As promised, a coalition of California’s major tribes has cobbled together the draft text of a new online poker bill (viewable here). The 13 unified tribes – including the Agua Caliente Band of Mission Indians, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians, the Pala Band of Mission Indians and the United Auburn Indian Community — wrote a letter expressing their support of the Internet Poker Consumer Protection Act of 2014 to state Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer and state Sen. Lou Correa, the authors of two previous legislative efforts to bring online poker to the Golden State.
However, the apparent lack of support of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians and the draft’s explicit exclusion of the Morongo’s chosen technology partners PokerStars could doom the bill’s chances. The bill contains strict ‘bad actor’ provisions that would prevent any company that took wagers from US residents after Dec. 31, 2006 from participating in a regulated California online poker market. That prohibition extends to those companies’ software, brands, databases and other assets.
At a recent online gaming conference in Sacramento, Morongo chairman Robert Martin said his group would likely mount a legal challenge of any legislation that included such bad actor provisions, arguing that determinations of suitability were best left to regulators, not legislators. However, the draft contains a poison pill that would nullify the entire bill if a court ruled that its bad actor provisions were unconstitutional.
As for the bill’s other nuts and bolts, eligibility for licensing is limited to licensed card rooms and federally recognized California tribes already offering poker at their land-based gaming facilities. (Racetracks are out of luck.) Licensees would be limited to offering two online poker ‘skins’. A license would cost $5m up front but this would be credited against future tax payments, which are set at 5% of revenue. Licenses would be valid for 10 years, with automatic renewals for the same duration.
The bill is explicitly intrastate, meaning any liquidity sharing with other states and/or foreign jurisdictions would require separate legislation. Players would have to be 21 years of age and it would be a misdemeanor to play online poker on sites not holding a California license. Specific regulations would need to be drawn up within 180 days of the bill’s passage and all licensees would face the same ‘go live’ date to ensure no one got a head start.
And now it gets interesting. If the draft bill were to be introduced as is and receive the support of 2/3 of both legislative houses and become law, do the Morongo choose to mount a legal fight against what they view as the anti-compeitive impulses of the 13 other tribes, thereby subjecting implementation of the state’s online poker regime to a lengthy delay? What’s more, should the Morongo win the fight, the legislative clock resets to zero, resulting in even more delay (and frustration) for California poker players.
June 03, 2014
Vietnam charges 59 over links to M88.com sports betting site
Vietnamese authorities have filed charges against 59 individuals over their involvement with online sports betting site M88.com. The illegal betting ring was broken up last January following a three-year investigation into the local connections of the Philippines-based website. Police said the ring involved some 12k locally registered bank accounts the site used to transfer money to and from local bettors via agents on the ground. The ring is believed to have processed wagers worth hundreds of millions of US dollars before being shut down.
Among those facing organized gambling charges are Nguyen Le Sang, a former deputy director of PR and marketing at the Vietnam International Bank. Thanh Nien News reported that Sang was paid US $100k to open eight bank accounts through which more than VND 585b (US $27.6m) in betting funds was transmitted. Cu Thi Thanh Hai, a former deputy director with telecom firm News Plus, was paid $35k for opening six accounts through which VND 64b was wagered. Two other agents are accused of opening accounts handling over VND 500b apiece, for which they received unknown remuneration.
Nugyen vo Hoai Tram, also a director at News Plus and the ring’s alleged mastermind, remains at large. Police say Tram began his relationship as M88’s advertising agent in 2010. The timing of the charges was no doubt intended to remind other would-be sports betting entrepreneurs that handling wagers on this month’s FIFA World Cup is not without its potential downside.
Not content to focus on football, Vietnamese authorities are also taking action against illegal lotteries. A major illegal numbers operation that handled “dozens of billions” in daily wagers (12b VND = US $564k) was broken up in Ho Chi Minh City last month. Players could win up to 80x their original wager by playing the so de numbers game, which was based on the official state lottery. Police fingered 36-year-old Nguyen Ngoc Thang as the ringleader who utilized dozens of agents across the city to collect bets and pay winnings. Police arrested 28 individuals and seized computers, phones, fax machines and over VND 2b in cash.
Among those facing organized gambling charges are Nguyen Le Sang, a former deputy director of PR and marketing at the Vietnam International Bank. Thanh Nien News reported that Sang was paid US $100k to open eight bank accounts through which more than VND 585b (US $27.6m) in betting funds was transmitted. Cu Thi Thanh Hai, a former deputy director with telecom firm News Plus, was paid $35k for opening six accounts through which VND 64b was wagered. Two other agents are accused of opening accounts handling over VND 500b apiece, for which they received unknown remuneration.
Nugyen vo Hoai Tram, also a director at News Plus and the ring’s alleged mastermind, remains at large. Police say Tram began his relationship as M88’s advertising agent in 2010. The timing of the charges was no doubt intended to remind other would-be sports betting entrepreneurs that handling wagers on this month’s FIFA World Cup is not without its potential downside.
