The NBA’s elite descend on Las Vegas next weekend, forced to squeeze in an All-Star Game and skills events between all the frolicking and cavorting around town.
The question is whether this will be a one-shot deal for Sin City, or the harbinger of something bigger.
Despite luring All-Star weekend, Las Vegas faces considerable odds to secure a major professional team of its own. The obstacle, naturally, is the issue that has fueled the city’s popularity: gambling.
Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman said Friday he doesn’t consider next weekend’s festivities an audition and remains ”very optimistic” about landing a team in the future, more likely an NHL or NBA team.
But in comments to reporters last year, NBA commissioner David Stern made one thing very clear about the possibility of placing a team in Las Vegas: “We’re not going to go there while they have betting on NBA basketball games.”
In fact, in order to get the All-Star Game, Goodman and the Las Vegas sports books had to agree not to allow wagers on next Sunday’s game. But Goodman said he would not consider eliminating betting on NBA games in order to secure a team.
”I will not budge on our position,” he said. “David Stern is a great guy. We’ll sit and discuss it.”
All of this leads to a larger issue: If the NBA isn’t ready to put a team in Las Vegas, why is it placing its marquee midseason event there?
”We’re going to Las Vegas because we think it’s a great destination city,” Stern, who was unavailable for an interview last week, said in a news conference last fall. “They have removed the All-Star events from the betting line and . . . we have no problem with people who want to go there and gamble.
“It’s state-sanctioned, state-sponsored, state-regulated. They have great hotels, great shows, great restaurants, great family events. It’s a great entertainment place. We don’t think it’s a stigmatized city in our view.”
Las Vegas has its share of pro sports — minor-league baseball, Arena Football, marquee boxing and tennis events — but Goodman wants something bigger, something sexier. He believes it’s warranted for a city that draws 37.4 million visitors annually and has seen its population triple, to 1.8 million, in the past 20 years.
Goodman at one point said he expects a team from one of the four major leagues to relocate by 2010. He didn’t offer a new timetable in a phone interview Friday, but said he hopes to have serious conversations with one of the leagues “before spring.”
Goodman said he has spoken with several NBA teams, but declined to name them. He reportedly inquired about the New Orleans Hornets when they shifted games to Oklahoma City after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
MARLINS BLOCKED
Two Marlins officials met with Goodman in December 2004, but Major League Baseball would not permit the Marlins to have more serious conversations because of the gambling issue, The Miami Herald reported last year.
‘I’ve been told by [commissioner] Bud Selig to stay out of the Marlins’ business,” Goodman said Friday. ”He indicated [last year] he prefers I don’t speak with them and that the team stays in South Florida.” He said he did not push the issue because he wants to preserve a good relationship with MLB.
Last week, MLB president Robert DuPuy voiced concerns about any team relocating to Las Vegas.
‘We had very productive discussions with Las Vegas about a baseball team in that city during the Expos’ relocation process,” DuPuy said in an e-mail. “And the mayor and local leaders were very enthusiastic and committed. As a rapidly expanding city, Las Vegas offers interesting professional sports opportunities. The television market there is quite small, but the growth is intriguing.
“However, the gaming remains an issue, particularly the fact that baseball is on board with the other sports. While gambling has become more pervasive in other forms in many states, the difference in Nevada is the sports betting. Given the history of the Office of the Commissioner and the sensitivity to the issue of gambling, this would be a significant obstacle.”
Because of that, Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson hasn’t made progress in his efforts to bring a team to Las Vegas, though he reportedly pieced together a deep-pocketed investment group.
Meanwhile, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell expressed serious concerns when asked at a Super Bowl news conference how he would react if an owner approached him and said he wanted to move to Las Vegas.
”I feel strongly about keeping a very strong line between the NFL and sports gambling,” he said. “I think it’s a real issue. I have my personal views about gambling, and I don’t think it’s in the best interests of the NFL to have any association with sports betting.”
Goodell said he has not had any dialogue about moving a team to Las Vegas. Twice in the past nine months, Goodman has made inquiries to the San Diego Chargers, who want a new stadium. But the Chargers have said they will concentrate their efforts on San Diego. Goodman also once offered to build a stadium to play host to all Monday Night Football games, but the NFL declined.
