Archive for May, 2011

Baltimore has one of the worst crime rates in all of the United States. Out of more than 10,000 cities in America, Baltimore ranks number five in murders, behind only New Orleans, Richmond, St. Louis and Detroit. Trying to get that cesspool in order, authorities cracked down hard last night on the scourge of…wait for it… online gambling.

Monday night, 11 bank accounts located in five countries were seized and 10 Internet domains were seized. The most famous seized domain was DoylesRoom.com, the online poker room sponsored by Doyle Brunson. Doyle recently announced that he was terminating his relationship with the company out of fear that something like this would happen.

On Monday, a federal grand jury agreed to indict two gambling business that owned the domains, ThrillX Systems and K23 Group Financial Services. The indictments were part of a two-year federal investigation. During that time period, almost 500 people were murdered in Baltimore, but more importantly to the feds, a lot of people played Texas hold’em online.

During a two-year sting operation by the Homeland Security Investigations (HIS), which is a division of ICE, the feds set up a fake payment processing business called Linwood Payment Solutions. Using that fake organizations, they processed $33 million in transactions between the indicted companies and residents in Maryland.

Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein defended the operating by saying that “it is illegal for Internet gambling enterprises to do business in Maryland, regardless of where the website operator is located.” The sting operation was just part of an effort to make sure people don’t spend their money playing poker when instead they should be going to a Ravens game or something.

HSI investigates a wide range of crime, most of it involving immigration and trafficking. They primarily deal with human smuggling, drug smuggling, gun running and human rights violations, but they also deal with cybercrime, which is what the online gambling businesses fall under. HSI’s mission is to investigate immigrations and customs crimes that threaten America’s national security, but I guess they were able to make an exception for gambling operators. Or maybe they see poker as being as much of a threat to America as the MS-13 gang from Guatemala.

Here are the 10 Internet gambling domains that were seized in the case:

Bookmaker.com

2Betsdi.com

Funtimebingo.com

Goldenarchcasino.com

Trupoker.com

Betmaker.com

Betgrandesports.com

Doylesroom.com

Betehorse.com

Beted.com

Tags: government control, Maryland gambling, seized domain names

Amid widening reports of delayed payments to US affiliates and players, the Europe-based e-payment company Quick Tender-UseMyWallet confirmed this week that it has stopped sending funds to US players.

In a public statement, the company says it has reliable and efficiently served the industry for several years, but goes on to caution that it cannot always predict the “vagaries of the US administration,” a reference to the actions of US federal enforcement agencies, which have been using the UIGEA and banking laws to shutdown internet banking financial transactions in the United States and freeze bank accounts.

“Over the past 2 weeks we have in good faith transmitted withdrawals initiated by Quicktender account holders to beneficiary bank accounts in the US,” the statement notes.

“The money left our account in Europe. It was only in response to increasing complaints from our customers that we recognised there was a problem, and asked our bank to investigate.

“It emerges that the money has been accumulated in our bank’s correspondent banking partners accounts in the US, and has been frozen. We suspect it is possible that these funds may be subject to a seizure order by the US authorities.

“We would stress that we do not have bank accounts in the US of our own, and that the funds have left our account in Europe.”

The statement goes on to assure users that the company’s intention is to ensure that the funds of account holders are safe.

“For this reason we have decided to suspend future withdrawals until we understand what has happened to the money that has been frozen. If we continue to transmit bank wires into the US we could find that these funds also do not reach their ultimate beneficiaries. This would simply make the problem worse,” it concludes, asking users to be patient whilst clarification is obtained.

In the meantime, the company is assessing its current exposure and how best to reintroduce withdrawals in a safe and reliable manner, bearing in mind that the US actions could impact the viability of the company.

“We’re number three! We’re number three!” You don’t hear that kind of cheer very often, so the folks in Atlantic City probably aren’t too pleased with the recent survey by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind. This is the same polling group that showed that 67% of New Jersey Residents oppose online gambling, so they’re not too popular with the casino community at the moment.

In this study, Fairleigh Dickinson’s pollsters conducted telephone interviews and in those interviews, they asked where would be the person’s first choice for a weekend gambling trip. The respondents were given the choice of Las Vegas, Atlantic City, New Orleans, St. Louis, Reno, other, none or unsure. Las Vegas, not surprisingly, took the top spot, with 47% of respondents choosing it as their first pick for a casino destination. Atlantic City couldn’t hope to top Vegas, but they’re probably dismayed that they were bested by New Orleans, which was the first choice for 10% of respondents. Atlantic City finished third, with 8%.

Atlantic City has the second-largest casino industry in the state, but fewer people chose it as a casino destination than chose the much smaller New Orleans. Respondents were then asked to give their second choice. Atlantic City led there, with 23%, but still barely beat out New Orleans (22%), Las Vegas (21%) and Reno (18%).

So clearly Atlantic City, despite its size, isn’t as well regarded as Governor Christie and those in the industry would like. The question is why. The poll addressed that as well. Those who did not select Atlantic City as their first or second choice were asked to give a reason. It was an open-ended question, with no choices given. With open-ended questions, statistics are harder to track, but the results still weren’t good. Eleven percent said that they just like the other places better, making it the top reason to not choose Atlantic City. The next most common answer was the more hopeful response that it is too far away (10%). Following that were more discouraging answers, that the city is run down or dirty (4%), that they simply dislike New Jersey (3%) or that they don’t want to go there because of the crime (2%). All of that data says that the Casino Development Reinvestment Authority has its work cut out for it in turning the city into a quality tourist destination.

Tags: Atlantic City casinos, Chris Christie