A new series on the Animal Planet network featuring former heavyweight champion boxer Mike Tyson is facing allegations by PETA that it is profiting from illegal gambling. The convoluted argument by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is that gambling and betting will occur when the show broadcasts pigeon racing, featuring Tyson’s prize pigeons against other pigeon owners.
PETA, like other fanatics, is not beyond twisting laws and using methods unrelated to its concern to achieve its goal. The organization is concerned about possible cruelty to pigeons kept for racing, so it invokes New York state gambling laws forbidding making profits off animal racing without a license.
Animal Planet representatives say the charge is ridiculous, and that no gambling will be sanctioned. But PETA responds that audience members will be gambling, and that the law makes generating income from animal racing illegal.Despite the inherent absurdity of the PETA position, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office says it will investigate the animal rights organization’s written complaint.Representatives for both Tyson and Animal Planet both say PETA is barking up the wrong tree, and that the pigeons involved are treated with care and love.
Interviews on the street in Brooklyn showed public opinion to be heavily behind Tyson and the show. “If PETA can’t get along with Animal Planet, who can they get along with?” asked Margaret Antin. “If people in the public are gambling on how many stupid things PETA might do, does that mean PETA has to break up?” wondered Ed Williams.

With squabbles between EU nations and the online casino industry occurring seemingly daily, the European Parliament Petitions Committee has promoted the failure of Greece to comply with EU standards for gambling regulation as worthy of attention by the EC. The petition was circulated by Stanleybet customers and employees who were arrested by Greek police for violating the national gaming monopoly of state owned operator OPAP. The committee found reason for the EC to investigate Greek law, which prevents licensed EU gambling operators from competing in Greece with OPAP. Stanleybet had deliberately established a location to test the law, and was shut down in a matter of days.

One member of the European Parliament, Sir Robert Atkins of the UK, stated it was time for the EC to enforce EU internal market rules in Greece, while another, Simon Busuttil of Malta, said the Greek example is “a clear case of breach of EU law.”

“This inaction is not even to protect a Greek government monopoly, it is to protect a company listed in the Athens Stock Exchange,” said a third member, Roger Helmer of the UK. Helmer led a call to quick action by the EC, noting “justice delayed is justice denied.”

Stanleybet officials say they have been repeatedly denied and delayed in attempts to obtain a Greek wagering license. They accuse Greek authorities of using harsh and disproportionate measure to enforce the profitability of the OPAP monopoly.

The German attempt to maintain the state gambling monopoly and bar foreign online casinos may crumble from within. The state of Shleswig-Holstein has promised to open its gaming market to private gambling operators, and withdraw from the agreement among German states to ban online casinos.

The German State Treaty on Gaming united Germany’s states insupport of the national Internet gambling monopoly, claiming that doing so is the only viable means of protecting consumers. However, EU findings indicate the move is more financially motivated, protecting the state gaming system from licensed competition by EU online casino operators.

Now, as Schleswig-Holstein becomes the first state to reject the federal reasoning, other states are rumored to be primed to follow suit and allow competitive online gambling in their borders.

Opening the market to EU competition would relieve Germany of potentially costly infringement proceedings by the European Commission. And consumers across Europe are demanding that state protectionist blocks be removed to allow choice in online gambling systems.

Even if some form of the monopoly is presently maintained, the State Treaty ends in 2012, permitting states to license online casinos freely after that point.

Despite having been exposed as a fanatic without scientific backing, Illinois professor John Kindt continues to rail on a radical religious site against gambling. Kindt and his forum seem to be the only parties still crediting each other’s pronouncements, so naturally he is published there slurring an impartial commission studying gambling in New Hampshire.

Citizenlink, the artfully titled website of the even more inaptly named Focus on the Family, discusses New Hampshire Governor John Lynch’s decision to name a commission to study gaming’s possible effects on the state with all its usual objectivity.

“Family advocates have no doubt what that study will find, if the commission is honest,” says the site.

