Irish iGaming and sports betting operator BoyleSports finally found a replacement for its vacant CEO role. Former William Hill director Vlad Kaltenieks will take up the mantle, replacing his predecessor, who lasted less than a year in the position. Kaltenieks joins at a turbulent period for BoyleSports as the operator pursues international expansion amidst rising challenges.
The New CEO Enters During a Dynamic Time
BoyleSports has remained without a chief executive ever since Mark Kemp, the man formerly occupying the position, left the company after just ten months at the helm. Kemp departed to pursue other projects, joining DAZN BET as CEO. BoyleSports then spent several months with nobody at the helm, as finding a suitable replacement proved difficult.
However, the absence of a CEO did not dampen the operator’s ambitions. The company currently maintains a substantial presence in Ireland, employing a staff of roughly 2,500 across 350 venues. BoyleSports has recently focused significantly on its UK expansion efforts, opening eight new shops in the country over the past eight months, bringing their total count to 29, with two more in the Isle of Man.
Kaltenieks Is a Well-Rounded Industry Professional
With such an ambitious and expansion-focused mindset, BoyleSports has been in dire need of a capable leader to spearhead its efforts. Luckily for the operator, Vlad Kaltenieks seems like a perfect match for the position, possessing substantial industry knowledge and years of relevant experience. Announcing his new appointment in his official LinkedIn profile, Kaltenieks expressed excitement to join the BoyleSports team.
Over the years, the company has grown into a successful business, with its own technology and experienced team, and I am very optimistic for our next chapter.
BoyleSports CEO Vlad Kaltenieks
Kaltenieks is a proven industry veteran. He worked with several high-profile operators and sports a substantial technological background. Launching his career in 1999, he co-founded the technology company Skynet and moved on to several IT-related management positions. In total, Kaltenieks has over two decades of technology experience. His most recent jobs with high-profile gambling operators gave him a new perspective and allowed him to apply his skills to a new and dynamic industry.
The new BoyleSports CEO’s first introduction to the gambling world was in 2016 when he got appointed as director of digital and data at leading European gambling and iGaming operator Betsson Group. Immersing himself in the field, he later moved to William Hill, where he spent four years as global director of data, analytics, and digital before becoming BoyleSports CEO.
Kaltenieks’s blend of technological experience, leadership skills, and industry know-how should make him well-suited for his new position. His customer-centric strategy, organizational focus, and value-driven mindset will prove valuable to BoyleSports as the operator seeks to maintain momentum in an increasingly challenging economic environment.
Even though the state isn’t one of the biggest in terms of population, Arkansas has certainly proven to be one of the most important betting hubs in the United States. The state managed to collect a total of $30.5 million in total bets during November, official data by the Department of Finance and Administration confirmed.
Good Month for Betting in Arkansas
This means that November has been the highest-grossing month in the history of the state insofar as sports betting is concerned. The previous record was set in October with $26.87 million of total wagers placed, and still much ahead of the $21.18 million placed during September.
Arkansas has been in fact registering a robust month-over-month growth in sports betting interest. November is also more than twice ahead of the June results which saw $12.60 million worth of bets placed in the state.
The Department did not offer further breakdown into the November numbers but said that in October, more than $20 million had been placed through mobile apps with the remaining $6.1 million going through the state’s three licensed casinos.
The Department also said that over the past 11 months, the state handled more than $124 million in total bets. However, online sports gambling has been available in Arkansas since March. The period between January and March saw gamblers limited to land-based options only.
Arkansas also made several changes to its gambling industry over the past several months. The state finally picked a provider for its gambling treatment service, choosing the Problem Gambling Council as the official educational and treatment provider.
The delay has been criticized with the state officially earmarking $200,000 of the tax money generated through gambling towards the tackling of problem gambling but then taking years to actually set it up.
One of poker’s longest-running traditions during the holiday season is that of poker player and media personality Bernard Lee helping homeless families in the Boston area. For the 12th year in a row, Lee and his family were busy helping those in need, which included gifting customized holiday gift packages to 65 children and 40 families experiencing.
Lee’s initiative, The Full House Charity Program, arrange customized holiday packages, which include winter clothing, books, toys, games, sports equipment, and art supplies. Lee and his children, who work side-by-side with him each year, also provide each child with his or her own stuffed animal.
“My children and I look forward to this holiday tradition, as it brings so much joy and happiness to my family,” said Lee. “We feel blessed to provide holiday gifts to these families, especially the children who may not have been able to afford such gifts during this difficult time. Thankfully, we have a wonderful partner in FamilyAid, who helps us deliver these packages to specific families in Boston. Additionally, thank you to my RunGoodGear family, who every holiday season donate toys to my cause. Happy Holidays to everyone.”
