During a tearful press conference in Seoul on Wednesday, former Chinese Super League player Son Jun-ho described how he was detained by Chinese authorities in May 2023 as he tried to leave the country. The defensive midfielder, who played three of South Korea’s four matches at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, wasn’t able to return to his home country until March of this year.

Son was held on “suspicion of accepting bribes by non-state employees” and claimed he was coerced into making a confession.

Threats to Family

“The Chinese police presented ridiculous charges,” he said, as reported and translated by the Associated French Press. “They threatened that if I didn’t admit to the charges, my wife would be arrested through the foreign ministry and brought to the same detention center to be investigated with me.”

Son claims he wasn’t given access to Korean translators or a lawyer and was told that if he admitted guilt, he would be released quickly and reunited with his family.

Overwhelmed with fear and concern for my family, I had no choice but to admit to charges I didn’t even understand, just to return to my family quickly,” Son said, wiping away tears.

He called for Chinese authorities to release audio tapes of the interviews, which he says would prove the confession was coerced.

Scapegoating Fears

Chinese authorities have blamed widespread corruption in soccer for the country’s failure to make its mark on the world stage.

In 2015, President Xi Jinping stated his ambition to revive the fortunes of the men’s national team, which hadn’t qualified for a World Cup since 2002. But despite the billions that have poured into the game since Xi’s proclamation, if anything, the team has deteriorated.

Li Tie was one of just a few Chinese players to make it in the English Premier League, and later, managed the Chinese national team. He was sacked in 2021 after failing to qualify for another World Cup. A year later he was arrested for bribery.

This week’s CFA sanctions come just one week after one of China’s most humiliating defeats in the history of its soccer team, a 7-0 drubbing by Japan, one of its biggest sporting and geopolitical rivals.

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Dr Yew Choy Wong ran up an AU$43.2 million (US$29 million) debt during a week-long baccarat binge at the casino between June and August 2018 after gaining access to an AU$40 million check-cashing facility.

Wong is a former director of Celton Manx, the Isle of Man-based online betting operator that owns SBOBET, the first Asian-facing sportsbook to sponsor an English Premier League team.

Dealer ‘Mistakes’

Wong denied authorizing the casino to use the check to collect the debt and claimed the check-cashing agreement was blank when he signed it. He also claimed he shouldn’t have to pay his losses because the dealers kept making mistakes, which he complained about on four occasions.

The casino conceded that three mistakes warranted complaint, and the casino’s chief operating officer, Paul Arbuckle, issued a letter of apology to Wong on July 30, 2018. However, the letter made no mention of wiping Wong’s gambling debt.

The Star initially sued Wong in Singapore, unsuccessfully, because that nation’s Civil Law Act prohibits the government from assisting foreign companies to recoup debts related to overseas gambling.

Wong argued the Singapore ruling should stand and that Star’s efforts to pursue him in Australia constituted “unjustified oppression.”

In April 2021, the Queensland Supreme Court?permitted the case to proceed, describing it as a “relatively straightforward” claim that should be determined on its merits.

In her ruling Monday, Justice Melanie Hindman said the Star had clearly stated its claim for debt recovery, while Wong had “not made out any pleaded defense to that claim.”

Star’s Financial Woes

The suit against Wong is one of Australia’s largest-ever debt recovery cases, which may be of some comfort for casino operator Star Entertainment. Barely two weeks after the company opened its AU$3.6 billion (US$2.4 billion) project at Queens Wharf in Brisbane, it finds itself in financial disarray and has turned to the government of Queensland for short-term tax relief.

Star reportedly needs a cash injection of AU$300M (US$201M) to keep Queen’s Wharf operational.

The company said Monday it would sell its leasehold interest in the Brisbane Treasury Building, the site of its former Brisbane casino, for AU$67.5 million (US$44.9 million).

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The fine, which is part of a non-prosecution agreement (NPA), is believed to be the largest on record for any US-based casino company “based on admissions of criminal wrongdoing,” according to DOJ. Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts notified investors about the penalty in a form 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) late Friday.

Pursuant to the NPA, Wynn Las Vegas agreed to forfeit $130 million in funds involved in the transactions at issue and continue to make certain enhancements to its compliance program. The DOJ agreed that, subject to Wynn Las Vegas’s fulfillment of its obligations under the NPA, it will not bring any criminal charges against Wynn Las Vegas concerning the subject matter of its investigation, subject to standard reservations of rights and certain reserved claims,” said the gaming company in the regulatory document.

News of the penalty hasn’t spooked Wynn shareholders as of yet as the stock was down just 0.16% in Friday’s after-hours session. As part of the NPA, Wynn Las Vegas admitted that it used an illegal money transfer system to skirt regulated, traditional anti-money laundering protocols.

Wynn Las Vegas Money Transfers Had China Ties

DOJ outlined several scenarios in which violations at Wynn Las Vegas had ties to China. In one example known as “Human Head” or “Human Hat” betting, a? guest of the Sin City casino resort would use a proxy to wager their funds for fear that if they bet themselves, they’d run afoul of US Bank Secrecy Act or Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) laws.

“A money processor, acting as an unlicensed money transmitting business, collected U.S. dollars in cash from third parties in the United States and delivered that cash to a WLV patron who could not otherwise access cash in the U.S. The patron then electronically transferred the equivalent value of foreign currency from the patron’s foreign bank account to a foreign bank account designated by the money processor,” said DOJ in a statement.

Wynn Resorts’ Wynn Macau unit runs two integrated resorts in the Chinese territory, but DOJ didn’t mention anything about the operator’s Macau exposure playing a role in the money transfer schemes that occurred at the company’s Las Vegas property.

DOJ added that in another example of Wynn Las Vegas flouting anti-money laundering regulations, the venue didn’t report millions of dollars in transactions attributable to a Chinese guest who “had spent six years in prison in China for conducting unauthorized international monetary transactions and violations of other financial laws.”

Wynn Looks to Put Ominous Chapter to Bed

While the bulk of the operator’s earnings and revenue are derived from Macau, Wynn’s Las Vegas complex, consisting of the namesake casino hotel and adjoining Encore, are vital to its US presence and overall investment thesis. That confirms it behooves the operator to put the illegal money transfer issue to rest.

“In reaching the resolution set forth in the NPA, the DOJ took into account the historical nature of the transactions at issue; Wynn Las Vegas’s cooperation with the DOJ’s multi-year investigation; that Wynn Las Vegas no longer employs or is affiliated with any of the individuals implicated in the transactions at issue; and Wynn Las Vegas’s extensive remedial measures, many of which were undertaken prior to the parties entering into the NPA,” said the gaming company in the SEC filing.

The case was investigated by the DEA, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the IRS.

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Two dealers, a cashier, and guests participated in the scheme, according to a Friday report from the UK-based Cruise Mummy news outlet.

In total, some $100K was involved in the scam which took place over a couple of years, the report added.?An unnamed casino manager and six unidentified supervisors reportedly were fired.

The involved dealers weren’t identified. But they were described in reports as experienced casino dealers from Peru. Also, they had worked on the cruise ship for two years.

They were assisted in the plot by repeat guests on the ship. The guests and dealers spoke in Spanish while onboard so others didn’t understand what they were saying.

Details of Scam

The two dealers were accused of stealing casino chips. The chips then were stuffed in the suspects’ shirts and vests, the report added.

The dealers also allegedly made inaccurate payments for roulette games. Sometimes, cash chips were mixed in with colored chips, and they even added chips, Cruise Mummy reported.

There were other illicit actions involving blackjack games, the report revealed. For instance, the two dealers paid bets to losers, and didn’t collect on bets that should have been forfeited, according to Cruise Mummy.

The apparent wrongdoing was discovered when a supervisor witnessed a losing blackjack player at a table still getting payment, the report revealed. That apparently led to an investigation and authorities reviewed surveillance video captured by ship cameras.

It appears cruise line employees connected to the scam never were charged by police. No word if any of the money ever was recovered.

The allegations were brought to the media’s attention by an anonymous crew member. Word of the scam first was reported by Cruise Law News.

How It Happened

The improprieties aboard the Carnival Glory come as Carnival Cruise Line’s procedures became disorganized given less rigorous training due to the COVID pandemic, the report revealed.

Employee manuals weren’t readily available to ship staff. Also, there was insufficient oversight and not enough checks on casino floor activity.

The 952-foot, 110,000-ton?Carnival Glory began taking passengers in 2003. It recently was refurbished.

Carnival Glory carries up to 2,980 guests. The crew is made up of 1,150 employees.

Casino.org reached out to Carnival Cruise Line for comment. No immediate statement was provided.

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All nine inspectors under Champion’s control signed an open letter published Wednesday by the MSEA-SEIU Local 1989 public services union. The letter expresses no confidence in Champion, who has been executive director of the Maine Gambling Control Unit since 2016.

“Casino gambling … was a highly contentious issue in Maine in 2003 when it was passed by voters and legalized,” Mark Brunton, president of Local 1989, said in a statement. “One of the concerns was to make sure it was well-regulated to protect the citizens of Maine. That’s the important role that our inspectors play. They need to be on the job whenever the casinos are open.”

‘Undermining the Board’

?The inspectors’ letter claims that Champion “does not respect” the oversight of the Maine Gambling Control Board because it has denied his proposals in the past.

Now, rather than subject himself to the checks and balances of the Board’s oversight function, Milton Champion is circumventing the Board altogether by making unilateral decisions that completely undermine the Board’s ability to oversee gambling matters in Maine.”

The inspectors claim that “many of these decisions make very little sense, are based on false data, and have irreparably harmed the Maine Gambling Control Unit’s ability to regulate casino gambling.”

Additional grievances include Champion’s alleged failure to “correctly pay” his inspectors for services rendered and refusal to discuss all of the above issues.

“We must make it known that Milton Champion has repeatedly shown a lack of respect for our legal rights and processes spelled out in our union contract, has retaliated against us individually and as a group, and has created a deeply dysfunctional and toxic workplace environment,” the letter states.

Champion Blunder

Champion hadn’t responded to a request for comment on the letter from Casino.org at the time of publication. However, Steven Silver, chair of the Maine Gambling Control Board, told The Portland Press Herald that “from a purely operational standpoint, things have been running very smoothly and very profitably under Director Champion.”

Silver also acknowledged he was aware of complaints about a hostile work environment and had concerns over the decision-making that went into the schedule change.

On May 6 of that year, the regulator replied to a poster’s opinion that referring to a group of women as “ladies” was inappropriate.

“In this day and age, I guess ‘bitches’ is better,” he suggested.

Then, just over a week later, he reacted to images of a white nationalist march on the US Capitol with: “At least they are not burning down or looting stores.”

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Alice Leal Guo fled the Philippines by speedboat on July 18 after repeatedly failing to turn up to a Senate committee hearing examining her case.

