officer Leong Choon Kwai, 34; Johnson Lim Boon Wah, 32; Lee Swee
Keong, 32; and Ang Poon Beng, 48, according to The Straits Times report.
Police raided the five-storey consulate building on November 3 and found
three of its meetings rooms had baccarat tables and the fourth was being
used as a bedroom. The consulate was doubling as an illegal casino, packing
in up to 100 enthusiasts a night, with bets ranging from a minimum S$100
($64) up to S$30,000. Another three men and 15 women, mostly Indonesians,
were released on S$10,000-bail after indicating they wanted to plead guilty
to helping manage the casino as card dealers and dice tossers, the report
said. They are scheduled to return to court on November 17. All 23 face
fines of between S$5,000 and 50,000 and up to three years in prison. Benny
Kusni, the honorary consul, is out on bail of S$10,000. The 36-year-old
Indonesian had earlier insisted he knew nothing about the den and only
handled visa matters at the consulate. International conventions do not
grant honorary consuls immunity from local authorities.

By a lopsided margin, Ohio voters once more have turned down a proposal to
allow video gambling at racetracks and a few other locations in the state.
Last week's referendum on the issue marked the third time that voters have
said no to gambling beyond that allowed through the state lottery system.
What went wrong for gambling promoters? They spent an estimated $20 million
attempting to convince voters that gambling was a good bet for Ohio. They
promised that hundreds of millions of dollars a year would be made available
for college scholarships. For good measure, they threw in millions of
dollars for economic development. They really thought they had the battle
won, this time. But they underestimated the perceptiveness of voters who saw
through the slick advertising, including claims that, somehow, legalized
gambling would remedy problems "the politicians" had not addressed. They saw
that Issue 3 on the ballot would have locked the state in to receiving less
than a fair share of proceeds from gambling. Had it been approved, gambling
promoters would have been permitted to keep 55 percent of the proceeds from
their casinos. Supporters of legalized gambling were in shock after the
election. Where did they go wrong? Simple: They attempted to pull a fast one
on voters - who read between the lines and didn't fall for it.

City police and federal law enforcement drew a royal flush Saturday when
they bet the house on a raid that folded an underground poker game. Six
months after learning that high-stakes, invitation only Texas Hold 'Em games
might be occurring in Warren, local police - with the help of federal
authorities - raided a Woodland Street N.E. building early Saturday morning,
finding and taking a large amount of cash and poker-related items. ''We
received information about some gambling going on over time, so we conducted
an investigation,'' said Warren police detective Jeffrey Hoolihan, who led
the investigation. Hoolihan said the investigation is continuing. It's
unclear at this point what charges may be filed. No one was arrested
Saturday. That investigation brought police and the FBI to Cox Contracting
Inc., 715 Woodland St. N.E., where they found some 13 players bellied up to
two tables, some drinking beers and playing Texas Hold 'Em, a version of
poker that has gained immense popularity in recent years due in part to
television coverage of high money tournaments across the United States. The
owner of Cox Construction did not return a message seeking comment. Warren
Municipal Judge Thomas Gysegem signed the warrant Thursday. The raid
happened at 1:05 a.m. Saturday.

According to the office of Attorney General Jim Petro, Texas Hold 'em is
considered a game of chance, defined by Ohio law as a ''game in which a
player gives anything of value in the hope of gain, the outcome of which is
determined largely by chance.'' The good news for many players is that home
games are perfectly legal as long as the house doesn't take a cut and any
money bet is paid out to the winners.

The bad news in this case, police say, is that the operator was taking a cut
of the money bet and charging a buy-in for players to participate.

According to police, the buy-in to participate was $100 between 7 and 9 p.m.
and $200 after 9 p.m. Police believe the invitation-only game was dealt held
on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and one day during the week, and, since
May, between 50 and 60 different players participated.

Police seized two tables, a number of chips and cards, more than $15,000 in
cash and other gambling-related items, Hoolihan said.

Bids to potentially take Clear Channel Communications private are reported
to be due either today or Monday, according to Reuters sources. The
Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal have reported that the final
bids could potentially lead to a deal being announced as soon as next week.
Last month, amid speculation, Clear Channel announced it was "considering
strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value" and also retained
Goldman, Sachs & Co. as its financial advisor for any such talks. In other
Clear Channel news, the company has received a subpoena from the U.S.
Attorney in New York about stations running ads for offshore and online
gambling. CC revealed it had received the inquisition in a regulatory filing
yesterday. The company received a similar subpoena in 2003 in Missouri,
asking for details on ads ran for sports bookmakers and other gambling
businesses. A CC spokeswoman told Bloomberg the company "is cooperating with
the subpoena."

All 23 people charged with offences relating to an illegal gambling den at
Senegal's consulate in Singapore have posted bail and are scheduled to
return to court, news reports said on Saturday. The five people accused of
assisting in managing the consulate's premises as a gambling house each
posted 20,000 Singapore dollars (19,600 US dollars) bail on Friday and were
scheduled to return to court on December 8. Police raided the five-storey
consulate building on November 3 and found three of its meetings rooms had
baccarat tables and the fourth was being used as a bedroom. The consulate
was doubling as an illegal casino, packing in up to 100 enthusiasts a night,
with bets ranging from a minimum 100 Singapore dollars (64 US dollars) up to
30,000 Singapore dollars (19,600 US dollars).
Another three men and 15 women, mostly Indonesians, were released on
10,000-Singapore-dollars (6,369 US) bail after indicating they wanted to
plead guilty to helping manage the casino as card dealers and dice tossers,
the report said. They are scheduled to return to court on November 17. All
23 face fines of between 5,000 Singapore dollars (3,184 US) and 50,000
Singapore dollars (31,847 US) and up to three years in prison. Benny Kusni,
the honorary consul, is out on bail of 10,000 Singapore dollars (6,369 US).
The 36-year-old Indonesian had earlier insisted he knew nothing about the
den and only handled visa matters at the consulate. International
conventions to not grant honorary consults immunity from local authorities.

Deputy city council speaker Chiu Fang-chin of Chiayi, southern Taiwan, and
his wife Chen Chiu-kuei were allegedly engaged in operating a multinational
online gambling Web site in cooperation with other people, prosecutors said
yesterday. Chiu was released after being interrogated by prosecutors on his
alleged role in the case, due mainly to the Chiayi City Council still having
a session. But his wife was detained lest she should collude with other
suspects or ruin relevant evidence. On Friday, prosecutors questioned 12
suspects associated with a multinational money laundering gang and seized
computer information related to the operations of the betting Web site.
Prosecutors were also tipped that some computer systems were moved and some
betting account books were ruined before they moved to raid the residences
and offices of relevant suspects in the case. Prosecutors found that there
were quite a few heavyweight political figures, mainly elected people's
representatives such as lawmakers, involved in the scandal. In fact,
prosecutors and investigators busted, in March this year, a multinational
money laundering gang named "Hua Yuan Chang Group" headed by Lu Po-hsien,
who used to be the "Banker-in-Chief" for the underground "Mark Six" betting
operations across the Taiwan Strait, confiscating over NT$500 million in
stakes and promissory banknotes valued at over NT$10 billion. Lu has been
detained ever since. In the process of investigating Lu's account books in
the following six months, Chiayi prosecutors found that Chen Ying-chu, the
largest banker for online betting operations in Chinese communities around
the world, and deputy city council speaker Chiu Fang-chin, were also
involved in the case. Chen Ying-chu operates two general gambling Web sites
abroad to handle all kinds of betting operations from Chinese gamblers, with
Chiu Fang-chin serving as Chen's general agent in Taiwan. If the stakes were
for Hong Kong's "Mark Six" lottery ticket numbers, the stakes were usually
switched to Lu Po-hsien. Prosecutors found that Chen's gambling Web sites
have mainly zeroed in on international baseball games, basketball games,
soccer games, among others, with their daily stakes amounting to over NT$2
billion. But Chen told prosecutors that he didn't operate any gambling Web
sites abroad or conduct money laundering via the "Hua Yuan Chang" Group.
Meanwhile, Chiu Fang-chin stressed that he didn't get involved in the case
as he didn't know how to gamble.

Both were released after interrogations by prosecutors.

But prosecutors decided to detain Chiu fang-chin's wife Chen Chiu-kuei on
grounds that they seized concrete evidence attesting to her involvement in
the multinational gambling scam.

U.K. online gambling site BetOnSports on Thursday settled civil charges
filed by U.S. prosecutors, agreeing to permanently ban any wagers placed
from the U.S., the Associated Press reported. The settlement does not apply
to separate criminal charges the U.S. brought against BetOnSports CEO David
Carruthers, who was arrested while traveling through the U.S. in July, and
other BetOnSports employees. Carruthers, who is currently under house arrest
in Missouri, will face fraud and racketeering charges in a trial slated to
begin in early 2007. As part of the civil settlement, BetOnSports will set
up a toll-free number to inform U.S. bettors how they can reclaim unsettled
bets. The company must also take out a newspaper ad telling consumers that
it will no longer accept U.S. bets, and post similar statements on its
websites.

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes will be getting married in Italy some time next
week in some secret location. But an even bigger secret might be which
ceremony is going to be performed at the wedding. One gambling website,
Bodog.com (see website here) has released odds on which ceremoney will be
performed with Scientology the 1 to 10 favorite. Don't count out Catholic
though. Katie Holmes is not a practicing Scientologist. She is in fact
Catholic. Vatican officials pondered the conundrum of whether to grant a
Roman Catholic wedding to a divorced celebrity and prominent Scientologist,
amid feverish speculation yesterday over Tom Cruise's imminent marriage to
Katie Holmes - somewhere in Italy. Latest reports suggest that the
44-year-old star will marry Holmes, 27, at a medieval castle overlooking
Lake Bracciano, north of Rome, at the end of next week.

Bids to potentially take Clear Channel Communications private are reported
to be due either today or Monday, according to Reuters sources. The
Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal have reported that the final
bids could potentially lead to a deal being announced as soon as next week.
Last month, amid speculation, Clear Channel announced it was "considering
strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value" and also retained
Goldman, Sachs & Co. as its financial advisor for any such talks. In other
Clear Channel news, the company has received a subpoena from the U.S.
Attorney in New York about stations running ads for offshore and online
gambling. CC revealed it had received the inquisition in a regulatory filing
yesterday. The company received a similar subpoena in 2003 in Missouri,
asking for details on ads ran for sports bookmakers and other gambling
businesses. A CC spokeswoman told Bloomberg the company "is cooperating with
the subpoena."

It is understood that a former employee of the offshore bookmakers Victor
Chandler made the accusations about four managers, one of whose bets totaled
12 million pounds in one year. Various claims were also made about the
gambling habits of various Premiership players. FA rules forbid any player
or manager to bet on any game in a competition in which they are involved.
An FA spokesperson said: "We will investigate these reports to see if there
has been any breach of our regulations and we would welcome any information
that would help our inquiries." The news comes days after a report suggested
that number of players were addicted to on-line gambling and pornography.

All 23 people charged with offences relating to an illegal gambling den at
Senegal's consulate in Singapore have posted bail and are scheduled to
return to court, news reports said on Saturday. The five people accused of
assisting in managing the consulate's premises as a gambling house each
posted 20,000 Singapore dollars (19,600 US dollars) bail on Friday and were
scheduled to return to court on December 8. Police raided the five-storey
consulate building on November 3 and found three of its meetings rooms had
baccarat tables and the fourth was being used as a bedroom. The consulate
was doubling as an illegal casino, packing in up to 100 enthusiasts a night,
with bets ranging from a minimum 100 Singapore dollars (64 US dollars) up to
30,000 Singapore dollars (19,600 US dollars).
Another three men and 15 women, mostly Indonesians, were released on
10,000-Singapore-dollars (6,369 US) bail after indicating they wanted to
plead guilty to helping manage the casino as card dealers and dice tossers,
the report said. They are scheduled to return to court on November 17. All
23 face fines of between 5,000 Singapore dollars (3,184 US) and 50,000
Singapore dollars (31,847 US) and up to three years in prison. Benny Kusni,
the honorary consul, is out on bail of 10,000 Singapore dollars (6,369 US).
The 36-year-old Indonesian had earlier insisted he knew nothing about the
den and only handled visa matters at the consulate. International
conventions to not grant honorary consults immunity from local authorities.

The commander of the Bowling Green Veterans of Foreign Wars Post and his
girlfriend have been charged federally with arson and running an illegal
gambling business. Donald Mudd, 65, and Martha Towe, 53, both of 600 Fairway
St., also are accused of money laundering, illegal structuring of monetary
transactions and mail fraud. The couple was indicted Wednesday by a U.S.
District Court grand jury in Bowling Green, following a three-year
investigation. Mudd was taken into custody Thursday at VFW Post 1268 on Ky.
185. Towe was at home when she was arrested. Mudd has worked a long time in
the community supporting veterans' causes and is innocent, said his attorney
John L. Caudill, of Louisville. "We vehemently deny the charges," Caudill
said. "There's a big difference between an indictment and proving someone
guilty in court. We'll see if the government cases holds up in court and
under rigorous cross examination." Following the investigation, it was
determined that Mudd was responsible for the Aug. 13, 2003, fire that
destroyed the Lt. Harold R. Cornell VFW Post No. 1298, said Kevin Kelm,
resident agent in charge at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives in Bowling Green. After determining the fire at the post was
arson, the question then became why, Kelm said. "The signs at the fire that
it was intentionally set were pretty obvious," Kelm said, but declined to
provide any detail. The ATF then worked with the Bowling Green Fire
Department, the Office of Charitable Gaming and Internal Revenue Service
Criminal Investigations Division, said ATF Louisville Special Agent in
Charge Paul Vido.

"The ATF Arson Task Force developed a lead indicating illegal gambling
appeared to be the motive behind the arson," he said.

The fire was started five days before a scheduled audit of the charitable
gaming records by the state Office of Charitable Gaming, Kelm said.

Investigators said Mudd and Towe operated an illegal gambling business at
the post, while they were managing semi-weekly legal bingo games at the
post. There were also pull tabs and video slot machines, which both were for
the sole financial benefit of Towe and Mudd.

The video slot machines are illegal in Kentucky, according to the
indictment.

Kelm said after causing the fire, Mudd created a personal account in the
name of the post and diverted at least part insurance proceeds from the fire
for his own benefit, Kelm said. Westport Insurance Corp. issued a check for
$246,688 to the VFW post after the fire.

The indictment lists a total of $16,822.16 from the insurance settlement
that Mudd put into an money market account for himself under the post's
name.

The money from the insurance proceeds was used to purchase a John Deere
riding lawn mower, a 42-inch plasma television and a Browning Gun Safe, he
said.

Mudd and Towe illegally structured their financial transactions so the bank
would not have to report them. Federal reporting requires that banking
activities over $10,000 be reported.

They had on several occasions purchased cashier's checks from between $8,000
to $9,500 in value and most were purchased by Towe. There was also $31,000
spent in 2001 to build an addition on the Fairway Street home and another
$45,305.63 payment to build the home in 2000 - money which was from illegal
gambling proceeds, according to the indictment.

Federal agents from the ATF and IRS went through the Fairway Street
residence on March 15 and the search warrant said they were looking for
documents relating to an attempt to evade income tax, fraud and false
statements, money laundering and structuring transactions to avoid federal
reporting requirements.

The statutes being used to prosecute this case are some of the harshest and
most punitive in the federal legal code, Caudill said. They were designed
for the major criminal investigations, not against people like Mudd and
Towe.