For the past seven years, Bernard has joined forces with FamilyAid to provide customized packages to the families.
Children in the Boston area received all sorts of toys!
“FamilyAid is thrilled and grateful that Bernard Lee is providing gifts to the children in our shelters again this holiday season. His generous donations come at a time when families are facing more limited financial resources than ever. For many struggling families, providing holiday gifts is daunting, if not impossible,” said FamilyAid President Larry Seamans. “Thanks to Bernard and his family, children in our care will have presents to enjoy and parents will be relieved to see their children’s smiles. We thank the Lee Family for their continuing generosity, compassion, and commitment.”
Not only that, RunGoodGear (RGG) and the RunGood Poker Series (RGPS), which recently concluded its season-ending Pro-AM in Las Vegas (Survivor’s “Boston” Rob Mariano won that tournament), has served as one of the primary sponsors of the program. RGG and its ambassadors have provided funds to help provide specific toys for these needy children.
“It has been amazing to see Bernard year after year provide a special holiday for families,” emphasized Tana Karn, President and Founder of RunGoodGear.com “The RunGood team and I are thankful to be able to help Bernard bring about a memorable holiday season for this year and more to come.”
Lee launched his Full House Charity Program in February 2011, and has since provided more than $100,000 worth of goods and funds to children-focused organizations in New England. The program has helped over 450 families and 750 children during its history.
Some of the care packages distributed by Bernard Lee & his family.
About FamilyAid Boston
FamilyAid Boston empowers parents and caregivers facing homelessness to secure and sustain housing and build foundations for their children’s futures. As a leading provider to families facing homelessness in Greater Boston, FamilyAid Boston offers a comprehensive set of programs and services including emergency shelter, housing supports, services for children, and is the city’s largest provider of private homelessness prevention resources for families. Over the past year, FamilyAid Boston helped 1,600 homeless children and parents on their path to stable housing.
For more information on FamilyAid Boston, please visit familyaidboston.org.
A Las Vegas resident is facing accusations that he operated a Ponzi scheme, using the funds to feed his gambling addiction. Rodney Buckle was arrested recently by Las Vegas police on numerous fraud-related charges.
Instead of investing people’s money into the stock market like he said he would, the 65-year-old instead allegedly gambled away millions of dollars. A co-defendant in the case already pled guilty last year to theft, conspiracy, and securities fraud charges. Warisra Stevens was sentenced to at least 19 months of prison time.
did not hold any relevant federal or state licenses
Buckle had operated his business under a variety of names and claimed to be a financial advisor and life coach. He did not hold any relevant federal or state licenses. One of his online ads stated: “Rodd University is a membership-based social club providing a platform for research and discussing topics ranging from current events to the stock market.”
Uncovering the scheme
State investigators discovered that some people had contributed at little as $100 to the alleged Ponzi scheme, while others spent over $700,000. Buckle guaranteed significant returns from the investments. At one stage, he informed investors that he would require more funding in order to generate further returns. This led to some investors taking out new credit cards, refinancing their mortgages, and getting bank loans in return for so-called guaranteed returns.
originally promised a 50% return on invested funds
The investigation into the scheme began following a complaint to Nevada state authorities from a couple who never received their supposedly guaranteed return on investment. Buckle had originally promised a 50% return on invested funds in 2015. The couple tried to get some of their investment back in 2017 in order to pay for bills, including those relating to a cancer diagnosis. They had contributed tens of thousands of dollars.
The couple eventually discovered that Buckle had a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) judgment against him from back in 1999, resulting in him having to pay restitution of $3m to investors who had been misled.
Funding a gambling addiction
Buckle’s co-defendant in the case was his girlfriend. Speaking to investigators, she explained that Buckle would withdraw almost $25,000 weekly for gambling and personal use. Buckle funded his girlfriend’s lifestyle and she claimed that the entire business was just a Ponzi scheme. It was Stevens who revealed that Buckle is a gambling addict and could wager between $5,000 and $20,000 each day.
Through further investigation, it was found that Buckle had placed sports bets totaling $2.4m at the Westgate Hotel and Casino sportsbook before he got banned, losing $76,000. He had also placed $440,000 worth of wagers at the South Point casino, resulting in $434,000 in losses.
Authorities initially issued an arrest warrant for Buckle and his girlfriend in December 2019. It is not clear why it took so long for Buckle to be arrested and it appears that he actually self-surrendered. He is currently being held without bail, pending a January court date.