The agency said this week it believes Guo is taking a circuitous route to the Golden Triangle, a semi-lawless area spanning the intersecting borders of Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar, which is under the influence of triads, drug cartels, and trafficking syndicates.

Shocking Discovery

The?Guo?case became a national sensation after police raided a POGO (Philippine Online Gambling Operator) complex in her town of Bamban in the northern province of Tarlac last February.

Inside, they found hundreds of trafficked workers, Guo’s car, and documents showing the land on which the POGO complex was built was partially owned by the mayor.

Residents of Bamban say that no one knew Guo before she ran for mayor in 2022, which is also when all of her social media accounts were registered.

Meanwhile, investigators have discovered that large sums of money were deposited in Guo’s bank accounts, which were then transferred to other individuals and business entities in China.

The mystery surrounding Guo’s identity has led to speculation that she is a Chinese asset, which she has denied.

Fujian Clan

The PAOCC claims Guo is connected to the so-called “Fujian Clan,” a network of Chinese nationals that?washed at least US$2.2 billion — largely the proceeds of illegal online gambling — through Singapore’s banking system.

“We are confident that she is trying to get into the Golden Triangle,” said Winston Casio, spokesperson of the PAOCC, who added that the Guo family also has business interests in Cambodia, another hotbed of triad scam centers.

“They are part of a big criminal organization. The Fujian Gang, to which the Guos belong. is part of the Golden Triangle Triad,” he claimed.

Guo’s escape from the Philippines has angered President “Bongbong” Marcos. Speaking of those who must have aided her flight, he warned that “heads will roll” over the “corruption that undermines our justice system and erodes public trust.”

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None of those investigated will be charged with misconduct in public office, the Met said. However, it’s still possible that they could still be charged under the Gambling Act for cheating at gambling.

The Gambling Commission is still examining the actions of numerous senior Conservatives accused of placing bets on the timing of the election based on information known only by a select few. The wagers were allegedly placed just days before the “snap” election was announced by then-prime minister Rishi Sunak.

Conservative Downfall

The scandal was one of the factors that contributed to the Conservative Party’s landslide defeat in the election. A survey by thinktank Demos found the incident had further eroded voters’ trust in the party’s ability to govern.

Among those accused was?Craig Williams, who at the time, was Sunak’s chief aide. Williams has admitted placing a ￡100 bet on a July election at odds of 5/1.

Also in the frame is Tony Lee, the Conservative Party’s director of campaigns. Williams, along with Lee’s wife, Laura Saunders, were standing in the election as prospective MPs but withdrew in the wake of the scandal.

Embarrassingly for the Met, “at least seven” of its own officers, including one who was part of Sunak’s protection detail, were also investigated for insider election betting. Their cases are being examined by the Met’s directorate of professional standards and the Gambling Commission.

High Bar Not Met

Misconduct in public office is a serious offense that has a maximum prison sentence of life. But after reviewing the case of the senior Conservatives, the Crown Prosecution determined that the “high bar for misconduct in public office to be proven was not met.”

It has therefore been agreed between the Met and the Gambling Commission that the more appropriate criminal offences to progress with would be those under the Gambling Act.” a Met spokesperson said. “While our involvement in the criminal investigation now ceases, it’s important that is not misinterpreted as an all-clear for those whose cases were looked at.”

UK Gambling Law prohibits “cheating at gambling,” but doesn’t define what this might involve. It is unclear therefore whether insider betting constitutes cheating in the eyes of the law.

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Last week, the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) said it is examining financial penalties against Resorts World Las Vegas (RWLV) — Genting’s lone Nevada property — over that venue’s role in allowing known illegal bookmakers to wager there. Nevada regulators alleged that Resorts World Las Vegas not only knowingly allowed those bookies to bet there, but also didn’t scrutinize the source of their cash. That could call into question the veracity of the integrated resort’s anti-money laundering protocols.

We think another risk is that a negative review by the commission could jeopardize Resorts World New York City’s bid,” wrote CIMB analysts in a recent report to clients.

Genting-owned Resorts World New York is a slots-only venue in Queens. The venue has been operational for about 13 years, and over that time, it’s delivered more than $4 billion in taxes for the state. That coupled with its status as one of the highest-grossing regional casinos in the country, despite having no table games, has led to speculation that Resorts World New York is almost a lock to win one of the three downstate permits.

Genting Could Face Hefty Fine in Nevada

CIMB Securities observed that Resorts World Las Vegas could have to answer for as many as 300 separate violations, which could result in fines totaling $75 million.

“Some industry experts say that this is rare and the commission is unlikely to go that far, due to the uncertain long-term impact from taking such a drastic measure,” noted the brokerage firm.

Scott Sibella, the former MGM Resorts International and RWLV executive at the heart of the scandal, pleaded guilty in January to violating the federal Bank Secrecy Act, and in May, was tagged with a $9,500 fine and a $100 special levy. In Nevada, he could face loss of his gaming license and up to $750K in fines.

Genting NY Casino Bid Could Withstand Controversy

To date, no New York regulators have commented on whether or not the goings on at Resorts World Las Vegas could endanger Genting’s Empire State ambitions. In New York, the current emphasis is on finding some way to expedite the start of the bidding process for the three downstate casino licenses — something that appears unlikely over the near term.

However, that’s just speculation and no New York regulator has publicly said the Genting and MGM bids there are in jeopardy due to controversies in Nevada. With both operators already established and known to New York policymakers, and with both pledging billions of dollars in enhancements to their existing venues and the creation of thousands of new jobs should they win traditional casino licenses, it’s possible their New York ambitions can withstand the Sibella-related imbroglio in Las Vegas.

The post Genting NY Casino Bid Could Be Hindered by Las Vegas Controversy, Says CIMB appeared first on Casino.org.

Last week, the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) said it wants to pursue financial penalties against Resorts World Las Vegas because the casino hotel allegedly permitted known black market bookmakers to wager there without declaring from where their funds were sourced. One of those bookies was Mathew Bowyer — the man believed to have taken millions of dollars in bets from Los Angeles Dodgers star ?Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter Ippei Mizuhara.

The extent of RWLV’s financial punishment isn’t yet known, but S&P Global Ratings believe Genting will support the integrated resort while it deals with the regulatory pressure.

We believe it will receive extraordinary support from its parent, Genting Bhd., under almost all foreseeable circumstances,” observed the research firm.

S&P rates RWLV BB+ with a “stable” outlook.

Possible Template for RWLV Fine

Former Resorts World Las Vegas President Scott Sibella is at the center of the scandal and it’s possible that the manner in which the NGCB dealt with MGM Resorts International — his employer prior to RWLV — could prove instructive in terms of what financial penalties the Genting venue could face.

“Genting group has a track record of gaming operations in different jurisdictions for over five decades. The group also has the strategic significance of expanding its foothold into the U.S. gaming market. We expect RWLV to work with regulators to resolve and address the issues raised,” added S&P.

It remains to be seen, but if the levies faced by RWLV stemming from the Sibella imbroglio are on par with those incurred by the MGM properties, parent Genting can easily absorb those expenditures.

RWLV Vital Part of Genting Portfolio

RWLV is one of the three crown jewels of the Genting gaming empire, along with a flagship property in its home country of Malaysia and Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore. As such, the parent company is incentivized to provide financial support to the Las Vegas venue.

While the BB+ corporate credit rating on Genting’s Strip casino resort is one notch into junk territory, it doesn’t appear to be in near-term danger of a downgrade and the conglomerate has the resources to support that rating.

“The stable outlook on RWLV mirrors that on the parent, which in turn reflects our expectation that the company’s market position across its operations will translate into a stable operating performance, such that its ratio of funds from operations to debt remains above 30% over the next two years,” concludes S&P.

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The workers, Tamar Ansian, Makhare Patashuri, and Luka Nadiradze, adopted the extreme form of protest on August 12, according to JAMNews, a news outlet covering Eastern Europe’s Caucasus region. The trio have said they won’t eat until the demands of striking workers are met.

More than 4,000 Evolution Georgia employees – around half the workforce – began striking on July 12. Evolution is a B2B casino software provider that specializes in live casino streams. Many of the disgruntled workers are game presenters or croupiers who deal games from behind TV cameras in studios located at the Tbilisi offices.

Difficult Conditions

Employees claim they work for little money in poor working conditions, according to Evo Union, the trade union that organized the strike. They have reported dirty, unhygienic tables and mosquito infestations that have left some employees with severe skin conditions, infections, and allergies. Workers must sit upright for hours in uncomfortable chairs under bright lights and in poor air conditioning, according to the union.

These workers can earn additional monthly bonuses of US$110 to US$145, but bonuses are often lost if they end a shift early because they are unwell, which happens often because of the long hours and allegedly unsanitary conditions. The average hourly wage in Tbilisi is around US$5.50.

The last straw for workers appears to have been the leaking of Facebook conversations between Evolution managers in which some employees were mocked in an overtly racist and sexist manner.

List of Demands

The union has a long list of demands, which includes pay hikes, annual inflation adjustments, more breaks during shifts, a safer working environment, better health benefits, and the right to menstrual leave. It also wants Evolution to incorporate a system that enables players to tip dealers.

Evolution has called the strike “illegal” and warned that it will be forced to “make operational adjustments, including larger-scale layoffs of employees to reduce our presence in Georgia” if the situation is not resolved.

“We have spent six years investing in the country, offering first-time employment to many Georgians, and the situation is highly regrettable both for Evolution as well as for the many working employees who will be affected by these actions,” the company said in an August 1 Facebook post.

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With a population of fewer than 200K, Las Vegas was by far the smallest of the 23 US cities in which John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr performed that year. Still, the local sheriff’s department was worried enough about the impending frenzy to mandate riot training for all its officers two days earlier.

However, even at 1:35 a.m., hundreds of them had already gathered outside McCarran’s brand new main terminal (today’s Terminal 1), in defiance of a countywide 10 p.m. curfew. So police directed the Beatles’ plane to pull into the old terminal, which was at least a mile away, after touching down.

A small group of dignitaries and photographers were assembled to meet the Beatles there. While coming and going, they were instructed to keep their headlights off for secrecy.

This was only the second stop on the band’s first North American tour, and nobody — least of all the Beatles and their manager, Brian Epstein — realized that Beatlemania would grip America the same exact way it had Europe the year before.

In fact, six months earlier, the Beatles were booked for a single appearance at the Sahara’s 700-seat Congo Room.

In the interim, Sahara entertainment director Stan Irwin realized the inadequacy of his space. So he rebooked the group for two shows at the Las Vegas Convention Center, adding a 4 p.m. show so that Strip performers such as Liberace and Pat Boone could see and meet the Beatles while still performing their own shows that night.

So how exactly did the Beatles nearly lose their careers in Las Vegas? We’re getting to that, promise!

Help!

