Monthly Archives: December 2019

The seven family poker players you’ll meet this Christmas

With 12 days of Christmas to enjoy, the festive family holiday will often start in a dizzying display of mirth and merriment between you and your kin. You’ll hear all their news, find out any exciting announcements, discuss the births, marriages and deaths that have punctuated your year and swap presents on Christmas Day itself.

It’s on Boxing Day that the cards come out. While there are many other entertaining games you can play over the Yuletide period, poker often comes out on top. But if you’re dragged into your family poker game, who should you watch out for?

1. The Sneaky Sibling

You’ve spent all year bailing them out of jams, lending them a tenner when they encountered any number of emergencies such as an overdue electricity bill, blown tyre on the motor and cash flow problem a week before Glastonbury.

India’s GST Council sets flat rate of 28 percent for tax on lottery

In a move that is likely to be considered welcome news by both lottery operators and customers across India, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council agreed last Wednesday to set a flat rate for tax on the lottery system. The new tax will be set at 28% on all lottery tickets sold by agencies and operators licensed to offer these tickets.

This helped to settle an ongoing dispute that had been going on for months. The Council had recently considered offering two different tax rates, a 12% rate for state lotteries and a 28% rate for private distributors. This was considered to be unconstitutional by many, even though it had been ruled lawful by the Calcutta High Court.

There had been a push by the gambling community to set a single rate, but it had appeared that the GST Council was not interested in the formula. In a recent article in the Goan Daily Herald, it was reported that the vast majority of the Council members were against such a system, but seem to have come around recently in agreeing that this was a more sensible way to set the rates.

Recently, revenues from the lotteries have been declining, and there has been a growing concern that taxes associated with the lottery have been crippling sales. This has led many to push for a more amenable tax rate, including bringing down the number of slabs under the GST.

College football holiday week bowls betting preview

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

When Christmas Eve falls on a weekday and there are no NFL games, it’s one of the slowest sports days of the year in the United States because the NBA and NHL go dark. There is one major live event this year, however, and it’s the Hawaii Bowl featuring the host Warriors of the Mountain West Conference against independent school BYU with an 8 p.m. ET kickoff. The Cougars are 2-point favorites but have failed to cover their past six as betting favorites.

It’s a record ninth Hawaii Bowl appearance for the host school, which has gone 4-4 in the previous eight. Hawaii and BYU used to be members of the Western Athletic Conference and this is the third straight year they meet. BYU won 49-23 last year in Utah.

No bowl games on Christmas but two on December 26. The first at 4 p.m. ET is the Independence Bowl from Shreveport, Louisiana, with Conference U.S.A.’s Louisiana Tech facing Miami of the ACC. The Bulldogs will clearly have the fan advantage as the Tech campus in Ruston is only about 70 miles away. The Bulldogs have played in this bowl four times, last in 2008. They are in a bowl game for a sixth straight season and have won the past five.

NFL Week 16: The Titans fall apart

For some of us, it’s a little hard to focus on the holiday season with so much good football going on. We doubt that our Bodog insider had any time for last minute shopping, as he was glued to his screens and keeping tabs on the NFL action. We have some of his thoughts once again for you.

Biggest Liability –

The old adage always goes that you have to take the season week by week. Tennessee should have stuck to that theory. “With the Titans potentially looking ahead to next week’s division winner-take-all vs Houston the vast majority of bettors backed the Saints at -3, pushing the handicap to -3.5 by kickoff,” our insider noted. “While the Titans jumped out to an early lead, the Saints dominated the 2nd half and punched in a late score to clinch the win and the cover, 38-28.”

Good Thing They’re Wearing Their Brown Pants