Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act

Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who Are Bringing Down the Internet
by Joseph Menn
Published 26 Jan 2010

“Almost all wagers going to offshore sites come from the United States.”The main gaming lobby moved to an official position of neutrality, while calling for a study of how online betting could be regulated best. But as Barrett nervously watched in 2006, Congress finally moved to make it clear that Internet betting, even on poker, was illegal. In September it surprised many of its own members by approving a sweeping and poorly worded anti-gambling bill, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. The bill made it an offense to accept or transfer money for an illegal gambling transaction but didn’t define what exactly made a gambling transaction illegal. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist backed it just ahead of the midterm elections, attaching it to an unrelated bill on port security that passed in the small hours of the morning.

…

But perhaps the most salient reason was super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He had fought fiercely against the proposed bans on behalf of a legal online lottery company before getting disgraced in a bribery probe. For the Republican majority, a vote against Internet gambling gave them distance from the Abramoff scandal. Whatever the motivation, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act crashed poker company stocks in a New York minute. More than $7 billion in market value evaporated in a single day. PartyPoker’s parent, PartyGaming, lost 75 percent of its worth in the next four weeks, and the company said it would drop the three-fourths of its business that originated in the U.S., some $4 million daily.

…

See United Nations Underground economy CarderPlanet and denial-of-service attacks and identity theft and law enforcement and Shadowcrew and viruses and United Kingdom. See Britain United Nations (UN) United States BetCRIS and China and cybersecurity and DDoS and gambling law in Internet crime and law enforcement and mafia in Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Valis, Fred Van Dyke, James Vega, Roman Vendorsname Venezuela VeriSign Video Vietnam Virtual private network (VPN) Viruses Bagle Blue Security, Inc. and denial-of service attacks and free-speech laws and Melissa MyDoom Sasser SoBig spamming and underground economy and Visa VO-Group VPN.

The Perfect Bet: How Science and Math Are Taking the Luck Out of Gambling
by Adam Kucharski
Published 23 Feb 2016

It may even determine the fate of the once lucrative American poker industry. In 2011, US authorities shut down a number of major poker websites, bringing an end to the “poker boom” that had gripped the country for the previous few years. The legislative muscle for the shake-up came from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Passed in 2006, it banned bank transfers related to games where the “opportunity to win is predominantly subject to chance.” Although the act has helped curb the spread of poker, it doesn’t cover stock trading or horseracing. So, how do we decide what makes something a game of chance?

…

CHAPTER 8 197Hundreds of cameras cling: Author experience. 197casinos’ definition of such cheating: History of surveillance in: Hicks, Jesse. “Not in My House: How Vegas Casinos Wage a War on Cheating.” The Verge, January 14, 2014. http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/14/3857842/las-vegas-casino-security-versus-cheating-technology. 198Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act: Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, 31 U.S.C. 5361–5366, §5362. 198That included Lawrence DiCristina: Details of DiCristina case from: Weinstein, Jack. Memorandum, Order & Judgment, United States of America against Lawrence DiCristina. 11-CR-414. August 2012. http://jurist.org/paperchase/103482098-U-S-vs-DiCristina-Opinion-08–21–2012.pdf. 200airport operator William McBoyle helped arrange: McBoyle v.

