The Fertitta family has become synonymous with casino gambling in the US, and on Thursday, Fertitta Interactive LLC showed that they intent on being part of the online poker revolution.
Rhode Island is facing the potential of losing millions of dollars when Massachusetts casinos open in a couple of years, and that has led lawmakers to start considering online gambling to make up the revenue loss.
For the first time since the jarring sex abuse scandal at Penn State broke last week, the man accused has spoken out. Former Nittany Lions assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was interviewed by NBC’s Bob Costas on Monday night, pleading innocence from allegations that he raped eight children over his time at the university.
But the interview fast took a bizarre turn, away from sheer denial to a twisted blend of ignorance and the bizarre.
“I have horsed around with kids. I have showered after workouts. I have hugged them and I have touched their legs without intent of sexual contact.
“I enjoy young people. I love to be around them. But no, I’m not sexually attracted to young boys.”
It’s alleged that Sandusky used the Penn State charity he championed back in the 1970s, The Second Mile, to lure victims, resulting in a horrific stain on the university’s reputation that has been felt everywhere on campus already.
In the last week, the scandal has stretched across Penn State virtually extinguishing Joe Paterno‘s iconic reputation over night and bringing down assistant coach Mike McQueary with him (though McQueary remains with the team).
Given Paterno’s silence and McQueary’s apparent indifference to the cover up we have yet to come to the bottom of the increasingly bizarre story, but fans and students have also felt the impact. Though it was a relative few compared to the overall Penn State body, a crowd of students outside Paterno’s house, chanting and uniting in support of Paterno have been under fire for their own ignorance and insensitivity to victims.
Considering all that’s happened in the past week, it’s hard to figure out what will be uncovered in the coming days, but it’s not looking good for Penn State.
On the field the Lions dropped a critical game to the Nebraska Cornhuskers in Week 11 of the NCAA football season. They’ve seen their college football odds drop expectantly with all of the adversity around campus.
Gaming companies have had it rough during the economic recession, and many have ended up filing for bankruptcy protection. Centaur LLC was one of those companies, but they are on the verge of emerging from bankruptcy protection.
Just in case you’d not gotten enough of the Brad Ruderman poker scandal, new news broke late last night as Star magazine’s Dylan Howard states that eyewitnesses saw Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez playing in the games. This isn’t the big news; in a twist worthy of Dickens, the magazine is now stating that cocaine was openly used and that A-Rod organized his own games, where “thugs” threatened players. This, naturally, has earned the attention of Major League Baseball investigators.
Rodriguez had been warned previously about playing in high-stakes poker games and while he’s vigorously denied any of the allegations, former players in the ring say otherwise and have indicated they’re willing to provide testimony to MLB investigators. The insiders tell state that A-Rod gambled on at least two occasions, in games organized by Molly Bloom, who coordinated the sophisticated poker operation.
Poker pro Dan Bilzerian told the Star how Rodriguez’s first attempt to play turned into a “fiasco” after a fight broke out between the record label manager whose home hosted the event and players to whom he owed money. Bilzerian said: “Molly ran one game at Cody’s mansion. [One player] got all coked up. Everyone had to chase Cody down for the money, and he later paid me a sum and gave me a watch but stiffed me for $ 100,000.”
Bilzerian continued: “He didn’t want to deal with it at all. He was like, ‘OK, whatever. It’s your game.’ I would estimate A-Rod lost, like, a few thousand dollars that night. After everything that happened, he paid-up and left.”
Molly Bloom also apparently bragged to friends about helping Rodriguez put together a game in Miami with her regular poker dealer, Manny Lopez. That game ended with one player losing his shirt and inviting a couple of large thugs to come by and keep others from getting their share. After this, it appears that Rodriguez dropped out of the poker scene entirely, which may be for the best.
You can play online poker at Bodog and enjoy the game without thugs, shouting record label bosses and MLB investigators.