Legal Online Gambling Could Return To the US (digitaltrends.com) 103
A new report says legal online gambling may be coming back to the U.S., not from an casino magnate such as Steve Wynn or Sheldon Adelson, but rather a headphone industry executive. From a report: Now Monster, the same company that turned the headphone industry upside down with Dr. Dre, plans to revive online gambling in America by enlisting someone with a different kind of notoriety: Fred Khalilian. He's a former telemarketing kingpin, wannabe reality TV personality, two-time FTC loser -- and now, the new COO of Monster. He plans to open the company's gambling site, PokerTribe.com, on or before December 15. And he might just make the company billions. So he might also be a genius. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Gambling is illegal, right? Sort of. How will a headphone maker succeed in online gambling where Trump, Branson, and others have failed? "The roadmap is unbelievable, fraught with laws, certifications, international law, gaming commissions, all that stuff. Very, very complex," Monster CEO Noel Lee exclusively told Digital Trends. "But [Fred] has overcome. He's found his niche, he's worked his way through the government, through the Federal Trade Commission, through all of that, with a strategy that's built around the American Indians."
Misread title... (Score:1)
other monster the one with over priced cables (Score:5, Informative)
other monster the one with over priced cables
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Sometimes Monster is overpriced, and sometimes Monster is less overpriced than the alternative. When I bought a Wii console a decade ago, Monster's component cable was $25 and Nintendo's was $35.
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I can get you a component cable for a tenth that cost though.
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monoprice.com ?
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For one thing, the $2.50 cable wasn't in U.S. electronics showroom chains at the time. For another, would the $2.50 cable have sturdy connectors on both the proprietary end (connected to the console) and the 5xRCA end (connected to the TV)?
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Often. I've been able to buy cables that clearly came from the same factory as Monster cables for 10-20% with the price, just without the logo. What you want to avoid is the cheapest cable.
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Or energy drinks.
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You're not wrong. The other Monster might want to sue for Trademark infringement if Monster starts offering money-making opportunities on the Internet.
Tell me, what side am I on here? (Score:3)
On one hand, why not?
On the other hand, do I want to side with someone who is "a former telemarketing kingpin, wannabe reality TV personality, two-time FTC loser"?
I feel kinda reminded of the whole "MAFIAA vs. Kimmie Dotcom" deal. There, I just wanted both sides to lose. Here, I wouldn't mind legalized gambling, but at the price of having such a slimeball getting his way?
Re:Tell me, what side am I on here? (Score:5, Interesting)
I think it's safe to be against the pro-gambling this time around. Not only because it's gambling we're talking about and we all know how bad humans are at figuring odds, but they're also hinting in the blurb that it involves further exploiting the already exploited.
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Not only because it's gambling we're talking about and we all know how bad humans are at figuring odds,
Some are, some aren't. Some are good enough that they succeed as full-time professionals. Some are so bad that they might as well just toss the money on the table and walk away. But it is entertainment, and those who want to do it should be allowed.
Some people are terrible at controlling their consumption of alcohol. Do we ban alcohol to protect them from themselves, meanwhile denying it to those who have no problem? Been there, done that, failed.
but they're also hinting in the blurb that it involves further exploiting the already exploited.
I don't see that in "the blurb". Where is the exploitation?
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Not so sure its about 'exploiting' the American Indians, I expect they will be using a similar loophole to what all the IP companies are doing with assigning their crappy patents to some tribe to avoid IPR fast-track reviews. Then have a revenue share, so they extort other companies being patent trolls, the victims can't resolve the issue quickly, and the 'sovereign' tribes get millions of dollars for their help in doing an end run around the law.
Imho either get rid of their sovereign immunity, or have them
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Pick the side whose principles you believe in. Don't worry about who else is on your side - it simply doesn't matter. I believe in free speech so I defend it, even though it sometimes puts me on the same side as Nazi sympathizers. MAFIAA vs Kim Dotcom was easy because there were long-established rules for forei
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It's not a matter of popularity, more one of consciousness.
I'm in favor of allowing people to do what they want to do, including gambling. I just don't feel that someone like THIS should run it.
Overwatch Loot Boxes (Score:1)
'nuff said
likely to be a state by state thing and WI and oth (Score:2)
likely to be a state by state thing and WI and others may give them a had time.
The Simpsons (Score:1)
Smithers: Sir, you haven't slept since the casino opened five days ago.
Mr. Burns: Yeah, well, I've discovered the perfect business: people swarm in, empty their pockets, and scuttle off.
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I think the statement is indicative of what sort of people we are dealing with here. As if we didn't already know what sort of people sell $27,000 cables. Now they've hired some sort of carnival barker as their COO? What a shitshow.