The motorcade arrived at the Sahara — where the band would stay, as per the original deal. Hotel officials traveling with the band were congratulating themselves for pulling off a discreet landing — until they eyed the Beatles-starved mob surrounding the casino hotel.

The lads’ car pulled into a shipping dock in the back to slip them onto a freight elevator. To do that, Irwin recalled, hotel employees had to form “an arm-in-arm link,” a fence of humans to hold back the girls, who were grabbing as much British hair and flesh as their hands could hold.

“If any of us had fallen, we would have been stomped to death,” Irwin said.

The Beatles had initially wanted to see Las Vegas and try their hand at gambling — all but Lennon, who said he had no interest. However, since so many of the band’s fans were under 21, management was concerned about keeping them off the casino floor.

It had also become depressingly clear by this point that the Beatles would not be safe venturing anywhere outside a heavily guarded hotel room for the duration of their tour.

So, on the morning of the show, the Sahara brought gambling to the Beatles. In Suite 2344 of the Sahara’s Alexandria Tower, the Fabs tried out two slot machines as they clowned around for invited photographers and reporters.

Come What Mayhem

Doors to the convention center’s then UFO-shaped rotunda opened at 3 p.m. for the 4 p.m. show.

First up were The Exciters, whose name created false expectations. The Righteous Brothers followed, but were then largely unknown, since it would be three more months before their big hit, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” Finally, Jackie DeShannon was nearly drowned out by chants of “We want the Beatles!”

The Beatles, introduced by Irwin — also part of the deal — played to an incessant jet-engine blast of high-pitched screams from 5:30-5:59 p.m.

Those 29 minutes contained “Twist and Shout,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “All My Loving,” “She Loves You,” “‘Till There Was You,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “You Can’t Do That,” “If I Fell,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Boys,” “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Long Tall Sally” — though few in attendance could make out more than a stray note or two of any song.

Following the concert, the band retired to the Sahara, whose elevators, stairwells, janitorial closets, and balconies were infested with young female fans hiding from hotel security.

Two fans reportedly attempted to climb the hotel’s outer wall from the floor below the Beatles’ balcony. They didn’t succeed but, by a miracle, didn’t kill themselves, either.

Two others managed to get their wishes granted, and that’s where things almost went terribly wrong for the lads ….

Do You Want to Know a Secret?

Between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Aug. 21, 1964, two underage girls were found in John Lennon’s room at the Sahara.

The discovery was made after the front desk phoned up to inform the group’s handlers that a woman was in the lobby, claiming that the Beatles had kidnapped her twin daughters.

Longtime Beatles roadie Mal Evans found the girls and woke up Miami radio reporter Larry Kane at around 5 a.m.

Kane, who was covering the tour and sleeping in an adjacent room, was asked to meet with the woman because he was the only one in the entourage who traveled with a business suit.

Before taking the elevator, Kane opened Lennon’s door to investigate for himself. He found him asleep with the girls watching TV at the edge of his bed.

Not a word was leaked about the untoward discovery for three more decades, however. And that was only because Beatles manager Brian Epstein secretly squashed a lawsuit either threatened or filed (it’s never been clear) by the girls’ mother when she got back home to LA, according to Kane. (British journalist Ivor Davis has claimed that a $10,000 payment was made.)

And so it was that the Beatles departed Las Vegas at 11:24 a.m. on Aug. 21, 1964, for that night’s concert in Seattle and the rest of their famous futures.

The post It Was 60 Years Ago Today … That the Beatles Nearly Lost Their Careers in Vegas appeared first on Casino.org.

Meyer, 79, was president and COO of Universal Studios from 1995 to 2013. He also has a reputation as a prodigious craps gambler.

In or about August 14, 2015, Meyer signed a line of credit for $6 million at the Mohegan Sun in Montville, Conn., according to the lawsuit filed by the Mohegan Gaming Commission. In October 2017, he used the line to gamble and promptly lost $5 million in a single day, it claims.

Meyer signed over five markers to the casino to cover the debt, but the checks bounced, per the suit. In April 2018, the defendant entered into a repayment plan with the casino but welched on installments in September 2003, still owing $2,782,500, according to the complaint.

Gambling Credit Illegal in State

In a motion to strike the case filed last week, Meyer’s lawyer, Brian E. Spears, argued that extending credit for gambling is illegal under Connecticut law and that the state has an “ancient and deep-rooted ban on lending money to gamblers.”

As a sovereign nation partially removed from state laws, the Mohegan Tribe is permitted to offer casino gaming under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). But that’s only if such activities are conducted in accordance with the compact agreement signed by the tribe and the state.

Connecticut’s only other tribal operator, the Mashantucket Pequots, signed a different compact in which they successfully negotiated an exception for the extension of credit for gambling at their Foxwoods Resort Casino, notes Spears.

“Ultimately, the Mohegan Compact is the relevant authority,” he adds. “Within its four corners, the Mohegan Compact does not permit the extension of credit for gambling. Absent an express authorization permitting the Mohegan Sun to extend credit for gambling at its casino, Connecticut’s centuries-old prohibition on such practices controls.”

‘Top Three Whale’

Meyer was reported to have blown more than $100 million on dice games over the years by sources who spoke to The Daily Mail in 2020, an allegation Casino.org is unable to verify independently. The article described him as “probably in the top three most sought-after whales in the gaming industry.”

Meyer was one of the founders of talent agency Creative Artists. At Universal he was the longest-serving chief of a major motion picture company. He resigned as chairman in 2020, claiming he was being extorted over a purported affair with British actress Charlotte Kirk.

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Sen. Mike Maroney, 56, was suspended from his duties as chair of the Senate’s Health and Human Resources Committee. That’s after being charged with misdemeanor indecent exposure and disorderly conduct.

On Wednesday, he pleaded not guilty to the charges in Marshall County Magistrate Court.

Caught on Camera

Maroney was spotted on security video by two female employees of Gumby’s Cigarette & Beer World in Glen Dale, near Wheeling, WV, “committing an act of sexual gratification” in the bar’s slots parlor, according to prosecutors. The alleged incident occurred on August 4 at about 1 p.m. and no one else was in the room at the time.

Senate President Craig Blair (R) told local Fox and ABC affiliate WCHS-TV Wednesday that Maroney had been relieved of his responsibilities so he could dedicate time to his “personal issues.”

The facts that have emerged are troubling, and I am disappointed,” Blair said. “However, in this time, our primary focus is on the well-being of Senator Maroney.”

Blair added that he would offer prayers for his “friend Mike” and his family “as he deals with these issues.”

Maroney was elected to the state Senate in 2016 and re-elected in 2020. He had just months to serve after losing his bid for a third term in the 2024 primary.

He previously raised eyebrows in 2019 when he was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of soliciting a prostitute. The charge was later dropped for lack of evidence.

Gaming Champion

The senator’s longtime support of the gaming industry in West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle might explain his presence at the video gambling establishment. However, his alleged behavior while there was “not up to the standard of what we expect from our elected leaders in the State Senate of West Virginia,” Blair noted.

He has also been a champion of sports betting. Again in 2020, he co-sponsored a bill that would have permitted betting on political events, although the events of this week were not a political outcome even the wiliest bettor could have predicted.

Maroney has been released on a $3,500 bond.

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DraftKings on Tuesday night announced it was reversing course on its decision to implement a surcharge on winning bets in highly taxed sports betting states. The announcement came after FanDuel parent Flutter Entertainment revealed during its second-quarter earnings report that it wouldn’t follow its rival’s lead in placing a levy on winning wagers.

DraftKings said its decision not to actualize the supplemental fee, which it billed as “fairly nominal,” — wording that was pushed back on by the sports betting community after it was realized to be more than 3% — was due to customer feedback. The sportsbook was ripped on social media for considering the winning bet surcharge in the first place.

Were you expecting a positive reaction?” asked one person on X.

Right…gamblers were running for the exits,” tweeted another.

In the coming weeks and months, it will be revealed whether the tax controversy resulted in DraftKings losing market share. Those revelations will come through monthly state wagering reports in jurisdictions that break down handle and revenue by operator, as well as analysts and market research firms tabulating market share.

Golf Email Blast

As the sports betting world was in an uproar over the DraftKings news to withdraw the winning bets tax, which was scheduled to begin Jan 1. 2025, many DraftKings customers and former customers received an email about their golf bets. The email provided an update about two or more golfers being tied for the same winning position, and that DraftKings settled the wagers using Dead Heat Reduction rules.

DraftKings’ Dead Heat Reduction is calculated by dividing the odds proportionally among the number of winners for a particular position. The payout is less than what the bettor would have won should only one golfer have finished in the specific position.

DraftKings didn’t send a follow-up email informing recipients to disregard the previous communication but instead provided an update on its social media channels.

“You may have received an email regarding this past weekend’s golf tournament and the ‘Dead Heat’ rule that was inadvertently sent more broadly than intended. Please disregard that email,” the DraftKings Sportsbook account on X posted.

Operators Pounce

The DraftKings’ golf email reportedly went to people who have never even registered with the sportsbook.

How do you have my email when I’ve never set up an account with you?” asked one on X. A reply from another person said, “Same.”

Several responses to the recent DraftKings social media posts have said they’re taking their sports betting business elsewhere. One commenter said he’s already withdrawn his DraftKings account money and moved to BetRivers.

The BetRivers Sportsbook has been active on the DraftKings discussions and offering assistance in helping customers open and fund new accounts.

DraftKings’ sports betting competitors are naturally trying to capture some of the book’s customers following its recent trials and tribulations. Before FanDuel followed, BetRivers, Caesars Sportsbook, and BetMGM said they would not follow DraftKings and would remain tax-free on winning bets.

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You might think Las Vegas has been this way since the 1960s, and you might think that because it’s all over the internet.

“In the 1950s and 1960s, the city was a popular destination for LGBTQ+ people because it was one of the few places where it was relatively safe for them to be open about their identities,” according to gayety.co.

That’s a beautiful statement — that isn’t true.

But it’s not a surprising statement. Las Vegas has a history of rewriting history to place itself on the right side of it.

All that Rat Pack magic of the 1950s was made before Black people — including Sammy Davis Jr. — were even allowed to enter through the front doors of Las Vegas Strip casinos. (And did you realize that Elvis Presley’s 1956 Las Vegas debut occurred in front of a segregated audience at the New Frontier?)

By the same token, LGBTQ+ people were routinely beaten up, fired from their jobs/livelihoods, and even arrested just for daring to be themselves in public.

Anything Goes in Vegas … Except That

In 1861, Nevada passed a law prohibiting sodomy. Calling nonmissionary-style sex an “infamous crime against nature,” the law specified an automatic prison term of “not less than five years” for any violation.

In case it wasn’t clear just how dehumanizing this ordinance was intended to be against gays, it specified that violations could be committed “with man or beast.”

In a history from which no pride can be taken, Las Vegas police for decades used this law to conduct sting operations entrapping gay men.

