Despite illegal gambling being illegal in the US, more often than not many clients have engaged in the circus which they find it as a way to earn a living. However, this is done in hidden places where no arm of government can reach. Nonetheless, day in day out, the police and other state agencies have been working hard in attempt to eradicate illegal betting.

Police in Grad Rapid West Side conducted a raid in one of its bars and were lucky to arrest three illegal bettors. The raid was conducted at Putt-Putt’s Bar on W. Fulton Street near Garfield Avenue and came after search warrants were issued by the court in both the bar and the owner’s homestead. The initial two were arrested as they tried to flee and would be subjected to face the law. The third person is under investigation of his involvement and is expected to be charged too.

Reports from the Grand Rapids Police Department that were released on Monday claimed that the two who were to be charged instantly; Barry Lott aged 66 and Mark Stouten aged 73 were to face the law with the violation of the following; schemes to involve themselves with illegal betting that would attract a sentence of five years as it is considered a felony, betting via the acquisition of bets which is a misdemeanor that would attract a one year sentence, further one year penalty for being in possession of betting gears and lastly an year in prison for the act of selling pools and registering bets.

This is not the first time that Stouten has found himself colliding with legal agencies as he was once charged with the acts of conducting unlawful betting back in 1974. On the other hand, his compatriot Lott is a professional court processor and has worked in various courts in West Virginia. However, his arrest and investigations seems to have cost him his job as some courts have decided to drop him out of their pay rolls.

The two suspects; Lott and Stouten were released on $10,000 bail and were expected to stand before the court on the 3^rd on September for the initial hearing. The other third suspect who emerged in the course of the investigation is expected to appear at the police station and this is when his name shall be revealed to the public.

After filling an opinion to the EU Court of Justice on the 8^th of July 2014, involving the companionability of the Council of Europe Convention on the Exploitation of Sports Competitions with the EU Treaties, Malta has revisited the claim and has decided to as the court to eradicate it. This comes after Malta claimed that it had submitted this court request so that they can be made understand if “illegal betting” was reliable with the main aims of the Treaty. Malta had argued that the clear definition of “illegal sports betting” was deemed to go as far as conventional capacity and would not indulge in the match fixing brawl.

According to parliamentary secretary for competitiveness José Herrera, the point of view on the Convention of Malta will be open and unmovable. Malta has been on the fore front in the support of this main aim of Convention that will be vital in the prevention of any competitive sport exploitation. Furthermore Malta is currently undertaking an implementation that will see the execution of harsh rules that would eradicate fraud as well as sports exploitation.

Herrera continued to note that it has been of great concern for Malta to have it understand the clear elaboration of ‘illegal sports betting” which it believes that it has been seen to surpass the vastness of the Convention but it is not in any way involved in the eradication of match fixing. This prompted Malta to table in several proposals that would see the Conventional changed in some clauses.

However, the committee in charge rejected these schemes and Malta opted to disband and reject the implementation of the Convention. This was followed by the refusal of putting a signature on the initiation of the Convention in September 2014.

He concluded by saying that the current affairs which were followed by a deeper go through of the legislative proposal, Malta decided to believe that there will be other open chances that would be more readily available. As per now, Malta has decided to drop the request and indulge in internal state affairs which would be achieved via a comprehensive dialogue with the European top level which it believed would never renounce its rights as well as its privileges.

South Australian senator has been on the front line in fighting the illegal online sports betting as many shares his view and claim that credit by sports betting firms to clients should be abolished, there should be incorporation of tighter laws and existence of a national self-exclusion register.
Senator Nick claimed that many clients have been targeted as preys to these betting firms that give betting credit which is used as a hook to uninformed clients. The released Monday report referred to as the “Duds, Mugs and the A-List” claimed that for the better betting in Australia, credit extension by online betting companies to bettors should be abolished.
According to the Financial Counselling Australian Policy manager Lauren Kevin, the sport betting firms should be prohibited from according clients with credits and later in six weeks time sue them at the courts. This will be accompanied by the inclusion of tighter betting rules that would oversee successful betting as well as the incorporation of a national exclusion register. The wagering companies should also restrain from sharing personal information for its clients from one company to another. This comes as a result of client being manipulated and enticed by another betting firm in resuming betting after he becomes a cold bettor.
The Australian Wagering Council (AWC) who corresponds to Unibet, William Hill Group, Sportsbet, Bet365 as well as Betfair claimed that it would support the national credit register but opposed the abolishment of the credit arguing that it is not evident clear if sports betting have been the main reason that people are becoming problematic to their lives due to betting.
These betting firms have the tendency of incorporating credits to their clients and have subsidiaries everywhere in Australia. For instance, William Hill has its subsidiaries such as Tom Waterhouse, Centrebet and Sportingbet. On the other hand, CrownBet comes from its former brand BetEasy which is under the managerial hierarchy of James Packer’s Crown Resorts. UK based Ladbrokes has several subsidiaries among them Ubet and TabCorp. All these firms have been chasing bettor’s dollar day in day out and when ones runs out of money, he is accorded with credit for redemption which in essence will only inflict more harm and stress on him.
However, states in Australia should take up the initiative of banning credit offers by these firms and follow the footsteps of Victoria State.

