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Gov. Christie issued a stern message to Atlantic City in January after a state comptroller’s audit uncovered $23 million in municipal government waste: Get your act together, or I’ll do it for you.

Two days after his six-month anniversary of taking office, the governor delivered on his ultimatum, endorsing state oversight of the resort’s casino district to counter ineptitude at City Hall.

Stressing the need for immediate action, Christie on Wednesday set a July 1 deadline for making the new district clean and safe.

It was an illustration of Christie’s general approach to governance in his first half-year: Take a problem that has dogged New Jersey for years. Offer tough love in sound bites that sometimes belie the complexity of the issue. Set a rapid timetable to fix it. And aggressively use executive power to get results.

That path can be seen in his attempts to reform property taxes, affordable-housing policies, the pension system, the state’s top court, and more.

And while repeatedly saying Trenton must get out of the way, Christie has unabashedly wielded executive power more than any other governor in recent memory.

“Is he one of the most powerful governors in New Jersey’s history? Yes. . . . He has consolidated the power that the constitution provided to the Governor’s Office and used it in a far more effective way than his recent predecessors have,” said John Weingart, associate director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.

Speaking about Atlantic City at the New Meadowlands Stadium on Wednesday, Christie said New Jersey has had eight years of timid leadership that always looked to please everyone.

“You have to be bold,” he said. “We’re in difficult times. We have to turn the state around, and I’m willing to do that.”

Concerns about a state power grab, balanced by support for strong action, date to the earliest days of Christie’s governance.

Consider the opening lines of a legal challenge to Executive Order 12, which Christie signed three weeks into his term.

The order suspended for 90 days the powers of the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) to enforce regulations that towns must provide low- and moderate-income housing. A task force established by the executive order was to use that time to develop recommendations for reforming the system.

“This matter concerns an unprecedented attempt by Governor Chris Christie to expand the power of the governor in contravention of explicit legislative policy. . . . This sweeping assertion of executive power has no basis in New Jersey law and sets a dangerous precedent for the entire operation of state government,” reads the legal filing by the Fair Share Housing Center of Cherry Hill.

The appellate court struck down the portion of the executive order that suspended COAH – a widely criticized agency created under 1985 legislation – but allowed the task force to continue.

Christie was undeterred, later coming out with a proposal to return affordable-housing decisions to the local level and mostly remove Trenton from the equation. The administration pressed for rapid passage by the end of June, with Senate cooperation, but the Assembly put its foot down last month. Members of the lower house questioned why legislation for such a complex problem should be rushed through without more evaluation.

Christie, who pledged while running for office to gut COAH, has been using this approach to make progress on his list of campaign promises at a furious rate.

The governor, who pledged to remake the state Supreme Court, made an unprecedented decision in May not to reappoint Justice John E. Wallace Jr., though Wallace would have had to retire in two years anyway because of age limits. Christie called the court “out of control.”

Christie, who ran for office pledging no new taxes, wielded his oft-used veto pen when Democratic lawmakers approved a bill reinstating a so-called millionaire’s tax to offset the pain of budget cuts.

He set a rapid timetable for tackling the property-tax issue as soon as he signed the $29.4 billion budget, demanding that legislators convene over the July Fourth weekend. Christie noted that residents don’t get a vacation from property taxes and asked why lawmakers should.

The result was a 2 percent cap signed into law July 13 – one that can be overridden only with voter approval. Pension costs, health care, debt service, and states of emergency would all be exempt. Still unclear is how the cap will account for existing multiyear union contracts with raises of 3 and 4 percent.

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It was not exactly the type of grand opening an online casino would hope for. Just hours after launching, PlayNow.com, the online gaming site in British Columbia, was shut down due to malfunctions in the security on the site.

Although there was always going to be a learning curve, online gamblers were not expecting that their private information would be out there for other players to see. When the B.C. Lottery recognized the problem, they immediately pulled the site down.

Now, a week later, the B.C. government is standing by their site. Premiere Gordon Campbell claims that he still has confidence in the site and the people who are operating PlayNow.com. Campbell understands that patience is going to have to be part of this process.

“I think we always have to be vigilant,” said Campbell, when speaking to reporters late last week. “We have to learn from all the mistakes that are made and when mistakes are made, I think that’s exactly what they’ve tried to do.”

Other online gaming sites that are regulated in other jurisdictions have come out and claimed that the B.C. Lottery Corp. has been careless and the breach of private trust is one that will be hard to get back. That is not the feeling of gamblers, however, as they wait for the site to re-launch.

