Off Shore Gaming Association

It looks like Western Union is getting tough, tough on gamblers that use their service to send money to online gambling companies. In the last month we have heard from four different players, playing at four different places that have all had their funds stopped and confiscated by Western Union.

It started with a call right before the holidays that a player had $2000 stopped by Western Union. Apparently the receiver was on a ‘blacklist’ of some kind. We did not find this to be incredibly odd as over the last few years this has happened occasionally, perhaps a couple of times each football season. Then another call came in, this time the amount seized was $2500. Over the New Year’s weekend, an email came in from a sportsbook that a player of theirs had the same thing happen. His cost: $2000. Then came in a big one, this player had sent 2K, twice , within fifteen minutes of each other. Again, the name sent to was flagged by Western Union as being associated with fraud. In the end, he was out $4000.

In the rules from Western Union,”You and Receiver represent that your use of Services does not violate: (a) any law, including, without limit, laws relating to money laundering, illegal gambling activities, support for terrorist activities or fraud”. This gives the company the opportunity to stop cash sent for the purposes of Internet gambling. And they are now aggressively going after funds for gambling. If nothing else, they get to keep hundreds of dollars in fees. And even if the player does recover the funds, the fees will never be returned.

And online gambling companies do not take responsibility. One sportsbook owner told us that “until I actually get that players money, it’s not my responsibility.” Though this may seem alarming to players, it is reality. With all of the other hurdles that Internet gambling companies have to overcome with the collection and payment of money to US players, it is not surprising that this is the stance that most companies take. However, almost all companies are also sympathetic to some degree and many will put the fees that Western Union confiscates into player accounts. We have heard of this from 3 different outlets.

So what did these players do? They lied to Western Union about the reason for sending the money and got it refunded. Except for the player who is out the most, 4K. The name that he was given was not just associated with ‘fraud’, it was also linked to the big evil for Western Union, illegal online gambling. He has a big problem now that (hopefully) will get resolved.

The big question from players has been, “Is it safe to send money with Western Union?” The answer is the first method ever used for sending money to an offshore gambling company is still a viable option. The above problems all occurred with players sending 2K or more. The biggest problem, involves the most money. We have not had a players deposit get flagged for a couple of hundred dollars. One very reliable source confirmed our suspicions, “Western Union is cracking down,” we were told. The source added, “The magic number with Western Union and Moneygram that gets flagged is $1500”.

What is shocking is that the gaming companies know this is happening, but a quick perusal of the top gaming websites shows a maximum deposit using these methods at $2000-2500 at most outlets. This high number is understandable since the operators don’t take responsibility for the transactions and most deposits do not get caught in Western Union’s web.

The lesson to be learned here is that the UIGEA is continuing to make the transfer of money more and more difficult. Due to the law Western Union had to do something, and they are now watching, closely. Players who use this method should consider lowering their deposit amount when making transfers or find another method that will work for them. Players who send smaller amounts really have nothing to worry about and we have not heard reports of Western Union stopping a couple of hundred dollars.

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The Off Shore Gaming Association (OSGA) is pleased to announce the winner of their 9th Annual College Bowl Challenge. ‘JNoss’ beat out over 100 contestants to win the grand prize of $300. Had JNoss been an OSGA member, he would have cashed for 2X the prize amount, $600.

In its 9th year, the OSGA College Bowl Challenge again had contestants pick 32 College Bowl games against the spread. The spreads were set at half points to eliminate ties. The early Bowl games were worth 1 point but contestants still had a chance right up until the BCS Championship game – BCS Bowls were worth 2 points and the BCS Championship was worth five. In fact, the players who were at the top of the leaderboard for most of the contest ended up missing the prize pool entirely, as all five of the top leaders had LSU being crowned as BCS champion. Instead, ‘JNoss’ and the other prize winners came from as far as 12th place to get in on the prizes.

The contest had several anomalies this year. Four players tied for the top spot on the leaderboard with 27 points and 5 players tied for 5th place with 26 points. Since there was a 4-way tie for first place, we had to go to the tie-breaker. The contest rules state that the player who picks closest to the final score of the BCS Championship game without going over would be crowned champion. The second anomaly was that all but one contestant (who finished 59th) in the Bowl Challenge had their total go over the final score of the game, 21-0!! So, we went with the closest to the final score to determine the winner. The total of 28 was the closest and thus JNoss was determined to be the overall winner! The other three contestants that tied for first place were awarded prizes 2-4 based on their total in the BCS Championship game as well.

This year was also peculiar as we saw the most women EVER hit the top of the leaderboard. ‘bcs wizard gal’ took 2nd place, ‘dp24’ took 3rd and ‘teresad’ and ‘ncyjohnson’1 both tied for fifth place.

