Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie is defending the strength of sports betting regulations for the US market, even as recent legal troubles involving NBA figures have intensified debate over sports betting regulations. At the same time, members of Congress are renewing demands for tighter federal safeguards in response to scandal. In a guest essay and media interviews, Christie argued that the legal market is proving its value by uncovering manipulative betting behavior that would likely remain hidden in an unregulated environment. He pointed to recent indictments, including those involving NBA and MLB players, as evidence that detection systems built into…

The U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service announced Monday that they will formally adopt modernized regulations for horse racing regarding the withholding and reporting of pari-mutuel proceeds. The National Thoroughbred Racing Association has long pressed for these updated regulations that will allow horseplayers to keep more of their winnings, thereby increasing the amount wagered on U.S. pari-mutuel racing by as much as 10 percent annually, or upwards of $1 billion, according to independent estimates. The new rules were posted late Monday afternoon as a Public Inspection Document. They are scheduled to be officially published in Wednesday’s edition of…

Thursday was not a particularly fun day for partypoker customers in the Czech Republic. Envisioning a fun – and hopefully profitable – session of online poker, players logged into their accounts only to find out that they are no longer allowed to play. Fortunately, it was not because of anything they did wrong, but because partypoker is withdrawing, at least temporarily, from the Czech market in response to the recent changes in the country’s gambling laws. It was Czech poker site PokerArena that first shined a light on the issue yesterday, posting a screenshot of the message players were greeted…

This week, regulations governing fantasy sports contests in the State of Maryland went into effect.  The regulations, implemented pursuant to a 2012 law exempting fantasy sports from the State’s gambling prohibition, vest the Office of the Comptroller with authority to enforce various consumer protection rules aimed at establishing basic rules to ensure fairness in the Maryland fantasy sports industry. What are the key components of the Maryland fantasy sports regulations? The Maryland fantasy sports regulatory scheme provides the Office of the Comptroller with broad regulatory authority over fantasy sports operators, including mandates for, at a minimum, the following: Prohibitions against…

Casino Scam Report – Proposed changes in online betting in the U.K. has sparked concern that the new regulations, which shift taxes to the consumer end, could harm the nation’s gambling industry and even the British economy in general. The manner in which the British government regulates online gambling has been met with resistance from operators who fear a reduction in gambling and thus in their profits. Designed to protect gamblers, who in the U.K. are known as punters, the changes target operators who have attempted to reduce their expenditures by moving to jurisdictions where taxes are lower. One such…