February 27 2001
Gaming Control Board against slot machine bill
Casino regulators urged lawmakers Friday to reject a bill forcing casinos to pay off even if a malfunction causes slot reels to line up and show a jackpot. ``You have a whole army of people out there trying to make the machines malfunction,'' said Gaming Control Board member Scott Scherer.

February 24 2001
Larkin lifts the stakes in gaming row
An entrepreneur claiming victimization by Fairfield Council has applied for extra gaming machines and a 24-hour liquor license at his Canley Heights Hotel despite a pending Supreme Court challenge by the council.

February 24 2001
Gaming Commission approves settlement
The state Gaming Commission accepted a settlement that calls for a $100,000 fine against the Rio Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas for violating accounting regulations.

February 21 2001
U.S. Proponents Push Web Betting Ban
The leading House proponent of an Internet gambling ban doesn't buy the notion that Congress missed its best chance when it failed last year to prohibit wagering on the World Wide Web. Chances are better this year, says Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., because there is a new attorney general and a Republican in the White House. A critic of legalized gambling, Attorney General John Ashcroft voted to outlaw Internet wagering in 1999 when he was a Republican senator from Missouri.

February 21 2001
New Bankruptcy Reform Legislation Doesn't Affect Gambling Debts
The new bankruptcy reform doesn't seem to affect the debts of gamblers. Gamblers debts did emerged in early forms of bankruptcy reform legislation in 1998, but was successfully killed by gaming interests.

February 20 2001
Goodlatte Lacks Enforcement Mechanism for On-line Lottery Sales
As you know, last year one of the most difficult questions for Kyl, Goodlatte, et. al was how to handle on-line lottery sales. If a lottery carve-out is in a bill, then the powerful convenience store lobby opposes it.  If such a carve-out is not in the bill, the state lotteries and the companies that support them oppose it.  So, no matter which way they went, we had a powerful ally. We had heard from one source that the lotteries and the convenience stores had reached a deal wherein people could only buy lottery tickets on line if they first purchased a "smart card" from a traditional vendor -- meaning a convenience store. Furthermore, Goodlatte has a bigger problem in that he still needs an enforcement mechanism.  But this is still an ominous development.

February 20 2001
LEACH BILL RESURFACES
While the interactive gaming world awaited news of whether it would be Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., or Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Virgto take the lead this year with the push for outlawing Internet gambling. But Rep. James Leach of Iowa took a surprising lead by reintroducing his funding bill. 

February 16 2001
Boulis Saga Continues as Two Wills Emerge
In what might be a fitting conclusion to the tangled financial saga of Gus Boulis, not one but two versions of the Greek tycoon's last will and testament have surfaced, reflecting his changing feelings for an estranged wife amid a combative divorce.

February 15 2001
Bill Targets Internet Gambling Transactions
On Monday, Rep. James Leach reintroduced a bill (H.R. 556) that aims to prohibit the use of checks or debit and credit cards for making payments related to Internet gambling. Leach aide Dave Runkel explains that the bill would "surgically remove" the means by which anyone gambling on the Net could either receive winnings from or pay gambling debts to an Internet gambling operation. H.R. 556 is essentially the same bill that was passed last year by the House Banking Committee (now renamed the Financial Services Committee).

February 14 2001
Senate Report Addresses Money Laundering
The U.S. government has spent the last year on a study looking into the relationship between offshore banks and money laundering. The study has drawn some interesting
conclusions, which involve the online gaming industry.

February 14 2001
ACA Submits Argument For Regulation
In just a few short months the Australian moratorium on interactive gambling is scheduled to conclude, at which time it will be replaced by a permanent federal ban or stricter state regulatory systems and perhaps even new taxation schemes.

February 14 2001
Cohen Prepares for Appeal
After numerous delays, the government has finally submitted its brief for the World Sports Exchange President Jay Cohen's pending appeal before the United States 2nd District Court of Appeals.

