Archive for May, 2007
by Simon Dexter Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
The FBI has been called in to investigate possible illegal gambling taking place in the increasingly popular Second Life virtual world.
Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by over 5 million people from around the world.
With online gambling banned for US residents, many have been getting around the rule by playing for Linden dollars in the virtual world.
However, no one is clear as to whether it still constitutes an illegal action to bet with virtual money and the makers are keen for the FBI to take a look around as they have nothing to hide.
Hundreds of casinos offering slot machines and blackjack are easily located in Second Life. Although it is difficult to estimate the total size of the gambling economy in Second Life, the three largest poker casinos are earning only small profits each per month.
The US government has arrested executives from offshore gambling websites in recent months and it is no coincidence that the upsurge in virtual casinos on Second Life came around this time.
The legal profession are not too sure how the situation will play out but some believe the owners of the game – Linden – may be infringing some laws by accepting payment. Linden dollars can be bought for real dollars.
“What they did was go after the processors, and made it a crime to process payments that relate to online gambling sites. Linden could potentially be held as the same sort of processor,” said Sean Kane, a lawyer at New York’s Drakeford & Kane
“If you’re buying money on the Lindex (a virtual currency exchange) and utilizing it for gambling purposes, Linden could have a much higher level of responsibility,” he added. “If they would be found in violation, that’s difficult to say, but I can see a much stronger case being made.”
Even if the law were clear Linden would have no way to monitor or prevent gambling in Second Life.
“It’s not always clear to us whether a 3-D simulation of a casino is the same thing as a casino, legally speaking, and it’s not clear to the law enforcement authorities we have asked,” a spokesman said.
by Simon Dexter Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
Despite this week’s rejection by the House of Lords of Manchester as it’s preferred casino site, the government intend to press on with their attempts to build a supercasino in Britain.
Unfortunately, they have also admitted there was no obvious way forward after the vote went narrowly against the government.
The culture secretary Tessa Jowell was adamant that her department would press ahead with the idea. However, the prime minister’s office gave another point of view.
“Ministers will want to reflect on where we are,” said an official.
“What nobody should be in any doubt about is the intention.”
The spokesman was quick to point out that the vote had been won in the Commons (by 24 votes), despite it being lost in the Lords (by three votes).
“In the Commons, the government won last night. That is the important thing,” he said.
Any further announcements about the matter have been put on hold until after the local elections on May 3.
The defeat is a major blow to Jowell, who had already had to make concessions on her original proposal which had included plans for up to 40 super casinos.
Following a public outcry, her plans were scaled down to 8 super casinos before being cut further to just the one mega casino.
The announcement last month that the site for the new mega casino was to be Manchester instead of the more likely sites of Blackpool or the Dome in London, was a major surprise.
Jowell gambled on the bill going through leaving MP’s and the Lords having to reject the idea of the 16 smaller casinos, if they also voted against Manchester as the choice for the mega casino.
Manchester MP Graham Stringer called on ministers to “stick to their guns” and overrule the unelected Lords.
“The Commons have decided that the large casino should come to Manchester and it is now a constitutional issue about how the Commons asserts its authority,” said Mr Stringer.
“What we can’t have is an unelected house trying to effectively reopen the debate on the Gambling Act.”
The Conservative leader in the Lords, Lord Strathclyde, believes the whole situation could have been avoided and suggested the bill should be returned to the Lords with amendments.
“The government could wholly have avoided this situation,” said Lord Strathclyde.
“It has ended in shambles and chaos almost entirely due to government failure.”
The vote comes as a shattering blow to Manchester, who had hoped the casino plan would have regenerated one of the poorest parts of the city.
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by Simon Dexter Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
One of the most famous casinos in Las Vegas has seen its last roulette spin, after the Stardust was demolished to make way for a .4 billion mega resort.
There was sadness as the bulldozers moved in on the 50-year-old complex raising it to the ground to make way for a modern purpose-built venue for gambling.
Hundreds turned up to say farewell to the casino, which had become an iconic venue popular with both tourists and locals.
The casino was the biggest ever to be totally removed from the strip in the history of Las Vegas.
The complex was hailed as being the first mass-appeal casino. It was the first to allow holiday makers to stay cheaply with their rooms and food subsidised by the casino.
Bob Boughner, chief executive of the holding company Echelon Resorts, admitted that while the Stardust was a favourite of the older generation, it was failing to attract the casino backpackers and the convention crowd.
The idea used to be to discount rooms and food to keep the punters coming in, however these days, more can be made from renting rooms and selling entertainment than from the casinos themselves.
“There was this implicit idea that invisible high rollers came in and funded everything, so that Mr. and Mrs. America could have a steak for and see Frank Sinatra for the price of a drink,” said David Schwartz from the Centre for Gaming Research.
“Now you can build a 7,000-room hotel and charge 0 a night for rooms. With slots being so big, it is all the people losing 0 per trip that are driving the growth.”
The Stardust was the inspiration behind the Martin Scorsese film Casino, due to its alleged connection to the mafia, while the near 200ft neon sign was familiar even to people who had never visited the strip.
The legendary Siegfried and Roy played there for almost twenty years but with attendances dwindling, in the face of stiff competition from rival casinos, the decision was made to call it a day at The Stardust.
