Churchill Downs oddsmaker Mike Battaglia will wait until post positions are drawn Wednesday to decide whether he will establish Bodemeister or Union Rags as the early favorite for the 138th Kentucky Derby.

“If Bodemeister has a bad draw, then it’s got to be Union Rags,” Battaglia told USA TODAY Sports. “And if Union Rags has a bad draw, it would be the other way around.” He noted that the rail would be an extremely difficult position to overcome with a full 20-horse field anticipated.

According to Battaglia, the early odds on either horse will not be lower than 4-1, yet another indication of how closely matched the top contenders are. That is music to the ears of serious handicappers who will wager equally serious money.

CONTINUED at USA Today.

From his first days on the political scene, Sen. Marco Rubio has never strayed far from his close friend, Rep. David Rivera. The men first met while volunteering for then Florida State Senator Lincoln Diaz-Balart’s first congressional campaign in 1992.  A few years later, Rivera hired Rubio out of law school in Miami to work on Bob Dole’s doomed presidential bid.

By 2002, they were colleagues in the Florida state house and when Rubio was elected speaker in 2006, Rivera took up as his top lieutenant. They rode into Washington together on the crest of a powerful GOP midterm wave in 2010, Rubio as a senator, Rivera as the new house representative from Florida’s 25^th district.

Today, Rubio is one of the Republican’s party’s most buzzed-about young stars and an early favorite to run alongside presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in the coming general election. Despite repeated statements that he “won’t be the vice president,” operatives in both parties told ABC News they believe Rubio is seeking the bid.

“He wants it,” one Democratic strategist said. “He can say what he wants, but he’s doing all the things that people who want to be the running mate do. He’s going to South Carolina [to speak before state party bigwigs at their annual Silver Elephant dinner] and working on some Republican version of the Dream Act.”

What Rubio has not done – and recently told POLITICO he never will — is break his ties to David Rivera.

Featured prominently in the non-partisan “Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington” 2011 “Most Corrupt” list, Rivera has been “under investigation by at least five different law enforcement agencies for a range of violations,” including payments he allegedly received in connection with the successful campaign (led, at times, by his mother’s consulting firm) to legalize slot machines at horse and dog-racing tracks.

(On Wednesday night, The Miami Herald reported that Rivera would not be charged by state prosecutors for actions detailed in a scathing report by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement because the statute of limitations had expired on the alleged crimes. The same Herald story maintains that the IRS and FBI are still investigating his role in a $510,000 payment made by dog track owners to his mother and godmother’s firm.)

The alleged dog track shenanigans cap off a decade of sometimes odd brushes with the law. On Sept. 6, 2002, the Florida Highway Patrol recorded an incident in which a car driven by Rivera ran a truck carrying flyers authored by a political opponent off the road, forcing it to the shoulder. The delay kept the potentially damaging mailers on board from arriving at the post office before a 6 p.m. deadline.

Rivera said in a statement shortly after the incident that the truck was carrying his mailers, too, and that he was only trying to retrieve his own materials.

Earlier this year, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor expressed “concern” about the probes and at least one GOP strategist, speaking to ABC News, referred to Rivera as one of the “possible skeletons in [Rubio's] closet.”

Asked if he was concerned that the allegations, from the 2002 highway incident to the dog track controversy and the revelation that he had not, despite reporting it as a source of income, ever worked for USAID, could hurt his friend Rubio’s standing in the party, Rivera told ABC News, simply, “No.”

When pressed for specific details about the timeline of events surrounding a threatened foreclosure on — and eventual decision to sell — a home he and Rubio bought together in Tallahassee during their time in the statehouse, Rivera said, “You’ll have to ask Marco.”

Faced with that, a spokesman for Rubio wrote: “The issue over the home mortgage payments has been really well documented. There was confusion over the payments, and Sen. Rubio paid the bank as soon as he became aware of the issue.”

The reality is a bit more complicated. Rivera said the bank “was overcharging us,” so he and Rubio decided to withhold payment until the dispute was settled. But it was only after Deutsche Bank filed suit and threatened to foreclose that Rubio delivered a check to the mortgage company’s lawyers.

