The 411 on Online Gambling Site

Source: Emediawire (press release) ()

PressMyBet is proud to announce the expansion and revision of its online gaming portal that puts a strong focus towards online poker rooms and online casinos that accept USA players. Visitors will discover topic-specific materials regarding USA casinos, USA poker sites, and USA sportsbooks as well as USA deposit methods available.

Tallahassee, FL (PRWEB) December 22, 2007 — PressMyBet has long been dedicated to the presentation of the Internet's Best Casinos and Poker Sites. The online gaming resource center is proud to announce a more focused and fully expanded selection of information regarding USA casinos, USA poker sites, USA sportsbooks and viable payment options for USA players.

Finding a reliable, secure and honest online casino or poker site is becoming more and more challenging for USA poker players. This knowledge has brought about the necessary revision of PressMyBet with the hopes of easing those difficulties for USA players who wish to continue their online gaming practices without the worry of safety and security.

The Internet Gambling Guide at http://www.PressMyBet.com has one of the most comprehensive listings of online poker rooms, sportsbooks, and internet casinos on the web today. The site offers exclusive bonuses to U.S. players and gives detailed reviews on many of the top online gambling. PressMyBet has recently undergone a massive expansion, focusing primarily on its USA player acceptance guides regarding poker sites, casinos and sportsbooks.

With the expansion comes the detailed development of Casinos That Accept USA Players. Only the most trusted, reputable online casinos with ease of deposit and withdraw are reviewed, providing in-depth software information and deposit bonuses with respective bonus codes.

While it has been increasingly difficult for USA players to find a casino or poker that will accept their deposits, these difficulties relate even more so to Sportsbooks That Accept USA …

Source: MSNBC ()

What began as a tip on a few gamblers has blossomed into an immense wiretap investigation and could become a massive payoff for Maricopa County. No one has been indicted after almost three years of investigation, but a civil case in which the county seeks millions of dollars in property, cash and liability from 46 defendants accused of running illegal gambling organizations in the East Valley and Scottsdale is moving forward.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the criminal investigation isn’t dead.

“I expect there will be a final resolution in the next two or three months,” Arpaio said. “We expect to have arrests in the near future.”

The sheriff’s office cited the investigation as one of the reasons it had spent its entire overtime budget for the year by October. Search-and-seizure warrant affidavits and other court documents provide a glimpse into the immensity of the probe and the money at stake.

The investigation has amassed more than 120,000 pages of police reports and seized financial documents, and the county has hired a consulting firm to help manage them.

The case also involves litigation in Nevada and California, where some defendants are challenging the process used to seize property in those states and have it transferred to Arizona to become part of the civil forfeiture case.

The state alleges the individuals are personally liable for the proceeds they generated in the conspiracy.

For example, the Dipiero-Burgi Organization - run by Ralph Dipiero Jr., 77, his two sons, Ralph Dipiero III and Chris Dipiero, and Anthony Burgi, a Gilbert attorney who died March 27 in a one-car crash - would each have to pay between $57.3 million and $96 million if they lose their civil case.

The elder Dipiero declined comment at the advice of his attorney.

“I’ve got plenty to Dipiero said.

Leaders of other organizations included Eugene Valentini, Lloyd Melton and Steven Pokrass.

…

Source: Newswire Today (press release) ()

NewswireToday - /newswire/ -
Tel Aviv, Israel, 12/23/2007 - A series of massive poker tournaments that offer players the chance to play in four of the world’s biggest live poker tournaments in various locations around the world.

888.com, one of the World’s leading gaming and entertainment companies, is offering the chance to win a share of $75 million with a ticket to the four most prestigious poker events in the world – all for $1.

Pacific Poker.com, 888.com’s online poker room, is making every poker player’s dream come true. Players can win a seat to one of the four biggest poker tournaments in the world: the WSOP (World Series of Poker) in Las Vegas, the Aussie Millions in Melbourne, the EPT (European Poker Tour) in Monte Carlo and the 888.com UK open in London.