"This is a questionable use of federal law enforcement resources," he said.

There was barely enough gaming at the VFW post to keep it going and
definitely not enough to justify these charges, Caudill said.

Mudd and Towe appeared Thursday before a U.S. District magistrate judge in
Owensboro.

The U.S. Attorney did not seek detention of Mudd or Towe during Thursday's
hearing, Caudill said. There was no answer at their home this morning.

The two are scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 22 in Bowling Green.

Mudd and Towe were indicted on the last session of a grand jury that had
been seated for 18 months, Kelm said.

Prosecutors decided they didn't want to take this complex a case before a
new grand jury panel, he said.

If convicted, Mudd and Towe are each facing maximum potential penalties of
25 years in prison, a $750,000 fine and supervised release for a period of
six years.

In addition, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Louisville is also seeking
forfeiture of the couple's Fairway Street home, a 2002 Mercedes Benz
convertible, a 2004 Harley-Davidson motorcycle, a 2006 Chevrolet HHR, a 2003
Toyota Camry and $31,718, according to the indictment.

The indictment states that Mudd and Towe conspired in their efforts with
other persons known to the grand jury. The indictment said the conspiracy
involved five or more people, but did not name those people.

Kelm said he could not comment about whether others would be charged or have
been targets in the investigation.

"The investigation continues," he said.

The issues with Mudd and Towe do not extend to the rest of the VFW post and
members, Kelm said.

Three days after the Ohio Investigative Unit issued a moratorium telling
liquor permit holders to remove their Tic Tac Fruit machines from their
premises by Saturday, a Franklin County Judge granted a restraining order
against the Ohio Department of Public Safety that prevents the unit from
seizing the gambling machines until the issue is considered in Franklin
County Common Pleas Court in December. The order was granted Thursday,
according to Scott Pohlman, deputy director of the Ohio Investigative Unit.
The restraining order was sought after by Columbus attorney Kurt O.
Gearhiser, who is representing the Fraternal Order of Eagles of Pomeroy,
Ohio Skill Games, Inc. of Columbus, Jeff Mayle of Columbus, George
Georgekopoulos of Akron and Elite Entertainment, Inc. of Akron, according to
a court document. "After reviewing the Attorney General opinion and
discussing it with our legal advisors we do not agree with the Attorney
General's opinion and Ohio Skill Games is still committed to defending the
machine in court. The Attorney General opinion is only that 'an opinion' and
is not legally binding on any court." "I don't know if that would prevent
local law enforcement from conducting an investigation," Pohlman said.
Dayton police could not be immediately reached for comment. The state unit,
which is under the umbrella of the public safety department, issued the
moratorium after Attorney General Jim Petro issued a formal opinion last
week that said the electronic tic tac toe machines are "schemes of chance"
and therefore prohibited by state law.

One of the biggest Internet gambling companies in the world has decided to
leave the United States market. BetOnSports has settled a federal civil
lawsuit filed in St. Louis by promising refunds to customers and cooperation
in a separate criminal case. BetOnSports will ban accepting United States
bets through all of its Web sites and telephone numbers. The company also
has to turn over records that criminal prosecutors want to see.

It was called "Operation Rotten Apple," and New York City police and
prosecutors said today that there was indeed something rotten - in the form
of a mob-run sports betting operation - in the Big Apple's wholesale produce
market at Hunts Point in the Bronx. The operation uncovered a relatively
modest gambling ring generating about $200,000 a year in profits, Police
Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said today at a news conference to announce
the arrests of 11 members of the ring. But, Mr. Kelly said, the second in
command of the betting ring was John Caggiano, an associate of the Genovese
organized-crime family, who also owns and operates C&S Wholesale Produce
Inc., one of the market's biggest produce wholesalers. Although the city
requires wholesalers at the market to show "good character, honesty and
integrity," Thomas McCormack, chairman of the city's Business Integrity
Commission, said at the news conference, Mr. Caggiano's company continues to
operate out of the market, despite his arrest. "They are entitled to due
process," said Dan Castleman, the chief of investigations for the Manhattan
district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau. Mr. Caggiano, who lives on Country
Club Road in the Bronx, is the son-in-law of Dominick Cirillo, the former
acting boss of the Genovese family, prosecutors said today. His boss in the
gambling ring, prosecutors said, was Ralph Balsamo of Pelham Manor, a
solider in the Genovese family who is incarcerated on unrelated federal
racketeering charges. "The size of this operation is not particularly
significant," Mr. Kelly said. "What concerned us was organized crime trying
to get a foothold into the Hunts Point market."

Mr. Balsamo, Mr. Caggiano and six others have been indicted for enterprise
corruption, a felony that can be punished by 25 years in prison. Another
member of the ring, Salvatore DiPietro, has been indicted for criminal
usury, and two others, Michael DiStasio and Ronald Seebeck, have been
charged with promoting gambling.

The gambling ring was open to employees, customers and anyone who stopped by
the Hunts Point Cooperative Market and the New York City Terminal Produce
Cooperative Market in the Bronx, officials said. The two markets are
distribution points for fruit and vegetables, as well as meat products,
brought from all over the country and distributed throughout the city.

The Football Association (FA) is to investigate allegations made by a former
bookmaker that several Premiership managers have placed bets on top-flight
fixtures. It is understood that a former employee of the offshore bookmakers
Victor Chandler made the accusations about four managers, one of whose bets
totaled 12 million pounds in one year. Various claims were also made about
the gambling habits of various Premiership players. FA rules forbid any
player or manager to bet on any game in a competition in which they are
involved. An FA spokesperson said: "We will investigate these reports to see
if there has been any breach of our regulations and we would welcome any
information that would help our inquiries." The news comes days after a
report suggested that number of players were addicted to on-line gambling
and pornography.

In a bold and industry-leading move, domain name aftermarket Afternic has
decided to stop brokering adult, gambling, violence, and other vice domains.
This is just the latest in series of actions that have limited the value of
adult and gambling domains. Most major advertising feeds don't support these
industries, and last month internet gambling took a hit in the United States
with the arrest of a key player in a prominent British gambling site.
Afternic's decision seems to be a rapid departure from past actions,
including offering a large portfolio of gambling domains on behalf of one
its clients. The company says the goal is to make Afternicand the domain
industry more inviting to small businesses and others that might be offended
by some of the domains listed on its exchange. Afternic wants to further
legitimize the industry. In an email to customers, Afternic president Roger
Collins wrote: We hope that they, and others, will understand that we have
no interest in censorship and that we fully support First Amendment rights
to freedom of speech and expression. And, there is certainly no lack of
other Internet sites where such names are welcomed. The Internet, much like
the early days of television, is still a new frontier. We believe it is up
to the industry leaders-and we include Afternic here-to step up and
determine what constitutes professional standards and practices. We take
this action in the interest of socially responsible corporate behavior and
hope that it leads to further healthy industry dialog and discussion on the
topic. Other major sites, including Sedoand DNForum, still allow the sale of
gambling and adult domains. It will be interesting to see if other companies
follow Afternic's lead, and if domain aftermarkets also start to pull clear
trademark and typo domains from their listings.

The commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars post 1298 has been indicted on an
arson charge for allegedly setting a fire in August that destroyed the
Bowling Green building where the group met. Donald Mudd also was indicted on
gambling charges, according to a news release issued by the Kentucky Office
of Charitable Gaming. Martha Towe, who allegedly helped Mudd operate an
illegal gambling business at the VFW hall, also was indicted on
gambling-related charges. According to the federal indictment, Mudd and Towe
allegedly operated an illegal gambling business from 2000 to 2003, and that
they conspired with each other to launder funds derived from the illegal
business. Mudd and Towe, according to the indictment, hosted bingo games and
sold pull tabs at the VFW post, and that they allegedly conspired to conceal
the money generated. In addition, the indictment claims Mudd owned and
operated illegal video slot machines at the VFW post. Mudd also is charged
with devising a scheme to defraud an insurance company by providing false
information about the fire. Westport Insurance Corp. issued a check for
$246,688 to the VFW post after the fire, but the indictment alleges that
Mudd diverted the money for his personal benefit.

U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway reached a settlement Thursday with online
gambling company BetOnSports PLC which permanently bars the London-based
company from accepting any bets from the United States. The settlement ends
a massive civil case Hanaway filed this summer. The settlement also requires
BetOnSports to open a toll-free telephone service to inform bettors how they
can reclaim wagers pending before the suit was filed.

Online gamblers miffed at recent federal legislation that seeks to block
Internet gambling were cheering after Representative Jim Leach, R-Iowa, the
sponsor of the anti-gaming legislation, was defeated in this week's
election. "A victory for Internet gambling as Jim Leach gets voted out,"
crowed Gambling911, a pro-gambling Web site, for instance. Leach had served
for 30 years as a congressman from Iowa. He was narrowly defeated by Dave
Loebsack, the Democratic Party challenger. Leach was the sponsor of HR 4411,
the bill that stops U.S. banks and credit card companies from accepting
payments for online gambling. "A lot of poker fans were lobbying against
Leach," said former New Jersey gaming regulator Frank Catania. "Poker
players have been organizing. They could eventually be a (lobbying) group
like the Sierra Club." Catania has spoken against banning online gaming
because, he says, it can't be prohibited; he favors regulating the business
instead of banning it outright. He also noted that citizens were betting
online in the recent election through online futures markets that enable
people to invest in futures contracts based on the outcome of elections. The
University of Iowa runs a popular futures site that enables visitors to bet
on the outcome of political elections. "It's basically Internet gambling,"
said Catania, who maintains that, like the Iowa University operation, there
are many ways for would-be gamblers to bet their wishes. Founded in 1988,
the Iowa futures site is one of many that enable online visitors to wager on
elections. Visitors are limited to $500 in an account. Catania said he
expects the new Democratic Congress to be more favorably disposed towards
online gambling.

Betonsports PLC, a U.K. Internet gambling firm under indictment and the
subject of a U.S. government lawsuit, agreed to cease operations in the U.S.
to settle the civil litigation. U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson in St.
Louis federal court Thursday approved the accord banning Betonsports. The
company and 11 people, including founder Gary Kaplan and former Chief
Executive Officer David Carruthers, still face charges of criminal
racketeering related to illegal gambling. Internet gambling, a $12 billion
industry, violates federal laws against placing bets using a telephone or
electronic means over state lines, prosecutors said. A new U.S. law bars
credit card companies from collecting payments for such transactions.
Betonsports' board of directors agreed to accept the injunction, "as it is
seen as a major step in the negotiation to settle the outstanding criminal
action," the company said in a statement. Carruthers was arrested in July as
he changed planes at a Dallas airport. He has been under house arrest in St.
Louis since pleading not guilty July 31.

Fort Wayne and Indiana State Excise Police confiscated parts of Cherry
Master video gambling machines from a Fort Wayne strip mall late Thursday.
Fort Wayne police Sgt. Mark Walters said police received an anonymous tip
that a wanted fugitive from Huntington County was gambling at the strip mall
off East State Boulevard, east of Maplecrest Road. The caller told police
to look for an entrance that was roped off, Walters said. Aside from a roped
off area, the building has a door with a peephole, cameras aimed at the
entrance and a two-buzzer system that has to be activated for the doors to
open. When police arrived about 10 p.m., they didn't find the man they were
looking for but they did find illegal gambling machines, Walters said.

State officials have decided not to enforce new rules prohibiting the use of
paid workers at any gambling fundraisers by charities until after the
upcoming legislative session. Some charity groups are protesting the new
regulations adopted Thursday by the Indiana Gaming Commission, saying the
rules could make it impossible for them to organize any gambling events. The
new rule, however, is merely a restatement of current state law and any
changes should be considered by legislators, said Ernest Yelton, the
gambling commission's executive director. "We believe it's an issue of
policy," he said. "Our legal staff and I have looked at that statute from
every angle, and we don't see any room around it." The original law was put
in place to prevent organizations from hiring professional groups to run a
casino night or other event and split the profits. That law has not been
previously enforced by state officials, and some non-profits that conduct
one or two key gambling fundraisers a year say they rely on their own
full-time employees to work with volunteers to plan and run the events.
Rachel Tobin-Smith, executive director at the Fort Wayne branch of Stop
Child Abuse Now, said she hoped legislators would make changes to the law.
"They need to continue to protect charities from a paid operator that comes
in and then takes all the money," she said. "What there needs to be is some
fine-tuning that distinguishes between a paid operator that a charity hires
and an organization such as ours ... using permanent employees to help."
Yelton said the state agency would not discipline any groups for rule
violations until after the 2007 legislative session, but that actions were
possible if the law was not changed.

Skilled gaming" often is gambling in sheep's clothing, Ohio Attorney General
Jim Petro has ruled. That means it is illegal in Ohio, providing someone
doesn't take the issue to court and gain a decision in favor of "skilled
gaming." "Skilled gaming" involves machines that look and operate much like
video gambling machines. But operators of the devices claim that, because
players can have some influence over the outcome of games, "skilled gaming"
devices are not really gambling. Wrong, Petro ruled in a decision involving
a "Tic Tac Fruit" machine. Because payouts from the machines are controlled
by operators, they are gambling devices. Petro's decision was seized upon by
state officials who announced a crackdown on "Tic Tac Fruit" machines in
bars. But what about elsewhere, in establishments that do not serve
alcoholic beverages? If "skilled gaming" is illegal, authorities at both the
local and state levels in Ohio need to take action against any establishment
offering the machines.

The online gambling industry, facing billions in losses because of a new
U.S. law, is scrambling for ways to keep Americans in its game. President
Bush signed legislation in mid-October that bars U.S. banks and financial
firms from sending credit card payments or other funds to sites involved in
online gambling, which is mostly illegal in the United States. The
high-flying industry now finds itself in the position of a gambler who has
bet big on a full house, only to see his opponent turn over a straight
flush. Americans supply half of the industry's nearly $13 billion in annual
revenue. With the new law threatening to cut off that flow of cash, the
market value of online companies, most of which trade on the London Stock
Exchange, have plummeted. Sportingbet, which operates Paradise Poker, pulled
out of the U.S. market after the law was enacted and has seen its stock
price fall to about one-tenth of its level last spring. British betting-shop
chain Ladbrokes, meanwhile, is in talks to merge with 888 Holdings, which
operates the popular Pacific Poker site. The British government has jumped
into action, convening a conference this month aimed at rescuing the
lucrative industry by imposing strict code of principles. Its proposal aims
at ensuring the games are fair and that screens are in place to protect
compulsive gamblers and children. "The industry has been very hard hit by
the U.S. ban," said Tessa Jowell, Britain's culture minister. "The Internet
is a global marketplace, and that's why we need action at the global level."

However, the United States declined to join the dozens of countries at the
conference.

In the United States, where the popularity of Texas Hold em has driven the
online gambling craze, poker players are working to have their game exempted
as a game of skill, not chance, as U.S. officials write the regulations for
the new law.

Michael Bolcerek, president of the Poker Players Alliance, an advocacy group
in Washington with more than 120,000 members, said his group will have
better odds with the Democrats gaining power in Congress.

The law already grants exemptions for betting on horse racing, intrastate
lotteries, and fantasy sports play.

Some predict the new law could spark growth in other areas of legal
gambling.

"Under the new law, U.S. states have the right to regulate Internet gambling
on an intrastate basis," said Mark Balestra, vice president of publishing
for the River City Group, a St. Louis-based publisher focusing on the gaming
and gambling industries.

