WETBash: Spanky’s Biggest Gamble Ever as he Dodges Bullet

Written by:
Jagajeet Chiba
Published on:
Sep/03/2021

A former bookie and friend of Gambling911 now out of the sports betting business attended the August 25 BetBash in Jersey City, New Jersey and tells us “It was one of the best parties I’ve been to."

Upon his arrival at the Hilton Canopy, we told him to meet our reporter at the elevator.  We tricked him into thinking the amazing and sexy Jenny Woo would be covering the event.  To his horror, none other than Gambling911.com's pampered star reporter Thomas Somach met him at the elevator.  The inquisitive former San Francisco Chronicle reporter asked our friend every question in the book the long elevator ride up.  Our friend retreated to his hotel room and hid from Somach the remainder of the night.

BetBash organizer and famed sports bettor, Spanky, was hoping for Woo too.  He knew in advance we’d be sending Somach.

“This is mostly going to be a sausage fest,” Spanky confessed, referring to the overwhelming ratio of men expected to be in attendance compared to women.

Surprisingly, there were a few female sports bettors in attendance.  Some of the men even brought their wives and girlfriends.

While Woo might not have been present, Somach assumed her diva role.  He complained about everything from having to lug his luggage two blocks from the hotel parking garage to the non existent breakfast the next morning and a penthouse room without a view of the New York City skyline.  This week, Somach was discovered in a Facebook group bashing what has become the epicenter for regulated sports betting in the US, Jersey City.  It's also Spanky's favorite town. Somach did say that Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, who attended BetBash, would likely become the future Governor of New Jersey.  

For the record the Hilton Canopy GM reached out to Gambling911 and advised that they provided a luggage drop off prior to parking and breakfast on week days was still unavailable due to Covid protocols and staffing limitations.  And to be fair, Somach was willing to stay at a Motel 6.  He assumed wrongly that would be the only hotel chain in Jersey City.

For us at least we didn’t need to have hotel security pry Somach's room door open with bolt cutters to wake him up like we did once in Amsterdam with Jenny Woo.

But Somach admits his 1.5 hour trip to Jersey City from his home base of Allentown, PA could have been far worse.

“I would have had to swim back to the hotel room had Spanky scheduled this event the following Wednesday.”

That’s because, exactly one week later Biblical rainfall left much of the Tri State area under water.

The remnants of Hurricane Ida blew through the mid-Atlantic states Wednesday with at least two tornadoes, heavy winds and drenching rains that collapsed the roof of a U.S. Postal Service building, left cars and roads underwater and sent garbage floating through the streets of New York.  Flooding was extensive throughout Jersey City and nearby Newark.

It was perhaps Spanky’s biggest gamble ever, hosting a rooftop party for nearly 300 people just one week prior.  What if he had booked the space for the following Wednesday? 

August 25 turned out to be a gorgeous night.  And BetBash went off without a hitch, even being extended an extra hour.  Spanky advised us that a similiar networking event is scheduled for early next year, this time in Vegas where rains are far less prevalent.

More Creighton Docs

One place that escaped Hurricane Ida’s wrath was Miami Beach and it is here at Gambling911’s home base where we caught up with the ex-girlfriend of 5Dimes late owner Sean Creighton.

She just happens to be a former Gambling911 reporter.

Creighton was kidnapped and murdered in late 2019. 

Sean’s ex reveals that major media outlet based in Washington DC is currently exploring the Creighton story more in depth.

British podcasters are putting the finishing touches on their project but have had little luck finding Al Ross, the Akron-based businessman who provided Sean with the keys to 5Dimes. 

As the story goes, Sean bet extensively with Al’s multitude of online sportsbooks, most of which were run by rank amateurs and drug addicts out of San Pedro, Costa Rica’s notorious Equus Building (an angry bookmaker once pulled out his gun and shot the television screen following a bad game result).

Sean beat Al’s books so badly the software provider offered Creighton his own book and the rest is history.  5Dimes was born.

Ross told a slightly different story to Gambling911 at the time of Creighton’s disappearance.  He claims that 5Dimes was still under the name of his son Denny.  Assuming that’s the case, Denny won’t be involved in the day to day operations any time soon.  He’s serving a prison sentence beating, strangling and murdering his former girlfriend Hannah Hill.  Her body was found decomposing in a car trunk.  That case has been featured on Dateline NBC.

Currently, Creighton’s widow is running 5Dimes minus all its US players as she seeks to re-enter the lucrative state-by-state regulated market after obtaining an Isle of Man gaming license.

As for Ross, he went missing shortly after the Creighton story broke and immediately after speaking with G911.  The podcasters reached out to Gambling911.com for assistance in locating Ross but his cell phone number and email account are no longer in operation.

The Church of BSV Blockchain

This week in Miami our Magic City played host to the famed Bitcoin Association’s BSV Blockchain Conference which featured more bashing than BetBash for sure....primarily of certain financial institutions.

One speaker referred to Wells Fargo as Hells Fargo while using a few explicit words we can't repeat on this family friendly website.

The common theme is that these banking behemoth’s will one day go the way of the dodo bird.

Bitcoin Conferences have a tendency to resemble something between a Trump Rally and Scientology services, but we spoke to one participant who told us that’s exactly the reason he makes every effort to attend the Bitcoin Association and Coingeek Events while avoiding the others.

“They are all big dog and pony shows.  Everyone is ‘rah rah rah”, cheerleading,” he said in reference to the over-the-top atmospherics of the recent Bitcoin Miami Conference.  “Today’s event (by the Bitcoin Association) we are learning about valuable tools.  I am a huge fan of the BSV Blockchain technology.”

We’ve been to a lot of conferences in our 21 years of running Gambling911 but can honestly say we’ve never seen attendees so mesmerized at what they were learning here.

Admittedly a lot of the crypto and blockchain technology talk goes over our heads, but not so with these attendees.  They are completely immersed.

Jimmy Nguyen, a former attorney who could easily be mistook for a televangelist, puts on these shows with plenty of flair.  This one was capped at 100 people and they did have to turn away a number of folks who failed to register online in advance.

Nguyen emphasizes to delegates that Bitcoin SV continues scaling massively, to connect data and money into one single form.

“[Bitcoin SV] is the fusion of data and money," Nguyen says.  "It’s right there in the word—bit, data, plus coin, money. It is more than just a digital currency and a blockchain. It is also a network protocol, just like the internet protocol. It is the foundational ruleset for an entire data network.”

One of the BSV faithful tells Gambling911 they are beginning to work with established sportsbooks and online casinos to adapt the BSV blockchain technology.

Already it is being implemented in land-based casinos.

BitBoss CEO Matthew Dickson spoke Wednesday about BSV blockchain technology integration at gambling establishments.

"Covid blew up rules where casinos did not previously want the gaming machines tied to personal banking," he explained.

The BitBoss gaming platform can now be integrated with DotWallet, a popular BSV digital wallet.

BitBoss Bridge Vault is the lightweight backend server that allows a casino to manage and report on all movement of Bridge Ecosystem funds between players.

The blockchain core of the BitBoss Bridge Wallet allows it to transfer functionality that's very similiar to a Zelle or Vemo but without a middleman. Gamblers can make transfers to one another seamlessly.

The Bitcoin Association event in Miami served as a precurser to a much larger conference.

Coingeek NYC takes place October 5, 2021.  Those who cannot make it in person due to their vaccination status or ongoing Covid-related travel bans can attend remotely.  Some speakers will be presenting remotely just as they did at the Miami event.  New York City requires proof of vaccination to access most public venues.

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com

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