“I have been waiting a long time to be able to play slots online at a place where the government ensures my safety,” said Margaret Lindsey. “If I have to wait a couple of more weeks, that’s fine. I have full confidence that this will be worked out and will not happen in the future.”

The US, along with other Canadian provinces, are looking into the possibility of Internet gambling regulations. If the B.C. online gaming site is successful, other provinces may move quickly into the market. The US would instantly become the largest grossing regulated online gambling market in the world if legislators change the current laws.

July 26, 2010
Posted By Tom Jones
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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Moody’s Investors Service raised its ratings outlook on Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) to positive, citing the casino operator’s earnings prospects in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau.

The move comes a day after Fitch Ratings gave Wynn a one-notch upgrade, to the same level as Moody’s rating, on its improved performance in Macau and planned refinancing of $1.32 billion in mortgage …

However, the five NCAA investigations that have been initiated in little more than a week — in addition to a high-profile probe involving the Southern California athletic department that concluded in June — have brought into question how those laws are being used.

“How effective have they been?” said agent Darren Heitner, author of the Sports Agent Blog, an industry watchdog Web site. “It seems not very, at least in terms of enforcement.”

Execution of the Uniform Athlete Agent Act of 2000 (UAAA) and the Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act of 2004 (SPARTA) has been limited by insufficient resources to pursue investigations at the state level and a preference by some colleges not to invite probes into their revenue-generating athletic programs, according to numerous agents and university compliance officers contacted for this story.

The UAAA was drafted by the Uniform Law Commission as a template for a bill that states could ratify individually (39 states have done so). It requires agents to register in each state that has ratified the law and provide written notice to educational institutions when they sign a student-athlete before the player’s collegiate eligibility expires. The UAAA also allows for criminal, civil and administrative penalties to be sought at the state level.

Chicago-based basketball agent Mark Bartelstein said the UAAA has had mixed success, and that part of the problem is the lack of uniformity among the rules from state to state.

“Having one regulating body is really the way it should go,” Bartelstein said. “Having all the states with different rules and having to register in all the different states is so cumbersome, and I think it just creates more confusion than it does in terms of stopping the problem.”

Making the options clear

SPARTA, a federal law passed by Congress in 2004, prohibits agents from giving false information to a student-athlete and from providing anything of value to the player or anyone associated with the player before entering into a contract. Violations of this bill are considered deceptive practices under the Federal Trade Commission Act. The bill permits state attorneys general and educational institutions to pursue civil action against violators.

And yet, such civil action rarely is taken. According to Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), who sponsored SPARTA, Congress needs to hold hearings to determine whether the NCAA is sufficiently educating its member institutions about the rights afforded them by the law and what kind of enforcement the NCAA is using to protect the amateur status of its student-athletes.

In instances where improper contact has been made between a player agent and a student-athlete, the NCAA has the authority to discipline student-athletes and member institutions. A seven-person unit, led by NCAA director of agent, gambling and amateurism activities Rachel Newman-Baker, investigates such matters. Newman-Baker was not made available to comment, and spokeswoman Stacey Osburn said the NCAA holds no jurisdiction over agents.

“We went around and around with the NCAA on this” when the bill was in its initial stages, Gordon said. “First, they weren’t interested in this [bill], and then they saw it as a good tool. . . . [The NCAA] thought they could handle their own business, and later I think they determined that this was a good [idea]. In fact, we had letters of endorsement from universities all around the country. It just became an overwhelming issue with support all around the country. The college coaches really want some help.”

On Wednesday, Georgia became the fifth school within a week to confirm that the NCAA was looking into the actions of a member of its athletic programs. Multiple reports have stated the probe has to do with the potential presence of a Georgia football player at a party hosted by an agent in Miami over Memorial Day weekend.

WE refer to the letter “Ineffective raids on cybercafes,” (The Star, July 22) in which the writer questioned the futile raids on illegal cybercafés and wondered if there was any way to counter the mushrooming of computerised gambling dens disguised as cybercafes.

The modus operandi of these gambling dens is to camouflage as a cybercafe, equipped with 20 to 30 old computers that are ready to be carted away during raids.

Their main customers are adults above 30 who can gamble away hundreds, if not thousands of ringgit, in a single session.

As such, their typical RM30,000 to RM50,000 investment can be recouped in a month or two.

A genuine cybercafe would need to have 50 to 70 computers to make it viable.

Competition and games requirements make new computers with high specifications necessary. Multi-broadband Internet connections and printing services are essential to meet customer demands.

Their main customer group is 12 to 30 year olds who typically spend between RM3 to RM6, depending on their length of stay.

The typical investment for one cybercafe is between RM150,000 and RM300,000. High operating cost makes the payback period between three and five years.

