Monthly Archives: May 2022

There wasnt a lot of creativity involved in putting Creative Minister in the 147th Preakness Stakes. Not unless you consider cutting a check for $150,000 to supplement his entry to be a creative act.

It cost 150 large to put Creative Minister into the Pimlico Race Course starting gate because the colt didnt make his debut until March 5, five weeks after the initial January 29 deadline to nominate 3-year-olds for the Triple Crown.

Nominating a colt then costs $600. Waiting until March 29 the deadline for late nominations would have cost Creative Ministers connections $6,000. But at that time, he only had that debut race on the CV: a neck loss in a Gulfstream Park maiden special weight.

Since then, Creative Minister raced two more times. And, since then, Creative Minister is undefeated. He won an April 9 Keeneland maiden special weight by 1 1/2 lengths on the Blue Grass Stakes undercard, which opened some eyes.

But what opened more not to mention the pocketbooks of majority owners Greg Back and Paul Fireman was what Creative Minister did in his third outing. In an allowance race on the Kentucky Derby undercard, Creative Minister rolled to a nearly three-length victory.

That was impressive, especially the way he came from way off the pace after hopping at the start. Also impressive was the 108 Equibase Speed Figure Creative Minister registered over the 1 1/16 mile trek.

When Back saw the 108 Equibase, he talked to trainer Kenny McPeek who owns 10% of Creative Minister, who had another conversation about the horses future just an hour earlier.

I dont remember who the guy was, but he said, Well, put him in the Preakness,' Back told the Maryland Jockey Club. I turned to Kenny and said Preakness! He hemmed and hawed just a little bit and said, You know what? if youre willing to pay the fee, I think he could have a chance. Then, we researched everything and found out how much the fee was, and we made the decision.

Back said that 108 Equibase was the deciding factor. Not only is it the top Equibase among the nine horses in the Preakness, but it surpassed Rich Strikes 106 from his Kentucky Derby victory.

He ran that incredible race in the allowance, and Kenny said, This horse has as much talent as my other stakes horses. If you guys want to go, we can go,' Back said. I mean, the speed figure did everything for me. I knew he was a talented horse. But when you start running a 108, you can compete with anybody.

Horseplayers seem to agree. Creative Minister is gaining a reputation as the wise-guy horse, the sleeper who could wake up tickets. He opened at +1,495 on Circa Sports Preakness board earlier this week. As of Wednesday, Creative Minister dropped to 9/1 at Circa, the same as his morning-line odds at Pimlico.

Back, who sold a trucking company five years ago, owns 45% of the colt. So does Fireman, the founder and former owner of athletic apparel giant Reebok before selling that company to Adidas for $3.8 billion in 2005.

That means the pair are kicking in $67,500 each to supplement Creative Minister into the Preakness field. McPeeks in for the remaining $15,000. That fee only $30,000 less than they paid for the horse goes into the Preakness purse, meaning the nine horses are racing for their share of $1.65 million.

For Back, Fireman, and McPeek to make their investment back, Creative Minister will have to hit the board.

How many times do you get to go to the Preakness with a horse that is actually gaining respect, Back said. Im a gambler at heart I think we have a very good chance to hit the board, and I actually think he can pull it off. It just depends if some of these other horses get tired and he can make the run he likes to make.

The rest is here:

Creative Minister Provides an Expensive Preakness Wild... - Online Gambling

By Gunjan Prabhakaran and Payal Thaker

The online gaming industry has witnessed significant growth since its emergence way back in the year 2000, showcasing immense growth potential. Within a couple of decades, it grew to become more than a billion-dollar industry and continues to grow exponentially. The trajectory of the growth has been eventful.

Online gaming can be broadly classified as games of chance where the outcome is predominantly driven by luck and games of skill where the success depends principally upon the knowledge, training, expertise and experience of the player. Gambling is traditionally considered an act of risking something of value with a chance to win prizes. One would engage in a game of chance by putting a stake (usually money) on something with an intent to win a bigger sum, which can be considered gambling.