Later on they tried and failed to sell the home. “The real estate market is still really struggling there,” Rivera said. The property is now being rented.

Even with allegations and investigations swirling, Rubio has remained steadfast by his friend’s side. He will hold a fundraiser for Rivera in Washington, D.C., later next month and, according to Rivera, Rubio speaks to him regularly about matters both personal and political.

“I don’t think there’s another vice presidential candidate that could energize the ticket the way Marco could,” Rivera said over the phone Monday night. “Both in substance and style, he has the ability to communicate an optimistic and conservative message.

“But he’s told me in private exactly what he’s said in public, that he’s not going to be picked. He has told me he’s not going to be picked [as Romney's running mate.]”

One GOP strategist with strong ties to Florida state politics, Tim Baker, said he “takes Sen. Rubio at his word that wants to remain a great senator from Florida.”

And that may well be the case, but after years operating at the center of South Florida’s politically powerful Cuban-American community, Rubio must maneuver carefully. Breaking with Rivera could solve one problem, but create another, more damaging set of circumstances.

If Rubio’s appeal as a running mate is primarily rooted in his perceived ability to rally the Hispanic vote, which broke strongly for President Obama and the Democrats in 2008, it is critical that he has the full support of his constituency back home. Should Miami turn its back on him, his very reason for cutting ties with Rivera — ending their very real friendship — would be mooted and his Florida-based political career placed in unique peril.

Source: ABC News.

Next week, the Senate could be meeting to vote on the Protect IP Act (PIPA), the bill that many people are warning could damage the Internet. It’s a horrible prospect — but this isn’t the first time that Congress has tried to sacrifice a technology at the behest of corporate lobbyists.

Here are 10 other technologies that Congress tried, at one time or another, to legislate out of existence.

Top image: Neal Sanche/Flickr.

1. Video Cassette Recorders (VCRs)

Who Wanted it Killed: The movie studios, mainly. The MPAA’s Jack Valenti famouslytestified before Congress that “the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.”
How it Worked Out: No fewer than six bills were introduced in Congress to control the VCR. The MPAA finally dropped its demands that VCRs be outlawed, but instead supported bills that would require licensing of VCRs, royalties on the sale of blank videocassettes, and a copyright owner’s permission before renting out video tapes. In the end, Congress decided to wait and see what the Supreme Court decided in the famous Sony Vs. Universal case. And then, in 2002, the Digital Millennium Copyright Actrequired all VCRs to include “automatic gain control,” thus making Macrovision copy protection an integral part of all VCRs.

2. The Phonograph

Who Wanted it Killed: John Philip Sousa, the guy who wrote “Stars and Stripes Forever.” He testified before Congress that both the gramophone and the player piano would put musicians out of business. And that they would stifle composers from writing new music by removing “all incentive to further creative work.” In marathon hearings, Sousa and the American Copyright League argued in favor of a bill which would have given copyright owners control over all sales (including resale) of their work.
How it Worked Out: In the end, Congress passed a milder bill, which simply assured musicicans and composers royalties from recordings. Sousa was satisfied, and in 1923, he told Thomas Edison, “You have made the art of the musician immortal, Mr. Edison.”

3. Genetically modified food

Who Wanted it Killed: Environmentalists and food safety advocates. Congress has tried many times over the years to regulate or ban certain types of genetically modified foods, and manybills have been introduced over the years. Most recently, as the Food and Drug Administration has been deciding whether to allow the sale of AquaBounty Technologies’ genetically modified salmon in the U.S., the House of Representativesvoted to block FDA approval of the “AquAdvantage” salmon.
How it Worked Out: In general, U.S. laws remain laxer than those in most other countries. Regarding the salmon issue, it doesn’t look as though the House provision has passed the Senate, or gotten President Obama’s signature. Meanwhile, the FDA still hasn’t made a decision about the “franken-salmon.”