February 14 2001
Nevada Sen. Neal Pushes New Gaming Bills
Nevada Senator Joe Neal proposes three new gambling-related bills on Monday. These bills will include issues on the gaming tax and require jackpots to be paid on malfunctioning slot machines.

February 14 2001
Battle of the Bet on the Net
Since 1997 seven bills that would outlaw betting on the Internet have failed. This $6.2 billion per year industry is creating tension between the conservative family values and the libertarian economics.Even self-proclaimed gambling opponents voted against the internet gambling restrictions because even though they disagree with the gambling they are fearful of putting restrictions on the internet.

February 14 2001
Who is Behind the Laws?
Rep. John LaFalce, a 14 term Democratic congressman from Buffalo, N.Y. leads the 1994 congressional hearing that eventually spawned the federal commission that investigated the spread of legalized gambling. He doesn't want any automated teller machines on casino floors. He co-sponsored a bill to prevent credit card companies from accepting charges for Internet gambling.

February 11 2001
Congressman fights to curb gaming spread
Representative from New York helping lead efforts to rein in explosive growth of gambling
WASHINGTON -- He led the 1994 congressional hearings that eventually spawned the federal commission that investigated the spread of legalized gambling. He wants to remove automated teller machines from casino floors. He co-sponsored a bill to ban the use of credit cards in Internet gambling. And no, he is not longtime gambling foe Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va. Instead, he is Rep. John LaFalce, a 14-term Democratic congressman from Buffalo, N.Y., and he remains a key player in federal efforts to rein in the explosive nationwide growth of gambling.

February 10 2001
Ohio Appeals Court Overturns Charity Casino Conviction
ELYRIA, Ohio –Feb. 9, 2001 – As reported by the Associated Press: “The Lorain County prosecutor said Thursday that he is considering whether to appeal a ruling that overturned corruption and gambling convictions against an operator of a charitable gambling business. Convictions on corrupt-activity charges against a second man also were reserved.

February 7 2001
U.S. Court Boots Lawsuit Against Net Gaming Site
On Tuesday, a U.S. District Court judge threw out a case that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had filed against a Caribbean Web site operating a virtual stock game. The SEC had alleged that the Web-based StockGeneration game was in fact a pyramid scam that violated the agency's regulations on interstate commerce. But federal judge Joseph L. Tauro dismissed the case against SG Limited, the Dominican-based company that ran the StockGeneration, nullifying a June 2000 injunction against the site.

February 6 2001
Magistrate Guilty in Poker Scheme
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania - As reported by the Associated Press:”A district justice was convicted of running an illegal video poker operation and tipping off machine operators about search warrants he signed. ”Ronald Amati, 46, was found guilty Monday of conspiring to operate a gambling operation, running a gambling business and attempting to obstruct police. He faces up to 15 years in prison. ”…Amati, a Washington County district justice since 1988, had been suspended with pay for nearly two years while the case was under investigation. ”…Investigators found Amati received $10,000 in payoffs from video gambling machines at a coffee shop…”

February 5 2001
Congressman Slips in Bill for San Francisco Gambling
WASHINGTON – Feb. 5, 2001 – As reported by the Associated Press: ``Circumventing the Interior Department and the California governor, a congressman quietly pushed through a new law for a landless Indian tribe in his district that could open the San Francisco Bay area to Las Vegas-style gambling.

``Working closely with a labor union that hopes to organize casino employees across California, Democratic Rep. George Miller sponsored a three-sentence amendment that was buried in the 150-page-plus Omnibus Indian Advancement Act in the final weeks of the last Congress.

``Miller's amendment places a 10-acre parcel that is a 25-minute drive from downtown San Francisco into reservation status for the Lytton Rancheria band of 220 Indians. President Clinton signed the act containing the amendment in December.

``…Twenty investors led by former Philadelphia Republican mayoral candidate Sam Katz plan to transform a gambling card room on the site in the East Bay city of San Pablo into a casino with up to 2,000 slot machines. According to industry data, 2,000 slots at an urban casino can generate a quarter-billion dollars in revenue annually.

