The pre-Christmas bust of a New York-based, Mafia-run illegal online sports betting ring reportedly has celebrities fearing their illegal gambling activity will be made public.

In mid-December, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the arrest of 13 individuals for their involvement in an illegal credit betting operation linked to 4Spades.org, a Costa Rica-based password-protected betting site. The indictment alleged that the operation had ties to figures in the Genovese organized crime family.

On Monday, Radar Online reported that a number of high-profile celebrities were among the individuals whose voices were caught on wiretapped conversations with Vincent “Vinny” Taliercio, a long-time Brooklyn bookie accused of handling betting money collection and distribution for the 4Spades group.

Among the familiar names that Radar’s source claims may be among the ring’s clients include actors Tony Danza, Paul ‘Goodfellas’ Sorvino and James Caan. Radar’s source claimed Caan, who played Sonny Corleone in the original Godfather movie, was “a big gambler – he bets on anything. He’ll even bet on which elevator doors open first.”

Russia will introduce legislation this week that would compel banks and payment processors to block transactions with international online gambling sites.

On Sunday, Russian media outlet RBC.ru reported that the Ministry of Finance had crafted a new bill that aims to stop the flow of money – estimated at $3b per year – between Russian gamblers and international online gambling operators. The proposed legislation will be discussed at a government meeting on Thursday (16).

The bill would task the Federal Task Service (FTS) with creating a blacklist of both Russian and international companies and individuals involved in unauthorized online gambling activities. The list would be distributed to Russian financial institutions, which would be responsible for blocking transactions involving these blacklisted companies and individuals.

The bill was originally proposed by the Ministry of Finance in 2015, but the initial draft met with resistance from some other government ministries, as well as from some major Russian financial institutions, which were concerned about bearing the cost of monitoring for unauthorized gambling payments. The other government ministries are reportedly now on board with the revised legislation, the specifics of which have yet to be made public.

Will the Philippines see more dead bodies of illegal gambling protectors soon?

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has warned politicians protecting illegal gambling operators that he will use his iron fist to get rid of government officials who are found to be protecting illegal gambling operators.

His warning comes after his war on illegal drugs takes a backseat amid the controversy over rogue cops’ involvement in the kidnap-slay of a South Korean businessman and a spate of unexplained murders of drug users.

The Philippine Star reported that Duterte is now focusing on the politicians’ involvement in the proliferation of illegal gambling in the country, with Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar that the government will be relentless in stamping out the unlawful activity.

Will the Philippines see more dead bodies of illegal gambling protectors soon?

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has warned politicians protecting illegal gambling operators that he will use his iron fist to get rid of government officials who are found to be protecting illegal gambling operators.

His warning comes after his war on illegal drugs takes a backseat amid the controversy over rogue cops’ involvement in the kidnap-slay of a South Korean businessman and a spate of unexplained murders of drug users.

The Philippine Star reported that Duterte is now focusing on the politicians’ involvement in the proliferation of illegal gambling in the country, with Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar that the government will be relentless in stamping out the unlawful activity.

International credit-debt watcher Fitch Ratings is managing its expectation on Macau gaming industry, despite the signs of life that the former Portuguese enclave shows in the past few months.

Fitch analysts Alex Bumazhny, Colin Mansfield, and Vicky Melbourne predict in its recent report that Macau will see a turnaround in terms of it gross gaming revenues after experiencing a lackluster 2016.

They said that Macau’s growth will be fueled by the continued recovery of its VIP player and premium mass segments, the stabilization in China’s economic growth, and the opening of new casino resorts.

The US$4.2 billion Wynn Palace on the Cotai Strip and the US$3 billion The Parisian Macau provided the needed boost for Macau’s GGR last year, ending more than 20 consecutive months of gambling slump.

At least four hedge funds in the United States and Japan have reportedly started buying claims from the more than 24,000 creditors who lost their bitcoins and cash when bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox collapsed in 2014.

In May 2016, court-approved trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi announced that they have verified a total of 24,750 Mt. Gox investors. These creditors are expected to receive more than a quarter of the lost bitcoins and cash in their accounts, which totals to JPY263.52 trillion (USD2.41 million), Kobayashi said at the time.

Now, sources told the Financial Times that the hedge funds have begun buying or offering to buy claims” from the said investors. According to the report, the hedge funds “are offering claimholders a shortcut that lets them sell their claim now and receive 15 percent of the yen value of each claim in cash.”

A website called mygoxclaim.com offers to link verified creditors, particularly those with more than USD10,000 claims in value, with hedge funds potentially interested in buying their claims.

The state government of Goa has reportedly taken a leaf out of Macau’s playbook and redrafted some of its casino laws, which it now wants the advocate general to examine.

Goa officials are seeking the legal opinion of Advocate General Saresh Lotlikar on the draft gaming rules before they are “brought into force,” the Times of India reported.

If approved, the rules will ban Goa residents from entering casinos in the state “except for employment.”

Reports emerged late last year that the state home department recalled the draft gaming rules file from the law department to be redrafted based on the casino rules used in Macau. The file, according to several news outlets, were recalled after the home department discovered that several terms in the Goa Public Gambling (Amendment) Act, 1976, were not defined, including terms such as area, casino, electronic gaming, live gaming, offshore, offshore casino, onshore casino and passenger capacity.