Dollaro Poker and Mob Figure in Massive Italian On The Web Gambling Bust
Italian Luigi Tancredi is accused by police of being an ‘indispensable link between organized crime and the global world of information technology.’
Italian police have split up a illegal gambling ring with so-called links to the Mafia and the controversial online poker room DollaroPoker.net.
Eleven people were arrested on Wednesday and accused of running an illegal network of some 12,000 online video gaming and lottery video clip terminals in pubs, cafes, and gaming halls throughout Italy, some of which were allegedly Mafia-controlled.
The terminals provided use of the online website Dollaro Poker, among other video gaming sites.
Police seized assets worth €10 million from the group, which is believed to have handled €11.5 million in bets per day.
A man known as ‘the King of Slots’ from his past involvement in Italy’s legal land-based gambling industry among those arrested was Luigi Tancredi.
Indispensable Link
While not a mafia that is direct, Tancredi was said by prosecutors to be the ‘indispensable link between organized crime therefore the realm of information technology.’
He could be accused of getting strong ties with the Camorra that is naples-based clan which he is said to have paid between €45,000 and €60,000 each month from profits of the ring to set up machines on the premises.
Also arrested was their business partner Nicola Femia, a boss that is alleged of Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta organized crime syndicate.
In 2013, both guys had been investigated by police for their links to 33 illegal online gambling sites, including Dollaro, which Tancredi was accused of running. Those charges were ultimately dismissed by a court in Bologna.
Dollaro Dogged by Rumors
If you are wondering why you have never ever heard of Dollaro, it’s likely as the web site is used mainly by Italian players and is not even controlled in Italy. The site had benefited greatly from the market that is italian refusal to legalize cash games until 2011.
It largely makes use of the ‘agent model,’ in which most for the deposits and withdrawals are controlled by agents who function in a way that is similar affiliates.
Many Italians will visit cafes or groups to gamble online, giving their deposit to a real estate agent, who will then load it into an account, bypassing player enrollment.
If you win, your agent will pay you in cash (or at the very least you hope he’ll).
The site, which purports to presently be the 13th biggest in the entire world according to traffic data it submits to PokerScout.com itself, provides these agents a share that is generous of income.
‘More Profitable Than Drug Trafficking’
It’s a model that is hugely successful at attracting weak players, and weak players, it appears, are typical that Dollaro is interested in. Winning players have in the past reported on poker forums of their accounts instantly being deleted, or of funds mysteriously vanishing in to the ether cash that is following demands.
There are also whispers on poker forums of Mafia connections, which were unconfirmed before the developments of this week.
Police said that Dollaro is based in Romania and operated from servers based in Tampa, Florida wednesday. Italian Finance Police Colonel Alessandro Cavalli told reporters that wiretaps on suspects had recorded alleged Mob figures commenting that the continuing business was ‘more profitable than drug-trafficking.’
GOP Debate Gets Heated as Trump and Cruz Spar Over ‘Birther’ Claims and NYC Values
Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz went head-to-head during Thursday’s GOP debate, with all the two leading candidates that are republican to fight as polls tighten. (Image: news.yahoo.com)
The sixth GOP debate welcomed seven Republican Party candidates to the stage that is main Charleston, South Carolina on Thursday night, all sharing hopes and aspirations of taking on the likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton towards becoming the 45th president of the United States.
Seven candidates might have been in the stage, but all optical eyes were focused on the two frontrunners, billionaire Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
The 2 had displayed a congenial relationship during their respective campaigns, but that ended Thursday night, in component, as Trump honestly confessed, because Cruz has been sneaking up within the polls of late.
Cruz attacked Trump for being a Manhattan liberal. Trump challenged Cruz’s right to also run for president because he was born in Canada while his parents were in that country on company.
‘I guess the ‘bromance’ has ended,’ Trump said on CNN after the debate that is 2.5-hour.
Cruz Attacks New York
With Cruz closing in on Trump in Iowa (the first state that is primary will officially begin the nomination process on Monday, February 1st), the Texan decided to go after the businessman for being born and bred in the mainly politically liberal metropolis that is nyc.
But their choice of terms came across as sneering and even a tad condescending.
‘Not a large amount of conservatives leave Manhattan,’ Cruz opined as he cited Trump’s more left-leaning views in past years. ‘Donald originates from brand New York and embodies New York values.’
Trump was prepared for the attack, and called on the city’s 9/11 disaster and subsequent rebuilding in his response.
‘I saw a thing that no place on Earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than New York,’ Trump responded. ‘The people in New York fought and fought and fought.
