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Botched Illegal Gambling Case Prompts Lawsuit Against Prosecutors

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Botched Illegal Gambling Case Prompts Lawsuit Against Prosecutors

Eight people who were the subject of one of the largest illegal gambling stings in Hawaii history are suing Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Keith Kaneshiro and one of his top deputies, Katherine Kealoha, saying they committed retaliatory and malicious prosecution after one of the plaintiffs compared Kaneshiro to the mobster John Gotti on TV news in 2013.

 

Also named as defendants in the case are Vernon Branco, who was a lead investigator for the prosecuting attorney’s office in the gambling case, and the City and County of Honolulu.

Yoshimura is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court of Hawaii on Friday. He is the owner of PJY Enterprises, a company that used to distribute Product Direct Sweepstakes machines to arcades around Oahu.

Yoshimura had been named along with some of his co-plaintiffs in a 414-count criminal indictment in 2014 that was tied to the use of the sweepstakes machines as alleged gambling devices.

All the charges were eventually dismissed, however, after a series of missteps by the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, and in particular Kealoha, who was the head of the agency’s Career Criminal Division at the time, and Branco, who was the lead investigator on the case.

The allegations in the recently filed lawsuit stem from a series of police seizures of Yoshimura’s sweepstakes machines that began in September 2012.

According to the lawsuit, Kaneshiro, in cooperation with the Honolulu Police Department, seized 190 sweepstakes machines from a number of arcades throughout Oahu, from Ward Avenue in Honolulu to Waipio.

Yoshimura filed a lawsuit against Kaneshiro, HPD and its police chief, Louis Kealoha, over the seizures. The case eventually made it to federal court.

Yoshimura also took to TV to challenge Kaneshiro directly, saying among other things, that he believed he was on firm legal footing, and that he welcomed criminal charges.

I’d like to publicly challenge Keith, to charge us or leave us alone and release the equipment he is holding,” Yoshimura told Hawaii News Now.

I compare him to John Gotti wherein John didn’t like somebody he would go in and shoot up the place and destroy everything in the business and walk away hoping that’s the end of you. In this case, Keith comes in, takes our equipment and claims he’s doing it in conjunction with an ongoing investigation.”

Shortly after a federal judge ruled that the way the machines were being used constituted gambling, Kaneshiro’s office filed the  indictment against Yoshimura and others charging them with gambling promotion, racketeering, possession of gambling devices and money laundering.

I compare him to John Gotti wherein John didn’t like somebody he would go in and shoot up the place and destroy everything in the business and walk away hoping that’s the end of you.” — Plaintiff Tracy Yoshimura

But according to the lawsuit that indictment as well as subsequent attempts to convict Yoshimura and the other defendants were fraught with problems.

According to the lawsuit, Kealoha, through the testimony of Branco, presented knowingly false information to the grand jury to help secure the gambling indictments. Specifically, the lawsuit says they told grand jurors that Yoshimura owned game room and arcades that he, in fact, did not own.

The lawsuit also took issue with the fact that although numerous game rooms and arcades were raided by the police only a handful of the owners and cashiers were prosecuted.

In addition to allegations of selective treatment and retaliatory and malicious prosecution, the lawsuit targets Kaneshiro for negligent hiring, retention and supervision.

Kaneshiro had “a duty to the public to hire competent staff,” the lawsuit says. He failed in that responsibility, the lawsuit says, when he hired Kealoha and Branco.

The lawsuit says Kealoha was “ill-equipped” to handle the gambling case because of her inexperience taking on white collar crime and her lack of research beforehand. It makes a vague reference to “her health issues and other personal issues.”

Yoshimura’s attorney, Keith Kiuchi, said the case has cost Yoshimura and the other defendants hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. Kiuchi said the fact that only people who challenged Kaneshiro in court after the machines were seized were the only individuals to get prosecuted by his office speaks volumes.

The only businesses that had the nerve to challenge Kaneshiro in federal court are the ones that are being singled out,” Kiuchi said. “Those are the only businesses that were indicted.”

Representatives from the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney’s Office were also unavailable.

Katherine Kealoha’s criminal defense attorney Cynthia Kagiwada could not be reached.

The lawsuit comes amid a growing U.S. Justice Department investigation into corruption and abuse of power within HPD and the prosecuting attorney’s office.

Yoshimura has been a witness for prosecutors in the case, saying that among other things Katherine Kealoha had provided the name of a confidential informant in the gambling case to his former defense attorney, Myles Breiner, as a way to curry favor.

Kealoha has since been indicted by a federal grand jury along with her husband, the former HPD chief.

Kaneshiro’s office has also been a target of the Justice Department’s corruption probe, which included the FBI executing a search warrant at the prosecutor’s office.

Kaneshiro, who was re-elected to another four-year term in 2016, says he’s testified before the federal grand jury that’s been investigating widespread corruption in Hawaii law enforcement, although he has refused to discuss his involvement.

