Gambling

Sportsbook dominate Las Vegas when it comes to nearly every form of sports betting. Handle, odds, bonuses, propositions, limits, etc. It is all a knockout for the offshore sportsbooks versus Las Vegas.

How did it happen? Until the 1990’s Las Vegas was? The place for sports betting. There was nothing else. If you wanted to make a bet legally you had no other choice but to go to Las Vegas. There were bookies around the world that you could place your bets with, but they never had the good reputation that Las Vegas had. Vegas had the odds, the money, everything. The Internet changed all of that. Sportsbooks began popping up all over the world, especially in Costa Rica, and slowly but surely Las Vegas lost its grip on the sports betting world. Offshore sportsbooks started offering everything that Las Vegas was offering, and more. If you wanted to make- made it possible for gamblers around the world to place bets from their own home. It is not like this happened overnight, and Las Vegas didn’t do anything about it. Vegas had grown fat and happy when it came to sports wagering and did not react to offshore sportsbooks taking their business away. The Vegas sportsbooks became more corporate oriented and did not fight back.

Offshore sportsbooks have made the contest between themselves and Las Vegas a one-sided affair. The odds are almost always better offshore than in Vegas. The limits are always higher. You get bonuses offshore for your sports betting action. Try getting anything in Vegas when it comes to a bonus. The propositions offered Offshore Sports Betting completely outclass Las Vegas.

The biggest gamblers in the world used to come to Las Vegas to make their sports wagers. That is no longer the case. Vegas barely gets a trickle of the big action now. Sportsbooks around the world take far more action than the sportsbooks in Las Vegas. It really is not even worthy of comparison. It is like a Major League Baseball team playing a little league team. The game would not even be played because it is such a mismatch.

Anything you hear about Las Vegas having the best of anything when it comes to sports gambling is a fallacy. It is long since gone. Offshore sportsbook websites dominate the sports wagering world and that does not look likely to change anytime soon.

In 2005, at the World Series of Poker, one of the biggest Omaha Hi Lo Tournaments was held. The Omaha Hi Lo Tournament took place in Rio and players threw over 1500 dollars in to be a part of the big game. Ultimately, a man from Arizona took home the huge jackpot and the customary gold tournament bracelet—Pat Poels won well over 270,000 dollars that Tuesday afternoon and went home smiling.

After two grueling days competing in the 2005 Omaha Hi Lo Tournament and playing against fantastic adversaries like John Lukas, Darrell Dickens, Jim Meehan, Dan Heimiller, Boris Shats, Bahram Kianfar, Minh Nguyen, and Pascal Perralt, it was Pat Poels who got to bring home the biggest winnings for first place in cold hard cash. Alternatively, John Lukas came in second in the Omaha Hi Lo Tournament, with winnings equal to over 139,000 dollars. Meanwhile, Jeff Duval placed 3rd, and brought home of 77,000 dollars in the 2005 Omaha Hi Lo Tournament.

Pat Poels is an extremely luck man—happily married with 3 children, his big winnings are merely the icing on his already happy life. Needless to say, his wife supported him through the entire process and even encouraged him to become a professional poker player. Nevertheless, the couple couldn’t have been more surprised or pleased when Pat Poels brought home the most dough in the Omaha Hi Lo Tournament.

Obviously, this 37-year-old first time winner at the Omaha Hi Lo Tournament 2005, and former software designer is completely supported by his loving family. In pursuit of his dream, his wife stood behind him—even when he quit his steady job to become a professional poker player. Yet, who would of thought that this newcomer to the tables at the Omaha Hi Lo Tournament 2005 would have made out his first go round? In fact, Poels took home the third biggest jackpot in the last five years. Now that’s a big achievement.