Apache called themselves Indians before Euros came (Score:4, Informative)
The Apache word for "people" is Ndee, sounding roughly like "in-day". It resembles Diné in closely related Navajo and similar words in other Athabaskan languages. It's not a big leap from there to "Indian".
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It wasn't that people thought the world was flat at the time, it was that Columbus thought the globe was a lot smaller than everyone else thought it was, and hence he thought there may be a more efficient westward route to India. I don't know if he really thought he'd reached India when he got to America though.
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If you want to be sensitive about it ...
If you want to be sensitive, perhaps you should use the term that they prefer. A poll by the Census Bureau found that a plurality prefer "American Indian" over "Native American".
Disclaimer: I am a Scottish-Irish-Dutch-Bavarian-French-Cherokee-??? American. My Y chromosome is Scottish. My mitochondrial DNA is Dutch.
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every bit as diverse and rich as in Europe, and refer to each by name.
We call the diverse peoples of Europe "Europeans," don't we? It's perfectly fine to have a blanket term of some sort, even if you don't like the current one.
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We call the diverse peoples of Europe "Europeans," don't we? It's perfectly fine to have a blanket term of some sort,
And consider the term "Americans", which covers more geographic area and peoples than "Europeans" does.
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And consider "People of Earth" which covers an even broader geographic area.
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I think the larger point is, the fact that Columbus got it wrong doesn't make the name derogatory, only technically incorrect, just like calling a Nintendo cartridge a "tape".
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I think the larger point is, the fact that Columbus got it wrong doesn't make the name derogatory, only technically incorrect, just like calling a Nintendo cartridge a "tape".
Definitely. But I'm somewhat offended by this entire pair of continents being named after an Italian cartographer.
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But I'm somewhat offended by this entire pair of continents being named after an Italian cartographer.
Well, imagine being a call center employee who wakes up every morning in a country that is named after the natives of a continent in the opposite hemisphere. And you can't have a Big Mac for lunch because the cows are your dead Uncle Fred. That's got to suck, huh?
Quick Disk (Score:2)
the fact that Columbus got it wrong doesn't make the name derogatory, only technically incorrect, just like calling a Nintendo cartridge a "tape".
You're right. NES Game Paks aren't tapes; FDS disks are. The Mitsumi Quick Disk mechanism treats the spiral track on each side of a disk as a single rewindable stream of magnetic media.
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If you want to be sensitive about it, we would recognize that there was a network of tribes every bit as diverse and rich as in Europe, and refer to each by name.
That systematically slaughtered each other over land and power. Or are we glossing over that fact now?
What part of "every bit as diverse and rich as in Europe" was confusing?
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I think it's talking about the football team. But the "pathway to success" here makes no more sense than a bunch of buzzwords. There is no way in hell that legislation will change in less than a decade to let this all through. Just opening a case with the FTC will take that long.
American Indians = People from India in US? (Score:2)
Yeah, 'Indian' is culturally insensitive, but I don't know if it falls into the 'racist' category. Racism the act of claiming that one race is superior or inferior to another. I don't really
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It is racist towards real Indians. Their name has been misappropriated. How do you think a young boy of Indian origin feels when he sees the word Indians used to describe games like Cowboys and Indians?
Re: ayy (Score:2)
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The difference is "indian" is objectively wrong, whereas "native american" has some semblance of correctness depending on your definition of "native".
There is no fallacious premise that has to be assumed when using the word "native" to refer to indigenous people. Native is quite literally synonymous to aboriginal in this context (i.e., colonization, not citizenship).
I'm sure you'll have other examples of things people refer to incorrectly like "tin foil". The difference is that it's not beyond reasonable
"But Fred has overcome" (Score:1)
Well, with his track record, it isn't so much that he has "overcome", it is that he has ignored the law.
Puff Piece (Score:2)
Which Monster? (Score:2)
Is this the Monster of Monster Cables infamy?
That'll go well.
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Is this the Monster of Monster Cables infamy?
That'll go well.
Yes, it is... It's not the monster of monster.com, or the monster of monster fish keepers https://www.monsterfishkeepers... [monsterfishkeepers.com] , or the monster of monster energy drinks. Heck it's not even the monster of "there's a monster at the end of this book".
Faking it with financial derivatives (Score:2)
I've always wondered if you could somehow structure some kind of super-short-term set of futures contracts that would roughly approximate a roulette wheel. Instead of placing a bet you'd simply buy a futures contract that would either pay out handsomely or return absolutely nothing a few minutes later.
Add some pretty animations to show which contract was successful and the whole thing could look like a roulette wheel while you are really just trading some kind of derivative.
