Let your mouth speak archive

Odds are a lot of people who find gambling winnings stuffed into two envelopes would pocket the cash and move on.

Not Mitch Gilbert.

"Some people thought I was crazy to give it back," the Greenwood Village, Colorado, real estate businessman, told CNN on Tuesday. "I had to give it back. It wasn't my money to start with."

"It" was $10,000 held in two sealed Caesars Palace envelopes and left December 6 by a passenger at the airport in Las Vegas.

Gilbert said he had an inkling the envelopes carried money, but he hesitated to give it to someone he saw a few feet away because he wasn't sure the person was the rightful owner.

Gilbert waited about 40 minutes for someone to come searching for the money. He flew home with the envelopes, and found they each held $5,000 in cash.

KUSA reports: Colorado man returns envelopes of cash

Gilbert said he called McCarran International Airport and was told it could not put third parties together. He vowed to follow up and about two weeks later was told an El Paso, Texas, man had reported losing the money.

KUSA reached Ignacio Marquez, who said he dropped the envelopes as he was running to catch a flight.

"Relief is an understatement. Cash money is very difficult to get back. I'm very appreciative to Mitch and his family. You do not find people like this," Marquez said.

McCarran International Airport released a statement to CNN thanking Gilbert, who got the cash to Marquez late last week.

"We appreciate Mr. Gilbert's honesty and willingness to set a great example for others, and we are pleased our Lost and Found staff was able to assist in his efforts to track down the money's owner," the statement said.

Gilbert, who won some money of his own at Vegas, told KUSA he would want someone to do the same thing for him, even if the cash could go toward a mountain of bills.

"I wanted to show my kids the right thing to do," he said.

A new survey commissioned by the horse-racing industry shows that most Kentuckians want to vote on the question of expanded gambling and would support a constitutional amendment to allow casinos.

The survey — released Tuesday by the Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group, a polling firm based in Washington, D.C. — found that 87 percent of Kentuckians support having a ballot measure and 64 percent would favor an amendment to authorize casino gambling. It also shows broad support for a statewide vote across political parties.

The poll comes a week ahead of the 2012 legislative session, in which Democrats and Republicans are expected to spar over casino gaming and proponents hope to catapult the issue back to the forefront, capturing momentum from Gov. Steve Beshear’s re-election victory.

Beshear released a statement Tuesday afternoon calling for legislation that allows a vote and singling out the gambling question as one of his top priorities.

“The call for a direct vote by the people of this state has only gotten stronger over the last few years, and we should not make our citizens wait a moment longer to have their voices heard,” Beshear said.

But a family advocacy group opposed to gambling is challenging the survey’s validity.

Martin Cothran, spokesman for The Family Foundation, argues that the poll questions misrepresented the ballot and constitutional processes and were worded to solicit a particular response.

“We should place about as much credence in a poll finding support for gambling funded by the gambling industry as we would place in a study on the health risks of tobacco funded by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.,” he said in a statement.

The statewide poll of 612 Kentucky voters was conducted Dec. 12-14 and paid for by Kentucky racetracks and other members of the Kentucky Equine Education Project.

It found that 92 percent of Democrats, 83 percent of Republicans and 88 percent of independents support the idea of a ballot question.

Of the 64 percent who favor a constitutional amendment to expand gambling, 46 percent said they would definitely support the measure in a vote. Among the 32 percent who oppose an amendment, 25 percent said they were certain in their opposition. But even among voters who are against casino gambling, 71 percent said the question should be placed on the ballot.

Brett Hale, senior vice president of corporate and government affairs at Churchill Downs, said the horse industry is “cautiously optimistic” that legislation will pass in the 2012 session.

“We certainly feel that it is the best chance we’ve had going into a legislative session, and we think these numbers prove that,” he said.

Proponents have long argued that the Kentucky horse industry is losing out to other states where purses and breeding incentives are supplemented with revenue from casino games.

Beshear also wants to reap tax revenue from expanded gaming to shore up the state budget.

Critics say gambling has been proved to harm communities.

Adopting a proposed constitutional amendment requires 23 votes in the 38-member Senate and 60 votes in the 100-member House before it can be placed on the November general election ballot.

But Democrats and Republicans are at odds over procedural matters and reluctant to cast a controversial vote without assurance that an amendment would gain approval in both chambers.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, has said the legislation should start in the Senate.

State Sen. Damon Thayer, a Georgetown Republican who is chairman of the Senate State and Local Government Committee, said the governor should take the lead on any proposal and seek to first get legislation passed in the House before a bill comes to the Senate.

“Beshear needs to get out there and get support from the public and get input from the public and members of the General Assembly,” he said.

Thayer expects to meet with Beshear on the gambling issue as early as this week, and he predicted a vigorous statewide battle if the question is brought to voters.

“I think there is a level of fatigue relating to this issue,” Thayer said. “A lot of people would just like to put it on the ballot and be done with it.”

The Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group — the political division of Peter D. Hart Research Associates — has assisted in more than 400 political campaigns and has 10 U.S. senators and 16 U.S. House members among its clients, according to the firm.

Arab League monitors have only just begun to deploy in the crisis zones of Syria on Tuesday and officials from the 22-member organization were already worried that President Bashar Assad may be succeeding in undermining a mission intended to end the regime’s crackdown on protesters.

