Monthly Archives: July 2015

BetOnSports founder Gary Kaplan loses appeal of $36m back tax judgment

The former owner of defunct online gambling site BetOnSports has lost his bid to reduce his $36m tax bill.

On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit US Court of Appeals rejected Gary Kaplan’s bid to overturn a a $36m back tax and penalties judgment levied against him. BetOnSports shut down in 2006 shortly after CEO David Carruthers was arrested in a Dallas airport during a stopover on his way to Costa Rica, which marked the opening salvo in the US Department of Justice’s crackdown on US-facing online gambling operators.

In 2009, BetOnSports founder Kaplan (pictured) reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors that gave him 51 months in prison and required him to forfeit nearly $44m in ill-gotten gains. In 2012, the Internal Revenue Service subsequently ordered Kaplan to pay an additional $25m in taxes and penalties on his 2004 online gambling earnings and a further $11m for 2005. Kaplan appealed, arguing (amongst other things) that the six-year statute of limitations had invalidated the IRS’ claims against him.

Kaplan took BetOnSports public on the London Stock Exchange in July 2004. Prior to this, Kaplan engaged in several transactions and stock transfers that netted Kaplan and his family members some $98m. This money was placed in two trusts, for which Kaplan was the sole grantor and thus responsible for the taxable income of the trusts. Needless to say, Kaplan paid the IRS bupkis.

Could more funding be squeezed out of the lottery?

As tuition rises and pressures continue on the HOPE Scholarship and Grant and the need for additional Pre-K slots continues to increase, the conversation usually gets around to discussing the funding being produced by the state lottery. The Senate Budget and Evaluation Office has reviewed the legislation setting up the lottery and compared Georgia’s lottery to other successful lotteries around the country.

Casino Gran Madrid Closes Online Poker Operations as Spanish Market Begins to Crumble

Casino Gran Madrid will shut down its poker portal, the third largest in the Spanish market, on July 31, citing an inability to “provide an attractive product in a hostile environment.” While the site, a skin of the iPoker network, lingers some way behind PokerStars.es and 888.es in the liquidity rankings, it still attracts a […]

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Victorian punters lose $2.7b on pokies, to set own gambling limits

By the end of the year, all electronic gaming machines in the Australian state of Victoria will be required to offer gamblers the option to set a pre-determined gambling limit.

New data from the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation has shown that Victorian punters have blown more than $2.57b on pokies in the last financial year, a 2.7% year-on-year increase.

The losses have renewed calls for more to be done to reduce the harm of pokies, including limiting bets to $1 per spin for the state’s 30,000 poker machines.

Areas with the highest losses are among the state’s most disadvantaged, such as Dandenong region, with its 11.2% unemployment rate, lost $19.7m. The Brimbank Council area, with an unemployment rate of 9.29%, had the greatest losses overall at more than $139m.

Ameristar and River City Are Looking to Hire 200 Friendly People Who…

WHAT: Ameristar Casino Resort Spa St. Charles and River City Casino & Hotel, named among the top large workplaces of 2015 by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, will be hiring 200 team members, including full-time and part-time hourly and full-time management positions. Positions are available within casino operations, finance, food and beverage, hotel operations, security, warehouse and purchasing.

Winamax, Betsafe and Sportium boost football sponsorship presence

Someone really should stage an intervention, because French online poker operator Winamax is clearly struggling with a football sponsorship addiction.

Winamax just announced a new football betting partnership with Ligue 1 footballers FC Nantes. The one-year deal will allow Winamax branding exposure inside the club’s Stade de la Beajoire home turf and will offer Nantes supporters various unique offers over the 2015-16 season, including chances to meet FC Nantes players during a live poker tournament at the stadium.

This marks the third Ligue 1 deal Winamax has announced in the past month, joining deals with OGC Nice and Olympique de Marseille. Both of those deals allowed Winamax’s logo to appear on the teams’ shorts, but apparently FC Nantes’ shorts proved a bulge too far.

Moving eastward, Stockholm-listed gaming operator Betsson has extended its betting partnership with German Bundesliga club FC Köln for another two years. The upgraded premium partnership is being done through Betsson’s online gaming brand Betsafe, which has had a relationship with the team since the 2013-14 season.