Other high-ranking officials in his office, including First Deputy Prosecutor Chasid Sapolu, have also been seen at the grand jury, as has one of Kaneshiro’s closet advisors, executive assistant Carol Nakamura.

In 2017, a Civil Beat investigation found that at least one line of inquiry from the grand jury has to do with the purchase of the Honolulu Prosecutor’s Safe House, which is supposed to be a refuge for victims of domestic violence, sex assault and sex trafficking.

According to property records and other documents obtained by Civil Beat, the city purchased the property from one of Kaneshiro’s top campaign donors, real estate investor Donna Walden, for $5.5 million not long after she herself had purchased the property for $4.5 million.

Based on at least one grand jury witness account the deal was already in the works before Walden officially owned the building.

 

Source: CivilBeat.com


Source: European Gaming News

European Gaming News

Could the Gambling Commission ban wagering requirements?

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Wagering requirements; whether you love them or hate them, with the Gambling Review well underway, there’s never been a better time to debate if they still have a place in modern gambling and whether the upcoming review will ban them once and for all. But first, let’s look at their development and why they are a contentious issue in the industry. 

What are wagering requirements?

Wagering requirements are a common term and condition attached to a bonus that prevents players from taking a promotion and withdrawing it immediately. They are applied differently by each gambling brand. Some, like PlayOJO, Paddy Power, MrQ and Betfair, have revolutionised the casino scene by offering no wagering bonuses. In contrast, others take the predatory route and list bonuses with up to 100x requirements (the average is around 30x).

The requirement is the amount a player must wager at the casino before any winnings made with a bonus are valid for withdrawal. In the case of a £100 bonus, a 30x requirement would mean a player must wager a total of 100×30=£3,000 before they could withdraw any winnings. Most players would easily decimate their winnings before fulfilling the condition and, as most bonuses expire within 7-14 days, may well be forced to play for periods, or at times, they otherwise might not.

Why do wagering requirements exist?

In the early days of online casinos, bonus hunting among players became widely popular. It led to forums where players shared information on where and how to profit from the best welcome bonuses, earning money from the available offers available and never playing at a site again.

As casinos began to notice players taking bonuses and withdrawing without using them fairly, they combatted the practice with wagering requirements and other terms, such as the ability to withdraw a bonus and any winnings made if an account was suspect of this activity.

However, with no limits or official licensing rules to regulate wagering requirements at that time, things soon got out of hand as operators set high limits that were and still are unattainable to most players. Additionally, in many cases, the terms and conditions were not clearly displayed or explained, leading to the confiscation of bonuses and winnings without players understanding how or why they’d fallen foul of the casino’s rules.

Wagering requirements under fire with UKGC

By 2014, and following a flood of player complaints, the Gambling Commission weighed in, creating the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act which prescribed operators were to advertise their bonus terms and conditions clearly and explain them to players. This led to some reducing their requirements to more feasible levels. However, not all operators followed suit, hence why we’re still discussing wagering requirements today.

More recently, in February 2022, the UKGC set its sights on reforming wagering requirements again, issuing new guidance regarding fair and transparent terms and practices, which acknowledged that wagering requirements could lead to excessive play, not in line with social responsibility rules for operators. 

The new guidance rules cited that licensees used potentially unfair terms, with examples including:

  • “terms that allow licensees to confiscate customers’ un-staked deposits
  • terms regarding treatment of customers’ funds where a licensee believes there has been illegal, irregular or fraudulent play
  • promotions for online games that have terms entitling a licensee to void real money winnings if a customer inadvertently breaks staking rules
  • terms that unfairly permit licensees to reduce potential winnings on open bets.”

It also stated that the Commission was aware of:

  • “terms and conditions that are difficult to understand
  • welcome bonus offers and wagering requirements which may encourage excessive play.”

While the guidance did not contain rules for abolishing or limiting wagering requirements, they instructed licensees to review their terms and conditions to ensure they fit consumer protection laws and that; “The LCCP requires rewards and bonuses to be constructed in a way that is socially responsible. Although it is common practice to attach terms and conditions to bonus offers, the Commission does not expect conditions, such as wagering requirements, to encourage excessive play.”

Will wagering requirements be banned?

With the Gambling Review white paper currently overdue and keenly expected by all industry stakeholders, many wonder if it will cover wagering requirements or, more specifically, exclude them from casino practice. The Gambling Review aims to update the 2005 Gambling Act, fit for the modern age, and wagering requirements would undoubtedly slot into the remit of what’s being discussed, which includes greater player protections and affordability checks.

While it’s clear that some big-name operators and affiliates like No Wagering are pioneering the way in bringing zero wagering bonuses to players, many sites have not followed suit. This is despite clear evidence that players favour fairer bonuses (PlayOJO is one of 39 brands operated by the same parent company, it is the only one with zero requirements, and it’s the most successful of all, according to the company).