"Most likely, this will lead to state lotteries going online," he said.
Others see the possibility of bingo moving onto the Internet.

However, the online gambling industry's best hope might be weak enforcement
of the new law.

"Given the language of the act, it is clear that U.S. banks and other U.S.
financial transaction providers cannot send funds to those involved in
illegal Internet gambling," said Joseph Lewczak, a partner at the law firm
of Davis & Gilbert in New York.

If the new law is used to block the transfer of any funds from a U.S. bank
to a foreign account used in connection with online gambling, "online
gambling in the United States will surely dry up," Lewczak said. "Only those
who physically take cash overseas and open an overseas account may have the
ability to participate."

However, he said, there may be a loophole "by virtue of the fact that the
U.S. agencies involved with enforcement may not be able to, or just won't,
pursue foreign entities involved in transferring money to the gambling
sites."

One leading online money transfer business - Neteller, which is based on the
Isle of Man - plans to accept financial transactions made by U.S. residents
during the 270-day period in which U.S. officials are writing rules for the
new law.

Neteller officials say they will continue to review the law, which they
claim isn't clear when it comes to the obligations of financial transaction
providers.

In the end, it may be impossible to keep American players away from the
estimated 2,000 Internet sites that take bets for sports and poker.

"People will continue to gamble online because people absolutely love it,"
said Bolcerek of the Poker Players Alliance.

"Prohibitions are known for not being effective, and this prohibition will
just send the game underground," he said. "It will cause Web sites to pop up
in unregulated jurisdictions offering the game of poker to U.S. citizens."

Senegal's honorary consul in Singapore has been released on bail while
police continue an investigation into an illegal gambling house that was
busted at the consulate last week, police said Thursday. Benny Kusni, a
36-year-old Indonesian, was released Wednesday night, a day after being
detained on charges of helping to run "a common gaming hall." It was not
immediately possible to reach Kusni. Last Friday, police busted a gambling
ring in the offices of the Senegal consulate. Thirty-one people were
arrested in the raid, including three local members of the Senegal Trade and
Investment Committee.

President Bharrat Jagdeo has indicated that the Guyana government may enact
legislation similar to that in the Bahamas, which will allow casino gambling
before the Cricket World Cup (CWC) matches are staged here next year.
However, the legislation will be highly restrictive, allowing only four-star
rated hotels with 250 rooms and above to be granted licenses. At present
there are two hotels under construction that may meet the requirements,
which will be completed to cater for the influx of over 30,000 visitors to
Guyana for CWC. President Jagdeo said that the passing of the proposed
legislation will in no way open the floodgates for widespread gambling,
since only visitors to Guyana will be allowed to use the casinos. Guyana is
hoping to use next year's CWC to catapult its tourism industry and, with the
installation of casinos, hopefully the industry could become more
attractive. The Christian community has opposed the idea of casinos, citing
reports which showed that every area where gambling was prevalent recorded
an increase in crime. Some social groups have argued that the monies spent
by the average person on gambling detract from what could have been spent on
household items aimed at enhancing family life. "I think that if the guests
are going to go to Barbados or the Bahamas because they have casinos and we
could attract them in this country by having casinos at the hotels where
they are staying, then we should do so," President Jagdeo stated.

Voters in Clark County have approved legalized gambling by a wide margin.
That doesn't necessarily mean the county that borders the Ohio River will
get a casino, though. One of the existing 11 riverboats would have to move
from another location or the state Legislature would have to authorize a
12th license. Unofficial results show the gambling referendum passed with
about 60 percent support. It was the third time the question had been put to
a vote in the county. It was rejected in 1993 and 1995. If it had been voted
down, it couldn't have been placed on the ballot again for 10 years.

Skilled gaming" often is gambling in sheep's clothing, Ohio Attorney General
Jim Petro has ruled. That means it is illegal in Ohio, providing someone
doesn't take the issue to court and gain a decision in favor of "skilled
gaming." "Skilled gaming" involves machines that look and operate much like
video gambling machines. But operators of the devices claim that, because
players can have some influence over the outcome of games, "skilled gaming"
devices are not really gambling. Wrong, Petro ruled in a decision involving
a "Tic Tac Fruit" machine. Because payouts from the machines are controlled
by operators, they are gambling devices. Petro's decision was seized upon by
state officials who announced a crackdown on "Tic Tac Fruit" machines in
bars. But what about elsewhere, in establishments that do not serve
alcoholic beverages? If "skilled gaming" is illegal, authorities at both the
local and state levels in Ohio need to take action against any establishment
offering the machines.

Both Kinky Friedman and Chris Bell as gubernatorial candidates have publicly
supported the legalizing of gambling casinos in Texas. But I don't think Mr.
Friedman can garner more votes than either the Republican or Democratic
candidate to get elected. Therefore, if you want an opportunity to vote for
Las Vegas-style casinos, I recommend that you bundle up all your votes and
vote for Mr. Chris Bell. He won't be able to do much else, because the
Republicans will control both the Senate and the House. But if Mr. Bell was
successful in his support of gambling casinos, he could go down in history
like Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer! So why not roll the dice or pull the
lever for Mr. Bell?

While the rest of the US will be discussing the Democratic victories that
secured a House majority and a potential Senate majority, most online poker
players will be discussing a single victory; the one that unseated 30 year
incumbent Republican Jim Leach. Leach was the sponsor of the House bill that
became the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act. With his stated goals
of "protecting American families" and addressing a "national security
concern," Leach introduced HR 4411. In a 51% to 49% victory, political
science professor Dave Loebsack defeated the longtime Republican Congressman
from Iowa. In the legislative world, Leach was considered one of the four
horsemen of the online gaming apocalypse. Riding with his other anti-online
gambling proponents, Senator Bill Frist, Congressman Bob Goodlatte, and
Senator Jon Kyl, Leach was considered the most vulnerable for re-election.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist tried a number of ploys to sneak HR 4411
into "must pass" legislation. After failing to tie it into a Defense
Department bill authorizing military operations, Frist was finally
successful tagging it onto the Safe Ports bill. Bill Frist chose not to run
this year. Many speculated he had planned the respite to launch his 2008
presidential bid. It was believed that Frist's actions on HR 4411 were
specifically orchestrated to cater to the small, but powerful, conservative
right. Interpreting yesterday's election results, however, Frist may have
ingratiated himself with a political niche that will have diminished
influence in securing a 2008 presidency. Republican Virginia Congressman Bob
Goodlatte was almost assured his victory this year as he ran without a
Democratic opponent. Goodlatte was the sponsor of HR 4777, the Internet
Gaming Prohibition Act and joined forces with Leach to spearhead the passage
of HR 4411. "I have been continuously committed to putting an end to
gambling on the Internet," Goodlatte said. "For too long our children have
been placed in harm's way as online gambling has been permitted to flourish
into a $12 billion industry. The Internet Gambling Prohibition Act brings
the current ban against interstate gambling up to speed with the development
of new technology."

When HR 4411 passed in the House, Arizona Senator Jon Kyl said, "For more
than a decade, I have fought for legislation to enforce Internet gambling
prohibitions. Today's action in the House is a very encouraging step, and I
will work with my colleagues to explore all ways to move this much-needed
legislation through the Senate this year." Kyl was good to his word. Kyle's
re-election bid was almost never in jeopardy this year as he consistently
led his opponent Jim Pederson in the polls; sometimes by more than eighteen
percentage points. Kyl was re-elected by a margin of 53% to 44%.

While Leach may have been the most vulnerable of the anti-online gaming
contingent, his defeat was still considered something of an upset. Although
the race was tight, Leach never trailed his opponent in the polls prior to
the election. Some of the Republicans facing defeat this morning are those
that can blame their strong conservative ties to the Bush administration.
Leach, however, was perceived to be a moderate Republican, positioning
himself as pro-choice and voting against the 2003 Bush tax cuts and the Iraq
war resolution. One has to wonder if the online gaming vote helped edge
Leach onto the rail.

Rhode Islanders are voting today on a constitutional amendment that would
allow an Indian tribe to build a casino in West Warwick. At a cost of more
than 14 (m) million dollars, the campaign has been one of the most expensive
in state history. The Narragansett Indian Tribe has been repeatedly thwarted
in its almost decade-long attempt to enter the casino gambling market. Rhode
Island's constitution bans privately operated casinos, and the state's top
court twice struck down gambling bills because judges said they did not give
state authorities enough control over casino operations. Tribal leaders say
a fully functional casino could produce up to 144 (m) million dollars
annually to help reduce property taxes. Opponents warn the state could lose
money in the deal if it must reimburse two existing slot parlors for lost
business.

The British bookmaker Ladbrokes confirmed on Monday that it was in talks to
buy 888 Holdings PLC, the online gambling group. In a brief statement,
Ladbrokes said it "can confirm that it is in the early stages of reviewing a
possible transaction involving 888. No decision has been made as to whether
any proposal will be made to 888." In a telephone interview on Monday,
Kiaran O'Brien, a company spokesman, said the talks began a few days ago and
that it was too early to estimate the possible sale price for Ladbrokes. He
described an estimate of 470 million pounds (?702 million; US$892 million)
in the British media as too high.
888 Holdings is trying to prop up its business after the United States
effectively banned Internet gaming. The company was among several
London-listed gaming groups to close or sell their American business after
U.S. Congress added to an unrelated bill a provision that would make it
illegal for banks and credit-card companies to settle payments for online
gambling sites. U.S. President George W. Bush signed the law Oct. 14.
Consolidation within the online gambling industry has been widely expected
among company executives and investors after a sharp sell-off in the sector.
Analysts and media have speculated that PartyGaming PLC is among those
expressing an interest in 888. Both companies spoke earlier this month of
possible industry mergers. The London Times reported Monday that 888 is
believed to favor a tie-up with a traditional gaming company over another
online venture that would also be reeling from the U.S. move. On Friday,
PartyGaming, which was the world's leading online gambling company until the
American crackdown, laid off 800 of 1,750 staff who work on customer and
technical support in Hyderabad, India, the Times said.

Police arrested 14-year-old Kevin Johnson for the murder of 21-year-old
Darryll Muldrow. The murder happened Monday morning at Nia Terrace
apartments on the Westside. Police say Johnson shot Muldrow five times with
a shotgun.Investigators say witnesses led them to Johnson, and that Johnson
also gave detectives information, including where to find some missing
clothing the victim was wearing at the time of the murder. Police believe
Johnson was seeking money from Muldrow for a gambling debt. Johnson is being
held at the Duval County Jail.

Nobody has studied gambling and its effects more closely than Professor Mark
Griffiths, who has written 170 research papers and two books on the subject.
He has also served as an adviser to three Government departments,
aconsultantto the Gaming Board and a leading member of two charities dealing
with the fallout from gambling addiction. In short, he is a man who knows
what he is talking about. You might think, therefore, that the Government
would have paid attention to Prof Griffiths's advice when he warned two
years ago that 10p-in-the-slot fruit machines, with payouts of up to £5,
posed a serious threat to vulnerable children.
But no. Ministers had already begun their mystifying love affair with the
big-time betting industry. So when they drew up their new Gambling Act, they
chose simply to ignore the professor, classing low-stake fruit machines in
the same child-friendly category as amusement arcade games such as toy
cranes and 'penny falls' machines. Now Prof Griffiths has accumulated yet
more alarming evidence that for many children, fruit machines are the first
step on the road to delinquency, drug and alcohol abuse, truancy, poor
school performance and theft. Don't we have more than enough social problems
in this country already, without actively courting more? At this 11th hour,
the Government still has the chance to listen to Prof Griffiths and restrict
fruit machines to adults. But the omens are not good. Remember how every
professional body most closely concerned with the fallout from alcohol
abuse - police, magistrates, judges and doctors - warned against the dangers
of round-the-clock drinking?

The Government's response? It simply ignored all advice and pressed ahead
with 24-hour pub and club licences. Today the consequences can be seen
throughout the land in the early hours of any Saturday or Sunday - on the
streets, in our casualty departments and police cells.

Why do Ministers ask for advice, when they block their ears to any they
don't wish to hear?

If Prof Griffiths is right, the Gambling Act as it stands will expose many
tens of thousands of British children to lives of misery and degradation.

Reversing their decision of a decade ago, Clark County voters approved
legalized gambling for the county by a wide margin yesterday. It was the
third time the question had been put to a referendum in the county. In 1993
and 1995 it was rejected by margins of about 2,000 votes, out of about
26,000 cast. "I'm not a bit surprised," said Jeffersonville City Councilman
John Perkins, one of the few elected officials in the county to publicly
support gambling. He said he did so only for the economic benefits of a
casino. Perkins said that in the last referendum gambling opponents "ran
pictures and ads of prostitutes standing under street lights" to show the
problems they thought it would bring to the area. But now, he said, the
county has eight years' experience with the Caesars casino operating only a
few miles down the Ohio River in Harrison County. Voters can see the
millions of dollars it has brought to that county with few of the problems
opponents predicted, Perkins said. However, approval doesn't mean Clark will
get a riverboat anytime soon -- if ever. One of the existing 11 boats would
have to move from another location or the legislature would have to
authorize a 12th license -- not a sure bet in either case. Bob Bailey, a
leader of the church-based opposition to gambling, said foes now have no
further recourse. "The people have spoken," he said. Bailey, director of
missions for the Southeastern Indiana Baptist Association, said his
organization will turn its attention to developing the social-service
programs he believes would be needed if a casino moves to Clark. That would
include counseling for those addicted to gambling, he said. Although no
license is available for a casino in Clark, Bailey said, he believes one
will be moved there soon, perhaps from Rising Sun, where the Grand Victoria
casino faces intense competition from two others downriver from Cincinnati.

Bailey and other leaders of the Southern Indiana Coalition Against Legalized
Gambling took a low-key approach this year. Instead of the high-profile
opposition that was present during the campaigns in 1993 and 1995, the
opponents this year simply asked the pastors of the county's more than 100
churches to urge their congregants to vote against the ballot question.

Because he was unable to identify any organized support for the issue,
Bailey said he thought the low-key approach would be more effective than the
high-profile approach of 1993 and 1995. In those campaigns supporters of
gambling spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising, yard signs
and polling.

Perkins, a Democrat, began circulating a petition early this year to put the
question on the Clark ballot. But, he said, he got involved in the major
annexation that the Jeffersonville City Council is working on and didn't
have enough time to gather all 463 signatures needed.

After Perkins's effort faltered in the summer, a petition supported by
leaders of the Republican Party got more than enough signatures.

Leaders of the Clark County Democratic Party, including chairman Rod Pate,
have said the Republican-led petition drive was an attempt to stir that
party's conservative base to come out and vote against the measure -- and
for the party's candidates.

However, Clark County Republican Chairman Glenn Murphy Jr. has denied that.
He said he signed the petition because he thought it would be more likely to
be defeated if it was on the ballot during this year's countywide election
rather than next year in municipal elections.