The economics, buoyed by ineffective raids, show why computerised gambling dens are a thriving business.

Furthermore, you do not need a licence to operate one.

The irony is that a 12-year-old boy can make the distinction between a cybercafe and a computerised gambling den while a 40-year-old adult can’t.

Misleading reports that schoolgoing children patronise cybercafes and get into gambling, drug abuses and criminal activities only further confuse the public.

We urge parents to visit the cybercafes in their neighbourhood to ascertain the activities inside.

Instead of whining about computerised gambling dens, Persatuan Pemilik Pusat Cyber Selangor has been conducting a free IT training programme, “Celik IT Selangor”, since January to reach out to the public.

Hundreds of adults above 35 have been brought into cybercafes and taught Internet applications like e-mail, google, and YouTube.

Many never operated a mouse or keyboard before.

Since January 2007, the Selangor government has applied a blanket freeze on the issuance of new cybercafe licences to tackle the problem of computerised gambling dens.

The ruling however impeded the growth of genuine cybercafes while computerised gambling dens continued to prosper.

And now genuine cybercafe operators like us have become the minority.

Most cybercafe customers do not own a PC or have Internet connection at home.

We wonder why cybercafes have to close by midnight while karaoke, snooker centres, cinemas, discos, bars, coffeehouses, hawker centres, futsal centres, fast-food outlets and even Mat Rempits can carry on with their activities till the early hours?

We urge the Government to lift the freeze and make necessary changes to the by-laws to steer the cybercafe industry forward.

Our recommendations include increasing the barrier to entry; displaying prominent public notices; and having a more transparent cybercafe operation.

On the other hand, the police must carry out joint operations with local councils, TNB and TM Net to weed out the gambling dens. The public can play a part by gathering information and informing the police.

IR FRANK NG,

Deputy President,

Persatuan Pemilik Pusat Cyber Selangor.

HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — Nick Saban didn’t pull punches Wednesday when discussing the improper contact with athletes by unscrupulous agents, comparing their behavior to that of a “pimp.”

The Alabama coach was upset about the rash of recent agent-related incidents that have resulted in NCAA investigations at several Southeastern Conference schools.

“I don’t think it’s anything but greed that’s creating it right now on behalf of the agents,” Saban said in a rant at the SEC media days. “The agents that do this — and I hate to say this, but how are they any better than a pimp?

“I have no respect for people who do that to young people. None. How would you feel if they did it to your child?”

Agents, not national titles, was the primary topic on Day 1 at the Wynfrey Hotel. Three SEC teams — Florida, Alabama and South Carolina — are investigating allegations involving improper contact with an agent. Saban and SEC commissioner Mike Slive both emphatically said it was time for a change to NCAA rules governing agents.

Saban confirmed that Alabama is looking into a trip defensive end Marcell Dareus took to an agent’s party at Miami’s South Beach. South Carolina is looking into claims from the same South Beach party with tight end Weslye Saunders.

Georgia associate athletic director Claude Felton confirmed that the NCAA requested permission late Wednesday afternoon to conduct an inquiry on the Bulldogs’ campus. He would not say what the inquiry was about or whether it was related to the South Beach party. “This is all we can say,” Felton said.

Florida and the NCAA are reportedly investigating whether offensive lineman Maurkice Pouncey — now an NFL rookie with the Pittsburgh Steelers received $100,000 from a sports agent’s representative between the SEC championship game and the Sugar Bowl.

Pouncey denied the allegation.

“I did not accept $100,000, it is an absolutely ridiculous claim,” he said in a statement through his attorney. “I have completely cooperated with the investigation and answered any and all questions put to me.”

Florida coach Urban Meyer said the Gators support Pouncey.

“If something happened, we should be punished severely,” Meyer said. “If it didn’t happen, then it’s nonsense. I heard his denial today and we stand by Maurkice Pouncey.”

The player’s twin brother, Florida offensive lineman Mike Pouncey, said they have both cooperated with investigators.

“I talked to my brother and it’s not true,” Mike Pouncey said. “He pretty much cleared that up in his statement. I feel bad about it because they’re ruining somebody’s name and they really don’t know who my brother and I are. We pride ourselves on having a good, clean name. It’s just hard right now.

“I’m just ready to be done with it.”

Saban said he wants the NFL Players Association to get involved and suspend agents whose dealings help cost players eligibility, sending a message through their bank accounts.

“That’s the only way we’re going to stop this happening, because it’s ridiculous and it’s entrapment for young people at a very difficult time in their life,” the former Miami Dolphins coach said. “It’s very difficult for the NCAA to control it, and it’s very unfair to college football.