First Positive Sign

In 1970, Marge Jacque, an openly lesbian cocktail waitress, quit the Sands to purchase the former Club de Paris.

She transformed it into the first openly gay bar in Las Vegas. Its motto, printed on matchbooks and T-shirts, was “Glitter and Be Gay at Le Café!”

Patrons included Las Vegas performers Liberace, Rip Taylor, and Paul Lynde. And, the bar served as the editorial office for “Gay Notes,” Nevada’s first gay publication.

For a while, at least, it seemed that the tide was beginning to turn.

Until, in August 1978, someone burned Le Café to the ground. The apparent hate crime remains unsolved.

As late as 1992, Jahna Steele, a dancer from the topless show “Crazy Girls” who was voted “Sexiest Showgirl on the Strip” a year earlier, was fired after the tabloid TV show “A Current Affair” outed her as being born John Matheny.

Final Gay Arrest

The last person arrested for breaking the sodomy law, whose name was never publicized, met an undercover agent at a local gym, then invited him into his home.

If you don’t already know, you’re going to cringe when you read when this occurred.

Are you sure you’re ready?…

The year was 1993, and we knew?you weren’t ready.

The jury happened to be deliberating just as the Nevada State Senate repealed the sodomy law on June 16 of that year, so the case was dismissed.

So consider this fact if you ever find yourself wondering why Liberace, Siegfried and Roy, or Sammy Davis Jr. lacked the courage to come out in such a gay-friendly town.

Nope, that last name you read was not a mistake.?In his 2013 memoir, “My Way,” Paul Anka wrote that?Davis frequently “got into bisexuality” with him during their heart-to-hearts.

“He would confide these things to me, how cool it was to be involved with two women, with guys,” Anka wrote.

The only time the Rat Pack icon came close to addressing this publicly was during an interview he granted the men’s porn magazine Genesis for its? February 1977 issue.

“The greatest turn-on I’ve ever experienced was watching a gay film,” Davis told porn star Marilyn Chambers. “I couldn’t deal with it. Maybe it’s my own latent feeling about homosexuality that I can’t deal with. I have this image as a stud, and you can’t be a stud and a homosexual at the same time.”

We bring this up not to out a Las Vegas legend who clearly identified as heterosexual, but to demonstrate the deep fear many people back in the day felt simply about the way they were born, and how much closer that fear hit to where most Americans live than they realize.

In 2002, Las Vegas passed a different kind of gay ordinance — one that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, or public accommodations. It was one of the first cities in the country to do so.

Yet while Las Vegas has come a long way since the days when it mistreated LGBTQ+ people, it shouldn’t be permitted to whitewash the shamefully long period during which it did.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on?Casino.org.?Click here to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email [email protected].

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For decades, businessmen are believed to have awoken in ice-filled Las Vegas hotel bathtubs, remembering that drink they were fixed the night before by the illegal sex worker they asked up to their room.

That’s when, the story goes, they notice a note left on a nearby counter. It reads: “Your kidney has been removed. Seek immediate medical attention.”

Renal 911!

While cavorting with an illegal sex worker gets the occasional tipsy tourist “trick-rolled” for his Rolex and other valuables, none of those valuables ever includes a vital organ. Not one case of illegal kidney harvesting has been documented in Las Vegas or elsewhere in the US.

As originally told, the businessman was visiting New York when the kidney-snatchers struck.

The myth went mainstream when newspapers picked up on it. Though the story was only retold by columnists attempting to debunk it, what stuck with most readers was the myth, not the debunking.

“It has a classic structure, dealing with already existing myths about dangerous New York and dovetailing into the much-publicized need for transplant organs,” read a March 31, 1991 column from Wisconsin State-Journal reporter George Hesselberg.

Anatomy of a Myth

Around 1996, the myth picked up its more believability-enhancing details — the ice-filled bathtub and the note on the bathroom counter. Initially, the victim woke up on the plain old floor of his hotel with no note. (Just because you’re a kidney thief doesn’t mean you have to be rude!)

The setting also switched from New York to Las Vegas. We suspect that’s because it dovetails better with Sin City’s roots in organized crime, as well as the known lengths that Strip casino resorts go to prevent information about crimes and deaths on their premises from leaking to the media.

“We get about a dozen inquiries a year about it,” Clark County Coroner Ron Flud told the Las Vegas Sun about the myth back in 1996.

As usual, pop culture didn’t help the cause of truth any. TV portrayed kidney thefts on a 1991 episode of “Law & Order” and a 2006 episode of “Las Vegas,” and the movies included scenes in “The Harvest” (1993) and “Urban Legend” (1998).

By 2001, the myth was so widespread that the National Kidney Foundation asked anyone claiming to have had a kidney stolen in the US to contact them for help in documenting a case.

In 23 years, according to the organization, no one has.

We Kidney You Not

Though no documented cases have occurred in the US, and the scenarios differ markedly, kidney theft is reportedly a thing elsewhere in the world.

According to a 2008 report in Britain’s The Guardian, seven people were arrested in the Indian city of Gurgaon that January for luring 600 laborers to an underground medical clinic over the course of a decade.

The brokers promised the laborers jobs, then either duped or forced them into donating a kidney to wealthy clients who needed one in the US, UK, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Greece.

Five people were convicted in the black-market ring. According to a March 2013 report in the Hindustan Times, the scheme’s leaders, Dr. Amit Kumar and Dr. Upender Dublesh, both received seven years each of “rigorous” imprisonment.

Art Caplan, co-chairman of the United Nations task force on organ trafficking, estimated that about a quarter of all kidneys transplanted internationally in 2011 appeared to have been trafficked.

Again, though, no documented case of case of kidney theft has ever occurred in the US.

That is, not until the morning you wake up in an ice-filled Las Vegas hotel bathtub with a note on the counter.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on Casino.org. Visit VegasMythsBusted.com to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email [email protected].

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The External Security Organization (ESO) is also looking into how privately procured gambling machines shipped under diplomatic cover from Russia ended up at the Consulate Building, according to a recent report by Ugandan newspaper The Daily Monitor.

Deputy Speaker of Uganda’s parliament Thomas Tayebwa said last week that the situation was a violation of domestic, UAE, and international law. He demanded answers from the government.

Not So Diplomatic

Tayebwa is concerned that the misbehavior of diplomats could impact bilateral relations between the two nations, causing difficulties for the 70,000 Ugandans who live and work in the UAE.

“Parliament pushed for this consulate to extend support and services to Ugandans who are thousands living in Dubai. Surprisingly, turning the consulate into a casino and a gambling house contravenes the laws of UAE, our laws and international laws governing diplomatic premises,” Nkunyingi said.

“As well, we want to know what disciplinary, diplomatic, and administrative steps have been undertaken to address this development,” he added.

It contained “a big dining table, a small dining table, legs for tables, bar chairs, souvenirs, and decorative wheels,” according to the inventory documents.

The shipment was only permitted to proceed after Uganda’s ambassador to Russia, Mozes Kizige, intervened. He assured customs officials that the items “were not for industrial or commercial purposes” and would be “used exclusively for official needs by the embassy in order to perform functions under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”

All Systems Go

The consignment arrived in the UAE on October 20, 2023 aboard an Ethiopian Airline flight from Moscow. It was scheduled to be stored at the Dubai Consulate for three months before being transferred to Uganda where it was destined for a hotel owned by an unnamed government official.

But the machines remained in the consul for at least six months, where they were “mounted and operated” by two Ugandan nationals. These individuals were assigned as special envoys with diplomatic credentials, according to the Monitor.

The plug was pulled on the operation when Uganda President Yoweri Museveni reportedly caught wind of it and ordered the machines to be removed, the Monitor reports.

Gambling has always been illegal in the UAE – at least, until last week, when the country’s recently formed gaming regulator approved its first lottery license. This has prompted speculation that the Emirates could be on the road to legalizing casinos.

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Jeff Marek is a familiar face to Canadian hockey fans, but he has been conspicuously absent from sports channel Sportsnet’s broadcasts since he was sent to cover the 2024 NHL Draft at the Las Vegas Sphere in June.

Marek was quietly fired by Sportsnet in July with two years remaining on his contract. That was after he was found to have leaked information about team picks to his friend, Mark Seidel, according to The Athletic.

As a Sportsnet interviewer, Marek was party to information about selections around two minutes before they were officially announced. Some of this information was passed on to Seidel, a former NHL scout, who then tweeted about the picks moments before the announcement, The Athletic alleges.

NGCB Probe

The NHL reported the incident to the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB), which launched an investigation, according to sources who spoke to The Athletic.

The NGCB has said it’s not its policy to comment about “whether it is or isn’t investigating particular persons or entities.”

Athletic sources who asked to remain anonymous have said that Marek doesn’t gamble and was uncomfortable with promoting sports betting on air. The TV personality passed the information on to Seidel purely so he could offer analysis of the picks on social media, the sources claimed.

Seidel has shown an uncanny knack for predicting draft picks over the past few years and occasionally frames his tweets – possibly inadvertently — as sports betting advice.

During the 2022 draft, for example, he tweeted, “Philadelphia and Cutter Gauthier were made for each other … I’d lay money on him,” moments before Gauthier and Philadelphia became a reality.

Radio Silence

Marek’s sudden absence from Sportsnet broadcasts didn’t go unnoticed, nor did his disengagement from social media. Marek has 244.6K followers on X.

Eventually, on July 26, he posted the following tweet.

“After 13 great years at Sportsnet, I’m moving on,” he wrote. “It’s been an incredible journey and I’m thankful to have worked alongside so many great people and played a role in bringing sports and hockey news to fans across Canada and the world. More to come soon.”

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“I am responsible for any substance found in the horses that I train, and I have paid a very steep price with a?three-year suspension?and the disqualification of Medina Spirit’s performance,” Baffert said in the statement.

I understand and appreciate that Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission took steps to enforce the rules that they believed were necessary to protect the safety and integrity of horse racing and the reputation of the Kentucky Derby.”

Baffert added that he and his family wanted to put the chapter behind them and “get back doing what we love to do without anymore [sic] distraction or negativity.”

Medina Spirit Disqualified

So ends the saga that began soon after Medina Spirit’s unlikely victory at the Derby. It was an episode that saw lawsuits fly and tarnished the name of one of racing’s greatest trainers.

Post-race testing showed the three-year-old colt had 21pg/ml of the anti-inflammatory steroid betamethasone in his system. The horse was disqualified, and the 1.8 million winner’s prize went to the second-place finisher, Mandaloun.

In Kentucky, the substance is classified as a Class C drug permitted for therapeutic use in horses but requires a 14-day withdrawal time.

‘False Narrative’

Baffert sued Churchill Downs in 2022 to try to have the ban lifted but was unsuccessful. In a statement at the time, the racetrack giant accused Baffert of “peddling a false narrative” about the failed drug test.