The post Life Coach Scammed Millions From Victims to Fund Gambling Addiction appeared first on VegasSlotsOnline News.
This post is syndicated by the Las Vegas Advisor for the 888 casino group. Anthony Curtis comments on the 888 article introduced and linked to on this page.
A.C. says: Poker has been the basis for many new games, with video poker being, by far, the most successful of them. This article provides a good comparison of live and video poker, which boils down to the differences between playing against a human or a machine. I’d add as an illustrative example that in live-game draw poker, it can be strategic to hold a kicker to set up a bluff. You don’t hold kickers in video poker … you can’t bluff a machine. As pointed out in the article, becoming a winning player at live poker requires developing multiple skills and infusing judgment, while video poker is black and white — there’s always one best play. Players can calculate video poker returns and proper playing strategies, but they don’t have to. That’s already been done for them in the work of Bob Dancer, Jean Scott, and others. Study with the good video poker learning tools out there and you can achieve a near-computer-perfect return.
This article was written by Jerry Stich in association with 888casino.
Video Poker versus Live Poker
The Poker-matic machine introduced video poker to the casinos. Since then, video poker has grown and become hugely popular.
Video poker has been around for decades. Live poker (played with a 52-card deck) has been around for nearly two centuries. It, too, has become extremely popular, especially after the World Series of Poker began in 1970.
While video poker is based on live poker, the two games are drastically different.
In Las Vegas blackjack circles, the El Cortez in downtown Las Vegas is well-known for having a decent single-deck game — aside from the fact that they are extremely quick to pull the trigger on kicking players out. Several blackjack teams send their new players to play there, knowing they’ll be kicked out fairly quickly, just to get the first barring out of the way.
For a period of about two years, from approximately 2008 to 2010, I did some consulting for that casino. I attended their marketing meetings. I talked them into some looser video poker for a while. And even taught some classes there for a semester or two. It was an awkward match. They never really felt at home with me. I never felt at home with them.
Trying to get a feel for how their slot club worked, I played some on a dollar Kings or Better Joker Wild machine — which was worth 100.65% before the slot club on a Monday early in my tenure there. (This game is long gone now, as is most other decent video poker there.) As luck would have it, I hit a $4,000 royal flush after playing maybe 500 hands. The game has a royal cycle of 41,214 hands, so nobody was more surprised than I was. There were some bonuses with jackpots (maybe $10 free play and a Dove bar?), which I collected. Elsewhere at that time, I was playing mostly dollar multi-line, as well as $5 and $25 games, and was somewhat embarrassed to be seen hitting a royal on such a small machine. (Today, I’m not welcome to play the games I’d prefer to play, so you may well find me playing dollar single-line somewhere.)
It was not a small machine insofar as the El Cortez management was concerned. A $4,000 jackpot was something to sweat! The next day at the marketing meeting, they were discussing kicking me out — not knowing that the guy who hit that royal (under my real name) was actually Bob Dancer and sitting at the table. The fact that this was a brand-new member of the slot club, from a zip code more than 15 miles away, who found the loosest machine from the start and had the nerve to hit a royal flush, all added up to a “kick the SOB out!” decision. To me, this was a case of over-reacting to one royal flush. But that was the way they did things at the time.
I calmly explained that I was the one who hit it, just to try things out there. Kenny Epstein, who is now the owner but was one of several co-owners then, asked me, “Couldn’t you try things out for quarters rather than dollars?” Perhaps. I already thought I was slumming playing for dollars. They didn’t kick me out, but I was asked to refrain from playing dollar machines anymore.
I had no more play there until earlier this year. In passing, I had seen a television news show scanning that casino, and I noticed two Ultimate X Gold machines in the scan. I’ve been studying that game a little and I thought I’d go in and look at them.
There were only the two machines I saw on television. They came in 1¢, 2¢, 5¢, 10¢, and 25¢ denominations — and each of these in Triple Play, Five Play, and Ten Play. Each of these offered eight different games, Jacks or Better, Double Bonus, Deuces Wild, etc. It takes ten coins per line to play.
I never looked at the penny or two-penny games. For the nickel games, I’d look at the Ten Play version ($5 per play). I’d look at all of those, plus all the ones for dimes and quarters. Quarter Ten Play in this game is $25 per play. I was actually using these machines to practice my UXG skills so I could play bigger-denomination games elsewhere.
