Police in Kandivli, Asia raided six online gambling hubs

Police in Kandivli, Asia raided six video gaming parlors and arrested a total of 33 people this week in a crackdown on online gambling in the region. The raid ended up being the initial of its kind into the certain area, as Samta Nagar authorities raided parlors owned by Planet G Internet video game and Bingo in Kandivli, along with the Pratik Game Zone in Malad.

Franchise Owners Arrested

All the raids had been conducted on venues that were franchises of business known as Game King Pvt Ltd, based in Tardeo. A total of 12 owners for the franchises were arrested, along side 21 players who have been within the parlors at the right time of the raids. The owners of Game King, Ramesh Chaurasia and KL Mansukhani, have not yet been arrested in connection with the raids.

During the raids, police recovered 1.31 lakh ($21,500) in funds. According to reports, the facilities in question was open for at least two years.

‘There have reached minimum 300 more such centers running in the city under the franchise of Game King,’ said Sunil Paraskar, commissioner of police for the North Region. ‘We are searching for the server that is main where these games had been triggered. We will take Cyber Crime department’s assistance to locate it.’

Players were able to open accounts at the centers to play gambling that is online for a minimum of 1,000 rupees ($16.50). Once the records had been open, players could then play at the facilities or just take their account information and gamble from home, as along with other online gambling sites.

Massive Online Losses

But even though the amount required to open an account was small, the amount ultimately bet or lost by some players proved become much larger. According to police, some players lost as much as 50 lakh ($823,000) on the internet sites. Other players managed to lose property and land in addition to their financial losses.

Based on police, it appears as though most players were fairly young adults, though a wider assortment of players is expected whenever police have more complete information.

‘The players arrested are from middle-class backgrounds in age group of 30 and 40,’ said Pravin More, an inspector that is senior. ‘ But bigger names can once crop up we begin busting other centers and obtain customer data.’

While Asia is really a big and potentially profitable marketplace for online gambling companies, the Indian government has experimented with prevent the industry from taking off in the united kingdom. Current law calls for Internet service providers become responsible for blocking usage of offshore gambling sites.

But despite these laws, illegal gambling is common both online and off. India only permits gambling on lotteries and horse racing, but numerous Indians also wager on activities betting, especially in the national pastime of cricket. In fact, India has also considered legalizing activities betting in the country in an effort to simply take the wagers out of this market that is black regulate the industry rather. Demands such a move have actually may be found in reaction to match fixing (and smaller ‘spot fixing,’ such as for example manipulating the outcome of a ball that is single over) scandals in cricket which have put a cloud over the integrity of the sport in recent years.

Maine’s Problem Gambling Remains Problematic

The tally continues to be out on Maine’s problem gambler numbers

By most reports, the expansion of gambling within the state of Maine throughout the last 36 months has been a success. There is now a second full casino in Oxford, while the state’s first casino Hollywood Casino happens to be permitted to grow to supply table games along with slots. And all this has taken place without an increase that is sizeable the incidence of issue gambling.

Or, at least, that’s just what state officials wish. Unfortunately, they don’t really yet have enough information to be certain.

No Information

‘we do not have any prevalence data for how big a problem there is certainly in Maine,’ said Christine Theriault, a manager during the Maine Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services. According to Theriault, doing a prevalence study would cost tens or maybe thousands of dollars, making this kind of effort cost-prohibitive.

The issue actually goes straight back to 2010, if the Maine state legislature first decided they had a need to figure out how much cash to spend on gambling addiction services. Some state lawmakers pointed out that the National Council on Problem Gambling had received more than 1,200 calls from Maine residents on the previous year. But others noted that there have been few calls about gambling addiction from Maine’s own 211 helpline.

In the end, legislators ultimately decided that treatment programs would get a $50,000 allocation, which would eventually increase to $100,000 beginning this year. The funds come from the profits of Hollywood Casino, which pays them as a part of its normal payments to their state, instead than as a charge that is extra.

Within the absence of any genuine data, that money was going primarily into educational efforts. These have included information that is placing problem gambling and phone numbers gamblers can call for help on napkins and other things in the casinos themselves. Additional money has gone into pilot programs for treating problem gamblers, though these scheduled programs have actually yet to truly start serving any consumers.

Gambling-Related Crimes

Based on a report into the Bangor Daily News, there have been cases in which Maine residents have been charged with crimes associated to gambling addictions. For instance, one woman was sentenced to more than 3 years in jail after stealing $300,000 from mobile home sales so as to play at Hollywood Casino. Another young woman received a similar sentence after stealing mail in order to find checks and credit cards she can use to fund her drug and gambling addictions.