Prior to that race, Mr. Baffert signed an agreement with Churchill Downs which stated that he was responsible for understanding the rules of racing in Kentucky and that he would abide by them,” the company said at the time. “The results of the tests clearly show that he did not comply, and his ongoing conduct reveals his continued disregard for the rules and regulations that ensure horse and jockey safety, as well as the integrity and fairness of the races conducted at our facilities.”

Six months after the Derby, the controversy deepened when Medina Spirit collapsed and died of a heart attack during a workout at Santa Anita Park. Veterinary officials who examined his body found no evidence of doping, but a definitive cause of death couldn’t be established. ??

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Korean American Jonathan Jung died three minutes after being held face down on concrete while one of the casino’s private security agents placed a knee on his back.

Jung’s family sued “the Bike” in 2022, claiming that poorly trained security staff used excessive force on Jung in an effort to restrain him, leading to death by suffocation. The family asked for $132 million in damages.

But the jury determined that the security agents’ actions were not a substantial factor in Jung’s death, the Courtroom View Network (CVN) reports. Instead, jurors chose to accept the county coroner’s autopsy report, which cited the cause of death as methamphetamine toxicity.

Mental Health Crisis

On July 4, 2021, Jung was playing baccarat at The Bike when he suffered what his family described as an acute mental health crisis. Jung began hearing voices and talking to himself, which prompted casino staff to ask him to leave.

Lawyers for the casino argued he was behaving erratically and needed to be subdued because he posed a danger to others.

He was followed out of the casino by five security staff members, whom he allegedly told that he just wanted to get in his car and leave.

The defense maintained that Jung “ran around the lot trying to evade security staff.” But his family claimed the security staff bundled the unarmed man into a car and drove him to a corner of the parking lot. Then they knocked him down, handcuffed him, and applied the dangerous maneuver which the plaintiff’s said caused him to vomit, turn blue, and suffocate in three minutes.

Jung’s sister, Vanessa Jung, committed suicide shortly after watching footage of her brother’s death.

Coroner Controversy

Lawyers for the plaintiffs claimed the coroner’s report was controversial because of “analytical difficulties” with the way Jung’s blood sample was collected, stored, and tested.

Minh Nguyen, who represented the Jung family, told CVN he would appeal. He claimed his trial strategy suffered because Judge Patrick Madden had unexpectedly chosen to reverse an earlier ruling barring any discussion at trial of Jung’s drug use.

We lost credibility, and the evidence clearly swayed the jury because the jury found that the guards’ conduct was negligent, but their negligence did not cause Jonathan any harm, which cannot be the case legally,” he Nguyen said.

His co-counsel, Terrence Jones, added that “hate crimes” against Asians do not generate the same level of outrage against those perpetrated against other ethnic groups. Had his client been Black, for example, the case would have “garnered broader coverage and scrutiny,” he claimed.

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Twenty-six Iowa and Iowa State athletes sued the state in April. They argue that the investigation by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) used warrantless searches and other unconstitutional techniques.

As a result of the investigation and subsequent prosecution, the athletes’ lives, collegiate careers, and future opportunities were “severely upended,” according to the lawsuit.

The athletes were found to have placed bets while under the legal age of 21 using online sportsbook accounts belonging to friends or family members, which added identity theft charges to the rap sheet.

Most pleaded guilty, paid a fine, and dealt with the consequences for their careers. Four fought the charges and were successful.

‘No Expectation of Privacy’

In their motion to dismiss, lawyers for Iowa argued that 11th Amendment immunity shielded the state from prosecution. The amendment limits the ability of individuals to sue states in a federal court if they are not citizens of that state.

Meanwhile, the athletes who gambled on other people’s accounts had “no reasonable or actual expectation of privacy in gambling accounts they didn’t own,” according to the filings.

“Here, plaintiffs’ own rules violations caused their suspensions and related injuries,” they argued. “Plaintiffs should not gain from their own illicit activity.”

Misuse of Software

DCI agents used tracking software supplied by geolocation company GeoComply to pry into the students’ betting habits on college campuses.

The software is used by online gambling operators to ensure they are only taking bets from users located within the borders of the state in which they’re licensed.

GeoComply made the software available to law enforcement agencies to detect “hotspots” – areas where a large concentration of bets was occurring – so agencies could monitor potential money laundering or other fraudulent activity.

DCI agents also violated some of the students’ Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, according to the lawsuit. These athletes were told during interviews, falsely, that they weren’t under criminal investigation and weren’t read their Miranda rights.

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Bredice, 33, was a performance analyst for current EPL champion City from 2013 to 2019 before leaving to take a position with Belgian side Anderlecht under former City star Vincent Kompany. In 2022, he joined Burnley as lead performance analyst.

Burnley said in a statement that Bredice “no longer worked for the club after being reminded of his responsibilities.”

The analyst admitted placing 456 bets, the majority during his six-year tenure at City, some of which were on his own team to lose.

Focus on Transfers

The FA determined that 12 of the 456 bets were made using inside information, which Bredice denied. They were primarily focused on the transfer of players to and from City.

Bredice was also fined ￡4.5K for breaching FA betting rules. Since 2014, under FA Rule E8, soccer players and anyone connected to the game are banned from betting on games worldwide and from sharing information for wagering purposes.

The alleged insider bets represented 2.6% of the total number placed by Bredice but 20% of the overall amount staked by him.

In one bet, he placed ￡515 that a certain player would sign for City. The FA noted that he made the bet the morning after a staff party, concluding it was likely that the information was discussed at the party. The name of the player is redacted in tribunal documents.

Election Scandal

The issue of insider betting has been thrust into the spotlight in the UK by the country’s recent general election. That’s after the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) began investigating several senior Conservative Party officials for placing insider bets on the timing of the election.

The date was known only to a select group before its announcement by now-former prime minister Rishi Sunak.

The resulting scandal contributed to the Conservative defeat on July 4, and an avalanche victory by Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.

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Sir Philip Davies MP neither confirmed nor denied placing the ￡8,000 wager, first reported by The Sun. But he told the UK tabloid he firmly expected to be defeated July 4 in an anticipated landslide loss for the governing Conservative Party. Davies has been the member of parliament for Shipley, Yorkshire, since 2005.

What’s it got to do with you whether I did or didn’t?” he asked The Sun, adding that he had done nothing illegal.

“I hope to win [in the election],” he said. “I’m busting a gut to win. I expect to lose. In the 2005 election, I busted a gut to win. I expected to lose. I had a bet on myself to lose in the 2005 election, and my bet went down the pan.”

Sinking Ship

The Conservatives’ already sinking reelection campaign has been torpedoed by a series of mishaps, including an ongoing investigation by the UK Gambling Commission into alleged insider betting.

Five prominent party figures are known to be suspected of placing bets on the timing of a general election just days before prime minister Rishi Sunak called it on May 22.

These include two who were expected to stand in next week’s election, the prime minister’s chief aide, Craig Wiliams, and Laura Saunders, who is married to the Conservative Party campaign manager. Both candidates were suspended by the Conservatives Tuesday.

Also in the frame is an unnamed member of Sunak’s personal security detail, who is a special officer with London’s Metropolitan Police. Several other Met officers are also under investigation.

Those found to have placed bets with insider information could be charged with cheating at gambling, which comes with a maximum sentence of two years in prison. They could also be prosecuted for misconduct in public office, which comes with a maximum prison sentence of life.

Davies Broke No Rules

By contrast, if Davies has indeed bet against his own reelection, he would be correct in saying that he has not broken the law, since the outcome of the election remains unknown and beyond his control.

Betting against yourself is only prohibited if you happen to be a professional athlete, and even then, it only contravenes the regulations of the official body that governs your sport, unless match-fixing is involved, which is fraud.

In fact, Davies isn’t even the first lawmaker to have been accused of betting against himself at this election. That dubious honor goes to Labour Party candidate Kevin Craig.

Craig admitted Thursday to placing the wager, which he said was “a bit of fun,” adding that he intended to give the winnings to local charities. He was immediately suspended by the party.

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Denise Ezell, 65, visited the casino on October 30 last year with a friend to play at the progressive blackjack tables. This is a game where players can place a side bet in the hope that their two cards will combine with the dealer’s in a way that triggers a jackpot.

On the hand in question, Ezell held the jack and king of spades with the dealer showing the ace and queen of spades – a four-card straight flush that qualified for a big payout.

“It was exuberating,” Ezell told The Detroit Free Press Thursday. “We were high-fiving … The dealer – he was excited. So were people around me. No one had ever seen anyone win that jackpot.”

‘Panhandling’ Claim

But when Ezell provided her driving license as ID, casino management told her she wouldn’t be paid because she was trespassing on the property. Instead, she was asked to leave.

It turns out that Ezell had been 86’d from the casino in 2015 after being accused of “panhandling.”

As she left on that occasion, Ezell asked the security guard “how long does this last?” She was told “maybe 24 or 48 hours,” the lawsuit states.

She received no notification from the casino, either by email, phone call, letter or text message, that she was not welcome on the property, the filing claims.

In the meantime, Ezell has been back hundreds of times, and the casino was always happy to take her money, she says.

‘They Take Your Damn Money’

In the days after her “win,” she called the casino and spoke to an employee who told her, “Don’t worry about them saying you were trespassing, we are going to get you your jackpot,” according to the lawsuit.

But when the employee called her back, he explained the matter had escalated “beyond his paygrade.”

I just thought when you won, they would pay you,” Ezell said. “When you lose, they take your damn money.”

The MGM Grand said it had not yet been formally served with the lawsuit when contacted by the Free Press on Thursday and was not able to comment.

Ezell described the casino’s reason for not paying the jackpot as “bull***t.”

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The famed integrated resort casino owned and operated by Las Vegas Sands was where a gambler, according to videos shared online, hit a S$4 million (US$2.95M) jackpot while playing an unidentified high-stakes game. That’s where the man’s good fortune took a turn.

Many social media reports suggested the man died, but those reports were inaccurate and the man is recovering and is expected to enjoy his riches once back to full health.

Payout Still Due

Many on social media asked whether casinos are still on the hook for paying out a jackpot if a recipient died moments after hitting the win and before collecting the cash.

Responding to a 2019 Reddit thread on the hypothetical issue, an attorney responded that in the US, the winnings would be paid to the gambler’s next of kin.

“A casino game is a contract, and believe it or not, death does not change a contract. You made an agreement with the casino that you will pay for the chance to play a game, and if the game comes out a certain way, the casino will owe you a certain amount of money,” the attorney explained.

You could die before the slot machine stops spinning and your estate is still owed the winnings,” the answer continued. “As with any contract, the benefits of that contract go to the estate, and the estate will be distributed according to the will of the deceased.”

Though rare, a gambler dying after winning big isn’t unprecedented. For some, the thrill of striking it rich is simply too much for their body and heart to handle.

