So imagine this: they are more progressive than the U.S., when it comes to online gambling. Or so it would appear.

It has taken three years, but a commission  has recommended that it’s time for South Africa to regulate, license and taxinternet casino games in South Africa.

Prohibition simply has not worked.

Well, duh.

This I heard from my in-laws in S.A.

Every form of online gambling in South Africa (as well as poker) should be regulated, taxed and licensed the commission said.

“The big elephant in the room is the online casino in South Africa and we must sharpen our spears. Any one of us can log on at night and place hundreds of bets. I know I do,” explained Mr. Louw, a warrior chief and gambling commissioner.

American politicians still fail to comprehend this logic.

The commission recommends Italy to become the model for online gambling regulation in South Africa.

Banks will become the enforcers of the new South African gambling laws by withholding transactions from online gambling establishments in South Africa who do not possess a valid gambling license.

Pretty cool, huh.

Bloomberg Markets magazine just called it the “gambling capital of the world” and you can believe it because last year alone, Macau’s casino’s brought in an estimated $23.5 billion (that’s Billion, with a b).

And that’s more than four times the amount gamblers play in Vegas.

And talk about appreciation….just 10 years ago, Macau’s casinos brought in $2.2 billion.

Maybe the reason the casinos are doing so well is this: it’s the only location in China where 1.33 billion Chinese are allowed to gamble in casinos.

The genius behind it all is Stanley Ho,  “the dominant figure in Macau gaming.

But watch out for others…as Ho is currently going through some family difficulties.

And the biggest gambling day ever.

People here bet on everything. Who wins. Point spreads. Who scores first. Even who wins the coin toss to start the game.

It’s absurd.

Especially in Vegas, where betting on sports is legal (it ain’t legal anywhere else in the U.S., although millions of people still find ways to gamble).

Las Vegas sports books expect to handle around $90 million worth of wagers on Sunday’s Super Bowl between the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers, making it their largest one-day event of the year.

Much of that will be generated by tourists and fans, the “squares” whose action is balanced out by the professional “sharps.” Square bets are often based on hunches, or rudimentary analysis, or alcohol.

But Peabody and his “sharp” peers – whose ranks are estimated at anywhere from a few dozen to a few hundred – don’t care about the names on the jerseys, or their gut feelings about which team will win. They’re looking for betting value based on odds they believe have been miscast, either by bookmakers or by the public’s hunches.

By using the sort of statistical and analytical techniques more often associated with Wall Street traders than sports gamblers, bookies on this day will earn more money than almost any of  Yale graduate.

So who is gonna win?

It doesn’t really matter to books…they win all the time.

And by the way, I’ve put my money on the Packers.

Not that I care.

Here is what she told me. Last week, Japanese police arrested three former sumo wrestlers over a gang-linked gambling scandal that rocked the ancient national sport last year.

Sadahide Furuichi, 34, Tetsuya Yabushita, 29, and Shunsaku Yamamoto, 35 — all from the Onomatsu stable, were arrested, according to Jiji Press, Kyodo News and public broadcaster NHK.

Police also arrested Furuichi’s mother, Yoneko, 63, the reports said, quoting Tokyo Metropolitan Police investigators in charge of organised crimes.

The four were suspected of illegally organising baseball gambling and collecting more than one million yen ($12,100) in bets from several sumo wrestlers in 2009 and 2010, news reports said.

Yamamoto told police that gangsters were involved in some of the gambling, Jiji reported.

Last year, scores of sumo wrestlers, who are expected to act as role models in Japan, admitted to betting illegally on baseball games in gambling organised by bookmakers linked to organised crime.

Shades of Pete Rose.

The sport’s ties with organised crime and revelations of widespread illegal gambling plunged sumo into deep crisis, leading sponsors to withdraw and NHK to boycott a national tournament in July.

It also emerged that top members of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s biggest crime syndicate, were given ringside seats at sumo tournaments, allowing them to send messages to jailed gangsters via NHK broadcasts seen in prisons.

Ain’t this a cool story????

Thanks Tamiko.

They are self serving bullshit, usually.

But now this one…. seems like Caesars Interactive Entertainment, Inc., has announced a long-term agreement with Microgame S.p.A. for the Italian poker market utilizing its World Series of Poker brand.