Pacific Poker will hold a $1 Live the Dream satellite tournament one minute after the hour, every hour each day, between December 20 – 28. One of every 10 players will win a seat in the Live the Dream Final, which will take place on December 29 at 20:30 GMT and will grant the winner the Dream Ticket – a seat in all four global tournaments.

Players that finish the Final in the top 10 will receive other exclusive prizes, including two tickets, flights and accommodation to a Seville FC Champions League game.

888.com’s Marketing Director, Matt Robinson, said 888 is thrilled about giving their players the opportunity to make their dream a reality.

“Live the Dream is all about making dreams come true for our players,” said Robinson. “There’s nothing we would like more than to give our players the chance to play for such incredible cash prizes in the world’s biggest poker tournaments, and win.”

About 888.com
888.com is one of the World’s leading gaming and entertainment companies. It has millions of members worldwide who enjoy casino, bingo and poker rooms and receive an online gaming experience like no other.

Founded …

Source: MiamiHerald.com ()

ROME — The ATP suspended Italians Potito Starace and Daniele Bracciali on Saturday for making bets - some as little as $7 - on tennis matches involving other players.

The Italian tennis federation denounced the penalties by the governing body as an “injustice,” and the players said they have been made scapegoats.

Starace, ranked 31st, was suspended for six weeks and fined $30,000, the Italian federation said. Bracciali, ranked 258th, was banned for three months and fined $20,000. Both suspensions take effect Jan. 1.

The federation said Starace made five bets for a total of $130 two years ago, and Bracciali made about 50 bets of $7 each from 2004-05.

“Injustice is done,” the statement said. “These penalties are absolutely, excessively severe compared to the magnitude of the violations carried out by the two players.”

The federation said the two were not aware of the ATP’s betting regulations, and they stopped placing bets as soon as they learned it was against the rules.

“It’s disgusting,” Starace said. “The ATP doesn’t know where to turn. It’s all a joke.”

Bracciali said the two had been “sacrificed.”

“That’s why they came after us,” he said. “We are not champions and we don’t count in the upper echelons.”

Another Italian, Alessio Di Mauro, became the first player sanctioned under the ATP’s new anti-corruption rules when he received a nine-month ban in November, also for betting on matches.

ATP officials could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Concerns about match-fixing have risen since August, when an online betting company reported unusual betting patterns during a match between fourth-ranked Nikolay Davydenko of Russia and Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina. The company, Betfair, voided all bets and the ATP has been investigating. Davydenko, who quit while in the third set, denies wrongdoing.

Since then, several players have said they were approached with offers …

Source: Daily Mail ()

Do you know what your PC is up to?
By ROB WAUGH - More by this author »
Last updated at 17:02pm on 21st December 2007

Comments
Connect your new Christmas computer to the web and within minutes it could be used for internet crime. Rob Waugh finds out how the cyber-terrorists are using your PC to create a multi million-pound business…

Eighteen days ago, on December 5, a small 24-kilobyte package of encrypted data pinged noiselessly from one PC to another, then another, and another, across the internet in Europe, America and the Far East.

Soon, the electronic synapses of a network of millions of computers around the world sprang to life. Thousands were in ordinary houses across Britain.

Scroll down for more …

‘Hacking has gone from teenage cyber-vandalism to big business. It’s thought the Russian Business Network earns £200million a year’

The PCs had one thing in common: all had fast broadband connections. Despite being in sleep mode, they were able to accept, process and react to these digital commands from outside.

Once the first messages had been sent, the infected PCs reacted all by themselves, communicating with ‘cells’, or batches, of 25 computers, in machine-gun bursts of binary code.

High-grade encryption protected the messages that passed through the legions of PCs so that observers at computer security firms could detect that something was happening, but not what.

Each machine was able to detect other PCs whose internet ports were held open. The attack spread organically, invisibly. And it all happened within the space of half a minute.

None of the owners of the PCs had an inkling of what their machines were doing. These were ordinary home computers that would betray no sign of their activities the next day. If you are reading this feature online, it’s quite possible the PC you are reading it on was one of them.