The global gaming market yielded $258.3 billion in 2005. Online gambling
brought in 5 percent, or $13 billion, according to the United Kingdom-based
Global Betting and Gaming Consultants' 2005 report. Online gambling is one
of the fastest-growing segments of the gaming market at a compound annual
growth rate of more than 50 percent since 1998. The market is projected to
reach $25.2 billion in 2010. But the United States is trying to shut it down
to Americans. On Oct. 13, President Bush signed into law the Unlawful
Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
attached to the Safe Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006. The UIGE Act
prohibits unlawful Internet gambling by restricting gambling sites from
accepting payments from U.S. residents. The Secretary of Treasury and the
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System will issue the regulations
and enforce the act in a grace period of 270 days. The United States
accounts for 47 percent of the global gross gaming yield in 2005 making it
the largest market in the world. Some of the top offshore gambling and fee
transfer sites have already pulled out of the U.S. market, including London
publicly-traded companies, PartyGaming and its subsidiary PartyPoker, and
financial services company Neteller. PartyGaming has 12 million registered
players, including 84 percent, or more than 10 million, in the United
States. Its PartyPoker Web site generates an average daily revenue of $2.5
million. "It's like they're just throwing away $2.5 million a day," said Bob
Pajich, managing news editor of Card Player Media, a media resource
producing CardPlayer.com and Card Player magazine with United States
headquarters in Las Vegas and International presence in Europe. "I am
surprised by all of the sites that have pulled out this early and they're
mostly publicly traded sites who may have been forced to do this because of
their image. I don't understand why they didn't just wait and see until the
Treasury released its regulations." Online poker makes up 20 percent of the
annual online gaming revenue behind online sports betting (36 percent) and
online casinos (25 percent). Pajich said of the five major online poker
sites - Poker Stars, Full Tilt, Ultimate Bet, Bodog and PartyPoker - only
PartyPoker thus far has chosen to no longer accept U.S. players. About 10
offshore poker Web sites have banned U.S. players since the act has passed.
"Some sites have already said they're not going to deal with U.S. players
and that's going to hurt their bottom line," Pajich said. "For the other Web
sites, they have been seeing record numbers every weekend for their
tournaments and regular play."

Some offshore casinos and sports books did not ban U.S. residents because
U.S. law does not regulate them.

Players have several options to deposit money into their casino and sports
book accounts via Internet financial transaction Web sites based outside the
United States. Western Union, money orders and e-checks through their
checking accounts can be verified and set up directly like a debit card
through casinos and sports books.

Neteller was the leading Internet financial services transactions Web site
for U.S. players with more than $7 billion in annual transactions globally.
But after the 270-day grace period, Neteller will no longer accept
transactions from U.S. residents.

"That will be a bump in the road in the industry, but I just think there
will be more ways and Web sites to pop up for U.S. residents to deposit
funds," Pajich said. "It all depends on how easy it is for someone to figure
out how to get funds into their online accounts and get around this law.
It's
a big wait-and-see game."

State's video poker revenue up 26 percent

Year-to-date revenue through September is up 26 percent at $167.9 million
compared with $133.3 million in January through September 2005, according to
the Louisiana State Police.

September revenues of $56.7 million are up 2.5 percent compared with $55.4
million in August.

Truck stops continue to be the state's largest moneymaker, generating $99.4
million through September, an increase of 21.5 percent from the $81.8
million reported year-to-date in 2005.

There are 6,264 video gaming devices in truck stops, which make up 46.6
percent of the 13,429 video gaming devices in the state.

Off-track betting establishments had the biggest revenue increase
year-to-date at 152.8 percent up to $9.1 million from the $3.6 million
reported in January through September 2005.

Bars had the second-largest increase at 36.1 percent up to $37.4 million
reported through September from $27.4 million in the same period last year.

All in the name of responsible gambling, students at the McMaster University
campus got a chance yesterday to win two $100 certificates or a grand prize
of a $1,500 scholarship. Staff of the nonprofit Responsible Gambling Council
buttonholed students and warned them of the problem signs of gambling as
they handed out draw ballots at the Mohawk College Institute of Applied
Health Sciences at the Mac campus. There's a worrying increase in the number
of young people 18 to 24 trying to win big at poker and online gambling and
the council wants them to know where and how they can get help. A recent
survey indicated 6.9 per cent of young people experienced moderate to severe
gambling problems. It found participation in online poker among 18-24 year
olds rose from 1.4 per cent in 2001 to 5.5 per cent by 2005, an increase of
almost 400 per cent. So strategically placed across from a Tim Hortons kiosk
at the health sciences building, the council spread its message. The group
will visit about 30 university and college campuses in the months ahead as
part of a Know the Score campaign. In addition, Ontario will spend $2
million on a new public awareness campaign on youth gambling. The public
awareness campaign, similar to another one last year by the council, will
run through the winter months. A TV ad last year featured a young man who
started cutting off contact from friends because he became addicted to
online gambling. "Young people see the glamourization of gambling and they
need to hear the other side," said council CEO John Kelly. "The vast
majority of people who gamble are not ... a whiz kid who made a lot of
money. "We need to get out there with the message this can be recreation or
it can be something that can get you into a lot of trouble. "They need to
have a realistic understanding of your chances of winning and losing."

For the third time in 16 years, Ohioans soundly rejected the expansion of
gambling in Ohio, this time routing a racetrack-backed proposal to put slot
machines at the tracks. Voters also approved a ban on smoking in most public
buildings and rejected a tobacco-backed ban that would have exempted bars,
enclosed parts of restaurants and certain sporting venues. An increase in
the state's minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.85 passed. Issue 3, the
slots issue, was behind 1,611,700, or 58.30 percent, to 1,167,654, or 41.70
percent, with 98.21 percent of precincts reporting. Sen. George Voinovich,
who successfully fought casino ballot issues in 1990 and 1996, said Ohioans
realized that the slots backers who were selling the issue as a scholarship
program would be its prime beneficiaries.
"The people of Ohio saw through the sham and were not fooled," Voinovich
said. The successful Issue 5 bans smoking in all buildings outside the home,
except for tobacco shops, designated hotel rooms and enclosed areas in
nursing homes. Issue 4 would have exempted bars, race tracks, bowling alleys
and bingo halls from a ban. It was opposed by 64.28 percent and supported by
35.72 percent. Issue 2, one of six minimum wage issues around the country,
was supported 56.17 percent to 43.83 percent. "Issue 4 was an attempt to
protect big tobacco's bottom line," said Tracy Sabetta, co-chair of
SmokeFreeOhio, the American Cancer Society-backed group that promoted Issue
5. "We know we will see an improvement in the health of bartenders and
others in the hospitality industry." Smoke Less Ohio, the group largely
financed by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and some restaurant and bar owners,
said it accepted the vote. "The voters had an opportunity, through
comprehensive campaigns on both sides of the issue, to educate themselves,
form an opinion and then vote. That is the purpose of allowing initiatives
and we respect that process and the outcome," spokesman Jacob Evans said.
The gambling proposal, state Issue 3, would have allowed up to 31,000 slot
machines at Ohio's seven horse-racing tracks and two free-standing parlors
in downtown Cleveland. A portion of the revenue would go to eligible public
school students attending in-state colleges and universities. It was the
third proposal since 1990 to expand gambling in Ohio, where only the lottery
and games for charity such as bingo are state-sanctioned.

State Issue 5 would ban smoking in most public buildings, while Issue 4
would exempt places including bars, bowling alleys, bingo halls and
racetracks.

Except Issue 5, the proposals would amend the Ohio Constitution. If voters
pass both smoking issues, the less restrictive one would prevail because it
would be an amendment instead of a change in state law. Issue 4 also would
eliminate 21 local smoking bans.

The racetrack owners and developers who would claim 55 percent of the slots
revenues raised at least $13 million in the campaign and promoted the 30
percent that would be committed to college scholarships.

Opponents said the ad campaign inflated the amount going to scholarships and
that passage would harm families of people who become gambling addicts.

Voters in 1990 and 1996 overwhelmingly defeated issues that would have
allowed casinos.

The competing smoking issues pitted health groups such as the American
Cancer Society against tobacco companies and bar and restaurant owners.

Backers of the minimum wage amendment, including labor unions and advocates
for low-income people, said the wage at $5.15 was too low. Opponents _
business groups and low-wage employers _ said an increase would hurt small
businesses and drive many retailers from Ohio.

Backers trying to get a proposed issue to change workers' compensation law
certified for the ballot ran out of time, so votes cast for Issue 1 were not
being counted

More and more of Ontario's young people are looking to ante up -- raising
the stakes on potential gambling problems, shows a poll released yesterday.
More than one-third of people aged 18-34 play poker for money, with nearly
half of people in that age group saying they play more now than they did two
years ago, according to the Responsible Gambling Council Poker Poll
conducted by Ipsos-Reid. "Frequency matters," Dr. Jon Kelly, chief executive
of the Responsible Gambling Council, said, adding it is a matter of concern
that of those that play poker, almost one-quarter play once a week or more
often.

A plan to allow slot machines in Ohio and competing bans on smoking in
public dominated statewide ballot questions on Tuesday. Another statewide
issue asked voters to raise the minimum wage by $1.70 to $6.85 an hour. The
gambling proposal, state Issue 3, would place up to 31,000 slot machines at
Ohio's seven horse-racing tracks and two free-standing parlors in downtown
Cleveland. A portion of the revenue would go to eligible public school
students attending in-state colleges and universities. It was the third
proposal since 1990 to expand gambling in Ohio, where only the lottery and
games for charity such as bingo are state-sanctioned. State Issue 5 would
ban smoking in most public buildings, while Issue 4 would exempt places
including bars, bowling alleys, bingo halls and racetracks. Except Issue 5,
the proposals would amend the Ohio Constitution. If voters pass both smoking
issues, the less restrictive one would prevail because it would be an
amendment instead of a change in state law. Issue 4 also would eliminate 21
local smoking bans.

This is supposed to be one of those tight races we suppose but once again
the online gambling community has pretty much already claimed a victory with
Sheldon Whitehouse (D) of Rhode Island. Not that they would be walking off
with much dough. One needed to wager $15 just to win $2 (in addition to the
initial $15 bet). Compare that with the $7 pay out for every $2 bet on
challenger Lincoln Chafee. With only a few more hours until voters will
decide which party will control Congress, polls show that Republicans are
making major gains in key races and closing the gap nationally, meaning
voter turnout could become the key factor.
With Senate races as tight as ever. The company removed its odds as we
approached Election Day eve but here is what we were looking at. Who will be
the next Senator in these key states:

Connecticut
Ned Lamont (DEM)- 7/2
Alan Schlesinger (REP)- 16/1
Joe Lieberman (CFL)- 1/10

Montana
Jon Tester (DEM)- 1/5
Conrad Burns (REP)- 2/1
Field (Any Other Candidate)- 15/1

Rhode Island
Sheldon Whitehouse (DEM)- 2/15
Lincoln Chafee (REP)- 7/2
Field (Any Other Candidate)- 30/1

Virginia
James H. Webb (DEM)- 1/1
George Allen (REP)- 1/2
Field (Any Other Candidate)-28/1

New Jersey
Thomas Kean, Jr. (REP)- 2/1
Robert Mendez (DEM)- 2/7
Field (Any Other Candidate)- 15/1

Las Vegas Gaming Inc. and Golden Pond 57 Pty. Ltd. are creating a gambling
company that will be based in South Africa. The joint venture entity, Golden
Gaming Pty. Ltd., will "exist for the purpose of exploring any and all
gaming and lottery opportunities on the African continent," Las Vegas Gaming
said Tuesday in a release. The company is a game-management system operator,
supplier and game designer specializing in keno, bingo and lottery products.

Britain is leading Europe in its appetite for online betting with the number
of gamblers doubling in the past five years. An independent research review
reveals that of the 3.3 million regular online gamblers in Europe, one in
three are from the UK. Europe's regular gamblers stake around £3.5bn a
year - an average of £1000 each.
The review, published by the government, was commissioned ahead of the first
international online gambling summit held yesterday. There are now 2300
gambling web sites across the world. Many are based in a few key nations
with Antigua, which hosts 537, top of the pile, and Costa Rica second with
474. Internet gambling on many sports is illegal in the US and many online
betting firms have set up offshore tax havens which are among the 85 areas
of the world that current regulate online betting to dodge the US laws.
Tessa Jowell, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary and Richard Caborn, the
Sports Minister, spent the morning in talks with representatives from 33
different countries at Ascot racecourse to agree a communique setting out
shared regulatory principles upon which they all agreed. Ms Jowell said the
research proved there was a need to secure international support for agreed
standards of regulation of online gambling. She said: "Of course, we also
want online gambling companies to come onshore. We will welcome them here
because we believe that by allowing those who want to gamble to do so over
the counter, not under the counter, is the best way to protect children and
vulnerable people and keep out crime." Ms Jowell said the American approach
was "the new prohibition", referring to US efforts to ban alcohol in the
early 20th century. "The enormous risk of prohibition, as we saw in America
during the 1920s and 1930s, is that you drive the industry underground," she
said. "Our purpose is protection. If gambling becomes an illicit activity,
then we can't do that." Mr Caborn denied claims that the UK was only
reacting to action taken in America and that the attempt to regulate the
online gambling industry was not a bid to "grab" tax revenue. He also
stressed that the government would not protect UK online gaming executives
from extradition requests if they took internet bets from countries in which
they were illegal. Scotland's worst case of internet gambling addiction
involved Richard Mahan, a 25-year-old from Aberdeen who used 13 different
credit cards belonging to his mother and father to blow £158,000 in two
hours. He was sentenced to three years' probation after admitting 13 fraud
charges in July.
An action plan contained within the document proposes co-operation between
countries in the development of measures to check game players' ages and
identity and ways to address problem gambling and addiction.

A police team consisting of Surathkal PI T.R. Jagannatha and staff of
highway patrol squad on specific information conducted raid near the shed
belonging to Janardhana Shetty at Bala village, Mangalore on 4 Nov, 2006. At
the time of raid Police found 12 persons playing 'Ander - Bahar' with cards.
Police seized cash Rs. 5,067/, 6 mobile phones and playing cards from the
spot and arrested Narayna Shetty (58), Jainuddin (50), Sundara Poojary (37),
Monappa Banjan (48), Naveen Pirera (38), Mohammed Sharif (35), Abdul Khadar
(32), Wilson Menezes (36), Anil Kumar (32), Shankara Shetty, Abdul Saleem
(29) and Mohammed Haneef (32) who were indulging in gambling. A case has
been registered in this connection against the arrested persons in Surthakal
Police Station under sections 78, 87 of the Karnataka Police Act.

The gambling industry grew most in terms of businesses opening last year
while coffee shops turned out to be past their heyday. According to the
National Statistical Office (NSO), the number of gambling houses, including
casinos and video gambling game rooms, marked 1,186 last year, up 137
percent from a year earlier. Child education businesses, such as nursery
schools, also saw notable growth, with the number of the businesses marking
13,954, up 17.9 percent from the year 2004. The number of coffee shops and
confectioneries, however, decreased by 12.1 percent, and stationery stores
and hardware shops also saw around a 5 percent decrease. The number of total
businesses around the country recorded 3.2 million last year, up only 0.6
percent from 2004. The statistical office explained that the increase in
businesses slowed as small retailers and wholesalers, as well as restaurants
and lodgings, closed in the face of competition with larger corporations.
The number of big businesses employing at least 300 people also decreased
7.6 percent, recording the smallest number since 2000. ``Big businesses in
the manufacturing industry seem to have sought downsizing through
separation,'' explained Kim Hyun-jung, director of the industry statistics
division at the statistical office. There were 2,361 such big businesses in
the country as of last year. The number of small businesses employing four
people or less was 2.68 million, down 0.5 percent from the previous year.
One out of three businesses were led by women, but most of the businesswomen
were confined to a number of business categories. Beauty salon businesses
were dominated by women, with 91.9 percent being women-owned. Of arts
education facilities, 84.6 percent had female owners. The same was true for
74.2 percent of child education facilities. Confectioneries, pubs,
restaurants, and karaoke rooms also had a high ratio of female owners.

