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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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