Gambling has been a topic of moral policing since ancient times and has been facing backlash from many states in India. The states have either banned it completely or regulated it (or are in process of regulating it). With easy and cheaper access to the internet, gambling has moved from land-based to online-based gambling, leading to mass penetration. States such as Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Odisha, have banned online gaming (whether games of chance or games of skill) in an attempt to prohibit gambling. Since games of chance are likely to be construed as gambling, these are expected to face legal hurdles in these States. Further, states such as Sikkim, Nagaland and Meghalaya have legislations to permit and/or regulate online gaming, including licensing.

In the international arena, the UK has regulated gambling by way of specific laws governing gambling to regulate various aspects like defining gambling or betting, protecting vulnerable sections from being exploited by gambling, regulating age limits, imposing limits on stakes, fees, winnings, prizes, etc. In the USA, gaming laws are comparatively liberal and gambling activities are governed by Local, State and Federal level laws.

While a few Indian states may want to prohibit gambling, with changing times and the increase in the reach of online gambling, this may not be easy to achieve. There is a need to revisit the current approach, from a complete ban to regulating these activities. Also, States need to be mindful of the fact that in their attempt to ban/regulate gambling, the games that are primarily based on the skills and expertise of players should not suffer the axe.

While the online gaming industry faces legal and constitutional battles as indicated, they also have a long-drawn battleline with GST authorities over GST rate and valuation. On the issue of the applicable GST rate, the tax authorities argue that the highest rate of 28% is applicable on the entire amount collected by the online gaming companies, treating all online games as gambling. This issue circles back to the moot question, as to what constitutes a game of chance Vs. game of skill. There have been judicial pronouncements debating the matter in the case of games such as Rummy, Poker, Fantasy games and Horse-racing, which have been viewed as games of skill. However, the principle contained in these judicial pronouncements have to be evaluated and relied upon on a case-to-case basis and a straight-jacket application would be fraught with inherent risks.

On money pooled for distribution as prize money, tax authorities contend to levy GST, whereas, various High Courts have observed that, they are in the nature of actionable claim and therefore, no GST is applicable on it. Another matter which needs attention, especially from foreign companies providing gaming services to Indian end-users, is evaluation of whether their services would fall within the ambit of Online Information Database Access and Retrieval Services. This gains significance from a perspective of whether a foreign company is required to obtain a GST registration and follow GST compliances in India.

To address some of these GST issues relating to the online gaming industry, the Finance Ministry constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) who conducted their meeting on 2 May 2022. In this meeting, the GoM arrived at a broad consensus on most of the issues, however, the conclusive view and the likely outcome of the same are expected very soon.

(Gunjan Prabhakaran is Partner & Leader Indirect Tax at BDO India and Payal Thaker is Partner Indirect Tax at BDO India. The views expressed are authors own.)

Read more from the original source:

Gaming vs Gambling, Skill vs Chance: Controversy surrounds the Gaming industry in India - The Financial Express

The gambling market has always worked with a cut-edge approach by constantly developing and thinking outside the box. 2022 will not be the year that throws tradition to the ground, especially as new challenges and opportunities are to be faced for the global market.

The entire world is currently in a transformative state, with plenty of current events to shake and break the rhythm of everyday life. When it comes to online gambling, transformative environments have been and continues to be critical to the markets development. Below we will discuss some of the greatest transformative trends that the online gambling market may be facing this year.

While advertisement is perhaps not the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of gambling, it is the factor that sets the bar and may lower the threshold for old and new customers alike. However, during the past couple of years, more and more gambling marketing restrictions have been on the tables of politicians worldwide.

The objective of advertising often comes down to one of two things: 1) to generate customers by spreading effective bonus campaigns such as $1 deposit bonus, or 2) creating at least artificial trust in gambling companies by using the familiar faces of celebrities. During the last year, several regions have discussed or implemented bans on the use of celebrities in gambling ads. Similarly, several major sports leagues, such as the British soccer Premier League, have discussed or implemented bans on gambling companies as main sponsors for teams.

The world of advertising now faces critical decisions regarding how to change their approach to the market in light of these new regulations. Furthermore, the advertisement needs to provide for a post-pandemic society.

The post-pandemic society is a challenge for many business sectors as restrictions are loosened. For the gambling market, this means full returns to both fully operating sports games as well as people returning to the competing brick-and-mortar gambling institutions.