All UX games involve multipliers, and UXG is a game where multipliers build up and remain until they are hit. Without going into explicit detail, a competent player looks for games where there are enough multipliers that are high enough. If a game doesn’t meet your criteria, you skip it and go on to the next one. As these machines were configured, I had 56 different individual games to check on each of the two machines. This takes some time.
There were usually a few plays on each of the machines. I assume if I looked at the penny and two-penny games I’d find a lot more plays because there’s a better chance that players at those denominations have less of an understanding of how the game should be played and hence leave juicy multipliers all the time. But playing games for such miniscule stakes is of no interest to me.
I played once every two or three weeks. I have other plays downtown so I’m “in the area” fairly frequently. Remembering how trigger-happy they were a decade previously, I figured if I became known as a “regular” on those machines, especially if I managed to win, I’d be toast there once I became recognized. I assume management there was generally aware that these games were exploitable, even if they couldn’t personally do it. The casino has some exploitable slots as well, so I’d check them out while I was there.
I’m not sure how much it takes to earn a slot club point on these machines, but if you earn 300 points in a day you get a wheel spin at the kiosk. Sometimes it is $10 in free play. Sometimes it is $10 food. Usually, it is 100 free drawing tickets — which are absolutely worthless to me. They have regular small drawings that aren’t worth the effort to go down there, in my opinion.
On maybe my 15th visit, the general manager came up to me while I was playing UXG and told me I wasn’t welcome to play there anymore. I hadn’t hit any W-2Gs or had big wins. He didn’t recognize me as Bob Dancer. He just didn’t want players coming in and checking multipliers on the UXG machines.
It was civil enough. No security officers were involved, I was paid for my accumulated slot club points, and I left without incident. I wasn’t officially trespassed, and I assume that if I want to go into their restaurant and pay retail for food that I can do so.
Insofar as barrings go, this one made me smile more than anything else. It was never going to be a major stop for me and the games were marginally profitable to me at best.
I would have preferred not to have been barred, of course, but in no way was this a traumatic experience.
Tournaments are the format that usually garners the most attention from the poker community. People love watching fellow players battle it out for supremacy and become the last one standing, getting their hands on a massive cash prize and an all-important trophy. Notice how we said usually grabs the attention of the poker community? Streams of tournaments are still hugely popular, but cash game streams have exploded in popularity in 2022.
The televised High Stakes Poker, launched in 2006, gave viewers an insight into the private world of high-stakes poker rooms. Some of poker’s biggest names, elite-level pros such as Doyle Brunson, Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, and Daniel Negreanu clashed in $300/$600 games that has a $100 ante, leading to some colossal pots. High Stakes Poker has been behind the PokerGO paywall since 2020, but cash game fans have been able to get their fill with online and live cash game streams dominating the scene.
Building on Cash Game Streams 2021 Success
Cash game streams hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2019 thanks tothe Mike Postle cheating scandal, a story that refused to go away for the best part of two years. However, in 2021, cash game streams began capturing the imagination of viewers with some crazy high-stakes action at the Super High Roller Bowl Europe festival, and Leon Tsoukernik‘s High Stakes Cas$h King$ stream, which included the casino owner scooping a €740,000 Pot-Limit Omaha pot.
Matt Berkey was involved in a huge hand in January
The first month of 2022 wasn’t even over when we were treated to some incredible action on the Live at the Bike stream. Matt Berkey had aces cracked in what was a $205,300 pot, which kind of set the tone for the rest of the year.
Another huge action hand occurred on the Live at the Bike stream in August. Eric Persson clashed with Eric Hicks in an insane $290,000 cooler when he improved to the nut flush only for his flush-completing card to gift Hicks quad aces!
It was not only live cash game streams that caught the eye in the early part of the year because online poker popped its head above the parapet and showcased some juicy games.
GGPoker, during its Super MILLION$ Week in February, streamed the action from a star-studded cash game at nosebleed stakes. Such luminaries as Wiktor Malinowski, Mikita Badziakouski, Marius Gierse, and Barak Wisbrod locked horns at a $2,000/$4,000 table that went a little crazy. PokerNews went through the five biggest hands from the 70-minute stream, and the pots from those hands weighed in at an eye-popping $4,126,246 thanks, in part, to a pair of seven-figure pots! Imagine being on the losing end of one of those, ouch.
Poker at the Lodge Putting Texas On The Poker Map
Doug Polk has his own live poker room in Austin, Texas.
Doug Polk, Andrew Neeme, and Brad Owen clubbed together and bought a poker room in Austin, Texas. The Lodge Poker Club, dubbed “Lodge Mahal,” is the largest card room in Central Texas. The trio set about hosting poker tournaments, festivals, and cash games at the 60-table venue, with the live-streamed “Poker at the Lodge” making its debut during the year.