Under terms of the agreement, Microgame and CIE will work together exclusively to market WSOP in Italy, both with online and offline poker tournaments and promotions.

Since I’m into online gambling and LOVE online poker and blackjack (and backgammon, truth be told), I found this pretty cool.

But I digress. In Italy, Microgame operates the largest poker network in the newly-regulated online market.

“This agreement is a logical step in our European and global expansion strategy to partner with leading local companies as we look to expand the WSOP brand,” said Caesars Interactive Entertainment CEO Mitch Garber.

“Microgame is a clear leader in Italy and we look forward to working hard together to grow the poker market.”

People’s Poker, a network of over 120 online poker sites, will be co-branded utilizing the WSOP brand and People’s Poker brand, and serve as the online hub for poker playing in the Italian market.

Using Microgame’s  network both online and at retail, the WSOP brand will be utilized to attract new players to poker via these avenues.

The WSOP has over 40 years of history and heritage and an alliance with Microgame online marks an exciting new chapter for both of us.”

Microgame and the WSOP will create land-based tournaments for the Italian players using the WSOP name and Microgame receives exclusive rights to do so throughout the length of the agreement.

About two professional cheats nabbed in the U.K.

The two international  cheats, who also targeted casinos in central London, walked free from court this past week, after admitting possessing a series of fake IDs to use in casinos they were banned from.

As part of a global gang, Francesco Baioni, 64, and Frank Camilleri, 61, travelled the world cheating casinos out of money.

The pair – who police described as “notorious” and “professional” – served time here in the U.S.after cheating their way to “vast” amounts of cash.

Baioni, of Rackstraw House, Primrose Hill, was given a 12-month sentence suspended for 18 months. Camilleri, of Derrick Road, Beckenham, was sentenced to nine months suspended for the same period.

Both were also hit with an 18-month curfew between 11pm and 6am and were barred from all premises regulated by the Gambling Commission for 18 months.

Police would not discuss the tactics that landed the Italian duo so much money over the years but did reveal they had operated in China, Australia and America.

The pair were caught following an intelligence-led operation by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service’s Human Exploitation and Organised Crime Command.

On August 9 search warrants were executed at their homes and Baioni was arrested. Detectives discovered “a large quantity” of fake Italian identity documents – containing pictures of Baioni and Camilleri. All bore false names.

Both men were charged and last month Baioni admitted nine counts of possessing false documents with intent, possessing articles for use in fraud and making articles for use in fraud.

Camilleri admitted eight counts of possessing false ID documents with intent.

This is one of the most awesome countries in the world, Sri Lanka. And anyone who has been there would agree with that.

Well, now you can gamble there. Legally.

Sri Lanka’s parliament passed a law Wednesday to legalize gambling, despite strong criticism from opposition lawmakers who charged it would increase prostitution in the conservative Buddhist nation.

Lawmakers said that President Mahinda Rajapakse, who also acts as the minister of finance, to grant licenses to set up betting establishments in specified areas.

Look. Fact is casinos and horse-racing bookies have been operating in Sri Lanka for years, exploiting loopholes in the law to evade an official ban on gambling.

But the new law would regulate gambling and harness its potential to boost tourism, which has soared since May last year after the end to the island’s ethnic civil war.

Those who are against the law have had this to say: ”What this law does is not only legalize gambling, but also legalizes prostitution,” Jayasekera said. Some casinos in the city are known as pick-up haunts for prostitutes.

With the new law, the government says gambling outlets must obtain licenses by 2012 or cease to operate.

Violators will face a fine of $45,000 and a five-year jail term.

The bill provides “for the designation of areas in which persons intending to start the business of gaming can set up their establishments”.

Some of the country’s cities already boast vibrant nightlife.

But Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is out to create more entertainment venues to attract high-spending foreign and domestic fun-seekers, although it recently banned billboards showing scantily-clad women following protests by Buddhist monks.

The number of tourists visiting the island has jumped by nearly 50 percent year-on-year in the first 10 months of 2010, after the end of nearly four decades of conflict.

So, if you are ever in that part of the world, do yourself a favor.