Assad pulled back his tanks from the restive city of Homs after days of relentless shelling, Arab League officials suspect it is just for show, a tactic to forestall more international condemnation and sanctions — especially since the halt in the assault came just ahead of the observers’ arrival in the city. Nearly 300 civilians have been killed by government forces since Syria signed off on the peace plan on Dec. 19 and clashes between army defectors and regime troops killed another 150, mostly defectors. The regime continued its crackdown up till Monday night when the first team of monitors was due to land in Syria.

Even Tuesday, the killings continued, with the Local Coordination Committees, an activist group, reported 30 dead from various parts of the country.

The continued deaths and the sense that Assad is trying to make end runs around the observers threaten to undermine the credibility of the Arab League at a time when it is trying to be more muscular in dealing with conflicts. For decades, the 22-member body has been dismissed as a talking shop for dictators, but the eruption of the Arab Spring pushed it to revitalize itself — starting by siding with Libyan rebels against Moammar Gadhafi earlier this year.

Arab League officials say they have no illusions that Assad will stop trying to crush a street movement that has raised the most serious challenge to the 40-year rule of his family. But while its members agree Assad must go, they are divided on how and are wary that an escalation in the crisis might bring international intervention. As a result, the observer mission was their best compromise.

The league’s plan, agreed to by Assad, requires his regime to remove security forces and heavy weapons from city streets, start talks with opposition leaders, free political prisoners and allow human rights workers and journalists into the country. The observers are supposed to monitor compliance.

Already, Syrian opposition groups have been deeply critical of the mission, saying it will simply give Assad cover for his crackdown.

“The League wants regime change but at the lowest possible cost,” said one league official who is familiar with the deliberations within the body and is skeptical over the mission.

“If the regime implements the removal of tanks and troops from the streets, 10 million Syrians will take to the streets and occupy all main squares, making the regime’s collapse a matter of time,” the official said. “Assad will never allow this, and the Arab League will be accused by more Syrians of complicity.”

Other officials argue that while the mission is not assured of success, it deserved a chance, warning the alternative to the Arab League peace plan is increasing violence and possible foreign military intervention in Syria a strategically located nation, with close ties to Iran, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the militant Hamas group in Gaza.

“Foreign intervention could trigger a drastic and unfavorable change in the balance of power in the region,” said another official. “A post-Assad Syria in the aftermath of foreign military intervention could give Turkey and Iran a foothold.”

All Arab League officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the body’s internal deliberations.
Several officials said league members were divided over the best approach for getting Assad out. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and their Gulf Arab allies favor Arab sanctions on the regime and referring the issue to the U.N. Security Council for action. The Arab League has already imposed economic sanctions on Syria, but Syria’s immediate neighbors opted out, weakening their impact.

Egypt, on the other hand, heads a rival group that includes Sudan, Lebanon and Algeria which insists on giving the Arab peace plan a chance.

The Egypt-led camp, the officials said, hopes that enough troops and weapons will be pulled out from Syrian cities to prompt Syrians to take to the streets in large numbers, putting Assad under the kind of pressure that forced Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Tunisia’s Zine El Abidine Ben Ali out of office this year.

Before the redeployment of tanks in Homs on Tuesday, there had been no sign that Assad was implementing any of the peace deal’s terms or letting up on his brutal crackdown. Many believe that any easing will be temporary and limited to wherever the observers are located on any given day.

“It is a farce,” said opposition activist Maamoun al-Homsi, alluding to the league’s plan. “The Arab League is part of this farce from the very beginning.”

In response to the Arab Spring, the league has taken steps away from its longstanding policy of staying out of the internal affairs of its member states.

The new policy came into focus when the organization suspended Libya’s membership this year in response to Gadahfi’s crackdown on revolutionaries.

NATO took the league’s withdrawal of support for Gadhafi’s regime as the nod it needed to launch monthslong airstrikes that crippled forces loyal to the dictator, who was captured and killed in October when his regime finally fell.

But Syria is no Libya, league officials say. They point out that in contrast to Libya, the Syrian opposition is more divided and the army and security forces have remained largely loyal to Assad. Syria’s place is more sensitive in the Arab world — bordering Israel, allied to Iran and militant groups — so if things go wrong with an intervention it is potentially far more explosive. Proponents of the monitoring mission within the league argue an “Arab solution” is best.

The use of monitors to verify the implementation of a peace deal is uncharted territory for the Arab League,

A Utah lawmaker is drafting a bill to make sure online gambling remains illegal within the state.

In response to multiple proposals being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives to legalize online gambling and on the heels of an opinion released by the U.S. Department of Justice last Friday that reversed the department's stand that all online gambling is illegal, Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem, has drafted legislation that clarifies that all forms of gambling online would be illegal in the state.

"We want to opt out and ban any online gambling in the state. We want to keep Utah free from the negative impacts of legalized gambling," said Sandstrom, who is out of the state right now with his family. "If we did allow Internet gambling, that would open the door for the Indian tribes in the state to set up their own gambling establishments."

Sandstrom said that under federal law a state has to allow for casinos on Indian Reservations if the state allows any form of gambling. He worried if Utah wasn't prepared to ban online gambling, should Congress choose to change federal law on the issue, that it would be forced to allow Indian casinos to set up shop within the state.

"If we don't stop Internet gambling in Utah we could have the Indian nation come in and say that they want to have a casino," he said.

Sandstrom argued that the laws being considered and the opinion released by the Justice Department last week are attempts to utilize gambling as a way to fix the federal government's money problems.

"The U.S. Department of Justice's conveniently issued legal opinion is a desperate attempt to try and fix today's recessive economy. It's clear that President Obama's fiscal policies have been a complete failure," Sandstrom said. "This latest move by the DOJ will only serve to harm all Americans economically and socially in the long-run."