What was it all for? worm (and it is termed a worm, rather than a virus) was called Storm, and was …

Source: New Zealand Herald ()

Owen Walker

The noose appears to be tightening on an 18-year-old Whitianga computer whiz after Dutch regulators this week imposed a record €1 million fine on companies allegedly using his malicious software.

The Dutch telecommunications regulator OPTA has indicated that Owen Walker, a home-schooled computer whiz, was one of the botnet herders involved in the DollarRevenue scam and that botnet herders were paid a fee for each computer they infected €0.15 for each computer in Europe and US$0.25 for each in the United States.

Detailed records of payments were kept by those operating the scam.

New Zealand police in co-operation with the Dutch have established that Mr Walker, using his cyber name Akill, had infected 1.3 million computers as part of the DollarRevenue scam.

This could potentially have netted him hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Inspector Peter Devoy yesterday told the Herald police were following the money trails relating to the DollarRevenue associated companies and had received information from Dutch counterparts.

They were communicating with Dutch authorities via New Zealand police’s London-based liaison officer Detective Superintendent Nick Perry.

Mr Walker’s software is also central to an FBI investigation of a botnet coding group it says has caused more than “US$20m of economic loss” and involved cyber crimes committed in the United States ranging from vandalism to virtual bank robbery.

An FBI agent has been in New Zealand working with police. “We are still working with the FBI, however the FBI Special Agent has returned to the US,” Mr Devoy said.

Mr Walker’s home was searched and his computer hard-drives removed on November 28. The key to his culpability will likely lie in whether evidence is found of his having received payment for the use of his or supplying malware carries a maximum penalty of two years’ jail under the Crimes Act. Depending …

Source: Today’s Sunbeam - NJ.com ()

By WAYNE PARRY
Associated Press Writer

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Two of New Jersey’s top stories of 2007 collided — literally — when Gov. Jon Corzine was speeding to a meeting between the Rutgers women’s basketball team and radio shock jock Don Imus, who had trashed the players on the air as “nappy-headed hos.”

The governor’s near-fatal crash and Imus getting fired were among the biggest news stories in 2007.

The year began with Corzine considering leasing toll roads to raise billions, but saying very little about it. Lawmakers were struggling to bring down sky-high property taxes. And Jim and Dina McGreevey were battling each other over a host of issues, including whose tell-all book would sell better.

As 2007 ends, Corzine still isn’t talking much about the toll roads plan, property taxes are still through the roof, and the McGreeveys are still battling — most recently over a birthday pony party for their 6-year-old daughter.

It was a year that reinforced what we already knew about living in the Garden State: It’s expensive, crowded, often strange, but rarely dull.

Here’s a month-by-month look at 2007 in the land of tolls, taxes and Tony Soprano:

JANUARY:

– The year begins with Corzine and Democratic leaders looking for a large infusion of cash for New Jersey’s needs — and finding it in the state’s toll roads. Legislators say up to $15 billion could be raised by leasing the highways, including the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike, but Corzine refuses to go into much detail about the plan — one that would remain largely secret throughout the year.

– Families of three college freshmen killed in a dorm room fire at Seton Hall University in 2000 denounce the two students who admitted setting the fire as cowards who should “both rot in hell forever.” Joseph T. LePore and Sean get five-year prison terms, but will be eligible for parole next summer.

– Three teens from Freehold …

Source: Online-Casinos.com ()

INTERNET SPORTSBETTING BUST NETS 5
 
Operation “Net-Bet Blitz” carried out by combined police task force
 
New Jersey has again been the scene of an online web-based gambling ring bust. Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne J. Forrest and New Jersey State Police Superintendent Joseph Fuentes announced at the weekend that five individuals have been arrested following a four month gambling investigation dubbed Operation “Net-Bet Blitz,” so named because it resulted in the dismantling of a Internet sports betting gambling ring. 
 
