
Italian Luigi Tancredi is accused by police of being an ‘indispensable link between organized crime and the globe of I . t.’
Italian police have split up a illegal gambling ring with alleged links to the Mafia and the controversial online poker room DollaroPoker.net.
Eleven people were arrested on Wednesday and accused of running an unlawful network of some 12,000 gaming that is online 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 site that is online 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.
Those types of arrested had been Luigi Tancredi, a man referred to as ‘the King of Slots’ from his past involvement in Italy’s appropriate land-based gambling industry.
Indispensable Link
While not just a mafia that is direct, Tancredi was said by prosecutors to be the ‘indispensable link between organized crime and the realm of information technology.’
He’s accused of experiencing strong ties with the Camorra that is naples-based clan which he is said to have compensated between €45,000 and €60,000 per month from profits of the ring to set up machines on their premises.
Also arrested was his business partner Nicola Femia, a so-called boss associated with the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta organized crime syndicate.
In 2013, both guys had been investigated by police for their links to 33 unlawful gambling that is online, including Dollaro, which Tancredi was accused of running. Those costs had been ultimately dismissed by a court in Bologna.
Dollaro Dogged by Rumors
If you should be wondering why you’ve never ever heard of Dollaro, it’s most likely as the site is used primarily by Italian players and it is not really regulated in Italy. The site had benefited significantly from the Italian market’s refusal to legalize cash games until 2011.
It largely uses the ‘agent model,’ in which most of the deposits and withdrawals are controlled by agents who behave in a way that is similar affiliates.
Many Italians will visit cafes or clubs to gamble online, giving their deposit to a realtor, who will then load it into an account, bypassing player enrollment.
In cash (or at least you hope he will) if you win, your agent will pay you.
The site, which purports to currently be the 13th biggest in the entire world according to traffic data it submits to PokerScout.com itself, provides these agents a generous share of its revenue.
‘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 actually in the past reported on poker forums of the reports unexpectedly being deleted, or of funds mysteriously disappearing into the ether after cash out requests.
There are also whispers on poker forums of Mafia connections, which were unconfirmed before the developments of this week.
Police said Wednesday that Dollaro is based in Romania and operated from servers based in Tampa, Florida. 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, utilizing 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 your stage that is main Charleston, sc on Thursday night, all sharing hopes and aspirations of dealing with the most likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton towards becoming the 45th president of the United States.
Seven candidates might have been regarding the stage, but all eyes were dedicated to the two frontrunners, billionaire Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
The two had displayed a relationship that is congenial 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 truly a Manhattan liberal. Trump challenged Cruz’s right to run for president even because he was born in Canada while his parents were in that country on business.
‘we guess the ‘bromance’ is finished,’ Trump stated on CNN after the 2.5-hour debate.
Cruz Attacks New York
With Cruz closing in on Trump in Iowa (the first state that is primary will formally begin the nomination process on Monday, February first), the Texan decided to go following the businessman for being born and bred in the mostly politically liberal metropolis that is nyc.
But his 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 previous years. ‘Donald originates from 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 their response.
‘I saw something which no destination on Earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than New York,’ Trump reacted. ‘The individuals in New York fought and fought and fought.
‘ We rebuilt downtown Manhattan and everybody in the global globe watched and everybody on earth loved ny and loved New Yorkers,’ Trump said. ‘And I have to inform you, which was a very insulting statement that Ted made.’
There is little doubt that Trump won the trade.
The New York day-to-day News responded Friday morning with a address entitled ‘Drop Dead, Ted’ and wrote, ‘New York values are the ironworkers who carried their tools in backpacks and gym bags and, by God, strolled over the Brooklyn Bridge on the evening of Sept. 11, 2001, or all 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 emotions for Cruz clear by the usage of a finger that is middle the appropriate place, that your news site Tweeted out.
Can It on Canada
The other hot trade came when Trump questioned whether Cruz is legally permitted to become the nation’s commander in chief.
‘ If you become the nominee, who the hell knows if you may even serve in the office?’ Trump asked.
‘Since September, the Constitution hasn’t changed, but the poll figures have,’ Cruz reacted in defending their right that is legal to.
One eligibility requirement to be president is that the candidate must be an all-natural born citizen. But, if a child is born internationally to citizens that are american he or she is still considered to be a naturally created US resident, according to the Constitution.
Stats Talk
Based on news site Clear that is real politics Trump talked the most terms 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, because of the former Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon taking significantly less than eight percent associated with the total debate airtime.
Trump once again declared himself the debate winner, but voters will have the say that is final. Iowa Republicans cast their votes in just fourteen days.
Céline Dion’s Husband, René Angélil, Dies at Home in Las Vegas
René Angélil and Céline Dion. Angélil died 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 former manager of Las Vegas perennial Céline Dion, has died club player casino no deposit bonus 2018 after a lengthy battle with neck cancer. He was 73.
Angélil had been ill for numerous years. His cancer had been very first diagnosed in 1999, yet his 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 in to a superstar that is global Caesars Palace announced that the singer’s forthcoming shows at 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 recent meeting as ‘the just boyfriend I ever endured.’
Céline’s Mentor
René Angélil was born in Montreal in 1942 to a Syrian father and a mother that is lebanese-canadian. He initially had a singing career of their own, with his band ‘Les Baronets,’ which mainly recorded French-language covers of American and British hits.
Later, he managed various Canadian performers, before meeting Dion in 1980, whenever she ended up being only 12, and declaring her a celebrity, her voice apparently moving him to tears.
In 1981, he mortgaged their house to invest in her album that is first 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 hitched in 1994 in an elaborate ceremony that ended up being telecast worldwide. Throughout her rise to global superstardom, Dion has described her spouse as a guiding light and mentor.
Angélil’s gambling habits have actually long been a source of fascination for the media. He claimed he became a gambler that is professional the late eighties when Dion took some slack from her career to learn English, and that he possessed a ‘winning system’ for blackjack.
Love of Gambling
But in 2007, former Las Vegas mayor-turned-Caesars-exec Jan Jones claimed that Angélil gambled $1 million a week. She later retracted the statement, saying that she was speaking hypothetically.
With Angélil’s permission, Caesars took the unusual step of releasing details of 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 a poker that is enthusiastic and a common fixture in the Las Vegas poker tournament scene, and appeared in WSOP and WPT tv broadcasts on the years.
‘It is impractical to overstate the impact René and of course line that is cé had on the history of activity in Las Vegas and at Caesars Palace, with his audacious vision regarding her residency, now 13 years and counting,’ Gary Selesner, president of Caesars Palace, said in a declaration on Thursday.
‘René ended up being truly an amazing individual, showman and businessman, and over these many years became a liked and cherished member of this Caesars Palace household.’