“As usual, the radical evangelicals already know what the results should be. If a test doesn’t give the response they expect, it must be dishonest,” points out OCA senior gaming analyst Sherman Bradley.

Kindt, one of a few speakers trotted forth by the far right church group as a supposed scholar, is equally biased. He notes conclusions drawn by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission of 1999, a body composed of political rather than scientific appointees whose conclusions have been debunked by thousands of peer-reviewed studies in the decade since.

“If this is a straightforward commission, it should reach similar conclusions,” says Kindt, displaying the lack of scientific detachment that has ruined his name on both sides of the sober gambling discussion.

“Interesting that they keep referring to a study done by political appointees, including James Dobson, the preacher running Focus,” notes Bradley. “Additionally, that survey is over ten years old, done in the infancy of online gambling and the ability to research it. Amazing they haven’t found any work since then to corroborate their peculiar beliefs.”

The pride Antigua and Barbuda took in receiving the gambling White Listing by the UK Gaming Commission was shaken after the exposure of the regulatory mishaps that occurred as part of the Allen Stanford banking fiasco. In an effort to regain lost credibility, the Antiguan Directorate of Offshore Gaming announced it will increase monitoring and auditing of online casino inspection for compliance.

The Directorate is a branch of the Financial Service Regulatory Commission, which regulates the island’s banking industry. The effectiveness of the commission has been called into effect by the Stanford situation, in which Allen Stanford was arrested and his international banking empire shut down by US agents.

Standford International Bank is based on Antigua. Leroy King, CEO of the commission, has been given two month’s leave while the circumstances are investigated.

Meanwhile, online gaming industry operators can expect a trickle-down of the damage to result in stricter conditions for them. The Director of Gaming, Kaye McDonald, said, “They (Internet casino owners) recognize that a strong regulatory system protects their players and enhances the credibility of the industry in general, which is in everyone’s mutual interest.”

McDonald affirmed there will be tighter monitoring for money laundering prevention, proper transparency, and accountability of all licensed online casinos. Antigua also emphasizes that its licensees maintain programs to aid and assist victims of problem gambling, and follow responsible gaming practices.

Finance Minster Dr. Errol Cort said he still had total faith in both the gaming commission and its banking regulating brethren. Speaking about the quality of Antigua’s regulators, Cort said, “They are governed by the requisite laws to be able to adequately regulate the offshore financial sector as best as anywhere in the world.”

Many land-based gambling venues, such as Atlantic City casinos, are faced with economic difficulties beyond the recession. Like newspapers, these gaming spots might have to face the natural technological evolution to online casino and Internet news sources.

Newspapers have had to accept the switch of public tastes from printed copies to online news presentations. Earlier this year, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the oldest newspaper in Washington state, stopped its presses, moving to an Internet-only format.

Both the Tribune Company, owners of the Chicago Tribune and several other papers, and the New York Times Company are facing turbulent financial times, and possibly bankruptcy. The Times has threatened to halt publication of the hallowed Boston Globe unless union workers make major concessions.

And almost every paper in the country has raised prices while drastically cutting content.

The advantages of the Internet cannot be denied. Nostalgia may help a few businesses remain as quaint reminders of yesterday, but the future marches on.

The gambling industry is in much the same situation. Online casino allow players to avoid travel and hotel costs, give them freedoms such as smoking which may be denied in a public casino, and grant convenient access on a moment’s notice, requiring no elaborate planning to enjoy a little gaming.

Internet gambling doesn’t cost its operators billions in capital expenditures or overhead expenses. There are no thousands of employees to pay, no physical location to constantly maintain or upgrade.

OCA senior gaming analyst Sherman Bradley says, “By saving all the money land gaming is forced to invest, Internet casinos are able to provide far better returns on slot machines. Versions of table games whose slight profit precludes their installation at land operations are readily available at online gambling sites.”

Bradley says this includes such games as $1 blackjack, penny slots, head-to-head poker, and more.

