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I don’t usually bother with free rolls even though I am a big fan of internet poker, the tourney’s just take too darn long.  But if free rolls are your thing, the November Nine Freeroll Series at PokerStars continues with a total of 220 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure step tickets left to give away and of course, the ultimate opportunity to play a $500 heads up with reigning World Series of Poker* Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate.

Federal investigators are examining the source of money that a San Jose, Calif., businessman used to pay off gambling debts to Binion’s and Caesars Palace, law enforcement officials say.

At issue, they say, is whether the money Ausaf Umar Siddiqui used to repay those debts was fraudulently obtained — a scheme he allegedly adopted to repay more recent debts to other Las Vegas casinos.

Based on an Internal Revenue Service investigation, the U.S. attorney’s office in San Francisco filed a criminal complaint Dec. 18 alleging that Siddiqui had used his position as a vice president of merchandising and operations at Fry’s Electronics to defraud vendors that did business with the company of $65 million. He earned $225,000 annually.

The government claims Siddiqui deposited kickbacks paid by vendors into the accounts of a straw company, PC International LLC, from which he repaid tens of millions of dollars in gambling IOUs to casinos.

Unrelated to the current complaint, Siddiqui has repaid $1.71 million to Binion’s and $4.8 million to Caesars Palace for debts dating to 2001, said Bernard Zadrowski, the head of the district attorney’s bad check unit. Siddiqui still owes Caesars $5.7 million, and has been paying a quarterly restitution of about $150,000, Zadrowski said.

In Nevada, a marker equates to a check, and failure to repay it constitutes a criminal offense.

Zadrowski and FBI spokesman Joe Dickey declined to comment on the new investigation.

If the federal case prevents Siddiqui from paying his local restitution, the bad-check unit probably will determine other means to punish him, Zadrowski said. Occasionally, defendants unable to pay off marker-related debt are imprisoned. “We’re going to see what the feds do next,” Zadrowski said.

Siddiqui also continues to face civil suits.

Besides Binion’s and Caesars, Siddiqui amassed gambling debts at the Venetian, MGM Grand and Planet Hollywood, according to court documents and law enforcement officials. The government has not indicated how much he gambled away in Las Vegas, but one newspaper has reported it was more than $120 million.

And this month, the Palms sued Siddiqui, claiming he stiffed the casino of $2.35 million in one day of gambling in August.

Because Siddiqui and the Palms essentially agreed to turn his outstanding markers into a loan, the casino could not ask the district attorney’s bad-check unit to pursue criminal charges.

Planet Hollywood sued Siddiqui this year, but the case was dismissed this month.

Trump Taj Mahal Associates in Atlantic City, N.J., has also sued him, a courts representative there said, though she could not determine what the judgment was.

The San Jose Mercury News found that casinos in southern New Jersey and in Uncasville, Conn., sued Siddiqui for at least $15 million. The newspaper reported last week that from January 2005 to November this year, Siddiqui spent $162 million from the PC International account, three quarters of which were payments to three Las Vegas casinos.

Siddiqui’s Northern California-based attorney, Eric Sidebotham, could not be reached for comment.  My guess is they will uncover some pretty hefty debts.

The Union of European Football Associations, the soccer organization is looking for a cut of the gambling revenue raked in by sports better companies.  Because UEFA’s teams, stadiums and matches are used for the sports betting industry to make profits they are asking for some of the cash. The soccer association joined the Sports Rights Owners Coalition, representing teams and owners from rugby, cricket, basketball, tennis, and horse racing, in calling for a ‘competition organizer’s right.’ The coalition are calling for France, currently introducing online gambling laws, to set a precedent.

I agree that they should be getting a piece of the pie!

It has been reported that the man on which the film ‘Casino’ was based, Frank ‘Lefty’ Rosenthal has died at the age of 79 at his Miami Beach home. Those who have seen the film into his life will know that Frank Rosenthal led a colourful life to say the least and was a man few in Las Vegas ever crossed twice – he had links with every group and criminal association going!

Frank Rosenthal ran the Stardust, Fremont, Hacienda and Marina Casinos in Las Vegas in the 1970s and 1980s but it was his strong links with the Chicago mafia which made him stand out from the rest. He was handed the top honour of being crowned the best expert on sports handicapping the industry had ever seen only then to be banned from every casino in Vegas because of his mafia links.