In 2002, a player at Harrah’s in Atlantic City won a $10K slot jackpot. Just moments after receiving $5,000 in cash and a $5,000 check, the 61-year-old suffered a heart attack while seated at a casino lounge and was later pronounced dead.

Death After Loss

A much more common occurrence is gamblers dying after losing big, often by suicide. Among the most notorious tales is the story of “The Suitcase Man.”

He returned to Las Vegas on March 24, 1984, with another suitcase full of cash. He placed a $538K bet ($1.6 million in today’s money) on the Don’t Pass line and again won. Bergstrom returned to Binion’s that November and placed a $1 million ($3.6 million) wager that lost.

Bergstrom never recovered from the loss and committed suicide by ingesting pills on Feb. 4, 1985. He was 33 years old.

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In a filing with the US District Court for the District of Nevada, the FTC argued it’s within its jurisdiction to investigate the September 2023 cyberbreach that cost the Bellagio operator $100 million in third-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and restructuring or rent costs (EBITDAR), and $10 million in one-off legal and other expenses.

In noting that MGM has refused to comply with the CID, the FTC claims it has the authority to demand data and records from the gaming company pertaining to the cyberattack, and asked the court to enforce the CID.

FTC Believes it Met Legal Bars for MGM Compliance

The FTC believes the CID request is firmly within its authority and that relevant legal precedent has been met in its requests for MGM’s cooperation.

The threshold for relevance is easily met. So long as the requested information ‘touches a matter under investigation,’ it will survive a relevancy challenge,” according to the commission’s legal filing. “The FTC’s determination that information is relevant to its investigation should be accepted unless the Respondent can prove that it is ‘obviously wrong.’”

The commission added that MGM has no legal basis for its noncompliance, asserting that the gaming company’s claims that it’s not subject to the “Red Flags Rule” and the “Safeguards Rule” lack merit. The FTC said it can investigate whether or not MGM qualifies as a financial institution or creditor under those rules.

“The CID includes four additional specifications bearing on the Red Flags Rule, which requires certain businesses to implement a written identity theft prevention program,” added the FTC in the court filing. “Tracking the provisions of that Rule, these four specifications seek information concerning whether MGM obtains consumer reports in connection with credit transactions, advances funds, and has developed and trained staff on identity theft prevention measures—and thus are plainly relevant to that aspect of the investigation.”

FTC/MGM Rift Intensifies

The legal rift between the FTC and MGM is now measured in months, and the US District Court filing arrived about two months after the Aria operator demanded that FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan recuse herself from the case because she and several FTC employees were guests of the MGM Grand on the Las Vegas Strip at the time of the cyberbreach.

“This argument falls short of the standard for showing undue burden. Mere distraction from ordinary duties and even substantial effort does not amount to the undue disruption or serious hindrance of normal business operations,” the commission claimed in the filing. “The burden imposed here on MGM is the kind expected from any form of compulsory process.”

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That’s after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s closest aide, Craig Williams, was found to have placed a bet on that eventuality just three days before Sunak announced a shock July 4 ballot to decide the next government.

It’s unclear how the decision was strategically advantageous to the prime minister whose Conservative Party has been trailing in the polls since the start of 2022. Bookmaker Paddy Power has odds of an opposition Labour Party victory at 1/200, an implied probability of 99.5%.

Error of Judgment

Nevertheless, the unexpectedness of Sunak’s decision allowed Williams to get 5-1 on a ￡100 (US$128) bet. Williams, who will be standing in the election as an MP for Montgomeryshire, Wales, has refused to say whether he was party to insider information when he made the bet. Nor has he denied it.

If he was, it could be a criminal offense, and one that could involve a prison sentence.

While political betting is illegal in the US, it’s OK in the UK, although it remains a relatively small market.

That also makes it one that’s easy to monitor, and betting companies are hyper-vigilant about any prop bet where the result might be known to a small group of people in advance. For the same reason, most US states where sports betting is legal won’t allow betting on the Oscars, for example.

Politically Exposed

Under anti-money laundering regulations, sportsbooks must also pay close attention when they identify politicians using their services. “Politically exposed persons” carry a greater risk of involvement in bribery or corruption, and therefore money laundering.

It’s terrible optics for the Conservatives’ tanking election campaign, which has adopted the tagline “professionalism, integrity and accountability.”

Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds described the allegation that Williams was using privileged information as “extremely serious.” ?

“If this is true, then he has no place on the Conservative benches, if he is to win his seat. Even the suggestion of this – which could amount to cheating, a criminal offense under the Gambling Act – is deeply corrosive to trust in politics,” she said.

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Today, Morris is one of the owners of Bovada, the biggest offshore online gambling site that takes bets in the US. This week, Connecticut joined Michigan in asking the Olympian to back off or face legal action.

Connecticut’s Department of Consumer Protection Gaming Division (DCP) told Sports Betting Dime that it would send a cease-and-desist letter to Bovada within the week.

Michigan regulators sent a similar communication to the online gambling giant on May 29. The Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) gave the company 14 days from receipt of the letter to pull its operations in the state or face legal consequences.

State Law Breach

Since both states have licensed and regulated online gaming, Bovada’s continued presence there constitutes black market rather than gray market operations.

The site has previously agreed to stop targeting players in Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, and Nevada when those states passed laws prohibiting unlicensed operators.

The MGCB confirmed to Sports Betting Dime that in its view Bovada was currently acting in violation of state laws.

These are, specifically, the Lawful Internet Gaming Act and the Michigan Gaming Control and Revenue Act — both of which prohibit offering internet gambling without a license from the state – as well as the Michigan Penal Code, which broadly prohibits illegal gambling.

Who’s Behind Bovada?

Bovada emerged from Bodog, the pioneering online gaming brand founded by Calvin Ayre. The Canadian established the brand in 2000 at a time when it was impossible to apply for an online gaming license in the US, and the legality of the offshore industry was unclear.

Bodog made Ayre a billionaire, but he sold the US-facing business after the enactment of the federal Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006, which prohibited financial institutions from processing online gambling bets.

In 2009, MMGG changed the name to Bovada and migrated Bodog’s players to a new platform. In or around 2017, a company called Harp Media BV took a position in the company. Based in Curacao, the ownership structure of Harp Media is opaque.

Legal Troubles

In February 2012, the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agency seized the Bodog.com domain for alleged illegal gambling activities, although at the time it was inactive.

At the same time, despite having officially quit the business, Ayre was indicted by the US Attorney for Maryland on charges of illegal gambling and money laundering. In 2017, he pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor charge and all other charges were vacated.

The plaintiff accuses the defendants of profiting from illegal gambling in the state and seeks to recover losses. Kentucky has a 200-year-old gambling claw-back law, the Loss Recovery Act, which was designed to protect the families of destitute gamblers.

In 2010, the State of Kentucky used the act to sue PokerStars for offering illegal gambling. PokerStars settled the case for $300 million after a decade of litigation.

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Craig Williams, the prime minister’s parliamentary private secretary, placed the bet online via the Ladbrokes sports betting platform at odds of 5-1. It immediately triggered a red flag because of Williams’ status as a “politically exposed person.”

Under anti-money laundering regulations, operators must pay close attention to politicians who use their services. That’s because lawmakers carry a greater risk of involvement in bribery or corruption, and therefore money laundering.

Williams would have had to provide personal information when he opened the account, including his date of birth and a copy of a photo ID. Ladbrokes would also have been aware of the location of the bet

UKGC Probe

The operator passed the case on to the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), which launched an investigation, according to The Guardian. Betting with insider information could be a criminal offense.

“I’ve been contacted by a journalist about Gambling Commission inquiries into one of my accounts and thought it best to be totally transparent,” Williams said in a statement after he was approached for comment by The Guardian.

I put a flutter [wager] on the general election some weeks ago. This has resulted in some routine inquiries, and I confirm I will fully cooperate with these. I don’t want it to be a distraction from the campaign, I should have thought how it looks,” he added.

Although illegal in the US, prop bets on political events are permitted in the UK. US regulators are also disinclined to allow bets that could be manipulated by individuals, or where a small group of people may be party to information not known to the wider public.

For the same reason, UK operators are hyper-vigilant around prop markets. Sportsbooks will generally cap stakes, and markets are routinely suspended when suspicious bets are flagged.

Change of Government Highly Likely

Sunak called the?“snap” general election?unexpectedly on Wednesday, May 22. The decision was surprising because his Conservative Party has been trailing in the polls since the start of 2022.

A snap election is one called earlier than expected or when it’s not compulsory. It’s usually used as a tactic by an incumbent administration to exploit weakness in the opposition. However, the Conservative Party is expected to be soundly beaten come the July 4 vote.

Bookmaker Paddy Power has odds of a Labour Party victory at 1/200, an implied probability of 99.5%.

Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth described the allegations against Williams as “utterly extraordinary.”

“Rishi Sunak has sat on this information for more than a week but has lacked any backbone to take action. Once again Rishi Sunak has been exposed as utterly weak,” he added.

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Long Phi Pham, 38, was apprehended by the FBI on June 3 as he attempted to board a one-way flight to Australia.

Pham’s lawyer, Michael Soschnik, explained to reporters after the hearing that his client ranked in the “one percent of poker players in the world.”

Manipulated NBA Games

Pham was part of a group that profited from bets on NBA games involving Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter when they knew he would be exiting early, according to prosecutors.

The group won more than $2 million by taking the under with DraftKings and FanDuel on Porter’s performances in two games where it had been agreed he would fake injury. Most of the winnings were frozen when the operators detected suspicious betting patterns.

Pham is facing wire fraud charges for his alleged involvement in the plot. Magistrate Judge?Cheryl Pollak granted him bail Wednesday at $750K, although she expressed reservations.

“I think he is trying to flee the country to evade prosecution. I am sitting here today with very serious doubts that I am making a big mistake,” she said.

What Poker Festival?

There was no poker festival scheduled this month at the Star with the kind of fields and prize pools that might tempt the top 1% of poker players to fly to the other side of the world at a time when the World Series of Poker is in full swing in Las Vegas.

Pham faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

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Ammar Awawdeh, 32, from New York City, surrendered on Friday following the arrests of three co-defendants last week. The group is accused of conspiring with Porter to profit from Raptors games by betting the under on the player’s performance when they knew he would be exiting early from games.

Federal prosecutors believe Porter agreed to the scheme because he had amassed large gambling debts to the group. In April, he was banned from the NBA for life for violating the league’s gambling rules.

Porter responded: “If I don’t do a ‘special’ with your terms. Then it’s up. And u hate me and if I don’t get u 8k by Friday you’re coming to Toronto to beat me up,” the documents said.

$1.27M Profit

Awawdeh’s alleged co-conspirators are Timothy McCormack, Mahmud Mollah, and Long “Bruce” Phi Pham. They were arrested last week, the latter at the airport as he attempted to flee to Australia. All four face wire fraud charges.