The statistics also showed that businesses are too concentrated in and
around Seoul. Nearly half, or 46.3 percent, were located in Seoul and its
vicinity. This is the highest rate since 1993 when this survey was
introduced.

Kangnam District and Socho District in southern Seoul were the locations
where the biggest number of businesses were headquartered, partly explaining
why real estate prices keep skyrocketing in these districts.

Almost 70% of Moscow's casinos and slot machine parlors had been closed
recently Moscow deputy mayor Iosif Ordzhonikidze said at a press conference
on Thursday, the Interfax news agency reports. However, the official noted
that tax revenues of the Moscow budget from gambling have declined by just 3
percent. Over 2,000 from total 2,720 gambling houses have been closed, so
tax revenues were supposed to decline substantially Iosif Ordzhonikidze
said. According to the independent research the owner of just one slot
machine makes an average profit of $10,000 per month. Gambling business tax
returns have struck a seven billion ruble mark, roughly 260 million U.S.
Dollars. Without Internet poker, there wouldn't be very many people outside
Barberton, Ohio, who know the Rev. Greg Hogan Sr. Hogan isn't one of the
dozens of poker players who have struck it rich on the poker Web sites. His
son is in prison because of those Web sites.
Hogan was the highlight of the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling
annual conference Thursday, where more than 150 people listened to the story
of how his son, Greg Hogan Jr., went from aspiring college student to
indebted gambler and eventually bank robber. "Greg's life and all his dreams
went into meltdown," Hogan said. "He was never honest with me or anyone
else." Hogan has since been traveling all across the country telling his
son's story. He was featured on "Good Morning America" with his son before
the son started serving a 22-month-to-10-year sentence for the robbery.
Jacqueline Owens, president of the Norwich Chapter of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, attended and said she
knows of youths who have "friends" who gamble. She was hoping to use the
convention to get ideas on how to get through to them about the dangers of
gambling. "They say they have friends. When they say that, it usually means
they are (gambling), too," Owens said. "I always find it interesting to get
some new information."

Much of the information centered on viewing gambling as an addiction that
can lead to other problems. Several speakers talked about the physical
sensation gambling addicts get from playing that can mimic the effects of
cocaine.

"It teaches us to do things that are intrinsically rewarding," said Debi
LaPlante, instructor of psychiatry at Harvard University and part of the
Division of Addictions at Harvard Medical School. "Things like having sex
and gambling can affect the reward center (of the brain)."

Marvin Steinberg, executive director of the Connecticut Council on Problem
Gambling, said the conference is meant to get new information about gambling
addiction to gambling support workers and gambling industry participants.

"We try to educate in different areas," Steinberg said.

Bruce MacDonald, a spokesman for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, which owns
and operates Foxwoods Resort Casino, said the conference is an opportunity
for the casino to learn about new trends in problem gambling.

Close friends since college days, Akhil Gupta and Sunil Baheti have never
missed each other on the Diwali (Festival of Lights) night gambling bashes
each year, even though they have lived some 13,000 kilometers apart for the
past four years. Every year while Akhil and his other ex-college mates
assembled at his living room in Delhi for a few hours of online gambling at
PartyPoker.com, Sunil joined in too by logging on to the site from Texas,
where he is currently a practicing lawyer. This year, though, it was a
little different. Instead of playing at their usual site, the old friends
switched to 3Patti.com, an Indian card-game website that also offers the
local game called teenpatti, a favorite among ritual gamblers. "We couldn't
play at PartyPoker because it was closed to Sunil following the ban on
online gambling in US," said Akhil, "but that's okay. 3Patti was as much
fun." Akhil and his friends were not the only ones making that shift that
night. According to 3Patti.com, which claims to be the largest Indian online
gambling den, for about a week leading to the Diwali night on October 21,
the site recorded its highest hits from Indian clients (that was second only
to the number of hits from the US) since October 13, the day President
George W Bush signed a law that seeks to ban most online gambling and
criminalizes funds transfers in the US. 3Patti is reportedly planning to
invest more in India as industry sources say several other sites, too, are
shifting operations out of the US and may be heading toward India and
elsewhere in Asia. "The [online gambling] companies, particularly the large
ones with large resources, that have ceased operations in the US have all
said that they would refocus their efforts on other markets, and
particularly the Asian markets," said Eugene Christiansen, chairman of
Christiansen Capital Advisors LLC, a US-based consultancy firm that provides
gambling and entertainment-industry analysis and management services.

The exodus in fact has already started. On the day Bush signed the new law,
Sportingbet for instance, a UK-based online-gambling firm that derived about
56% of its business from the United States, sold its US operations to an
Antiguan company for US$1 and said "it is focusing on Europe and the rest of
the world including Asia". While closing their operations to all US
customers, others such as PartyGaming and 888Holdings too said they would be
moving elsewhere.
Indeed, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act may be making online
gaming firms rush out of the US, but experts say a new Internet-gambling ban
won't keep bettors from looking over their shoulders for long, and they may
just turn to offshore sites and overseas payment services out of the law's
reach. The impact of the ban, then: online gaming is all set to bloom in
Asia.

According to William Eadington, a professor of the Institute for the Study
of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno, with
mega-casinos already open in Macau, Singapore scheduled to open gambling in
2009, South Korea permitting limited legalization of gambling, and with no
clear laws in India along with its residents' notorious gambling instincts,
Asia certainly looks all set to emerge as the next gambling den of the
world.

"End of prohibition and high level of enthusiasm from Asian customers makes
Asia the next emerging growth market," Eadington said, adding that of all
the centers being developed in the region, Macau promises the maximum
opportunity. Macau is already becoming the "Las Vegas of Asia", after a new
gambling law in 2002 broke up the gaming monopoly, allowing Las Vegas
entrepreneurs to open major new casinos such as the Wynn Resorts, The
Venetian, MGM, Melcor, and Galaxy.
Singapore, too, has decided to legalize gambling, "enhancing the
attractiveness of a prosperous but boring city, while [South] Korea, Japan,
Thailand, Taiwan, India, China are watching others and trying to decide what
to do," Eadington said. All these Asian countries, as well as European
countries, he said, are tying to regulate Internet gambling rather than
banning it as gamblers are increasingly turning to the Web.

So the serious question is, can the new US law really be effective in
stopping US residents from betting online? After all, the online sites may
be moving out of US, but they still have e-wallets to help them attract the
US crowd even though it may be on the wrong side of the law. Take the
instance of 3Patti.com: this site offers various payment options, two of
which could easily be used by a US resident to open an account at the site.

Besides, says Christiansen of Christiansen Capital Advisors, e-payment
outfits not subjected to the US authority such as NETeller, based in the
Isle of Man, a dependency of the United Kingdom, can accept payments from a
US citizen if it wants.

"The problem is," said Christiansen, "the new law has already made many
exceptions that make Internet gambling a wide-open area." For instance,
although the new law knocks offshore companies out of the US, it does not
appear to change existing definitions of federally prescribed gambling,
which allow state-licensed casinos, the horse-racing industry, state
lotteries and fantasy sports leagues.

In fact, like Professor Eadington, Christiansen agrees that the new law will
not stop gambling but will create black market in the US that will thrive on
diverting the US customers to online gambling sites in Asia and Europe. He
said, "Laws that prohibit widely accepted behavior are directed against
legitimate businesses, not criminals," and cited as a pointer the 18th
Amendment of the US constitution and the Volstead Act, which in 1920
prohibited the manufacture, distribution and sale of beer, wine and spirits.

Prohibition transferred the alcoholic beverage industry from licensed and
regulated companies to organized crime but failed to stop Americans from
drinking and did nothing to ameliorate the harmful effects of alcohol.
"Online gambling is unstoppable, and the new law would just drive gamblers
into the arms of touts and crooks," Christiansen said.

Meanwhile, many equate the carnage this ban caused to the London Stock
Exchange (LSE) to the dotcom-bubble collapse following AOL's purchase of
Time Warner in January 2001. Most of the US gambling websites are run by
European gaming companies listed on the LSE. PartyGaming, for instance, the
world's largest online poker company, lost 75% of its revenue by shutting
its US sites, and at least two publicly traded companies, World Gaming and
BetonSports, are in effect out of business in the US.

The market capitalization of large online gambling companies has also been
cut in half at the LSE. Christiansen Capital Advisors says the US market, at
$6 billion, accounted for half of the $12 billion global Internet gambling
market last year, which is expected to double to $24 billion by 2010.

Still, there may an upside to this ban. "Companies listed on the London
Stock Exchange or the London AIM [Alternative Investment Market] in 2005
have substantial cash reserves," said Christiansen. "That cash will buy more
in the way of online competition than it would have six months ago, which
means that consolidation in the online gambling is likely to accelerate."

Almost 70% of Moscow's casinos and slot machine parlors had been closed
recently Moscow deputy mayor Iosif Ordzhonikidze said at a press conference
on Thursday, the Interfax news agency reports. However, the official noted
that tax revenues of the Moscow budget from gambling have declined by just 3
percent. Over 2,000 from total 2,720 gambling houses have been closed, so
tax revenues were supposed to decline substantially Iosif Ordzhonikidze
said. According to the independent research the owner of just one slot
machine makes an average profit of $10,000 per month. Gambling business tax
returns have struck a seven billion ruble mark, roughly 260 million U.S.
Dollars.

A Republican-sponsored effort to clamp down on Internet gambling may turn
out to be a bad bet for the GOP. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement
Act, which President Bush signed into law Oct. 13, has infuriated many
voters who enjoy betting on sports or playing poker online, analysts said.
Other observers, however, see little threat to Republicans from the law,
calling it a relatively minor matter to most voters. "I don't believe a
large volume of voters are motivated to go to the polls because of Internet
gaming, either way," said Brian Darling of the Heritage Foundation, a
conservative Washington think tank. But with Republicans already on the
defensive over the Iraq war, budget deficits and the congressional page
scandal, the gambling law is the latest issue that could steer voters away
from the GOP. "I've been a loyal Republican for over 30 years, and I'm
quitting the party I once loved," said Jim Henry, 55, who lives outside San
Francisco. "Not because of the Mark Foley scandal or Middle East policy. But
because the Republican Party wants to stop me from what I love to do: play
poker over the Internet." Sponsored in the House by Reps. Jim Leach, R-Iowa,
and Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and backed in the Senate by Majority Leader Bill
Frist, R-Tenn., the law pits social conservatives who disapprove of gambling
against the 8.5 million Americans who spend about $6 billion annually to
cast wagers online. Some opponents of the law see a political component to
its passage, believing it was intended to buoy support for Frist among
religious conservatives if he decides to run for president in 2008. The law
is aimed at stopping the flow of money to gambling sites, where funds could
potentially be laundered.
Leach has also cited moral dimensions to the law, calling it one of the most
important pieces of family legislation ever considered by lawmakers.

"Internet gambling is not a subject touched upon in the Old or New Testament
or the Quran," Leach said earlier this year. "But the pastoral function is
one of dealing with families in difficulty and religious leaders of all
denominations and faiths are seeing gambling problems erode family values."

Even so, a Gallup Poll taken earlier this year found that 60 percent of
adults believe gambling is morally acceptable. That's true for many
religious conservatives who say they enjoy placing a bet.

A raid breaks up an illegal gambling operation in Van Zandt County for the
second time this year. Van Zandt County Sheriff's deputies raided a
building off Highway 198, just North of Mabank. An undercover investigation
by the Van Zandt County Sheriff's Department discovered a medal building
behind a wooden privacy fence. At the front gate, sits a window. "You would
have to stop, get out of your vehicle, give your ID to the person there and
they would check to see if you were on a list, and if you were on a list you
could come in," said Sheriff Pat Burnett. In May, the sheriff's department
seized 77 8 Liner machines from the same building. Just a few months later,
authorities say the same owner moved 53 machines back in. "They will go to
jail for running an illegal gambling operation,." said Sheriff Burnett. "If
we can prove there is three or more people than we can file for organized
criminal activity. Also inside Thursday night were 13 customers and two
employees. All were written citations for illegal gambling. One customer
said it was his first time there. "I was with some friends," said the
customer who would not give his name. "I didn't really know it was illegal,
not really. In my opinion you buy lottery tickets. Isn't that gambling." The
property owner says he's never been inside the building. "I didn't know what
was going on inside," said Any Collins, Property Owner. "I didn't want to
know. They just leased it from me." He knows now, and Van Zandt County
Sheriff Pat Burnett says he wants everyone to know he will not allow illegal
gambling in his county. Once they have gone through all the evidence,
deputies say they will arrest the owner. The 53 8 Liners seized Thursday
night will either be destroyed or sold in a state where the machines can
legally be used.

Clarion ATE's Codes of Practice conference will focus on the gambling
industry's need to comply with the UK's new licensing regime from September
2007. The conference, on Monday 27th November, is being sponsored by Berwin
Leighton Paisner and is being held at their St Magnus House Office, 3 Lower
Thames St, London. Delegates will hear from Tom Kavanagh, Deputy Chief
Executive of the Gambling Commission on what regulatory changes they can
expect in 2007. Kavanagh will outline the key points the industry needs to
be aware of for the four main areas. - Keeping crime out of gambling -
Conducting gambling fairly and openly - Protecting children and the
vulnerable - The application process - The Gambling Commission's Licensing
Conditions and Codes of Practice will outline how the Commission intends to
regulate the gambling industry in accordance with the Gambling Act 2005
being effective from next September. Other confirmed speakers include Clive
Hawkswood, Chief Executive, Remote Gambling Association; Russ Phillips,
Deputy Chief Executive, ABB; Malcolm Bruce, Acting Director, Responsibility
in Gambling Trust; Geoffrey Godbold OBE, Chief Executive Officer, Gamcare
and Tony Roberts, Director, gamAID.

Almost 70% of Moscow's casinos and slot machine parlors had been closed
recently Moscow deputy mayor Iosif Ordzhonikidze said at a press conference
on Thursday, the Interfax news agency reports. However, the official noted
that tax revenues of the Moscow budget from gambling have declined by just 3
percent. Over 2,000 from total 2,720 gambling houses have been closed, so
tax revenues were supposed to decline substantially Iosif Ordzhonikidze
said. According to the independent research the owner of just one slot
machine makes an average profit of $10,000 per month. Gambling business tax
returns have struck a seven billion ruble mark, roughly 260 million U.S.
Dollars. Without Internet poker, there wouldn't be very many people outside
Barberton, Ohio, who know the Rev. Greg Hogan Sr. Hogan isn't one of the
dozens of poker players who have struck it rich on the poker Web sites. His
son is in prison because of those Web sites.
Hogan was the highlight of the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling
annual conference Thursday, where more than 150 people listened to the story
of how his son, Greg Hogan Jr., went from aspiring college student to
indebted gambler and eventually bank robber. "Greg's life and all his dreams
went into meltdown," Hogan said. "He was never honest with me or anyone
else." Hogan has since been traveling all across the country telling his
son's story. He was featured on "Good Morning America" with his son before
the son started serving a 22-month-to-10-year sentence for the robbery.
Jacqueline Owens, president of the Norwich Chapter of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, attended and said she
knows of youths who have "friends" who gamble. She was hoping to use the
convention to get ideas on how to get through to them about the dangers of
gambling. "They say they have friends. When they say that, it usually means
they are (gambling), too," Owens said. "I always find it interesting to get
some new information."

Much of the information centered on viewing gambling as an addiction that
can lead to other problems. Several speakers talked about the physical
sensation gambling addicts get from playing that can mimic the effects of
cocaine.