Not content to focus on football, Vietnamese authorities are also taking action against illegal lotteries. A major illegal numbers operation that handled “dozens of billions” in daily wagers (12b VND = US $564k) was broken up in Ho Chi Minh City last month. Players could win up to 80x their original wager by playing the so de numbers game, which was based on the official state lottery. Police fingered 36-year-old Nguyen Ngoc Thang as the ringleader who utilized dozens of agents across the city to collect bets and pay winnings. Police arrested 28 individuals and seized computers, phones, fax machines and over VND 2b in cash.
How Does Counting Cards in Blackjack Work?
Owning a casino isn't much of a gamble. In almost every game, the casino has a statistical advantage—so for every one gambler raking it in, there are more than enough people leaving with empty pockets to net an enormous profit. But between the rolling dice and spinning roulette wheels, there’s one game—if played with the right strategy—where the odds are actually in the gambler’s favor. That game is blackjack. You just have to learn how to count cards.
Blackjack, also called twenty-one, is one of the most popular casino games in the world. In this push-your-luck card game, you attempt to beat the dealer at getting as close to 21 points worth of cards. While the dealer always has to follow a simple set of betting rules, the gambler is free to pursue the best strategy available. And despite popular belief, with enough practice, anyone can count cards in blackjack; you don’t have to be a genius, and although it’s called "counting cards," you’re not memorizing which cards have been played. Here’s why and how it works.
In a normal game of blackjack played with a single deck of cards, the "house edge"—the statistical likelihood that the casino will come out on top—is essentially nil. That means that if you play according to the very best strategy available (by memorizing and following the optimal method), in the long-run you’ll break even. That doesn’t sound like much, but blackjack is the only table-game that can claim such advantageous odds. And it’s these odds that make blackjack ripe for card counting.
In simple terms, "counting cards" just means keeping a tally of certain cards while the dealer burns through the deck. By keeping that tally—although you still play with the same strategy as before—you know approximately which cards are more likely to come up for both you and the dealer in the next hand.
And that little bit of information can tell you when to bet big, or when to bet small. Having more low-numbered cards left in the deck is bad. It means you’re less likely to get a blackjack (21 points on your first two cards, which pays a bonus) and the dealer is less likely to "bust"—get over 21 points worth of cards—due to the dealer’s rigid betting rules. And more high-numbered cards are good for the opposite reasons.
If played correctly, counting cards improves your odds by around 1 percent. Again, that doesn’t sound like much, but over many, many hours and even more hands of cards, you can count on netting in the green.
There are more than a few card counting strategies, but perhaps the best and easiest is a system called High-Low.
Using the High-Low strategy, the card counter only has to keep a simple mental tally of three groups of cards. Every time he or she sees a high number card played on the table (the 10s and all the face cards), the counter subtracts 1 from his or her tally. For every low number card (the twos through sixes) the counter adds 1 to his or her tally. The middle cards (the sevens, eights, and nines) are simply ignored.
If, for example, the running tally is at +3, that means the upcoming cards are more likely to be high, and thus it’s advantageous for the player to bet big. If the tally is at -2, the odds are on the dealer’s side because of the forthcoming low cards, and so it’s best to bet small. And when the deck is shuffled, the count goes back to 0.
With enough time, this straightforward tally becomes effortless. But the key to success is practice. Card counting is a long-term strategy, and keeping your 1 percent edge requires playing by the book game after game, while keeping count of what cards are rapidly being dealt and flipped on the table. And in a bustling casino brimming with coming and going players, that means staying focused.
Despite what any casino would like you to think, card counting is not illegal. You’re not cheating—you’re simply out-thinking the house. But casinos know that card counters can and will lose them money. And they take advantage of their right to deny service to anyone they please by searching for and kicking out suspect gamblers.
From a casino’s perspective, a telltale card counter is someone who’s hyper-focused on the game, and plays for long stretches of time, and bets amounts that vary wildly and seemingly randomly (as the odds swing in or out of the card counter’s favor). But there are a few ways you can fool the casino.
First, don't look the part. Dress like a tourist, chat with the dealer, and take your time when betting—normal players don’t have a betting strategy drilled into them. This is also where your card counting practice will help, because if keeping your tally becomes truly effortless, small-talk won’t derail your work.
Second, vary your bet minimally. While this decreases your advantage, it increases your card counter camouflage. Doubling or tripling your bet suddenly is the quickest way to flag yourself, and not only will that draw unwanted attention, but the dealer will likely shuffle the deck, ruining your count. So try to fly under the radar of the pit bosses and ever-present eyes of the casino’s security.
Lastly, don’t stay at one casino or one table for too long. As a card counter, you’re now the only (legal) snag in a casino’s otherwise solid business strategy—a wandering statistical anomaly—so take your show on the road.
Blackjack, also called twenty-one, is one of the most popular casino games in the world. In this push-your-luck card game, you attempt to beat the dealer at getting as close to 21 points worth of cards. While the dealer always has to follow a simple set of betting rules, the gambler is free to pursue the best strategy available. And despite popular belief, with enough practice, anyone can count cards in blackjack; you don’t have to be a genius, and although it’s called "counting cards," you’re not memorizing which cards have been played. Here’s why and how it works.
In a normal game of blackjack played with a single deck of cards, the "house edge"—the statistical likelihood that the casino will come out on top—is essentially nil. That means that if you play according to the very best strategy available (by memorizing and following the optimal method), in the long-run you’ll break even. That doesn’t sound like much, but blackjack is the only table-game that can claim such advantageous odds. And it’s these odds that make blackjack ripe for card counting.