…

See stock exchanges; stock/financial markets traditional bookmakers, 95 trifecta, 57 trigger events, 120–121, 122, 130 triple trio, 57, 64 trustworthiness, 192 Tse, Chi Kong, 15–18, 22 Turing, Alan, 169–171, 171–172, 176, 177, 182, 188–189, 190, 194 Tutte, Bill, 26 21 (film), 214 Twitter feed, 120–121, 122, 123 UK Grand National, 84 UK National Lottery, 26 Ulam, Stanislaw, 58–61, 64, 82–83, 168–169, 180, 202, 217 ultraweak solutions, 158, 159 uncertainty, 16, 51, 58, 64, 112, 153, 173, 216 uniform distribution, 41 university gambling courses, 213–216, 215 University of Salford, 106 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, 198 US Congress, 136, 137 US Constitution, 150 US Department of Defense, 92 US Federal Reserve, 133 US Masters, 84 US National Checker Championship, 156 US Open, 88–89 US Supreme Court, 201 Veiby, Peder, 119 Venetian casino, 87 Venn, John, 23 Venn diagram, 87 Verhulst, Pierre, 125–126 volatility, clustered, 162 Voler La Vedette bot, 116–117, 119 von Neumann, John, 60–61, 138–139, 142, 145, 147–148, 149, 150, 151–152, 168–169, 170, 172, 177, 181–182, 208, 217 Voulgaris, Haralabos, 85–86, 91, 107 Wagenaar, Willem, 179 Walford, Roy, 3–4, 7, 21 Walters, Billy, 81, 82 Wang, Zhijian, 178 Watson, 165–167, 171, 190 Watson, Thomas, 166 weak solutions, 158, 159 weather, 9, 13, 19, 53 website navigation, 194 Weinstein, Jack, 200, 201 Wiener, Norbert, 211 Wilde, Will, 100, 103 Wilson, Allan, 7, 8 Wilson, Woodrow, 84 win-stay lose-shift strategy, 178 Wired (magazine), 28 Wohl, Mike, 102 Wood, Greg, 117 Woods, Alan, 39, 43, 45–46, 57, 68 World Cup (soccer), 113, 205 World Series of Poker, 140–141, 144, 145 York University course, 215 Yorke, James, 13 zero-sum games, 145–147, 149, 161, 181 ADAM KUCHARSKI is a lecturer in mathematical modeling at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and an award-winning science writer.

When to Rob a Bank: ...And 131 More Warped Suggestions and Well-Intended Rants
by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Published 4 May 2015

The right way to do that, however, is not a prohibition, but rather a regulatory framework in which governments take their cut of the action. For all parties involved, that sort of system is more efficient than the current approach. 4. Even under the government’s own laws, it would seem that there is little question that online poker should be legal. While I personally think the logic underlying the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which governs online gambling, is deeply flawed, it is nonetheless the law of the land. Under the UIGEA, games of skill are exempted from the law, which is supposed to apply only to games of chance. So legally, whether online poker is legal comes down to the court’s interpretation of whether poker is predominantly a game of skill.

…

R., 38–39 stock markets, capitalization of, 67 strangers, fear of, 130–33 street gangs, 229–36, 246–47, 248–49 street handouts, 328–37 Stubbs, Bob, 46 subjectivity, 170 Sullenberger, Chesley “Sully,” 82–83 SuperFreakonomics (Levitt & Dubner), 54, 101, 105, 119, 121, 261 supply and demand, 78–80, 110, 112, 115, 128, 341–44 Swift, Jonathan, 258–59 Taleb, Nassim Nicholas, 329, 334–37 tax code, 159–60 taxes: on athletes’ incomes, 72–74 cheating on, 158–60 on sex, 256–59 war on, 11–14 Taylor, Brian, 253 Taylor, Sean, 241 teachers, cheating by, 103–4, 160–61 Tejada, Miguel, 149 tenure, 16–19 Terrible Towel, 215 terrorism, 5–11, 108–9, 252 Thaler, Richard, 68, 308–9 Think Like a Freak (Levitt & Dubner), 26, 27 350.org, 178–84 ticketless travel, 141 Tierney, John, 114–16 Tinker, David, 40 tipping, and flight attendants, 19–20 Tomlin, Mike, 218 tooth decay, 275–76 Tour de France, 151–52 Travolta, John, 306 Tropicana, 174–75 TSA, 5–6, 11, 108–9, 251–53 Tversky, Amos, 206 TV viewing habits, 322–24 Twitter contest, 94–96 umbrellas, dangers of, 108–9 United States, six-word motto for, 96–99 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), 129–30 US Airways flight 1549, 82–83 Veblen, Thorstein, 184 veganism, 179–84 Velde, François, 62 Venkatesh, Sudhir, 229–36, 246–47 Vermeil, Dick, 207–8 Virgin Mobile, 63–64 voting mechanisms, 29–31 wages: and markets, 24, 25 of politicians, 32–36 and quality of applicants, 34 walking drunk, 101 Wayne (middle name), 38–40 Weber, Christopher L., 171, 172 Weller, Mark, 62–63 Werner, James, 40 Wertheim, Jon, 209–12 Weyl, Glen, 30–31 White, Byron “Whizzer,” 214 Williams, Tom, 148–49 Wilson, A.N., 282 Winfrey, Oprah, 51 Wire, The, 229–33 Witt, Robert, 225–26 Wolf, Cyril, 51–53 Wolfers, Justin, 344–47 women: feminist movement, 346–47 and happiness, 344–47 work: incentives in, 339–40 leisure vs., 168 World Preservation Foundation, 179–82, 192–95 World Series of Poker, 187–88, 192–95 Worthy, Paige, 44–45 Zelinsky, Aaron, 152–53 About the Authors STEVEN D.

Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud
by Ben McKenzie and Jacob Silverman
Published 17 Jul 2023

A few online poker rooms in the late nineties and early aughts swelled to more than 500 by 2010. Poker tournaments were now much-hyped televised events, with online sites driving much of the advertising and the winning players becoming celebrities. The star players would often then sign lucrative endorsement deals with those sites, drawing in even more average Joes. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 laid the groundwork for the demise of the poker boom. Domestically, it meant that the people behind those websites were engaged in illegal activity and could be arrested. Some of them would be. Companies that wanted to continue to operate were forced to move overseas, setting up shop via shell corporations in the Caribbean and other friendly foreign jurisdictions.

…

Tech Transparency Project (TTP) TeraExchange Terra Classic (LUNC) TerraClassicUSD (USTC) Terraform Labs TerraLuna TerraUSD (UST) Tether Thiel, Peter Thompson, Hunter S. Three Arrows Capital (3AC) Times of Israel Tomlin, Bennett Toomey, Pat top-of-the-pyramid promoters (TOPPs) Torres, Ritchie Trabucco, Sam TradFi Trump, Donald trustless money tulip mania Twitter Ultimate Bet unit of account Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (2006) “Untethered” (McKenzie, B., and Silverman) utilitarianism Velde, Jean-Louis van der Ver, Roger Voyager Digital Wall Street Crash (1929) Wall Street Journal Wang, Gary wash trading Wetjen, Mark Whinstone Bitcoin facility wildcat banks Williams, Damian Wong, Tiffany Yaffe-Bellany, David Zawadzki, Dana

Money Men: A Hot Startup, a Billion Dollar Fraud, a Fight for the Truth
by Dan McCrum
Published 15 Jun 2022

On the last day of business in the Capitol, a Bill designed to protect container ports from terrorists prompted the opportunity for a deft piece of legislative extortion; an entirely unrelated amendment was tagged on. Rather than wreck a popular measure just before facing voters concerned about the war on terror, the amended Bill was waved through and, without notice or warning, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act sprang into being: it was illegal to take bets online. While the various US authorities were given a few years to work out the details, there were soon signs that a crackdown was coming. In January 2007 two founders of the ‘virtual wallet’ provider Neteller were arrested, one while on holiday in the US Virgin Islands.

