Maryland Now Allows Gambling on Fantasy Sports: Life Behind Bars for Booking NFL Games
As Bodog Founder Calvin Ayre, 50, faces more than 25 years behind prison for running one of the largest online sports betting enterprises and targeting residents of Maryland, that state has just begun allowing wagers on fantasy sports. Exceptional timing!!! We can't make this stuff up even if we tried.
As Gambling911.com reported last week, Ayre just retained the father-son legal team of Barry and Stuart Slotnick to represent him. The elder Slotnick, who once went 12 consecutive years without losing a case in trial, is almost certain to question the blatant hypocrisy.
The Maryland General Assembly exempted fantasy sports leagues from the state's gambling prohibitions this past week.
The Senate gave final approval to a bill that separates the fantasy competitions from other forms of gambling barred by state law.
Ron Shandler of the Huffington Post makes it abundantly clear that fantasy sports wagering is just that, gambling.
In its purest sense, gambling can be defined as participating in any activity that wagers on the outcome of an uncertain event. We can slice this definition to separate games of chance from games of skill, but the common thread still remains - we're betting that we can predict the future.
Legal definitions and Congressional carve-outs can't change that fact.
And as Ayre prepares to possibly rot away in prison, political power brokers in Maryland find it all pretty funny.
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"As a joke, a couple of us were saying we should have made it an emergency bill to get it through before the start of the baseball season," said Del. John Olszewski Jr., D-Baltimore County, the bill's sponsor. "But I'm quite happy. It's a straightforward fix that allows Marylanders to join most of the rest of the country."
We trust Ayre and his legal eagles aren’t laughing right now….or maybe they are.
The colorful Canadian, who once graced the cover of Forbes Billionaire issue in 2006, managed to avoid the more serious bank fraud charges leveled against his rivals at PokerStars and the now defunct Full Tilt Poker (tack on another 50 years). Ayre is just an alleged money launderer and gambling facilitator essentially engaging in the type of activities similar to those the Maryland Assembly now deem to be legal.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
