
Italian Luigi Tancredi is accused by police to be an ‘indispensable link between organized crime and the global globe of I . t.’
Italian police have broken up a gambling that is illegal with so-called links to the Mafia and the controversial internet poker room DollaroPoker.net.
Eleven people were arrested on Wednesday and accused of operating an unlawful network of some 12,000 online video gaming and lottery movie terminals in pubs, 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 gaming sites.
Police seized assets worth €10 million from the group, which is believed 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 participation in Italy’s appropriate land-based gambling industry.
Indispensable Link
While not just a direct Mafia member, Tancredi was said by prosecutors to be the ‘indispensable link between organized crime and also the world of information technology.’
He could be accused of having strong ties with the Camorra that is naples-based clan which he is said to have compensated between €45,000 and €60,000 each month from profits of the ring to put in machines on their premises.
Also arrested was his business partner Nicola Femia, a boss that is alleged of Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta organized crime syndicate.
In 2013, both guys had been investigated by police for their links to 33 unlawful online gambling sites, including Dollaro, which Tancredi was accused of running. Those costs were ultimately dismissed by a court in Bologna.
Dollaro Dogged by Rumors
If you’re wondering why you have never ever heard of Dollaro, it’s likely because the web site is used primarily by Italian players and it is not really 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,’ by which many for the deposits and withdrawals are controlled by agents who function in a way that is similar 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, offers these agents a share that is generous of revenue.
‘More Profitable Than Drug Trafficking’
It’s a model that is hugely successful at attracting weak players, and weak players, it seems, are that Dollaro is interested in. Winning players have actually in the past reported on poker forums of these accounts unexpectedly being deleted, or of funds mysteriously vanishing to the ether after money out demands.
There are also 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, with all the two leading Republican candidates ready to fight as polls tighten. (Image: news.yahoo.com)
The sixth GOP debate welcomed seven Republican Party candidates to the main stage in Charleston, South Carolina on Thursday night, all sharing hopes and aspirations of accepting the most 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 dedicated to the two frontrunners, billionaire Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
The two had displayed a relationship that is congenial their respective promotions, but that ended Thursday night, in component, as Trump honestly confessed, because Cruz has been sneaking up in the polls of late.
Cruz attacked Trump for being truly a Manhattan liberal. Trump challenged Cruz’s straight to run for president even because he had been created in Canada while his parents were in that country on company.
‘I guess the ‘bromance’ is finished,’ Trump said on CNN after the 2.5-hour debate.
Cruz Attacks New York
With Cruz closing in on Trump in Iowa (the first primary state 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 his choice of words came across as sneering and even a tad condescending.
‘Not a large amount of conservatives leave Manhattan,’ Cruz opined as he cited Trump’s more views that are left-leaning previous years. ‘Donald originates 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 his response.
‘I saw something which no place on Earth could have managed more beautifully, more humanely than New York,’ Trump responded. ‘The people in New York fought and fought and fought.
‘ We rebuilt downtown Manhattan and everybody in the global world watched and everyone on earth loved New York and loved New Yorkers,’ Trump stated. ‘And I need certainly to inform you, that was a very insulting declaration that Ted made.’
There clearly was little doubt that Trump won the trade.
The New York constant News reacted morning with 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 Jesus, walked over the Brooklyn Bridge on the night of Sept. 11, 2001, or all the way downtown from all of 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 use of a finger that is middle the appropriate position, which the news site Tweeted out.
Can It on Canada
The other exchange that is heated when Trump questioned whether Cruz is legally permitted to become the united states’s commander in chief.
‘ If you become the nominee, who the hell knows if you may also serve in the office?’ Trump asked.
‘Since September, the Constitution hasn’t changed, but the poll figures have,’ Cruz responded in protecting his right that is legal to.
One eligibility requirement to become president is that the candidate must be a normal born citizen. However, if a child is born internationally to US citizens, he or she actually is still considered to be a naturally created US citizen, according to the Constitution.
Stats Talk
In accordance with news site Real Clear Politics, Trump spoke the most terms throughout the debate, followed by Florida Senator Marco Rubio after which Cruz. Many political analysts think it’s a three-horse race at this point.
Previous frontrunner Dr. Ben Carson spoke the least by far, using the former Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon taking less than eight percent of the debate airtime that is total.
Trump as soon as again declared himself the debate winner, but voters will have the last say. 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 passed on peacefully at his home 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 perennial Céline Dion, has died after a lengthy struggle with neck cancer. He was 73.
Angélil had been sick for many years. Their cancer ended up being very first diagnosed in 1999, and yet their death was sudden and unexpected, family and friends said in announcing his passing on Thursday.
As tributes poured into the man credited with transforming Dion into a superstar that is global Caesars Palace announced that the singer’s forthcoming shows during 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 present meeting as ‘the just boyfriend I ever had.’
Céline’s Mentor
René Angélil was 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 own, together with band ‘Les Baronets,’ which mainly recorded French-language covers of American and British hits.
Later on, he handled various artists that are canadian before fulfilling Dion in 1980, when she had been only 12, and declaring her a celebrity, her voice apparently moving him to tears.
In 1981, he mortgaged his household to finance her album that is first 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 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 long 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 that 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 a week. She later retracted the statement, saying that she was speaking hypothetically.
With Angélil’s permission, Caesars took the unusual step of releasing casino-online-australia.net details of its customer’s losses, which between 2005 and 2006 totaled exactly $230,300. This was, but, offset by poker winnings of $259,079.
Angélil ended up being a poker that is enthusiastic and a common fixture regarding the Las Vegas poker tournament scene, and showed up in WSOP and WPT television broadcasts within the years.
‘It is impractical to overstate the effect René and of course Céline have had on the history of activity in Las Vegas and at Caesars Palace, with his audacious eyesight regarding her residency, now 13 years and counting,’ Gary Selesner, president of Caesars Palace, stated in a statement on Thursday.
‘René was truly an amazing human being, showman and businessman, and over these many years became a liked and cherished member of the Caesars Palace family.’