"It teaches us to do things that are intrinsically rewarding," said Debi
LaPlante, instructor of psychiatry at Harvard University and part of the
Division of Addictions at Harvard Medical School. "Things like having sex
and gambling can affect the reward center (of the brain)."

Marvin Steinberg, executive director of the Connecticut Council on Problem
Gambling, said the conference is meant to get new information about gambling
addiction to gambling support workers and gambling industry participants.

"We try to educate in different areas," Steinberg said.

Bruce MacDonald, a spokesman for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, which owns
and operates Foxwoods Resort Casino, said the conference is an opportunity
for the casino to learn about new trends in problem gambling.

The UK will set itself up as an online gambling haven but will extradite
executives to the US if asked, according to Sports Minister Richard Caborn.
The US effectively banned online gambling with a new law earlier this year,
and Caborn and Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell outlined plans to welcome
internet gambling companies to the UK and regulate them. Jowell criticised
the US's stance, saying the UK will not follow suit. "We do not support the
approach the United States has taken," she said. "The enormous risk of
prohibition is that it forces the industry underground." Making unfavourable
comparisons to the US's experience with alcohol prohibition in the 1920s,
Jowell said the UK would instead regulate the industry. She said outlawing
it risked driving online betting consumers into criminal hands. The
politicians were speaking at a summit of international delegates who agreed
a framework to regulate the industry, agreeing protection for gambling
addicts and plans to stop underage gambling. The Department of Justice in
the US had long considered the 1961 Wire Act to outlaw all internet
gambling, but a new law, which was rushed through under cover of a port
security act, made it illegal for financial institutions to process payments
to gambling sites. The impact on UK-listed gaming companies was severe.
Share prices nosedived and Sportingbet sold its US business for $1, claiming
that it released the company from $27m of liabilities. Speculation has
mounted in recent days that 888 and PartyGaming would merge, and Ladbrokes
has also been linked to a bid for 888.

Two British senior executives of online gaming companies had been arrested
in the US prior to the passing of the new law. Though Peter Dicks of
Sportingbet was released, David Carruthers from BetonSports still awaits
trial.

Caborn said despite attempts to attract further business to the US, the UK
would still respect extradition requests from the US in relation to online
gambling. "People have to abide by the laws of particular countries," he
said. "We will not acknowledge people who operate illegally."

The US was said by industry sources to account for at least half of the
revenues earned by online gambling worldwide. $6.7bn of the $30bn spent
every year is spent in Europe, according to UK government figures.

A magistrate released the Casino Royale from federal court control Thursday.
The ship's owner settled claims from crew members, who obtained a court
order for federal marshals to seize the vessel last week. The ship has been
docked at Tampa Bay Shipbuilding & Repair Co. since April, while owners try
to get U.S. Coast Guard approval to carry passengers on the casino boat.
Microsoft Corp. has announced it will release the business version of the
long-anticipated update to its flagship operating system at an event at the
Nasdaq Stock Market on Nov. 30. In addition to Windows Vista, the company
said it also will release the Office 2007 software suite, which includes
word processing and spreadsheet programs, and Exchange Server 2007 for
e-mail and calendars. Shares of Clearwater's Lincare Holdings Inc., which
provides oxygen to at-home patients, rose Thursday after
easier-than-expected Medicare cuts in oxygen reimbursement. Lincare shares
rose $2.68 to $35.18 on the Nasdaq. On Wednesday, the Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid lowered its monthly payment for oxygen to $230 from $231, far
better than the anticipated payment of$209. A bankruptcy judge granted Delta
Air Lines Inc. a deadline extension to file its plan of reorganization as it
tries to emerge from Chapter 11 by the middle of next year. The nation's
third-largest airline now has until Feb. 15, to file a plan and until April
16, to solicit approval for the plan from creditors, according to a court
document dated Oct. 31.

Twinkies baker settle federal case

Interstate Bakeries Corp., the bankrupt maker of Twinkies and Wonder bread,
said Thursday it has agreed to settle a longstanding federal investigation
into its record-keeping and accounting practices. The company also said it
has been ordered by the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of
Enforcement to file a year and a half of delinquent quarterly and annual
reports by Dec. 31 or its stock could be delisted.

MySpace pioneer files antitrust suit

An early investor in MySpace sued the popular social networking Web site on
Thursday, claiming the company violated antitrust laws by blocking links to
his new online video-sharing venture. Brad Greenspan, chief executive of Los
Angeles-based LiveUniverse Inc., claims that last month MySpace began
deleting references on user pages to his new Web site, vidiLife.com, and has
dismantled video links and blocked users from mentioning the site. Both
sites allow users to post videos and create online profiles for swapping
media and collecting Internet penpals.

Just a week after the La New Bears popped champagne bottles to celebrate
their winning the Taiwan pro baseball title, local fans and the sports
community are stunned by allegations that underground gambling syndicates
may have tried to influence game results with threats, bribes and large
payoffs. In a dramatic development on Thursday, the champion La New Bears
pitching coach Lin Kuang-hong turned himself in to the Taipei police. At a
press conference held on Thursday afternoon, he said he and his pitchers
have been under threat to throw games during the Taiwan Series -- the CPBL
league championship finals.
The Kaohsiung-based La New club clinched its first CPBL crown on Wednesday
October 25 after sweeping the Tainan-based President Lions four straight
games in the Taiwan Series. While being questioned by the Criminal
Investigation Bureau (???) on Thursday evening, Lin told police that during
a coerced meeting in a motel on October 20 -- night before the opening game
of the Taiwan series -- he was held at gunpoint by gangsters who operate
illegal betting pools. He was asked to pull starters at certain times and to
use particular relief pitchers who might cooperate in fixing the outcome of
the game. In response to media speculation, Lin was adamant that he did not
accept a NT$200,000 bribe from the gangsters, and that he did not in any way
cooperate or act to influence the outcome of the series. "I have no control
over handling of the pitchers or when to bring in the relievers. All these
decisions are not up to me. The decisions are made by the team manager Hong
Yi-chung," Lin said he told the gambling pool operators. He recalled the
conversation during a press conference at the CPBL office on Thursday.

The local media also broadcasted a videotape of secret encounters between
Lin and the gangsters and the contents of their conversation. It is alleged
the television stations received the videotape from the gangsters on
Thursday, in an attempt to discredit Lin and to show the pitching coach
might be involved in baseball gambling and game-fixing.

Some local press reports said the release of the videotape was a ploy by the
gambling syndicate, who had lost large amounts of money when the La New
Bears swept the series and wanted to take revenge on Lin and the players who
were deemed un-cooperative.

When asked by the press, La New team manager Hong Yi-chung said his players
are clean. "We did not do anything about the threats by the gambling
syndicates. It did not have any effect on us. Our players went all out and
we won the championship. The result speaks for itself," he said.

A Republican-sponsored effort to clamp down on Internet gambling may turn
out to be a bad bet for the Republican Party just days away from
congressional elections. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act,
which President George W. Bush signed into law Oct. 13, has infuriated many
voters who enjoy betting on sports or playing poker online, analysts said.
Other observers, however, see little threat to Republicans from the law,
calling it a relatively minor matter to most voters in Tuesday's elections.
"I don't believe a large volume of voters are motivated to go to the polls
because of Internet gaming, either way," said Brian Darling of the Heritage
Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank. But with Republicans
already on the defensive over the Iraq war, budget deficits and a sex
scandal involving teenage congressional assistants, the gambling law is the
latest issue that could steer voters away from the Republican Party. "I've
been a loyal Republican for over 30 years, and I'm quitting the party I once
loved," said Jim Henry, 55, who lives outside San Francisco. "Not because of
the Mark Foley scandal or Middle East policy. But because the Republican
Party wants to stop me from what I love to do: play poker over the
Internet." The Republicans are trying to hold onto their majority in both
the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Democrats could take a
majority in the House by gaining 15 seats, and in the Senate with six more
seats. All 435 House seats are on Tuesday's ballot, and 33 of the 100 Senate
seats are. Sponsored in the House by Republican Congressmen Jim Leach and
Bob Goodlatte, and backed in the Senate by Majority Leader Bill Frist, a
Republican, the law pits social conservatives who disapprove of gambling
against the 8.5 million Americans who spend about $6 billion (?4.7 billion)
annually to cast wagers online.
Some opponents of the law see a political component to its passage,
believing it was intended to buoy support for Frist among religious
conservatives if he decides to run for president in 2008.

The law is aimed at stopping the flow of money to gambling sites, where
funds could potentially be laundered.

Leach has also cited moral dimensions to the law, calling it one of the most
important pieces of family legislation ever considered by lawmakers.

"Internet gambling is not a subject touched upon in the Old or New Testament
or the Quran," Leach said earlier this year. "But the pastoral function is
one of dealing with families in difficulty and religious leaders of all
denominations and faiths are seeing gambling problems erode family values."

Even so, a Gallup Poll taken earlier this year found that 60 percent of
adults believe gambling is morally acceptable.

"I suspect that people who actually do a lot of Internet gambling ...
they're going to be turned off by this," said David Boaz of the libertarian
Cato Institute in Washington. "That's going to hurt Republicans."

Boaz said the law would likely alienate self-described libertarian voters,
which he estimates constitute about 13 percent of the electorate. Boaz
published an analysis last month suggesting libertarians have been slowly
shifting their support to Democrats since 2004.

Others say it's too much of a niche issue to swing the election.

"National security, the economy and such issues are likely to be the most
pressing issues in voters' minds next Tuesday," said Carrie Meadows, a
spokeswoman for Goodlatte.

The Poker Players Alliance, an advocacy group in Washington with more than
120,000 members, said it has been flooded with angry e-mails from
libertarian organizations and Republicans disavowing the law. And the group
is letting its members know how their representatives voted.

For eight years, the state's growing gambling industry has faced a staunch
opponent in the governor's mansion. Gov. Jeb Bush has never hidden his
disdain for gambling, including his fight against adding Las Vegas-style
slot machines at Broward County pari-mutuel facilities. State and Broward
voters approved the machines, however, and he grudgingly signed the law
governing them. But Bush is out in January due to term limits, and either
Republican Charlie Crist or Democrat Jim Davis will confront further growth
attempts by the industry, which has pumped big money into Florida's
election. Crist's campaign has received at least $5,000 from individuals
with gambling connections while the state Republican Party has received more
than $125,000. Davis' campaign has received at least $1,500 from individuals
with gambling connections and the state Democratic Party has received at
least $250,000. Despite those donations, both say they are opposed to
further gambling in the state. Tuesday's winner will also have to negotiate
with Indian tribes over the Vegas-style slots they'll be able to install in
their casinos statewide because of the Broward vote. "Neither Jim Davis nor
Charlie Crist are pro-gambling, but either of them are less vehemently
anti-gambling than Jeb was," said state Sen. Steve Geller, D-Hallandale
Beach. A gaming supporter, he is crafting a bill to change some of the
state's slot machine regulations. "Neither of the two guys will be great for
the industry." The state already has poker, horse and dog racing and
jai-alai, which saw $331 million in wagers through the first eight months of
the year. It also has untaxed "cruises to nowhere" that provide Vegas-style
gambling once they reach international waters. The Indian casinos, including
the thriving Seminole Hard Rock casinos in Tampa and Hollywood and
Miccosukee Indian Gaming west of Miami, have poker and video lottery
machines that are similar to slots. The Indian casinos do not pay state
taxes because they are owned by sovereign tribes - although other states
have negotiated deals allowing their tribes Vegas-style games like blackjack
and roulette in exchange for a tax. Bush's attempt to negotiate with
Florida's tribes stalled earlier this year.
After the Florida Gaming Summit in Hollywood last month, a statement posted
on its Web site cited research from Wachovia Capital Markets that the
estimated 6,000 Broward slot machines will generate at least $700 million in
wagering annually. The first are expected to open later this month.

Gambling has its share of opponents. In a statement on its Web site, the
Christian Coalition of Florida says gambling is a danger to society that
produces "huge financial and social costs" that puts families in risk.

Still, the industry is intent on growth. According to Geller, many of the
state's pari-mutuels outside Broward want their own slot machines to keep
pace with Dania Jai-Alai, Pompano Park harness racing, Mardi Gras Track and
Gaming Center and Gulfstream Park thoroughbred track.

Gulfstream and Pompano, known as "racinos," are spending millions to improve
their facilities ahead of the introduction of slots. At Pompano - owned by
Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. - a new 157,000-square foot building includes
space for 1,500 slot machines, a bar and four restaurants including a
steakhouse and New York deli, at a cost of about $155 million. It's set to
open early next year.

"We're not just throwing slot machines in a room," said Doug Shipley, vice
president of racinos for Isle of Capri. "We're striving for a total
entertainment destination."

Meanwhile, casino and gaming companies donated heavily to federal and state
campaigns.

In state races, including the gubernatorial and legislative contests,
gambling interests doled out more than $1.8 million, according to
followthemoney.org. It's a Web site run by The Institute on Money in State
Politics that tracks state campaign contributions. Pompano Park alone
contributed $431,550, the Web site showed.

In Florida congressional races, gambling interests contributed more than
$67,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

And, a pro-gambling political action committee called Yes for Better Schools
and Jobs has received more than $7 million in contributions. The PAC is
leading the campaign to again bring a slot machine measure before Miami-Dade
County voters, who rejected slots last year when Broward voters approved
them.

Geller said races for House and Senate seats also could affect gambling's
future. He wants to change some rules the state has affixed to slot
operations, including lowering the tax rate on the machines from 50 percent
to 35 percent. His bill also would call for an elimination of a 1,500
machines per pari-mutuel cap and allow ATMs and free or discounted drinks at
locations where slot machines exist.

Many in the industry argue the 50 percent rate and other restrictions would
limit economic development around the casinos - restaurants, nightclubs,
shops and entertainment venues.

"If the state were to lower the tax rate you would see a much greater
capital investment in the gaming facilities," said Joseph Weinert, vice
president of Spectrum Gaming Group, a gaming consultancy.

Weinert also said the next governor may have some wiggle room in negotiating
with gambling interests that could see slots added to pari-mutuel facilities
statewide. While Crist and Davis say they are against gambling "expansion,"
adding slots to existing pari-mutuels may not fit into that description,
Weinert said.

I join many Ohio clergy leaders in urging defeat of Slot Machine Issue 3 on
November's ballot. Issue 3 aims to amend Ohio's Constitution to allow
casino-style gambling. Video slot machines are extremely addictive and
gamblers can lose entire paychecks in minutes at a video slot machine. The
pro-gambling initiative has been dressed seductively as a "Learn and Earn"
campaign to entice voter support with the bait of educational benefits. The
motive is not about supporting Ohio children. Rod Parsley said, "This is
about the rich getting richer at the expense of those who can least afford
to part with their hard-earned income." Alert clergy from a broad group of
Christian backgrounds, have condemned Issue 3 as an educational sham and
deliberate ploy to trick voters. "Learn and Earn is about greed and bleed,"
said United Methodist Bishop Bruce Ough. "Thousands of Ohio children from
our poorest families will go hungry and inadequately clothed because their
parents' paychecks will go into state-sanctioned slot machines. This is bad
economics and irresponsible government." This initiative is financed by Ohio
casino and race-track owners and would ride on the backs of poor and
already-addicted gamblers. Gambling addiction increases the closer casino
gambling comes to where you live.