It certainly will be interesting to see what the next Omaha Hi Lo Tournament will bring—with so many great players destined for the gaming tables. Who knows whom the winner will be. Perhaps it will be a professional player of by gone years—or maybe, just maybe, it will be another lucky newcomer on the professional poker scene. Just like Pat Poels—keep your eyes on the 2006 World Series of Poker and the Omaha Hi Lo Tournament to find out.

The game of Baccarat (pronounced BAH kah rah) has long been associated with wealth and style. It is the game secret agent James Bond plays when matching wits with villains at the casino. It is the game Robert Redford as billionaire John Gage is playing when Demi Moore discovers him in the movie “Indecent Proposal.” But you don’t have to be a billionaire or a secret agent to play Baccarat. You can play it in any casino and thanks to the Internet, in the comfort of your own home.

Baccarat is one of the simplest games in the casino to play, for the basic reason that all of your decisions are made for you. It also has some of the lowest House edge in the casino, less than one and a half percent, so if you are a newcomer to casino gaming, this may be a game to try.

The game is played with a Player against a Banker. Although you will obviously be a player, you don’t need to place your bet on the Player area. You are welcome to bet either that the Player will win or that the Banker will win. You can also bet that it will be a tie at 8 to 1, but this bet gives a large edge to the House.

The Player and the Banker are each dealt a two card hand, with a possible third card dealt depending on your hand’s value. Aces are worth 1, face cards and tens are worth 0, all other cards are face value. Hands have only a single digit value, if you go over 9, you subtract the tens place from your hand, so for example a hand totaling 16 would count as 6 and a hand totaling 23 would count as 3. If anyone is dealt an 8 or a 9, this is called a “Natural” and whoever is dealt the Natural wins. If the Player and Banker both have a Natural, it is a tie except in the case of a Natural 9 beating a Natural 8.

If the Player’s two card hand is 5 or less he gets an additional card. If it is 6 or 7, he stands and if it is 8 or 9 he has a Natural. The Banker also gets an additional card if he has a 5 or less, unless the Player has drawn a card, in which case there are some exceptions: If the Banker’s two card total is 3, he does not draw if the Player’s third card was an 8. If it is 4, he does not draw if the Player’s third card was a 0, 1, 8 or 9. If the Banker’s total is 5, he does not draw if the Player’s third card was 0, 1, 2, 3, 8 or 9. If the Banker’s total is 6 he only draws if the Player’s third card was a 6 or 7. In all other cases the Banker stands. You do not have to remember any of this; the casino will take care of it for you.

These bets pay off at even money, so the House edge comes from the chance of a tie. In addition, since the drawing rules favor the Banker slightly, winning on a Banker bet requires a five percent commission paid back to the house on the win.

In a live Casino, lower stakes players should look for a “Mini-Baccarat” table which has the same rules other than the lower stakes. Online, if the site you play supports Baccarat, there will be a link or menu directing you to the Baccarat section of the site.

Keno is a game of pure chance and is very similar to Lotto games. The game was brought to the USA by Chinese immigrants in the 19th century. As with lotto games, it is a dead simple to play, and it is attractive as large prizes are on offer for very small wagers. Keno is played at bars, clubs and community centers all over the world today (I know when I go an play poker at my local club I always run the risk of getting run over by ticket toting Keno players by the hundreds) . Unfortunately it shares another characteristics with lotto games - horrendous odds.

Logically, Keno found its way into online casinos as it was a simple game to develop, and casino operators wanted to capture the huge land based Keno fan base online. What was even more in the favor of online casinos was that many people were used to playing Keno on video terminals, so the move online was less of a hurdle that say with blackjack.

So here is how you play Keno (unless I fall asleep writing this!). You start off by selecting between 4 and 10 numbers from a total of 80 numbers. Each selection is called a “spot”. In many online keno games, you can buy multiple tickets for the same draw, and in some games you can even pre purchase for future games.

Once you have submitted your selection, twenty numbered balls will “drop” into a tube from a barrel. If enough of your sports are drawn, you win. That simple. You will obviously win more if more of your numbers come up, like with lotteries.