”I don’t have the best relationship with the NFL,” said Goodman, who was unhappy when the league rejected some of the city’s broadcast advertisements in the past.
The NHL won’t rule out Las Vegas, but said changes would need to be made regarding sports gambling issues.
”Las Vegas we’ve had talks with — it’s a great sports town and certainly could be considered,” NHL spokeswoman Bernadette Mansur said. ”There would have to be restrictions with gambling. But it’s all speculation. We are not considering any expansion or relocation of clubs.” Mansur reiterated the NHL hopes the Penguins — whose future is in question — will remain in Pittsburgh.
To Goodman, the reluctance to bring a team to Las Vegas is mystifying. He consistently has called gambling concerns a “red herring.”
”Tonight, [the Heat] is playing in Cleveland,” Goodman said Friday. “There will be more bets taken in Cleveland for that game than in all the sports books in Las Vegas. . . . Sports betting is good. We’re the only state that regulates it.”
This won’t be the NBA’s first foray into Las Vegas. During the 1983-84 season, former Utah Jazz owner Sam Battistone scheduled 11 games at Thomas & Mack Center, which will play host to next weekend’s festivities. In one of those games, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar surpassed Wilt Chamberlain and became the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. The U.S. national team held training camp in Las Vegas last summer, and the league holds summer league competition in the city each July.
Stern suggested last year that if NBA games weren’t wagered on, he would have no qualms about placing a team in Las Vegas.
`WHAT AMERICA DOES’
”Forty states have lotteries,” he said. “Those that don’t have lotteries, there’s Indian reservations that have gambling establishments or video poker or all their eating establishments. So everybody gambles now. Whether that’s right or wrong, that’s state government policy that’s been left to the states. And that’s what America does.”
Even beyond gambling, another drawback is the lack of a state-of-the-art baseball/football stadium or an arena to replace Thomas & Mack, which doesn’t have enough revenue-producing luxury suites to support an NBA team.
Goodman has said he is proceeding with plans to build a $404 million arena, potentially without using public money, but hasn’t offered details.
”No one is going to privately build a stadium unless a team is there,” Goodman said in a November news conference in comments published by The Las Vegas Review-Journal in November. “But if the NBA is going to come here, I have ways I believe it could be built without taxpayer dollars.”
Goodman isn’t alone.
Gavin Maloof, whose family owns the Sacramento Kings and the Palms Hotel, told The Associated Press he expects an NBA team in Las Vegas within the next five years, despite Stern’s position.
”Every owner that I’ve spoken to loves Vegas,” said Maloof, who helped facilitate the All-Star Game going to Nevada.
Marc Ganis, president of Chicago-based Sportscorp — a sports business consultancy firm that works on franchise relocations — said he expects a pro team in Las Vegas ”well within the decade, perhaps within three or four years.” He said he easily could see an NBA team move to Las Vegas if Stern ever changed his mind on the issue.
”Hockey needs Vegas the most,” Ganis said. “If there was not the sports gambling element, it is the most viable market in the country that is available.”
For now, though, a weekend of NBA All-Stars will have to suffice.
Source: Miami Herald

There is a glimmer of hope the Alexander First Nation can successfully fend off a showdown the government has threatened over the band’s attempts to create a haven for online casinos, legal experts say.
The Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission is investigating the Edmonton-area band, which is offering licences for online poker, casino or sports-betting houses, but has apparently not started operations. The provincial body deems that any gaming schemes taking place outside its regulations is against the Criminal Code.
“Being illegal — we will take every action to ensure that it doesn’t happen in Alberta,” said Solicitor General Fred Lindsay, minister responsible for the AGLC.
Just as other aboriginal groups have established constitutional self-governing rights to logging, fishing and hunting, the Alexander band could get a legal OK to host offshore Internet gambling firms if it can prove that wagering was a major part of their ancestral heritage, gaming-industry lawyer Michael Lipton said.
Several bands have failed at the Supreme Court and lower courts to have gambling declared as an inherent right. However, the most recent high court case in 1996 that upheld convictions against Ontario bands has helped set the test for what Alexander or other groups must prove to qualify for sovereignty over gambling, he said.
