Off Shore Gaming Association

One of the top supporters for Internet Gambling and one of our favorite Congressman is Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL 19th). He introduced H.R.2610 to amend current laws to clarify the applicability of such laws to games of skill. This is commonly referred to in gaming circles as “Wexler’s Poker Bill.” In addition, the representative from Florida has also co-sponsored a bill by Barney Frank looking to regulate Internet gambling and most recently backed Frank’s bill to make the UIGEA unenforceable. He also supports the bill to conduct a study of Internet gambling by Nevada’s Shelley Berkley.

In all of the hearings on the past 18 months, since the passage of the UIGEA, Wexler has made his voice heard. Throwing up his hands and raising his voice while grilling panel members and speakers alike, Wexler has shown that he has a passion for this topic. He gets an A++ from OSGA for his efforts!! Congressman Wexler is Chairman of the Europe Subcommittee, a senior member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Judiciary Committee, and he also sits on the Financial Services Committee, chaired by Barney Frank.

If you are a resident in his district or live close to Boca Raton in Florida, we urge you to attend to a Town Hall Meeting that he is holding on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 7:30 P.M. The Town Hall Meeting will be held at the Boca Lago Country Club at 8665 Juego Way in Boca Raton, FL. Congressman Wexler will speak about his efforts in Washington to end the war in Iraq, strengthen America’s struggling economy, and lower health care costs. However, he will also have time to take questions and comments from attendees.

We implore all gamblers to head to the meeting on Monday and let Congressman Wexler know you support his efforts. Ask him how his “Poker Bill” is doing (it appears to have stalled), and ask him what else can be done to support his efforts.

Click Here for a map and directions to the Town Meeting.

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This week we added an update box on the OSGA homepage so that visitors could see the movement on ANY of the Internet gambling legislation currently introduced in the House of Representatives. This area is updated as each new co-sponsor of one of these bills is added. However, this is only for Federal bills. In recent weeks several states have begun to stir the Internet gambling pot. Delaware and New Jersey are looking to add Sports Betting and an interesting bill on intrastate Internet poker has been introduced in California.

The bill that was introduced last month in California by Lloyd Levine (Assembly Bill 2026) asks the state to perform a study regarding authorizing intrastate Internet poker. This bill deserves some real attention from the players in California. This is a bill looking to legalize some form of Internet gambling! It is also a great challenge to the loopholes in the UIGEA, which, of course bans betting across state lines or country boundaries. The UIGEA does exempt three categories of transactions: intratribal, intrastate, and interstate horseracing. As defined, intrastate transactions are bets or wagers that are made exclusively within a single state, whose state laws or regulations contain certain safeguards.

This bill looks to have the findings of the study sent to the legislature by June 30, 2009. So far, it has gotten solid support in committee. Check out more on this bill, including an audio interview with the River City Group and Assemblyman Levine here.

One of the biggest reasons that these three states are looking earnestly at expanding gambling is each measure provides additional economic opportunities for the state. In both Delaware and New Jersey, recent reports have shown that gambling profits from casinos and slot parlors, and the taxes derived from them, are dwindling. That is why the New Jersey Senate last week had a debate over legalized Sports betting. In fact, NJ Sen. Raymond Lesniak is ready to sue the Federal Government claiming they are in violation of interstate commerce laws. Delaware’s House of Representatives approved a bill legalizing sports betting by better than a 2-1 margin, but this measure still has to get through the Delaware Senate and an anti-gambling govenor in Ruth Ann Minner.

We urge players to contact their State legislators and let them know that you support these measures and their efforts to see them become law.

Contact Califonia Legislators here.
Contact Delaware Legislators here.
Contact New Jersey Legislators here.

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We have reports that players from beleaguered and bankrupt sportsbook giant BETonSPORTS are begin contacted again. This time the email comes from Vantis, a forensic accounting firm in England that has been appointed receiver and liquidator of the now defunct sportsbook. We were given an advance copy of this email yesterday and have been working with Vantis since that time to clear up some of the inevitable questions..

The highlights of the letter provide insights into several of the questions that we have been getting from players every day for the last 22 months; “How much are we going to get?” and “When can we expect to get a payout?”

The answers two these two questions are more bad news and not what any of us want to hear. The email states, “we do not anticipate that any distribution to creditors will be any more than a few cents in the dollar.” Vantis also states that, “we do not anticipate reporting to you further until December 2008.”

This is most distressing news and we have already heard from several angry players who have written in to let us know that this is a “Ripoff” and asking, “Where did all of the money go?” We could not agree more! Why are there not enough funds to pay back the company’s previous depositors?

We did contact Vantis, and were informed that BETonSPORTS owes out double what we had been told from the exiting regime when the book was shut down. In addition, it would stand to reason that since less than 20% of the players who were owed money by BETonSPORTS replied and filed claims, that there would be plenty of money to satisfy their outstanding balances. However, it turns out that the company has only several million to settle outstanding claims; they fall over $25 million short of their obligations.

Vantis also mentions in their email that they are still actively seeking funds owed to the sportsbook from ‘substantial debtors based in various jurisdictions around the world’. They continue by letting players know that they ‘may now have to commence legal proceedings in those jurisdictions’. This could force this entire saga to continue for many more months; In fact, until the end of 2008 . . . at best. The last sentence of Vanits’ email reads, “As and when we have anything significant to report to you, we will write further, if not, we do not anticipate reporting to you further until December 2008.” OMG!

We asked the liquidators if they would consider making partial initial payments to players, while they continue to hunt for more player funds around the globe. We received no answer to this request. We also asked if there would be a ‘drop dead date’, where Vantis would stop looking for more money and stop looking for more BETonSPORTs players and untimately, make payouts. Again, no response. Vantis does appear to be working diligently to finalize these proceedings, but the end result will most certianly fall short of everyone’s expectations.

For those without email, Vantis may finally be ready to make contact. They have asked the High Court of Antigua for permission to contact those players by ‘mail & public advertisement’. However, we are not sure that these players will want the information that their online counterparts have received…..

So, this whole mess will be more than two years old in July and still nothing has been resolved. For a company that at one time was worth nearly a quarter of a billion dollars and had over 15 million in player deposits, one has to wonder where all of the money went. David Carruthers is still under house arrest, Gary Kaplan is still sitting in jail and players still have no money. No one has been brought to trial and this situation certainly has no justice. There are still plenty of sportsbooks operating around the world taking bets from US players. All the US government did in this situation was aid BOS in ripping off tens of thousands of people.

I think that both the BOS players and stock holders would agree.

Read the full email from Vantis here.

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