The contest oddities continued with 5 players tying for 5th place. The fifth place prize was a FREE $50 bet at OSGA Elite-rated Diamond Sports. Since there was a 5-way tie for fifth place, we would normally go to the tie-breaker. But Diamond Sports stepped up to the plate and offered ALL of the fifth place finishers who tied with 26 total points a Free Bet. This made ‘tks777’, ‘gpatek1’, ‘ncyjohnson1’, ‘KKoz9’ and ‘teresad’ ALL eligible WINNERS of the $50 Free Bet at Diamond Sports.

‘This years’ BCS Contest had several twists and turns and having ‘Bama as the BCS Champ really turned the standings on their head,” stated Jim Quinn from OSGA. “To have such a close contest, with a very different leader board on the last day, than any other day, made this one of our favorite years running the contest.”

This has been another great year for the OSGA College Bowl Challenge and we congratulate everyone who played (except our own OSGAJim who only picked 12 winners and finished in 109th place). We also would like to thank the contest sponsor, Diamond Sports, who really came through for players with the extra Free betting accounts. OSGA is looking forward to their ‘Members Only” SuperBowl contest and the annual NCAA Tourney Contest in March.

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The Off Shore Gaming Association (OSGA) is pleased to announce the winner of their Annual Progressive Pick ‘Em Contest. ‘snurker’ beat out over 100 contestants to win the grand prize of  $850.

The OSGA sponsors several football contests that run for the full football season. This year OSGA’s popular Progressive Pick ‘Em saw no one able collect the weekly ‘Progressive’ prize by picking all games on the board correctly. This year only three weeks saw players with only one loss, but that loss meant the $100 Progressive jackpot built for another week and a correct card for this Sunday’s games would have paid $1700. ‘JohnnyB’ was just one game away in the final week of the season and lost out on the $1700 Prize with his selection of Denver. Instead, ‘snurker’ collected 50% of the pool for going 178-78 over 17 weeks. ‘PD’ and ‘rick’ split the next prizes as they tied for second place and collected $197.50 each. ‘wolverine’ came in fourth collecting $170 and ‘swampboy’,  who won the 2010 Progressive contest, finished in 5th this year with a prize of $85.

The 2011 OSGA Progressive Pick ‘Em was two contests in one! Each week there was also a prize winner of a $100 free betting account at OSGA Elite-rated BetOnline.com. Every week the player with the most wins for that week was given a $100 Free Play.

“This year the OSGA ran a great contest and we always support thier efforts in the gaming community. We handed out Free Accounts to over a dozen new players and with 17 different winners throughout the season, the OSGA Pick ‘Em was terrific for everyone involved.” said a BetOnline spokesperson.

While the Progressive Pick ‘Em is a contest that features a large cash prize, it also is a tough grind where just one bad week can knock a player from the top of the standings. In fact, no single player finished atop the standings more than one week in the contest and the overall winner never captured the single week prize.

“This contest again went down to the very last week as it was a hot year for several players ,” stated Jim Quinn from OSGA. “Last years’ winner would not have even placed in the Top 10 this year,” added Quinn.

This has been another great year for the OSGA Progressive Pick ‘Em. OSGA is looking forward to crowning a winner in their their 9th Annual Bowl Challenge next week and their annual NCAA Tourney Contest in March.

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Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson announced recently that he is opposed to current bills aimed at legalizing online poker. In particular, Adelson is challenging Joe Barton’s bill which would legalize poker immediately. Adelson may seem like an insignificant player in the equation, but he is the 8th wealthiest man in America with a net worth of $21.5 billion and is a major donor to the Republican Party. It should be noted that the Sands has indicated it is neutral as an organization towards the bill, but in reality they march to their owner’s demands.

Adelson’s stated reasoning according to the Las Vegas Sun is that “he is morally opposed to web gaming, that technology to bar minors is untested and that he believes it will be an unnecessary distraction in 2012.” However, sources I have spoken to who are well in tune with all the developments indicated the real reason Adelson is opposed to legalized online poker is fear of the competition. The American Gaming Association (AGA), which represents numerous casinos such as Caesars and the MGM, has indicated that they now support online legislation provided it only deals with poker and not other casino games. Caesars was hesitant to support online poker when it partnered with 888 Holdings after Wynn and Station Casinos partnered with Full Tilt and PokerStars respectively, but, after Black Friday, Caesars now finds itself in the driver’s seat. 888 Gaming is in the country’s good book since it pulled out of the U.S. market after the passing of the UIGEA and paid off the government’s “penalty” for the time it did allow American accounts, while Full Tilt and PokerStars are cut off to the American market forever. Thus, Caesars is ready to go with its poker product in partnership with 888 Holdings while the other casinos have to find new dancing partners. And the Sands never prepared for online poker whatsoever. No doubt Adelson realizes that if the law is passed Caesars will have a huge head start on the Sands and it is unlikely the Sands would make much headway even after it finds a company to partner with. Not surprising, therefore, Caesars and the AGA are anxious for the bill to pass sooner rather than later. But Caesars is also adamant that any new law only deal with poker since they want a federal law for other forms of gambling that Caesars undoubtedly will want to run that on their own.