Most online keno games allow you to buy tickets between 5c and $5, and pay out in multiples of your ticket value. Jackpot prizes of up to $50,000 are not uncommon.

Easy? Yeah. So there must be a catch? Yeah. The house advantage with Keno is 30% or more, the WORST of any online casino game. The odds of hitting a number is 0.25%. Keno is by a long margin the worst game you could possibly play. If you want a game of chance play slots. If you want to throw money away, play Keno. Very few people actually make any meaningful returns.

Internet casinos and sportsbooks have become hugely popular over the past several years. The number of people wagering their money online continues to increase exponentially every year. But is it legal?

The answer is, I don’t really know. Seriously, I’m not really sure. Allow me to explain. I’m not a lawyer, but I think that even most lawyers would find it difficult to defend or prosecute an online gambling service given the current legal climate in the world of cyberbetting. Let’s lay out the facts and see if we can come to a conclusion.

First, what are the types of gambling that you can engage in online? Well, you can play poker and other card games, you can bet on sports, or you can play games of chance, such as roulette, craps, etc. Poker and cards in general seem like a perfectly fair game to play over the internet, as it would be impossible for a computer to deal more favorable cards to one player over another. Also, card games are, generally speaking, games of skill and strategy with an element of chance, where each player controls their own destiny. Betting on sports also seems like a perfectly legitimate form of online betting - the computer doesn’t control who wins the weekend’s football games. Games of chance probably should be outlawed, as a computerized roulette wheel can easily be programmed to stop far away from the player’s chosen number, allowing just enough winning bets to make the game seem credible, while insuring that the house still profits big in the end.

But, are any of the aforementioned gambling activities legal if hosted by an internet based company? According to the Wire Wager Act, betting on sports is the only form of online wagering that is illegal. The Wire Wager Act reads as follows:

“Whoever being engaged in the business of betting or wagering knowingly uses a wire communication facility for the transmission in interstate or foreign commerce of bets or wagers, or information assisting in the placement of bets or wagers on any sporting event or contest, or for the transmission of a wire communication which entitles the recipient to receive money or credit as a result of bets or wagers, or for information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years or both.”

Simply put, this means that it’s illegal for companies based in the U.S. and/or taking bets from Americans to use the internet to accept bets on sports or other “contests.” However, most online gambling enterprises have moved their operations offshore to countries in Central America and other countries around the world. It’s common for most of these companies to be incorporated in places like Antigua or the Caribbean islands. PartyPoker, the most popular website for playing poker for money online, is licensed and regulated by the Government of Gibraltar.

Online sportsbooks, often run by Americans offshore, still accept bets from Americans, and this is where the problem arises. Americans are the biggest betters, and most of the income stream for online sports betting comes from American wagers. These companies usually provide wire instructions to the gamblers so that the player can wire money into a pre-funded betting account before they can begin wagering.

So, the question is, is it legal for an offshore company to run their business offshore but still accept bets from the United States, where online sports betting is technically illegal? Yes and no. Theoretically it is illegal, but it’s very difficult to compel an online sports betting service to shut itself down if they operate under the laws of a foreign government where it is legal. After all, if these Americans took a plane to these foreign countries for a nice vacation, they’d be allowed to go to those casinos and gamble, so why can’t they do the same thing while sitting in front of their computer? It’s been very difficult for the Department of Justice to enforce the Wire Wager Act when it comes to offshore companies, and the offshore betting business continues to get bigger and bigger. In 1998, the sum total of all internet wagers was estimated at $600 million, and has grown by 10 or more times that between then and the year 2006.

The Wire Wager Act was upheld when the U.S. Supreme Court, during 2001 and 2002, refused to review the conviction of Jay Cohen, who had been running an internet sportsbook based in Antigua. And, even though the Department of Justice has said in recent years that that the Wire Wager Act also declares online casino games, not just sports betting, to be illegal, the Federal Appeals Court has ruled that that interpretation is not correct. Therefore, online casino games might be considered legal in the United States, but it’s hard to officially state whether it is or isn’t.