Go to Sri Lanka.

Give it a few months and gamble.

This is kind of interesting.

You know all about prohibitions against Americans setting up offshore gambling businesses.

Everyone else in the world, it seems, can do it. But not Americans.

That’s another story (OH, could we use their taxes if it were made legal….)

From the HILL newspaper, I learned that the wife of Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.) plead guilty n federal court Wednesday to charges that she helped her brother conceal his lucrative illegal offshore gambling business.

Patrice Tierney, 59, was charged with four counts of helping her brother, fugitive Robert Eremian, prepare false federal tax returns.

Charges against Eremian state that he moved his illegal gambling outlet to Antigua in the late 1990s and dubbed it Sports Offshore, which included a website and telephone line for his U.S. customers.

He allegedly employed “agents” in the U.S. who helped recruit customers and collect gambling debts from them, funneling the money to Antigua.

The information, which was unsealed this week, accuses Tierney’s wife of managing her brother’s U.S. assets through a Bank of America account in Massachusetts.

She allegedly kept detailed records of financial transactions related to the account and gave information to her brother’s tax preparer that stated his income as commission from his job as a computer consultant.

According to The Associated Press, Rep. Tierney, who faces reelection in November, said his wife accepts “full responsibility” for turning a blind eye to her brother’s business.

The AP also reported that an attorney for Patrice Tierney said that prosecutors are expected to recommend that she receive probation and a term of home confinement in exchange for her guilty plea.

If she is convicted, Tierney would face a maximum prison sentence of 3 years followed by one year of supervised release along with a maximum fine of $100,000 for each count.

Interesting, huh?

Well, after some failed attempts to relocate gambling spots to designated zones, Russia is considering building a family-friendly casino resort in the more popular holiday area near the Black Sea.

Azov city is a gambler’s paradise, I am told, although I’ve never been there.

The “Oracul” resort offers all kinds of games: from the army of one-armed-bandits to poker and roulette. However, despite all its pleasures, the place remains deserted most of the time.

Why is that? From various Russian news sources I was able to find out…

“Oracul” is the only legal casino in Russia. A private company invested $10 million into its construction. Even though there are a few other investors who are willing to build gambling spots in the Azov area, most in the industry believe the odds are not in their favor.

Last year Russian lawmakers banned all casinos and gambling clubs across the country, replacing them with four specially designated development zones in Siberia, Western Russia, the South and the East.

The industry reacted immediately by shutting down the facilities, moving them abroad, or going underground. Even the relatively more successful gambling zone, in the South, is mostly being ignored by the entrepreneurs.

In cities only a few hundred kilometers away from Azov, police continue to discover illegal gambling dens every week.

The region’s authorities have suggested relocating the whole Southern gambling zone closer to the Black Sea coast as a way of attracting more punters.

Inspired by Las Vegas, the authorities also want it to offer more than just gambling.



Whether the idea flies or not depends upon Russian authorities.

But for now, the future of Russia’s own Las Vegas looks dim, leaving more questions than answers for its supporters and skeptics alike.

Interesting, huh?

This, for all of you (and I know you’re out there) reading this in Europe, Asia and Australia. Thank you for viewing these posts every week.

And I promise to cover more of the world’s events in gambling news.

And so we begin with more than 5,000 people arrested across Asia and $10 million seized following a month-long international crackdown on illegal gambling by Interpol and timed to coincide with the World Cup.

Almost 800 illegal gambling dens in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand were raided in one of Interpol’s biggest co-ordinated crackdowns. Cars, bank cards, computers and mobile phones were also confiscated. The dens handled more than $150m in bets, Interpol said.

“The results we have seen are impressive, not only in the number of arrests and seizures made across the region in just one month, but in terms of the police co-operation which made this possible,” said Jean-Michel Louboutin, Interpol’s executive director of police services.

“As well as having clear connections to organised crime gangs, illegal soccer gambling is also linked with corruption, money laundering and prostitution and Operation Soga III will have a significant long-term impact on these serious offences,” added Louboutin.

Similar operations in 2007 and 2008 resulted in 2,000 arrests and seizures of $16m. Interpol, based in France, coordinated the operation with its office in Bangkok.