A new venue called The Echelon is set to open in late 2011 with more than 4,000 hotel beds, a stage theatre, a concert arena, a huge shopping centre and more than one million square feet of gambling space.
by Simon Dexter Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
Police in the US are hunting the person who fired 40 shots into the recently erected sign for the Stillaguamish Indian Tribe’s Angel of the Winds Casino.
The bizarre incident is being treated seriously by the Tribal police who currently have no suspects for the crime which will cost ,000 to repair.
The sign, which is similar in height to the Angel of The North statue in Gateshead, cost nearly 0,000 to put in place.
He knew when to hold ‘em, he knew when to fold ‘em he knew how to walk away and knew when to run, now country and western star Kenny Rogers knows how to entertain ‘em after launching his own online casino.
The site, primarily for his fans, lets visitors gamble virtual money to win prizes. All the usual casino games are there including roulette, slot machines and, of course, poker.
“It’s amazing how many people are out there that love to play poker, but there are so few legal and safe places to play. That’s what makes us so special,” says Rogers.
Visitors who join Kenny’s club have the chance to win free flights and cruises. All members are also offered the chance to win a seat at this year’s World Series of Poker, a prize worth ,000.
You may soon be able to play your favourite casino games at 35,000 ft following the announcement that one of the leading online casinos is teaming up with the major provider of in-flight entertainment.
The new in-flight service will boast the full range of casino games including roulette, blackjack, slots, and will be available in real money and free play on all the major airlines served by the in-flight entertainment company.
From planes to boat as a casino ship smashed into a fishing boat in South Carolina. Coastguards have reported that the ship – Diamond Girl 2 - hit the fishing boat in the early hours of Saturday morning. No one was on the fishing boat at the time of the collision.
The damage has been estimated at 0,000 in terms of fixing the boat and in work lost while it is out of action. Owners of the Casino ship have yet to comment on the incident which happened in Horror Bay area.
by Simon Dexter Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
A US casino is selling the pope mobile it bought on eBay for 0,000 with all the proceeds going to a UK-based charity.
The car belonged to the new Pope Benedict but was sold to raise money for charity to the casino last year but has now been put up on eBay with a starting bid of just 99 cents.
The casino hopes to raise over 0,000 with the sale.
The ebay advert reads: The car has not been driven since it was bought in 2005.
It is a Grey left hand drive Volkswagen Golf, 1999 Sedan, 5 doors manual transmission with only 75000 KM on it.
Safety features include: Anti-Lock Brakes, Passenger Airbag, Driver Airbag, Back seat safety belts, Side Airbags, Safety Belt Pretension, Immobilizer.
Options include: Alarm, Power Windows, Tilt Steering Wheel, Catalytic Converter, Air Conditioning, Climate Control, Alloy Wheels, Cassette Player, Power Locks.
Thank you for looking at this auction. As with many of the GoldenPalace.com campaigns, raising funds and awareness for worthy charities is of great importance. To date, more than million has been raised for various causes worldwide.
Anyone on the site is allowed to ask the seller a question. This is the first on the list.
Just a few technical questions…Does the POPE MOBILE have:
1. Auto Pilot or Pontius Pilot.?
2. License Plates or Collection Plates?
3. Bucket Seats or Pews?
4. Air Bags or are you In God’s Hands?
5. Horn or Bells?
6. Is this a one of a kind car or was this car mass produced?
The casino based in the US has become famous for winning online auctions.
In 2005 Golden Palace paid ,000 for the ball which David Beckham blasted over the bar for England in Euro 2004 against Portugal. Later that year they paid 0,000 for the naming rights of a recently discovered species of monkey – renaming it Callicebus aureipalatii. Next, the casino paid an ebayer ,000 to change her name to “goldenpalace.com”.
by Simon Dexter Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
The owner of a Tennessee diner has been charged with being in possession of a gambling device after hiding video poker machines inside space invaders cabinets.
The four machines looked like legitimate arcade games but at a push of a remote control button they changed into video poker machines, netting the owner thousands of dollars in revenue.
The state of Tennessee has a strict anti-gambling policy but it was many months before the police became aware of the goings on at the remote diner.
Acting on information received, officers went to the property at Speedway Diner and seized four gambling machines.
“We’d been receiving complaints from the community over there about the problem,” Sevier County Captain, Randy Parton, said.
“They were encountering quite a bit of a crowd playing those things.”
by Simon Dexter Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
Leading casino experts in the US listened to a former casino fraudster in a bid to stamp out cheating from their roulette and blackjack tables.
Richard Marcus, who claims to have cheated casinos out of over million up to 2001, held an audience of casino managers and security experts captive with examples of how they were being defrauded.
Using techniques employed by himself, he showed how he would defraud casinos using methods including manipulating chip stacks and preying on inexperienced dealers.
Marcus, who retired from the fraud business after accumulating his ill-gotten gains, has recently published a book outlining his fraud strategies.
“I looked at what I did as an art,” said Marcus, who said his teams took casinos around the world for million. “Let’s face it, who’s going to feel sorry for a casino?”
by Simon Dexter Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
Four casino employees in Atlantic City have been suspended from work and fined for ogling female clients using CCTV.
Instead of using the hi-tech security equipment to keep an eye of possible fraud at the million dollar resort, the quartet were using the specially-designed cameras to focus on more ‘interesting’ matters.
Video evidence showed the camera operators zooming in on low-cut dresses and short skirts rather than monitoring what was happening around the roulette and craps table.
The embarrassed casino was forced to pay 0,000 compensation in settlement charges arising from the case.
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