“I think we should look into doing something about that.”

Florida coach Urban Meyer said it’s impossible for a coach to keep agents or their “runners” off campus and said they need to be “severely punished” by either state laws or the NFL for wrongdoing.

“It’s epidemic right now,” he said. “It’s always been there, but I think we’ve reached a point where the magnitude of college football is really overwhelming. We’ve really got to keep an eye on that.”

The NFL itself, though, seems unlikely to get involved. Told of Meyer’s comments, league spokesman Greg Aiello noted in an e-mail exchange with The Associated Press: “The agents are regulated by the union.”

Asked whether the NFL might prod the NFLPA on the matter, Aiello wrote: “The union’s comments make clear that no encouragement is necessary.”

NFLPA assistant executive director George Atallah wrote in an e-mail to the AP: “We take violations of NFLPA rules by agents seriously and investigate them vigilantly. This situation is no different.”

Atallah’s boss, NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, voiced an even stronger stance in an appearance on ESPN radio earlier Wednesday — before Saban’s remarks.

“I think that any agent or contract adviser who does that, and preys upon kids like that in college, is something that we’re going to deal with extremely aggressively,” Smith said. “Frankly, God help those agents if they’re found to be in violation, because I’ve given our players … the green light to take the most aggressive steps that they want to take.

“If those steps include me or someone else in our office making a criminal referral under certain circumstances, that’s what we’ll do.”

Slive said he wanted the NCAA to change its philosophy for dealing with agents from one based on rules enforcement to a policy that is more oriented toward educating student-athletes.

He said the current NCAA rules “may be as much part of the problem as they are the solution.”

In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Rachel Newman-Baker, the NCAA’s director of agent, gambling and amateurism, said the governing body is reviewing its policies, but pointed out that schools can “change or amend the agent rules through the normal legislative process.”

The statement said, “NCAA rules allow conversations and information gathering between agents and student-athletes, but agreements and receiving extra benefits are not permitted. The NCAA Division I Amateurism Cabinet, a group of individuals from across membership with representation by 21 conferences, is currently reviewing how the NCAA can continue to help student-athletes gather information about pursuing a career in professional athletics.”

Improper contact with agents is hardly just an SEC issue, and it appears the rest of college football is paying attention.

At Miami, players said Wednesday they’re reminded “constantly” about the rules prohibiting contact with agents. And the investigations that have come out in recent days led to a reiteration of those rules, Hurricanes wide receiver LaRon Byrd said.

“It’s kind of crazy,” Byrd said. “You look at things like that, and I feel like those guys are being selfish, not looking out for the team. That’s something we always instill. It’s all about teamwork here. I would not put my teammates in danger, in jeopardy of losing games or damaging this program because I want to be greedy and take gifts or take things.”

Alabama is among SEC schools who use former NFL executive Joe Mendes to counsel players and families about dealing with agents. Heisman Trophy running back Mark Ingram said Tide players are educated about dealing with agents or their representatives.

“We have a great program in our organization that teaches us how to deal with situations like that,” said Heisman Trophy-winning tailback Mark Ingram, a junior. “Everybody is educated on how to deal with situations and how to approach those situations.

“My focus is on this team and this football season. Anything else is irrelevant.”

Tide junior linebacker Dont’a Hightower said he hasn’t personally been contacted by agents.

“We try to keep away from things like that and not bring it into the team,” Hightower said.

Pro player Andy Bloch uses skills from his Harvard days to put online poker’s case
 
Pro poker player Andy Bloch used skills learned during his education at Harvard Law School to put forward the case for legalised online poker at an Internet freedom seminar in Las Vegas this week.
 
Andy was representing the Poker Players Alliance at the Netroots Nation 2010 event, and addressed the discriminatory nature of US gambling law in banning online poker. The PPA, which boasts over a million members across America, sponsored the seminar.
 
Netroots is a pivotal event for those committed to progress, freedom of the Internet and open public policy debate.
 
In a pre-seminar statement issued by the PPA, Bloch said: “Americans enjoy the game of poker no matter their political stripes, and can watch games on countless television channels.
 
“We need to make sure that both politicians and activists are aware of the ridiculous attempts to prohibit online poker. They are forgoing billions in tax revenue when our budgets are most in need, rejecting the opportunity to properly regulate online poker, and ignoring their responsibility to protect children and other vulnerable members of our society.”
 
During the seminar Bloch detailed the discriminatory nature of US laws when it came to internet poker, and the current state of play in legislative terms, noting that gambling is legal in at least one form or another in 48 states, where governments raise significant revenues from gambling taxes.
 