Sandstrom said that depending on gambling to raise government funds was poor policy since it would be advancing an industry that he says profits from the vulnerabilities of its customer and opens the way for states to become further dependent on tax revenues gained from a form of recreation that hits hardest those who can least afford it.

The latest bill to legalize online gambling being considered by the U.S. House is being sponsored by California Republican representative John Campbell. The bill is currently in committee. Sandstrom's bill will be considered in the upcoming 2012 state legislative session. Utah and Hawaii are currently the only states the have bans on gambling in all forms.

Foxboro Selectmen last night delivered a devastating blow to a plan by New England Patriots [team stats] owner Robert Kraft and Vegas mogul Steve Wynn to build a gambling complex on Route 1, voting to send a letter to Gov. Deval Patrick and the Massachusetts Gaming Commission saying the town doesn’t want a casino.

The non-binding vote — capping an hours-long, highly emotional meeting — doesn’t sink the proposed Kraft

Wynn resort, but sent a message that the town’s highest board believes Foxboro should be off-limits to casino gambling. “Our first step should be to say we’re not interested,” Selectman James DeVellis said just before the 3-2 vote.

Kraft and Wynn, however, could still proceed with a meeting to lay out their plans for a gaming palace across the street from Gillette Stadium and request a townwide vote.

Last night’s meeting was tense and at times turned personal. Early in the meeting, chaos nearly erupted when 82-year-old Helen Merigan refused to leave the podium after Chairman Larry Harrington tried to end a public comments section.

Harrington summoned the police chief to remove Merigan, but thanks to a raucous crowd reaction, he eventually relented and let her speak. Merigan then compared Wynn and Kraft to “great white sharks” circling Foxboro.

Selectman Mark Sullivan, the deciding vote, at one point threatened to walk out because of the “embarrassing” behavior of the crowd, which at times heckled selectmen. One man who kept interrupting the meeting was ejected.

Fed-up Sullivan said he personally went to Gillette Stadium during the past week to tell Kraft: “It’s ripping my town apart.”

A Kraft Wynn presentation would draw 3,000 to 4,000 residents, requiring a shuttle bus and an outdoor heated tent to accommodate everyone at the high school, Town Manager Kevin Paicos said. Paicos instead suggested a meeting in Kraft’s own backyard — at Gillette Stadium.

According to the town’s current zoning laws, constructing a casino is illegal in Foxboro, so residents would have to overturn that obstacle with a two-thirds majority at a town meeting vote.

The packed house of Foxboro residents, divided over the proposal for a casino in their town, wrangled over the plan last night. Some worried about crime and losing the character of their town, while others praised the thousands of jobs promised and urged selectmen to at least hear the sales pitch.

Former Foxboro Selectman Paul Mortenson said the people have already spoken — several town boards have already said no to gambling. “That’s democracy,” said Mortenson, who worried the town would be no match for the Wynn

Kraft legal and public relations machine.

Local physician David Egilman predicted the casino would be “good for my business” because it would lead to an influx of patients with STDs, gambling addiction and alcoholism.

Before the meeting, a few dozen casino supporters, including several union carpenters, held signs outside the high school and touted the jobs a resort would bring.

The US Justice Department's reversal of a policy on illegal online gaming is expected to open new possibilities for countries like Antigua & Barbuda, along with the United States.

The Justice Department reversed its interpretation of the federal 1961 Wire Act, a move predicted to spark widespread growth in the previously taboo industry.

Further, interstate US gambling is no longer illegal.

The decision, a response to clarification sought by two states, Nevada and llinois, now says only online sports betting is outlawed, both within states and across state borders.

"The ordinary meaning of the phrase 'sporting event or contest' does not encompass lotteries," wrote Assistant Attorney General Virginia Seitz. "Accordingly, we conclude that the proposed lotteries are not within the prohibitions of the Wire Act."

Global online gambling is estimated to be worth around $30 billion. Online poker has an estimated $6 billion potential in the US.

For most lawmakers, drawing new boundaries for legislative districts that help keep them in office will be priority No. 1 in the once-a-decade session devoted to reapportionment.Aside from that, it's unclear what else will get done in the 60-day legislative session that begins Jan. 10. Although lawmakers are required to pass a budget, they could decide to call a special session later in the spring in hopes of a rosier forecast from economists.Although a highly public battle waits on the expansion of gambling in Florida, many legislators are reluctant to tackle it in an election year. They'll also be looking for ways to crack down on the massive amount of fraud that plagues both the automobile and personal property insurance marketplaces. It's shaping up as a bountiful session for lobbyists, who have dramatically increased their influence at the Capitol over the past generation. The parties with interests at stake in the gaming and insurance fights have bankrolled some of the city's most prominent wheelers and dealers.Those issues and others could wait until lawmakers figure out their own political routes. That path may be a bit trickier than in the past for the Legislature - where Republicans have overwhelming advantages of 28-12 in the Senate and 81-39 in the House - as voters approved constitutional amendments banning gerrymandering. No longer can lawmakers draw legislative or congressional districts where the obvious aim is to help the majority party or an incumbent.The reapportionment process is often time-consuming and usually not pretty."Believe me there are politics involved here," Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, said.The results also can be unpredictable. Democrats were in charge 20 years ago when the legislative and congressional boundaries were redrawn - but that didn't stop Republican takeover of state government.The legislative maps, but not the congressional plan, go to the Florida Supreme Court to ensure they comply with the state constitution. Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, has veto power over the congressional map but not the legislative plans.The maps must also be reviewed by the U.S. Justice Department to make they're in accordance with the federal Voting Rights Act because of past racial discrimination in five of Florida's 67 counties.But beyond redistricting, there appears to be less tension between Scott and the legislative leadership this year.Scott, who fared well in his first session last spring, appears to have adopted a more conciliatory approach overall and he's more comfortable with the veteran politicians he deals with in the Legislature.A top priority for Haridopolos is getting a pair of emotion-packed bills passed that would compensate two men whose lives were turned upside down by government mistakes.One would benefit Eric Brody, who suffered brain damage and paralysis when he was 18 after a speeding Broward County sheriff's deputy - running late to work - crashed into his car in 1998. The other would pay $810,000 to William Dillon, who spent 27 years in prison for a Brevard County murder he didn't commit.Both claims bills died in the final moments of the 2011 session, largely victims of some 11th-hour political gamesmanship.Scott and some lawmakers also want to find ways to make the state university system more effective and boost the number of students graduating with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math. House Speaker Dean Cannon, though, said lawmakers may do no more than just start the conversation in 2012 without acting on this complex issue.