Barton is very eager for the bill to be passed before the next election and has even indicated he may consider attaching it to other legislation before the year is out, similar to the way Bill Frist and the Republicans were able to shove through the UIGEA as an attachment to the Safe Port Bill in 2006. Similarly, Harry Reid is getting anxious to see online poker legalized in Nevada and John Campbell is now ready to get the ball rolling with online poker in California, since they reached an agreement with the Indian tribes.

The question, though, is who has more influence? Caesars and MGM are clearly much larger than the Sands and operate casinos throughout the United States but Adelson as mentioned is a major donor to the Republican Party. According to reports Adelson made millions in donations to the Republicans over the years including $800,000 to key political candidates like Geroge W. Busch, Tom Delay and Rick Santorum. Plus, last year he made a $1 million donation to the current Republican front runner Newt Gingrich’s organization, American Solutions for Winning the Future. So no doubt supporters of Gingrich in Congress may have a bug put in their ear by the frontrunner. Plus, Adelson recently approached John Kyl to express his concern and asked for his support to block the legislation. Kyl never made a commitment either way but said that he always listens to Adelson when he talks. Kyl, as many will recall stated that he was changing his views on online poker legalization but it’s unlikely that he honestly believes that personally since he stated numerous times that “he hates gambling.” Unfortunately for both Adelson and Kyl the Democrats still have the majority in the Senate so Kyl’s influence as a whip may be irrelevant.

On the other side of the coin Caesars is an important employer in the country and revenue generator, plus they have some key Republicans in their court, including former head of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge and former FBI agent Louis Freeh who are advisors for their organization, FairPlay USA.

It will certainly be an interesting battle but Adelson could have avoided it if he just was better prepared for the introduction of legalized online poker.

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So far our phone lines, online chat and email box have been inundated with the same question: “Why did bodog change its website?” or “Why is bodog now Bovada?”

As of today (December 14th, 2011) the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group (MMGG) will no longer operate under the Bodog name. MMGG’s brand licensing agreement with the Bodog Brand is expiring at the end of this year and as a result MMGG will no longer be offering its services using the Bodog name or from the website, bodog.eu. Instead U.S. players will be moved to the new brand, Bovada.

What does this mean for players?
• All accounts remain entirely the same. U.S. players only need to log in at www.bovada.lv
• The business is still owned and operated by the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, as it has been for the past several years.
• The same great products and games, payout methods and phone number will all stay the same.

Basically this is nothing different that when industry giant BetCRIS spun off its U.S. players into their Bookmaker brand back in 2007. Nothing changed, in fact, many players thought that the new brand with mostly U.S. specific sports and props was even better. We expect that same from the new Bovada. One nice thing that they have introduced is a new Poker platform where players are basically anonymous when they are playing. This prevents expert or pro players for fishing and data mining new or poor players so that they can go after them in tournaments and ring games.

Players should be automatically re-directed from their respective jurisdictions to the correct site. Bodog has done an excellent job of geo-location and when we tried this morning to go to Bodog, we immediately were redirected to the new bovada.lv domain. A redirect message as to why you are being re-directed will also appear.

Bodog has had to change their domain name in the past due to legal issues as well as the ongoing war that the U.S. is waging against online gambling companies that service U.S. customers, but this is not another name change. Instead it is the gaming giant’s parent company MMGG opening a new brand for U.S. customers. This is simply a way to differentiate between the different offerings from the company, while expanding Bodog into most of the top jurisdictions around the world where gambling online is legal.

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Our annual Bowl Contest is underway and we have had a huge response so far!

The OSGA College Bowl Challenge takes just a few minutes to complete and is free to enter. Check it out at http://www.osga.com/2012bcscontest/free-bcs-contest.html. The deadline for entries is 8PM on Tuesday, December 20.

This year the annual BCS Bowl Contest from OSGA is bigger and better than ever. In its ninth year, the pick’em-style contest includes 32 bowl games and has a prize pool of $1000. This contest is Against the Spread. OSGA has massaged the point spreads to make every game half-point decisions to avoid pushes. Players simply pick the winners of each bowl game (ATS) and then the correct score of the BCS Championship game as a tie-breaker. Points are awarded for each win and each of the BCS games are worth extra points, so everyone has a chance right up until the National Championship game between LSU and Alabama

There is NO FEE to enter the OSGA 2011 College Bowl Challenge and this year the prizes are double that of previous years. The GRAND PRIZE of $600 is for OSGA Members, while non-members will get $300. The Runner-Up gets $200 – $100 for Non-Members. Places 3 through 5 also get prizes – 3rd Place gets a $100 Free Bet at Elite-rated Diamond Sports; 4th Place will receive $50 and fifth place will get a $50 Free Bet.

This contest takes just a few minutes to enter and there is No Entry Fee. Check it out at http://www.osga.com/2012bcscontest/free-bcs-contest.html. The deadline for entries is 8PM on Tuesday, December 20. GOOD LUCK!

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