4. Internet gambling

Who Wanted it Killed: The Feds themselves. The Justice Department was very alarmed by the rise of online gambling, especially as run by offshore operators, and concerned that this gambling could serve as a cover for money-laundering.
How it Worked Out: Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which didn’t outlaw online gambling, but did bar U.S. banks and credit card companies from processing payments to gambling sites. Since then, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) has been trying to restore the legality of online gambling, arguing that we could tax it and generate a lot of revenue, at a time when budgets are under strain.

5. The Whizzinator

Who Wanted it Killed: Pretty much everybody. After Minnesota Vikings running back Onterrio Smith was caught at an airport with one of these devices, which is basically a fake penis that allows you to fool drug urine tests, Congressheld hearings on May 17, 2005. Rep. Bart Stupakheld up Whizzinator advertising and spoke against the national scandal of simulated urination. “How will we stop the flow?” demanded Stupak, as the room exploded in unintended giggles.
How it Worked Out: There was no Federal law against manufacturing such devices, so states were powerless to go after the makers. In the end, the feds never managed to pass an anti-Whizzinator law, but federal prosecutors were able to go after the manufacturers for selling drug paraphernalia.

6. Mp3 players

Who Wanted it Killed: Actually, this is more like a random casualty of a reckless shooter. Congress has tried to pass a few laws to protect copyright owners in the past, which were so broadly written that they would have banned a wide range of technologies, including mp3 players. There was the Induce Act, which would have banned any technology that induces people to violate copyright. Earlier, there was the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, which banned any devices that could be used to read digital content that didn’t have Digital Rights Management (DRM) built in.
How it Worked Out: So far, none of these bills has passed, so your iPod is safe.

7. Margarine

Who Wanted it Killed: The dairy farmers. Margarine was introduced in 1874, after a French chemist named Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès figured out a way to make a cheap butter substitute from beef fat. The dairy industry freaked out, because the much cheaper margarine threatened to drive smaller dairies out of business. They tried passing various state laws, but some of those were shot down in court.
How it Worked Out: The dairy farmers went to Congress, and there were hearings that culminated in the Margarine Act of 1886, which imposed a tax of two cents per pound on margarine — although the original bill called for a ten cent tax instead. This was followed by the Margarine Act of 1906, in which the federal government raised that tax for margarine that was dyed yellow to look like real butter. (Some state laws required margarine to be dyed weird colors, like pink or black.) The state and federal anti-margarine laws were on the books for decades. (For more about the margarine saga, clickhere or here.)

8. Embryonic stem cells

Who Wanted it Killed: Pro-life advocates, mainly. In 1996, Congress passed the Dickey-Wicker amendment, which bans any federal research in which human embryos are created, destroyed or put at risk of harm. This law, which remains on the books, essentially prevented most embryonic stem cell research.
How it Worked Out: In 2001, then-President George W. Bush announced a new policy in which 61 cell lines of existing embryonic stem cells would be allowed for federally-funded research. Congress tried to pass a bill expanding this policy, but Bush vetoed it. Since then, President Obama has tried to abolish the Bush policy, but Obama’s executive order has been tied up in federal courts. (In a related issue, Congress has repeatedly voted to ban human cloning.)

9. DAT (Digital Audio Tape) recorders

Who Wanted it Killed: The music industry, yet again. Congress held hearings throughout the late 1980s over whether to stop this digital technology from coming to consumers. Music industry lobbyists demanded that DAT players be fitted with technology that would degrade the sound quality of any music copied on them, or that sales of DAT tapes include a royalty payment to the music industry.
How it Worked Out: As Stanford’s Mark Lemley puts it, “Digital audio tapes were then subject to a compulsory licensing scheme and were never heard from again by mass-market consumers. The technology flopped once it was put under the control of the content industry.”

10. Assault weapons

Who Wanted it Killed: Gun control advocates. The ban on semi-automatic weapons in 1994 was a major achievement of the Clinton Administration’s first two years — and probably a huge reason why the Democrats lost control over both houses of Congress that year.
How it Worked Out: The federal assault weapons ban was scheduled to sunset after ten years, and it did. The ban expired in 2004, and attempts to renew it were unsuccessful. Image via 2DayBlog.