Scott has made a turnabout on education spending. Last session, he proposed deep cuts as part of his drive to reduce taxes in hopes of jump-starting Florida's economy. Now, Scott wants an additional billion dollars for education in the budget year that begins next July 1.However, Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich of Weston said it was "disingenuous" for the governor to claim he's proposing a $1 billion increase when schools are losing $634 million next year due to expiring federal stimulus and jobs bill money while more students come into the public schools system.The mundane, but critical battle for dollars will be closely watched again in a year as lawmakers face a $2 billion budget shortfall.Scott, who once ran the nation's largest chain of hospitals, suggested that savings could be realized by cutting what the state spends reimbursing hospitals for taking care of patients enrolled in Medicaid. He also would like to close a handful of state prisons, eliminate 4,500 state jobs and require all state employees to pay the same for health insurance.The governor and his Republican cohorts in the Legislature have said they will not raise taxes in order to help offset the projected budget shortfall.And that could tempt some legislators to get behind a strong push by builders, contractors and business lobby Associated Industries of Florida to expand gambling across the state that still suffers from double-digit unemployment.Disney World, the Florida Chamber of Commerce and owners of dog and horse track owners are among those opposed to more gaming in Florida.Scott waded into the annual pyrotechnics that surround the solvency of the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and the fraud that has led to skyrocketing increases for Florida drivers required to carry personal injury protection (PIP) by challenging legislators to fix them.Citizens - with Scott's blessings - wants legislators to approve a long list of changes during the upcoming session with an eye to depopulating a company originally intended as the insurer of last resort, but now the state's largest property insurer with nearly 1.5 million policies.The PIP issue has defied resolution for more than a decade.U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson tried to clamp down on PIP fraud in the late 1990s when he was Florida's treasurer and insurance commissioner."It's been so hard to fix," Nelson said. "You've always had trial lawyers v

Forget the monkey or the rooster, 2012 could be the year of the gambler and experts say that while that would mean more money in states’ pockets, it could also put young people and adults at further risk of addiction.

On Friday, the Justice Department reversed its previous stand on the 1961 Wire Act — saying that it applied to sports betting but not online gambling — after years of hunting down online casinos like the billion-dollar-plus Full Tilt Poker.

Rick Bronson, chairman of U.S. Digital Gaming, said the change would give states the ability to legally operate online gambling beginning with poker and also sell lottery tickets on the Internet.

He said that poker would likely generate $12 billion a year in revenue for states and that the lotteries — already a $60 billion to $70 billion business — would continue to grow.

According to a 2010 Morgan Stanley report, analysts said that allowing Internet gambling could bring in $5 billion.

I. Nelson Rose, Whittier Law School professor and expert on gaming law, called the Justice Department move a “major Christmas present for the Internet gambling community.”

“We are about to see this explosion of Internet gambling sweep across the nation,” he said. “All we’re seeing is every single state proposing more and more legal gambling. … Gambling is seen as a painless tax, involuntary tax so it is an easy way to raise revenue without raising real taxes.”

In fact, Washington D.C. and Nevada are already poised to start online gambling, mostly poker. Kentucky’s Gov. Steve Beshear is pushing for expanded gambling in his state. And in Illinois, there are hopes that online tickets will increase sales for the lottery.

“It’s money and [states] can’t raise taxes anymore and they can’t cut services anymore so they need a way to raise money and gambling seems to pay more tax,” Rose said.

Bronson of U.S. Digital Gaming estimated that tax revenue for the states would be about 25 percent. He said online gaming would likely bring more visitors to casinos.

This would be good news for Florida, where lawmakers are set to consider a measure to bring three casino resorts to the southern part of the state. In New York, the governor is pushing for the legalization of casino gambling.

Regarding Internet gambling, Rose said states would have to require strict regulations to prevent gamblers from becoming addicts and to ensure that minors do not participate.

Keith Whyte, the executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, said there were a half a million youth ages 12-17 with gambling problems.

He said that youth were already gambling online and that the industry was not doing a good job preventing it.

“In some ways, we’re concerned that when these existing industries expand [under the new Justice Department rule] they’re going to do the same shoddy job of enforcing that they’re already doing,” Whyte said.

He advised states looking to jump into online gambling to first do a study on the current rate of gambling addiction among youth and gambling adults to see whether there would be a spike.

“States are looking to maximize revenue from gambling, but they also need to minimalize the social costs,” Whyte said.

