Jon Kyl, NETeller and Paula Abdul: It's All in the Mail Bag
Gambling911.com gets plenty of mail and from time to time we like to publish it. Watch for this to become a regular feature. This week's big topics of discussion were Jon Kyl, NETeller and even a little diddy about Paula Abdul.
In regard to our coverage on Arizona Senator Jon Kyl (R) and his letter to President Bush bragging about how Kyl's anti-Internet gambling law helped wipe billions off the London Stock Exchange in only a 24 hour period, we received this from one of the Republican party's biggest financial contributors (who wished to remain anonymous).
Here's a POV that might help in positioning Kyl's comment regarding the hit to market capitalization...the number is actually closer to $14B since the first arrest..
The government officials trying to interrupt the off shore gaming business have forced many publicly traded companies to sell off their US businesses and the carnage to shareholders has been pretty dramatic. Yet, that said, the gaming business in the US has experienced virtually no interruption since the new laws went into effect.
The irony of the situation, lots of the money that was lost came right out of the hands of shareholders, many of them US citizens with international accounts held in funds at Goldman, Credit Suisse, Merrill, Fidelity and Morgan Stanley amongst others. In order to participate in those funds you have to be a qualified large investor. I have a sneaky feeling that many of those same individuals give generously to the GOP, the party squarely responsible for enacting the law. So while Senator Kyl takes pleasure in announcing victory over the loss in market capitalization, the law he helped to pass has hurt his constituents right in the pocketbook and put a lot of angst into the banking sector against a heavily based Republican group...Good job Kyl!
Speaking of shareholders, how is this for a letter. Following NETeller's announcement this week that millions of dollars that does not even belong to them will be returned to customers in 70 days, one shareholder lashed out at Gambling911.com for its mostly negative coverage of NETeller. Keep in mind, this is a company that has pretty much failed to correspond with any of its US customers after claiming funds were seized by US authorities two months ago.
Dear Sir,
I have been reading your stories about the NETeller situation and hope that, now the USAO and NLR have come to agreement on the timetable for the transfer of funds back to US account holders, you print a full account of this update. You will see from the statement that it is/was the USAO who has been preventing payment of monies back to US customers and not NLR refusing to do so. As a UK shareholder in NLR, i have felt that your coverage of the situation since 16th January has been both biased and sensationalist. I am sure that you will do everything in your power to redress this with your article on the resolution, which absolves NLR of any fault in the non return of funds to date.
Paul
We responded to Paul and here is what we had to say:
Paul, none of that matters when NETeller has not been communicating with customers about THEIR money. We are not here to help boost NETeller's shares for you. Sorry.
It really is sad when people only think of their own self-interests when there are countless numbers of people owed millions of dollars from what has proven to be an inept organization...and again, we are talking miscommunication here.
Make no mistake about it, NETeller has caved into a lot of pressure from customers threatening lawsuits. NETeller has done little to instill confidence in its customers until this week (two months after the fact). They get no rewards.
On a lighter note, we had plenty of readers coming in for our Antonella Barba coverage.....errr....photos.
But yes people were reading as well.
Our Jenny Woo made mention of American Idol judge Paula Abdul and how -if we are going to be judgmental of one Antonella Barba, we should look at some of Paula's past hits...specifically, Jenny recalls "Straight Up".
A reader corrected Ms. Woo's own interpretation of this song as a celebration of the male sex organ during arousal.
Jenny Woo got it wrong.
Paula Abdul's song "Straight Up" has *nothing" to do with any part of
anyone's anatomy, male or female.
The expression "straight up" means "I'm telling the truth" or demands
that someone else "tell the truth".
The lyrics of the song can be found here:
http://www.lyricsdepot.com/paula-abdul/straight-up.html . Nothing in
the lyrics could give the impression Ms. Woo describes. Obviously she's
never listened to the song, and never looked up the lyrics for the
story.
- Rick Stricker
WebSlingers Web Development
www.web-slingers.com
We thank you Rick for that observation. Sometimes Jenny's mind is in another realm....most often, the gutter.
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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com
Originally published March 23, 2007 12:24 pm ET
