GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 12 - April 2010

Previous Inductees: Talk about larceny. This group deserves jeers after shutting down its affiliate program and eliminating affiliate commissions back in 2008 while keeping its online casinos open for business. Efforts were made by theGPWA and others toworkwithGrand Priveandget it tomakegoodon itsnon-payments to affiliates, butnothinghasworkedasof yet. GrandPriveCasinoGroup The formerWorldSeriesofPokerMainEventchamp allegedly profited big time from the “superuser” scandal at UltimateBet. That scandal, chronicledby theTVnewsmagazine “60Minutes,”allowedcertain users tosee theholecardsofplayersat the table.And it gaveonlinepoker ablackeyewhen it leastneeded one. RussHamilton The governor of Kentucky decided he could play moralist for the world when he tried to seize 141 online gambling domains because they were “illegal gambling devices.” Apparently, as long as his precious Kentuckians were protected from the “evils” of online gambling, he didn’t care that the millions of people out therewhowanted to enjoy a legal pastimewithout interferencemight beunable toaccess their accounts andgames. SteveBeshear The reflexively anti-online gambling Congressman fromAlabama said in a hearing this year that “McGill University found thatone-thirdof collegestudentswho gamble on the Internet ultimately attempted suicide.” Err, one problem, Congressman. “This assertion, which is reportedlybaseduponourempirical research, is not predicated upon any factual evidence,” said McGill gambling and addiction researcher Jeffrey L. Derevensky. SpencerBachus This Danish European Parliament member is chiefly responsible for the European Parlia- ment voting — yes it was non-binding, but still — 544-36 in favor of a report that would block the formation of a singlemarket for online gam- bling in the EU. Almost as bad as the vote was the rampant hypocrisy that ran through the bill. Betting on sports was really bad, unless you did it through a government-run monopoly so the state could get the revenue, in case it was really good. Sheesh. Make up yourmind. Christel Schaldemose TheChurchof Englanddecided that theydon’t like gambling and calledonGoogle to stop runningon- linegamblingadvertisements in theU.K. In theory, this position makes sense for the Church. But in practice, the Church is quite OK with individual churches accepting money from bingo or lottery events. So let’s see, bingo and the lottery are OK if it’s for the Church, but for anything else, it’s not good. Yep, that sounds about right... ChurchofEngland The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy in Australia compiled a list of “black list” Web sites last year that the country’s ISPs would be required to block from its residents. The list was supposed to be filledwith sites related to child porn, child abuse, rape and bestiality, but when it was leaked it also included the home pages of dating services, medical practitioners, private companies and– you guessed it – at least 13 poker sites, including Full Tilt, PokerStars and Absolute Poker. StevenConroy Kindt, a professor at the University of Illinois, was quoted last year with a number of attacks on the gambling industry, including statements such as “widespread gambling gambles with our national security by dragging down our national economic security” and “(online gambling) would set us up for something worse than the sub-prime mortgage disaster.” JohnKindt In June of 2009, the SDNY ordered the seizure of $33million from twopaymentprocessors, including Account Services. Then it indictedDouglasRennick on conspiracy charges for bank fraud, money laundering and operating an illegal gambling businessforallegedlyprocessingpaymentsforonline casinosandpoker roomswithAccountServices. SouthernDistrictofNewYork At a December 2009 public hearing held by the Productivity Commission in Sydney to discuss the state of gambling in Australia, MP Xenophon said that Australian players who drain their accounts when playing at “illegal online gambling sites” shouldhave the“right” toask theirbank tovoid their financial transactions. NickXenophon 63 APCW’sWall of Shame