If odds were offered at online casinos on whether Tiger Woods would walk on water this weekend, the payday would most likely be less than 5-1. Gambling patrons have become so enamoured of the best golfer ever to play, no one is willing to bet too heavily against Woods to do anything, and certainly winning the Masters is almost expected of him. Coming off serious knee surgery and a six-month layoff, Woods is still by far the choice to finish atop the leaderboard at Augusta this weekend. Internet casinos list Woods as +160, so at least a player can get better than even money by taking Woods and spotting the house the rest of the field.

Not that Woods doesn’t deserve every bit of respect paid him. After all, once Woods showed he can beat the rest of the best in the world while playing on a broken leg at the US Open, who would dare to doubt him in anything he might attempt?

Phil Mickleson is second choice, paying $550 on a $100 bet. Padraig Harrington is also a popular pick, paying $1300 to $100 placed on him.Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen are also listed among the favorites, although truthfully only Woods can be said to be a favorite.

Sergio Garcia rounds out the top choices to compete for the green jacket, although anyone following the Spaniard’s career knows if Tiger is in stalking distance, he will fold like a pup tent under the pressure.

At least Woods gamblers can get some money back right now when betting him. Once the greatest golfer in the world works back into form, expect lines for him to drop to minuscule payouts, as fans figure him to dominate the sport.

Horse tracks are having a tough time making a go of it in many locales around the US and Canada, even though slots and video lottery terminals have been installed to help subsidize the operations. A major reason, according to track insiders, is that the gaming venues simply can’t compete with online casinos. The Toronto Sun is reporting that local horse racing venue Woodbine Racetrack is losing $200 million a year to online gambling. With a handle in 2008 of $866 million, that means one in five dollars that might be gambled at Woodbine is going instead to Internet gambling.

“If we don’t offer customers exactly what they want, they have so many opportunities to get around us and bet offshore,” said the vice-president of Woodbine Entertainment Group, Jane Holmes. “It is a huge impact. It’s not just horse racing wagering. Some people have moved to online poker.”

Holmes made her point in an effort to prod lawmakers into creating stiff barriers against online casinos. But OCA gaming analyst Sherman Bradley interprets the data in a different way.

“If you sell spaghetti out of can, and then people desert you and flock to a restaurant that sells awesome homemade spaghetti, it wouldn’t make sense to ask legislators to ban homemade sauce. Instead, you’d have to find ways to upgrade your product,” said Bradley.

Bradley noted that even Holmes admits online gambling sites have distinct advantages, such as being able to offer better payouts because they don’t have to cover huge overhead costs, like maintaining a physical casino.

“Convenience, freedom to smoke, no parking, traveling, or entry fees, and great odds are all factors in people choosing online casinos over land-based gaming. Trying to prevent it is like forcing people to travel by locomotive while planes are whizzing overhead.”

The Swedish government’s plan to block online casinos from the nation’s residents has met with derision from every corner. Swedish citizens are demanding censorship not be allowed, Swedish legislators have decried the concept, and now Ladbrokes is actively advertising against Swedish monopolization of online gambling. Ladbrokes, operator of both Internet and land-based gambling, is developing television commercials explaining the cost the monopoly imposes on Swedes. The ads discuss the advantages to consumers of an open market, and reveal the higher prices and limited gaming selection forced upon residents by the government plan.

The Swedish concept to develop a system similar to the UIGEA, with the addition of Internet filtering, is causing rumbles from the European Union and such advocacy groups as the Remote Gaming Association. Several lawmakers have said the plan is not just a bad idea, but illegal by Union rules.

Further, a number of Swedish government agencies have criticized the plan. These government departments are concerned with bureaucrats making arbitrary decisions on which Internet sites to make available to the public. Public figures have lined up to urge rejection of the measure. Svenska Skel, the Swedish state gaming monopoly, has fully endorsed the plan as necessary to control problem gambling. One observer found it curious how government’s concern over problem gambling always seems to end at the exact spot at which its wallet begins.