Among the many highlights from Poker at the Lodge were a player mis-clicking the nuts on the river and folding an unbeatable hand, and Polk getting owned by a club member that was, let us say, had consumed a few alcoholic beverages!
Hustler Casino Live Stream Dominates Proceedings; Influencers, Drama, and Controversy
Hustler Casino has been in business since mid-June 2000 but it was in 2022 that people sat up and took notice of the poker taking place there. The late pornography baron Larry Flynt bought the El Dorado Club in 1998 for $8 million and built the Hustler Casino on the site.
Hustler regularly streams cash games but nobody, probably not even Hustler, could have predicted how those streams would explode this year. Viewing figures went through the roof in late-April and early May when a seemingly innocuous $100/$200 No-Limit Hold’em game was streamed on YouTube. Phil Hellmuth and Tom Dwan were in attendance, which was enough to cause a few heads to nod, but then it was announced that YouTube sensation “MrBeast” was jumping in on the action. For those of you who are not aware, MrBeast is approaching 100 million subscribers to his YouTube channel!
MrBeast took to the high-stakes game like a duck to water, walking away with more than $430,000. Chess Twitch streamer Alexandra Botez scooped $458,000 profit, while MrBeast’s fellow streamer Ludwig Ahgren also left the table with over $400,000 more than he sat down with!
Such a fantastic stream set the tone for the rest of the year, and the Hustler live stream was never out of the headlines, for good and for bad reasons.
Nick Vertucci was involved in an eye-popping hand, while Wesley Fei channeled his inner Tony G as he trash talked Chris “Luda Chris” Chen following the latter’s failed bluff with the lowly seven-deuce.
Viewers were captivated by some huge pots, life-changing sums for most mere mortals. Hellmuth possibly angle-shot on one stream, the legendary Phil Ivey turned out for another, while one lucky player cashed out $800,000 more chips than they started with.
That Jack-Four Hand
Robbi Lew
However, Hustler will forever beenremembered for that hand and the furore it ultimately caused. Garrett Adelstein had a glowing reputation in live cash game circles, but his fanbase extended throughout 2022. Adelstein was an almost permanent fixture on the Hustler live stream, winning some massive pots, and finding himself on the end of a gut-wrenching slowroll.
Nothing could have prepared Adelstein for what would happen in late September during a $100/$200/$400 cash game featuring a $400 big blind ante. A seemingly straightforward hand resulted in Robbi Jade Lew making an extraordinary call with jack-high in a $269,000 pot, with Lew’s jack-four being good and remaining so. We’re not going to go into much more detail about the Adelstein/Lew hand because you have probably guessed a more in-depth piece is likely to come your way over the next few days!
Nick Maimone helped himself to more than $114,000 the week before Christmas when he won a pair of tournaments online at GGPoker. He continued his impressive form by taking down the $1,050 Naughty or Nice Bounty, part of the GGPoker WSOP Winter Circuit, for $157,755 and a shony, gold WSOP Circuit ring.
The $1,050 Naughty or Nice Bounty was the 12th ring-awarding event on the bustling WSOP Winter Circuit schedule. Some 1,399 players bought in and created a guarantee-busting prize pool worth $1,399,000. That chunky pot meant nobody at the final table took home less than $12,763 with bounties included.
Juan Vecino‘s time at the nine-handed final table was short-lived because he was the first grinder heading for the exits. The likes of “1_2_3” of Latvia, “CZG2009,”“OpusAsu,” and “ilvali” busted, leaving only four players in the hunt for the title and a six-figure hau.
The final four became three when Bryan Paris bowed out, then two when Finland’s Andreas Nasman ran out of steam. Heads-up saw Maimone lock horns with “RojerBauRICH” and got the job done, defeating his final opponent. Victory came with $157,755, the title of champion, and a WSOP Circuit ring.