“If the facts exist to demonstrate that a rudimentary — very rudimentary — form of gambling exists, be it in the form of stones and sticks or beads or whatever the case may be, the law says that if they’ve got the facts, this is the law, they have to follow it,” said Lipton, head of an international association of gaming lawyers.
Morden C. Lazarus wrote an article last summer in the journal Gaming Law Review about the legal case behind the longstanding online casino venture run by the Kahnawake Mohawk of Quebec.
Although authorities have never cracked down on the Kahnawake scheme authorities believe is illegal, Lazarus argues the Mohawk have centuries-old traditional gaming practices they can prove should they ever be hauled into court. “It’s the entitlement test,” he said. “If they can survive the entitlement test the Supreme Court of Canada set out, then they would have the ability to succeed.”
Officials with the upstart Alexander Gaming Commission did not return calls seeking comment for the third successive day. The group wants to charge up to $40,000 annually, plus startup fees, to offshore companies which set up computer servers on the Alexander reserve’s new data centre.
The chief of the Enoch Cree Nation, which has longtime cultural links to Alexander, said the region’s aboriginal people organized wagering games long before contact with European colonizers.
Law professor Moe Litman of the University of Alberta acknowledged the possibility that Alexander could succeed where other bands have failed in getting courts to view gaming as an inherent aboriginal right.
“But the technicalities of doing that make it a very, very uphill battle,” said Litman, an expert in aboriginal self-government law. “You have to essentially prove that … it’s the kind of activity that was an integral part of pre-contact culture. It’s a pretty difficult thing to do.”
Litman suggested a band would likely have to find documentary evidence of the activities and their cultural importance, such as explorers’ journal entries, oral tradition and other documentary proof.
Meanwhile, Alberta Justice is working with the AGLC on the Alexander band investigation, ministry spokesman David Dear said.
Last March, the AGLC’s Gaming Investigation Team raided and shut down an illegal gambling house in Edmonton and charged 12 people under the Criminal Code. In a news release announcing the shutdown, the director of investigations said such illegal operations take money away from the charities that benefit from legitimate gambling.
Source: Edmonton Journal

The government agency that regulates gambling in Alberta is deciding whether it should get into the game.
Global TV reports the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission is considering creating websites for people to play poker, blackjack or to bet on sports online.
The commission has ordered two polls to gauge how Albertans feel about the idea.
Marilyn Carlyle-Helms, spokeswoman for the commission, says they’re in the early stages of player research.
She says they’re “moving slow and steady” on the idea.
But Liberal member of legislature Laurie Blakeman called the concept “one of the dumber ideas” conceived by the Conservative government.
“Internet gambling — nobody’s been able to control it, or regulate it, or even follow it properly,” she said.
Source: Edmonton Journal

The FBI has frozen funds held in customer accounts at Neteller, the “virtual wallet” payment processor, as part of its case against the firm’s two Canadian founders who were last month arrested and charged with racketeering and money laundering.
Neteller refused to disclose how much had been frozen but company filings make clear huge sums were flowing between its United States customers’ “e-wallets” and online merchants — particularly gambling websites — up until the firm was pressured to close its US operations in the wake of last month’s arrests. Over a six-month period last year the company processed transactions worth $5,1-billion, with about 85% involving US customers.
Less than three weeks ago, Neteller said in a statement to the stock exchange: “The funds of US resident customers are held in segregated trust accounts and are fully secure and will be available for withdrawal by customers on demand.”
Since then, advice on the group’s website makes clear customer withdrawals have now been blocked. “As a top priority, we are working to resolve all withdrawal issues but in the meantime we continue to maintain these funds in trust on your behalf,” customers are told. “Please check this page regularly for more updates.”
The US Congress passed tough anti-gambling laws last October but several rogue operators based in off-shore tax havens have continued to target US punters, flouting the new legislation. They relied heavily on Neteller.
In the past five years, Neteller came to dominate gambling transactions in the US because its e-wallets allowed users to get around credit card blocks on gambling sites. Following the arrests of founders Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre, who face up to 20 years in jail if convicted, the decision was quickly taken to shut down US operations. Trading in the company’s shares was also suspended and remains so.