SafeCharge gears up for gamescom 2015

SafeCharge (AIM: SCH), a leader in advanced payment technologies, today announced that it is exhibiting at this year’s gamescom exhibition in Cologne from 5th– 7th August 2015. gamescom is the largest trade fair worldwide for interactive gaming with more than a third of a million visitors expected to this year’s event.

SafeCharge will be showcasing its advanced payments solutions for online games merchants including its award-winning Cashier Solution, specifically designed for conversion improvement and optimising the payments funnel across all platforms and devices. Some unique features that support increased conversions and reduced abandonment rates include localisation, selection of alternative payment methods and the conversion recovery tool. A demo of the Cashier solution can be viewed at the Company’s stand. SafeCharge’s award-winning risk management system enables online games merchants to learn more about the company’s Rules Engine, Dynamic 3D Secure feature and other fraud prevention tools.

To learn more about SafeCharge’s solutions, meet the team at stand C020 in Hall 2 or schedule a meeting in advance at [email protected]

For more information:

Bat Family Hit Slot Increases Mobile, Tablet and Desktop Distribution via Odobo

Gibraltar, 29 July 2015 – The hit slot game, Bat Family by Fuga Gaming Technologies, is now available for the first time on mobile via Odobo. The game has been built with a mobile-first approach in HTML5 to service mobile, tablet and desktop play.

The game is well-known in the land-based Italian market having been released in 2011 where it remains a favourite with casino guests. It was subsequently released in the USA and Mexico to similar acclaim and has proven to be an enduring title. More recently, it was launched as a free-to-play title on Google Play (2014) where it has amassed more than 26,000 downloads as a stand-alone game and a rating of four out of five.The Bat Family slot game invites players to spend the night in the mysterious old haunted castle. Inside lives a hospitable family of vampires: the wise father, the elegant son and the glamorous daughter. The game itself is a classic 5-reel, 30-line video slot game, styled as a humorous homage to the old naïve vampire movies and Addams family franchise. It features top-quality 3D-graphics for every pay table symbol and the game’s main characters. The huge variety of payouts in both the base and bonus game modes make for engaging gameplay that has driven the game’s success.The mechanics of bonuses are unique and intricate. Free spins won via the joker symbol and random multipliers can be retriggered up to 99 times making for huge potential payouts. There’s an interactive Elixir bonus game that allows the player to open chests and caskets in the three levels of the castle vault and the player can continue to win until three bonus-ending garlics are gathered or the Super Prize is won. The Mystery Bonus (up to four times multiplier) can randomly trigger and at any time during base game to further increase the value of any payout.Glen Bullen, Partner Success Manager at Odobo, said, “Bat Family is a proven title with undeniable land-based success. It is now available to players online for real money and with as a high-quality mobile product. We’re grateful to Fuga for choosing Odobo to do this. Bat Family is a great addition to the Odobo Marketplace and is on for all devices and within the Odobo Play app for social casino play.”

Konstantin Mikhaylov, Commercial Director at Fuga Gaming Technologies, commented, “The Odobo Developer Program offers the right mix of support, modern tools, technology and cross compatibility. Joining with Odobo was an obvious choice for widening the distribution of the virtual version of the game and opening it up to players in new regulated markets.”

The game supports play on iOS, Windows and Android devices and is available to try for free in the Odobo Play app or online at :http://odo.bo/p/bat-family

Beteagle.com operator with mob ties heads to prison

Joseph Graziano, owner of Costa Rica-based Beteagle.com, is sentenced to 18 months in prison in connection with his part in an online sports betting operation allegedly run by members of a mob in New Jersey.

The owner of a website involved in an illegal sports betting conspiracy with mafia members is facing jail time.

Joseph Graziano was sentenced to 18 months in prison on July 28 after pleading guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced Tuesday.

According to court documents, the 78-year-old was the principal owner of Beteagle.com, a Costa Rica-based website used to facilitate online sports betting. But New Jersey prosecutors said the operation was actually headed by 83-year-old Joseph Lascala, an alleged “capo” and made member of the Genovese Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra operating in northern New Jersey.