Recently in Gambling Category

Just got the official word that Neteller is finally releasing the money that has been stuck there since they drew the scrutiny of the US authorities. Here's the email:

Dear Brian,

The NETELLER Plc Group has announced that the distribution of funds to its US members will begin on July 30, 2007.

You are receiving this e-mail because our records reflect that you are a US member who may request funds from NETELLER. As of July 30, you will be able to make a request for funds on NETELLER’s website by signing in to your account. In the meantime, you should visit our online FAQs for more information about the distribution plan.

Please note that US members will not be able to request funds from the NETELLER website after January 26, 2008.
NETELLER Plc Group

If you didn't do it already, go get your money.

Way back last January, I mentioned the story of Salvatore Culosi, the alleged bookie who was "accidentally" shot during a SWAT team operation. After two updates last year, the story has been quiet, but now the family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

Another update on Salvatore Culosi, the alleged "bookie" who was accidentally shot by the SWAT team earlier this year. The Post had an editorial a couple of weeks back wondering why the officer was not charged at all, when other people who "accidentally" shot someone would have certainly been charged. And today, an article where the parents ask why they weren't notified until five hours after his death, supposedly depriving their son of having the last rites administered. That may be stretching a bit, but they're certainly persistent in keeping the media focus on the case. The Internal Affairs investigation is supposedly complete, but under review, so we'll see if anything else happens.

I'm with Ed and Radley on this one. I read the Post story this morning, and I still am baffled as to why the cops had their guns drawn, intentionally or not. Beware, home poker players everywhere! You could be next on the vice hit list!
Update: More information from today's Post. It's still unknown why the gun fired "accidentally," but the concensus of the supposed experts they interviewed seemed to be that it would be hard to unintentionally fire the gun in question, a .45 caliber. One would hope that a 17 year veteran wouldn't be negligent enough to do this, but the facts just aren't clear yet. As one expert said, "your finger shouldn't be on the trigger unless you're preparing to shoot someone."

Good article over at Wired about the pretty cool technology at the new Wynn Casino & Hotel.

- Provides the world's largest distribution of HDTV, sent into the rooms without individual antennae via high-speed Cat-6 ethernet cables
- Offers the biggest use of VOIP technology for hotel phones
- Is among the first casinos to install computer chips inside gambling chips to detect counterfeiting
- Is the first in the industry to combine the room key and the casino frequent-player card in the same piece of plastic

Actually, the RFID chips do more than just "prevent counterfeiting", they can use them to track your betting too. Anyway, interesting stuff.

I cashed out of Absolute Poker the other day. Nothing wrong with them, just thought I would mix it up a little bit. Of course, the amounts I'm playing with are miniscule, so mixing it up could be costly. At any rate, I had more than doubled my money there, thanks to bonuses and mostly just winning play.
I decided to deposit into Bodog.com. I'm an addicted reader of OddJack, the gambling blog extraordinaire, and they keep running ads for Bodog and mentioning the crazy prop bets they're running over there, so I figured why not? They've got a Sportsbook, Racebook, Casino (online blackjack and such), as well as poker, and you can use your money in any of the places. Guess this means I'll need to reorganize the categories here. Poker just doesn't cover it, does it? So far, I've just put the money in (20% bonus using Neteller!), and installed the poker software. Looks a lot like the ESPN software, only much slicker and non-crashy. I did notice one odd thing though. The limit games are all 6 max, while the 9 player tables are all no-limit. Interesting way to go about things. I'm not sure if that would make for more or less rake for Bodog. The stats I was seeing in the short time I was logged on though made me think I'm going to be switching to NL from now on.
On a side note, I'm thinking the oil prop bet is looking pretty good ($66/barrel, and rising every day), even if you're getting crummy odds.