The FBI claim JSL Systems, a US-based payment company owned by Lefebvre, received customer funds in the US for Neteller and then transferred them to accounts held by a Neteller company in Canada. Last month Neteller told the Guardian that wagered money no longer passed through JSL.
It is unclear whether the FBI will treat some or all of the funds as proceeds of illegal gambling. One US newspaper report cited Neil Donovan, an FBI agent, saying the funds were being held in court as potential evidence. Some money may be returned to Neteller customers but no timescale was forthcoming, the report said. A spokesperson for the Department of Justice on Monday night refused to confirm details in the report, as did Neteller.
Source: Mail & Guardian

The chips are down for principals in online gambling operations, and the cyberspace scenario is probably going to get worse. That’s because federal officials, already incensed over billions in gambling revenues leaving the U.S., are trying to link Web gambling to terrorism.
“The reason why a lot of land-based casinos have backed away from the Internet and offshore enterprises is because of the Patriot Act,” said Saverio Scheri of WhiteSand Consulting. “Investigators believe some of that money is being laundered and is ending up in the hands of terrorist groups.”
SOUND FARFETCHED? CONSIDER:
The prosecutor leading the charge against online operations is David Litterick, 45, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who has built a reputation as an expert in terrorism. He prosecuted some of the terrorists involved in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. His prosecutions of the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania earned him death threats, as well as a position at the Department of Homeland Security.
All U.S.-based casinos with annual gambling revenue of more than $1 million are classified as “financial institutions” by the Patriot Act and subject to strict government regulations, including adopting money-laundering programs, identifying the identity of foreign nationals and filing a Suspicious Activities Report to the Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Online operations skirt all these rules.
Law enforcement has arrested several principals of online gaming companies’ subsidiary operations in recent weeks. On Jan. 15, federal agents arrested Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre, former directors and founding shareholders of Neteller. Their company is a publicly traded Internet-payment processor used by many online gambling sites, one of which continued serving American players after passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. BusinessWeek magazine estimates Neteller made nearly $850 million in fees during the first half of 2006 — the bulk of it from American bettors.
The U.S. is seeking the extradition of Gary Kaplan from Costa Rica. Kaplan is the former owner of BETonSPORTS, which has ceased taking sports bets from Americans. David Carruthers, former CEO of the company, was arrested in the Dallas last July and is currently under house arrest at a hotel in St. Louis, awaiting trial. Carruthers, a food connoisseur and wine expert, appeared in court in leg irons.
Last week, subpoenas were issued to at least four Wall Street investment banks to hand over details of their dealings with online gambling companies. The firms reportedly are HSBC, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Kleinwort, which have underwritten public offerings of some of the most popular and profitable online gambling sites, and have offices in London, a city that is the fundraising center of the online gaming industry. Shares in European online gambling companies, which already had been hit hard in recent months, fell as much as 14 percent after news of the subpoenas broke.
SCARE TACTICS
“There certainly have been a lot of scare tactics but they’re working,” said Sue Schneider, president of River City Group, which monitors the online gambling industry. Schneider says federal investigators are trying to link online gaming operations to terrorist groups.
“They’ve been saying that since 9/11,” Schneider continued. “At some point it gets to be ridiculous and, more probably than not, what they’ll do is drive the business underground.”
One who agrees is Anthony Cabot, a Vegas-based attorney who specializes in Internet-gambling law. “After a while, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and frighteningly similar to Prohibition,” Cabot said. “By forcing them underground, you increase the potential for less-reputable sites.”
Another gaming expert, who asked to remain anonymous, was more succinct: “(Terrorism is) a smokescreen thrown up by the right-wing Christian lunatics in the government who want to control every facet of human behavior from birth to death. As far as I know, there isn’t a scintilla of evidence there’s any link between online sites and terrorist groups.
“With the new legislation, though that is ironically more likely to occur,” the source continued, “since Russian mobsters and others are likely to see unregulated, rogue sites as a way to raise untaxed money.”
