Italian Luigi Tancredi is accused by police of being an ‘indispensable link between organized crime and the globe of information technology.’
Italian police have broken up a unlawful gambling ring with alleged links to the Mafia and the controversial on-line poker room DollaroPoker.net.
Eleven people were arrested on Wednesday and accused of running an illegal network of some 12,000 online video gaming and lottery movie terminals in bars, cafes, and gaming halls throughout Italy, some of which were presumably Mafia-controlled.
The terminals provided use of the online site Dollaro Poker, among other video gaming sites.
Police seized assets worth €10 million from the group, which is considered to have handled €11.5 million in bets per day.
Those types of arrested was Luigi Tancredi, a man known 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 plus the world of information technology.’
He is accused of experiencing strong ties with the Naples-based Camorra clan, which he is said to own paid between €45,000 and €60,000 each month from profits of the ring to set up machines on the premises.
Also arrested was their business partner Nicola Femia, a alleged boss associated with the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta organized crime syndicate.
In 2013, both males had been investigated by police for their links to 33 unlawful gambling that is online, including Dollaro, which Tancredi was accused of running. Those charges had been ultimately dismissed by a court in Bologna.
Dollaro Dogged by Rumors
If you are wondering why you’ve never heard of Dollaro, it’s likely since the web site is used primarily by Italian players and it is not even controlled in Italy. The site had benefited significantly from the Italian market’s refusal to legalize cash games until 2011.
It largely utilizes the ‘agent model,’ in which many of the deposits and withdrawals are controlled by agents who act in a similar method to affiliates.
Many Italians will visit cafes or groups to gamble online, giving their deposit to an agent, 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.
Your website, which purports to currently be the 13th biggest in the planet according to traffic data it submits to PokerScout.com itself, provides these agents a share that is generous of income.
‘More Profitable Than Drug Trafficking’
It is a model that is hugely successful at attracting players that are weak and weak players, it appears, are typical that Dollaro is interested in. Winning players have in the past reported on poker forums of their records instantly being deleted, or of funds mysteriously disappearing to the ether following cash out requests.
There have also been whispers on poker forums of Mafia connections, which were unconfirmed before the developments of this week.
Police said that Dollaro is based in Romania and operated from servers based in Tampa, Florida wednesday. Italian Finance Police Colonel Alessandro Cavalli told reporters that wiretaps on suspects had recorded alleged Mob figures commenting that the 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, using the two leading Republican candidates ready to fight as polls tighten. (Image: news.yahoo.com)
The sixth GOP debate welcomed seven Republican Party candidates towards the stage that is main Charleston, sc on Thursday night, all sharing hopes and aspirations of dealing with the likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton towards becoming the 45th president of the United States.
Seven candidates might have been regarding the stage, but all optical eyes were centered on the two frontrunners, billionaire Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
The 2 had displayed a congenial relationship during their respective promotions, 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 fully a Manhattan liberal. Trump challenged Cruz’s straight to run for president even because he was created in Canada while his parents were in that country on business.
‘I guess the ‘bromance’ has ended,’ Trump said on CNN after the debate that is 2.5-hour.
Cruz Attacks New York
With Cruz closing in on Trump in Iowa (the first main declare that will officially begin the nomination procedure on Monday, February 1st), the Texan decided to get following the businessman for being born and bred in the mostly politically liberal metropolis that is nyc.
But their choice of words came across as sneering and also a tad condescending.
‘Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan,’ Cruz opined as he cited Trump’s more left-leaning views in previous decades. ‘Donald comes from New York and embodies New York values.’
Trump was ready for the attack, and called on the city’s 9/11 disaster and subsequent rebuilding in their response.
‘I saw a thing that no destination on Earth could beautifully have handled more, more humanely than New York,’ Trump responded. ‘The individuals in New York fought and fought and fought.
