Free Republic

A majority of the Supreme Court seemed ready Monday to allow New Jersey to proceed with its plan to legalize sports betting at casinos and racetracks, a move that could open a rush among states to grab a share of what is now billions of dollars in illegal gambling. Several justices suggested that they agreed with New Jersey’s argument that a federal prohibition from 1992 barring states from authorizing sports betting is flawed because the law forces states to keep in place a betting ban that their residents no longer favor.

Now the media are just taunting us with their tall tales about Stephen Paddock, the alleged Las Vegas shooter. Reputedly serious news organizations are claiming that he made a living playing video poker. That’s like claiming someone made a living smoking crack. The media are either doing PR for the gambling industry or they don’t want anyone considering the possibility that Paddock was using gambling to launder money. NBC News reports, with a straight face: “Las Vegas gunman earned millions as a gambler.” A Los Angeles Times article is headlined, “In the solitary world of video poker, Stephen Paddock knew...

A gambler out of Eastern Europe has already won big on the World Series, and he has no signs of stopping. Now he has over $14 million on the line for Game 7 and has left the gambling world wonder “how?”  This isn’t a case of a single gambler throwing down huge money on a single game. The bettor has won on all six World Series games so far — spread across multiple bookies — and let it ride after every single win. When the Dodgers won Game 6, he could have taken home over $14 million, but he let...

Place your bets

Top poker player Phil Ivey has lost a Supreme Court challenge over his £7.7million winnings from a casino. The 40-year-old American has been fighting to recover the money since successfully playing a version of baccarat known as Punto Banco at Crockfords Club in Mayfair in 2012.

North Korean race-goers who once risked three years hard labor for gambling are now able to bet on local horse races, as the one-party state searches for new ways to generate hard currency in the wake of tough international sanctions. In recent weeks, North Korea's access to foreign money has been significantly limited by a flurry of international sanctions over Pyongyang's missile and nuclear weapons programs.

LAS VEGAS — The video poker machines that Stephen Paddock liked were the ones that did not draw attention. They had few look-at-me flashing lights or listen-to-me bells. He would sit in front of them for hours, often wagering more than $100 a hand. The way he played — instinctually, decisively, calculatingly, silently, with little movement beyond his shifting eyes and nimble fingers — meant he could play several hundred hands an hour. Casino hosts knew him well. “Not a lot of smiles and friendliness,” said John Weinreich, who was an executive casino host at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa...

As authorities pick apart the life of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, they have come across one major thread of suspicious behavior: how he handled his money. In the last three years alone, more than 200 reports about Paddock’s activities, particularly large transactions at casinos, have been filed with law enforcement authorities, ABC News was told. While some of the reports centered around "suspicious activity," most were "currency transaction reports," which casinos are required to file with the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network when a person withdraws or deposits more than $10,000 in cash.

Mandalay Bay shooter Stephen Paddock gambled with at least $160,000 in the past several weeks at Las Vegas casinos, according to multiple senior law enforcement officials. There were 16 separate Currency Transaction Reports, or CTRS, filed for Paddock in recent weeks. The Treasury Department and the IRS mandate that casinos have to file the reports for "each transaction in currency involving cash-in and cash-out of more than $10,000 in a gaming day." The reports don't show whether Paddock won or lost or both on the days in question. They do show that on same days there were multiple transactions. A...

Before he opened fire late Sunday, killing at least 58 people at a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip, gunman Stephen Paddock was living out his retirement as a high-stakes gambler in a quiet town outside Las Vegas. Paddock, 64, would disappear for days at a time, frequenting casinos with his longtime girlfriend, neighbors said. Relatives also said Paddock had frequently visited Las Vegas to gamble and take in concerts. Eric Paddock said his brother often gambled in tens of thousands of dollars. “My brother is not like you and me. He plays high-stakes video poker,” he said....

Full title.....................Who is Stephen Paddock? Multimillionaire Las Vegas shooter, 64, was a hunting enthusiast, licensed pilot and gambler with no criminal record who owned a $400,000 home in Nevada retirement community........................The man suspected of opening fire at concertgoers attending a country music festival in Las Vegas on Sunday night was a local resident with no prior criminal convictions in the state of Nevada. Stephen Paddock, 64, lived just 90 minutes outside Las Vegas in the city of Mesquite, where he purchased a home in a retirement community for just over $369,000 in 2015 according to public records. He lived there...

