Category: gambling history

Corruption within the sports betting world

21 November 2012

Sadly, corruption within the sports betting world is rife and it appears as though almost every sports has had its own scandal. At the time of writing, the cyclist Lance Armstrong is probably one of the characters that comes to most people’s minds when thinking about corruption within sports.

You might even remember back to the famous Pakistan cricket spot-fixing scandal, which involved several members of Pakistan’s national cricket team. Those involved were caught and convicted of accepting bribes from bookmakers in 2010.

Some of the world’s most popular sports, including Football, Cricket, Cycling, Snooker, Horse Racing, Athletics, Tennis and Boxing have at some point been in the spotlight for some kind of match fixing claims. Baseball was also rife with corruption at one point, plus there is an endless list of other sports that have had their fair share of scandals. It makes you wonder how, at such a top level, this is possible?

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A history of online poker and how it began

28 September 2012

Poker first became available online towards the mid-1990s and since its inception it has had a colourful history. Before there was poker as we know it today, there was a time when IRC Poker ruled the virtual world. This was basically a game that was played through a chat client and similar to chess, players had to key in their moves and then leave the program to perform the actions for them.

Players weren’t sat around animated tables like they are today and there were basically no in-play features. This was at a time when poker was in its most primitive form. It was still just as popular as it is today though and it soon became apparent how many people actually enjoyed the game and desired to play it online, but there were still very few portals to play at.

Online poker (as it looks today) was born in 1998 and even some of the oldest companies are still around today such as PokerStars, but many of them have resigned themselves to the history books for various reasons.

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Top 3 movies featuring texas hold'em poker

16 April 2012

If you love poker and also enjoy a good movie, you may have seen your own fair share of poker movies over the years, including classics from the 60’s and 70’s to the more recent movies of the 90’s and  2000’s, but if you haven’t seen the following three movies, you‘ve been missing out.

The top 3 movies that caught our attention and also seem to appear on most people’s list of must-see Texas Hold’em poker movies includes titles such as ‘High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story’ (otherwise known as ‘Stuey’), as well as ‘Lucky You’ featuring Eric Bana, Robert Duval and Drew Barrymore and possibly the best poker movie ever, ‘Rounder’s’ featuring Matt Damon and John Malcovic. This one also stars John Tuturro.

If there are three poker movies that everyone should see at one point in their life, these are the ones. Each one has a completely different plot but all revolve around the world’s most loved card game, Texas Hold’em. These movies are often underrated and certainly deserve more recognition.  

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Whatever happened to David Carruthers CEO of BETonSPORTS plc

16 February 2012

For those of you who know of David Carruthers, you should be aware that he was the former CEO of BetOnSports plc who in 2006 was held by US authorities in Texas as he was flying from London to Costa Rica.

This was part of a clamp down by US law who were tackling major offshore organisations that had been offering illegal online gambling activities and services to players within the US.

He was therefore charged for violating US federal laws that directly related to illegal gambling in the US. The indictment of BetOnSports reported that there had been a minimum of nine violations of the law. Carruthers was put under house arrest and the bail bond was placed at $1,000,000. Carruthers actual charge was violating the US Wire Act of 1961.

Three years later in April of 2009, David Carruthers then went on to plead guilty to charges relating to racketeering. He also agreed to assist the authorities during the federal investigation of the founder of BetOnSports, Gary Kaplan.

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Will the recession hit Las Vegas more than Atlantic City?

08 May 2011

Las Vegas and Atlantic City have been hit by the recession but whether one gambling destination has been hit more than the other is a tricky question to answer. Smaller resorts like the casinos that are located near or on Indian reservations, city centre casinos and riverboat casinos have been less affected by the recession as they do not rely so much on people coming for overnight trips as do the larger casino resorts such as Las Vegas or Atlantic City. The recession has made people think twice about travelling further afield to a resort thus it has hit both Las Vegas and Atlantic City in a much more dramatic manner.

In an attempt to attract people to Las Vegas and Atlantic City both of these multi-million dollar areas of the gambling world have increased their comps (free stuff) making a trip there more inviting to the visitor. Some casinos however, will have only increased their comps on slot machines which means that if a visitor wins $100 in one day the casino will increase this fives times to $500. Other casinos tighten their belts when a recession hits and reduce their comps on all levels of gaming.

Unlike the casinos in the Caribbean who rely on the seasons for their revenue in the gambling industry, Las Vegas and Atlantic City need the short term visitor to keep their wheels turning and both of these resorts are not betting on great returns since the recession hit them.

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Gambling Online in the U.S.

14 January 2010

Even after the Unlawful Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA), the future of gambling online in the United States is not entirely clear at present. Having tried several times to pass bills that would prevent online players in the U.S. from using online gambling websites legally, legislators finally discovered a way to make it more complicated for citizens in the United States to enjoy real money games online.

