Top Gambling News: Hitman Tells All in Bulger Case, Treasury Denies Bitcoin ‘Assault’
These are the top gambling news stories here at Gambling911.com Tuesday June 18, 2013 (morning hours Eastern Standard Time). Follow us on Twitter here.
*Former Alleged Hitman for Whitey Bulger Claims Mobster “Broke His Heart” - John “The Executioner” Martorano – a star witness at Bulger’s racketeering and murder trial – told the jury that it “sort of broke my heart” when he learned his pal was an FBI informant.
He said Bulger and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi had been his “partners in crime,” his best friends and godfather to his children, the Associated Press reported.
Martorano served just a dozen years in prison even though he admitted to 20 murders, this a result of becoming a government informant.
“I shot him … in the heart,” Martorano said of the 1973 slaying of Joseph Notarangeli. He said he dressed as a butcher for the rubout at a Medford, Mass., restaurant called the Pewter Pot.
Martorano also admitted to botching one hit by murdering the wrong man, a bartender who just happened to drive the same car as his intended target.
“Wrong guy,” he told the prosecutor. (source: NBC News Boston)
*Can Bitcoin Make Peace With Washington? - Federal regulators are increasingly paying attention to Bitcoin, the decentralized virtual currency. Last week, two of the most senior figures of the Bitcoin community trekked to Washington to try convince D.C.’s power brokers that they are eager to work with federal officials. But that may prove easier said than done.
Andrew Oosterbaan enforces laws against child pornography at the U.S. Department of Justice. On a Thursday panel, he argued that the availability of an anonymous virtual currency makes the production of child pornography more profitable. “If they can do it on an anonymous network with an anonymous currency, it becomes somewhat insurmountable for law enforcement,” he said.
“There’s a myth about Bitcoin that it is an anonymous payment network,” Bitcoin general counsel Patrick Murck said. “That is not true. [Bitcoin has] an open public ledger that shows every transaction.”
*Then There’s This on Bitcoin - In remarks given late last week to the curiously named United States Institute for Peace, the head of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) vociferously denied any attempts at regulating digital currency... specifically Bitcoin.
The speech, entitled “The virtual economy: potential, perplexities and promises”
It’s clear that Bitcoin is smack dab on the US government’s radar, despite the digital currency’s tiny market size. But it’s also clear that they don’t understand Bitcoin at all.
They claim, for example, that a digital currency is a ‘financial service’, as if Bitcoin is some sort of mutual fund or home equity line of credit. (Zero Hedge)
*Floodgates Opened by Court Following Test Case on High Stakes Bet Machines in UK - The High Street faces a new tidal wave of casino-style betting machines in bookmakers after a court kicked out a vital test case yesterday.
The warning came after Newham Council - which already has 81 betting shops including 18 on a single street - tried to prevent gambling chain Paddy Power from opening yet another one.
But a judge sided with the chain, saying there was no evidence that the outlet would attract violence, underage gambling and street drinking - despite powerful evidence that this is already happening in and around other betting shops. (source: The Daily Mail)
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