In simple terms, "counting cards" just means keeping a tally of certain cards while the dealer burns through the deck. By keeping that tally—although you still play with the same strategy as before—you know approximately which cards are more likely to come up for both you and the dealer in the next hand.
And that little bit of information can tell you when to bet big, or when to bet small. Having more low-numbered cards left in the deck is bad. It means you’re less likely to get a blackjack (21 points on your first two cards, which pays a bonus) and the dealer is less likely to "bust"—get over 21 points worth of cards—due to the dealer’s rigid betting rules. And more high-numbered cards are good for the opposite reasons.
If played correctly, counting cards improves your odds by around 1 percent. Again, that doesn’t sound like much, but over many, many hours and even more hands of cards, you can count on netting in the green.
There are more than a few card counting strategies, but perhaps the best and easiest is a system called High-Low.
Using the High-Low strategy, the card counter only has to keep a simple mental tally of three groups of cards. Every time he or she sees a high number card played on the table (the 10s and all the face cards), the counter subtracts 1 from his or her tally. For every low number card (the twos through sixes) the counter adds 1 to his or her tally. The middle cards (the sevens, eights, and nines) are simply ignored.
If, for example, the running tally is at +3, that means the upcoming cards are more likely to be high, and thus it’s advantageous for the player to bet big. If the tally is at -2, the odds are on the dealer’s side because of the forthcoming low cards, and so it’s best to bet small. And when the deck is shuffled, the count goes back to 0.
With enough time, this straightforward tally becomes effortless. But the key to success is practice. Card counting is a long-term strategy, and keeping your 1 percent edge requires playing by the book game after game, while keeping count of what cards are rapidly being dealt and flipped on the table. And in a bustling casino brimming with coming and going players, that means staying focused.
Despite what any casino would like you to think, card counting is not illegal. You’re not cheating—you’re simply out-thinking the house. But casinos know that card counters can and will lose them money. And they take advantage of their right to deny service to anyone they please by searching for and kicking out suspect gamblers.
From a casino’s perspective, a telltale card counter is someone who’s hyper-focused on the game, and plays for long stretches of time, and bets amounts that vary wildly and seemingly randomly (as the odds swing in or out of the card counter’s favor). But there are a few ways you can fool the casino.
First, don't look the part. Dress like a tourist, chat with the dealer, and take your time when betting—normal players don’t have a betting strategy drilled into them. This is also where your card counting practice will help, because if keeping your tally becomes truly effortless, small-talk won’t derail your work.
Second, vary your bet minimally. While this decreases your advantage, it increases your card counter camouflage. Doubling or tripling your bet suddenly is the quickest way to flag yourself, and not only will that draw unwanted attention, but the dealer will likely shuffle the deck, ruining your count. So try to fly under the radar of the pit bosses and ever-present eyes of the casino’s security.
Lastly, don’t stay at one casino or one table for too long. As a card counter, you’re now the only (legal) snag in a casino’s otherwise solid business strategy—a wandering statistical anomaly—so take your show on the road.
Inside the Fixing: How a Gang Battered Soccer’s Frail Integrity
Rovaniemi, Finland — A man arrived at the police station here in 2011 with an unusual tip. He told the police that a Singaporean man was fixing matches with the local professional soccer team. The police were incredulous.
This city on the Arctic Circle is known as the hometown of Santa Claus. It boasts a theme park with reindeer, elves and jolly St. Nicks. It is also a popular destination for Asian couples looking to make love under the Northern Lights. Rovaniemi is known for many things, but not for organized crime.
“Then after a few days, we started to realize that we had something real,” said Arttu Granat, a police detective at the time who hunts moose on the weekends. “So we started to build up the surveillance team.”
The detectives soon discovered that Wilson Raj Perumal, a match fixer from Singapore, was toiling away in Rovaniemi, working with several players, unbeknown to the coach. Mr. Perumal was considered a risk by his associates in a Singaporean match-rigging syndicate, so the group had sent a representative to Finland to tip off the police, Mr. Granat said.
Mr. Perumal was arrested and given a choice: Talk or be sent back to Singapore, where his punishment might be severe.
Mr. Perumal talked. His account — along with confidential documents, judicial investigations and interviews with people with knowledge of the syndicate’s operations — revealed how pervasively illicit gambling operations have infected global soccer, leaving the legitimacy of what fans see on the field more fragile than ever.
The match-fixing syndicate Mr. Perumal worked for very effectively exploited soccer’s vulnerabilities. According to European police investigators, the syndicate has manipulated hundreds of professional soccer matches around the world by identifying players and referees ripe for bribery — particularly in countries that pay low wages.
The syndicate’s schemes often succeeded with apparent ease, including the rigging of exhibition games in the lead-up to the 2010 World Cup, raising concerns about the ability of officials to thwart match fixing.
The Apprentice Fixers
Mr. Perumal learned his trade in an informal school for match fixers in Singapore, along with Tan Seet Eng, a Singaporean man known widely as Dan Tan. In the early 1990s, they would gather in the stadiums where illegal bookmakers would take bets on the Malaysian-Singaporean soccer league.