So, what have we learned? We’ve learned that it’s illegal to run an online sportsbook if that book is based in the United States and/or accepts bets from Americans, but it’s difficult to prosecute offshore betting services. It’s possibly legal to host online casino and card games, though the Department of Justice would like to change that. And, it’s hard to tell whether online casino and card games are truly legal in the U.S., despite the fact that the Federal Appeals Court says it is legal, considering that so many online poker companies have decided to run their operations in Latin America and overseas. The U.S. Government is just trying to protect betters from getting screwed by unscrupulous, offshore criminals, but ultimately, online casinos and sports betting should be allowed. The United States simply needs to implement a system whereby the online casino industry is regulated, making it mandatory for the companies to disclose the details of their operations and apply for a casino or sportsbook license.

For a game where most players rarely consider luck, there are lots of superstitions in poker. When you mention that someone was lucky in that poker tournament they won, be careful of how you say it. For instance, if you mention that you were unlucky, your luck may never change.

Ok, that may sound a bit ubsurd, but poker is a game loaded with superstitions. Did you know that if you are playing a game with two seperate decks and you are asked to pick the deck, you should always pick the deck of cards that is furthest from you? Or, how about If you get a run of bad cards, you must sit on a hankerchief to break your bad luck? It’s actually considered good luck to blow through a deck of cards while they are being shuffled.

Some other fascinating poker superstitions are:

• You can change the run of cards by walking around your chair three times.
• The luckiest seat at the poker table faces the door.
• The unluckiest seat has it’s back to a fireplace.
• When changing seats, you should always do so clockwise.
• The unluckiest poker card is the four of clubs.
• It’s very unlucky to sit with your legs crossed at the poker table.
• Friday is a bad day for playing cards.
• The 13th is also a bad day, regardless of what day of the week it is.

For being such a game full of skill, many people still hold on to the old superstitions.

Anyone can win big playing online poker if they take the right steps and play with the right strategy. I have been plugging away in the poker world for some time now and have discovered that the best way to make money playing online poker is in the tournament world, and more specifically, the sit n go tournament. A sit n go is defined as an unscheduled tournament that starts when all the seats have been filled. I prefer to play the 1 table tournaments, but there are tournaments that have as many as 5 tables. If you choose to play in a sit n go, here are some hard and fast rules that I have developed over my years of playing poker.

1. In the beginning stages of a sit n go, only play the premium hands. There is plenty of time to let the other players knock themselves out without the promise of a big pot. Any time you are tempted to play less than a monster in the early stages, pause, think about how many chips you stand to gain or lose and make your decision accordingly.

2. Play more than one sit n go at a time. This may seem like odd advice, but it will stop the boredom that often tempts you to play sub par hands. I always play three at a time, and that way I can still keep track of my opponents and not play hands that I shouldn’t just to help pass the time.

3. Watch your opponents’ betting patterns. Whether we like it or not, we all have betting patterns unless we are very conscious not to. We want to make as many chips as we can and will usually bet our good hands, and fold our poor ones. These patterns tend to tighten up as the tournament continues.

4. This is one I got from Dan Harrington’s book and it has been invaluable. This is it; play the opposite style to the rest of the game. What this means is, if the game is tight, play loose. If the game is loose, play tight. Usually, the beginning stages are quite a bit looser than the ending stages, so that’s when you need to be tight, then, as the game begins to tighten up as your opponents vie for the top three, money spots, you need to loosen up and play a lot more cards.

5. Don’t be afraid to push all you chips in when you are in the later stages of a tournament. Chances are, your opponents will fold their hands because they so badly want to make the money that they won’t risk their chips. This is a particularly good move if your opponents check around to you. Certainly there is an element of risk to this style of play, but I will guarantee that this move will get you into the money more often than not.