Hartford, Conn. (WTNH) - A Connecticut lawmaker is reacting to a ruling by the federal government that clears the way for online gambling.

Online lottery ticket sales, online poker, and other forms of internet gambling could soon become a reality.

That is, if Connecticut lawmakers approve it during the next legislative session.

Senator Richard Blumenthal has been opposed to online gaming in the past, but Wednesday he said the key is protecting consumers.

"What we really need, and we can do it through federal legislation, is protections for consumers so that credit card fraud and identity theft do not come with online gambling," Blumenthal said.

Governor Dannel Malloy says he welcomes the ruling as a way to raise more money for the state.

In the waning days of 2011, the federal government has handed gamblers two gifts. The Justice Department cleared the way for states to start legalizing online poker and other online betting games. And the Internal Revenue Service agreed to a tax court decision that will allow professional gamblers to take big tax losses.

Does that mean you can now write off all those Knicks games and bar nights you and your fantasy league buddies attend? What about the Vegas sprees that support your habit? Sorry, not so much.

"The tax code is very very very... and I could add many more 'verys'... unfair toward gambling," says Russell Fox, a Las Vegas tax expert who prepares the returns of poker aficionados, horse bettors, slots players and more. Fox is an enrolled agent -- a special class of tax preparer that qualifies him to represent clients before the Internal Revenue Service.

Fox and other analysts do believe that the administration's new position will eventually lead to many more legal games and gambling opportunities. "Maybe five years from now, you're going to see a number of new games online; many of them have yet to be invented," said Michael Pollock, managing director of Spectrum Gaming Group, a research and consulting firm.

But whether the people who spend money on those 'opportunities' can actually cash in on the tax breaks that might be associated with them is another question.

The main limitation, from Fox's point of view, is that the IRS distinguishes between recreational and professional gamblers -- and only pros can take lucrative tax losses for their expenses. The bar is higher for a professional gambler than it is for a professional painter, babysitter, dogwalker or eBay merchant, Fox suggests. And only the pros can take tax losses for their expenses.

Here's what you need to know if you enjoy the games of chance and want to save money on your taxes.

-- You can win, but you can't hide. "Gambling winnings are always taxable income," the IRS notes. That includes the $250 you get if you call the final four right in your office NCAA pool, and the amount you win when the players in your fantasy football team have a good week.

-- Pros get big write-offs. If you are deemed a professional gambler, you can deduct more than you make, producing losses that can reduce your tax bill significantly. Here's how: You're allowed to take as much in gambling losses (the actual amount you bet and lose) as you won. Then you can also deduct your expenses, such as travel costs, tournament fees and the like. If that results in a gambling business income that is a negative number, you can use that negative number to reduce any other taxable income you may have.

-- Of course, there's a catch. It's very hard to prove that your gambling activity is a business. As recently as July of this year, the U.S. tax court disallowed the claim of a taxpayer who spent much of his spare time playing the slots, winning $25,534 in the process. He claimed betting losses of that amount plus expenses of $15,455. But the tax court agreed with the IRS's claim that he wasn't really running a gambling business, largely because he had a day job as an X-ray technician that supported him, and because he wasn't running his gambling business in a businesslike manner. The IRS has a checklist of behaviors that it looks at to decide if something's a business, and having fun is on it. If you really enjoy gambling and have other income coming in, and don't keep good records, you're probably just going to be considered a recreational gambler, even if you recreate a lot, says Fox.

-- Hobbyist gamblers don't get the same breaks. If you win a bunch of money, but aren't a pro, you can only deduct your losses up to the amount that they zero out your winnings. And they appear in different places on your tax return, so anyone who doesn't itemize their deductions will lose out. You still have to take the income as taxable, but you'll lose the deductions.

-- The fantasy leagues are still operating in the grey. The good news for people who field their own fantasy football, basketball or baseball teams is this: It's usually legal to do so. The law, which regulates online gambling -- the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 -- specifically carves out fantasy leagues as a protected activity. But Florida has outlawed fantasy leagues. And whether they are businesses is a whole other question that doesn't seem to have been tested. Some fantasy players are getting 1099 forms listing their winnings. That enables them to reduce that taxable income by the amount they bet or spent on participating (as long as they don't create a loss.) But proving you are a professional fantasy sports player? "I seriously doubt it," says Fox. "You have to prove it's your livelihood, and that's hard to see."

-- Some states are better than others. Some states disallow gambling losses, or subject them to their state's alternative minimum tax rules. According to Fox, if you've got gambling income and losses, you probably don't want to be from Hawaii, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, or a handful of other states, because they have various rules which either disallow gambling deductions or subject them to alternative minimum taxes, or add extra taxes onto gambling businesses. Of course Nevada's kind to those who play (or work) at gambling, so living in Las Vegas instead of traveling there may always be an option. At least you'll cut down on travel expenses

Antigua & Barbuda’s attorney in the country’s seven-year-old gaming dispute with the United States yesterday said the US Department of Justice’s reversed opinion on what forms of Internet gaming were covered by the Federal 1961 Wire Act should lead the way to a resolution of the matter.

Until now, the Justice Department had held that the Wire Act makes intrastate online gambling illegal. Its new interpretation, written by Justice Department attorneys in response to requests for clarification from New York and Illinois, concluded that the law instead specifically outlaws such wagering on sports, not nonsports gambling (such as lotteries and poker) within states or even across state borders.