The fixers were so successful that a Malaysian Cabinet minister estimated that they succeeded in fixing more than 70 percent of the league’s matches. The corruption was so bad that the Malaysian-Singaporean league collapsed.
At the bottom of the fixers’ hierarchy were runners: the go-betweens for the players and the fixers. Above the fixers were influential businessmen with the money to back the more expensive fixes and the protection muscle to make sure the network ran smoothly.
In the syndicate’s early days, there was one king, known as Uncle Frankie, a legend among match fixers. He was a Chinese-Indonesian businessman who sometimes used the name Frankie Chung, but his real name could not be confirmed. He knew that the global expansion of soccer presented lots of fixing opportunities. Uncle Frankie would go to major international tournaments, like the World Cup, and try to bribe players and referees.
Uncle Frankie taught Mr. Tan and Mr. Perumal the dirty secret of international soccer: Many teams and their personnel are poor, so they often have players, coaches and referees open to bribes.
“In every competition you find gamblers around,” said Kwesi Nyantakyi, president of the Ghana Football Association. “Yes, every competition. Every competition, they are there. It is done all the time in major competitions. In all the major tournaments, World Cup, Cup of Nations.”
“The gamblers are not Africans,” he added. “They are Europeans and Asians. So they have a lot of money to bet on these things.”
With its talented players with little money, Ghana is one of the countries that fixers frequently target at international tournaments, Mr. Nyantakyi said. So he was not surprised when, in 2007, it was discovered that there had been an attempt to fix an international match involving Ghana’s celebrated goalkeeping coach, Abukari Damba, who was working with the Singaporean fixers.
After some players turned him in, Mr. Damba confessed and said in a Ghana Football Association hearing that he had worked with the Singaporean fixers for 10 years.
Enter the Croatians
Mr. Perumal joined the international match-fixing group in 2008. In his interrogation cell in 2011, he charted the syndicate’s organization for Mr. Granat and other Finnish police officers. It had European partners and Chinese backers who supplied money allegedly laundered through casinos in Macau.
The match-fixing syndicate was a criminal network, according to European police investigators. Europeans supplied compliant referees, players and coaches; Mr. Tan and the Singaporeans provided access to the vast, unregulated sports gambling market in Asia.
If the match fixers had only the referee on the take, they would say it was a one-star fix. In this case, the Asian syndicate would bet a smaller amount. If the local fixers had the entire team and the officiating crew on the take, it was called a five-star fix, and the syndicate would wager far more.
This system was devised at a meeting in a hotel room in Vienna in September 2008 between the Asian syndicate run by Mr. Tan and Ante and Milan Sapina, two Berlin-based Croatian brothers who had a vast network of corrupt soccer players, referees and coaches. The Sapinas have twice been convicted of match fixing in Germany and are in prison there.
Together, they fixed hundreds of soccer matches around the world, targeting nearly every league — from the prestigious Champions League and World Cup qualifying matches to obscure, low-level matches. Once the Sapina brothers had persuaded their contacts to fix matches, Mr. Tan could then place bets on the Asian sports gambling market, the biggest in the world. Because much of the Asian market is underground, estimates of its size vary greatly. Patrick Jay, a senior executive of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, one of the largest government-controlled gambling companies in the world, estimated that the Asian market handled $1 trillion in wagering.
“It is huge,” Mr. Jay said. “FIFA boasts about how much money they make every four years with the World Cup. You know what they call $4 billion in the illegal betting markets in Asia? Thursday.”
680 Suspicious Matches
Terry Steans, a former FIFA investigator who now runs a sports security company in the United Kingdom, said the syndicate of Mr. Tan and Mr. Perumal moved fixing to another level from the early days of simply approaching players in hotel rooms.
“They organized tournaments where they invited entire teams — no one watched the games, they were not televised,” Steans said. “The whole thing was set up for the gambling markets.”
In February 2011, the syndicate orchestrated one of the strangest tournaments. It invited the national teams of Estonia, Bulgaria, Bolivia and Latvia to Antalya, Turkey. The tournament’s games were played in near-empty stadiums. They were not televised. Yet they attracted millions of dollars in bets on the Asian market.
All seven goals were scored on penalty kicks — all awarded by referees the syndicate had chosen and flown in.
“For sheer nerve, it has to rate high up there,” Mr. Steans said. “They hired the stadium. Would not sell tickets. Would not allow fans in. No television. Four international teams. Bought the referees and made money on the gambling market. It is pretty brazen.”
FIFA eventually barred the referees.
In February 2013, Europol, the European Union’s police intelligence agency, said the results of 680 matches worldwide from 2008 to 2011, including World Cup qualifying matches and European Champions League matches, were considered suspicious. Mr. Tan’s group did most of this work, investigators said.
In Italy, Mr. Tan was so successful working with Balkan associates who had connections with Italian organized crime that more than 20 Italian professional soccer teams were investigated for match fixing. A senior investigator of Italy’s National Organized Crime Task Force labeled Mr. Tan as the “No. 1 wanted man in Italy.”
“For their part, Dan Tan and his group constitute a criminal network that is both dangerous and quick to violence in case of anyone who breaks their rules,” an Italian prosecutor wrote in his statement. “This is stated in the testimony of one of the members who said it takes very little in the case of treason by one of the group to risk their murder.”