‘ We rebuilt downtown Manhattan and everybody in the global world viewed and everybody on the planet loved nyc and loved New Yorkers,’ Trump said. ‘And I need certainly to tell you, that was a very insulting declaration that Ted made.’
There was clearly small doubt that Trump won the trade.
The New York frequent News reacted Friday morning with a cover titled ‘Drop Dead, Ted’ and wrote, ‘New York values are the ironworkers who carried their tools in backpacks and gym bags and, by God, moved over the Brooklyn Bridge regarding the night 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 employment of a center finger in the appropriate position, that your news site Tweeted out.
Can It on Canada
The other exchange that is heated when Trump questioned whether Cruz is legally allowed to become the nation’s commander in chief.
‘ If you can even serve in the office?’ Trump asked if you become the nominee, who the hell knows.
‘Since September, the Constitution hasn’t changed, but the poll figures have,’ Cruz reacted in protecting his legal right to operate.
One eligibility requirement to be president is that the candidate must be a natural born citizen. However, if a son or daughter is born internationally to citizens that are american he or she actually is still considered to be an obviously born US resident, in line with the Constitution.
Stats Talk
In accordance with news site Clear that is real politics Trump spoke many terms through the debate, followed by Florida Senator Marco Rubio then Cruz. Many political analysts think it’s a three-horse race at this point.
Previous frontrunner Dr. Ben Carson talked the least by far, utilizing the former Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon taking not as much as eight percent associated with the debate airtime that is total.
Trump when again declared himself the debate winner, but voters will have the say that is final. Iowa Republicans cast their votes in simply a couple of weeks.
Céline Dion’s Husband, René Angélil, Dies at Home in Las Vegas
René Angélil and Céline Dion. Angélil passed away peacefully at his house in Las Vegas after a long battle with cancer on January 14th. (Image: linternaute.com)
René Angélil, avid gambler and husband and former manager of Las vegas, nevada perennial Céline Dion, has died after a long battle with neck cancer. He was 73.
Angélil had been sick for numerous years. His cancer was 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 worldwide star, 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 previous few months caring for her husband, whom she described in a current interview as ‘the just boyfriend I ever had.’
Céline’s Mentor
René Angélil had been created in Montreal in 1942 to a Syrian father and a mother that is lebanese-canadian. He initially had a career that is singing of very own, together with band ‘Les Baronets,’ which mainly recorded French-language covers of American and British hits.
Later, he managed various artists that are canadian before meeting Dion in 1980, when she had been only 12, and declaring her a star, her voice apparently moving him to tears.
In 1981, he mortgaged his house to fund her first album, La voix du bon Dieu [The Good Lord’s Voice], which made her a star in Canada. Angélil and Dion began dating in 1987 and were married in 1994 in an elaborate ceremony that was telecast worldwide. Throughout her rise to superstardom that is global Dion has described her husband as a guiding light and mentor.
Angélil’s gambling habits have actually long been a source of fascination for the news. He claimed he became a professional gambler in the late eighties when Dion took a break from her career to learn English, and that he had a ‘winning system’ for blackjack.
Love of Gambling
But in 2007, previous Las Vegas mayor-turned-Caesars-exec Jan Jones claimed that Angélil gambled $1 million per week. She later retracted the statement, stating that she was speaking hypothetically.
With Angélil’s authorization, Caesars took the step that is unusual of information on its customer’s losses, which between 2005 and 2006 totaled exactly $230,300. This was, nonetheless, offset by poker winnings of $259,079.
Angélil had been a poker that is enthusiastic and a common fixture in the Las Vegas poker tournament scene, and appeared in WSOP and WPT television broadcasts throughout the years.
‘It is impractical to overstate the impact René and of course line that is cé had on the reputation for activity in Las Vegas as well as Caesars Palace, with their audacious vision regarding her residency, now 13 years and counting,’ Gary Selesner, president of Caesars Palace, stated in a declaration on Thursday.
‘René had been truly an amazing person, showman and businessman, and over these many years became a liked and cherished member of the Caesars Palace family.’