Archive for July, 2007.
July 31, 2007
The Supreme Court of Nebraska conducted a hearing on May 30, 2007 regarding a legal malpractice case against keno operators and the second largest law firm in the state.
Richard T. Bellino wants the state Supreme Court to permit the decision of the jury to give him $1.6 million, but District Judge Patricia Lamberty commented that the evidence presented during the trial did not specifically state the amount of money and ordered McGrath, North, Mullin and Kratz law firm to pay Bellino $229,000.
In a statement before the court, the attorneys of Bellino, David Domina and Claudia Stringfield, commented that the jury verdict should be kept under wraps by the court and the state of Nebraska does not permit a district court to immediately decide on a conclusion which is not supported by solid evidence.
The law firm wants the Supreme Court to dismiss the case immediately. In a statement from attorneys John Douglas and David Blagg, they both said that a lawyer that acts honestly believes that his actions are not illegal and lawful and are beneficial to their client, cannot be accused of malpractice.
In October 2005, a jury decided that James D. Wegner, William F. Hargens and the law firm that they are working on did not properly advise Bellino on how to cut ties with his previous business partner before starting a new business. Bellino wanted to cut ties with Robert Anderson from their La Vista Lottery and set up his own keno business.
Bellino’s attorneys advised him to maintain his 50% share in La Vista Lottery and open La Vista Keno at the same time. Anderson filed a case against Bellino after Bellino won a contract to provide keno games to the residents of La Vista.
After that, Bellino filed a case against his lawyers, saying that he had been ill advised by them as to what he should do about his keno business.
July 26, 2007
With its prospects of returning to the U.S. market vanquished and subsequent bad news from other nations reducing its long-term viability, beleaguered online payment processor NETeller Plc nonetheless succeeded in having its shares returned to active trading status on Wednesday on London’s Alternative Investment Market [AIM]. Share prices trended lower in early trading.
NETeller stock had been suspended on January 16, 2007, in the wake of charges filed against NETeller founders Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre and NETeller’s subsequent pullout from the U.S. NETeller has since departed several other countries, including, most recently, Israel, which the company exited last week. The return to
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active status on the AIM board was uncertain, due to the delay in the settlement of NETeller’s own case with the U.S., and the seizure of roughly $60 million in U.S. customer funds. While those funds remain seized by the U.S. Department of Justice, the announcement of the agreement between NETeller and the U.S. DoJ finally allowed for the relisting of the stock, despite the fact that the company’s shares remained suspended slightly beyond the six-month maximum called for by AIM rules.
According to Ron Martin, now NETeller’s president and CEO, “The restoration of trading in the Company’s shares marks the first step in a new chapter for the NETeller Group following our resolution with the US authorities announced last week. With our vision to provide innovative payment solutions for e-commerce communities, our initial focus will be to dominate payments in our chosen online gaming markets.”
Martin also added this, regarding NETeller’s future plans: “Online payments in many market sectors are growing rapidly and we believe that the e-wallet will continue to grow in popularity. While there is much work to do and many challenges lie ahead, we believe that the Company is well positioned to benefit from these trends.” In related news, NETeller appointed a new advisor and broker, Daniel Stewart & Co. Plc.
The release noting the return to active AIM status also included the following, regarding the U.S. funds still held by the company: “The Group continues to progress its plans to implement the Distribution Plan for the return of approximately US$ 94 million of US customers’ funds by 30 July 2007. A further announcement will be made as soon as the Company has further information for its US customers.
July 22, 2007
On July 12, 2007, the Nevada Casino facilities won around $1.4 billion from players in May, achieving a 1.5% gain compared with the same period almost a year ago and set the standard for the highest number of casino wins in a month.
The Gaming Control Board of Nevada also stated that the casino win is about $2 million larger than the previous amount that was achieved in January 2006, despite the slide in wins for the game of baccarat.
Gaming Control Board Analyst, Frank Streshley, said that the amount could be higher but the casinos in the strip took a lot of damage from the baccarat slump. Craps and Roulette were a vital factor in the casino win gain, a total of 6.5% for all of the casino games combined.
