Let your mouth speak archive

The new policy takes effect Tuesday and will apply to Disney's theme parks, water parks and DisneyQuest, a gaming attraction at Downtown Disney, the entertainment giant said.

The ban will also apply at later dates to Disneyland and Disney's parks in Paris and Hong Kong.

Selfie-sticks are poles that hold smartphones on the end to extend their reach. Disney has previously barred the poles on specific rides, including roller coasters. They will not be allowed past bag check, Disney said.

"We strive to provide a great experience for the entire family, and unfortunately, selfie-sticks have become a growing safety concern for both our guests and cast," Disney spokeswoman Kim Prunty said.

It's not known if selfie-sticks have injured any guests at Disney.


Read more: Disney World bans selfie-sticks | Entertainment - Home

On Friday Disney announced it was banning selfie sticks from all its parks around the world from June 30. Staff will check for them during routine bag screening as visitors enter the park. Any sticks found will either be confiscated or their owners will have to return them to their hotel or car.

That's just crazy

Who cares. About 3.8 million young children are fed daily through the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Take care of them first!!

Who cares. About 3.8 million young children are fed daily through the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Take care of them first!!


They should have other things In their mind than gambling. It's frustrated that they thinking of gambling.

A third effort to legalize online gambling has been started by Texas Congressman Joe Barton. The 6th District Republican says he is trying to create one federal standard to protect the integrity of the game and the financial interests of the players.

Rodger Weems of "Stop Predatory Gambling-Texas" says it won't work.

“It is virtually unregulated-able,” Weems maintains. “Any kid with a credit card, his own or his parents', and an Internet connection, would be able to gamble online.”

Weems says he wants Barton to re-think this.

“Joe Barton has done a good deal for this district and a good deal of good for America,” he says. “But, he is simply on the wrong side.”

Weems says friendly poker games -- where the house doesn't take a cut -- are already legal in Texas. He says half of all gambling proceeds come from problem gamblers.

Read more: A Push for Legalized Online Gambling Starts Again | KTRH

Nearly $3 million belonging to golfer Phil Mickelson has been tied to a money laundering and illegal gambling case, according to reporting from ESPN.

Mickelson, who is known to bet on sports in Las Vegas, has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but the man who he reportedly dealt with has pleaded guilty to laundering $2.75 million of Mickelson’s money. The implication is that Mickelson had wired the money to bet on sports, but the report didn’t state that explicitly.

Gregory Silveira admitted to acting as a conduit for the offshore site and moving millions of dollars between separate bank accounts, the report said.


Read more: $2.75 Million Belonging To Phil Mickelson Tied To Illegal Online Gambling Case: Report

Typical of money laundering cases.

The weather isn’t the only thing heating up in D.C. this summer.

The battle over state-based online gambling has reached a fever pitch. Until last week, Congress had been seemingly quiet on the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA; H.R. 707), the bill to ban Internet gambling. But then Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) introduced a companion bill to RAWA (S. 1668). Behind closed doors, the push for Congress to vote on the bill before adjourning for summer recess has intensified and the tactics become more extreme. And as usual, Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson, one of RAWA’s most prominent supporters, is lurking in the background.

The National Association of Convenience Stores’s (NACS) lobbying firm, Steptoe & Johnson, recently hired the former Sands lobbyist who literally wrote RAWA. Convenience stores want to protect the monopoly they have on lottery ticket sales in most states. So, NACS is trying to convince lawmakers that state lotteries simply don’t have the technology to effectively regulate online gambling.


Read more: Gloves are off in lobbying war for online gambling | TheHill

I don't understand that.??

PartMasterCard and Visa issued several new credit card codes to help banks differentiate between licensed state-run, legal online gambling, and illegal online gambling transactions.

The three new codes carved out these legal activities from the original 7995 coding used for all online gambling transactions. They are:

state-run online lotteries (7800),
state-run online casino games (7801),
and state-run online dog/horse racing (7802).

