John L. Smith: Allowing Sports Betting Investor Groups in Vegas Carries Some Risk
John L. Smith, a columnist for the Las Vegas Review Journal, offered his assessment of a planned move to allow investment groups or syndicates to place large wagers in the state of Nevada.
It might bring money, but it almost certainly would bring heat in the form of increased law enforcement scrutiny of the states sports gambling industry, he notes at Pokerati.com.
From Pokerati.com:
Heat is something one of SB346s key proponents, Cantor Gaming, knows something about these days. Cantor Gamings Lee Amaitis, who spoke on behalf of the bill at last weeks Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, arched eyebrows in the sports book industry when he touted his friendship with mega-sports bettor Billy Walters in a 2011 60 Minutes broadcast. The entity betting idea is not new to Walters, and Amaitis is a hedge fund expert and former CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald.
But the Amaitis-Walters friendship pales in comparison to the scandal that broke in October 2012 when Cantor Gaming sports book director Mike Colbert was arrested in Las Vegas in connection with a sports betting investigation out of Queens County, N.Y. Colbert, one of Cantor Gamings ground-floor employees, is charged with enterprise corruption, conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling enterprise and three counts of money laundering.
Senate Bill 346, which would allow for the investment group wagers, is widely expected to pass in the Nevada state legislature.
- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com