Except for Palm Springs, Miller's law marks the first time a California Indian tribe has gotten reservation land for Las Vegas-style gambling in the heart of an urban area.

Competing card rooms in the Bay area are up in arms over Miller's measure, which they learned of only after it had cleared Congress.

Michael Cox, a lawyer for the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International union, known in Las Vegas as the Culinary Union, and a former general counsel to the National Indian Gaming Commission, said he "helped draft the language" of Miller's amendment.

``…The Culinary represents several hundred workers at the San Pablo card room and the union plans to organize workers at dozens of California casinos.

``The 10-acre site is the first land the Lytton band has had in more than 40 years. It has been looking fruitlessly for a home, but "we got massacred" with local opposition from communities that wanted no part of the tribe, said Lytton chairwoman Margie Mejia…”

February 3 2001
Nev. To Contest College Betting Ban
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada's congressional delegation met with gambling lobbyists Wednesday to devise a strategy to fight a proposed college betting ban. But neither freshman Republican Sen. John Ensign nor the other three members of the delegation would discuss the details of the strategy. "Because frankly, if we give it away to you, the other side gets our strategy," Ensign said. "The more we know about what we're doing and the less they know, the better chance we have for success. We have an uphill battle on our hands." An anti-gambling measure proposed last year by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and sought by the NCAA, has support from members of Congress and several high-profile college coaches.

February 3 2001
Kenosha Casino Backers Cash in Chips
MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin –As reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Gov. Scott McCallum's no-more-casinos stance, renewed emphatically just before his inauguration, began to sink in Thursday. "`It's over! It's done! Put a stake in it,’ said Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian, referring to the ambitious plan by the Menominee tribe to buy Dairyland Greyhound Park and put a $275 million casino complex there. ”…The tribe and a group of non-Indian investors have spent millions of dollars and three years of effort to try to win the multiple layers of approval needed to create a satellite reservation where a casino could be built. ”…Another off-reservation casino deal in Hudson also likely shares the same fate, given McCallum's opposition. The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs has not yet ruled on bids for casinos in Kenosha or Hudson, but even if the agency approved the deals, the governor has the power to kill them. ”…The plans of other tribes that want to open casinos off their reservations also are doomed, according to the new governor. ”…The Menominee plan won the approval of Kenosha voters and had a powerful ally in ex-Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, who negotiated a blueprint for the Kenosha casino. But as of noon Thursday, Thompson was out of office and on his way to Washington. ”…McCallum said he remained staunchly opposed to any expansion of gambling because, he said, gambling does not create wealth…”

February 3 2001
Family Suing Detroit’s Motor City Casino For $10 Million
DETROIT, Michigan – As reported by the Detroit Free Press: “The Motor City Casino is facing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit in the death of a 13-year-old boy. ”The casino is being accused of serving a man too much to drink before he left the casino Dec. 17 and was involved in a fatal crash on the Lodge Freeway. Michigan State Police say that the man was going the wrong way on the Lodge and crashed his vehicle into a car carrying Curtis Dobine, 13, and his older brother Michael Dobine, who was driving. ”…The suit claims that the casino is responsible for serving a man who they allege was visibly intoxicated before getting in a crash injured other people. The suit also says that Motor City security personnel briefly contained the man before letting him leave the casino and causing the crash…”

February 1 2001
U.S. Court Boots Lawsuit Against Net Gaming Site
On Tuesday, a U.S. District Court judge threw out a case that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had filed against a Caribbean Web site operating a virtual stock game.

The SEC had alleged that the Web-based StockGeneration game was in fact a pyramid scam that violated the agency's regulations on interstate commerce. But federal judge Joseph L. Tauro dismissed the case against SG Limited, the Dominican-based company that ran the StockGeneration, nullifying a June 2000 injunction against the site.