After scowling at the Indian Americans to give away a "fair share" of their casino profits to the state of California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger struck a deal with the tribes to expand gambling in the state.

Ahnuld, who once opposed unlimited expansion of gambling on Indian lands then ate up and pooped his principle, has signed deals with several tribes allowing them to install tens of thousands of new slot machines.

AP reported that the latest of the amended state gambling compacts were announced bearing two agreements that would allow the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation to install up to 3,000 new slot machines at its El Cajon casino and resort, and the Yurok Tribe to install the first 99 slot machines on its reservation in Humboldt and Del Norte counties.

This latest move from the governor is raising eyebrows from fellow Republicans who has long been suspecting that their half machine-half inflaled steroid member is really not one of them. First he likes queers, and now sealing a pact with the heathens in afflicting the pure white American souls with this social cancer?

His pals at the House accomplished a great feat by passing the Anti-Online Gambling Bill, now his decision to expand land-based gambling is a setback to this…this…Whatever.

Anyway, this is not the first time Ahnuld made a deal with Indian-American casino owners. He had one gaming deal with a Southern California tribe, which was defeated in the state Assembly.  Despite the defeat, here’s Schwarzenegger announcing two more deals with two other tribes that could add 11,000 slot machines to California casinos.

What makes him think he can get away with this one? Because he’s…

Read More » Gov. Ah-Nuld Approves Gambling Expansion in California

The growth of race track casinos, or racinos, is inevitable. But not a welcomed one for many.

Horse racing and casino gaming, though both in the category of gambling, are strange bedfellows. Take for example the issue of the pending Anti-Online Gambling Bill. Our highly intellectual lawmakers insists that online casino gambling is illegal, not to metion immoral depending the level of your faith to the morals of society.

But betting on horse racing online is not included in the provisions. Main reason put forward is that horse racing is a sort of tradition with historical roots.

Plus we see our politicians waving their hats during horse races while they enter special entrances when going into casinos. Not that we’ve seen them do that, we’re just not stupid.

Now, many race tracks are complaining that they’re losing money because state officials would not allow them to install slot machines, which are…

Read More » The Star-Crossed Affair of Horse Racing and Slot Machines

An oft-told anecdote goes that a British secret agent, whose known game of choice is Baccarat Chemin de Fer, once went on a mission to bankrupt a rival SMERSH agent by beating him to a game of Baccarat Banque. That spy is James Bond 007, and the story is taken from Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale.

Baccarat, one of the highest-limit casino games, is practically synonymous with high-rollers, who wager thousands of dollars on a single hand. It is the most popular casino game in Macau, dubbed Asia’s Las Vegas, and in fact, positioned to leap-frog Las Vegas as the world’s top casino gambling destination by 2007.

In the casino gambling regions of the Macau Peninsula, Taipa, and the new Cotai Strip, arguably no high-roller has not ever played this widespread Asian casino game. At Macau’s high-roller haunts like The Sands Macau Casino Hotel and Mandarin Oriental Casino Hotel, the most action and biggest stakes take place nightly at the Baccarat tables.

In truth, Baccarat originated as a recreation of European nobility, believed to have been introduced into France from Italy in the late 1400s. Its popularity spread in Asia by way of nations once colonized by Europe. The most common form is Punto Banco, the North American Baccarat, today played widely in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and the many Las Vegas style casinos of Macau.

The departed Australian tycoon Kerry Packer famously wagered…

Read More » Know Your Asian: The Casino Game of Baccarat

Tired of the same old stuff that bombards you, the sports bettor, in your godforsaken life?

Well, it’s time to bring some color to your broke-ass life with some of the exciting contests on tap this month. Hopefully, they won’t leave you as you are now, BROKE.

As I’ve told you already here in OddJack, WagerTalk is having a handicapping contest for the coming NCAA College Football season. The contest start date is on August 31, 2006 so you better register now.

