The state government in New South Wales, Australia has put online bookmakers on notice that they can no longer impose strict limits on wagers by successful punters.
In July, Racing New South Wales announced new guidelines that require corporate bookies with annual turnover above $5b to accept wagers from all punters on payouts of up to $2k per city race, while bookies with annual turnover below $5b would be required to accept wagers that paid out a minimum of $1k.
But Racing NSW claims many online bookmakers licensed in Australia’s Northern Territory are ignoring their edict. The Australian Wagering Council, whose membership includes many NT-licensed online bookies, has protested Racing NSW’s changes, noting that the new restrictions don’t apply to cash transactions with NSW TAB retail outlets.
Late last month, NSW Deputy Premier Troy Grant backed Racing NSW’s move, saying it was “not fair to have wagering operators profit from punter losses but then bar or restrict successful punters in the amount they can wager on any one bet.” Grant told the Daily Telegraph that the NSW government was in the process of crafting “a regulation to enforce the new minimum betting rules.”
VLAHOS BANKRUPTCY REPORT PAINTS UNFLATTERING PICTURE
Further details have been released on the failed Aussie race betting syndicate/ponzi scheme run by Bill Vlahos (pictured), which collapsed a year ago leaving some 1,500 investors out around $118m. Late last month, the Herald Sun obtained a bankruptcy court report listing some of the ways in which Vlahos disposed of the $155m the punters’ club turned over in its eight years of existence.
Vlahos used the club’s funds to pay $3.8m of personal credit card debt and Vlahos’ wife received another $3.5m, which apparently went to “household expenses.” Just three months before the club’s collapse, Vlahaos paid $1m for a house in NSW in what investigators believe was an escape plan that failed to pan out.
PCI Partners director Clyde White, who wrote the bankruptcy report, says the Dubai-based punter Daniel Maxwell who allegedly placed many of the club’s bets on overseas markets was a phantom. White said “it would appear that Mr. Maxwell does not exist.” White hopes to partially repay club investors by pursuing other club members who’d received around $40m in winnings over the club’s lifetime.