The casino win for the slot machines improved 2.6% at the same time. Gov. Jim Gibbons commented that aside from the historic casino wins, Nevada saw a surge of 16.4% in the state’s share collected from the resorts, which helped the state achieve more than their predicted fiscal year collections.
The statewide casino win of $1.14 billion was the money left in the casino’s treasury after players bet $14.7 billion in May. That includes the $11.8 billion wager on slot machines and the other casino table games.
Las Vegas Casinos reported a 1.4% improvement while the casinos in downtown Las Vegas experienced a 0.3% improvement. Nevada received a total of $83.3 million in shares based on the casino wins in May. The statewide casino wins in May showed that the slot machines were responsible for the $762 million in the total win.
Casino table games, like poker, accounted for the rest of the total casino win of $1.14 billion in May. That figure included $134.3 million won on blackjack, which improved 5.1%, $40.8 million on craps, which improved 19.8% and $37.2 million on roulette, which improved 15.1%.
The casino win on baccarat was $71.2 million, which slid down 18.2% and the casino win on baccarat was $13 million, which slid down 54%. Sports betting won $5.8 million last May, which improved 47.9%. Poker games won $14.1 million, which improved 6.5%.
July 18, 2007
It has been confirmed that the Asian Poker Classic will return to Goa, India in March of 2008. The tournament was a success the first time around, with 140 players going to the Indian resort town to whoop it up, and play some poker. Ultimately, it was Danish player Carl Hostrup who took the crown the first time this event played out.
“We are extremely excited about coming back in 2008. The inaugural APC was a huge success so of course the planning started right after to produce a bigger, better and even more luxurious poker tournament in India. Asian Poker Classic is no doubt poised to be one of the biggest tournaments in the region,” said, Imran Hassan, Director of Operations for the Asian
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Poker Classic.
Poker’s global reach continues to grow, as the country of India proves it can host a major poker tournament. Last year’s field included Surinder Sunar, Mel Judah, and the always entertaining Willie Tann. This year’s field is expected to be even bigger, and the prize pool will certainly be the largest of any tournament in the region. Last year’s prize pool was $1,000,000 and Hostrup wound up taking $320,000 back to Denmark for the win. The central Asian location of Goa means that players from all over Asia, as well as many from Europe will come to the beach town next year to play some poker.
The coastal resort town of Goa may sound familiar to some. Those who have seen the Matt Damon film ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ may remember the films opening scenes being shot in Goa. The Intercontinental Resort in Goa is world class, and world class poker will return to India in March with the return of the Asian Poker Classic. For more information, please check out asianpokerclassic.com.
July 18, 2007
The NETeller saga came to at least a partial end today, as the company announced that it would pay the U.S. Government $136 Million in restitution. As part of the settlement, the company admitted that it ‘had operated in the US an unlicensed money transmitting business and had participated in the performance of financial transactions for the purpose of promoting unlawful transactions between internet gambling merchants and persons located in the US.’
The payment ends a drama that took months to unfold, and halted trading of the NETeller’s stock. One of the elements of the press release issued today spoke of the company’s desire to make all its 2006 accounting public, and attempt to begin the
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process of trading again on London’s AIM (alternative investment market), where the stock once flourished.
“This agreement resolves the USAO’s investigation relating to the Company’s former US business activities. We believe that this settlement is in the best interests of NETeller and its shareholders.” Noted Ron Martin, President & CEO of NETeller
With this issue now settled, the focus moved on to getting the money back to the players, who had tens of millions of dollars held on deposit. NETeller also announced that all US players would be able to access their accounts by July 30th, and begin the cashout process.
Martin continues “Our customers, employees and shareholders have all patiently waited for this resolution. We anticipate within the next few weeks that we will have fully implemented the plan for the return of funds to our US customers and are hopeful that, by that time, we will have restored the Company’s shares to trading on AIM.”
The company will communicate with its customers via e-mail to let them know the proper procedure for cashing funds out, and when that process might begin.
Another element of the settlement called for NETeller to continue to fully cooperate with the US Attorney’s Office (USAO) ongoing investigation into its money transmitting activities. What this means to US based customers isn’t yet clear, but those with money stuck in NETeller accounts for months will soon be able to ask for their frozen monies to be returned.