…

‘Shan’ 134–5, 271–2 Singapore arrest 304 short sellers xi and Wirecard 31–4 Carson Block 36–7 surveillance 255–7 see also specific persons/stories Shubber, Kadhim 254–5 Sigma Trading 181 Silks, Murphy on 4–5 Silverman, Gary 20, 21, 36 Silverstein, Martin 178 Sino Forest 93 Sino Forest scam 36–7 Skripal, Sergei, GRU and 268 SmartE, O’Sullivan and 250 Smaul, Simon, and G2Pay xi, 39, 42–4 client loss 45–6 and Marsalek 49–50, 65–6 and miscoded 7995 transactions 42–4 and Sunsont nutraceutical processing 60–63, 65–6 and Third-Party Acquiring 200 leaves G2Pay 60 whistleblower 258–9 Smith, Herbert 246 SoftBank 249, 288 Vision Fund 145, 197–8 loan to Wirecard 197–200, 203, 205, 210, 236–9 Mubadala actual lender 238 Southern Investigative Reporting Foundation 146, 147n Steinhoff, Daniel, Project Tiger 155–8, 226 Stephens, Philip 257 Stoeckl, Iris 144 at London presentation 111 on shorters and Ashazi 72–3, 74, 77 Stolkin, Hugo 88 Stone, Brian, Al Alam meeting 277 Storbeck, Olaf 249, 297 Braun offers interview 259–60 Straub, Markus (SdK), on Wirecard accounts 32–4 Süddeutsche Zeitung 263 on Marsalek’s escape 300 Sun Tzu, The Art of War 65 Sundaram, Kritin 203 Sunday Business 53–4 Sunsont 60–63, 65–6 Sururi, Nasreen, on Wirecard/Ashazi 70, 73 surveillance dossier 257 Sweeting’s 53 Symtric (Al Alam) 277 Systems@Work 66 Taleb, Sina 118 and Marsalek 147, 148 TecDAX 25, 28 Telegram 81–2 Wirecard and 163 Tett, Gillian (FT), on hedge funds 36 ‘The Count’ 266 theatres, high-risk processing 43 Third-Party Acquiring 200–203 Timo (German lawyer) 142–3, 208 Tolentino, Mark 293, 304 Manila trustee meeting 272–5 protests innocence 300 Toronto University Citizen Lab 208 on Indian hacker gang BellTroX 298–9 Trautmann, Rüdiger xi, 45, 61, 63, 97, 98, 116 and Inatec 46 police take inbox archives 101–3, 104 Wirecard accounts concerns 27–8, 31, 44 Trump, Donald 163, 169, 199, 253, 268 GRU and 268 Turkish boxers 33–4 Uber 145 UBS, and Wirecard/Deutsche Bank proposal 231 UK, gambling-friendly jurisdiction 43 UK Insolvency Service, and Dowson shell companies 122 UK police refuse raid on Earl and Perring 141 Ukraine, GRU and 268 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act 2006 (USA) 29 US college football betting 43 US FBI, on Wirecard critics hacking 208 US police, Wirecard money laundering probe 2015 101–3, 104 Valiant Capital 210 Vanranen, David 78 Viceroy Research 226, 305 Visa/Mastercard membership, XCOM bank 27 Visa and miscoded 7995 transactions 42 Project Tiger summary papers sent to 167–8 Wirecard crackdown 2009/10 48–9, 58 von Erffa, Stephan 251 arrested 303 KPMG report meeting 290 Wirecard deputy CFO 138 von Knoop, Alexander x, 174, 175, 230, 290, 291, 292, 295 Wagner, Denis 47 and Click2Pay 13–17 joins Wirecard sales team 9–11, 13 prepaid credit cards misgivings 18, 19 sacked 19 Wagner Group soldiers 268–9 Wall Street Journal 20, 238 WalPay, Isle of Man 102 Warburg 109 Weiss, Martin 279, 300 arrested 303 former Austria BVT head 280 on Russian Diplomat as former spy 280 Westcott, Mark 185 WeWork 145, 198 White, Alan, refuses to talk 245–6 Wickford Network 283–4 Willms, Jesse 47–9 Wirecard accounts, early years 25–34, 44–5, 65, 90–92, 110 and Allied Wallet 210–11 and Allscore Beijing 250 and Ashazi Services Bahrain 67–71, 72–7 Asian takeovers 67–71, 72–7 non-offices, investor confidence in 93–4 AsiaPacific deal with Citigroup 145–6, 152–3 BaFin ban on short selling 180 and Banc de Binary 211 Bauer-Schlichtegroll buys for porn billing 12–13 leaves/divests 30–31, 46 Bavarian police 2015 raid 101–3 and Bijlipay card reader 80–81 and Bitcoin 249–50 Boyd on 146–7 and CenturionBet 102n Chinese purported bid for 112 Christmas party 2009 49–50 and DAX 30 28, 236, 287, 