Philippine police have arrested five Chinese nationals who tortured a Chinese man in order to force his relatives back home to honor the man’s gambling debts.

On Wednesday, ABS-CBN News reported that the Philippine National Police Anti-Kidnapping Group (PNP-AKG) had arrested the five Chinese on Monday after a sting operation disguised as a ransom payoff.

Police said Chinese national Si Yuxiang was illegally detained by the five on Friday when he couldn’t make good on debts he’d incurred gambling at an unspecified casino. However, the sting operation in which the undercover cops met with the kidnappers occurred at the Solaire Resort & Casino in Manila’s Entertainment City gaming zone.

Si and two of the gang’s other victims were taken to a safe house in the province of Laguna, the site of Si’s torture. The precise mechanism of Si’s abuse went unreported, but police noted that they’d found a taser at the safe house, along with guns and handcuffs.

The founder of daily fantasy sports giant FanDuel is suing his former company’s board of directors for failing to realize that the not-sports-betting company was in the sports betting business.

On Tuesday, tech media site Recode broke the news that FanDuel co-founder Nigel Eccles (pictured) had filed a lawsuit in Scottish civil court claiming that he, his wife Lesley and two other co-founders were owed up to $120m as a result of the company’s acquisition in May by UK-listed gaming operator Paddy Power Betfair.

In July, word leaked that Eccles and the other co-founders had received bupkis via the $465m deal for FanDuel, based on contractual arrangements that ensured the company’s preferential shareholders got paid first. The deal’s valuation failed to clear the $558m benchmark under which ordinary shareholders – including the four co-founders – would collect a share of the bounty.

The gist of the legal complaint is that the deal was negotiated prior to the US Supreme Court striking down the federal betting prohibition, and FanDuel’s valuation wasn’t recalculated following the ruling, despite its newfound appeal as an easy way for international betting firms to establish a US beachhead.

American sports bettors are younger, smarter, richer and (probably) better looking than the average Yank, according to the nation’s gaming industry trade group.

On Tuesday, the American Gaming Association (AGA) released the results of a Nielsen Sports survey aimed at identifying the demographic and behavioral characteristics of the average US sports bettor. Future surveys will provide highly debatable estimates of how much revenue can be derived from a mature US betting market.

In the meantime, Nielsen claims that 44% of sports bettors are under 35 years old, compared to 31% of the general population. Oddly enough, the sport with the highest number of avid bettors under 35 was that old stodgy standby baseball (54%), eclipsing basketball (52%), football (50%) and hockey (48%).

However, the NFL claimed the biggest slice of avid bettors of any age (9%), beating out basketball (8%), baseball (6%) and hockey (4%). Roughly similar percentages also applied to casual bettors, suggesting that America still hasn’t gotten over Fox Sports’ disastrous experiment with that stupid glowing hockey puck in the 1990s.

Social mobile poker operator KamaGames has joined the blockchain fray, announcing this week that it has integrated the technology in chips used for its gaming applications.

The Dublin-based company, known for game app Pokerist, guarantees up to an elevenfold return over three years with the KamaGames Token (KGT), as exchangeable for in-game currency.

The tokens are sold initially at $1 each and equal to 7 million chips. A total value of $25 million will be sold, with a presale of $7 million beginning on September 24, and a public sale of the remaining $18 million from October 8 to November 12.

In a statement, KamaGames CEO Andrey Kuznetsov, said, “The launch of the KamaGames Token will help us to attract a new, additional audience as well as reward our existing players. We are confident that this launch will continue to raise our profile and help maintain the tremendous momentum that we’ve had this year. 2018 is shaping up to be our strongest year to date for growth, revenue and new game releases.”

The Indiana Gaming Commission (IGC) has taken a step back from the sports wagering frenzy that has swept many U.S. states this year to get a clearer picture of the game’s full potential in the state.

According to The Statehouse File report, the Indiana state regulator has tapped market advisory firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming LLC in late July to conduct a full study on the impact of sports betting in the states.

The state reportedly agree to pay Eilers & Krejcik with $74,999 over a two-year period for the sports betting research, including the game’s fiscal impact estimates and policy considerations. Eilers & Krejcik was given an “aggressive timeline” to work on their market research.

IGC Executive Director Sara Gonso Tait said the state regulator took the services of Eilers & Krejcik upon the recommendation of their counterparts in West Virginia, where sports betting is regulated since May. The negotiations between Eilers & Krejcik began in June and was only finalized last month.

This is The Mouthpiece, a guest contribution by Martin Owens. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for details. Thank you.

Proposition Betting and Protected Free Speech

“If you bet on a horse, that’s gambling. If you bet you can make three spades, that’s entertainment. If you bet cotton will go up three points, that’s business. See the difference?”

Blackie Sherrod