#12: $1,050 Naughty or Nice Bounty NLH Final Table Results
Place
Player
Country
Bounties
Prize
Total Prize
1
Nick Maimone
Canada
$99,695
$58,060
$157,755
2
RojerBauRICH
Kazahkstan
$10,867
$57,920
$68,787
3
Andreas Nasman
Finland
$22,003
$43,804
$65,807
4
Bryan Paris
Austria
$3,156
$33,089
$36,245
5
ilvali
Andorra
$20,402
$24,994
$45,396
6
OpusAsu
Romania
$6,148
$18,880
$25,028
7
CZG2009
China
$4,093
$14,262
$18,355
8
1_2_3
Latvia
$11,554
$10,773
$22,327
9
Juan Vecino
Estonia
$4,625
$8,138
$12,763
Montagnolli Pots His Way to a WSOP Circuit Ring
Daniel Montagnolli
Before Maimone won his WSOP Winter Circuit title, 3,459 of the world’s best Pot-Limit Omaha players bought into #10: $400 Holiday PLOSSUS, creating a $1,279,830 prize pool as a result. Only 322 of those starters made it though to the final day, and it was Daniel “Vanessa23” Montagnolli who was the last player standing when the dust settled.
Montagnolli overcame a tough final table that saw Leonid Yankovski, Bojan “22blok22CZ” Berberovic, and Dimitrios Michailidis take their seats but fail to go deeper than fourth place. The Austrian champion-elect eventually found himself heads-up against “SlimLady” of Cyprus in a battle for a huge final bounty payment, one worth more than first-place prize money! Montagnolli defeated SlimLady and walked away with a total haul worth $116,352. A very merry Christmas indeed.
#10: $400 Holiday PLOSSUS Final Table Results
Place
Player
Country
Bounties
Prize
Total Prize
1
Daniel “Vanessa23” Montagnolli
Austria
$68,750
$47,602
$116,352
2
SlimLady
Cyprus
$18,680
$47,477
$66,157
3
Happy-AYA
Albania
$18,997
$33,236
$52,233
4
Dimitrios Michailidis
Cyprus
$10,762
$23,243
$34,005
5
Bojan “22blok22CZ” Berberovic
Montenegro
$6,987
$16,259
$23,246
6
Leonid Yanovski
Israel
$23,716
$11,379
$35,095
7
luckexpress
Austria
$2,278
$7,969
$10,247
Kulev Crowned Deepstack Champion
Alex Kulev
There are few poker tournament grinders that can match Alex “FutureofMe” Kulev‘s rise from the mid-stakes to the high-stakes world. The Ireland-based Bulgarian is a phenomenal talent and has been crushing the high stakes scene of late.
Kulevrecently won the GGPoker Super MILLION$ for a career-best $538,138. Now he has another $189,841 plus a WSOP Circuit ring, thanks to outlasting 946 opponents in the $1,500 Deepstack Championship NLH.
The final table of the $1,500 Deepstack Championship was a star-studded affair, as you would expect from such a high buy-in event. Anatoly Filatov, Maxim “Nesher_boy” Sheingart, and Matias “PrisonMike69” Arosuo were the first trio of stars heading for the exits. They were joined by Pulkit Goyal, Alexandros Theologis, Joel Nystedt, then Joshua McCully, the latter falling in third place and securing the event’s first six-figure score.
Kulev fought it out with the United Kingdom’s “LondonJon” in what was essentially a $47,500 heads-up sit & go! No deal was struck, so Kulev collcted $189,841 when he brushed his final opponent aside, resigning the runner-up to a $142,360 consolation prize.
#11: $1,500 Deepstack Championship NLH Final Table Results
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Alex “FutureofMe” Kulev
Ireland
$189,841
2
LondonJon
United Kingdom
$142,360
3
Joshua McCully
New Zealand
$106,755
4
Joel Nystedt
Austria
$80,055
5
Alexandros Theologis
Austria
$60,032
6
Pulkit Goyal
India
$45,018
7
Matias “PrisonMike69” Arosuo
Finland
$33,758
8
Maxim “Nesher_boy” Sheingart
Israel
$25,315
9
Anatoly Filatov
Estonia
$18,984
“darklion” Roars to COLOSSUS Victory
The $400 Christmas COLOSSUS NLH concluded on boxing day with a heads-up deal that saw those two players pad their GGPoker bankrolls with more than $600,000! Some 9,442 players bought in across the various Day 1s, with 1,155 making it through to Day 2, each sharing the common goal of scooping some of the $3,550,192 prize pool.
Seasoned grinders Mauricio “Promoking” Ferreira Pais, Abhinav “OBellaCiao” Iyer, Ramon “lekdoidoo” Sorgatto, and Timothy Cramer reached the nine-handed final table but could not quite finish the job.
Eventually, “darklion” found themselves heads-up against “Grind4Libertad” and the heads-up duo struck a deal to less the huge pay jumps. That deal resulted in Grind4Libertad taking home $310,732 when they fell in second place, and darklion getting their hands, or should that be paws, on a $297,842 payday.