So it begins, the ending of the NFL season with plenty of good teams playing at this time of the year, and I mean that sincerely. Not one team playing in the Wildcard rounds got here by accident or backed their way in. You have New York, a Super Bowl team 5 years ago, with a revamped line-up, you have Jacksonville with one of the brightest young coaches in the game and a great W-L record, you have New England, 2 time defending champs with THE BEST coach in the game today, and the list goes on and on, not to mention the Super Bowl team from 2 years ago, the Panthers in the mix again! Did I mention that the Steelers or Bengal’s are no slouches either, and Carson Palmer has emerged and become a Pro Bowl caliber quarterback? What a weekend we have!

Some notes, as far as the pointsprerad is concerned. Many times, and I mean many times the wild card games are blowouts. Hard to figure when you look at 2 defensive minded teams like Washington and Tampa Bay huh? Both coaches in that match-up have went to and won Super Bowls. For many years there always been a blowout or two in the opening round, as a matter of fact 24 out of 40 wild card games since 1995 have been won by 13 or more points. Usually that is because, in my opinion, teams on the rise and teams that are underdogs, sometimes do not have the experience of a favorite in that particular game, and the playoffs are all about your “A” game, and not making mistakes. Look at USC in the national title game against Texas this week. They were in the red zone 5 times in the first half, walked away with one score and had crucial turnovers in the second half, and when you play a good team, #2 Texas for instance with Vince Young, you cannot do that and win. The playoffs are very similar to that in the NFL, make mistakes and miscues, and you lose, plain and simple.

Wildcard underdogs last year went 3-1 ATS and since the year 2000, they are 12-8 ATS. Some more numbers from a respected publication that may make you think twice or use an expert this weekend is that 1-3 point underdogs are 17-13-1 ATS since 1998, home underdogs are 8-1 ATS in the wild card rounds, and 7 point underdogs are 11-8 ATS since 1978. More of interesting note, and bear in mind there was no free agency in 1978 and for many years after that, 37 wild card games have been won by 14 points or more.

One has to sidestep a few landmines in the wild card games this weekend, but no team playing on Saturday or Sunday is there by accident, as I already mentioned and with parity at the forefront, I look for tried and proven handicapping methods that have stood the test of time in the NFL post season, I urge you to do the same. It is blocking and tackling 101 this weekend, who has the better team and the better coach, it boils down to simple thinking.

Heroes of our Time.

What is the present situation in the sphere of war between the counters and players? Are there people to follow nowadays? Fortunately, despite great changes in the game itself and in the counteraction of casinos-players, blackjack is till alive and very popular. Thanks once again to Edward Thorp.

Now we are living in Internet era. If Uston at his time was able to stand apart from the crowd only due to his self-spin off and publicity, now everyone can easily communicate with blackjack stars.

Peter Griffin is a great mathematician, blackjack theory developer, now the deceased. No expert of black jack would utter a word without referring to Griffin. Arnold Snider is a prominent player, strategy developer, the author of many books. A man of an excellent soul with a perfect sense of humor, always contradictory. Stanford Wong as always a little reserved and a bit of introvert, but extremely scrupulous and always fighting against the casino. Don Schlesinger was able to explain the most intricate detail of blackjack in simple and clear language.

Internet abounds in many resources where you can meet the greatest world players and ask them any question you like. There are still so many questions left unsolved.

A lot of unique books were published; new systems and game techniques are being developed. Every day gambling forums answer and ask thousands of questions. The players are getting more educated, intelligent and well-prepared. In spite of evident worsening of the rules, blackjack still can be won.