Reacting yesterday to the US assistant attorney general’s view on the matter, Antigua’s counsel Mark Mendel stated, “I think it is a very, very positive development. Personally, I think this would be a great time to go back to the US government and say, in light of all the things that have happened, now there is no excuse for the US government not to deal with Antigua in a fair way and in a way that allows us to reap the benefits of the victory we got at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). All the excuses they’ve used in the past are now completely gone.”

The memorandum opinion of the department was delivered on September 20, 2011, but only made public Friday, just ahead of a long holiday weekend.

The opinion regarding the issue was sought by the two states for clarification on the lawfulness to use Internet and out-of-state transaction processors to sell lottery tickets to in-state adults.

The Justice Department subsequently concluded “interstate transmissions of wire communications that do not relate to a sporting event or contest fall outside the reach of the Wire Act.”

Mendel’s interpretation is that it brings a new chapter to the dispute, in that the US “will still say (their) laws prohibit other countries from offering these services to (their) citizens but that can’t stand. If they allow it within their own country then they have to allow it from other countries.”

The expert on finance law and offshore trading added that Antigua & Barbuda’s refusal to allow the US to change their treaty obligations means “this will be a great time for Antigua since we are the beneficiary from that (WTO) ruling … I think this is a great time to go in there and say, ‘now you’ve said this,’ there needs to be room in there for us.”

The WTO decision to which Mendel referred came in 2004, when a panel ruled against the US, saying that by banning US citizens from participating in Antiguan online gaming activities it was in breach of its commitment to free trade in betting and gambling services in its schedule of commitments to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). A year later its appellate body upheld the decision.

However, the US did not comply with the ruling and in early 2005 the WTO gave the country one year to adhere. As a result of the ban, the twin island claimed annual damages of $3.44 billion, but was subsequently awarded the right to levy $21 million in sanctions on US patents, copyrights and other intellectual property.

The deadline passed and nothing changed as the US maintained it had been acting according with its own laws.

With the support of the ruling, Mendel said, “The whole goal of the case was to allow us to offer these services fairly to American consumers and I think what this probably does, if we play our hand right and go about it in the proper way, I think it gives us a chance to have market access which is what we’ve really been wanting all these years.”

The woman who became famous for being mistress numero uno in what became the giant Tiger Woods sex scandal, is now brewing a human.

Uchitel first came into the spotlight when her investment banker fiance, James Andrew O'Grady, was killed in the September 11th attacks when she appeared on the front page of the New York Post holding a picture of O'Grady. But what really made her famous, was when she was found to be the first of what became a slew of women to have slept with Tiger Woods, who was married at the time to Elin Nordegren.

After being paid out a cool $10 million in hush money as well as appearing on Celebrity Rehab for a "love" addiction, Uchitel sercretly married her boyfriend, Matt Hahn, who is a businessman this past October.

Besides her engagemnet to the late O'Grady, Uchitel has been married once before when in 2004, she married Wall Street trader and childhood friend Steven Ehrenkranz... a union which lasted four months.

Uchitel tweeted the above photos last night, writing, "Expecting big things for 2012... Five down, Four months to go."

Get all your celebrity odds in the Bovada Sportsbook today.

Quietly, and just before the Christmas holidays, president Obama’s Justice Department reversed years of legal decisions and authorized states to make the decision about whether or not to allow web-based, non-sports gambling within state borders[1]. As a result of that 13-page memo, what analysts are calling the “online poker gold rush” is likely on, just as it was before the president George W. Bush’s Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which tanked internet gambling companies like PartyPoker, which was dealing 32 online poker hands a second and handling $125 million in wagers a day in the United States before the legislation was enacted[2]. Not surprisingly, investors both at home and abroad are eager to get involved in that action, should it become legal once more.

Of course, there are myriad issues to resolve before it becomes crystal clear whether or not online gambling is in the U.S. to stay – at least in a big way. Legalizing online gambling is a great way to generate revenue for state governments in a way that does not require citizens to pay higher taxes, but critics argue that online gambling cannot effectively prevent minors from betting and, ultimately, will simply hurt the poorest members of society, the demographic which has also been shown to play the lottery in the highest volumes. According to the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG), the “annual social costs” of gambling and related additions is “nearly $7 billion,” and those numbers are only going to rise, warn critics, if states legalize online betting. Many critics believe this is why the legal opinion received such little publicity and was not released until just before Christmas.

Washington D.C. was touted to be the first jurisdiction in the USA to legally offer online gambling services to its residents. The authorities didn’t take the idea lightly and have gone through all the hoops possible to ensure they are doing what the public opinion condones.
The director of the Washington DC Lottery, which wants to introduce online gaming Buddy Roogow, revealed that most of the residents that had an opportunity to provide input at the lottery's nine consultative briefings presented around the city supported the introduction of a carefully regulated online gambling system within Washington D.C. boundaries.

The program which passed through the Legislature attached to a supplementary budget bill a year ago has still got a few hurdles to leap over yet. The report by the Washington D.C. Lottery was designed Re to sample the residents' reactions to the move. Roogow claimed that 68 percent of 155 people who spoke at the meetings supported the internet gambling program. Twenty two percent were opposed and ten percent remained neutral to the idea. The favourable results did hinge on the revenue usage with those supporting igaming liked the concept of gained revenues being used for social programs and a weekly limit of $250 be placed on the betting as a safeguard against abusive wagering losses.

Detractors of the plan were in Ward four where there was a nine to eight split in the opponents versus supporters who had remarks that voiced concern that the venture was too risky. They said the idea places senior citizens at risk, and most of all, that government and gambling should not be combined.
Should the bill receive a final nod pre-approved players registered ahead of time and authorized to play on their home computers or in prearranged public areas equipped with an internet connection will be initially offered four games according to the current plans.
The next step in this long drawn out process will be difficult as it will again be reconsidered on January 26th during a committee hearing, chaired by one of its main political opponents, Washington D.C. councilor Jack Evans.