Making Online Casino Gambling Illegal in the U.S.

Through the history of gambling online, legislators have tried several times to set up a bill that would ban online casino players in the U.S. from gambling at online casinos for real money. However, the legislator’s bills were thrown out in 2000 and 2001. On the other hand, the U.S. government tightened regulations on the online casino industry, which has indeed encouraged online casinos to enhance their services by providing detailed security information for their registered players. Nonetheless, the government were still not happy and so instead of banning gambling online in the U.S. they passed the UIGEA (above) which made it illegal for credit card companies as well as banks to transact with online casinos.

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Gambling Online Law

21 October 2009

Trying to regulate and control online gambling is extremely difficult given the nature of the industry and the huge availability of casinos and online slots around the internet. Any laws need to be agreed internationally to have an effect on the online gambling industry as countries from all over the world will be affected and obviously these websites on the internet are available worldwide.

No agreements exist at the moment which means that online gambling is still open and available for any users, and due to disagreements between countries at the moment it is likely to be a while before any legislations are put into effect or agreed.

A lot of the interest in online gambling comes from Monaco, Antigua and Belize whose governments are keen to keep online casinos running although the United States is constantly arguing otherwise. The US believe that online gambling is illegal and restrictions should be made to stop it but they are unable to push this belief without destroying their relationships with other countries.

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History of gambling online

14 October 2009

Gambling has been an extremely popular form of entertainment for thousands of years since people begin betting whilst playing card games etc. Gambling entered the online industry in the mid 1990’s and has since grown rapidly to become a huge part of online gaming. Around 20 million gamblers now enjoy betting online in the many different games available.

Microgaming are one of the oldest software providers for online gambling games and are known for inventing the one of the first online casinos accepting bets over the internet. InterCasino were also there creating an online casino processing real money wagers. This all happened in 1994 around the same time that the Free Trade and Processing Zone Act was passed by the Antigua-Barbuda government. This enabled licences to be given to online companies looking to open up casinos on the internet. Online casino’s evolved over the next few years to provide more features and different games to users, including the multiplayer games introduced by Boss Media in 1999.

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Why gamble online?

08 October 2009

Gambling online is massively popular and draws in fans from all over the world to play online games which involve betting. There are many factors that make online gambling so appealing but some people are still against the principle of gambling online so we’ve come up with a short list of reasons to play gambling games online and some reasons against it.

Pro’s of gambling online includes the following;

- The ease of being able to play in your home, whenever you like. This eradicates the cost of travelling to Las Vegas and paying you for a hotel. Many people enjoy just playing the games so being able to gamble on their own computer proves very beneficial.

- The selection of games is almost never ending, the cost of making and running each game is so low that casino’s can afford to offer a much wider variety of gambling games than they can in land based casinos

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Are you up-to-date on the latest slots terminology?

24 September 2009

As with every competitive game, we have our own terminology and unique words in the slots world which we would just like to recap on to ensure you know what we’re talking about. If you’re a fan of playing slot machines I’m sure you’ll understand that it’s much easier to play when you are familiar with the terms used throughout the game.

Slot Reels- The wheels in a slot machine which display the images and determine whether you win or lose. The reels are the most important part of a slot machine, without them there would be no game!

Slots RNG (Random Number Generator)- There is a computer chip within every slot which contains a RNG which will generate a number for each reel within the machine. This number is then divided by another number (which can be one of 6 numbers; 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 or 512) and the remainder of the calculation will be the number placed against that reel to decide when it stops spinning.

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Who are the Slot Machine Experts?

21 September 2009

There are some true slot machine experts walking the streets these days with more knowledge about the game than any player could hope for. Some people spend their lives studying and working on gambling games to come up with new ideas and figure out tricks on how to win. Other than the true Casino Man right here the guys we’ve mentioned below are also quite knowledgeable.

Charles Fey was the first inventor of the slots and built the first ever real slot machine in 1895 after finding a love of mechanics. The Liberty Bell was cased in cast iron and had a classic Liberty Bell on the front of the machine as well as a bell inside that rang when a winner hit the jackpot. Charles Fey invented the works of the classic slot machine that we refer to these days and after finding his way with the machines, dedicated his life to building them.

Michael Shackleford is a professor in the University of Nevada for Casino Math and teaches students how to analyse casinos as he has been studying for years. He has made his career from studying casino games and as a recognised expert of gambling strategy. Michael Bluejay also works with Shackleford to help with the website but also has his own hints and tips for playing online slot machines.

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Slot Machine Superstitions

10 September 2009

Winning at slot machines, land based or online, is mostly just about luck. There are a lot of people however who think otherwise and have spread around many myths and superstitions linked to playing slot machines and the ‘real’ ways to win, here are just a few to give you a laugh;

Temperature of the coin- some people argue that if you have a really hot or cold coin (there are arguments over which one) then you can get the machine to pay out.

