University of Texas El Paso Boots Basketball Players for Gambling

University of Texas El Paso Boots Basketball Players for Gambling

Three UTEP Miners basketball players are suspended following allegations of illegal activities gambling

If you are a college sports fan, you almost certainly do not think much about the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) as it pertains to teams. Sure, you might have heard about UTEP, but you are not too concerned whenever your preferred team suits up to try out them, and you will not be picking them to win a nationwide championship in basketball or football anytime soon. And if their basketball team is in the news, you know it’s probably not for anything they’ve done on the court.

Three Players Accused of Betting on Games

And that is exactly true for the headlines coming out of UTEP this week. Three players were kicked off of the UTEP men’s basketball team after allegations had been made against them pertaining to gambling on sports. Those allegations eventually caused the institution to report the gambling to the FBI that is local field, and then remove the players from their team.

For those seeking similar to the 1994 Arizona State point shaving scandal, however, it does not appear that things went quite that far in this case. Based on the school, none of the three UTEP players involved are accused of shaving points or throwing games, and there’s no evidence that any of them bet on games played by UTEP. Mentor Tim Floyd said that the evidence he’s seen backs up this belief.

‘We evaluate every film after each ball game and I wasn’t dubious of any behavior they were betting on any UTEP event,’ Floyd said.

The three players involved with the wagering were McKenzie Moore, Jalen Ragland and Justin Crosgile. Moore is the absolute most prominent associated with the three: he was a 6’6′ guard who led the group in scoring at 13.1 points per game. Crosgile and Ragland were both regular parts associated with the UTEP rotation because well, with Crosgile playing 21 minutes per game and Ragland over 15 minutes each night.

Moore and Ragland were initially suspended through the team on December 28 after ‘a resident of [the UTEP] community’ provided the UTEP athletic department a tip about their alleged gambling. Crosgile’s involvement came to recently light more.

UTEP Games Not Specifically Involved

While UTEP administrator vice president Ricardo Adauto reiterated that the school understands the players were not betting on UTEP games, that won’t stop the players from dealing with some penalties that are harsh.

School officials haven’t yet said exactly what kinds of wagers the players made. But, if the allegations are accurate, each player will have to be suspended for at least a year under ncaa guidelines. Those rules that are same then need the players to reduce a 12 months of their eligibility after their suspensions end. Since all three players are in at the very least their junior year of college, that efficiently implies that their college basketball careers are over.

The school itself isn’t likely to face any penalties, and with the dismissal of the players, the school’s involvement in the case is likely over on the other hand.

 

Trinidad and Tobago Betting Shops Decry 10 Percent Betting Tax

Tale as old as time: Trinidad and Tobago’s government claims sports books are underpaying, while local businesses say fees hurt their earnings.

An dispute that is ongoing Trinidad and Tobago’s government and betting stores regarding tax percentages stems from what business owners claim is ‘hurting racing’ by simply making punters angry and causing a significant decline in wagers being put. The island nation that sits north of Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles is facing the classic battle of what the government wishes versus what the market that is actual keep.

Taxing Face Off

One local company owner on the tourist location Peter George, owner of Fairchance Racing Service in Port of Spain, the island’s capital town says his very own business is now closed because regarding the tax issues, resulting in 300 people losing their jobs. George claims his company has been siphoned so defectively over the course for the previous 36 months with all the 10 per cent tax levy on every horse racing bet, that he just made a decision to shut down.

‘We have lost in the past two to 36 months 40 per cent of our volume. We are hoping the government gets our attention and calls us and claims what exactly is the issue and what can we do to help,’ George said.

‘ The legislation that is existing not workable, it’s obsolete and no good towards the racing fraternity. The Betting Levy Board (BLB) is requesting more and more taxes from the pools and this is burdensome,’ explained George, whoever wagering shop is located on Queen Street. ‘We even get threats from the BLB, but the long and short from it is we cannot spend a lot more than we are gathering.

‘Everyone knows we need to have this legislation changed immediately,’ George added. ‘The racing pools are maybe not making the money they used to make in years gone by and in the decade that is last have seen the closure of at the very least ten swimming pools. We can’t go on aided by the ten percent turnover tax. Its harming racing.’

George says that because customers must fork within the that taxation directly at the time a bet is put then leaving the betting shops accountable for switching those into the State since it was first implemented that it has had a ‘punitive’ effect of driving customers away more and more in the decade. He added that as more options have been introduced within the last 10 years for alternative ways to place bets that don’t price customers that tax, they have just taken their company elsewhere, including to unregulated and hence ‘tax-free’ underground bookmaking operators.

These operators have actually become brazen enough to supply, trying to find new clients, George added.

‘They are entering our establishment and soliciting the no tax initiative to our clients. We want the betting shops to endure as well as the move that is illegal of the punters turnover tax must stop. It is illegal.

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‘[The customer] has the ability to complete online betting, calling anywhere in the globe and acquire a tax-free bet, [so] there is certainly no reason for him to pay 10 percent taxation on a bet,’ the frustrated betting shop owner noted. ‘ Nowhere in the global world is here a turnover tax. [Only] in the Caribbean, Jamaica, Barbados or Guyana does such a tax exist. This really is impacting negatively on the industry.’