The gambling industry's own study indicates 109,000 new gambling addicts
will be created in Ohio if slots are legalized. A national study shows
bankruptcy rates are 100 percent higher in every county with casinos than in
counties without casinos. Ohio already has one of the highest bankruptcy
rates in the county. "Slot machines are the crack-cocaine of gambling," said
Rev. Rebecca Tollefson, executive director of the Ohio Council of Churches.
Learn and Earn claims this is about education, but only 30 percent goes to
education. Administrative costs come out of the 30 percent. And the cost to
administer the program is not yet known. Supporters are running a shameful
media campaign suggesting its purpose is to provide college scholarships to
Ohio's children.

They are misleading the public when they claim the high social costs of
casino gambling are worthwhile because it will provide college scholarships
to Ohio high school graduates. The truth is very different. The fund for
scholarships will not be fully functioning for 14 years. The grant program
is restricted to only the top 5 percent of all graduates; those students are
the most likely to go to college with other scholarship support. Qualifying
graduates receive no funding if they attend an out-of-state school. For the
first 14 years, race track owners and owners of the two casinos in Cleveland
will rake in the money while 95 percent of high school students receive no
assistance. Issue 3 is about taking dollars from the homes of ordinary Ohio
families and put it into the hands of casino owners.

BUDGET airline Ryanair has struck a deal that could take online gambling on
to all of its flights next year. The Irish carrier, Europe's fastest growing
airline, announced yesterday it had formed a partnership with internet bingo
group Jackpotjoy.com. The gambling deal will initially offer an inflight
link to the Jackpotjoy website, with more than 80 online games available
when the mobile service is introduced. Ryanair will take a slice of
Jackpotjoy's profits. Outspoken chief executive Michael O'Leary said he
expected the move to make "millions upon millions", but would not disclose
the financial details. "We might have the pilot calling out bingo numbers.
That would get everyone's attention." Ryanair is currently leading the
charge to introduce mobile phone use during flights, currently planned to be
allowed from mid-2007. The move is Ryanair's latest push to generated
non-ticket income, with the carrier attracting millions of potential
customers aboard its planes a year with its cut-price fares, often charging
only landing fees and government taxes. Already 15 per cent of turnover
comes from food sales and hotel bookings.

Like ripping off a bandaid, the worst may be over for large public online
gaming companies that have shut down their United States Web sites. On
Halloween, the UK government announced it has designs to regulate Internet
gambling. Critical of the U.S government decision to effectively ban gaming
transactions, UK officials said the gaming law made in haste will only drive
the industry underground. Although unhappy with the U.S. decision, sports
minister Richard Caborn said that Britain would not protect online gaming
executives from extradition requests if they took Internet bets from
countries in which they were illegal. "People have to abide by the laws of
particular countries," he said. "We will not acknowledge people who operate
illegally." At the UK gaming summit, 32 international delegates discussed
plans to regulate gambling and protect consumers from underage gambling and
gambling addiction. The United States was of course not present. Culture
Secretary Tessa Jowell said Britain opposed the U.S. ban, which risked
driving the industry into criminal hands. "We do not support the approach
the United States has taken," she said at the summit. "The enormous risk of
prohibition is that it forces the industry underground," she said, likening
the move to the U.S. ban on alcohol sales in the 1920s.
Having a vested interest in a windfall of tax revenue, the UK has done their
homework. Recent reports have shown that the online gambling market in the
UK has doubled in five years, with more than one million users regularly
betting via the internet.

Research commissioned by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
has discovered that UK gamblers make up almost one-third of Europe's
estimated total of 3.3 million online gamblers.

According to UK government figures, Europe's regular online gamblers stake
nearly 3.5 billion pounds a year, an average of 1,000 pounds each. The
worldwide Internet gambling market is put at more than $30 billion (16
billion pounds).

Ty Masterson has plans to continue representing the 99th District of the
Kansas House of Representatives. And the Republican incumbent intends to
keep taxes down. "Between me and my opponent, he's a tax-and-spend guy, I'm
a tax-cutter and responsible budget guy. I'm pro-life and he's pro-choice.
He's pro-gambling and I'm anti-gambling," he said. Masterson, 37, who is
married with six children, is the founder and chief executive of Masterbuilt
Homes Inc. and founder and chief executive of Masterson & Associates Inc., a
real estate investment company. Last year, Republican committee members of
the 99th District selected Masterson to fill a vacancy left by Todd
Novascone, who resigned to serve as chief of staff for Rep. Jerry Moran,
R-Hays. Since then, Masterson said, he has learned new skills in Topeka. He
also serves on the Commerce and Labor Committee. "I felt purpose up there,"
he said. "I felt I was able to make a difference. And I have a good
relationship on both sides of the aisle." Masterson said he has a
responsibility to Kansas taxpayers to keep an eye on the education budget.
"I want to see what happens with the hundreds of millions we have already
pumped into the budget." He said he favors budget cuts, especially if the
revenue isn't coming in. "There is a reason we don't pay houses off with
every disposable dollar," he said. He supports a sales tax holiday for
back-to-school shopping and opposes letting illegal immigrants obtain
drivers licenses.

Masterson said he would be in favor of enacting tougher penalties for
violent crimes and repeat sex offenders.

He would support a Taxpayer Protection Act to make it more difficult to
raise property, sales, income and all other taxes on Kansas families.

And, Masterson said, he would be in favor of passing a constitutional
amendment protecting private property owners from eminent domain abuse.

The respected Bloomsberg columnist Matthew Lynn slammed the US government's
Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act this week, describing its
consequences as the worst crisis in online gambling's short history, but
predicting that major companies affected by the Act would prosper regardless
of the US challenge. "The U.S. stance on Internet gambling is illogical and
misconceived," the columnist wrote. "Like most bad decisions, it will be
reversed one day - the issue is whether the companies can wait until then."
Lynn quotes a top problem gambling expert on the subject to underline the
regulation rather than prohibition argument. "Whatever our American friends
try to do, gambling is a legitimate industry and it is here to stay,''
Andrew Poole, online-services coordinator of the London-based
gambling-counseling group GamCare, said. "While there are potential problems
arising from online gaming, with the right regulatory approach we believe
they can be dealt with.'' Recapping on the business consequences to public
companies following the enactment of the American law (see previous
Online-Casinos.com/InfoPowa reports) Lynn opines: "It will be a hard slog
to regain that business from other countries. An industry that is missing
the world's biggest economy will always rest on shaky ground. "A merger of
the big players is one rational response. It is, however, also worth posing
the question: Can the U.S. ban hold? "Probably not," he writes, before going
on to contend that there are three flaws in American government reasoning:
First, it isn't consistent. Lynn asks: "If gambling is so damaging, why is
Las Vegas still flourishing, while companies such as PartyGaming are getting
hit? The U.S. gaming business has never been run by men who were narrowly
turned down for sainthood. If it's acceptable for others to profit from U.S.
gamblers, then U.K. listed companies, which are respectable and backed by
solid investors, should be allowed." Second, Internet gaming is no worse
than other gambling. "True, it's right there in your own home - you just
have to log on, and you are in a casino. And it operates 24 hours a day,
seven days a week. Yet that isn't the whole story. 'A lot has been done in
terms of self-regulation,' GamCare's Poole said. 'The responsible operators
have strong policies for limiting the harmful impact'.''

Third, the U.S. has chosen the wrong target. "It is easier to monitor a
virtual casino than a real one," says Lynn. "All the transactions use credit
cards, so the operator can check precisely who people are, and how old they
are. They can set limits on how long people play, and how much they lose.
Try doing that on a racetrack or over a crowded roulette table."

Lynn asks why the US law tackles online gambling, when the Internet is awash
with material far more dangerous to social well being and financial security
than people playing virtual poker. He outlines regulatory moves in Europe
and the UK with approval and forecasts that in time, U.S.-based gamblers
will find a way to play - even if it means getting credit cards from a new
breed of offshore banks.

"The companies that go the distance will flourish in due course," he
concludes. "Bad laws are repealed eventually - it is just a matter of
staying in the game until you can collect your winnings. The pummeled share
prices of the main operators seem like a steal."

The latest statistics from comScore Networks, specialists in measuring
Internet activity, revealed the top European Internet properties for
September, based on data collected through its comScore World Metrix
audience ratings service. These statistics are for September and therefore
do not yet reflect the impact of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement
Act. The online gambling category showed a general traffic increase in
Europe of 3 percent, with 888.com topping the list at 6.9 million visitors
(an increase of 9 percent over the previous August month) and Party Gaming
in the number two spot at 4.1 million visitors - a 16 percent increase. The
top European Sites as usual were Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! Sites retained
their rankings as the top three properties among European Internet users,
with each remaining relatively flat versus August. Of the top 10 European
sites, Wikipedia saw the greatest gains during September, rising 18 percent
to 59.9 million visitors. The You Tube site, recently purchased by Google in
a billion dollar deal, attracted 27.4 million visitors.

Ontario politicians may be trying to pass legislation banning online
gambling adverts in the province, but elsewhere in Canada there's a more
welcoming attitude to the industry. The Kahnawake First Nation Mohawks in
Quebec province, home to well over 300 online gambling brands and host to a
multitude of company servers will soon have competition from The Alexander
First Nation. Announcing the formation of an online gambling commission this
week, a spokesman for the Alexander First Nation said it intends to regulate
companies that are granted licenses to operate under the tribe's
sovereignty. A spokesperson for the new commission said it plans to offer
online gaming licenses to suitably qualified applicants. The commission is
confident that the regulations will ensure a safe, high-quality environment
for Internet gamblers. The Alexander Gaming Commission's mission will be to
regulate and control gaming and other gaming related activities within and
from the Alexander First Nation. All interactive gaming such as online
casinos and online poker sites, will have to satisfy three basic principles
to obtain a license to operate:

* Only suitable persons and entities are permitted to operate within
Alexander
* Games must be fair to the players
* Winners are paid

The Alexander First Nation is one of 44 such sovereign communities in the
Alberta province of Canada. In 2002 the tribe was awarded $63 million by the
Canadian government in settlement of a claim dating back to 1905 when
approximately 3 851.9 hectares (9,518 acres) of reserve lands were allegedly
surrendered by the First Nation.

The settlement provided Alexander First Nation with approximately $63
million in compensation for the damages and losses suffered as a result of
the surrender. The settlement amount was substantial because the former
reserve lands are productive agricultural lands and were part of a gas unit
producing natural gas from 1955 to 1997. The majority of the compensation
was placed in a trust to ensure that future generations of Alexander First
Nation members benefit from the settlement.

A Washington County restaurateur pleaded guilty Tuesday to running an
illegal bookmaking business and criminal conspiracy in a nearly yearlong
investigation of a multmillion-dollar gambling ring based in Pittsburgh.
Michael "Mickey" Flynn Jr., owner of the Union Grill in downtown Washington,
acknowledged coordinating the gambling ring with others, including onetime
illegal video poker kingpin John "Duffy" Conley, formerly of the South Side.
Flynn also pleaded guilty to being a felon who possessed six firearms. Flynn
faces between 24 and 30 months in prison and will be sentenced Feb. 9. He
will forfeit more than $800,000 seized from his home and investment accounts
as part of his plea deal. Flynn, 64, was convicted in February 2004 on state
charges of running a bookmaking operation out of his restaurant. The recent
investigation landed him back in the Washington County Jail for seven months
for violating the parole conditions from the earlier conviction.
Investigators with the state police and Attorney General Tom Corbett's
office collected wiretaps and visual surveillance of Flynn and Conley
discussing bets and then meeting for payoffs, Assistant U.S. Attorney
Brendan Conway said. "Although they couldn't observe the actual transfer of
funds, they did observe the meetings," Conway said. Flynn and Conley met
almost weekly, state investigators testified previously. Those meetings
occurred in Washington and Carnegie, where Conley ran his operation out of a
mortgage finance business. Telephone wiretaps in November and December
revealed more than $3 million in wagers made by Conley, many with Flynn,
state police have said. More than $1 million of that amount was made to
offshore casinos, including BetCRIS.com, a Costa Rican gambling business
where Flynn's son works.

Conway said Flynn was the local contact for the offshore casino, collecting
and paying money to gamblers and bookies in Western Pennsylvania.

Conley returned to prison in May for four years after violating the
conditions for his release on previous gambling charges. He was released
from prison in 2004 after serving nine years for running a $15
million-dollar-a-year video poker empire and attempting to take over an
Indian casino in California with mobsters from Pittsburgh and Youngstown,
Ohio.

No gambling charges have been filed against Conley in the latest
investigation, but the state has turned the case over to the U.S. Attorney's
Office in Pittsburgh.

The research was commissioned ahead of the first ever online gambling
summit, hosted by Great Britain at Royal Ascot today. The summit will seek
to secure international standards for the regulation of online, interactive
TV and mobile phone gambling. The research shows: there are nearly one
million regular online blers in Britain alone;> they make up nearly
one-third of Europe's 3.3 million regular online gamblers;> Europe's regular
gamblers stake approximately £3.5 bn pounds a year - an average of £1000
each;> there are now 2,300 sites across the world. A large number of these
are based in a few key nations, with Antigua (537) top of the pile and Costa
Rica in second with 474;> the UK currently has 70 online betting sites, but
no gaming (poker, blackjack, roulette etc) sites;> women are becoming
increasingly important in the remote gambling market. During the World Cup
about 30% of those visiting key UK based betting websites were women.
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Tessa Jowell said "This
research shows that online gambling is on the rise and there is a need to do
something about this at a global level, as well as in the UK. I want to
secure international support for agreed standards of regulation. That's why
I called the summit today.
"Of course we also want online gambling companies to come onshore. We will
welcome them here because we believe that by allowing those who want to
gamble to do so over the counter, not under the counter is the best way to
protect children and vulnerable people and keep out crime. "But we won't
take part in a regulatory race to the bottom. On the contrary, if companies
do come to the UK it will be because 'regulated in the Great Britain' will
mean a website is subject to the most stringent controls and social
responsibility requirements anywhere in the world. "

The research was conducted prior to the US decision to ban the processing of
payments for online gambling websites. It makes three recommendations:
> Greater international co operation including harmonised regulations to
> curb problem and youth gambling;
> Co operation with the gambling industry; and
> More research into the extent of participation in remote gambling

John Carr, new technology adviser for leading children's charity NCH said:
"However good the new regime will be in the UK for online gambling, it might
not be as effective if overseas websites simply ignore the high standards we
have set. It is therefore very important that the Government is trying to
persuade other countries to establish a similar regulatory framework."

The Gambling Commission will regulate online gambling in Great Britain. They
published proposed licence conditions and codes of practice for consultation
in March 2006.

As reported by the Pennsylvania Express Times: "Both of the Lehigh Valley's
casino hopefuls have invited social workers to learn about the warning signs
and treatment options for compulsive gamblers. "Lehigh Valley Tropicana,
hoping to operate in Allentown, and Bethlehem applicant Las Vegas Sands
Corp. say they will hold their seminars even without a casino license from
the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. The seminars are free and both
companies hired the Pennsylvania Council on Compulsive Gambling to run their
training. "The Tropicana announced its one-day seminar at a news conference
Monday featuring spokesman Mark Nevins alongside Allentown Mayor Ed
Pawlowski and his wife, Lisa Pawlowski. The latter is a licensed social
worker who wants to introduce counselors, psychologists and others to the
national certification for gambling addiction treatment. ".The mayor noted
twice that the cost of Tropicana's seminar isn't part of the $500,000
pledged to Allentown to address problem gambling. This money depends on
getting a state license and could be used, at least initially, for studying
the extent of the issue."

