Costigan Media, parent company of Gambling911.com, submitted a Memorandum of Law in Support of its Motion to Intervene and to unseal court records related to the issuance of a seizure warrant of funds tied to online poker’s two biggest companies, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

Earlier this month, Gambling911.com broke the story that the US Attorney out of the Southern District of New York had froze funds in excess of $30 million tied to both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.  That office had instructed three banks – Citibank, Goldwater Bank and Alliance Bank of Arizona – to freeze the accounts associated with the online poker rooms.

A magistrate judge in the district issued a seizure warrant for an account at a Wells Fargo bank in San Francisco, and a federal prosecutor told Alliance Bank to freeze accounts. In a letter faxed to Alliance Bank, the prosecutor said accounts held by payment processor Allied Systems Inc. are subject to seizure and forfeiture "because they constitute property involved in money laundering transactions and illegal gambling offenses." The letter was signed by Arlo Devlin-Brown, assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Up until now these seizure warrants have remained sealed. 

The question presented by the motion filed by Costigan Media on Thursday is whether the public and media are entitled to have the application for a civil seizure warrant unsealed after the issuance and execution of the warrant, but before the government — which is engaged in a contemporaneous criminal investigation — has filed any criminal charges.

"We do not want another situation like what happened with BetonSports," expressed Christopher Costigan, Publisher of Gambling911.com, making reference to a July 2006 indictment of what was at the time the largest online sports betting operation. 

The investigation into BetonSports began in 2002 and its customers were caught off guard when several criminal charges were brought against BetonSports and nearly a dozen of its key executives, thus forcing the company to be shut down before customers had a chance to pull their funds.  Players were out millions of dollars as a result and are yet to recoup their losses. 

"Customers of Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars have a right to know if their monies are in jeopardy should charges be leveled against principals in either company," said Costigan. 

Counsel for Costigan Media has contacted the United States Attorney’s Office to see if the government would consent to the unsealing of the warrant application and related documents.  The government has indicated that it would not consent. 

All the pleadings were filed under seal.  Although the warrant was issued a month ago, and although the funds are now safely under the control of the government and in no danger of dissipation, the affidavit submitted in support of the warrant application still remains under seal.   So too are any supporting documents relating to this Court’s decision to seal the warrant application.

This Motion contends that Costigan Media has the right to intervene for the purpose of seeking and unsealing the documents.  Costigan Media and the public are entitled to see these documents pursuant to both a First Amendment right and a common-law right of access to judicial documents.

Costigan Media functions as a member of the press and exercises rights and privileges arising under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Gambling911.com Staff

 

 

BetUS.com is one of many online sports betting firms offering odds on the 2009 Wimbledon tournament.  And while 2009 Wimbledon futures offer the best possible payouts, daily matchup odds remain tempting, albeit difficult to swallow.

Take Andy Roddick for example:  He’s a massive -1200 favorite vs. Jurgen Melzer (who would pay $600 for every $100 bet should he happen to upset Roddick).

A true sports betting enthusiast would jump at the chance to bet on Jurgen Melzer, though few would be as likely to lay down so much money on what appears to be a "sure thing" in Roddick.

"The Austrian (Melzer) was a junior Wimbledon champion but for all his successes early in his career he never converted on them at the pro-level," states Nila Amerova of BetUS.com.  "Nevertheless, Melzer is a dark horse and a potential stumbling block for the American. Roddick would do well not to underestimate Melzer. That said, he owns the series between them, which stands at a whopping 8-0. Though they have never played on grass Roddick should enter this match with all the confidence that his mark against the Austrian should give him along with the newfound self-belief that he has a chance to win a Grand Slam title nurtured by coach Larry Stefanki."

Another lopsided matchup involves Lleyton Hewitt -1000 vs. Philipp Petzschner +500.

"Hewitt enters this match as the huge favourite, priced at -1000. If the Aussie fans that showed up to watch him against Del Potro show up and set up a little Aussie cheerleading section for Hewitt, he might have a bit of home edge feel to this match. Either way, he should top Petzschner relatively easily. The big win over Del Potro must be a huge confidence lift for the Aussie who has been working hard all season long to revive his game after taking an injury timeout last season."

BetUS.com has all your 2009 Wimbledon action and is one of the leading online sports betting websites when it comes to free cash bonuses when opening a new wagering account. 