Needless to say, George just isn’t alone in his displeasure throughout the disincentivizing levy; the Bookmakers Association in that region is pushing for the flat yearly licensing charge to replace it.

Apparently underground operators aren’t the threat that is only Trinidad and Tobago’s local sportsbooks; George noted that since 2011, betting volume in the outlets has dropped up to 40 percent due mainly to competition from area casinos, who lure punters with their slot machines.

‘They have actually free beverages and free meals to entice the punter in which he can sit and have fun with the slots for hours,’ explained George. ‘ For the industry to survive we need to meet with the national government and work out something which is amicable to all and can ensure that many more employees will be employed and not sent home.’

In 2012, the chairman that is now-former of Betting Levy Board, Kama Maharaj, advertised the recreations book industry actually took in billions, but had only paid out some $15 million in taxes. Maharaj said that figure should have been closer to $100 million.

Appears like somewhat of a standoff on the OK Corral for the time being, but also for George, the decision now rests firmly with changing the legislation that is existing be friendlier to his business.

Anti-Online Gambling Group Says Kids, Terrorists Will Be Next to Play

Often when hard and cold facts elude you, just simple ol’ fear-mongering seems like a good course to trot straight down. At least, that appears become the reasoning behind the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling (CSIG) and a recent Facebook post, depicting a young boy of perhaps 9 or 10, who is apparently immersed within an online poker game.

Kids as Future Gambling Addicts

The post ran on December 27, 2013 and stays on the Facebook web page as with this writing. Accompanying the photo operates the copy:

‘it is that kids will find ways to outsmart their parents if we have learned anything about the Internet. Gaming experts state that Internet gambling is in part intended to draw younger generation into gambling.’

Of course, they do not inform you whom these obvious harbingers of the future might be, but vagueness is the best weapon when you’re pretty much pulling ‘facts’ out of your derrière.

Not surprisingly, seasoned pro-Internet gaming groups such as the longstanding Poker Players Alliance are firing back at these posts, and others that additionally feature stories about impending terrorist operations that could infiltrate online gaming web sites, move cash around, and generally cause the end of the world as we realize it.

While we realize this is somewhat off the beaten course of hard news, we couldn’t assist but stop by the ‘Recent Posts by Others’ box and chuckle at a number of the comments. a sampling that is small your amusement, with all their unedited sentence structure and poorly conjugated thought streams:

‘wow you sure are a greedy pig . and you might be saying to want to protect kids from online gambling , What bull crap you have got a app to gamble on your own web site . therefore the Coalition against online gambling is such a joke that is bloody you are a bit of work .’

‘A gaming expert says that more folks that treat this page are against the Coalition to cease Internet Gambling and wish you would focus your amount that is massive of and obviously time to good factors instead of attempting to just take away individuals choices. This is a New Mr. Adelson use your time and money for something more productive. 12 months’

‘This site is a tale. We like to gamble but i’ve never lost any plain thing due to gambling to much. If any thing it has helped me out of some spots that are tough. It sucks that Alabama does not have a casino that is real play poker in only slots that are a guarantee lose for a lot more people. Poker is a way more game that is skill slots will ever be. Plus folks are going to gamble and spend cash .’

We need to admit, with the spending plan available to Sheldon Adelson the Las Vegas Sands CEO whose vehement stance that is anti-Internet feeling only to him and his lackeys we think the writing and talking points on these pages could be made at least a bit more believable and compelling. Perhaps next, the page may have a post claiming that all the earth’s poverty and hunger can also be attributed to online play; it would make about as much sense.

Other Billionaires Disagree

Regardless and despite Adelson’s virtually limitless budget to throw more hysteria on this problem he’s benefiting from of his own medicine with a few heavy hitters which are fighting right back. Fellow billlionaires George Soros, John Paulson and Leon Cooperman have all invested heavily in online’s success via the Caesars Entertainment subsidiary that is running the business’s WSOP-branded Internet sites.

It appears pretty apparent that CSIG is fighting a fire that’s long since turned into a blaze beyond control. With three U.S. states already legally operational and Ca a possible 4th in the future we are not sure how Adelson and his crew think they’re going to turn back the arms of time. And, in fact, the obvious irony of it all is that illegal operations are a lot more probably be subject to infiltration that is illicit legal ones that have numerous watchdog features built into the whole regulatory set up of the sites.

Add to any or all this ammo the American Gaming Association which, even as we recently reported, has taken in five heavy-hitters that are new manage to get thier message away and we’re pretty sure that won’t be to kick online gambling in the kishkes. Aside from the five we already reported on, it seems that AGA CEO Geoff Freeman has now recruited Jim Messina Obama’s 2012 campaign manager ‘to work on grassroots initiatives.’

In terms of the CSIG Facebook page which as of this writing includes a pretty paltry 960 ‘Likes’ and far more derisive remarks from site visitors than perhaps not apart from giving some just-out-school interns a work credit, we’re not totally certain what they’re trying to achieve along with it.