The industry’s hope was the new codes would clearly differentiate legal online gambling transactions from illegal ones, and in the process set the minds of some financial institutions at ease regarding processing these transactions.

However, it needs to be stated that even with the new codes, the final decision on what types of transactions they will process resides with the issuing bank. Banks and financial institutions do not have to accept any type of gambling transaction, regardless of its legality, and PayPal, American Express, Bank of America, TD Bank, and Wells Fargo are among the bigger names that refuse to process online gambling transactions.

Because of this, the results of the new MCC codes have been modest thus far.



Read more: Online Gambling Credit Card Codes Aid Payment Processing

That's good news for all americans.

Online gambling will be accepted one day.

Pennsylvania could become a leader in online gambling, but a high tax rate could kill the idea before players can place a bet, say two advocates of Internet gambling.

“People won't invest proper marketing dollars to drive revenue if the tax rate's too high,” says David Licht, executive chairman and CEO of All American Poker Network, which operates an online network in New Jersey and has an agreement with Mt. Airy Casino, Monroe County, to set up online gaming if Pennsylvania legalizes it.

“If the tax rate is exceedingly high, the operator is going to take that out on the consumer,” says John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, which bills itself as a voice for gamblers.

At least four proposals to legalize online poker or all forms of casino gambling are before the Legislature as lawmakers and the governor struggle with the state budget. Proposed online tax rates are 14 percent, 28 percent and 54 percent.

Licht and Pappas tell Player's Advantage that Pennsylvania's population of about 12.8 million and residents' fondness for betting — only Nevada generates more gambling revenue — make it important to supporters of online gaming.

“That sets up Pennsylvania to be the (online) leader in all the states,” Licht says. “I think it's an enormous opportunity both for the government to raise money and the operators to operate in a profitable fashion.”

With a tax rate around 15 percent and a $5 million licensing fee, online gaming could bring about $100 million to the state in its first year, Licht estimates.

He says $300 million in gross online gaming revenue is reasonable in Pennsylvania's first year. For comparison, New Jersey, with a population of about 9 million, had almost $123 million in gross online gaming revenue in 2014.

Read more: High tax could scuttle online gaming in Pa., CEO says | TribLIVE
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Chicago officials have found a way to tax “the cloud.”

Digital media companies and Chicagoans will now be slapped with a 9 percent “cloud tax” on streaming services, including popular entertainment outlets such as Netflix, through which city officials aim to generate $12 million. Collections will begin Sept. 1.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the city sees part of its “cloud tax” as an extension of its longstanding “amusement tax” — a kind of levy that many cities and other taxing jurisdictions collect. Amusement taxes typically target theater or concert tickets and live sporting events, but Chicago apparently would be among the first cities — and certainly the biggest — to rule that “digital entertainment” enjoyed in the home is covered.

“In an environment in which technologies and emerging industries evolve quickly, the city periodically issues rulings that clarify the application of existing laws to these technologies and industries,” mayoral spokeswoman Elizabeth Langsdorf said in a statement.

Companies are already working to shift costs imposed by the “cloud tax” onto consumers. The entertainment website The Verge reported Wednesday that Netflix has already begun making arrangements to add the tax to the cost charged to its Chicago customers.

Read more: Chicago to begin taxing online entertainment - Washington Times
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

NYX Gaming Group has agreed a deal to provide its interactive gaming platform to the Golden Nugget Atlantic City in New Jersey.

The Golden Nugget provides traditional land-based and online casino services in the US state, with the latter of these offerings to be expanded through the new partnership with NYX Gaming.

Under the deal, NYX Gaming will provide the operator with its online gaming platform, a new website and enhanced mobile applications by December of this year.

The partnership will begin with the Golden Nugget this summer launching games developed by NextGen Gaming, the content division of NYX Gaming, across its current website and mobile applications.

“NYX has impressed us with their world-class gaming technology, open content approach and proven commitment to invest in the market,” Golden Nugget’s vice-president for online gaming, Thomas Winter, said.