The European investigators determined that Mr. Tan’s syndicate also managed to fix matches played in the United States. In 2010, it persuaded a majority of El Salvador’s national team to throw a game against D.C. United of Major League Soccer as well as an international match against the United States in Miami. Many of the Salvadoran players were subsequently barred for life.
The Syndicate Lives On
In 2011, Mr. Perumal was found guilty of corruption in Finland and was sentenced to two years. He was released early. In late April, he was arrested again in Finland because, the police said, he had returned to the fixing business and had an outstanding international arrest warrant. He faces extradition to Singapore.
Last year, Singaporean law enforcement officials arrested Mr. Tan. However, he is in indefinite detention and may not stand trial. The scale of his match fixing may never be fully revealed.
Their arrests are not expected to stanch match fixing in Asia. Mr. Granat, the detective who helped disrupt Mr. Perumal’s exploits in northern Finland, said he ultimately recognized the group’s extraordinary reach.
“I remember I started to take it seriously when Wilson Raj Perumal had been in prison for a week and he told me, ‘This particular game next week will be fixed,' ” Mr. Granat said. “He was in custody, and he could still tell me these things.”
In a recent interview in Kuala Lumpur, an associate of the syndicate’s discussed the group’s next phase. “Dan Tan and the others are locked up, but the betting cartel has just carried on,” he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
“They have new people to do their work. There is no stopping them.”
This city on the Arctic Circle is known as the hometown of Santa Claus. It boasts a theme park with reindeer, elves and jolly St. Nicks. It is also a popular destination for Asian couples looking to make love under the Northern Lights. Rovaniemi is known for many things, but not for organized crime.
“Then after a few days, we started to realize that we had something real,” said Arttu Granat, a police detective at the time who hunts moose on the weekends. “So we started to build up the surveillance team.”
The detectives soon discovered that Wilson Raj Perumal, a match fixer from Singapore, was toiling away in Rovaniemi, working with several players, unbeknown to the coach. Mr. Perumal was considered a risk by his associates in a Singaporean match-rigging syndicate, so the group had sent a representative to Finland to tip off the police, Mr. Granat said.
Mr. Perumal was arrested and given a choice: Talk or be sent back to Singapore, where his punishment might be severe.
Mr. Perumal talked. His account — along with confidential documents, judicial investigations and interviews with people with knowledge of the syndicate’s operations — revealed how pervasively illicit gambling operations have infected global soccer, leaving the legitimacy of what fans see on the field more fragile than ever.
The match-fixing syndicate Mr. Perumal worked for very effectively exploited soccer’s vulnerabilities. According to European police investigators, the syndicate has manipulated hundreds of professional soccer matches around the world by identifying players and referees ripe for bribery — particularly in countries that pay low wages.
The syndicate’s schemes often succeeded with apparent ease, including the rigging of exhibition games in the lead-up to the 2010 World Cup, raising concerns about the ability of officials to thwart match fixing.
The Apprentice Fixers
Mr. Perumal learned his trade in an informal school for match fixers in Singapore, along with Tan Seet Eng, a Singaporean man known widely as Dan Tan. In the early 1990s, they would gather in the stadiums where illegal bookmakers would take bets on the Malaysian-Singaporean soccer league.
The fixers were so successful that a Malaysian Cabinet minister estimated that they succeeded in fixing more than 70 percent of the league’s matches. The corruption was so bad that the Malaysian-Singaporean league collapsed.
At the bottom of the fixers’ hierarchy were runners: the go-betweens for the players and the fixers. Above the fixers were influential businessmen with the money to back the more expensive fixes and the protection muscle to make sure the network ran smoothly.
In the syndicate’s early days, there was one king, known as Uncle Frankie, a legend among match fixers. He was a Chinese-Indonesian businessman who sometimes used the name Frankie Chung, but his real name could not be confirmed. He knew that the global expansion of soccer presented lots of fixing opportunities. Uncle Frankie would go to major international tournaments, like the World Cup, and try to bribe players and referees.
Uncle Frankie taught Mr. Tan and Mr. Perumal the dirty secret of international soccer: Many teams and their personnel are poor, so they often have players, coaches and referees open to bribes.
“In every competition you find gamblers around,” said Kwesi Nyantakyi, president of the Ghana Football Association. “Yes, every competition. Every competition, they are there. It is done all the time in major competitions. In all the major tournaments, World Cup, Cup of Nations.”
“The gamblers are not Africans,” he added. “They are Europeans and Asians. So they have a lot of money to bet on these things.”
With its talented players with little money, Ghana is one of the countries that fixers frequently target at international tournaments, Mr. Nyantakyi said. So he was not surprised when, in 2007, it was discovered that there had been an attempt to fix an international match involving Ghana’s celebrated goalkeeping coach, Abukari Damba, who was working with the Singaporean fixers.
After some players turned him in, Mr. Damba confessed and said in a Ghana Football Association hearing that he had worked with the Singaporean fixers for 10 years.
Enter the Croatians
Mr. Perumal joined the international match-fixing group in 2008. In his interrogation cell in 2011, he charted the syndicate’s organization for Mr. Granat and other Finnish police officers. It had European partners and Chinese backers who supplied money allegedly laundered through casinos in Macau.