Learn the sequence- one of the biggest myths around slot machines is that you can learn the winning sequence and when they will pay out so that you can then go the same slot machine and wait for the right time in order to hit the jackpot. This is not true and all slot machines have randomised coding that can’t be tricked.

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Have you tried Fruit Machines?

04 September 2009

Fruit machines are slot machines with a difference, instead of just the normal online slots games with fruit machines you get extra buttons to push, extra bonus games and other features to give a more skilled gambling game. These games are very popular online even though you may not get the full experience of pulling the lever down; you can still enjoy a good game.

Fruit Machines started out in America in 1887 and were nicknamed ‘one-armed bandits’ due to their mechanics which functioned by the player pulling down on the lever to activate the reels. Also, for those not up-to-date on fruit machine history, the new name originated in Britain as they refer to the American-invented version of the game, completely separate to the standard slot machines.

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What are your lucky numbers?

27 August 2008

As soon as man stood up and walked, he started to count. Before the idea of “numbers” became part of our basic logic set, objects were just objects. It’s a little hard to imagine that if you had two rocks in front of you, you wouldn’t refer to them as “two rocks.” The two had no significance. But numberless life didn’t last for long. As soon as humans got a handle on numbers, they started to give them significant meanings.

Over time, numbers evolved to something more than a counting table. Numbers became mystical. The ancient Chinese are thought to be among the first to give numbers the label of “lucky.” In Chinese culture, some numbers are believed to be fortunate or unfortunate. Primarily, odd numbers are thought to be unlucky in Chinese culture, leaving the even numbers to be the luckier. The Chinese believe that good luck comes in pairs.

Almost every culture holds some numbers to a lucky standard. The number 7 has been considered to be lucky for centuries. Though its origins are up for debate, there are many instances throughout history that reference the number 7 and its lucky nature. The Pythagoreans referred to 7 as the “perfect number,” stating that 3 and 4, the triangle and the square, were the perfect figures.

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World Series of Poker History

09 August 2008

There isn’t a poker player alive who isn’t glued to his or her seat when the World Series of Poker (WSOP) is on. In fact, there seems to be very few alive who don’t go to Las Vegas to enter in the main event. Almost 9,000 poker players entered the main event, making this more of a donkey-fest than an actual testament to one’s skill-set.

But nevertheless, professional players such as Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, and many more pros will test their grit and determination against a field of over 8,000 players who seemingly stay in hands just to catch a river card. Not taking anything away from an amateur player, but percentages can be extremely cruel. The last time a “pro” won the WSOP was in 2001 when Carlos Mortensen took down the prize.

The game of poker wasn’t played above the table with yelling and flailing limbs in the beginning of WSOP history. In fact, one of the great players at time, such as Johnny Moss, would have quickly put a stop to any insurrection or untimely outbursts. Poker has been played for centuries now, and has ended in injury or death for many cheaters, big-talkers, and owners of outlandish personalities. Texas Hold ‘Em hasn’t been around quite as long. But once upon a time, it was a highly respected game.

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Some background on the Hong Kong Jockey Club

17 July 2008

One of the oldest institutions in Hong Kong, the HKJC (Hong Kong Jockey Club) was founded in 1884 to promote horse racing. The club enjoyed royal patronage under colonial rule, and operated under the name, “The Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club.” This not-for-profit organization promotes and provides horse racing, sporting and betting entertainment in Hong Kong.

It holds a government-granted monopoly in providing pari-mutuel betting on racing, lotteries, and fixed odds betting of football. Apart from being the largest taxpayer in all of Hong Kong, the HKJC is also the largest private donator of charitable funds, contributing over a billion dollars (HK) every year for the past 10. The HKJC also provides dining and recreation facilities to around 20,000 members.

When the HKJC began in 1884, it was an exclusive club for the ruling class. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there were very few Chinese members in the group. Three other top colonial clubs at the time, the Jockey Club, Victoria Recreation Club, and the Amateur Dramatic Corps, didn’t have one Chinese member between them. In 1971, the club changed its status from amateur to professional. They then organized annual races which took place around the Chinese New Year.

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How Las Vegas was founded

11 July 2008

Las Vegas, which in Spanish means “The Meadows,” was named by Spaniards in the Antonio Armijo party, who used water from the area while heading north and west along the Old Spanish Trail from Texas. In 1844, John C. Fremont traveled into the Las Vegas Valley, while it was still part of Mexico.

He was a leader of a group of scientists, scouts, and other observers for the United States Army Corps of Engineers. In 1855, Brigham Young assigned 30 missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the area in attempts to convert the Paiute Indian population to Mormonism. A small fort was built near the current downtown area, serving as a stopover for weary travelers along the “Mormon Corridor.”