“With NYX’s help, we intend to take user experience to a whole new level for New Jersey online casino players.”


Read more: NYX Gaming to develop online gambling platform for Golden Nugget | iGaming Business

Interesting to see what's coming out of this.

Analysis: If the world powers reach an agreement with Iran, the US president will have to bring his poker secrets into the internal political field in order to deal with a theatrical Congress during an election year; the Republicans, meanwhile, are preparing the show of a lifetime for him.

US President Barack Obama learned the art of poker when he left high school and found new friends on a Honolulu beach. Idlers spent their days there playing cards with the passersby so that in the evening they could buy a cheap bottle of whiskey. They taught Obama the wisdom of poker, and once he gained control of all the secrets and tricks, he began defeating them.


Read more: Obama playing poker against a hostile Congress - Israel Opinion, Ynetnews

Quebec says it still plans to move forward with its promise to block the gambling websites it considers to be illegal, and that take business away from the state-owned Loto-Quebec site Espacejeux.

In their budget last March, the Liberals said they would try to change the law by next year.

So far, there is no new legislation in sight, but the finance minister's press attaché, Andrée-Lyne Hallé says their plans haven't changed.

"We will follow-up on the measures announced in the budget," she said in an e-mail.

Under the Couillard government plan, Loto-Quebec would provide cable distributors with a list of websites that they should block public access to.

Since the Loto-Quebec site is the only one Quebec recognizes as being legal, once the others are eliminated the government estimates the crown corporation will bring in an extra $13.5 million next year, and $27 million the year after that.

But, the initiative may not be so simple to craft.

The chair of a working group that had been hired by the government to study online gambling says they looked at this option and discarded it because it was impractical - both from a technical and legal point of view.

"We know very, very well we have several child pornography sites, and even then we are not blocking them out. It's extremely difficult, and it's easier said than done," says University of Montreal professor Louise Nadeau.

She says Italy already tries to block illegal sites, with limited success - it is too easy to create new websites.

"They're having a lot of difficulty," she says.


Read more: CJAD 800

Woody was born in Philadelphia to Betty Jean Mauney and Ellwood Milton Johnston. He attended Governor's Academy in Byfield, Mass., before returning home to attend Germantown High School, graduating in 1974.

He went on to attend Northeastern University in Boston, where he first took to the air. He became a disc jockey on the university's student-run radio station WRBB - "We Rock Boston Better."

While in Boston, Woody became acquainted with Al Haymon, a Harvard University graduate student. They discovered they shared an interest in entertainment management.

Haymon went on to become a prominent boxing promoter in Philadelphia, and also did business as an entertainment manager. He and Woody began to work together in Philadelphia before Woody moved to Los Angeles.

Among tours Woody worked was the annual Budweiser Superfest, which takes popular musicians to various venues around the country.

Read more at Ellwood "Woody" Johnston Jr., 59, entertainment manager

A little remarked upon proposal in Quebec’s 620-page March budget has been getting some attention lately, thanks to warnings from privacy watchdogs, political activists and consumer rights advocates.

The Quebec government apparently intends to follow through on a plan to block “illegal” gambling websites that interfere with revenue from its own government-sanctioned gambling website, called Espacejeux.

Quebec’s gambling crackdown scheme proposes that “Internet service providers will not be allowed to provide access to an online gaming and gambling website whose name is on a list of websites that are to be blocked, drawn up by Loto-Québec.”

It’s a strange rearguard action, and obviously flies in the face of the fact that the CRTC’s Telecommunications Act states that telcos or service providers cannot interfere with “the content or influence the meaning or purpose of telecommunications carried by it for the public.”

So the Quebec government’s proposal, buried deep in its budget, would seem like a legislative dead end. Given the clarity of the Telecommunications Act, why did they propose this in the first place? And why are they moving forward with it now?


Read more: Can Quebec Outlaw Online Gambling? Only If It Changes the Game - Cantech Letter