There is no denying that the online gambling community gained new customers due to the sudden pandemic-influenced removal of arenas such as traditional sports wagering and physical casinos. In the post-pandemic era, however, the online market needs to find new approaches to maintain their new market width.

Further adding to the new markets available, the online sports wagering market has seen a drastic increase as the market is rapidly expanding in the United States. During the last year, several states have come to legalize online wagering, including power state New York. California, the most populous US state, is currently putting bills on the table that would enable online gambling for this winters election.

The expanded US market will affect the entire world as the gambling companies expand their activities and approaches. Furthermore, the wagering on US specific sports and leagues may ramp up as a consequence, therefore affecting popular betting opportunities such as the NHL and the MLB.

A growing market in itself, crypto currency has begun to enter the gambling scene as well over the past few years. Crypto casinos, sometimes called interchangeably with the misguiding title bitcoin casinos, are online gambling platforms that accept deposits and withdrawals made in the crypto currency choice of the customer. The approach has generally been seen as safer and quicker for customers due to the independent blockchain function of transactions, which has garnered the market much attention.

The crypto currency trend does not seem to be slowing, which most likely implies that the crypto casino market is not ceasing either. While crypto casinos are increasing in numbers, not a lot of national governing bodies have accepted them as mainstream gambling options. Thus, the market is pregnant with potential.

Another transformative opportunity that the gambling market could make use of is the rekindled global passion for climate questions. Earlier this year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, released their sixth report on climate change. The report confirmed suspicions that the global community is not on track to meet the demands set in the groundbreaking 2015 Paris Agreement.

The online gambling community could use this discussion as leverage and inspiration to set an example by developing more energy-friendly systems as well as use game developments to spread information on climate issues. Though the likelihood is small due to its political identity, it is a transformative opportunity to consider nonetheless for a market that wants to continue expanding at the forefront of ideas.

For a few years now, market predictors have listed artificial intelligence, or AI for short, as a large opportunity for the gambling market. The post-pandemic environment might be the optimum moment for the AI casinos to get their breakthrough, as it will fill the potential advertising holes discussed earlier in this text. Furthermore, upcoming digital cooperation strategies such as the metaverse cater to similar concepts, thus creating a seamless connection.

Incurable web evangelist. Hipster-friendly gamer. Award-winning entrepreneur. Falls down a lot.

Excerpt from:

Transformative trends in online gambling 2022 - theinformant.co.nz

On 19 October 2021 the Irish Government approved the publication of the General Scheme of the Gambling Regulation Bill1 (the General Scheme) which sets out the framework and legislative basis for the establishment of a new Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (the Authority). On 17 May 2022 the Joint Committee on Justice (the Committee) published its Report on Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Gambling Regulation Bill2 (the Report) in which it sought to scrutinise the proposed legislation and provide recommendations on areas where it believes change or amendments are warranted.

The Committee heard evidence and submissions from key stakeholders, identified several issues and made recommendations on these as set out in detail in the Report. The Report summarises the engagements with stakeholders as well as the key points considered by the Committee when drafting the recommendations set out in the Report.

Recommendations

The Joint Committee made the following recommendations:

Conclusion

The Government has committed to establishing a gambling regulator focused on public safety and well-being covering online and in-person gambling which is focused on public safety and well-being, with the powers to regulate advertising, gambling websites and apps. The recommendations of the Committee are largely focused on protecting players and the vunerable from the harms that can arise from gambling.. These recommendations and the measures contained in the General Scheme will fundamentally alter the landscape for gambling in Ireland once the long awaited Gambling Regulation Bill is enacted.

The Government has approved the Gambling Regulation Bill for priority drafting and publication. There is now a clear pathway mapped for this legislation progressing, which will facilitate the Authority being established and operational in 2023. In addition, applications have now closed for the post of the CEO Designate of the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland. The Public Appointments Service is currently interviewing candidates and it is expected that the start date and on boarding process for the new CEO Designate will be announced in Q3 2022.

After numerous false dawns in the past it would appear that Ireland is now well on the road to reforming the regime which exists in Ireland for gambling.

Original post:

Report on Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Gambling Regulation Bill - Lexology