Brian Balsbaugh ‏@Balsbaugh
https://twitter.com/Balsbaugh/status/261214301694603264
Offshore/US Sportsbook world about to explode- not quite Black Friday but a huge impact. Rumors are flying in Vegas.
2:15 PM - 24 Oct 12

Sports book director for Cantor Gaming arrested
Posted: Oct. 24, 2012 | 1:44 p.m.

chad millman ‏@chadmillman
https://twitter.com/chadmillman/stat...19849328529408
just spoke w/Queens DA office about arrest of Cantor bookmaker Mike Colbert. Announcement regarding arrest/investigation at 11am est tmrw.
2:37 PM - 24 Oct 12

LVRJ story updated:
http://www.lvrj.com/business/sports-...175670521.html

Uh roh

That doesn't look good.

Not really that big of a surprise other than it was not smart for a person working in a Nevada sports book to be involved with an offshore sports betting company.

No grey area here. If he can be shown to be involved this is clearly illegal activity.

Sportsbook Director for Cantor Gaming, M Resorts Arrested in NYC: Faces 8 Charges
by Gambling 911

to be honest i'm surprised they were able to get away with using agents for so long

the sportsbetting market is significantly larger than the poker market, no?

So are the charges essentially saying "Your company said they'd stop doing business in the U.S., but you hired individuals to solicit sportsbook action in the US with your company." ?

How do these transactions with agents work, is it like a bookie, shake hands agreement or do they have websites set up in the US that feed to pinny?

Pretty much - this was well known amongst serious sports bettors for awhile.

i don't sports bet at all and most of my friends who do bet between themselves.

but yes that's basically how they work, i've heard of some ppl who will set up private websites with pin #'s and **** for their customers. in fact i am almost 100% positive a somewhat regular poster on here (i actually think he admitted to being one of these agents in a prior NVG post but don't wanna say his name just in case i'm mis-remembering things) that i've met before was an agent like this. he was also an occasional poker player, but i think he worked more in the club industry or something. i doubt he was one of those arrested today, but i guess you never know.

btw, your writeup on ungar's ME FT was pretty cool.

Complete serious question here guys- I was about to deposit a dime to BetUs literally tom for the Thursday night NFL game. Should I hold back on this due to these events? Anyone with some inside knowledge would be very helpful here. Thanks

Also, are they saying that Cantor sports book director owned Pinnacle sports betting. Im not that good at comprehending these things but would like to know the real/true story here. Thanks again guys

You will be fine depositing. No he did not own Pinnacle.

Obviously, Cantor is going to throw the guy under the bus. The use of agents to get around legal issues is a time honored move. My mentor in the industry I worked in at the time told me the story of when a new president of the company came in. He questioned the high commission an agent was getting in one country. He told him, "You don't want to ask questions when you don't want to know the answer."

If the guy was as good as is indicated, it could mean a potential edge for LV sports bettors for a while.

He wasn't anything special at all so there won't be any added edge.

I have no info on the arrests etc, but I will say that when I was betting Cantor, they'd often deny my bets and then the lines at pinnacle and a few other books would move instantaneously.

I was betting through their tablet and it was really frustrating, the little wheel on the tablet would spin, then the lines at books offshore would move and Cantor would refuse the bet.

Someone at Cantor was either betting these other books or giving info to others to go out and bet the games. I guess its more likely that Colbert was the guy doing that.

This is exactly it, except it runs on credit, You get a login and some super generic domain, settle up with your agent once a week or so.

Hey Coltrane how are you so good you could move a line? I mean god dam that sick. I believe you and all but would really like to know what u know.

What does this mean for other online books?

He's "Bob" Voulgaris, one of, if not the most feared NBA bettor in the world. Check google.

Thx for response. How are you so sure that depositing with BetUs is safe? I take it my dreams of finding a Pinny agent are not so good now? Thanks again guys

wow this is absurd

This is the sportsbook version of getting UB superused. Opportunity to go Level 2 though.

I worked for Cantor at the M in late 2009. Though I'm surprised to hear of Mike's arrest, I'm not shocked at his involvement with higher powers in the sports betting world. I don't know his exact salary, but given his responsibilities and the amount of cash Cantor handles, I can say with confidence that he did not make big money relative to these factors. Cantor Gaming employees don't make Cantor Fitzgerald kind of money.

Haralabob, and I call you that endearingly, odds makers with Cantor many of which hold / held positions with Las Vegas Sports Consultants put a lot of stock in offshore lines. LVSC used to be the champion of odds making, but it's possible that in recent years they were getting too much credit. Cantor seemed to stoop to the level of the bettors by constantly referring to the offshore lines of course with Pinnacle Sports at the top of the list by far.

When I was out in the sportsbook (walking into work or on breaks at half time), I would see bettors with their laptops open viewing offshore lines or on Pinnacle's site. I don't recollect whether or not some customers were actually logged into a Pinnacle account.

Concurrently, the odds makers had LVSC's live odds spread sheet open similar to the ones you can find at Vegas Insider or more like the one at sbrodds.com which included offshore lines - again Pinnacle is by far the most significant offshore line on the list.

If there was no UIGEA and Pinnacle Sports could get a NV gaming license, they would quickly usurp much of the market that Cantor has. I could picture Pinnacle Sports buying LVSC + Cantor Gaming's sports division.

As bettors refer to Pinnacle as the leader in the world of sports betting, Las Vegas odds makers surprisingly do as well. A company in Las Vegas could compete with Cantor by just hiring a $9/hr employee to copy Pinnacle lines... for that matter, Cantor could do this themselves if they were heartless and would bank on the savings from drastically reduced labor and operating costs.

ok so do we withdraw from Pinnacle?

not a US better but do have money on 5d and Bookmaker, they involved?

Bob, do you know who makes Floyd Mayweather's sports bets? His always betting and bragging on twitter. I know hes not smart enough to make his own bets :-)

ugh that is just poor taste in clientele