288 DAX Index membership 156, 159–60 and Deutsche Bank 27 and Dowson 122 Einsteinring Park, move to 63–4 Enterprise Portal 41–2 Ernst & Young see Ernst & Young FT investigations/stories see Financial Times G2Pay payment processor see G2Pay German press support 110 Gibraltar office 31, 40, 77 Hempton on 56 Hermes i-Tickets smartshops 78–89 1A/Hermes deal 84–9 Hermes HQ shown to analysts 94 Ramasamy brothers falling-out 155 and high-risk processing 43–4, 47 ICC-Cal cash stolen 50–51 Ingenico, purported bid for 108, 117–18 and Irish dissolved companies 211 Jakarta offices, shown to analysts 94 KPMG investigation/aftermath draft report to supervisory board 286–90 no profit from European payment processing 286 Ebitda from purported partner commissions 286–7 investor base hopeful 289, 295 management spins on 283, 285 parliamentary inquiry 302–3 stock drops 291, 292, 295 Wirecard announces 1.9bn missing 295 see also Braun, Markus; KPMG; Marsalek, Jan Macquarie meeting on 139–40 management/finances cash in carrier bags 182 customers, high processing fees 284 delayed financial results 285 executive board meetings, no minutes 287 files for insolvency 296, 304 imaginary clients story 248–52 money always tight 258–9 see also Braun, Markus; Marsalek, Jan Merchant Cash Advances (MCAs) 236–7 and online gambling 14–17, 97 Pennsylvania office 226 people ix–xi Philippines office 57–8 rolling reserve deposits 45 SdK concerns and stock drop 31–4 Singapore office 49, 94, 133–5, 153–60, 174–5, 188–9, 301 finance team investigation 155–8 Gill on 161–3 police raid 176 Systems@Work 66 trustee accounts 271–2 whistleblowers 154–5, 156, 158, 161–3 and SoftBank 197–200, 203, 205, 210 SoftBank loan 236–9 Mubadala actual lender 238 on stock market 17 supervisory board and KPMG findings 287–90 and suspicious loans 288 gives KPMG one more week 289 meeting 232 supports Braun/Marsalek 289, 294–5 systems self-destruct 2016 103–4 in TecDAX 25, 28 and Telegram 163 Third-Party Acquiring, as cover story 258–9 McKinsey on 234, 235 internal audit and Third-Party Acquiring 201 nonexistent (KPMG) 291 trustee accounts 259, 271–2, 272–5 and UK shell companies 43–4 UK & Ireland office 245–6 US money laundering probe 2015 101–3, 104 Visa fines, freeze 58, 64 WireBank proposal 239 Wirecard Bank (formerly XCOM bank) 26–31 Schütt investigated 59 statement for ConePay 189–90 XCOM bank 26–8 Zatarra and, see Zatarra Wirtschaftswoche, on Al Alam 261 Wise Men (Perring’s) 98, 111 Withers Hong Kong lawyers, Al Alam meeting 276–7 Wright, Craig 223 XCOM bank, Wirecard buys 26–8 Yasmineh, David, Al Alam meeting 276–7 Zatarra Report 2016 104, 105–13, 144, 177, 183, 184, 185–6, 214, 236, 257, 303 accusatory faked email from 117 BaFin on market manipulation 109 demand to name people in 124–6 Earl and Perring face prosecution 141–3 fourth man 110–11 harassment by Wirecard agents 124–32 Kroll to investigate 117–19 Marsalek’s security to investigate 116–19 outed on Twitter 127 weaknesses 109–12 website attacked 109 Zatarra Research and Investigations 100 THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING Find us online and join the conversation Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/penguinukbooks Like us on Facebook facebook.com/penguinbooks Share the love on Instagram instagram.com/penguinukbooks Watch our authors on YouTube youtube.com/penguinbooks Pin Penguin books to your Pinterest pinterest.com/penguinukbooks Listen to audiobook clips at soundcloud.com/penguin-books Find out more about the author and discover your next read at penguin.co.uk TRANSWORLD UK | USA | Canada | Ireland | Australia India | New Zealand | South Africa Transworld is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.