Yet despite this, federal laws penalise online gambling through the UIGEA, a flawed financially oriented law passed in a late night session just before a Congressional recess, attached to the coat tails of a must-pass security bill, he said.
 
In his address, Bloch asked the rhetorical question why the public should be concerned at the Internet bans and their discriminatory nature when it came to internet gambling. He explained that the bans attacked the basic freedom of the internet, and their discriminatory nature sets an unfortunate precedent whereby lawmakers might arbitrarily pick some other popular internet activity to be given similar treatment, diluting further the liberty of the internet.

Lindsey Sutphin, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandBreakfast.com

WASHINGTON, July 23, 2010- H.R. 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act, will require online gaming sites to purchase licenses and subscribe to existing gambling laws. In a hearing this week the main stakeholders voiced their concerns.

Edwin Williams, president and CEO of Discovery Federal Credit Union represented the Credit Union National Association (CUNA). He said the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) has unreasonable compliance costs because credit unions and other financial institutions can be liable if transactions with illegal Internet gambling providers are approved. However, the act does not give an actual definition of what constitutes “unlawful internet gambling” or a list of the known illegal online gambling providers. Williams said that the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve Board cannot find the illegal providers, so they pass the burden on to the private sector, where many of the financial institutions will struggle to comply.

However, Williams said that the proposed bill H.R. 2267 could help credit unions with those compliance costs. The bill would require Internet gaming providers to pay fees and have licenses. By having these sites federally registered, the credit unions could feel safer in making payments to them without fear of violating UIGEA.

Tom Malkasian, owner and director of strategic planning at Commerce Casino, said his company fully supports legalizing online gaming. However, he said he “must testify in strong opposition to H.R. 2267 as currently written, and urge members of the committee to vote against it barring numerous and significant changes to address what we view as the many weaknesses currently in the legislation.”

His criticized the projected revenues, $42 billion, that the bill’s supporters say will result from legalizing online gaming. He said those estimates are built off of unreliable information and false assumptions. The revenue estimates assume the internet sites would be American, but H.R. 2267 does not require that the sites be hosted in this country.

Malkasian also said the bill would constitute a violation of states’ and tribal lands’ rights, all of whom have their own gaming laws in place. Instead, he proposed amending the bill so that states and tribal lands could opt-in by voting in state legislatures of tribal councils, which would allow more time for public debate.

Lynn Malerba, chairwoman of the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut, said that she is glad the federal government has worked with Native Americans on H.R. 2267, since Indian gambling has been the biggest economic benefit to the Native Americans. The Mohegan Tribe and a coalition or other tribes say that they support the bill’s vision that regulating internet faming can be possible.

She said the most important improvement in the bill would be a provision that makes it clear that tribal land governments and gaming facilities would be allowed to operate online gaming sites. She was also concerned that the bill could conflict with regulations in the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, and wanted the committee to ensure that a combination of the two laws would not be too restrictive to tribal gaming facilities.

Law enforcement and anti-terrorism consultant and former federal prosecutor Michael Fagan was concerned with the costs of enacting the bill. He said he was positive that the bill would be much more costly and difficult to comply with than the current status quo. He has particular compliance concerns were with law enforcement, and said “it would be irresponsible to take any steps toward expanding the availability of internet gambling — such as giving up on controlling the problem — in the United States before first directing and funding the Department of Justice and/or the states’ attorneys general to enable a coordinated, systematic approach to enforcing existing laws prohibiting and taxing such conduct.”

Professional poker player Annie Duke spoke on behalf of the Poker Players Alliance, a group formed to combat efforts to eradicate online poker playing. She said the baseline issue of the bill was personal freedom, and that people’s activities should not be constrained in the privacy of their own homes by the government.

Duke said H.R. 2267 is not proposing to expand internet gaming, but it will simply provide a set of regulations and safeguards to an already growing industry. Instead of playing on foreign-regulated sites, American poker players want to play online on American sites, “which will provide even greater consumer protections for the player and yield badly-needed tax revenue for state and federal governments.”

Congressman Ron Paul also spoke at the hearing in support of the bill. He said it creates no new federal laws, only a process in which gambling sites comply with current laws. Paul felt like a ban on internet gambling is in an infringement on someone’s right to use their money as they see fit. And while he said he personally thought gambling to be a “dumb waste of money,” Americans have the right to take the same financial risks gambling that they do when buying a used car or investing in a hedge fund.

He urged his colleagues to support the bill, and restore the right of Americans to decide whether or not they want to gamble online.

Taged with: Cuna, gambling, Ron Paul

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