Dan Shapiro, Gambling911.com

 

 

A revolt of online gambling affiliates led to some high level (and often secretive) meetings at this year’s Casino Affiliate Convention (CAC) in Amsterdam.  A group calling itself the Gambling Affiliate Programs (GAP) organized a meeting of affiliates, many of whom were furious over Casino Affiliate Programs (CAP) conflict of interest operating its own online poker, as first reported by Gambling911.com, denied by CAP organizers, than later confirmed by these same organizers.

Internal issues have since plagued GAP.

This correspondence was submitted to Gambling911.com Monday by an individual affiliate (Casino Jack) in regard to GAP organizer, Lloyd Apter:

 

He is insane and I am going to hold this first anti GAP meeting soon. read 

this, and publish what you want: 

 

Casino Jack, you obviously didn’t you read my previous post. And neither 

did you Renee, seeing that you thanked Casino Jack for his last post. 

 

So, I’ll say it again: We are all only interested in genuine cooperation 

and respect. 

 

FYI Jordan setup the original GAP site and managed the subscription to the 

first joint statement: 

http://sites.google.com/site/gamblingaffiliateprograms/ 

 

Jordan has also been very involved in all important stages, many times 

behind the scenes. For instance the GAP logo he produced himself. 

 

And what have you guys been providing, seriously? 

 

Here’s one of Renee unthought out and simply rude comments: 

 

Quote: 

Originally Posted by Renee View Post 

Can someone enlighten me? 

What exactly (details) is the £2-5k paying for? It doesn’t explain that 

anywhere in this letter. 

 

Balloons maybe? 

And here is another one: 

 

Quote: 

Originally Posted by Renee View Post 

I’m not going to post here again until I can see a real business 

model/plan. I’m rooting for this, but I won’t support anything that I think 

is not prepared properly. 

 

You’ll notice that a business plan is usually a little longer than 4 pages 

with 1-2 paragraphs on each page and has a lot more detail than what we 

have been presented with so far. 

Seriously, we don’t work for you guys. 

 

FYI Renee, I wrote a business plan eight years ago that sold an Israeli 

manufacturing export company from a USA public company to an U.K. public 

company and I closed the deal, so I know what a business plan should look 

like. What you read was a high level strategic proposal, not a business 

plan. The document is even called a proposal and not a business plan. And 

even if you think otherwise, correctly or not, you really don’t need to be 

so rude in your manner of posting. Seriously it’s so uncalled for and is 

definitely not well intended because nobody that I know enjoys sly remarks 

being made at them. 

 

Renee, if you have something to say – please say it but with due respect. 

The same respect you would like to see from me or any of our other fellow 

affiliate/program manager and I promise you the respect will be returned, 

with interest. 

 

Casino Jack, you almost make it sound like you and Renee are running 

things here: 

 

Quote: 

Originally Posted by casinojack View Post 

Seems like Renne and 2 – 3 others are all that have been involved. 

Do you even now who drafted the joint PRs and setup the meeting at CAC? 

Well there where a few of us involved and it didn’t include either of you. 

 

I really don’t appreciate it when people push their weight around without 

much substance… just many long winded and insultive posts is in my eyes 

not very helpful. 

 

Like I said before, please think careful what your intentions are and then 

post honestly and positive. The popular tags cloud has casino jack there, 

isn’t that weird. Please carefully consider your true intentions. 

 

This is not a popularity contest. It’s a genuine effort to create a 

positive alliance between programs for improving our industry. 

 

Final comment: I honestly apologize if I have hurt anyone’s feelings in any 

way, including in this thread, but from now on all negative discussions are 

over. 

 

Any new simply negative postings will be move to the junk postings forum. 

 

I’m closing this threat." 

 

This guy off his rocker, his business plan has 400k a year in expenses to 

help us all save money, lol. what a scam 

 

After having lost their original domain name for two years, Bodog is back….Actually, Bodog.com is back.  The site is estimated to have lost significant business following loss of the Bodog.com domain name in a much ballyhooed patent suit that was settled back in April. 

It was not immediately known how the changeover will affect search rankings.  At one time, prior to the domain seizure, Bodog dominated search.  They lost most – if not all rankings – soon thereafter.   The predecessor domain – BodogLife.com – eventually managed to get some rankings back, but not all. 

One of Bodog’s only remaining celebrity poker pros, David Williams, announced the official return of the Bodog.com site Wednesday afternoon at the 2009 World Series of Poker.  The company waited a few weeks after the decision to move back to the original domain.

Bodog Poker has fallen to the number 15 spot among all online poker rooms in the world, with an average of 760 real cash players per week.  Compare that with PokerStars and its 23000 real cash players per week. 

Gambling911.com Staff

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