The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-But Some Don't
by Nate Silver
Published 31 Aug 2012

In the online poker environment of my experience, the fish population was more irregular and depended on the regulatory environment in different countries, the amount of advertising that the poker sites were doing, and perhaps even the time of year.23 During the poker boom years, however, the player pool was expanding so rapidly that there was always a wealth of fishes. That was about to change. The Poker Bubble Bursts In October 2006 the outgoing Republican Congress, hoping to make headway with “values voters” before the midterm elections24 but stymied on more pressing issues, passed a somewhat ambiguous law known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). The UIGEA, strictly speaking, didn’t make online poker illegal. What it did, rather, was to target the third-party companies that facilitated the movement of money into and out of the poker sites. Sure, you could play poker, the law said, in effect—but you couldn’t have any chips.

…

Watson Center, 283–84 3Com, 362 tilt, in poker, 309, 310, 324–26 Times (London), 212 Times Square, 433, 438 toads, 148, 253, 255, 476 Toffler, Alvin, 12, 13 , Japan, 155, 156, 169, 170–71, 172 Tolstoy, Leo, 53 Too Big to Fail (Sorkin), 37 Tornado Alley, 138 tornadoes, 145, 195 Toronto Blue Jays, 76, 87 Torres y Quevedo, Leonardo, 265 Tragedy of Julius Caesar, The (Shakespeare), 4–5, 9, 418, 460 transaction costs, 342–43, 344–45, 345 Treasury bonds, U.S., 20 trial and error, 289, 290–92 Tropical Depression Twelve, 108 Truman, Harry, 56 Trump, Donald, 55 Tulowitzki, Troy, 89 turn, in poker, 299, 306 Tuvalu, 378 Tversky, Amos, 64 24, 435 24/7 Media, 353 Two Plus Two, 308 2001: A Space Odyssey, 264 Tyndall, John, 375 Ulan Bator, Mongolia, 374 uncertainty, 15, 64, 444, 448, 450 of CDOs, 29–30 in chess, 264 in climate forecasts, 382, 389–93, 390, 406–8 communication of, 177–79 definition of, 29 as enemy of forecasting, 177 in frequentism, 253 metaphysical vs. epistemological, 249 in poker, 297 quantification of, 73 risk vs., 26, 29, 36 scenario, 392–93 structural, 393 uncertainty principle, 113–14, 118, 188, 472 underfitting, 163 unemployment, 14, 19, 39–41, 176–77, 184, 187, 198, 200, 202, 482 unfamiliar, improbable vs., 419–20 United Kingdom, 210, 394, 416 United Nations, 213, 410 United States: characteristics of, 10 flu in, 210, 211, 215–16 founding of, 2 houses as poor investments in, 30 late-twentieth century recessions in, 7 as results-oriented society, 326–27 United States Geological Survey (USGS), 146, 148–49, 152–53, 158, 159, 160, 476 unknown unknowns, 11, 26, 420–21, 424, 