What was intended as a forum on table gambling turned into a discussion on
video gambling, its journey and its impact on the region's future. ''I think
it was a very good forum, and the participants asked all of us very good
questions,î said state Sen. Ed Bowman, D-Hancock, following the forum held
Monday evening at West Liberty State College. ''I would welcome more of
these types of forums. Bowman was one of the panelists along with Hancock
County Commission President Jeff Davis, Hancock County Commissioner Danny
Greathouse and Mountaineer Race Track & Gaming Resort Chief Executive
Officer Ted Arneault. Members of the college's Students in Free Enterprise
organization sponsored the panel discussion. SIFE is worldwide, and the club
engages in activities that teach others about economics, entrepreneurship
and the free enterprise system. SIFE Adviser Gary Hypes said table gambling
is one item on the front burner, and the group wanted to explore the issue.
He said the panel was set as one in favor of table gambling. He aims to have
a forum next semester to discuss the disadvantages. Bowman said he has
supported a local referendum before video lottery came into the picture. He
believes people have the right to vote on what happens in their community,
and people have approached him about the right to vote since he started his
public service career. Arneault said local-option voting has already
occurred in the state. The state Legislature gave Greenbrier County
residents the chance to decide whether they wanted table gambling at the
Greenbrier. The residents voted it down, but it showed the local option
works and it gives people a say in their area's direction, Arneault said.

''West Virginia has had eight local-option elections in its history,î"
Arneault said. ''Five of them passed, and three failed.î

Arneault said Mountaineer used an outside company to find statewide West
Virginia residents' and Hancock residents' opinions on the matter. The
survey showed about 64.9 percent favor table gambling, while 42.1 percent
are against it. In Hancock County, 67 percent are in favor and 26 percent
are against it.

West Virginia will have to compete with Ohio and Pennsylvania, Arneault
said, adding if Issue 3 passes in Ohio on Nov. 7, it will give citizens the
right to vote if they want slot machines.

The Meadows in Washington County, Pa., is close to providing video gambling
at its facility. The panel believes Wheeling Island Racetrack and Gaming
Center probably will take the biggest hit. The center could lose 25 percent
to 30 percent of its revenue once the Meadows goes online in January or
February. Panel members also said Mountaineer could lose 15 percent. If Ohio
and Pennsylvania offer video gambling, those projected losses could be
higher.

Arneault also wanted to distinguish Mountaineer and the other three state
racetracks from neighborhood video gambling cafes. The cafes, establishments
located in neighbors with video lottery machines, are convenient but don't
offer the venues like the four racetracks.

Mountaineer is a destination resort. People visit with disposable income and
spend it on entertainment.

They are also attracted to the resort's other activities, and Mountaineer
has transformed and expanded its non-gaming attractions, according to
officials.

Greathouse said before Arneault took over, Mountaineer was under a different
name, had a hotel and a racetrack.

Mountaineer now has the second largest convention center in the state, a
hotel, The Harv, a spa, an athletic center, a golf course and a first-class
restaurant. Arneault hopes to develop Mountaineer further.

''It's ironic that Ohio and Pennsylvania want the same thing as Hancock
wants - the right to vote,î" Greathouse said. ''Table gaming could buy time
for Mountaineer to finish transforming as a destination resort.''

The government today began pimping Britannia out to online gambling firms.
The Department for Culture Media and Sport is hosting a conference at Royal
Ascot aimed at bagging a lovely slice of pork as the industry realises its
days of Wild West tax dodging are behind it. Or, if you believe Tessa
Jowell, it's all about protecting the kids. The Secretary of State for
Culture, Media and Sport said: "We will welcome them here because we believe
that by allowing those who want to gamble to do so over the counter not
under the counter is the best way to protect children and vulnerable people
and keep out crime." Riiight. The UK has 70 sporting betting sites, but
currently no casino gaming operations are based here. Ministers are betting
the UK's regulatory regime will now attract them with the promise of full
legitimacy to calm twitchy shareholders. Until now, they've prefered tax
havens like Gibraltar and the Caribbean Islands. The industry is undergoing
a massive reorganisation after the US decided to close a legal loophole
which had allowed them to coin huge revenues from American punters playing
casino games. The Safe Port Act was amended to make money transfers to or
from online gambling outfits illegal. Stock exchange-listed firms quickly
saw their share price plummet. Prior to that, gambling execs were collared
by the Feds as they passed through US airports. Jowell recently sniped at
the US for the ban. She said it harks back to the depression-era ban on
booze.

The online gambling industry is undergoing a seismic shift just weeks after
a new law cut off much of the business in the United States. Big public
companies have lost billions of dollars in market value and millions of
customers as they shut their United States Web sites for sports betting,
poker and other games. Those companies are anxiously searching for
acquisition partners and new customers. But business is booming at some
smaller private companies, which have continued to operate in the United
States despite the ban. Britain, meanwhile, is trying to drum up
international support for regulation of the industry outside the United
States. As the first large Western government to explicitly allow businesses
to set up shop on its soil, Britain has stood to benefit enormously from
taxing Internet gambling companies that moved here. Most of the public
online gambling companies trade on the London Stock Exchange. More than £4
billion ($7.6 billion) has been wiped off the market value of publicly
traded online gambling stocks since Congress passed the bill in early
October, analysts in London estimate. The bill makes it illegal for a bank
to transfer money to a Web site that offers gambling. The British government
has been sharply critical of the United States law. United States lawmakers
said they passed the ban out of concern that the sites would increase
gambling addiction and social problems. "The industry has been very hard hit
by the U.S. ban," said Tessa Jowell, Britain's culture minister, during a
news conference on Tuesday at the Ascot Racecourse, where she met with
delegates from 30 other countries to discuss the subject. The United States
was invited but did not send a representative. "The Internet is a global
marketplace, and that's why we need action at the global level," Ms. Jowell
said.

Many of the largest public online sites, like PartyGaming and Sportingbet,
got the majority of their revenue from the United States. PartyGaming
suspended its United States business after President Bush signed the
Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act on Oct. 13. Bankers, analysts and
Internet executives say online gambling companies are now discussing merging
with each other. Meanwhile, private equity companies, which are flush with
cash, have been wondering whether they can assemble a few of these companies
into one, slash their costs and reap the profit.

Traditional casino companies in the United States and Asia are also
considering buying up the sites as a way to enter Europe. And British
betting-shop chains like Ladbrokes and William Hill are thinking about deals
with the online gambling companies, bankers and analysts say.

So far, none of these conversations have resulted in any firm agreements. On
Monday, one online gambling company, 888 Holdings, said it was in "various
preliminary discussions with third parties," after articles in the British
press linked the company with PartyGaming. Any such talks are at an early
stage, several people in the industry said, and 888 is considering several
options.

Despite its intentions, the Internet bill has not eliminated online gambling
in the United States, say analysts and players. Instead, small, privately
held companies are thriving.

PokerStars.com, for example, had more than 52,000 players participating in
games on Tuesday afternoon. It is unclear how many of those were Americans,
but analysts generally estimate that they make up at least half of any
online gambling market.

In a statement on its Web site, PokerStars said that after receiving
"extensive expert advice" it had concluded that the recently passed
provision related to Internet gambling "does not prohibit you from playing
online poker" in the United States. The company is based in San José, Costa
Rica, and processes credit card transactions through a subsidiary in the
Isle of Man.

Many online gambling executives, however, were alarmed by the arrests of two
of their peers, and expressed concerns they would be arrested by United
States prosecutors. So far, that has not been the case.

Peter Dicks, a former nonexecutive chairman of Sportingbet, was arrested in
September as he flew into the United States. He returned to Britain in
October, after a New York judge dismissed his arrest warrant, citing a lack
of evidence. David Carruthers, the BetOnSports chief executive, was arrested
this summer and is still facing charges in St. Louis. He has pleaded not
guilty.

While lobbying for regulation rather than prohibition of the industry,
British officials said on Tuesday that they would not stand in the way of
United States calls to extradite British citizens or residents. A draft
communiqué from the conference said online gambling should not be allowed to
become a source of crime or be used to finance criminality, that it should
be fair to consumers and that children and problem gamblers should be
protected.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell is to seek an international agreement on how
to regulate the internet gambling industry. She will make the bid at the
first international summit on the global impact of the industry. It already
boasts one million regular punters in this country. Ms Jowell will urge
delegates to act to protect children and other vulnerable people from
"remote gambling". Ms Jowell fears the US ban on internet gambling could
fuel a rise in unregulated offshore sites. New legislation in Britain will
clear the way for super casinos and an influx of online gaming businesses.
But those registering in the UK will still have to abide by "very tough"
social responsibility codes.

Over the past several weeks I asked have asked dozens of professional poker
players their reaction to the recently passed internet gaming law. What I
actually asked each player was: "Do you have a sound byte comment on the
Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act?" Here is a summary of the player's
comments in categories that collectively represent their various opinions;
some of the 'best' quotes are included: The way Congress passed this bill
was so underhanded, cowardly and/or political. Captain Tom Franklin: "The
way it was done, in the dark of night attached to the Ports Bill was just
cowardly. I can't believe the government is trying to control what happens
in my living room. And with what is allowed on the internet, how can poker
be a big issue?" Mike Matusow: "The law is unconstitutional, and the way
they did it, sleazy late at night.. Go ahead and tax it, it's the right
thing to do; but this law, I'm ashamed to live here and all the players from
other countries just can't understand why we put up with this." Was this is
really something that Congress needed to be concerned with? Several
different players offered: "Some of our best Presidents and greatest
generals were poker players. Wonder how they would react to this law?" We
hope poker players vote. Doyle Brunson: "I think the Republicans are going
to lose every election. I am a life-long Republican myself and I am voting
for the Democrats and I hope all poker players do the same." Players and
online sites will find a way around the law. "I hear you can cross the
border into Canada already and find third party internet depositories."
Famous Canadian player, who wished to remain anonymous.

How can my job suddenly be illegal?

Phil Hellmuth: "I find it hard to believe that poker is immoral."

The online sites did too little to lobby against the bill.

"Online poker fueled the poker boom and if this law stands it will kill it."
Famous American player, who told me to say his quote came from Barry
Greenstein or someone else "usually credited with having some common sense."

Poker will survive this but not all of the players will.

When another player made this comment, Daniel Negreanu was standing with us;
you have seen Daniel on television take on that disbelieving look when he is
trying to figure out a big over bet by an opponent. Picture exactly that
speechless reaction with a lot of disgusted head shaking.

The government just tapped on the glass.

Jamie Gold answered with a slow shake of his head and an exasperated sigh
and: "Can anyone tell me: Why?"

Antonio Esfandiari: "I still don't know what to say, it's just depressing."

You may have got the drift that many of the players have taken the
Congressional action very personally. This was clearly the most common
reaction I got from the players. This final quote was given to me by a
player I truly respect; I will give it to you exactly as he said it:

"I want you to promise that if you use what I say, it will be anonymous. I
feel very strongly about this but for personal and business reasons, I would
rather this not be credited to me. I have played poker for many years. I
learned to play poker in the military and in a war zone. I served my country
when I was called and now my country is telling me that what I do for a
living is against the law. My country is calling me a criminal. I don't care
how they write the law or what political maneuvers they use; my country that
I proudly served in a time of war just called me a whore and I don't like it
one damn bit."

The Methodist Church in Great Britain has reiterated its concern about the
alarming increase in gambling through the internet, and has urge the UK
government to press forward with a global agreement to restrict its
unfettered growth. Speaking in advance of today's International Summit on
Online Gambling, hosted by the Department for Culture Media and Sport,
Anthea Cox, Coordinating Secretary for Public Life and Social Justice,
declared: "The Methodist Church welcomes the Government's initiative in
seeking international agreement on the regulation of e-gambling." She
continued: "Research shows that repetitive and continuous play is a
significant factor in people becoming problem gamblers. This is a feature of
on-line gambling and with increasing numbers of people playing, it is
important that these sites should be regulated to protect people from harm
and exploitation." Ms Cox declared: "We welcome the opportunity that the
summit conference offers for sharing best practice and agreeing principles
for regulation to protect consumers. International meetings are an important
way to set up safeguards for online gamblers. Countries must work together
as online gambling is not confined to national borders - this is a worldwide
issue that demands global attention and co-operation." She concluded: "The
Methodist Church remains committed to speaking out to protect children and
vulnerable groups from being exploited by gambling, to promote greater
education about problem gambling, and to help individuals and organisations
working with problem gamblers." The Methodist Church is the third-largest
Christian church in Britain, with nearly 300,000 members and regular contact
with over 800,000 people. It has around 5,800 churches in Great Britain, and
also maintains links with other Methodist churches worldwide with a total
membership of 70 million.

A man accused of violating North Dakota's gambling laws has been banned from
charitable gambling in the state, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says.
Gary Minard, who maintains a residence in Bismarck but now works primarily
in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, agreed to the ban as part of a settlement
of the state's lawsuit against him and the nonprofit IQ Fund. Stenehjem said
Minard also must give $64,546 to charity and pay $15,000 to the attorney
general's office.
Kent Morrow, Minard's attorney, said Minard admitted no wrongdoing. "Rather
than spend additional time and money, it was more reasonable to resolve it
this way," he said. "He's always maintained that there was nothing
improper." Stenehjem said Minard operated the IQ Fund, formerly known as
Pinto Spirit Development and Bear Soldier Industries, which ran a charitable
gambling operation in Bismarck. Stenehjem said a 2004 investigation by his
office's Gaming Division concluded Minard had used fraud to obtain a
gambling license for a site in West Fargo. In October 2004, the nonprofit IQ
Fund agreed to surrender its gambling license for Smoky's Steakhouse in West
Fargo. The following June, the state sued the IQ Fund, seeking to force it
to turn in the $64,546 in proceeds from gambling activity. The state lawsuit
also included other allegations, including claims that Minard filed false
gambling tax returns and set up a sham bank account in Minnesota to deceive
the attorney general's office. "There is no place for dishonest people in
charitable gaming," Stenehjem said Monday in a statement. "Fortunately,
Minard's lies and mismanagement were quickly discovered and addressed with
prompt enforcement action." Morrow said the allegations in the lawsuit were
never proven. "There were never any lies or mismanagement," he said. The
attorney general's office also reached a settlement with Damiana Markel, of
Mandan, another IQ Fund board member. Markel, whom officials described as "a
very minor player," is banned from charitable gambling in the state for five
years.

"The introduction of the Gambling Act three years ago has had little impact
on decreasing pokie machines in some regions in New Zealand and it's
obviously not working well, says a gambling lobby group. "Gambling Watch
coordinator David Macpherson said all New Zealand regions had shown a drop
in machines in the last three years with a nationwide decrease of 10.1 per
cent, but some regions were well below the average. "Southland and Waikato
both had a reduction of less than 4 per cent. ".However, in other regions
community concern about the harmful effects of pokie machines was having an
impact with numbers decreasing about 15 per cent, he said. .."

Both casino companies vying to operate in the Lehigh Valley are sponsoring
seminars for social workers on recognizing and treating compulsive gambling.
The Lehigh Valley Tropicana proposed for Allentown is holding a one-day
session 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Jan. 12 at Muhlenberg College's Seegers
Union. Licensed professionals can sign up by calling the Allentown mayor's
office at 610-437-7546. Las Vegas Sands Corp., eyeing a Bethlehem casino, is
holding five sessions starting Nov. 21 at Northampton Community College's
Fowler Family Southside Center.