It is claimed that only after Frank Rosenthal left Vegas did we see the emergence of the new Las Vegas we see today, such was his control over the state’s casino industry. Loved and disliked in equal measures we will no doubt hear many more tales about the man who even at the age of 79 still ran his own online gambling operation.  This legend will be sorely missed, they don’t make em’ that way anymore.  I wonder if he ever played any casino online or always at land based.

Following recent protests by the California Charity Bingo Association against a measure that would legalise remote caller bingo in the state, the California Tribal Business Alliance has released a statement in favour of the Bill. State Bill 1369 passed through the Senate in Sacramento last week and the Association has urged Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto the measure.

The Association claims that, if passed, the Bill would trigger a clause in the Indian tribal gaming compact that would allow aboriginal-run casinos to use the Internet for gambling. It stated that this would open the door for tribes to offer other games using the Internet including blackjack, poker and slots while severely weakening the California Lottery along with smaller charities. “You may have received information recently from the California Charity Bingo Association, a group funded by slot machine manufacturer Video Gaming Technology, claiming that recent legislation authorising remote caller bingo will allow California tribes to operate Internet gambling sites, leading to ‘the greatest expansion of legal gambling in California’s history’

Go Cally!!  I would love to see another US state embrace gambling like Nevada has done.  But please don’t touch bingo because my gran won’t have anything to live for.

Bad beats really suck, but Absolute Poker.com’s innovative Bad Beat Jackpot continues to attract action and bail out bad beat victims, with the latest payout being to an online player who lost a Texas Hold Em hand with quad Aces, hitting the highest Bad Beat Jackpot yet and winning over $160 000 in cash.

“With nearly one million hands dealt since the last hit on July 3rd, our Bad Beat Jackpot had climbed to over $464 000,” commented David Clainer, senior vice president for Absolute Poker. “Online poker players flooded the site in record numbers for a shot at winning an unfathomable amount of cash just by losing a hand.”

On July 11th at 11:46 pm ET, an online poker player who goes by the name of Calvinhobbes did just that, losing quad Aces to a Royal Flush in a friendly game of Texas Hold’em at Absolute Poker.

At most online poker rooms and land-based casinos, a loss like that would be disappointing to say the least, but not on this occasion. The player was seated at one of Absolute Poker’s Bad Beat Jackpot tables where if a player loses a hand holding four 8s or anything better at a Bad Beat Jackpot table, he or she hits the Bad Beat jackpot. To help the jackpot build, $0.50 is collected from qualifying hands at Bad Beat Jackpot tables.

By the evening of July 11th, the jackpot had reached a record $464 652.03, eclipsing the previous jackpot of $297 287.63 that was hit on July 3rd.

Calvinhobbes’ share of the BBjackpot stands at $162 628.21. The participants in the bad beat jackpot hand shared an additional $162 628.21 with the pot winner, taking over $81 000 and the remaining players walked away with over $20 000 apiece.

Absolute Poker claims it is the only online poker site open to American players to feature Bad Beat Jackpot tables. Bad Beat Jackpot tables are flagged with the word “jackpot” written in brackets after the table name and are categorised in red text.  Since I seem to recieve more than my fair-share of bad beats I am all for these type of jackpots!

For me this might be John McCains only saving grace, that he likes to gamble.  The Huffington Post recently reported in an article on US Republican Presidential candidate John McCain and what they allege is an “impulsive” obsession with casino craps.McCain is a documented craps player. He has been known to play craps on impulse for 14 hours at a stretch.

Of the game of craps, Anthony Holden comments, “We poker players don’t call poker gambling. It is a game of skill. Craps is an absurd game of luck. You may have thrilling short term wins but only madmen play craps.”

Matthew Yglesias notes, “The McCains own eleven houses and spent over $200,000 on ‘household staff’ in 2007 so I suppose he can afford tens of thousands of dollars in gambling losses every year. At the same time, you wouldn’t want someone to enjoy ‘playing against the odds’ with the country’s public policy. The fact that McCain seems to think there’s some kind of ‘betting strategy’ that can turn craps into a winning game also raises some questions about his math.”