REGULATION & TAXATION
It’s hardly news to Cabot that investigators believe there is a link between online gambling sites and terrorist groups. “This argument has come up before,” he said. “There are probably 2,000 online gaming sites. Can you say that all of those have no relationship whatsoever to terrorism? No, but what you can say is that the larger companies operating out of the United Kingdom are completely transparent. They have public shareholders and dividends, and audited financial statements.”
Allyn Shulman, corporate counsel at Card Player magazine, added, “to specifically link terrorism to online gaming is disingenuous.” She believes that, rather than prosecute operators of online gambling operations, the federal government should investigate how to regulate and tax the industry.
“This is just another example of the benefit of regulating and taxing online gaming, as they do in Antigua, where the online gaming companies must open their books to independent auditors who report back to the government,” Shulman said.
But other industry observers note it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen … at least not in the immediate future.
“You would think that officials would look at (the potential for tax revenue),” Schneider said. “This is an industry that has been advocating regulation and it would not be averse to some sort of tax structure. But this isn’t about regulation and taxation. It’s about control and (being) anti-gambling.”
http://www.lvbusinesspress.com/articles/2007/02/05/news/iq_12303811.txt

It’s a tough call, sports fans.
Will Peyton Manning complete two more passes in the Super Bowl than Zydrunas Ilgauskas’ combined points and rebounds during today’s Cavaliers game against the Detroit Pistons?
Or will Tiger Woods’ fourth-round score in the Dubai Desert Classic be higher than Bernard Berrian’s total receiving yards?
Welcome to Super Bowl Sunday, the biggest day of the year in sports and sports betting. Counting so-called “proposition” bets like the two mentioned above, there are more than 300 different wagers being offered for this year’s big game – the Indianapolis Colts against the Chicago Bears in Miami’s Orange Bowl. You can bet on how long it will take Billy Joel to sing the national anthem, the outcome of the pregame coin flip and an array of individual and team performances.
It’s no wonder folks who normally wouldn’t bet on whether a traffic light will change from red to green will gamble on the Super Bowl.
“For the professional bettor, it’s just another game,” said Las Vegas-based gambler Andy Iskoe.
“For the public at large, it’s the only game they’ll bet all year,” Iskoe said. “It’s sort of like an excuse for a New Year’s Eve party a month later.”
Nevada sports books are expected to accept more than $100 million in wagers for this year’s Super Bowl, topping last year’s record handle of $94.5 million. Worldwide, between legal sports books, offshore Internet gambling sites, hometown bookies and office pools, Super Bowl wagering is estimated at more than $1 billion.
“Punters” in Ireland and the United Kingdom are expected to bet $16 million on the Super Bowl at Paddy Power Plc’s 250 betting shops.
“It’s our biggest American sport of the year,” said Paddy Power spokesman Darren Haines. “For an event that takes place in the middle of the night here, that’s quite exceptional.”
Early last week, about 80 percent of Paddy Power bettors had put their money on the Bears, a seven-point underdog.
“People who know more about it than me think they’ve seen enough in Chicago that they can pull off an upset,” Haines said.
Five thousand miles away in Las Vegas, professional sports gamblers also think the Bears taking the points is a smart bet.
“I like the Bears’ defense more than the Indianapolis offense,” said John Kelly, who hosts a weekly radio show devoted to sports gambling. “With the seven-point head start, I think you’re obligated to take the underdog.”
(The point spread is not a prediction of a game’s outcome. Instead, it is a number that sports books hope will split wagering evenly between the two sides, minimizing their risk.)
Kelly said oddsmakers are acutely aware of professional bettors during the NFL’s regular season when setting point spreads and other odds. But Super Bowl betting lines are made with the general public in mind because casual bettors are much more likely to pick the favorite.
Jay Kornegay, executive direc tor of the race and sports book at the Las Vegas Hilton, said the Colts would be favored by only 4 or 4½ points if the game were played at a neutral site during the middle of the season.
“There’s no doubt the Colts are the better team,” Kornegay said. “But I don’t know whether they are going to win.”
By the middle of last week, most bettors at the Hilton also were putting their money on the Bears, Kornegay said. He expects – and hopes – that Colts money will pour in this weekend.