#13: $400 Christmas COLOSSUS NHL Final Table Results
BGaming, the in-house game developer for SOFTSWISS, periodically releases the state of the company and the state of the industry recaps. As we approach the new year, the company has released a new summary of its part in the online casino business. This timely recap highlights the company’s global growth this year along with calling attention to some of the innovative games it has offered to the greater market over the last 12 months.
The company is based in Eastern Europe so the catastrophic event in Ukraine stuck close to home. Industry leaders in and out of the area, including SoftSwiss, banded together to support the country in its time of trouble. With the Klitschko Foundation and the World Boxing Council, BGaming raised and delivered funds to Ukrainian citizens as they fought for their independence and freedom.
Business growth
As business goes, the company experienced historic growth over the last four quarters with gross gaming revenues (GGR) exploding by 217%. The volume of individual bets on their games also grew by a factor of 2.5x and the number of players increased by 236%.
The report doesn’t mention whether the chicken or the egg came first or if it was a partnership in tandem, but the studio’s team grew from 64 members one year ago to 120 teammates today.
While 2021 was a milestone year for the company’s overall growth with the games being found in just over 500 gaming sites at the beginning of 2022 – that number grew to 800 online storefronts by the end of the year. Just like in 2021, many of the new operations in 2022 were crypto casinos.
The company is headquartered in Malta, with development offices located in Poland and the Republic of Georgia. The company is looking toward further licenses in the regulated markets of Greece, Bulgaria, and Slovakia – adding to the Romanian license it was awarded in 2022.
Game Innovation
The company released two and a half dozen titles in 2022 – many of the games introduced innovative features and mechanics. It joined the fray with its first BTG Megaways game and its first cluster-pay game. Additional features rolled out included instant wins, reel resizing, collectible features, and in-game jackpots.
The company’s new TRUEWAYS mechanics were first seen in a re-release of the popular Elvis Frog slot. The reinvigorated Elvis Frog slot got a rousing response from players and made shortlists at industry awards presentations, including at the prestigious Global Gaming Awards.
Player-driven Approach
Over the past year, the company has strengthened its focus on being player-driven and one element of that is responsible gambling. Social media is bubbling with BGaming slot players and streamers too. Over the course of the year, Twitch carried over 100,000 minutes of BGaming games.
Bespoke games and brand exclusives
Over the last year, the company has ramped up its efforts to develop custom games for online casino operators. A bespoke/custom development process was created in 2021 and in 2022 the count of customized games reached over 70.
Other innovations
As we reported here earlier, the development team contrived an algorithm that lets them cut down the delivery size of instant play games by up 55% – faster-loading games are simply better games. The compression feature can ‘figure out’ which parts of an image or set of images can be highly compressed without compromising the end result image. The innovation was recognized at SBC Awards and by the iGaming Idol Award.
If history is any predictor of the future, based on the last few years we can expect to see more and greater technological and player engagement innovations in the year to come.
BGaming CEO, Marina Ostrovtsova said: “We’ve experienced significant growth across key metrics, obtained new licenses and certifications, experimented with various mechanics and features in our games, and received numerous awards and recognitions! All of these achievements are a testament to our team’s hard work and dedication, and we are excited to see what the future holds as we continue to innovate and deliver the best gaming experience possible. We also extend our sincere thanks to our customers and partners for their support and for helping us achieve these successes.”
Source: BGaming Celebrates Record Growth and Innovative Game Releases In 2022, BGaming, December 22, 2022
The post BGaming Recaps Year – Notes Growth, Game Releases appeared first on Casino News Daily.
In the rogue’s gallery of con artists, a wing of that exhibit must be dedicated to impostors who have successfully fooled millions of people into believing they were princes, heiresses, celebrities and even time travelers.
The real danger from modern impostors is not someone claiming to be Sidney Poitier’s son or a lost Russian princess – it’s from scammers pretending to be your boss, your bank manager, or even your own flesh and blood.
The Communication Factor
I’ve talked about impostors before but every year, new scams appear thanks to changes in social dynamics, new technology, and new ways of working.
How we communicate often defines how an impostor operates since the ability to verify their claims should be either limited or controlled to ensure the success of a lie.
In the past, the speed of global, national, or local communications was decided by the means of conveying the mail, it might take months to find out that someone is not the brother of Wyatt Earp or a missing Romanov princess.
This meant impostors could claim almost anything without fear of being proved a liar for weeks, months or years.
As technology improved from the telegraph to the internet, impostors became more sophisticated and used increasingly clever techniques to discourage interrogation of their claims.
