TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese police raided two sumo stables Wednesday, seeking evidence in their probe of a gambling scandal linked to yakuza crime groups which has rocked the nation’s ancient sport.

Police officers in dark suits walked into the Onomatsu and Tokitsukaze stables in Tokyo, where wrestlers have been involved in illegal gambling on baseball games and other sports, footage by public broadcaster NHK showed.

The police were expected to raid some 30 locations linked to the sumo world, including other stables, where wrestlers live and train.

The Japan Sumo Association has admitted that scores of wrestlers had gambled illegally and banned more than 10 from the next tournament starting Sunday in the central city of Nagoya.

Betting in Japan is permitted only on horse racing and certain motor sports.

The association has fired wrestler Kotomitsuki, 34, a high-ranking "ozeki" second only to "yokozuna" grand champions, along with his stablemaster Otake, 42, for taking part in illegal gambling on baseball.

The scandal has shocked the Japanese public, which expects sumo wrestlers and their masters to act as role models.

Japan’s state broadcaster NHK, furious over the scandals, said Tuesday it will not air an upcoming sumo tournament, the first time it has scrapped the broadcast since they began in 1953.

Police last month arrested a former wrestler-turned-gangster, Mitsutomo Furuichi, 38, on extortion charges after he had allegedly blackmailed Kotomitsuki, threatening to expose his gambling.

Ciaran O’Brien, a company spokesman, said that this rapid growth has been driven by the increase in smart phone ownership, enabling swift access to betting opportunities from any location. The upsurge has seen Ladbrokes break the 100,000 barrier for bets taken over mobile internet services on a single event for the first time.

Ladbrokes launched the first fully functional iPhone betting application in the app store during the World Cup and usage is reportedly rocketing.

The app is tailored to appeal to novice and casual bettors and uses graphics and gestures that make full use of iPhone functionality. No odds are used on the application – customers just see the return they receive for specified stakes on each World Cup betting market.

For example, if a customer selected a £5 bet on Carlos Tevez to score the first goal in the Argentina vs. Germany World Cup Quarter Final the app would show the potential win of £30. That would, by the way, have been a bad bet as Germany romped home with a 4-0 win!

O’Brien points out that the new application has helped mobile internet overtake traditional telephone betting for the first time at a major football tournament at Ladbrokes.

He revealed that betting turnover on Ladbrokes’ mobile channels has doubled over the past 12 months and the rapid growth is set to continue as mobile internet access becomes more commonplace and the ease of access via dedicated applications like the World Cup app increases. During the same 12 month period Ladbrokes has also seen a 600% increase in the number of its customers that bet exclusively via mobile internet – a potent harbinger for the future direction of sports betting.

Ladbrokes has consistently been in the forefront of mobile gambling technoology, initially launching a WAP mobile betting service in 2001 and following it with a downloadable Java application in 2005. In December 2009 it launched a web application for iPhones – a service which already accounts for over a third of its mobile turnover. In addition to sports betting Ladbrokes also offers a range of mobile casino and slot games on its existing mobile platforms.

“Mobile betting and gaming is a significant growth area and smart phones, especially the iPhone, have dramatically improved the user experience,” says John O’Reilly, md of Remote Betting and Gaming at Ladbrokes. We’re delighted to be the first major bookmaker to launch a full betting application in the app store and we’ll follow this World Cup product with a range of other applications tailored to different betting and gaming audiences – the first being a tailored application for the next domestic football season.”

“This bill still needs a great deal of work,” Wright said of his Bill SB 1485 during a meeting of the Senate Governmental Organization Committee, where the bill was scheduled to come up for a vote.

“For every issue, there were people who liked it and people who hated it.”

Wright justifies the bill by saying that with a million Californian poker fans playing regularly, there is clearly a very strong demand and the juggernaut is hard to stop, therefore the state should regulate it to ensure high standards of safety, and tax it to bring money into the state’s coffers.

Independent analysts have estimated that up to $2.1 billion annually could be realised from legalisation.

SB1485 would have authorised the state to contract with up to three gambling operators, including Indian tribes, to offer poker hubs over the Internet to state residents age 21 and older, reports Associated Press from the hearing. At least 10% of the monthly profits would have gone to the state, which faces a $19 billion deficit.

Numerous tribal groups, represented by the California Nations Indian Gaming Association, announced prior to the hearing that they were opposed the bill, saying it threatens their federal gambling compacts, endangering employment opportunities in local communities.

There were also concerns voiced by the Poker Players Association that the proposal would make it a misdemeanor to visit unauthorised gambling websites.

“Criminalising harmless recreational conduct that typically takes place in the privacy of one’s home and cannot be practically enforced undermines public respect for all laws,” the Alliance said in formally opposing to the bill.

Another opponent was the Morongo band of Mission Indians, who have previously made a bid in conjunction with Californian card rooms to acquire an exclusive licence to offer intrastate online poker, and appear unprepared to accept anything short of that at federal or state level.

Despite the challenges, Wright said that the bill was moving in the right direction, and he would continue to push for legalised online poker in California.

“The world isn’t standing still while we figure out what to do,” he cautioned. “The longer we wait, the more difficult it will become to get that business back to the state as different outlets of gambling become available and more entrenched.”

Players technically pay for Internet access time, but are still playing for money, critics claim, as enforcement authorities grapple with the legal confusion surrounding the issue.