‘ We rebuilt downtown Manhattan and everybody in the global globe watched and everyone on earth loved ny and loved New Yorkers,’ Trump said. ‘And I need certainly to inform you, that was a very statement that is insulting Ted made.’
There is little doubt that Trump won the exchange.
The New York regular News responded Friday morning with a address titled ‘Drop Dead, Ted’ and wrote, ‘New York values are the ironworkers who carried their tools in backpacks and gym bags and, by God, stepped over the Brooklyn Bridge in the night of Sept. 11, 2001, or most of the way downtown from all the way uptown.’
The paper’s cover page image to accompany the headline showed a pissed-off Lady Liberty making her feelings for Cruz clear by the usage of a finger that is middle the appropriate position, that your news site Tweeted out.
Can It on Canada
The other heated change came when Trump questioned whether Cruz is legally permitted to become the united states’s commander in chief.
‘ If you can even serve in the office?’ Trump asked if you become the nominee, who the hell knows.
‘Since September, the Constitution hasn’t changed, but the poll numbers have,’ Cruz reacted in protecting their right that is legal to.
One eligibility requirement to become president is that the candidate must be an all-natural born citizen. Nevertheless, if a kid is born internationally to citizens that are american he or she is still considered to be a naturally created US citizen, according to the Constitution.
Stats Talk
According to news site Clear that is real politics Trump spoke the most words throughout the debate, followed by Florida Senator Marco Rubio and then Cruz. Many analysts that are political it’s a three-horse race at this point.
Former frontrunner Dr. Ben Carson spoke the least by far, using the former Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon using significantly less than eight percent of this debate airtime that is total.
Trump when again declared himself the debate winner, but voters will have the last say. Iowa Republicans cast their votes in just a couple of weeks.
Céline Dion’s Husband, René Angélil, Dies at Home in Las Vegas
René Angélil and Céline Dion. Angélil passed on peacefully at his house in Las Vegas after a battle that is long cancer on January 14th. (Image: linternaute.com)
René Angélil, avid gambler and husband and previous manager of nevada perennial Céline Dion, has died after a long fight with throat cancer. He was 73.
Angélil had been sick for numerous years. Their cancer had been very first diagnosed in 1999, yet their death was sudden and unexpected, family and friends said in announcing his passing on Thursday.
As tributes poured in to the man credited with transforming Dion right into a worldwide superstar, Caesars Palace announced that the singer’s forthcoming shows during the Colosseum Theater had been canceled until February 23rd.
Dion is understood to have spent the last few months caring for her husband, whom she described in a current interview as ‘the only boyfriend I ever endured.’
Céline’s Mentor
René Angélil had been created in Montreal in 1942 to a Syrian father and a mother that is lebanese-canadian. He initially had a singing career of their own, along with his band ‘Les Baronets,’ which mainly recorded French-language covers of American and British hits.
Later on, he managed various artists that are canadian before fulfilling Dion in 1980, whenever she was only 12, and declaring her a celebrity, her voice reportedly moving him to tears.
In 1981, he mortgaged his household to invest in her first album, La voix du bon Dieu [The Good Lord’s Voice], which made her a star in Canada. Angélil and Dion started dating in 1987 and were married in 1994 in a ceremony that is elaborate was telecast globally. Throughout her increase to global superstardom, Dion has described her spouse as https://casino-online-australia.net/club-player-casino-review/ a guiding light and mentor.
Angélil’s gambling habits have always been a source of fascination for the news. He claimed he became a professional gambler in the late eighties when Dion took some slack from her career to learn English, and he had a ‘winning system’ for blackjack.
Love of Gambling
But in 2007, previous Las Vegas mayor-turned-Caesars-exec Jan Jones claimed that Angélil gambled $1 million per week. She later retracted the declaration, stating that she was speaking hypothetically.
With Angélil’s permission, Caesars took the uncommon step of releasing information on its customer’s losses, which between 2005 and 2006 totaled exactly $230,300. This was, however, offset by poker winnings of $259,079.
Angélil was an enthusiastic poker player and a typical fixture regarding the Las Vegas poker tournament scene, and showed up in WSOP and WPT television broadcasts on the years.
‘It is impossible to overstate the impact René and of course line that is cé had on the reputation for activity in Las Vegas and at Caesars Palace, with his audacious eyesight regarding her residency, now 13 years and counting,’ Gary Selesner, president of Caesars Palace, said in a statement on Thursday.
‘René had been truly an amazing person, showman and businessman, and over these many years became a liked and cherished member of the Caesars Palace household.’
Jaime Costa 