(For what it’s worth, the team picked by oddsmakers as the favorite in the previous 16 Super Bowls has “covered” the point spread 11 times. The favorite failed to cover three times, and twice the game resulted in a “push” – a tie on the point spread that resulted in bettors getting their money back.)
Steve Fezzik, who runs a Las Vegas-based sports betting syndi cate, also thinks the Bears will “cover” – lose by fewer than seven points. But the Dayton native thinks the real value is in the proposition bets.
Fezzik – a pseudonym he uses to protect his identity – said he’ll have as many as 100 wagers on the game. Oddsmakers often treat proposition bets as a “nuisance,” which can lead to mistakes that sharp players love to exploit, he said.
“There are a lot of proposition bets that have a lot of value if you’re a savvy pro and know what you’re doing,” Fezzik said.
One of those proposition bets Fezzik said he always makes is whether there will be overtime. There has never been overtime in the previous 40 Super Bowls played. (You would have to bet $1,200 at one online sports book to win $100 on a no-overtime wager.)
“I know one of these years I’m going to get burned,” Fezzik said.
Just in case you’re interested, Ilgauskas, the Cavs center, is averaging a combined 20 points and rebounds a game this season; Manning is averaging 22 completions a game.
Good luck. Chances are you’re going to need it.
Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer

Nevada basketball fans will bet on their 15th-ranked Wolf Pack against just about anybody, but they won’t get a chance this weekend to pit their star players against the Chicago Bears.
At the request of school officials citing NCAA rules, a Reno casino discontinued a wagering proposition Wednesday on who would score more points – Nevada star forward Nick Fazekas in Saturday night’s game against Hawaii, or the Bears in Sunday’s Super Bowl against Indianapolis.
Wacky Super Bowl propositions are a way of life at Nevada sportsbooks, which raked in a record $94.5 million from last year’s big game. Among this year’s props:
• Colts quarterback Peyton Manning’s total passing yards vs. Phil Mickelson’s four-round total at the FBR Open in Scottsdale, Ariz., where even par is 284.
• The Colts’ total score vs. Lebron James’ total points in the Cavaliers NBA game against the Pistons on Sunday.
• The Bears’ total touchdowns vs. goals scored in Sunday’s English Premier League soccer game between Manchester United and Tottenham.
The Club Cal Neva Hotel-Casino decided to add a bit of local flavor to the pot by adding wagers involving the Wolf Pack, who were 19-2 entering Wednesday night’s game at Louisiana Tech.
In addition to Fazekas, who is averaging 20.2 points per game, they offered a bet on whether the Bears and Colts combined would score more in the first half than Wolf Pack sharpshooter Marcelus Kemp, or whether guard Kyle Shiloh would have more assists than the number of field goals made on Sunday.
The problem is, NCAA rules prohibit the use of student athletes to promote a business in any way, shape or form.
“They were just trying to generate some local interest and had no idea that what they were doing was a violation of NCAA policy,” said Jean Perry, the school’s special assistant to the president for athletics, academics and compliance.
“As soon as it was brought to their attention, they immediately withdrew the bets,” she said Wednesday.
Perry said she already has reported the situation to the Western Athletic Conference and was preparing a formal report for the NCAA.
“In a nutshell, the NCAA bylaws say you can’t use a student athlete’s name or picture without his or her consent and you can’t use it in any commercial way,” she said.
“If we as an institution finds out someone has done that, we have the burden of asking them to stop that, which is what we did.”
The Reno Gazette-Journal first reported the wagers on its Web site Tuesday afternoon, which is where university officials first learned of it.
It was not immediately clear whether bets made prior to Wednesday would be honored or if gamblers would receive a refund. Cal Neva officials did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Sportsbook manager Tony DiTommaso told the newspaper on Tuesday that he “wanted to do some more of the local stuff.”
“One of the things I wanted to do this year was capitalize on UNR,” he said.
Perry doesn’t expect the incident to result in any penalties against the school.
“This is a thing that was not instituted by us.
The student athletes that were involved had no idea about it,” she said.
Source: North Lake Tahoe Bonanza