Around eight bets were placed with DraftKings and FanDuel, online and in-person at an unnamed Atlantic City casino.

The flurry of big winning bets on such a small aspect of the second game was a red flag for match-fixing. At least one betting account was immediately suspended and the operators reported their concerns to the NBA, for whom they are both official betting partners.

‘In Over Head’

On April 4, the day he received the NBA ban, Porter told the group via Telegram that they “might just get hit w a rico” – a reference to federal anti-racketeering charges. He also told them to delete their cell phone records.

On Friday, Porter’s lawyer told the Associated Press his client was a good kid who got “in over his head” because of his gambling addiction.

Jontay is a good young man with strong faith that will get him through this. He was in over his head due to a gambling addiction. He is undergoing treatment and has been fully cooperative with law enforcement,” Jensen said.

It’s not clear whether Porter will face criminal charges.

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On Tuesday, Long Phi Pham, 38, was charged with conspiring to defraud a sports betting company through wagers, according to Reuters.

Pham and others are alleged to have made more than $1 million by betting the “under” on Porter’s performances for the Toronto Raptors while party to insider information.

Porter was a power forward for the Raptors until he was banned from the NBA for life in April. He’s the first player to be kicked out of the league for gambling since Jack Molinas, a key figure in one of basketball’s most notorious points-shaving scandals, in 1954.

Sportsbooks Tipoff

The NBA began its investigation in March after receiving notice from sportsbooks of suspicious betting patterns surrounding two games featuring Porter. These were a January 26 loss to the LA Clippers and a March 20 game against the Sacramento Kings, again a loss for the Raptors.

Porter exited early in both games. He played four minutes of the Clippers game after a reoccurrence of an existing eye injury, and just three minutes of the Kings game after complaining of feeling ill.

Federal prosecutors allege that Porter owed the co-conspirators large gambling debts and agreed to the scheme as a means of paying them off.

‘Hit with a RICO’

In a Telegram chat group on April 4, the day he received the NBA ban, Porter told Pham and others that they “might just get hit w a rico” – a reference to federal anti-racketeering charges. He told them to delete their cell phone records.

The NBA investigation found Porter had also placed at least 13 bets on games using a friend’s sportsbook account. These included at least one bet on the Raptors to lose.

Pham was carrying $12K in cash, $80K in cashier’s checks, betting slips, and three cell phones when he was arrested at JFK. He faces federal wire fraud charges that come with up to 20 years in prison.

US Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak ordered Pham detained at a hearing Tuesday.

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The Charity Commission confirmed to The i newspaper that it had begun a “regulatory compliance case” into the organization’s methods. That’s after it received a complaint claiming the organization is too aligned with the interests of its paymaster, the gambling industry.

The charity is funded by the industry in the form of voluntary donations. It received ￡46.5 million (US$59 million) from operators in the 2022-23 financial year, according to official records.

The complaint was filed by anti-gambling activists and the Good Law Society, a nonprofit group that aims to use litigation to “create a better world.”

The filing claims that GambleAware’s “reliance on industry funding” means that “all of its activities are based on an acceptance of the industry’s framing of gambling.”

This reliance has led to a “complete?failure to engage with alternative analyses which are critical of industry practices,” it alleges.

Don’t Demonize Industry

The complaint cites an example where a lesson plan created for “Year 10 students” (9th graders in the US) to raise awareness of gambling issues included a note to teachers that “this lesson is not to demonize the gambling industry.”

“[Gambling operators] are promoting their trade just like any other potentially risky pastime might, fully sanctioned by law,” it continued, according to the complaint.

One exercise in the lesson required students to comment on a conversation between two characters, “George” and “Ira.”

The complaint also criticizes GambleAware’s emphasis on “gambling responsibly,” as opposed to quitting gambling altogether.

“You’ve got this ‘responsible’ model, where if things go wrong and if you do become addicted, it’s somehow your fault because the messaging is out there and you should have been responsible, which is complete nonsense because an?addiction?doesn’t work like that,” one of the complainants, Annie Ashton, whose husband died of gambling-related suicide, told The i.

‘Baseless Claim’

GambleAware CEO Zo? Osmond described the complaint as “baseless,” “highly damaging,” and predicated “on misleading and outdated information.”

“The treatment and support we commission, which includes the National Gambling Support Network and National Gambling Helpline, represents one of the few lines of defense available to the millions impacted by gambling harms each year,” she said.

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Roney Beal, 72, claims she won a $1.2 million jackpot while playing the Bally’s Wheel of Fortune slot. But when she called slot supervisors to alert them to her win, she was informed the terminal had malfunctioned. And as the small print on most slot machines says: “Malfunction voids all pays and plays.”

Now Beal is preparing to sue Bally’s for the jackpot she believes is rightfully hers.

“It went off, says, ‘you’re a winner’ and gold coins popped out,” she told 6 ABC Philadelphia. “This very nice guy says, ‘Oh my God, you hit, you hit!’ He said, ‘Lady you’re a millionaire.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my God!'”

‘Reel Tilt’

Casino staff informed her that the machine had experienced a problem and was flashing a sign for “reel tilt,” which voided the win.

“When the man came over to talk to me, he said, ‘Lady, get it in your head; you won nothing’,” Beal claimed. She was later offered $350 as a goodwill gesture.

“Bally’s has no comment on this incident as we’re only the casino who houses the machine,” a Bally’s spokesperson told The New York Post. “[Casino tech supplier] IGT handles the payouts and would be best to get a comment from [IGT] at this time.”

IGT said it was “cooperating with the investigation of this matter.”

Winner, Winner, Steak Dinner

In 2016, Katrina Bookman, a single mother of four from Queens, New York, was playing an IGT slot at Resorts World New York City that offered a maximum payout of $6,500. So, when she hit a $42,949,672.76 jackpot, casino staff suspected a glitch.

Instead of $42 million, Bookman ultimately received the $2.25 win that the machine should have displayed and a free steak dinner.

The case dragged on for six years, but a Louisiana jury and the state appeals court ultimately sided with the two players after IGT failed to prove beyond all doubt that a malfunction had occurred.

The post Bally’s Atlantic City Won’t Pay Disputed $1.2M Wheel of Fortune Jackpot appeared first on Casino.org.

David Fletcher, who like Ohtani, used to play for the Los Angeles Angels, placed bets with California-based bookmaker Mathew Bowyer, ESPN reported on Friday.

Fletcher bet on various sporting events but not on baseball, the report revealed.

Fletcher and Ohtani were described by sources as close friends, the report revealed. Both played for the Angels between 2018 and 2023.

Fletcher is currently playing for the Atlanta Braves’ Triple-A affiliate Gwinnett Stripers.

In 2021, Fletcher, an infielder, was given a $26M, five-year contract extension by the Angels. But in December he was traded to the Braves.

Colby Schultz Bets

It also was reported that Colby Schultz, who has played for a minor league team affiliated with the Kansas City Royals, wagered on Angels games and other sporting events via Bowyer.

Schultz had played as a shortstop, leftfielder, and second baseman.

Schultz and Fletcher were close friends, ESPN reported.

MLB players can’t make wagers on pro baseball games under league rules. Pro baseball players and MLB employees can make wagers on non-baseball sporting events. But they can’t place these wagers via illegal bookies, ESPN reported.

Mizuhara Scandal

A scandal recently unfolded after Ohtani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, became heavily in debt and stole about $16M from Ohtani to cover gambling losses, authorities said. Mizuhara has pled not guilty in a California criminal case but is reportedly planning to agree to a plea deal in connection with the theft.

He faces up to 33 years in prison if he’s convicted, according to ESPN.?Mizuhara was charged with single counts of bank fraud and submitting a false tax return.

In total, Mizuhara racked up gambling debts estimated at $40.7M. He was fired by the Dodgers after the theft was revealed.

Ohtani was never accused of wrongdoing, but was seen as the victim of a crime.

Money from Mizuhara made its way into accounts both at Resorts World Las Vegas and Pechanga Resort Casino, a tribal gaming property in Southern California.

Mizhuhara was never a customer at Resorts World Las Vegas, according to an internal casino memo. However, Bowyer was a frequent guest of Resorts World Las Vegas and is rumored to have lost almost $8M at the integrated resort between June 2022 and October 2023.

Bowyer hasn’t been charged with a crime, but he’s being investigated by federal officials, according to NBC News.

Mizuhara initially met Bowyer at a 2021 poker game in San Diego where Fletcher was also present, ESPN reported.

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While police did not identify the players or the team involved, Australian media has named three players for McCarthur FC, a team based in southwestern Sydney.

They are 33-year-old team captain Ulises Dávila, a Mexican national, 27-year-old Clayton Lewis, a New Zealand native, and 32-year-old Kearyn Baccus, who is South African. All three have played for their respective countries at some level.

Organized Crime

New South Wales’ Organized Crime Squad Gaming Unit began investigating the players in December 2023 after receiving a tip off from the UK Gambling Commission. Investigators said Friday they discovered a “senior player” was being paid by a South American gambling syndicate to organize yellow cards to occur during games.

This player was in contact with a “controller” – an organized crime figure based in South America.

The 1-1 draw that played out between Macarthur and Melbourne Victory on November 24 was one of the games that allegedly was manipulated. Macarthur received two yellow cards in that game, one of which was shown to Dávila.

Another, played two weeks later against Sydney FC, saw four yellows for Macarthur players, including Dávila, Lewis, and Baccus.

Police alleged the group attempted to fix the number of yellows in two more games but were unsuccessful.

“In relation to one of the matches, there’s multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars being paid out [in gambling winnings],” Det Supt Peter Faux.

A-League Turmoil

Macarthur FC said in a short statement on Friday that it was “shocked” by the developments.

“Integrity of our game is a foundation pillar and we will work closely with all relevant agencies on this matter,” the club added.

Police charged a 33-year-old man Friday with two counts of engaging in conduct that corrupts a betting outcome of an event, and two counts of engaging in conduct that corrupts a betting outcome of an event. A 32-year-old and 27-year-old were charged with engaging in conduct that corrupts a betting outcome of an event.

The 33-year-old is due to appear in court June 24.

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Frank Sinatra was certainly a driving force in the progress toward equality in Las Vegas. But contrary to a popular myth, the singer didn’t end the shameful legacy of segregation on the Strip. It took political action to do that.

Around 1955, Sinatra refused to perform with the Rat Pack at the Sands unless the casino hotel allowed group member Sammy Davis Jr. to also stay there. In response, Davis was given his own suite.

At about the same time, Sinatra noticed that another of his friends, Nat King Cole, always ate by himself in the Sands’ dressing room, never with the other performers in the main dining room. When he was told why, Sinatra invited Cole to dine with him the following evening, making the “Unforgettable” singer the first person of color ever to eat in the Sands’ Garden Room.