The raid was a combined effort involving the county prosecutor's office, the Organised Crime and Narcotics Task Force and the Organised Crime Unit of the New Jersey state police, reports c-n.com.
 
Forrest revealed that investigations commenced some four months ago when authorities learned that gamblers were placing bets through a website called Beteastsports.com. In a sting initiative, undercover detectives were able to infiltrate the gambling operation, identify individuals who served as New Jersey agents and place dozens of bets on sporting events.
 
Investigators discovered that defendant Anthony Pecoraro, aka “Cheese,” maintained a “package” (a group of players who bet under codenames) on the website. Pecoraro controlled access to the site for these players by distributing their codenames and passwords, setting gambling limits, settling disputes, and paying or collecting money based on the outcomes of the bets.
 
Pecoraro was aided and abetted by defendant and former NFL lineman Richard Todd Burger, who collected gambling debts for Pecoraro.
 
Police claim that on three separate occasions an undercover state police detective met with an associate of Pecoraro. During these meetings, Pecoraro’s associate collected money owed by the undercover detective to Pecoraro for gambling losses.
 
The news report from c-n.com reveals …

Source: International Herald Tribune ()

GENEVA: The European Union and the United States agreed Monday on terms to compensate the Union for the loss of trade stemming from Washington's refusal to lift restrictions on Internet gambling.

The accord provides EU service suppliers with new opportunities in the U.S. postal and courier, research and development, storage and warehouse markets. The United States also made concessions in the testing and analysis services industries.

The valuation of the package was believed to fall far short of the $100 billion that European online gambling sites had claimed the United States owed. EU officials could not immediately say how much the deal was worth.

“This compensation cannot be quantified up to the euro,” the EU mission to the World Trade Organization said. “Nonetheless, it is clear that new trade opportunities are created for EU service suppliers in important sectors in the” United States, it said.

The deal was the result of a case brought by Antigua and Barbuda to the WTO, which ruled in 2004 that U.S. online gambling legislation that criminalized Internet betting violated global laws. After losing an appeal of the ruling, the U.S. moved in May to “clarify” its commitments to the Geneva-based trade arbiter, saying that it “never intended” to open its market to offshore Internet gambling when it made pledges on joining the WTO in 1994.

The U.S. decision to withdraw its commitments to the WTO, thereby allowing it to keep its markets to offshore Internet gambling operators closed, meant it had to compensate other governments that would be affected so the overall level of its market access remains unchanged. Any government that says its interests are harmed by a change to pledges opening borders at the WTO is entitled to request negotiations with the United States.

The European Union, Canada, Japan, India, Costa Rica and Macao joined Antigua and Barbuda in requesting talks to discuss compensation. Australia dropped …

Source: Online-Casinos.com ()

OPERATOR WARNING
 
If you're one those sites that plays fast and loose with your customer's personal details….beware.
 
Player privacy and the security of confidential personal details are priorities to which all online gambling operators pay lip service, but which are not in practice always observed.
 
Whether it be through dishonesty or inefficiency, the end result is the same - the player is prejudiced, at least by becoming a target for spam and at worst a victim of fraud.
 
With the festive season on the horizon, it's perhaps not out of place to urge operators of integrity to revisit their security procedures and ensure the staff are fully briefed and applying the rules with diligence to protect the player. Most regulatory bodies demand this protection, as do independent standards and player protection organisations like eCOGRA.
 
And for those unprofessional enough to release details like player email addresses to spamming affiliates, be advised that players are smarter these days - they've had to become so in the face of the growing barrage of unwanted marketing spam to which they are daily subjected.
 
Increasing numbers of players are constructing dedicated email addresses for specific online gambling venues. After registering, if they suddenly start receiving unwanted spam, they know who is sending it…or who's security procedures or integrity are questionable. The culprits are then exposed on the many player communications vehicles on the Internet, and reported to anti-spam agencies.
 
Bottom line - don't support spam in any way, shape or form and ensure your affiliates are disciplined they indulge in this time wasting and business damaging practice.  It's not the affiliate's reputation that suffers - it's yours!