Las Vegas was then established as a railroad town in 1905, when 110 acres was auctioned off in what is now downtown Las Vegas. Las Vegas was part of Lincoln County until 1909, when it became part of newly established Clark County.

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The History behind the Bellagio Hotel and Casino

25 June 2008

The Bellagio is an AAA Five-Diamond rated luxury hotel and casino in Las Vegas, located on The Strip. MGM Mirage holds ownership of this luxurious hotel and casino, and it was built on the site of the demolished Dunes hotel and casino.

Inspired by the Lake Como resort of Bellagio in Italy, Vegas’ Bellagio is famed for its elegance. One of the most notable features of the Bellagio is an 8-acre artificial lake between the hotel and the Strip, which holds the famous Fountains of Bellagio. The Bellagio has been one of Vegas’ most famous resorts since its inception. It employs approximately 10,000 people, and is visited by millions each year.

The Bellagio was conceived by Steve Wynn, an American casino resort developer, and built by his company, Mirage Resorts, Inc. Wynn is often considered as the man who changed Vegas. In 1989, his first major Strip casino, The Mirage, opened, setting a new standard in Vegas, making immediate history.

With his second project, the 1993 Treasure Island Hotel and Casino, Wynn proved once again that his vision for Vegas was different. The $450 million dollar resort was another instant smash with the public.

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Casino Monte Carlo and the Famous Casino Square

16 June 2008

The Casino Monte Carlo is built for and used by tourists only. In fact, citizens of Monaco are not allowed inside the gaming rooms of the facility. The royal family of Monaco can attend opera and ballet performances, but they do use an alternative entrance.

Other individuals must display a passport and pay the entrance fee before being allowed entrance to the building. Individuals wearing military uniforms are also prohibited from using the facilities of the casino. The casino is arguably the most famous of Monaco’s tourist draws.

The casino complex includes more than just the gambling facility. The Grand Théâtre de Monte Carlo is situated in the complex, as well as the opera and ballet house. The gardens behind the casino offer a glimpse of Bordighera in Italy.

The theater was not part of the original facility, but was added in 1910. The Ballets de Monte Carlo headquarters is also located in the complex. The entire facility is part of the Monte Carlo quarter.

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What is a video poker machine and how does it work?

26 May 2008

In the world of gambling, evolution is a key factor in its popularity. From Roman soldiers playing dice, to astronauts shuffling their decks in the space shuttle, gambling is as old and widespread as anything throughout history. But without the modern conveniences of today’s gambling, it wasn’t accessible to such a broad audience.

When humans began to revolutionize machinery, video poker machines weren’t high on their list. Yet since they’ve been around, these machines have grossed billions upon billions of dollars, and have become some of the most popular items in various shops and casinos.

Video poker machines work by using a random number generator (RNG), which is a software algorithm used to ensure a random outcome of game play. Though not all RNG’s operate the same, they all offer completely random numbers, with billions of variants. When the machine isn’t in action, the RNG runs hundreds of times per second.

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Where and when was roulette invented?

24 May 2008

The game of Roulette is named after French word meaning “small wheel”. It is widely popular in casinos and on the internet. In the game, a croupier spins a wheel in one direction, and them spins a ball in the opposite direction.

The ball rotates along the circumference of a titled circular surface until it eventually stops and falls into a colored numbered pocket on the wheel. The number of slots in the wheel depends on where you play roulette. If you’re playing in Europe, the wheel only has 37 slots, in America, it has 38.

All players may choose to place bets on a number to win, the color of the pocket, or whether the number will be odd or even. For the most part, the design is universally the same and the betting structure remains in tact.

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The oldest casino in Las Vegas, The Golden Gate Casino

21 May 2008

When you’re in Las Vegas, odds are you’re there to gamble. Not many people pay attention to other aspects of Vegas. To stop and look at Vegas as a whole, many would notice that it’s dry, dirty, hot, and extremely expensive.

The euphoric rush which takes over while gambling and partying often blinds individuals to the current state of affairs. But let’s face it, we all love to gamble. And some places in Vegas do have more appeal than others.

Though some people may rather stay in places like the Bellagio and Caesars Palace, the Golden Gate Hotel & Casino really tells the sordid story of Vegas, and people still frequent its small quarters.

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A short history on Indian Casino Gaming

28 April 2008

Indian casino gaming as we know it all began with the Seminole tribe of Florida. It wasn’t very long ago at all.

The Seminoles first opened a high-stakes bingo hall on their reservation in 1979. And just like anything in the United States, the government in Florida quickly moved in, attempting to close down the operation.

However, the courts interceded and stopped the attempts by Florida to overthrow the bingo hall. But despite the early victories in court by the Seminole tribe, the legality of Indian casino gaming was still very much in doubt.

There have been a few landmark events which sparked a flame of revolution in the Indian casino gaming venture. One important case took place in California.

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