You can find some actions that problem gamblers can just take in Maine if they need to seek help. Most notably, both Maine casinos utilize a self-exclusion program in which gamblers may be included with a ‘no-admittance’ list, after which casinos will perhaps not let them on the floor.

But in the absence of data on exactly what’s going on in Maine in relation to gambling addiction, both state officials and casinos are limited in their options. For Responsible Gaming Education Week, Hollywood Casino is trying a creative idea: giving a costumed lobster (called Clawd) and a bilingual chef around Bangor to show residents about how to gamble in a safe and responsible way.

‘No matter what language you speak, we should all talk about responsible gaming,’ said Hollywood Casinos’ manager of finance John Gibboni.

Adelson Smacks MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment for Area Speed Drop

Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson just isn’t pleased with MGM Resorts

It might be time for Las Vegas Sands Corp. CEO Sheldon Adelson to just take an anger management course. The 80-year old, highly litigious curmudgeon are at it once more, and this time their ire is directed at casino competitor MGM Resorts International, who Adelson blames for driving down Las Vegas Strip room prices now, and, based on the mogul, affecting their own profits along the way.

Caesars Entertainment Also Blamed

Adelson made the accusations during his quarterly earnings conference call recently, also calling out Caesars Entertainment Corp. for the loss-leader that is same, a time-honored one in Las vegas, nevada that only got dropped during the height of the ‘we-can-do-no-wrong’ pre-recession years in Sin City.

The way Adelson phrased his remarks almost made them sound patronizing, however. Referring to Ceasars long-term debt load presently the highest within the casino industry of $23.7 billion, and to MGM Resorts’ of $13.1 billion, Adelson said associated with lowered room rate policy: ‘ I do not necessarily blame them. We suppose I might perform some exact same thing. if we were for the reason that position,’

Murren claims Adelson is Out of Touch with Vegas marketplace

Coming straight back on the offensive, MGM Resorts president and CEO Jim Murren basically called Adelson a wealthy but doddering old fart who does not have understanding of exactly what drives the Las Vegas tourism market these days. Backing up his claim could be the truth that 86 per cent of Las Vegas Sands’ quarterly revenues this time around originated in their Macau properties, and the fact that is simple Sands has just two Las Vegas Strip properties the Venetian as well as its adjacent Palazzo versus the combined Strip energy of MGM Resorts’ and Caesars’ 20 hotel-casinos. The MGM-Caesars contingent represents over 64,000 hotel rooms, compared to vegas Sands’ 7,000 hotel rooms, on the Strip.

‘the market is known by us right here,’ Murren said. ‘We and Caesars would be the largest players. We offer probably the most jobs, the tax revenues that are most and the most community help. It’s obvious to us that the market is improving.’

So there, Sheldon.

Naturally, the Adelson that is pugilistic was going to just take those commentary lying down. ‘ They need the physical bodies inside their casinos and so they need the bodies in their beds,’ Adelson stated. ‘the way that is only have them is always to buy the company by reducing the cost.’ We’re not exactly yes what his point is, except that it’s one method to explain why individuals aren’t paying the more premium rates during the Venetian and Palazzo.

Murren claims that MGM Resorts net revenues from all its Strip properties were up by 3.4 percent this quarter (ending June 30), to $1.248 billion. Moreover, the business’s resort profits especially were up 5 %, Murren said. ‘People are spending more cash in the areas that are nongaming’ he noted. To that end, the business has been doing some major capital improvements, renovating spaces at the MGM Grand and Bellagio and bringing in new Cirque du Soleil shows like ‘Michael Jackson One’ at Mandalay Bay, also as adding some new trendy eateries.

Meanwhile, the business is pouring $100 million in to a massive outdoor retail, dining and entertainment area between New York-New York plus the Monte Carlo, aimed at stopping pedestrians and pulling them in, while Caesars Entertainment is developing the $550 million Linq, a similar genre of outdoor venue that is rising across from Caesars Palace, their flagship property, involving the Flamingo and O’Shea’s.

Lest anybody wonder what third-party gaming analysts think of this fire volley, Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets gaming analyst Steven Wieczynski stated Adelson’s remarks might, in reality, be somewhat yesteryear-ish.

‘The company [MGM Resorts] stays well-positioned to capture an increasing share of strip visits, potentially contributing to a resurgence in revenues ahead of a broader market recovery,’ Wieczynski said.

Murren, but, got in the last nyah-nyah by saying, ‘He’s entitled to his own viewpoint. Maybe because he is rich he thinks people care about just what he has to say. It’s obvious we realize Las Vegas better than he does.’

Adelson has also come under fire recently from many in the poker world by dissing online poker and Internet gambling in general as insidious and destructive. He’s even launched a lobbying internet site to fight the spread of legal online gaming.