Ya’ think the Texas Longhorns will repeat as NCAA College Football champions this season? Then by god, bet on ‘em. And what better to cash in those… um… CASH than joining WagerTalk’s NCAA College Football handicapping contest and win more dead presidents that will make even the scariest of undertakers whimper in fear.

I know I know that last one was bad but hey, you get the point.

That’s not all folks, there’s also this contest at PokerLessons where you can play free poker and win butt-loads of cash!

You think you’re the next Poker Guru? Test your winning poker skills with PokerLessons’ Weekly $100 Freerolls and $500 Guaranteed Tournament!

Starting August 23 , they will be hosting six (6) $100 Freerolls at…

Read More » These Contests won’t be Playin’ Games with Your Heart

A slot machine in Bridgeport Indiana allowed gamblers to cash in about half a million dollars in over two days.

Good? For the players who cashed in of course. But bad for the casino after they realized the machine was broken and was multiplying the players’ deposit by ten times. Meaning if you put in $20 the machine registers it to be $200! 

Caesars Indiana lost $487,000 before a player notified officials of the problem with the machine. Yes, only because of a good honest player did casino found out gamblers have been unintentionally stealing from them.

It turns out that the machine had a switch set intended for use in the Philippines instead of the U.S. instructing it to multiply credits by 10. So somewhere in the Philippines, there’s a lonely slot machine no one wants to play with…

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SOME WSOP Updates for you: Day 3 of the Main Event began playing today. Top 10 chipleaders at the beginning of the play are:

Dmitri Nobles $549,200
Yuriy Kozinskiy $443,300
Jon Lave $405,400
Ken Jacobs $375,300
Daniel Pelletier $334,300
Daniel Negreanu $331,000
Jason Strasses $319,000
Terris Preston $313,300
Brian Crespin $309,000
Paul Wasicka $308,300
Philippe Boucher $303,500

Joe Hachem had $144,000 at the start of the day, while Phil Ivey came in very low stacked with only…

Read More » Players Cash In Big On Broken Slot Machine

Bryan Benjafield’s bosses at a construction company were happy to see him hunched over his keyboard, beavering away at his job as an account administrator.

What they did not know was that Benjafield  was busy not because he was working but because he was gambling away more than £1 million of their money in online casinos and betting shops.

Dorchester Crown Court was told that Benjafield, who earned £16,000 a year, was spending more than his annual salary every day as his addiction to online gambling took hold. He was able to take the money because he held a position of trust within the company. It was not until a tax inspector telephoned about an outstanding bill that it was discovered the money had gone.

In one month Benjafield spent £187,000 betting on horse races and football matches and playing poker and other casino games. Over an 18-month period he spent a total of £1,047,550. Using his privileged position in the company he was able to transfer the funds into his Ladbrokes account.

Colleagues in the open plan offices of Charminster Ltd, of Dorchester, Dorset, frequently saw him hunched over his computer screen and thought he was hard at work. But they discovered that he had been siphoning off as much as £187,000 a month. Over an 18-month period he spent £1,047,550, a tenth of the company’s £11 million annual turnover.

Benjafield, of Bere Regis, Dorset, who has a young son, admitted obtaining a money transfer by deception, transferring criminal property and two charges of theft between January 2004 and last…

Read More » Accountant steals £1m company money to fund online gambling addiction

Poker takes time, something a powerless king has a lot of.

Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev is the King of Nepal, since June 4, 2001, to the present. He was a dictator, seizing total government control in February 2005. Popular pressure caused him to reinstate the Nepalese parliament in April 2006, whereupon he was stripped of all political power and made into a ceremonial monarch.

King Gyanendra turned 59 on July 7 this year, three months after giving up tyranny. So what’s he up to lately? Online poker and blackjack, apparently. Indian newspaper Jana Aastha Weekly reports the emasculated royalty has turned to online gambling to take his mind off his blues.

What sort of blues? The newspaper reveals King Gyanendra suffers from depression, fluctuating blood pressure, and insomnia. Using international credit cards, he’s been prowling the online poker gambling sites and Internet blackjack casinos until three a.m., looking to drown his sorrows in 21’s and Straight Flushes.

