Off Shore Gaming Association

New Jersey citizens will have the opportunity to weigh in on a referendum that will appear on the November ballot asking voters whether they want to amend New Jersey’s constitution by legalizing sports betting in the state.

A recent poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University found that 53% of New Jersey voters support allowing legal sports betting at Atlantic City’s casinos and at the state’s horse tracks. So the odds appear to be in favor of the measure receiving public approval. But the big hurdle will be to overturn the Federal ban on sports wagering that currently exists. Only Nevada and Delaware currently offer sports betting, with Delaware being severely limited by previous law.

But New Jersey Senator Raymond Lesniak has decided that fighting the current Federal ban is a shot worth taking. He is one of the leaders of this movement and has taken on something that we have been hearing on our phone lines and seeing in our emal box for years. “How come I can go to Las Vegas and bet on sports but I can’t do it in my state or from the comfort of my own home,” has been a consistent question to us for over 10 years. In the U.S. all states are supposed to be able to offer goods and services equally, if one state is permitted. States can simply make their own laws to prohibit or allow the activity or goods. However, sports betting is one of the only glaring exceptions.

Senator Lesniak recently told us that passage of the referendum will, “send a strong message to Congress and the courts that they can’t play favorites and allow sports betting in Nevada and deny it to the State of New Jersey.”

Overturning the federal ban on sports betting is a bit of a longshot; the state will most likely have to bring suit against the Fed to get the right to offer this service to their citizens. This is a bet, that if it wins, will be huge not just for New Jersey, but also for sports bettors everywhere. This bold move by New Jersey will force the Fed to allow gambling on sports in all 50 states. States can then make their own decisions.

However, if all of this comes to fruition, New Jersey will be the first. Senator Lesniak added, “Sports betting will be a huge boost to our casinos, racetracks and tourism.” The added tax revenue was one of the reasons this was originally looked at and an overturn will certainly give a boost to the ailing Atlantic City casino industry. Sports bettors in the East will be able to travel to New Jersey and wager legally, collect on the spot if they win, and then head back home.

We urge New Jersey citizens, active bettors and plain ‘ol folk alike to get out in November and Vote YES to the sportsbetting referendum. In fact, the movement has its own website sportsvoteyes.com. Here people can find out what the issues are, check out a sample ballot and even register to vote.

Players in New Jersey are obviously encouraged to get out and vote. But anyone who plays and has a relative or friend in New Jersey should contact them and ask them to get out and Vote Yes too! After all, it not just about the betting, it is also about what is right. And, it’s about time that a solid longshot pays off.

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It is hard to figure out which is worse, the fact that tens of thousands of players worldwide are going to get stiffed by the second largest internet poker company in the world or that Poker Pros and others within the company who knew that they were  running a deficit operation continued to take huge paychecks.

The U.S. government went after Full Tilt, Poker Stars and the Absolute Poker/Ultimate Bet operation effectively shutting them down to U.S. players on April 15th. Poker Stars paid back their U.S. players over 100 million within a couple of weeks and should be commended. We never thought that Absolute/UB had the money to pay back players, but certainly felt that Full Tilt, with all of their Pros and tourneys and ESPN sponsored shows certainly had the funds.

But today the world found out that Full Tilt was nothing more than an elaborate fraud for at least more than 6 months prior to ‘Black Friday’. Full Tilt was labelled a Ponzi Scheme today by the lead prosecutor,  U.S. Attorney Preet Bhawawa. Apparently Full Tilt had only $60 million of the nearly $400 million it owed to players at the time of the  website seizure and subsequent shut down.

The most outrageous thing is that FTP petitioned the U.S. government to be allowed to operate ‘legally’ around the rest of the world. They were granted the same privilege as Poker Stars, but have not paid out a single cent yet. And it’s easy to see why, with hundreds of millions of dollars in the red and a long and costly legal battle ahead. Yet they continue to take deposits from players, knowing that they can not pay them if they win.

To understand how a company that is as huge as Full Tilt gets in such financial trouble we just have to look at human greed. The owners. including Poker Pros Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson, took huge sums of money every month and even after FTP had immense trouble with processing, the ownership distributions continued at a rate of approximately $10 million per month.

Which leads to the ultimate question. How much longer could the company have operated if the DoJ did not go after them? Would we still be having this exact same “Ponzi Scheme” discussion right now anyway?

Players can be rest assured that the U. S. government is going to keep the pedal down in its quest to help Americans with their morals, let’s just hope the next targets have enough money to pay players back. We already have gotten inquiries saying, “Is the company I am playing with the next Poker Stars or the next Full Tilt?” Unfortunately, for Americans, until the United States finally joins the rest of the free world and allows legal and regulated online gambling, the next Full Tilt is most likely right around the corner.

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This year the Off Shore Gaming Association is proud to again offer TWO huge NFL football contests that players can enter for FREE!! The two contests are distinct, but share in common over $2500 worth of prizes with absolutely NO ENTRY FEE.