443, 444, 511 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), 319–20 updating predictions, see Bayesian reasoning Urbahn, Keith, 415, 424, 509 usefulness, calculation of in forecasting, 290–91 Utah Jazz, 238 vaccines, 206–8, 224, 227–28, 229, 230, 484 values voters, 319 Van Poppel, Todd, 92 Varian, Hal, 200, 290 variance, 326 Venus, 374 Veracruz, Mexico, 210, 216 Vidro, Jose, 85 Vietnam, 209 vigorish, 256 vision, 123, 124 Vladimir, 78, 83 volcanoes, 146, 392, 393 von Neumann, John, 116, 167 Voulgaris, Haralabos “Bob,” 232–40, 238, 246, 256–58, 489 walks, in baseball, 79–80, 471 Wall Street Journal, 33, 377, 466–67 War of 1812, 419 War of the Holy League, 4 wars, cause of, 259 Washington, D.C., 395–96, 432 Wasserman, David, 70, 71–72 water vapor, 374, 375–76 Watts Up With That, 409 weak efficient-market hypothesis, 341 wealth effect, 34 weapons of mass destruction, 420, 432, 442, 443 see also nuclear weapons Weather Channel, 128–30, 131, 132, 133, 135–36, 136 Weather.com, 128 weather forecasting, 10, 16, 21–22, 108–12, 115, 126, 162, 473 algorithms for, 128–29 by climatology, 131, 153 competition in, 127–28, 131–37, 132 by computer, 116–18, 123–25, 289 death by lightning and, 125–26 eight to ten days in advance, 132 eyesight in, 123, 124 failures of, 21–22, 114–18 feedback on, 134–35, 387 for-profit, 128–29, 131–32, 133–34, 135–36 human element in, 123–25 of hurricanes, 126–27, 127 matrices in, 114–18 models for, 114–18, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123–25, 225, 226 probability and, 195 recent improvements in, 125–26, 225, 386 as sensitive to initial conditions, 119, 121 as theoretically solvable, 267 three definitions of quality of, 129–30 uncertain initial conditions in, 195 Weather.gov, 128 Weather Service, 473 Weber, Max, 5 Weekly Leading Index, 196 wet bias, 134–38, 474 WFG, 88 wheat, 466 White House economic projection, 40–42, 41 “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False” (Ioannidis), 11, 249 Wicked Bible, 3, 13 Wilson, James Q., 439 wine, 466 win-loss record, 77, 79–80, 103, 106 winner’s curse, 359–60 wins above replacement player (WARP), 90 Winter Meetings, 86 Wired, 9 Wirth, Tim, 370n wisdom-of-crowds principle, 335, 358 see also consensus Wohlstetter, Roberta, 415, 416, 418, 419 Wolfers, Justin, 333–34, 335–36, 497 Wood, Brandon, 89 work ethic, 5, 97 World Health Organization (WHO), 206, 211 World Series of Poker, 294–95, 296 World Trade Center, 422 see also September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks World War I, 205, 453 World War II, 31, 412–13, 414, 432, 464, 470 World Weather Building, 122–25, 473 World Wide Web, 448, 514 Wunderground.com, 131 Yahoo!