The match-fixing syndicate was a criminal network, according to European police investigators. Europeans supplied compliant referees, players and coaches; Mr. Tan and the Singaporeans provided access to the vast, unregulated sports gambling market in Asia.
If the match fixers had only the referee on the take, they would say it was a one-star fix. In this case, the Asian syndicate would bet a smaller amount. If the local fixers had the entire team and the officiating crew on the take, it was called a five-star fix, and the syndicate would wager far more.
This system was devised at a meeting in a hotel room in Vienna in September 2008 between the Asian syndicate run by Mr. Tan and Ante and Milan Sapina, two Berlin-based Croatian brothers who had a vast network of corrupt soccer players, referees and coaches. The Sapinas have twice been convicted of match fixing in Germany and are in prison there.
Together, they fixed hundreds of soccer matches around the world, targeting nearly every league — from the prestigious Champions League and World Cup qualifying matches to obscure, low-level matches. Once the Sapina brothers had persuaded their contacts to fix matches, Mr. Tan could then place bets on the Asian sports gambling market, the biggest in the world. Because much of the Asian market is underground, estimates of its size vary greatly. Patrick Jay, a senior executive of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, one of the largest government-controlled gambling companies in the world, estimated that the Asian market handled $1 trillion in wagering.
“It is huge,” Mr. Jay said. “FIFA boasts about how much money they make every four years with the World Cup. You know what they call $4 billion in the illegal betting markets in Asia? Thursday.”
680 Suspicious Matches
Terry Steans, a former FIFA investigator who now runs a sports security company in the United Kingdom, said the syndicate of Mr. Tan and Mr. Perumal moved fixing to another level from the early days of simply approaching players in hotel rooms.
“They organized tournaments where they invited entire teams — no one watched the games, they were not televised,” Steans said. “The whole thing was set up for the gambling markets.”
In February 2011, the syndicate orchestrated one of the strangest tournaments. It invited the national teams of Estonia, Bulgaria, Bolivia and Latvia to Antalya, Turkey. The tournament’s games were played in near-empty stadiums. They were not televised. Yet they attracted millions of dollars in bets on the Asian market.
All seven goals were scored on penalty kicks — all awarded by referees the syndicate had chosen and flown in.
“For sheer nerve, it has to rate high up there,” Mr. Steans said. “They hired the stadium. Would not sell tickets. Would not allow fans in. No television. Four international teams. Bought the referees and made money on the gambling market. It is pretty brazen.”
FIFA eventually barred the referees.
In February 2013, Europol, the European Union’s police intelligence agency, said the results of 680 matches worldwide from 2008 to 2011, including World Cup qualifying matches and European Champions League matches, were considered suspicious. Mr. Tan’s group did most of this work, investigators said.
In Italy, Mr. Tan was so successful working with Balkan associates who had connections with Italian organized crime that more than 20 Italian professional soccer teams were investigated for match fixing. A senior investigator of Italy’s National Organized Crime Task Force labeled Mr. Tan as the “No. 1 wanted man in Italy.”
“For their part, Dan Tan and his group constitute a criminal network that is both dangerous and quick to violence in case of anyone who breaks their rules,” an Italian prosecutor wrote in his statement. “This is stated in the testimony of one of the members who said it takes very little in the case of treason by one of the group to risk their murder.”
The European investigators determined that Mr. Tan’s syndicate also managed to fix matches played in the United States. In 2010, it persuaded a majority of El Salvador’s national team to throw a game against D.C. United of Major League Soccer as well as an international match against the United States in Miami. Many of the Salvadoran players were subsequently barred for life.
The Syndicate Lives On
In 2011, Mr. Perumal was found guilty of corruption in Finland and was sentenced to two years. He was released early. In late April, he was arrested again in Finland because, the police said, he had returned to the fixing business and had an outstanding international arrest warrant. He faces extradition to Singapore.
Last year, Singaporean law enforcement officials arrested Mr. Tan. However, he is in indefinite detention and may not stand trial. The scale of his match fixing may never be fully revealed.
Their arrests are not expected to stanch match fixing in Asia. Mr. Granat, the detective who helped disrupt Mr. Perumal’s exploits in northern Finland, said he ultimately recognized the group’s extraordinary reach.
“I remember I started to take it seriously when Wilson Raj Perumal had been in prison for a week and he told me, ‘This particular game next week will be fixed,' ” Mr. Granat said. “He was in custody, and he could still tell me these things.”
In a recent interview in Kuala Lumpur, an associate of the syndicate’s discussed the group’s next phase. “Dan Tan and the others are locked up, but the betting cartel has just carried on,” he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
“They have new people to do their work. There is no stopping them.”
May 28, 2014
Tony G wins seat in Lithuanian Election claims "today we made history"
The final results of the European elections have been announced and founder of Pokernews.com and Lithuanian businessman Tony G can add another achievement to an already impressive list as he gained a seat in the next European Parliament.
When he first announce his intention to run for European Parliament back in December 2013 he said politics is "a competition, a tournament or as a sit-n-go, we are all playing," he said. "Every country is playing and whoever plays the smartest, is going to be successful."
Tony G’s pro liberal party fared much better than originally expected as they became the country’s third biggest party with 16.5% of the votes meaning they will occupy two seats in the next European Parliament.