After 5 years of offering season-long NFL football contests, we have again introduced the hugely popular OSGA Progressive Pick ‘Em. This contest is actually two contests in one. A weekly prize of a $100 betting account at BetOnline plus a progressive contest that builds throughout the season. Each week players vie for a $100 free betting account by picking each game straight up with no point spreads involved. Players can getinvolved at any time during the season for the Free $100. The progressive part of the contest is for the player who plays every week and gets every game on the board correct. The prize is $100 weekly but grows every week if no one selects all of the games correctly.

Though a perfect week seems likely throughout an entire season,  again last year’s Progressive Pick ‘Em saw no player get all games on the board correct.Therefore, at the end of the season players with the top win-loss records split a rollover pot of $1700. The contest winner collected a cool $850 cash, courtesy of OSGA.

We introduced a Last Man Standing Contest for the first time in 2010. Each week players had to pick just one single winner – again, straight up. But, throughout the course of the entire NFL season, no team could be selected twice. The contest was such a sucess that we are doing it again!

This “one-and-done” event is co-sponsored by Badlands Gambling Hall who is offering up huge FREE BETTING ACCOUNTS for the top four finishers including a $1000 free gambling account for the Last Man Standing. For those who manage to slip-up early in the contest there is a $25 Free Play consolation prize courtesy of Badlands. Picking just one game straight-up sounds easy but Badlands gave away dozens of free plays last year!

If last several years were any indication, players should expect a good time AND weekly prizes AND huge payoffs at the end of the season. Get on board today for both the 2011 OSGA NFL Progressive Pick ‘Em AND the 2011 OSGA Last Man Standing Contest. We’re happy to bring these annual FREE football contests to every fan of OSGA and wish everyone who enters, the best of luck!

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We have been getting a large volume of inquiries where the main focus revolves around, “ Is it sill safe to send money to an online/offshore betting company?” The answer is yes, with a word of caution.

Many people who have contacted us are concerned after finding out that reputable sportsbooks BetJamaica and VIP closed over the summer and several other outfits are either not taking bets from Americans anymore or are not taking any new customers from the U.S. These inquiries associate the changes offshore since last football season as a sign of weakness in the industry. While some places may need a good football season to survive, the long standing, uber-solid outfits, are just fine.

The online sportsbooks that started before there was ‘online betting’ are certainly safe. Bookmaker, with 20+ years experience, and companies like YouWager, SBG Global, BetOnline, JustBet and other Elite-rated Sportsbooks who opened prior to 2000 have seen it all and are still standing. We expect these storied companies to not only last for many more years, but to increase their size and reach as the industry continues to consolidate.

Players have also found that many of the perks they got in previous years and most of the high signup bonuses are no longer available. Is this another sign of weakness? No! It’s just another sign of the times.

For example, BetUS has given customers their calendar loaded with scantily-clad girls, the DVD on how the calendar was made and a 100% sign-up bonus for the last six years. Now, they are not taking new U.S. players and they did not even produce a calendar for 2011-2012. Most of the offshore sportsbooks have also increased the amount of rollovers needed to withdraw bonus money and have eliminated free payouts or other perks that had kept customers happy.

But these things are more a sign of the times than anything. As with most businesses, online sportsbooks are tightening their belts. Similar to many of the land-based casinos, where it’s much harder to get a free room or show tickets, it’s harder to get perks online. Between the smaller margins (because players are getting better every year) and the higher prices that gambling houses must pay to process money in the face of the UIGEA, it’s no wonder that some of the perks usually offered have dwindled.

Several years ago, almost every book had a 100% (or more) sign-up bonus, and many of those were cash bonuses. However, in today’s environment, most everybody gives away a Free Play bonus. The big difference between the two is that you have to win the Free Play to actually get the money to wager with and collect in your account. Cash is just applied on top of any monies sent in. so technically, the Free Play is not worth quite as much.

Still there are two places that offer sizeable cash and a handful of outfits that still give big bonuses. You can grab cash at two smaller outfits – BetIslands and BetRevolution. And big bonuses of 100% are still available at Badlands and WagerWeb. But players must still evaluate every offer to see if it will work for them. For example: a smaller bettor, making a larger deposit,  should look for a smaller bonus with a lower rollover that will be more achievable.

But players should never shop for a place to play based on bonuses, offers and perks. The bottom line as we have always said is to get paid when you win. And that is where the word of caution comes in. Even the most solid of Sportsbooks can run into payout problems. The U.S. government and it’s enforcement of the UIGEA has made it very difficult to move money back to players in the U.S. This is one of the main factors that caused the closure of  BetJamaica and VIP and why so many other outlets do not want new U.S. customers. So as a precaution, players should not let their balances get too high. If a player has more in an offshore sportsbook account than will be wagered over the next four weeks,  he or she should pull some money out. And that is at the most safe and reputable places out there. For  the smaller, newer outfits, to mitigate the potential for disaster, players should tread lightly. It is all right to try out a new outfit, but sticking with the established and reputable outfits should be the main focus of anyone’s current wagering strategy.

So yes, it is safe to send money to an online sportsbook this year as long as you understand that the game is the same, but the rules for playing it are a bit tighter.

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