Did he try for the World Series of Poker (WSOP)? We have to wonder.

What doesn’t make us wonder as much is why he’s so blue. Nepal King Gyanendra’s rise to power was a tad shady, to say the least. This story involves too many same-sounding names so keep up.

The first time Gyanendra was declared King of…

Read More » Nepal King Regains Power in Online Poker

His name isn’t Hugo ‘Hurley’ Reyes but he did make money betting mystical numbers on the lottery. In fact, I don’t think he watches the TV show Lost. Or he never would have done what he did: He wagered on a four-digit number his dead grandma had given him in a dream.

As sure as we’re still losing sleep following the crumbs being dropped by Lost creators Jeffrey Lieber, J. J. Abrams, and Damon Lindelof, I think you have a pretty good idea what happened to this dude next.

Perhaps if he’d played badugi or mahjongg, with some smart bankroll management thrown in, this would be a different story. But Tan Tay Seck, a Malaysian, played the lotto. Not only that, he took a little too seriously the fact that the lottery is a game of luck.

Tan Tay Seck, who works as a mechanic, bought two lotto tickets using the number combination of 6-0-6-4. These were the numbers he got from his dead grandmother’s apparition. (Go ahead, Lost fans. Calculate your heart out.)

Surprise, surprise: 6-0-6-4 won. Our lucky if superstitious Malaysian Hurley took home 42,500 ringgit ($11,580) for his winning lotto numbers.

What happened next was straight out of Lost, the ‘Numbers’ episode. The wallet that had his second winning lotto ticket was stolen. Without the lotto ticket in question, obviously, the lottery company refused to pay up. Frankly, I’m now kind of waiting for the day his best friend forsakes him.

Unlike badugi or mahjongg, the lottery is a game of chance. Tan Tay Seck, aka this week’s dead wringer for…

Read More » Winning the Lottery a la TV Show ‘Lost’

One thing I can never accuse Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa of being is modest.

The $1.1 billion Borgata first made a buzz as Atlantic City’s first new casino resort in over a decade, and the largest hotel in the area. Now it’s back supersizing by introducing the largest Atlantic City poker room, part of a $525 million expansion slated until 2007.

The Borgata Poker Room, set to open on June 30th, looks to be the biggest thing to happen to Atlantic City poker. It is an 85-table card room encompassing 21,500 square feet of glorious space where to go all-out, or all-in, with your Atlantic City poker lessons and showdowns.

A high-limit poker room will comprise 18 tables plus food service. A poker tournament area will have 9 tables plus bleacher seating for poker tourney viewing, and it can be partitioned off as a reserved poker area. The main poker room will consist of 58 poker tables, and a safe deposit box room will be provided for the convenience of Borgata poker players.

The variety of poker games and poker limits, it follows, will be the largest in Atlantic City. This includes all variations of Texas Hold’em, Seven-Card Stud, and Omaha Poker.

Crank up your Atlantic City poker lessons to make it to the final table of the WIP Grudge Match, a highlight of the…

Read More » Borgata Supersizes Atlantic City Poker

WAKE UP. Every Casino has a built-in EDGE.

Yup, no matter how good you are in gambling, casinos have a built-in edge on every gaming option. THAT means, casinos ONLY offer games which insure that they will WIN more money FROM players than they will lose TO players.

Yup, and that, my friend, is a fact. And that built-in profit that allows casinos to become a profitable business is what they call the dreaded CASNO EDGE.

Whaddaya’ think, that casinos are there to give ya’ll money? Of course not. If casinos do that, then why did they put up this kind of business anyway?

So what do you do to beat this casino edge?

Easy.

Just play the games that have the LOWEST casino edges. Yup, that means, these are the games that give the player, or the gambler if you will, the BEST chances of winning.

You can’t force the casino to play by the rules, giving itself a mere 50-50 chance of beating you or that other guy throwing the dice like a jackass as if he’s Peyton Manning or…

Read More » JJ’s Gambling Tips: Beat the dreaded Casino Edge