McCain is not necessarily against legalized online gambling despite voting in favor of regulation to ban most forms in October 2006 (with the notable exception of horse racing).  In an interview with Erin Neff of the Las Vegas Review Journal, John McCain, made it clear that an all out ban on Internet gambling is a very low priority for his future administration.

“The economy is what’s hurting the gaming industry in Las Vegas today,” McCain said. “It isn’t sports betting or Internet gaming.” On Internet gaming, McCain was just off his game, according to Neff. First he tried to back away from his position because he hasn’t been involved in it lately. Then he said it was really fellow Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl’s deal. Kyl was a co-author of recently past Internet gambling prohibition - the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act - and has been among the industry’s most aggressive foes over the past decade. “I haven’t thought about the issue,” McCain said when pressed further by the Vegas-based reporter.

Fellow Republican Ron Paul does not gamble yet he has been among the most outspoken when it comes to legalizing online gambling.

“One of the basic principles, a basic reason why I strongly oppose this is (the law to ban online gambling), I see this as a regulation of the Internet, which is a very, very dangerous precedent to set,” Paul said before a House Subcommittee on the subject. “To start with, I can see some things that are much more dangerous than gambling. I happen to personally strongly oppose gambling. I think it is pretty stupid, to tell you the truth. “But what about political ideas? What about religious fanaticism? Are we going to get rid of those? I can think of 1,000 things worse coming from those bad ideas. But who will come down here and say, Just think of the evil of these bad ideas and distortedreligions, and therefore we have to regulate the Internet?”

Many see regulation of online gambling as a way for the US to bring in millions of dollars to the sagging economy. Internet gambling after all is a billion dollar industry.  But to be fair, John McCain is not the only known “gambler” on the ticket. Senator Barack Obama, his Democratic opponent, is a known poker player who has simply said he would welcome a study of the online gambling industry and its possible regulation. But just last week, Obama was endorsed by the co-author of the very legislation that made online poker, casino games and - yes - craps, illegal, Jim Leach. He was the former Congressman out of Iowa who just happens to be a Republican.

The moment the car stopped at McCain’s hotel in downtown New Orleans, he set out at his usual fast clip for Harrah’s, across the street. McCain is an avid gambler. Wes Gullett, a close friend who worked for McCain for years, told me that they used to play craps in Las Vegas in fourteen-hour stints, standing at the tables from 10 a.m. to midnight. ‘Craps is addictive,’ McCain remarked, and he headed for the fifteen-dollar-minimum-bet tables.
Michael Scherer and Michael Weisskopf of the London Times write:”Over time he (McCain) gave up the drinking bouts, but he never quite kicked the periodic yen for dice. In the past decade, he has played on Mississippi riverboats, on Indian land, in Caribbean craps pits and along the length of the Las Vegas Strip. Back in 2005 he joined a group of journalists at a magazine-industry conference in Puerto Rico, offering betting strategy on request. ‘Enjoying craps opens up a window on a central thread constant in John’s life,’ says John Weaver, McCain’s former chief strategist, who followed him to many a casino. ‘Taking a chance, playing against the odds.’ Aides say McCain tends to play for a few thousand dollars at a time and avoids taking markers, or loans, from the casinos, which he has helped regulate in Congress. ‘He never, ever plays on the house,’ says Mark Salter, a McCain adviser. The goal, say several people familiar with his habit, is never financial. He loves the thrill of winning and the camaraderie at the table.

“Only recently have McCain’s aides urged him to pull back from the pastime. In the heat of the G.O.P. primary fight last spring, he announced on a visit to the Vegas Strip that he was going to the casino floor. When his aides stopped him, fearing a public relations disaster, McCain suggested that they ask the casino to take a craps table to a private room, a high-roller privilege McCain had indulged in before. His aides, with alarm bells ringing, refused again, according to two accounts of the discussion.

“He clearly knows that this is on the borderline of what is acceptable for him to be doing,” says a Republican who has watched McCain play. ‘And he just sort of revels in it.’”

For the online gambling sector and particularly online poker with an association that is one million strong and counting, there is a yearning for more support from these supposed “gambling loving” Presidential candidates.  Neither seems particularly supportive to the cause.  I guess a love for gambling should not exclude someone from being a good president but I hope he keeps his gambling to the tables and not to world politics.

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