The rumors are mounting that Katy Perry and Russell Brand are no longer a happily married couple, since Perry was spotted bikini basking alone in Hawaii this Christmas whist Brand was spotted out in London, both sans wedding rings!

After planning fly her family via private jet to Brand's London hometown for the holidays, Perry, instead, flew to Hawaii with her friends.

According to sources, the pair had a blow-out, which caused the change of plans. The source of contention? Perry, raised by Christian pastor parents, feels her comic husband doesn't respect her family's values or beliefs.

Divorce rumors started back in November, but the couple put on a happy face whist their PR team issued the appropriate denails.

In an interview with Rolling Stone Perry had said, "I am sensitive to Russell taking the Lord's name in vain and to Lady Gaga putting a rosary in her mouth. I think when you put sex and spirituality in the same bottle and shake it up, bad things happen

"They haven't split up just yet, but things are not good," a source recently told US Weekly. "The fighting is getting worse."

Perry first met Brand in the summer of 2008 when she filmed a cameo appearance for Brand's film Get Him to the Greek. However, they didn't start dating until a year later, when they met again at the 2009 MTV Music Awards where Brand, as host, remarked, "Katy Perry didn't win an award and she's staying at the same hotel as me, so she's gonna need a shoulder to cry on. So in a way, I'm the real winner tonight."

After a whirlwind romance, the couple became engaged in December 2009 while vacationing in India. Perry and Brand married on October 23, 2010 in a traditional Hindu ceremony near the Ranthambhore tiger sanctuary, where Brand had proposed.

Before the advent of online gambling, a person with gambling addiction usually had to leave their house and go somewhere to indulge their habit.

But when gambling becomes accessible online, simply passing the computer at home can trigger the impulse to place a bet, said Marvin Steinberg, executive director of the nonprofit group Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling.

Earlier this week, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced that he was exploring the possibility of legalizing various forms of online gambling in Connecticut. The announcement drew mixed reactions, some wary of the state getting involved in anything that could foster more problem gambling.

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Researchers have studied the psychology of gambling for decades. The field of online gambling research, though, is still new, and researchers say there are a number of questions about its potential dangers and whether online gambling poses psychological problems different from those related to traditional forms of gambling.

Nancy Petry, a psychologist at the University of Connecticut, said a few patterns have so far emerged.

"We're finding that only a small proportion of gamblers do so online, but of these people, the vast majority do have gambling problems," said Petry.

She said one of the main questions is whether online gambling is creating more gambling addiction or simply serving as another outlet for addicts. Petry, one of the first researchers to study online gambling, said gambling addicts may have problems that parallel those of problem drinkers.

"It's similar to drinking — when you're developing a drinking problem you're doing it socially," she said, but many alcoholics eventually turn to drinking alone at home. When gambling at home on a computer, "there are none of the social sanctions" of real-world settings, she said, and that makes it easier to go overboard.

One of her studies looked specifically at online gambling and adolescents. She and fellow researchers found a strong parallel between the young gamblers and binge-drinking among teenagers. While those who did partake in online betting had a higher rate of gambling addiction — just as young drinkers have a higher rate of binge drinking — those problems didn't necessarily lead into adulthood.

David Hodgins, a professor of psychology at the University of Calgary, said one of the next questions to tackle is what role online gambling has in a developing an addiction. "It's not clear where the chicken or the egg is," he said.

More online gambling, he said, will likely complicate the treatment of those with a gambling addiction.

"It makes [gambling] more accessible, and when people are struggling to overcome gambling, putting distance between you and gambling online makes that difficult," he said.

Steinberg said online gambling tends to attract the same personality type who gravitate toward slot machines in casinos — a subset of gamblers particularly susceptible to gambling problems.

"Problem gamblers are people who like to escape and isolate themselves," he said. "When they get into casinos, they go to slot machines where they're in their own world and don't get interrupted. Online gambling is pretty much you and the machine and you're alone. People don't have parties to gamble online — psychologically, it's more isolated."

Settings such as a blackjack table or a horse track, he said, have social cues and distractions to keep a person grounded in terms of time and money spent.

"When you're at home, your potential to go and gamble is at any time," he said, adding that depression and anxiety can heighten the gambling impulse.

After taking a hard kick to the living during the first round of his comeback fight against former Strikeforce heavyweight champion Allistar Overeem, Brock Lesnar, the highest-paid fighter in the UFC, announced his retirement.

After the taking the brutal kick, Lesnar dropped to the ground and turtled, covering his head while Overeem delivered a flurry of punches to the head until the ref stopped the fight at the 2:26 mark of round one.

This was Lesnar's first time back in the Octagon after enduring a second bout of diverticulitis, a lower-intestinal disease that nearly killed him. Apparently, one gets it from eating too much red meat, which, if you take one look at Lesnar, seems like a staple part of his diet.

After the fight, a devastated-looking Lesnar told Joe Rogan this was his last time in the Octagon.

"I've had a really difficult couple of years with my disease, and I'm going to officially say tonight is the last time," Lesnar said. He added that he had promised his wife that if he lost this fight, he would throw in the towel on his MMA career.

Meanwhile, UFC president Dana White said he had no idea Lesnar was considering retirement, saying, “I had no idea he was going to do that. Am I surprised? No. Brock has may a lot of money in his career.”