Dozens of books and articles about Sinatra have repeated these two stories. They may be apocryphal, but let’s give Sinatra the benefit of the doubt. He was a white megastar who promoted civil rights at a time when few whites, especially rich and famous ones, acknowledged the plight of people of color.

Sinatra and the Rat Pack headlined a 1961 benefit at New York’s Carnegie Hall for Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and he frequently addressed the evils of segregation during his concerts.

“As long as most white men think of a Negro first and a man second, we’re in trouble,” Sinatra wrote in an essay in the July 1958 edition of Ebony magazine. “I don’t know why we can’t grow up.”

The Injustice

Before 1960, people of color couldn’t stay, gamble, or dine in any Las Vegas casino hotels. This was true even of greatly admired Black headliners like Davis and Cole. They had to slip in through stage and kitchen doors to perform and leave the same way after taking their bows.

African-American Las Vegas tourists had to book rooms at boarding houses on the Westside, the historic Black community five miles northwest of the Strip. The most renowned was run by entrepreneur Genevieve Harrison, whose Harrison House is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Ol’ Blue Eyes bravely stood up against these policies. But did he really put an end to them?

Sinatra seemed to think so.

“It changed, it absolutely all changed,” he said in an interview conducted near the end of his life and included as a bonus track on a 2006 box set. “I did make some demands on some people and said, ‘Listen, if they all have to live on the other side of town, then you don’t need me, you just don’t need me.’ And I think a few other entertainers began to pick up on that, too, and they hollered, too.

“But I guess I was the biggest mouth in the town.”

What Sinatra was unaware of was the extent to which he was patronized by casino managers of the day. Because of his great fame and power, and his famously bad temper, he was habitually placated. Whatever he hollered for during his tirades was almost always granted … while he was around.

Whenever Sinatra, or other headline performers with the clout to demand integration, weren’t around, the old policies almost always returned.

At the time, Las Vegas catered to so many wealthy bigots from the Jim Crow South, it was referred to as the “Mississippi of the West” by Sarann Knight-Preddy, who in 1950 became Nevada’s first casino owner of color (not in Las Vegas but in rural Hawthorne, Nev.)

Though Las Vegas casino owners may not have shared the backwards views of many of their customers, they thought it bad for business to risk offending their sensibilities.

What Really? Desegregated Vegas

On March 26, 1960, casino representatives and government leaders met with James B. McMillan, president of the NAACP’s Las Vegas chapter, in the coffee shop of the shuttered Moulin Rouge casino hotel to hash out an end to segregation on the Strip.

McMillian chose this location because the Moulin Rouge opened in May 1955 as the first desegregated casino hotel in Las Vegas. Though it wasn’t on the Strip and closed only six months later, the Moulin Rouge was the first casino where people of color could gamble or work front-of-house jobs.

At this historic summit, which became known as the Moulin Rouge Agreement, the casino reps reluctantly agreed to allow African-Americans to patronize their establishments and hold public-facing positions in them. This landmark decision eventually led to bans on real estate redlining and discrimination in all employment and business licensing.

And what convinced the casinos to cave?

Fear, plain and simple. The Moulin Rouge Agreement occurred one day before a giant civil rights march McMillan had scheduled on the Strip to protest segregation there.

And that would have been bad for business.

“The black community fought for and won the basic human right of using public accommodations, not an entertainer who was able to get his friend a room for a few nights,” Claytee White, director of the Oral Research Center at UNLV, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2015.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on Casino.org. Visit VegasMythsBusted.com?to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email [email protected].

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Ryan Boyajian, who appears in the show as the fiancé of “RHOC” star Jennifer Pedranti, is allegedly the mystery figure to whom Mizuhara wired millions of dollars to pay his gambling debts from Ohtani’s account.

Boyajian was simply referred to as “Associate 1” in a federal criminal complaint against Mizuhara that accuses him of stealing at least $17 million from Ohtani.

Mizuhara Takes Plea Deal

On Wednesday, Mizuhara agreed to plead guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of subscribing to a false tax return. The interpreter has admitted wiring “at least $15 million” to an account in Boyajian’s name, per court documents. The reality star received the money on behalf of California-based illegal bookmaker Matthew Bowyer, who is referred to as “Bookmaker 1” in the complaint.

Boyajian would then forward the money to marker accounts at Resorts World and California’s Pechanga Casino. The men withdrew the funds in chips, gambled with them, and cashed out what was left.

Bowyer lost $7.9 million gambling at Resorts World from June 2022 to October 2023, according to ABC News sources.

The bookie was the target of a wider investigation by federal agents in Southern California into illegal sports betting and the possible washing of profits at Las Vegas casinos.

Another target was Wayne Nix, a former minor league baseball player who provided illegal bookmaking services for pro players of several sports.

Sibella Sentenced

On Wednesday, former Resorts World and MGM Grand president Scott Sibella was sentenced to one year’s probation and a $9,500 fine for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money laundering statute. Sibella failed to write out a suspicious transaction report when Nix paid a marker at the MGM Grand with $120K in cash. He also allowed the bookie to gamble despite knowing the source of his funds came from illegal bookmaking.

Nix is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to federal tax and gambling charges. Bowyer is yet to be charged with any crime.

“He is not a bookmaker or a sub-bookie,” Katzman added.

Mizuhara faces up to 30 years in prison, despite his plea deal.

The post ‘Real Housewives’ Star Ryan Boyajian Implicated in Shohei Ohtani Gambling Scandal appeared first on Casino.org.

UEFA’s appointment of Felix Zwayer has raised questions about the referee’s suitability to take charge of such a high-profile game. Zwayer was banned from soccer for six months as a result of the scandal, which erupted in his native Germany, back in 2005.

In January of that year, Zwayer’s fellow referee Robert Hoyzer confessed to fixing and betting on games. Hoyzer, who mainly oversaw matches in Germany’s second tier, admitted he had accepted bribes to manipulate games from a gambling syndicate with links to organized crime.

Phantom Penalties

When Hamburg traveled to non-league Paderborn in August 2004 in the first round of the German Cup, few expected anything but a victory for the Bundesliga team. But when Hoyzer awarded the underdog two phantom penalties and sent off Hamburg’s Belgian forward Emile Mpenza, the game would end up a 4-2 win for the home team.

Despite being among the group of referees that reported its suspicions about Hoyzer, Zwayer was also implicated. According to the subsequent investigation by the DFB, Zwayer accepted €300 from Hoyzer before a game between SV Wuppertal and Werder Bremen in May 2004. Zwayer was a linesman in the game, which Hoyzer was refereeing.

The payoff was for Zwayer to “avoid critical situations for Wuppertaler SV as an assistant referee,” according to the DFB.

Swept Under Carpet

However, the sporting body could find no evidence that Zwayer had directly manipulated the game and acknowledged his contribution to the investigation of the case. He received a six-month ban from soccer.

Hoyzer was banned for life from having anything to do with the sport and was handed a prison sentence of two years and five months.

The allegation flared up again in 2021 when English midfielder Jude Bellingham, then playing for Borussia Dortmund, criticized Zwayer’s performance after a game between his team and Bayern Munich.

“If you give a referee, who has, you know, match-fixed before, the biggest game in Germany, what do you expect?” Bellingham asked.

The player was fined €40K by the DFB for the remark.

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The “Crazy Girls” statue was the most photographed statue in Las Vegas. It was rubbed for good luck so often, its subjects’ exposed bottoms were buffed to a high sheen.

And, like most icons of Las Vegas, the statue came with its own myth for us to bust.

“The performers for Crazy Girls, including transgender showgirl Jahna Steele, are immortalized with a bronze sculpture,” reads one stock photography website.

Before we continue, a hat tip to Vital Vegas blogger Scott Roeben, who did an excellent job of busting this myth in 2021. Alas, it lives on. As Mark Twain once said, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”

That’s also a myth, by the way. He never said that. And his real name was Samuel Clemens.

A Crazy Story

“Crazy Girls” opened in 1987 at the Riviera, where it played for 28 years. In the beginning, singer/dancer Steele was its breakout star. In a 1991 newspaper contest, she was voted Las Vegas’ “Sexiest Showgirl on the Strip” by readers who had no idea she was born John Matheny.

In her early 20s, Steele had gender reassignment surgery in her hometown of San Antonio, Texas. In 1992, that was a much bigger deal than it would be today. So, when the tabloid TV show “A Current Affair” discovered Steele’s secret and broadcast it to America, it became a national scandal.

“She was a super nice, sweet person,” her former castmate, Angela Sampras-Stabile, told Casino.org. “Full of life and really talented as well.”

Nevertheless, “Crazy Girls” producer Norbert Aleman caved to the homophobic fallout from fans of what The Advocate labeled at the time the “uber-straight” show.

He fired her.

Butt No, She’s Not in the Statue

The idea for the statue began with a photo shoot for an ad campaign that took place in 1994, two years after Steele got canned.

During the shoot, with photographer Greg Rider, dancers Sampras-Stabile and Shellee Renee suggested that they turn their backsides to face the camera.

“No Ifs, Ands or …,” read the ad copy written below the photo on billboards and atop taxis.

But couldn’t the statue have been based on an old photo that did include Steele?

Bonus Busting

No, because the statue — completed by New Mexico artist Michael Conine to commemorate the show’s 10th anniversary — wasn’t sculpted using the photo as a reference. In fact, it wasn’t sculpted at all. It was made using body molds.

“They put baby oil all over us, then cotton, then whatever the mold was made out of,” Sampras-Stabile told us. “We had to stand completely still until it dried. One of the girls actually fainted and broke the mold, and we had to start all over.”

The End

Though Planet Hollywood saved the show, and the statue, from the oblivion awaiting the Riviera, the reprieve was only temporary.

Six years later, the casino resort’s owner decided to shutter the show and place the “Crazy Girls” statue in indefinite storage, where it remains today.

Caesars Entertainment told Casino.org that it has no current plans to display it again.

By the way, if you don’t know what became of Jahna Steele and you’re not in the mood to be sad, stop reading now.

Stung by her dismissal and lack of subsequent opportunities as a showgirl, Steele returned to school, taking computer classes and getting certified in nonprofit management. She worked for a while for United Blood Services, but missed the allure of show business.

In 2004, Steele returned to the Riviera to host the World’s Most Beautiful Transsexual Contest, in which 35 contestants competed. That earned her a starring role in a Showtime documentary about the pageant, “Trantasia.”

In 2008, Steele began hosting Aleman’s “An Evening at La Cage” drag show at the Riviera, after its former host, Frank Marino, struck out on his own with “Divas Las Vegas” at the Imperial Palace.

That same year, Steele died at age 49. According to the Clark County Coroner’s office, it was an “accidental overdose of drugs, including cocaine and morphine.”

“I don’t think she was done with life,” Marino told The Advocate at the time. “I think she was done with the pain of life.”

We warned you to stop reading.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Friday on?Casino.org.?Click here?to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email [email protected].

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