Three bookies banks accounts where frozen in Ahmedabad by the Ahmedabad Unit of Enforcement Directorate. This happened in the past week after the bookies who own these bank accounts where involved in a cricket betting scandal. They are said to be involved in the international cricket betting racket that is termed as the Rs 2,600 crore.

The crackdown began in major Indian towns and started from Mumbai, Bhopal, Delhi and Indore where the officials had some banks accounts related to the scandal shut down and frozen. Some of the names tied to the frozen accounts include Ashish Grover, Paresh Bhatia and Aman Kapur. They were arrested from different towns where Grover was arrested from Delhi alongside Kapur while in Mumbai the officials and authorities made the arrest of Bhatia. All this events and arrests happened on Wednesday. The bank accounts where being frozen and not only those that are tied to the public sector but also those that are on the private sector as well.

All the three bookies that where tied to this cricket betting scandal where on Monday sent into Judicial custody by the PMLA a special court that is directed to dealing to such and related cases. There are also other pending cases as Sanjay Agarwal from Nagpur who is better known as Chhotu Nagpur and Muneer who is from Mumbai received summons for them to appear before the ED on Monday but of which both of them turn down this down.

Since the start of the crackdown a total of ten bookies have been arrested pertaining the case that was unveiled by ED Ahmedabad. The case started in March during the cricket world cup. The ED Ahmedabad has made progress in unveiling the bookies tied to this case and so far they have been able to recover eight mobile phones, two laptops, Rs 60 lakh in cashand also documents in Priyadarshini Vihar in Delhi the residence of Kapur. From Grover’s residence, five mobile phones where recovered in Prashant Vihar. This shows a great effort by the authorities to bring down such cases.

Widjaja is a former betting trader and is known to have hacked Singapore Pools about $200,000. He did this by coming up with a conspiracy with his colleague in manipulating football odds. Yesterday he received a jail term of 4 years.

Rocky Widjaja is 26 years and agreed to 13 out of 52 counts of cheating with Thomas Tong Heng Huat who is 32 years for the use of a computer to gain access a programme known as Margin Maker 2 (MM2); this was used to cheat the Singapore Pools.

Toh Yung Cheong who was the judge to the case denied the permanent citizen to Singapore cash-bailout. The case has a pending appeal against ruling. At the same time, the court learnt that in August 2011, the two colleagues had intentions of cheating their employer through the use of the software to control the odds of the “total goals: over/under”. They intended to do this on the different leagues and football matches in international leagues.

This plan would be implemented by either of the man who on the trading rooms in Singapore Pools’ headquarter was on the shift at the time of implementation. The man who would be off shift would place their bet and his conspirator would accept the bet, before they lowered the odds a couple of minutes after.

The actions would be coordinated and a sure win would be guaranteed for them and a sure loss for the Singapore Pools. The tickets that won the bet would be claimed at different pools outlets.

The scheme went on for a long time before being unravelled until January 20^th, 2012. This is when it was realized that Widjaja had gone against the staff regulations through his the bets that he placed in the outlets. The bets were between $12,000 and $38,000 and the winning would be as much as $44,000.

When Ricky’s actions were discovered, he erased his texts and a Microsoft spreadsheet that contained details to the offences. His lawyer made an impassioned plea for the pre-sentence report. She reported that her client had made a full restitution for all the money he took together with Thong’s share. Thong is currently serving a 5year-4months jail term for similar offences.