Casino is more and more paranoiac to “Advantageous” players. Attempts to worsen rules and terms of the game even to the prejudice of their own reputation and profits, mass blacklists, efforts to legalize beneficial for them laws all these are not only American. During half-century of the struggle, the casinos did not understand that they are cutting their own throat. The fact that you can win at blackjack attracts so much money. More than 1% of world players are hardly of any risk to casinos. However aiming to save every single dollar, the casinos are spending millions of dollars on the most advanced computer technologies, programs for personality identification, computer databases, they are creating new devices for fighting the counters. Moral ethical norms are often violated and the legal limits are abused.

Happy end.

What future holds for an ordinary counter? There are only two opposite opinions so far.

The gloomy one:

Technologies will kill the game. The casinos will develop some electronic dirty trick that will not allow a professional competent player gain an advantage. Blackjack will die away turning into another slot-machine. The casinos will poke on all the players, all the blacklists will be united into a common one and the game on advantage will cease to exist.

The optimistic one:

“What one person has built, the other can easily dismantle”. Blackjack just can’t get away from it!

First, the players will always continue to invent something new responding to the changes in the game. There is no such thing created by a person, that can’t be overdone by another person. Second, casinos finally should realize that major part of their profits is due to the theory that blackjack can be won. Transformation of this intellectual game into fighting with stupid slot-machine will deprive casinos of the money.

Personally I hope that human intellect will win. Let the war between the casinos and players continue for ever. Let both parties rack their brains how to beat each other. Let this struggle be vehement, but honest and respectful to the rival.

Intellect will always win.

© Copyright 2006-2007 www.bonus-map.com

31. Be a 3 card monte dealer. This is cheating people but on a small-time, street-level way.

All you need is three bent up cards, a dirty towel and a group of people. I once watched one dealer work the crowd waiting for a bus at the Grand Avenue Metro Link station in St Louis.

He didn’t make much. The young people didn’t even understand the game, and the older ones knew they couldn’t win it.

Be prepared to scoop up your money and run fast when somebody gets shooting/knifing mad at losing or you see a police car cruising your way.

32. Be a writer who uses casinos and gambling in your novels and films. Mario Puzo is one.

Gambling movies have also made money for their producers, directors, actors, camera men etc. The movie THE HUSTLER is one great classic film about pool hustling.

33. Be a door to door or street vendor who sells lottery tickets. This option is not available to US residents, but people in other countries do it.

34. If you live in a country with an untaxed lottery (such as Canada, Australia etc), mail solicitations to US residents offering to buy lottery tickets in your country for them.

This is now illegal in the US but someone in another country may still be doing it. I used to get such solicitations all the time. The big come on is that if you win the jackpot, these governments (being nicer than the US government) don’t collect taxes.

Another attraction to this offer is that such winnings are paid out in one lump sum. In the eighties this was not done by US state lotteries, though it is commonly available now.

The big catch to doing this is that the US government is one of only two countries in the world that demands taxes from its citizens on ALL income no matter where they receive it. Therefore, although the prize-awarding government doesn’t take out taxes, when the winner is a US citizen, the IRS still wants a piece of the action.

You do have the option of living overseas to stay out of their clutches, if you don’t mind not seeing your family and friends again. While I’m sure this is sufficient for US citizens to get away from paying taxes on relatively small foreign incomes, a lottery winner has a high profile. The IRS might come after you anyway.

There is another catch to this. In every lotto drawing there are 0 to few jackpot winners but there are thousands of players who win smaller amounts, from free tickets to $150,000 (Big Game prize for getting 5 numbers but not the Big Game number).

You’re much more likely to win a small prize than the jackpot. What happens then? Will you drive from Tennessee to Canada to collect one free ticket worth $C 1? Will you fly to Melbourne for $A 10? I don’t think so!

The people who buy the tickets for you probably clean up simply on these small prizes. I know that one company that wrote me told me they’d send me all small money I earned, but how would I know if they didn’t? In those pre-Internet days I had no way of checking on winning foreign lotto numbers. And if they decided not to send it to me, how could I force them to pay me? I couldn’t.