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They are not legally skirting anything, they are sovereign nations (although on US soil) and the state cannot regulate them. They are free to do whatever, do not have to pay taxes and have their own legal systems. You can see a 'true' map of the US here: https://nativeheritageproject.... [wordpress.com]
Also makes you shudder when you think that USCS and DHS have designated 100 miles away from every border a constitution-free zone.
I thought we already had legal online gambling (Score:2)
btw - What are the odds that Trump wants a piece of this action?
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Its just that they call it by another name, "The Stock Market". The best part is its not even rigged in favor of the house!
In poker, the money is mostly traded between the players. The losers pay the winner. The house takes a rake on each pot to pay for the dealer and facilities, and usually the small blind to pay for jackpots.
Compare this to the stock market where the losers pay the winners, and the trading house takes a rake, I mean "sales fee", on each sale. I'd say that the stock market is rigged for the house to the same extent that poker is.
btw - What are the odds that Trump wants a piece of this action?
Zero. But nice try at making this a Trump rant.
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The problem with the analogy is Goldman-Sachs - where parasites like that are involved it's more like slots than poker. Fortunately, that's not every market.
Legalized gambling... Yay! (Score:3)
Government sanctioned gambling -- the ultimate tax on the poor, who have such high hopes that by throwing what little money they have at high-risk lotteries, casinos and now online gambling, they can someday see all their financial troubles vanish in the blink of an eye.
The great thing about lotteries and casinos is that the government can capture significant revenue from the poor and lower middle class without having to raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for stuff like, you know, schools and roads.
It's an awesome scheme to keep the wealthy in good standing while sucking the last ounce of blood like a vampire from those who can least afford to lose a drop.
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You're right. Why didn't I think of that?
We should just legalize other things that tend to affect the poor far greater than the rich, like drugs. Cause, you know, the poor are exactly the same as the rich; they have all the same educational and career opportunities and social privileges as the middle and upper-class... they just have less money. /s
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Government sanctioned gambling -- the ultimate tax on the poor,
Other than the fact that taxes are involuntary contributions and gambling is not, you're right. You have a hard time avoiding income taxes except by foregoing income. You can trivially avoid gambling losses. For the latter, you have lost essentially nothing by giving up gambling because you were losing anyway. If you are a winner then it isn't a tax, it's income.
The great thing about lotteries and casinos is that the government can capture significant revenue from the poor and lower middle class without having to raise taxes on the wealthy
The great thing about lotteries and casinos is that the government can capture significant revenue from people who want to give away their money in
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I think you need to be a NJ resident though...
Former telemarketing kingpin, reality TV star (Score:2, Funny)
No Credit Cards, no online gambling (Score:5, Interesting)
Even if they try to do a legal run around based on tribal sovereignty, the simple fact remains that it's against Federal law for credit card companies to do business with casinos. This is what originally killed the American online gambling industry. (And while I think that basic goal was short sighted, it is what it is.)
Credit card companies care a lot more about pissing off the Feds than they do about doing business with what they admit is a shady, untested casino scheme. The money is good, I'm sure, but the legal theory would have to be rock-solid to convince them that they're not going to just burn through it all in legal fees and penalties.
It would actually be easier to go to President Trump -- literally the most sympathetic possible person for this cause -- and bitch about how all those casino dollars are going off-shore to GoldenPalace.com, and get him to put a pet bill through a Republican-controlled Congress.
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True, but Bitcoin is nearing mainstream enough to possibly offer a path around that...
Digital Pachinko (Score:3)
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But legalize pot in a state like Colorado and then CCs are perfectly fine.
Except that's not even true. Sellers in CO aren't even allowed to have bank accounts [cnbc.com].
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That is because pot hasn't actually been properly legalised, some states have "legalised" it but it's still a violation of federal law and while the feds are currently turning a blind eye they could change their stance on that at any time.
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the simple fact remains that it's against Federal law for credit card companies to do business with casinos.
Citation required. I find a lot of online information saying that some casinos won't accept credit cards for chips, and that some credit card companies won't deal with casinos for the same thing, but no federal law that prohibits credit card companies from dealing with casinos. In fact, the local casino is quite happy to accept credit cards for various things other than gambling chips.
If you are referring to Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), then you need to consider that this act deals w
Good news for my retirement (Score:2)
Yikes... (Score:1)
Redskin trumps Orangeskin (Score:2)
They'll lose their Indianity license.
casino's, racetracks's, state lotteries, et al (Score:2)
of course the organization against legalizing sports gambling nationwide (in the United States) tends to come from casino's and other gambling institutions - so obviously just because people are in favor of something doesn't mean it is going to happen ...
Yeah, obviously (Score:2)
Dre owns Beats (Score:2)
Re: Dre owns Beats (Score:2)