The banning legislation now moves to the state House of Assembly for further debate and a vote.

Success once the show is over has nothing to do with a gambler and his bets. American Idol winners have made gamblers thousands of dollars, and then gone on to have sub par careers when it comes to making music after the show.

The Bachelor has produced some of the biggest online gambling winners, and when Jake Pavelka chose Vienna Girardi on last years show, bettors that wagered on Girardi rejoiced. Now, sources have revealed that the couple has broken off their engagement.

In a sporting event, it is rare that a ruling is made after the game is played that determines the outcome. In those cases, Las Vegas sports books usually stick with their initial ruling. The same can be said for this break up. Although the couple is no longer together, the fact that Girardi won the competition has not changed.

Reality shows can offer gamblers high rewards if they can correctly pick the winner from the beginning of the competition. Two seasons ago on American Idol, Kris Allen had odds of sixty to one early in the live shows. Allen went on to win, and returned sixty dollars for every one bet to gamblers.

Dancing with the Stars is a little easier for odds makers to handicap. The majority of winners on DWTS have been athletes. After several seasons, sports books have adjusted their odds and are now making athletes the favorites.

Paddy Power has begun to take bets on which species will be eliminated from the BP disaster. While some critics believe that Paddy Power is exploiting a tough situation, the company is sticking to its guns of being out in front on the gambling front.

“We hope this betting will highlight the environmental catastrophe unfolding right now as a result of the BP oil spill,” said Paddy Power, in a press release. “It’s a sure bet we’ll lose some marine species, the only question is, which ones?”

The Kemp’s Riley Turtle is tops on the betting list. The species is already endangered and migrates to the Gulf this time of year. Anyone wishing to bet on these turtles will receive odds of 4/5.

The Bluefin Tuna is second on the list with odds of 6/4. Three different species qualify for the long shots at 20/1. The Gulf Sturgeon, Smalltooth Sawfish, and Elkhorn Coral all offer gamblers a chance to return $20 for every $1 wagered.

The BP oils spill species proposition has only been up for a short period of time, but dozens of bets have already come in. Below is a full list of species and their odds of extinction at Paddy Power.

Kemp’s Ridley Turtle 4/5
Bluefin Tuna 6/4
Leatherback Sea Turtle 8/1
Brown Pelicans 8/1
Loggerhead Turtle 12/1
Sperm Whale 16/1
Blue Whale 16/1
gulf Sturgeon 20/1
Smalltooth Sawfish 20/1
Elkhorn coral 20/1

The central concepts of the franchise – responsible (‘green’) gambling and entertainment are present in the venture, where players can set personal limits in terms of their deposits and wagers with a daily, weekly or monthly maximum.

Mr Green offers a selection of Betsoft and Net Entertainment powered casino games including roulette and blackjack, a host of video slots such as, The Slotfather, Hill Billy Haven and Tiki Treasure, Bingo, scratch cards, video poker and lottery offerings.

Already enjoying online success in Sweden, Norway, Austria and Finland, Mr Green is an award-winning site which has expanded into the UK to capitalise on what analysts predict will be a £1.6 billion UK internet gambling market this year.

The article details the process whereby internet café owners sell phone cards encrypted with sweepstakes entries for Internet playtime, allowing customers to play graphic representations of slots for prizes.

But is it gambling, the newspaper asks? Opinions clearly differ, as various interested parties’ reaction to the question shows.

“The disagreement is playing out throughout the country as this often unregulated business model known as fringe gambling proliferates, vexing law enforcement agencies and consumer advocates concerned about fraud,” the NY Times observes.

“These computer games are designed to look and feel like casino gambling while technically being only “sweepstakes.” Because a sweepstakes is said to be predetermined, not a game of chance, it is not gambling and falls outside of state gambling laws – or so the operators say.”

In Casselberry, FL., police chief James Ruf expressed enforcement’s frustration with the question, saying: “We’re not getting any clear direction from anyone.”

The Times reports that officials in California, North Carolina, Utah and other states are, like Florida, grappling with the legality of gaming cafes, in some cases regulating and tolerating them, and, in others, prosecuting them and winning.

The article is an absorbing read on a subject of topical online gambling interest, and is recommended.

Gambling Giant
The benefactor in this slightly amusing story is Ireland’s largest bookmaker Paddy Power. This gambling giant hit the headlines before here at CT10.net, after offering Tiger Woods a $75 million contract for promoting the Irish brand around the world.

Church Confessional
The Irish gambling giant is happy to donate a sum of $15,000 to the Our Lady and St. Etheldreda Church in Suffolk, a town in the UK. Part of the deal is that the Paddy Power brand will be placed on the confessional box.

A representative of the gambling company mentions that the act is a way of bringing the church to the people, and tightening the link between the church and the local people. The gambling company believes it is a great deal that benefits both parties.

Nothing Wrong with Gambling
Spokesman for the Catholic diocese Mark Hackeson also thinks of it as a great collaboration. He says there is nothing morally wrong with gambling, as long as it doesn’t deprive people from what is necessary to take care of themselves and others. He further adds that it is not uncommon for the church to raise funds through raffles, and this is also a form of gambling.

Gamble Responsibly
It isn’t stated in the Bible that gambling is a sin, and the church community in Suffolk sees no harm in this fun pastime. If you decide to engage in online gambling, make sure to do so in a responsible manner and with the best bonus deals the web has to offer.