Posts Tagged ‘sports betting’

November 17, 2008

NCAA: Online Poker Perfectly Legal and Dandy

Not the same as sports betting

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Nick Calathes lost lots of money playing online poker because he just couldn’t lay down his beloved pocket 3s.

Online poker found itself in another brouhaha in the non-poker press last week — in Florida, where UF’s star point guard Nick Calathes (and prospective NBA first-round draft pick) was under investigation for NCAA violations over a $600 gambling debt. The investigation found he did indeed lose money playing online poker, but the NCAA only penalizes athletes who gamble on sports … or commit criminal acts. So Calathes is in the clear, and online poker, by the transitive property, is declared an acceptable recreational activity fully within the law. Yay-win! Go team.

It probably didn’t help, however, that one of the dudes hosting basketballer home games was a former walk-on who previously had been busted for allegedly hooking up the team and others with weed. (Though a friend with weed is a friend indeed…) probably not the kinda guy you want handling money transfers online.

An online-casino-biz response to situation and the suggestion on how his industry needs to work openly with the NCAA.

Alligator Army laments the nonsense online poker hubbub distracting them from the b-ball at hand.

Posted by DanM at 12:33 am

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October 21, 2008

Who Knew I Was So Good at Point-Spreadless Football?

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Some of you may find this hard to believe, but I’ve never placed a sports bet in a casino. Horse racing, yes … but football, baseball, basketball, soccer … nope. Have come close a few times to betting on Wigan, but in the end decided to just “pretend bet” … and I went on to lose a pretend few hundred dollars. I guess it’s for the same reason I’ve never tried heroin. From what I understand, heroin feels great, but I suppose I fear I’d like it too much and/or would find my new junkie friends far more appealing than anyone I know from poker. But now I am starting to reconsider …

I play in a little free NFL pick’em league with my family each year — hosted online by the Las Vegas Review Journal with 7-Eleven gift certificates and Fatheads for prizes — and this year, seven weeks into the season, I’m kinda kicking butt.

Having correctly picked 71 of 102 winners, I’m in the top 1 percent: 21st out of 9,379 in Las Vegas, and 155th out of 131,525 nationwide.

Among the 13 people in the Michalski group, I am in first place. While I’m proud of that, you should realize that competition includes my 1-year-old nephew who always picks teams named after animals, Uncle Ray who writes in “Ditka” for every pick, and my cousin-in-law Phil the Filmmaker:

There’s also a cool little “Survivor” sidegame, where you have to pick one team that will be a certain winner each week — you get to use each team once. I’m still alive in that, too … 400 of us are in LV, and about 3,400 nationwide. I think winning that comes with some real prizes actually … man, if/when I go out in that, I know I’ll be feeling some serious withdrawal.

OK, sorry, back to poker …

Posted by DanM at 1:22 am

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February 25, 2008

Tiger Woods Betting Lines

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Charles in Fort Worth writes in wanting to know how to donk off his bankroll without chasing straights and flushes:

Hi Dan,

I have an idea for a sports bet and since you are my connection to the world of gambling I thought you could give me some help on who and how to place it.

I want to place a $500 bet on Tiger Woods breaking the record for the most majors won. He currently has 13 and needs 6 more to break the record. I want to bet $500 on him breaking the record within the next 8 and 10 majors. Who could I contact to get the odds and place the bet with. Please let me know what you can find out or where I can go to make the bet. Thanks

GoodChuck

More…

Posted by DanM at 12:56 am

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