The suspected gunman behind the Las Vegas massacre made several large gambling transactions in recent weeks, according to law enforcement officials. The transactions in Las Vegas by Stephen Paddock were in the tens of thousands, the officials said. It was not immediately clear if those transactions were losses or wins. Paddock's brothers were stunned to learn Monday that their sibling was the suspected perpetrator of the largest mass shooting in modern American history. Eric Paddock of Orlando, Florida, said he had "no idea" why his 64-year-old brother committed the shooting. “Mars just fell into the earth,” he told NBC News....

MGM Springfield is launching a push to attract job seekers, as the company prepares to fill thousands of jobs ahead of the $950 million gaming complex's opening in the fall of 2018. The campaign, which already includes billboard, radio, digital and print advertisements and will feature television ads in the coming months, is designed to raise awareness of hundreds of posted job descriptions to local workers, MGM said in a statement. "We want MGM Springfield employees to reflect their community, which will ultimately enrich our property and the customer experience," MGM Resort's Vice President of Talent and Workforce Development Wanda...

MGM Resorts recently announced that it is willing to invest $675 million to develop a third casino in Bridgeport, Connecticut. MGM Resorts Chairman and CEO James Murren who is a native of Bridgeport said that this waterfront proposal would include developing an entertainment complex along with a casino that would also bring in thousands of visitors from New York. MGM Resorts Ready To Embrace Connecticut Connecticut legislators will have an interesting decision to make as the state of Connecticut has been in a legal tussle with MGM Resorts over a proposed third satellite casino that the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan...

People are putting their money where Conor McGregor’s mouth is. Though McGregor isn’t expected to leave his first professional boxing match a winner this weekend, if the brash UFC lightweight champ is somehow victorious, Floyd Mayweather Jr. won’t be the biggest loser in Las Vegas. Despite the overwhelming consensus from experts that the 29-year-old Irishman has little chance to beat the undefeated boxing legend this weekend, bettors are overwhelmingly in McGregor’s corner — accounting for 89 percent of all action, according to BetOnline.ag — and could be setting the city’s sportsbooks up for one of its darkest days ever.

This is NOT fake news. This is big, big news. Joe Lee has just become the world’s first full-time Donald Trump bookmaker. The Sun’s Mike Ridley gives a Trump pinch with Paddy Power’s Joe In a rectangular – rather than oval – office on the fourth floor of Dublin’s Power Tower, Head of Trump Bets Joe spends his day working out the odds for punters’ bets on the US President. Donald J Trump is BIG business in the world of betting. More bets are placed on The Donald than on boxing, motor racing or even the President’s favourite sport golf....

The Super Bowl is annually the biggest betting event of the year in the U.S. This year, though, it may be eclipsed by a boxing match. Kevin Bradley, the sports book manager of Bovada.lv, said betting on Mayweather-McGregor has been massive already. “We knew this fight would be big, potentially even bigger than the Super Bowl, but now we are almost certain it will be,” Bradley said. “The recent trash talking and promotional tour is only encouraging bets and at this rate we cannot even imagine how much we will take on it. One thing is for sure though, we...

Queens’ only casino will be building brand new amenities for the over 10 million annual visitors to Resorts World Casino New York City in South Ozone Park as they broke ground on a $400 million expansion project on Thursday, July 13. Excitement was in the air as members of Resorts World, including President Scott Molina, and elected officials from across the borough gathered outside the casino located at 110-00 Rockaway Blvd., for the honorary groundbreaking ceremony commemorating the expansion that will bring a 400-room four-star hotel, four new dining outlets including a signature restaurant concept by a celebrity chef, new...

Less than a year after famed (or infamous) media gossip site Gawker was forced to close by a eight-figure settlement in favor of wrestler Hulk Hogan, the successor to the former Gawker Media empire finds itself in the legal crosshairs. It's for another lawsuit seeking major damages — and it’s the same lawyer taking aim. This time, attorney Charles Harder, who has also represented First Lady Melania Trump in her libel lawsuit against the Daily Mail, is handling the lawsuit on behalf of RJ Bell, real name Randall James Busack, the founder and CEO of Pregame.com, a sports handicapping Web...

South Mississippi officials gathered Wednesday (May 24) to break ground on a big addition to the Island View Casino Resort in Gulfport, south Mississippi media outlets reported. The addition will push the casino's floor space to 123,000 -- the largest on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, WLOX television station reported. The new, smoke-free venue will be on the south side of U.S. 90 and provide an additional 43,000 square feet of gambling space. Floor-to-ceiling glass will give visitors a view of the water in the Mississippi Sound....