The colourful poker player also had the honor of winning the most votes of his party and said after the results were released "Today we made history in Lithuanian politics".
His election to European Parliament has been hailed as a great thing many people within the poker industry as he may have the influence to affect poker policy in Europe going forward. Senior member of PartyPoker.Bwin Warren Lush who was on site for the home stretch of the campaign and Election Day called this a “historical result”.
There has also been an overwhelming stream of positive feedback on Tony G’s Facebook and Twitter with many players and members of the industry congratulating him.
I am sure the poker world will be watching as Tony G makes his transition from competitive trash talking poker player to European Parliament member,
When he first announce his intention to run for European Parliament back in December 2013 he said politics is "a competition, a tournament or as a sit-n-go, we are all playing," he said. "Every country is playing and whoever plays the smartest, is going to be successful."
Tony G’s pro liberal party fared much better than originally expected as they became the country’s third biggest party with 16.5% of the votes meaning they will occupy two seats in the next European Parliament.
His election to European Parliament has been hailed as a great thing many people within the poker industry as he may have the influence to affect poker policy in Europe going forward. Senior member of PartyPoker.Bwin Warren Lush who was on site for the home stretch of the campaign and Election Day called this a “historical result”.
There has also been an overwhelming stream of positive feedback on Tony G’s Facebook and Twitter with many players and members of the industry congratulating him.
I am sure the poker world will be watching as Tony G makes his transition from competitive trash talking poker player to European Parliament member,
May 22, 2014
Bwin.party announce departure of three directors
Bwin.party announced on Friday 16th May the departure of three of their directors from the board, with Deputy Chairman Rod Perry retiring once a successor has been selected, while Manfred Bodner and Helmut Kern will be stepping down as non-executive directors after the companies annual general meeting on the 22nd May.
The online gambling firm said in a statement that they had commenced a search for three new independent directors to replace those departures and at the same time again urged investors to vote against SpringOwl’s nominations for directors to the board.
SpringOwl the investment vehicle of Jason Ader who owns 5.27% of bwin.party wants to see boardroom changes and include their own nominations to shake up the company and bring more profit back to the company for investors.
However a spokesperson for bwin.party said that due to “the increasing complexity of the group’s business and regulatory environment, combined with the length of service of a number of the non-executive directors and the need to prevent the board from becoming too large and unwieldy,” it had decided to search for three new independent directors.
As a major shareholder SpringOwl is allowed to nominate one director to the board so long as otter shareholders agreed to the nomination, but SpringOwl are pushing for a total of four new nominations to the bwin.party board something the firm is totally against and fighting hard to oppose come the AGM.
In a move to stop SpringOwl Bwin.party said it has appointed executive search firm Spence Stuart to conduct an international search to identify suitable candidates to join the board.
“Bwin.party is operating in a challenging and rapidly changing business environment. The steps we are announcing today will ensure that succession is in place to allow the board to anticipate and address the complexities of technological change, the inevitable transition to regulated and taxed markets and also to maximise the long-term value of the business for its shareholders, customers and employees,” Chairman-Elect Philip Yea said in a statement.
It is going to be a very fiery AGM and observers are split on how shareholders will vote on SpringOwl’s nominations, the outcome could jeopardize the position of CEO Norbert Teufelberger should the vote go in favour of Jason Ader and his nominations.
The online gambling firm said in a statement that they had commenced a search for three new independent directors to replace those departures and at the same time again urged investors to vote against SpringOwl’s nominations for directors to the board.
SpringOwl the investment vehicle of Jason Ader who owns 5.27% of bwin.party wants to see boardroom changes and include their own nominations to shake up the company and bring more profit back to the company for investors.
However a spokesperson for bwin.party said that due to “the increasing complexity of the group’s business and regulatory environment, combined with the length of service of a number of the non-executive directors and the need to prevent the board from becoming too large and unwieldy,” it had decided to search for three new independent directors.
As a major shareholder SpringOwl is allowed to nominate one director to the board so long as otter shareholders agreed to the nomination, but SpringOwl are pushing for a total of four new nominations to the bwin.party board something the firm is totally against and fighting hard to oppose come the AGM.
In a move to stop SpringOwl Bwin.party said it has appointed executive search firm Spence Stuart to conduct an international search to identify suitable candidates to join the board.
“Bwin.party is operating in a challenging and rapidly changing business environment. The steps we are announcing today will ensure that succession is in place to allow the board to anticipate and address the complexities of technological change, the inevitable transition to regulated and taxed markets and also to maximise the long-term value of the business for its shareholders, customers and employees,” Chairman-Elect Philip Yea said in a statement.
It is going to be a very fiery AGM and observers are split on how shareholders will vote on SpringOwl’s nominations, the outcome could jeopardize the position of CEO Norbert Teufelberger should the vote go in favour of Jason Ader and his nominations.
Holland online gambling bill stalls
Holland’s online gambling bill which was set to legalise internet gambling in the country is in danger of missing its 2015 target because opposition parties within the coalition government are trying to stall the progress of the bill.
A planned meeting to discuss the provisions of the bill was cancelled last week in attempt to delay the passage of the bill which was hoped to reach a parliamentary vote before the summer recess that starts in mid-July.