36. Be a government that licenses only casinos you own. This option is also not available to governments within the US. It is the system in The Philippines (Casino Filipino is government owned and operated) and maybe other countries.

37. Sell your losing lottery tickets to a lotto winner.

A co-worker once told me she knew a lotto jackpot winner who was taking his jackpot in the form of annual payments spread out over twenty years. This guy hung around 7-Elevens and other stores that sold lottery tickets. When people threw their losing lottery tickets on the ground, he picked them up.

Why would he do this? In the US, gambling winnings are taxable, but only *net* winnings. That is, if you bet $1 once and win $10 you owe taxes on the $9 net. If you also bet a second time and lose $1, your net winnings are only $8 and so you pay taxes only on the $8.

If you are a lotto winner who receives, for example, $100,000 a year, but you do no gambling that year, you must pay taxes on that entire $100,000. However, if you can prove that you lost $10,000 that year — by buying losing lotto tickets you can display as “proof” of the $10,000 you lost, you pay taxes only on the $90,000 net.

When he filed his taxes every year, he then submitted all these begrimed tickets as proof of money he had lost while gambling. These “losses” reduced the amount of his annual lotto payment that he had to pay taxes on.

This too is illegal fraud. It is also stupid. When I win my lotto jackpot, I’ll find better things to do with my time than pick up dirty pieces of paper worth about 30 cents each in tax reduction.

38. Sell gambling books on eBay.

Sell ones you have decided are not worth keeping. Or buy cheap second hand ones in used bookstores, Goodwills or yard sales.

Good poker books, especially by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth, sell best, I found. Good blackjack books are in second place. Good general gambling books are third. I could not sell any of my books on baccarat or slots.

39. Teach gambling seminars and classes.

40. Operate a controlled access gambling forum on your website.

41. Work for the Griffin Security Agency. They keep tabs on known cheaters and blackjack card counters — without distinguishing between dishonesty and using your brain. They make a lot of money from casinos around the world.

42. Join a lottery network marketing company. I heard of one starting for the German lottery, backed by a reputable company in that country.

Build a big enough downline and you’ll make a large income without ever winning a jackpot. And who knows? You might also win a jackpot. I’d fly to Bonn to claim a few million euros.

43. Be the president of a country that allows only government owned casinos to operate. The casinos allow only foreigners and affluent locals to gamble inside.

Since 95% of the local population are poor not affluent, they are not allowed inside their own casinos. Since 95% of them like to gamble, they play cards among themselves or go to illegal gambling halls.

As president, take bribes from the syndicates that operate these illegal gambling dens.

However, don’t let your bag man spill the beans. If your bag man does talk to the newspapers, have the support of your country’s military. Because he did NOT have support from his generals, Former President Joseph Estrada of The Philippines is in jail on corruption charges.

44. Get paid to collect signatures on petitions to place gambling-related laws on election ballots.

45. Sell your losing race track tickets to winners at the track, so that when they file their taxes they’ll have proof of higher than usual losses. This is a variation of 37.

46. Help gamblers with their taxes.

47. If you’re an online casino, sell the right to opportunity seekers to use your servers and software infrastructure. For a monthly fee, the sucker . . . er, businessperson essentially gets a unique gateway into your site. They advertise for business, and keep a portion of the gambling profits.

Since they’re paying you a high monthly fee and for the banner ads that bring the gamblers to your site, you’re almost guaranteed a high net profit.

48. Be a state running your own lottery. But don’t expect much if you’re a mere tax-paying citizen of a state with a lottery.

When I moved to Missouri from Illinois in 1979, I was outraged to discover the state government of Missouri expected me to pay a “personal property” tax for the right to own my own car. When I complained, the woman behind the desk told me, “In Illinois you’ve got a state lottery to raise money. We don’t have that here in Missouri.”

A few years later, Missouri voters approved the formation of a state lottery. And guess what? We still have to pay the state a personal property tax for the privilege of owning our own vehicles.