On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything
by Nate Silver
Published 12 Aug 2024

But it was also partly the doing of the U.S. Congress. In late 2006, the GOP-led Congress, hungry for a victory with “moral majority” voters ahead of the midterms as Republican congressman Mark Foley resigned from office for having sent sexually explicit messages to underage male pages, passed a bill called the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). The UIGEA didn’t ban online poker per se, but it established regulations that choked off payment processors: it’s hard to play poker if you can’t exchange cash for chips. Some sites closed to U.S. players while others remained open, but between the shadow of illegality and the increased friction of getting your money in and out, inexperienced new players avoided the games, making them much tougher to beat.

…

See risk impact suited (poker), 498 Sullivan, Kathryn, 218–19, 223, 226n, 229, 234–35, 236–37, 467 sunruns, 496 Super Bowl, 182–83 superforecasters, 498 Superintelligence (Bostrom), 380, 417, 498 Super/System (Brunson), 39–40, 45–46 survivorship bias, 414, 498 Swisher, Kara, 270, 275, 289 syndicates (sports betting), 498 System 1/System 2 (Kahneman), 105, 105, 233, 429, 430–31, 498 Szilard, Leo, 415, 418, 496 T Tabarrok, Alex, 179, 489 table games, 131–32, 138, 163, 164, 165–66, 167, 493 See also blackjack table stakes, 498 taboos, 363 tactics, 498 tail risk, 498 takeoff (AI), 418–19, 498 Taleb, Nassim Nicholas, 431n, 479, 497 Tallinn, Jaan, 446, 448 technological innovation, 448–52, 451, 498, 542n Technological Richter Scale (TRS), 450–52, 451, 498 technological singularity 449–50, 497 “Techno-Optimist Manifesto” (Andreessen), 249, 250–51, 270, 296, 498 tells (poker), 7–8, 88, 99–104, 118, 233–34, 238, 437, 498 Tendler, Jared, 92–94, 125 TESCREAL, 380n Tetlock, Phil, 263, 265, 271, 272, 372, 445, 457 See also fox/hedgehog model Texas Hold’em, 41–42 See also poker Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (von Neumann and Morgenstern), 22, 50–51, 421 Theory of Justice, A (Rawls), 364 Thiel, Peter AI and, 406 AI existential risk and, 447 on autism, 282 collegiality within River and, 249–50n contrarianism and, 285 cryptocurrency and, 324 determinism and, 253–54, 297 focal points and, 330 fox/hedgehog model and, 264–65 Elon Musk and, 247, 248, 252 politics and, 267, 272 resentment and, 277 River-Village conflict and, 290 skepticism and, 271 VC profitability and, 296 Thinking, Fast and Slow (Kahneman), 105 threat that leaves something to chance, 498 Thrun, Ferdinand, 12 tight-aggressive (TAG) strategy (poker), 39, 498 tilt, 92, 214, 222, 499 time horizon, 499 tokens (AI), 435, 436, 499 tokens (cryptocurrency), 499 Torres, Émile, 380n, 381, 455 total (over-under), 184, 499 training (machine learning), 499 Traitorous Eight, 257, 258, 499 transformers (AI), 414–15, 434–41, 479, 499 transhumanism, 379, 499 trimmed mean, 499 Trinity Test, 499 trolley problem, 345–46, 346, 357, 400, 499 Truman, Harry S., 409 Trump, Donald casinos and, 142, 145, 146, 150–52, 514n effective altruism on, 378 NFTs and, 326 prediction markets and, 373, 375, 535n River and, 299 River-Village conflict and, 267–68 Silicon Valley and, 272 Peter Thiel and, 254n Village on, 30 Billy Walters and, 197n trust, 57, 143–44, 472, 514n Turing test, 499 turn (poker), 41–42, 499 Tversky, Amos, 427–28, 494 21, 131, 135–37 U Ukraine invasion, 421–22, 424, 425 underdogs, 183, 477 underfitting/overfitting, 361, 361, 362–68, 492 unit (sports betting), 499 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), 13 update (Bayes’ theorem), 499 Upriver, 20–21, 500 Urban, Tim, 273 Urschel, John, 231 utilitarianism Sam Altman and, 408 defined, 500 effective altruism and, 359–61, 362–63, 378, 533n futurism and, 379 hedonistic, 363n overfitting/underfitting and, 362–65, 368 rule utilitarianism, 368, 500 SBF and, 360, 400, 402–3, 471, 498 St.

Deep Sea and Foreign Going
by Rose George
Published 4 Sep 2013

Tubeza, ‘EU may ban PH seamen over training deficiencies’, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 8 March 2012. 6 It’s all very well having foreign seafarers House of Commons Select Committee on Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs, Twelfth Report, 26 May 1999. – A provision about internet gambling The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act appears as Title VIII in the Security and Accountability of Every Port Act of 2006. Accessed from http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW- 109publ347/html/PLAW-109publ347.htm Further Reading Auden, W.H., The Enchafèd Flood or the Romantic Iconography of the Sea, London: Faber & Faber, 1951.

Palace Coup: The Billionaire Brawl Over the Bankrupt Caesars Gaming Empire
by Sujeet Indap and Max Frumes
Published 16 Mar 2021

When Harrah’s acquired Binion’s in 2004, it also got the World Series of Poker brand, moving the showcase tournament to its Rio property off the strip. Loveman thought they could do much more with the World Series of Poker, most notably offering real-money, online tournaments that could be worth billions—and Garber was the man to expand the Caesars empire online. In 2006, the US enacted the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which Harrah’s was determined to overturn with its army of lobbyists in Washington. Harrah’s would clash for years with Sheldon Adelson, the man behind Las Vegas Sands, who was also making a name for himself in Macau. Adelson was hellbent on preventing online gaming and committed his own fortune to stop it.