A reported $8 million sports betting ring with ties to the Bonanno crime family was busted Wednesday in Queens, N.Y.
Four men were indicted and are accused of using offshore accounts at the gambling site, arrowaction.net, to operate the illegal book. The site was not operating Saturday night.
Michael Palmaccio, a rumored soldier in Bonanno organization, is accused of running the book. District Attorneys on the case told the New York Daily News that the ring used threats of physical harm to collect debts.
D.C. poised to legalize online poker
While other U.S. states balk at legalizing online poker, Washington, D.C., home to the federal government, is poised to offer legal online poker to players within state lines.
According to a report Wall Street Journal on Friday, the D.C. city council approved a budget last year that included the district’s lottery to operate a poker website.
City officials claim Congress missed its window to raise objections, which passed on Thursday.
So shuffle up and deal?
Actually, we’re not quite there yet. There’s still plenty of work to be done, including a possible showdown with United State Department of Justice. But the WSJ projects that the poker operating system could be available in certain spots, like hotels for example, by the end of the year.
Poker Players Alliance Executive Director John Pappas isn’t confident D.C.’s market can sustain an online poker business on its own, but told the paper that legalizing online poker in the nation’s capital could help speed up the movement to get it legalized nationwide.
New Jersey, Iowa, California and Florida have also discussed legalizing and regulation online poker in an attempt to cut budget deficits.