According to BBC reports an American man is being sued for keeping Twitter followers that he attracted while working for a US mobile news website. Noah Kravitz tweeted for Phonedog, using the handle @Phonedog_Noah, but later changed his username when he left the company - taking 17,000 followers with him. The company is now seeking damages of £ 1.60 per user, per month - a total of £ 240,041 ($370,000).

Defending his actions, Kravitz said he had been given permission to continue using the account after he left Phonedog as long as he agreed to "tweet on their behalf from time to time".

The 17,000 followers, which have since risen to 22,000, had been accumulated by Kravitz during his four years at the company, where he worked as a blogger.

Eight months on, Phonedog launched litigation claiming that the account's followers were a customer list, and that it had invested "substantial" resources into building it.

"The costs and resources invested by Phonedog Media into growing its followers, fans and general brand awareness through social media are substantial and are considered property of Phonedog Media," a company spokesman claimed.

"We intend to aggressively protect our customer lists and confidential information, intellectual property, trademark and brands."

Legal experts believe the case could set a precedent for future ownership tussles.

"Companies will now be developing careful ways of deciding if they want to tweet with a conjoined account," said Barbara Cookson, an intellectual property lawyer in the UK. "For ordinary businesses it's quite difficult to gain a following without a strong personality. You have to have a very strong brand for it to work."

Cookson added that it is hard to place a financial value on Twitter followers as it is unclear why they follow a particular account...and it's arguable as to whether a Twitter follower list is comparable to a mailing list.

"If Phonedog has been using it to run offers, it perhaps is a mailing list that has value," Cookson opined.

Disagreeing, intellectual property solicitor Leigh Ellis said Phonedog is likely to have a strong case as the original account featured the company's name.

"Let me put it this way, I'd prefer to be on Phonedog's side," he told the BBC.

"If you're a follower, who are you following? You might be following Noah, but it's PhonedogNoah. There's a very good argument that the reputation accrued is to the company, rather than the individual."

In a further statement issued this week, Phonedog clarified that Kravitz was tasked with creating the account in order to "...promote Phonedog's published paid for content, giveaways, and live blogging events, and to provide the audience a way to follow Noah during his daily activities as a representative for the company".

"Phonedog has always strived to provide a very personal user experience by frequently communicating with its audience, and all of our editors were and are encouraged to tweet personal aspects of their life to the account."

One of the biggest fears for many gamblers is becoming the victim of a robbery, especially if for high stakes poker players who often carry significant amounts of cash on them. But for one casino visitor in California, an attempted robbery turned out to be for somewhat lower stakes.

According to a report in the North County Times, police are currently investigating a case in which a man attempted an armed robbery outside of the Ocean’s Eleven Casino in Oceanside, California. According to the victim, the robber told the victim that he had a gun in his waistband.

But it was the demand made by the alleged robber that made this case a little out of the ordinary. Instead of asking for all of the victim’s cash, valuables, or car keys, the man wanted only $1 – an amount many people would be likely to hand over if a stranger asked nicely.

According to police, the victim didn’t give anything to the man who threatened him, and the suspect fled the scene without harming the victim or taking anything from him. Police then arrived on the scene, but the man was gone. As of Saturday evening, he had still not been found.

While being the victim of an attempted robbery is never fun, the victim here certainly made out better than some other notable victims of robberies in the gambling world, such as Jonathan Duhamel, who was recently the victim of a robbery and home invasion. Duhamel’s case is still being investigated, and four individuals have been arrested in connection with the robbery.

On the day before Christmas, after the US Department of Justice published its opinion regarding a change in its stance regarding online gambling rules, many analysts in the industry predicted that significant changes were about to be seen.

The DOJ concluded that "interstate transmissions of wire communications that do not relate to a sporting event or contest falls out of the reach of the Wire Act."

In layman's terms, this means that up until now, the Wire Act of 1961 was interpreted as covering all forms of gambling; however the new opinion published clarified that the Act only covers sports betting.

Almost overnight following the US gambling announcement, the share prices of major UK gambling groups jumped, and analysts expect them to climb even further when changes start to be felt after the holiday season.

"Potentially it [the change of opinion] opens the way for gambling services to be provided from offshore and this may encourage the US Congress to legislate before the floodgates open," said Numis Securities in statement.

Recommendations to 'buy' were made by Panmure Gordon investments on 888 Holdings stocks, since the group has made sound buys in the Nevada, the first state to approve regulations which permit applications for online poker licenses.

"888 is the only UK listed company to receive Nevada Gaming Commission suitability approval and we expect it to supply software to Caesars Entertainment to operate in Nevada," said Simon French, an analyst with Panmure Gordon.

UK Gambling Groups See Shares Rise


Other UK groups which saw their shares rise with the announcement by the Department of Justice last Friday included Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment, whose shares leapt 29.7% to 160 p.

Interestingly, the Department of Justice fined Party Gaming $105 million for illegally operating in the US market under the terms of the Wire Act, and only after paying could the company avoid prosecution for just under a decade of operations in the US.

Now that the DOJ has had a change of heart regarding the Wire Act, analysts believe that they were acting in bad faith by fining Party Gaming, however sources close to the online gambling giant don't believe that they have the grounds to demand any of the millions paid back.

Ladbrokes, the giant UK retail betting company climbed up 4.1% and William Hill's shares spiked at 6% to 194.7 p.

Said the chief executive of Betfair US, Stephen Burn: "This announcement from the DOJ is a serious about-turn. It looks like this will open up things like the lottery, poker, casino games and bingo."