Social compliance, politeness and deterrence all play a factor in this kind of con game, as does the con artist’s greatest technique, which is to offer people what they really want.
The play Six Degrees of Separation illustrates this perfectly with high-society suckers all too happy to be rubbing shoulders with the son of the great actor and director, Sidney Poitier, and all too self-satisfied to properly verify the impostor’s story.
This was based on real-life serial impostor, David Hampton, who would mingle with students from Columbia University and to gain immediate credibility, he would claim that his father was the legendary movie star.
Impostor David Hampton. [Image: Wikipedia]
This worked so well that he was soon able to mix with the great and the good of New York where his story gained him greater access to that world and he wasn’t discovered until the dean of Columbia’s school of journalism caught Hampton in his home with another man and the Poitier story (amongst others) quickly unraveled.
This all happened in a time when people could feasibly have investigated this young man’s story and quickly learned that he was not who he claimed to be, but such was the allure of that story and the sheer audacity of his claim, few questioned it at all.
Amazingly, he even mingled with other movie stars who promptly fell under the notion that only the real son of a fellow celebrity would make such claims to them since they were essentially part of the same “community.”
Investigating further might have taken a little more effort but today any search engine could inform anyone, regardless of their celebrity status, about a person’s real family or whether they have an estranged offspring bouncing around the Big Apple.
Or maybe not.
As the internet became more accessible, smart scammers found countless ways to take advantage of its flaws.
Smart impostors made websites or updated online open-source encyclopedias in order to provide quick and easily found proof of their spurious claims.
But for the emerging criminal industry of pretenders, the key to a great impostor scam became anonymity.
The Rise Of Remote Impostor Scams
Once technology made it easier to search facts and harder to make false claims, impostor scams retreated into another, long-proven method of pretending to be who they’re not: Remote scams.
Just as letters from afar could convince a wealthy family that their long-lost son had been found on the island of Fiji 200 years ago, texts and emails became a favorite method for modern-day pretenders around the world.
Thanks to this new form of communication, scammers could target elderly relatives claiming to be their grandchildren, nephews or nieces allegedly in a situation that required money to be sent urgently.
The rise of social media made it even easier for scammers to find perfect candidates bragging about their skiing holidays with enough information in their profiles to find a victim who might pay non-existent hospital bills after falling off a non-existent cliff.
This ability to hide behind technology created a booming criminal industry of impostors pretending to be our banks or internet suppliers or computer services in order to con people out of their hard-earned cash (I’ll talk about the mechanisms used for this type of scam in another article).
Spoofing phone numbers gave immediate proof that a scammer was who they pretended to be since that number would appear on their victims’ phones as the name of someone they knew.
This has been used to fool millions of people and is still used today by bogus businesses to make incoming calls (to you) appear to be from a local number when it’s actually from a criminal call center thousands of miles away.
All of this is just the tip of the iceberg for existing impostor scams, but things are about to get a lot worse.
The Real Dangers Of Deepfakes
In movies like Face/Off and Mission: Impossible, characters can wear amazing silicone masks with miraculous voice changers taped to their neck that make them sound exactly like who they are impersonating.
In real life, this type of technology is not exactly practical in-person but used remotely, it could be devastating and thanks to modern times we are all communicating across video or voice calls that are about to become all-too-easy to fake.
Deepfake technology, where a video can be manipulated to change one person into another – even a familiar movie star or politician – has improved greatly in a short time, as has Deepfake voice software that can change anyone’s voice to sound exactly like someone else whose voice pattern and cadence has been previously analyzed.
Image: Foeko/YouTube
This form of vocal impersonation is incredibly convincing and can already be transmitted live so that a con artist could contact the employee of a bank pretending to be a client or a manager that the target knows well enough to recognize their voice.
In concert with a few emails and other convincers, the scammer could then order that bank’s employee to transfer millions of dollars into the scammer’s accounts.
This sounds like it came right out of a movie but it’s already happened at least twice, with international authorities still trying to hunt down both the money and the pretenders at the other end of one such phone call.
Soon, the video version of this type of scam will happen as Deepfakes become even more sophisticated and computer processing power catches up with the idea of a live deep fake and while this will certainly be used by con artists (if it hasn’t already), the real danger to society is much greater than that.
Imagine suddenly not being able to trust your own eyes and not knowing whether who or what you see on screen is real.
Suddenly all news can be manipulated even more than it is today, video evidence will cease to be effective, and the world we’ve learned to see through the windows of our machines will cease to exist.
In the end, only the reality we experience directly might be trusted and as any magician will tell you, even reality can be distorted.
