Italian Luigi Tancredi is accused by police to be an ‘indispensable link between organized crime and the world of information technology.’
Italian police have split up a gambling that is illegal with so-called links to the Mafia and the controversial on-line poker room DollaroPoker.net.
Eleven people were arrested on Wednesday and accused of running an unlawful network of some 12,000 online gaming and lottery video terminals in bars, cafes, and gaming halls throughout Italy, some of which were allegedly Mafia-controlled.
The terminals provided usage of the site that is online Poker, among other video gaming sites.
Police seized assets worth €10 million from the group, which is thought to have handled €11.5 million in bets per day.
The type of arrested had been Luigi Tancredi, a man referred to as ‘the King of Slots’ from his past involvement in Italy’s legal land-based gambling industry.
Indispensable Link
While not really a direct Mafia member, Tancredi was said by prosecutors to be the ‘indispensable link between organized crime and the realm of information technology.’
He’s accused of having strong ties with the Camorra that is naples-based 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 their premises.
Also arrested was his business partner Nicola Femia, a alleged boss for the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta organized crime syndicate.
In 2013, both guys had been investigated by police for their links to 33 illegal online gambling sites, including Dollaro, which Tancredi was accused of running. Those fees had been ultimately dismissed by a court in Bologna.
Dollaro Dogged by Rumors
If you’re wondering why you have never heard of Dollaro, it’s most likely because the site is used mainly by Italian players and it is not even managed in Italy. The site had benefited greatly from the market that is italian refusal to legalize money games until 2011.
It largely uses the ‘agent model,’ in which many of the deposits and withdrawals are controlled by agents who behave in a similar method to affiliates.
Many Italians will visit cafes or clubs to gamble online, giving their deposit to a real estate agent, who will then load it into an account, bypassing player enrollment.
If you win, your agent will pay you in cash (or at the very least you hope he will).
The site, which purports to currently be the 13th biggest in the world according to traffic data it submits to PokerScout.com itself, provides these agents a nice share of its income.
‘More Profitable Than Drug Trafficking’
It’s a model that is hugely successful at attracting players that are weak and weak players, it seems, are all that Dollaro is interested in. Winning players have in the past reported on poker forums of the reports unexpectedly being deleted, or of funds mysteriously disappearing in to the ether following money out requests.
There have also been whispers on poker forums of Mafia connections, which were unconfirmed before the developments of this week.
Police said Wednesday that Dollaro is situated in Romania and operated from servers situated 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, with all 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 towards the main stage in Charleston, sc on Thursday night, all sharing hopes and aspirations of taking on the most likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton towards becoming the 45th president of the United States.
Seven candidates might have been on the stage, but all eyes were dedicated to the two frontrunners, billionaire Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
The 2 had displayed a relationship that is congenial their respective promotions, but that ended Thursday night, in part, 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 even run for president because he was created in Canada while his parents were in that country on business.
‘we guess the ‘bromance’ has ended,’ Trump stated on CNN following the debate that is 2.5-hour.
Cruz Attacks New York
With Cruz closing in on Trump in Iowa (the first primary suggest that will officially begin the nomination process on Monday, February 1st), the Texan decided to get after the businessman for being born and bred in the mainly politically liberal metropolis that is nyc.
But their choice of words came across as sneering and even a tad condescending.
‘Not a large amount of conservatives emerge from Manhattan,’ Cruz opined as he cited Trump’s more views that are left-leaning past years. ‘Donald comes from brand New York and embodies New York values.’
Trump was prepared for the attack, and called on the city’s 9/11 disaster and rebuilding that is subsequent their response.
‘I saw a thing that no spot on Earth could beautifully have handled more, 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 everyone in the world player rewards club casino arizona loved New York and loved New Yorkers,’ Trump said. ‘And I need to inform you, that was a very insulting declaration that Ted made.’
There was clearly doubt that is little Trump won the change.
The New York everyday News responded morning by having a cover titled ‘Drop Dead, Ted’ and wrote, ‘New York values are the ironworkers who carried their tools in backpacks and fitness center bags and, by God, walked over the Brooklyn Bridge on the night time of Sept. 11, 2001, or most of the way downtown from all the way uptown. friday’
The paper’s cover page image to accompany the headline showed a pissed-off Lady Liberty making her feelings for Cruz clear by the usage of a finger that is middle the appropriate place, which the news site Tweeted out.
Can It on Canada
The other heated change came when Trump questioned whether Cruz is legally allowed to become the united states’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 numbers have,’ Cruz responded in defending his right that is legal to.
One eligibility requirement to be president is that the candidate must be an all natural born citizen. However, if a kid is born internationally to citizens that are american he or this woman is still considered to be a naturally born US citizen, based on the Constitution.
Stats Speak
According to news site Real Clear Politics, Trump spoke many terms through the debate, followed by Florida Senator Marco Rubio then Cruz. Many analysts that are political it’s a three-horse race at this point.
Former frontrunner Dr. Ben Carson talked the least by far, because of the former Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon taking not as much as eight percent of the debate airtime that is total.
Trump once again declared himself the debate winner, but voters will have the say that is final. Iowa Republicans cast their votes in just a couple of weeks.
Céline Dion’s Husband, René Angélil, Dies at Residence in Las Vegas
René Angélil and Céline Dion. Angélil died peacefully at his home in Las Vegas after a battle that is long cancer on January 14th. (Image: linternaute.com)
René Angélil, avid gambler and husband and previous supervisor of nevada perennial Céline Dion, has died after a lengthy fight with throat cancer. He was 73.
Angélil had been sick for numerous years. His cancer had been 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 the man credited with transforming Dion right into a international 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 couple of months caring for her spouse, whom she described in an interview that is recent ‘the just boyfriend I ever had.’
Céline’s Mentor
René Angélil was born in Montreal in 1942 to a Syrian father and A lebanese-canadian mother. He initially had a career that is singing of very own, along with his band ‘Les Baronets,’ which mainly recorded French-language covers of American and British hits.
Later on, he managed various Canadian artists, before fulfilling Dion in 1980, whenever she was only 12, and declaring her a star, her voice apparently moving him to tears.
In 1981, he mortgaged their home 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 started dating in 1987 and were married 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 always been a source of fascination for the news. He claimed he became a gambler that is professional the late eighties when Dion took some slack from her career to learn English, and 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 per week. She later retracted the declaration, saying that she was speaking hypothetically.
With Angélil’s permission, 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, however, offset by poker winnings of $259,079.
Angélil ended up being an enthusiastic poker player and a typical fixture on the Las Vegas poker tournament scene, and showed up in WSOP and WPT tv broadcasts on the years.
‘It is impossible to overstate the effect René and of course line that is cé had on the reputation for activity in Las Vegas and at Caesars Palace, with their audacious vision regarding her residency, now 13 years and counting,’ Gary Selesner, president of Caesars Palace, said in a declaration on Thursday.
‘René had been truly a human that is amazing, showman and businessman, and over these many years became a loved and cherished member associated with Caesars Palace household.’