Realistically, we’re not sure that the new gambling regulations will ban wagering requirements completely (as we covered earlier, they do exist for a reason), but it certainly wouldn’t be beyond the imagination for there to be a maximum cap applied in the view that excessive requirements equate to excessive play.

What’s next for operators and bonuses if wagering requirements are banned?

Bonuses are one of the most important factors for players in picking between casino sites, and they make players feel lucky to score something for free straight off the bat (even if the wagering requirements mean this is not really the case). 

If wagering requirements are banned, operators unwilling to offer bonuses without wagering requirements will have to return to the drawing board and reimagine rewards, especially welcome offers. Alternatively, they could begin competing based on other USPs, such as focusing more on the casino product to pull in the punters by offering unique games, making space for indie developers, having instant withdrawals, or gamified loyalty benefits and better loyalty clubs.

Moreover, it would present a fantastic opportunity for remote operators to move away from the tired system of matched deposit bonuses towards more exciting and fresher ideas like promo wheel spins, mystery gifts on first deposits, prize draws and so on. With brands including PlayOJO, Paddy Power, MrQ and Betfair already doing this, operators do not lack a blueprint to success, just the gumption to embrace a new model.

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Bulgaria

Betway Bulgaria officially launches, offers live and bet-builder options

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Another company has officially launched its activities in the growing niche of online betting in Bulgaria. But here we are not just talking about another operator licensed by national institutions, but about a leading brand worldwide. Betway is one of the largest bookmakers in Europe and globally, and the fact that it already offers its services in Bulgaria speaks positively about the development of the gambling business in the country.

Indications of an increase in the size of the industry appeared last year, when several operators received a permit to operate under Bulgarian jurisdiction. It is unlikely that this process will end with the official launch of betway bulgaria, rather the brand entering the country can be perceived by international operators as a positive assessment of the market in Bulgaria. What can we find at Betway besides the obvious – increased competition and of course more choice for consumers?

What do we find in the sports section?

Sports betting – this is the leading sector of the company, which started operations in 2006. The brand is associated with a number of teams in Europe such as Tottenham, Atletico Madrid, Leicester, Alaves, Belenenses, Werder, etc. Of course, the top championships in Europe are present in the latest betting platform, but that’s not all. Betway offers the opportunity to make predictions at less popular UEFA championships. The fans of the Bulgarian championship have options too. All matches of the First League are present in the bookmaker’s menu, and are offered with dozens of choices for each of them.

Real-time bets and long-term combinations

Live bets are a big thrill for many players. This option is present at Betway, and this also applies to the mobile version, of course. It is not difficult to detect current events – they come first when loading the platform. And with them the bookmaker really comes up with interesting offers, some of which are rare on the Bulgarian market. The outcome of the bets become clear in literally seconds if the next goal market or one of the performance options is selected.

In addition, the company accepts predictions with a much longer horizon. It is now standard to bet on who will be the champion in England, Spain, Italy or Germany. However, there are also specific markets and selections for certain teams – will Barcelona take the trophy this season, will Liverpool reach the final in at least one of the tournaments in which it participates, etc. And if users don’t find what they’re looking for in these offers, they can always turn to the betting menu. The bet-builder is still limited to one match, from which we can choose two or more selections until the desired odds are formed. This is the most appropriate way to optimize the bet according to personal preferences and therefore it is increasingly preferred by the players.

Betway’s first steps on the Bulgarian market are impressive. And this is just the beginning, we can expect even more in the near future.

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European Gaming News

EveryMatrix inks RGS Matrix agreement with Wild Boars

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EveryMatrix announces the second RGS Matrix partnership with Wild Boars, newly launched gaming studio that aims to bring creative storytelling and a fresh feel to the gaming industry.

Launched in 2019 as EveryMatrix sixth standalone solution, RGS Matrix enables gaming development teams to distribute, manage, and report upon a proprietary game product portfolio.

This ‘out of the box’ remote gaming server was built on an open architecture and caters for outstanding player experience, consistent deployment, and quicker content integration.

Mathias Larsson, Managing Director of RGS Matrix, says: “This is our second RGS Matrix agreement and it brings me a lot of joy to know that our solution starts gaining momentum in the market. Our remote gaming server aims to help the new generation of game builders by providing all the means to create, design, distribute and manage games.

“The team of Wild Boars is experienced, skilled and highly creative. I am looking forward to seeing their games live and appreciated by players in many countries.”

Oleksandr Yermolaiev, Managing Director of Wild Boars, comments: We truly believe that choosing a right partner is crucial for success. For us, RGS Matrix and its remarkable team is just that partner. We are excited to use EveryMatrix solution, focus on what we do best and bring our innovative games to a wide range of operators, territories and players. RGS Matrix is dashing ahead and we are happy to join the ride.”

RGS Matrix powers slots and table games, and is currently certified for Malta, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, Romania, and Colombia, with many jurisdictions to come in the upcoming years.

 

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