However many observers believe it will still make the deadline and will be passed in to law for 2015, whether that is the case depends on how much more opposition there is in the coming weeks to delay the bill.
A planned meeting to discuss the provisions of the bill was cancelled last week in attempt to delay the passage of the bill which was hoped to reach a parliamentary vote before the summer recess that starts in mid-July.
However many observers believe it will still make the deadline and will be passed in to law for 2015, whether that is the case depends on how much more opposition there is in the coming weeks to delay the bill.
May 16, 2014
Luis Suarez Signed as Poker Ambassador by 888poker
Luis Suarez is a name familiar to every single football fan out there. Liverpool's striker, who scored 31 goals this season and was awarded the Professional Footballers' Association Player of the Year award, will now be testing his skills on the much smaller green felt as well. Suarez entered a sponsorship deal with one of the poker industry giants, 888poker, and he is amongst the top sporting superstars to sign this type of deal in the recent period.
Bringing Suarez aboard should give the company quite an exposure amongst those who love football but may not share the same interest for poker. The football star was presented during a press conference held today in Barcelona where he talked about this latest development as well as his future plans and the upcoming football World Cup. Senior Vice President of 888poker Itai Pazner did not try to hide the company’s excitement about their latest acquisition either:
The Uruguayan player should become an integral part of the 888poker team, playing both online and in live events. However, with the World Cup quickly approaching, it is somewhat hard to imagine Suarez will have a lot of time on his hands for poker, as he is primarily a football player.
When he does have time to play, Suarez will be joining a team already consisting of the famous cricketer Shane Warne, UFC Champion Georges St-Pierre, as well as poker stars JC Tran, Sofia Lovgren and Xuan Liu.
While Suarez’s talent and skill as a footballer are beyond any doubt, some eyebrows are being raised when considering his fairness. The football star has quite a history of suspensions and fines linked to his name throughout his career, and for some in the poker community, this may seem like a red flag.
On the other hand, there are hordes of fans who enjoy watching him perform his magic on the field and they will probably enjoy (maybe not to the same extent, but enjoy nonetheless) seeing him try his luck at the poker table and being actually able to sit across from him on the virtual felt, chat him up and even take some of his money away.
Although there is often some heat coming from the hardcore part of the poker community when it comes to signing sporting stars, the fact is that their fame and popularity simply bring new players to the game and, in the end, it is good for everyone – rooms, amateurs and professionals. Now we just have to wait and see how successful Suarez will be in a discipline that doesn’t require an actual ball to play ball.
Bringing Suarez aboard should give the company quite an exposure amongst those who love football but may not share the same interest for poker. The football star was presented during a press conference held today in Barcelona where he talked about this latest development as well as his future plans and the upcoming football World Cup. Senior Vice President of 888poker Itai Pazner did not try to hide the company’s excitement about their latest acquisition either:
Luis Suarez is an incredible sporting talent - passionate, competitive, technically gifted, and emotionally invested in the game. It’s those qualities that make him an exciting player to watch, in poker as well as football. It’s fantastic to have him on board.
The Uruguayan player should become an integral part of the 888poker team, playing both online and in live events. However, with the World Cup quickly approaching, it is somewhat hard to imagine Suarez will have a lot of time on his hands for poker, as he is primarily a football player.
When he does have time to play, Suarez will be joining a team already consisting of the famous cricketer Shane Warne, UFC Champion Georges St-Pierre, as well as poker stars JC Tran, Sofia Lovgren and Xuan Liu.
While Suarez’s talent and skill as a footballer are beyond any doubt, some eyebrows are being raised when considering his fairness. The football star has quite a history of suspensions and fines linked to his name throughout his career, and for some in the poker community, this may seem like a red flag.
On the other hand, there are hordes of fans who enjoy watching him perform his magic on the field and they will probably enjoy (maybe not to the same extent, but enjoy nonetheless) seeing him try his luck at the poker table and being actually able to sit across from him on the virtual felt, chat him up and even take some of his money away.
Although there is often some heat coming from the hardcore part of the poker community when it comes to signing sporting stars, the fact is that their fame and popularity simply bring new players to the game and, in the end, it is good for everyone – rooms, amateurs and professionals. Now we just have to wait and see how successful Suarez will be in a discipline that doesn’t require an actual ball to play ball.
May 13, 2014
Paddy Power boss to leave in 2015
Patrick Kennedy the CEO of Paddy Power is stepping down from his role after ten years at the helm of the Irish bookmaker.
“I have always had a personal view that after ten years at the helm, change is good, both for the business and the individual,” Kennedy said in a statement. He will leave his job as boss of Paddy Power in 2015 along with competitor William Hill boss Ralph Topping who is also leaving at the end of 2015.
Both bookmakers who have strong presence in land based retail units and online will be searching to find replacements for both men who have inspired their companies to be leading players in the industry.
“I have always had a personal view that after ten years at the helm, change is good, both for the business and the individual,” Kennedy said in a statement. He will leave his job as boss of Paddy Power in 2015 along with competitor William Hill boss Ralph Topping who is also leaving at the end of 2015.
Both bookmakers who have strong presence in land based retail units and online will be searching to find replacements for both men who have inspired their companies to be leading players in the industry.
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