Additional reporting by Gordon Jackson and Marykate Jasper. Thanks also to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Wendy Seltzer for the suggestions.

My Two Cents: Ahh.. it’s okay when the government benefits. End Two Cents.

*Taken from CNBC.

The District of Columbia is not thrilled that its residents are traveling to Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia to gamble in casinos. Starved for cash, like states across the country, the district wants some of the millions in revenue that gambling generates each year.

So district officials want residents to gamble closer to home — inside their homes, actually. Or in cafes, restaurants and bars. By year’s end the district hopes to introduce an Internet gambling hub that would allow Washington residents to play blackjack, poker and other casino-style games.

“They can do it from Starbucks, a restaurant, bar or hotel, or from a private residence,” said Buddy Roogow, executive director of the D.C. Lottery, who expects the new games to eventually raise $9 million a year. “That’s real money in D.C.”

CONTINUED..

My Two Cents: Here we go again, the MLB (just like the NBA, NHL and NFL) have to make a shit show circus out of something trivial and ridiculous. Damn nannies. The only difference between A-Rod and most others is that he got caught. I bet there are guys in the MLB offices that have done some gambling at some point. I won’t even get into the fact that anti-gambling laws are f’n dumb. End Two Cents.

*Taken from ESPN. Video at link.

Major League Baseball is taking “very seriously” the allegations that Alex Rodrigueztook part in some illegal, underground poker games, one of which reportedly turned violent, and he could face suspension if his participation in the games is confirmed.

“We take this very seriously and have been investigating this matter since the initial allegation,” MLB said in a statement. “As part of the investigation, the commissioner’s office will interview Mr. Rodriguez.”

An MLB executive, speaking to ESPNNewYork.com on condition of anonymity, indicated that Rodriguez could miss games if the investigation proves he was at the poker games.

CONTINUED..

*Written by Rob Rimes as Bobby Martini for his other blog site: The Life and Times of Bobby Martini – Tales from inside, outside and around the pussy.

I recently got back from Las Vegas. In fact, this time last week I was still partying pretty hard in that goddamned town. I was there for work but it didn’t mean that I didn’t treat the whole fucking city like a cheap prostitute. Granted I didn’t fuck any bitches but I was having too much fun fucking with the ones I wasn’t fucking and just tearing up the town with my real hardcore peeps. Bobby Martini entered the neon desert as a man and left as a more educated man. What knowledge did Mr. Martini gain during his exploits to this once mafia ruled party town? Well here are twenty five things, in no particular fucking order, that Bobby Martini walked away with.

1. “Jackpot” isn’t just a gambling term. You see the word “jackpot” can also refer to a woman’s head. I’ll let you figure out how but I’ll tell you that it involves a goddamned penis and a hearty appetite.

2. Japanese tourists cannot walk by snow globes without shaking them. When I went to the Walgreens attached to the Venetian, it was like walking into a foreign land. It was confusing; I wasn’t sure if I was in a Walgreens in Baghdad or Tokyo. It was a mixture of primarily Iraqi and Japanese tourists. I know the people in muslim garb were Iraqi because one of them said, “There are a lot of us Iraqi in here, huh?” The Iraqis were pretty much grabbing knick knacks and slushies while the Japanese were thumbing through Vegas calendars and shaking literally every fucking snow globe in the store. These snow globes were like crack to the Japanese tourists. I watched one walk by the display and he tried to fight the urge but ultimately gave in to his bullshit temptation and frantically shook three or four of them within a five second span! I swear I heard the motherfucker laugh maniacally when he did it too. Jackass sounded like an anime villain!

3. Birth control pills are often taken with alcohol. This came as a surprise to me but it probably shouldn’t have. I can’t tell you how many times I was at one of the many casino bars just hitting on some random pussy and the girl got titillated enough to pop a birth control pill right in front of me. I have to admit, when they took a big sip of their cosmopolitan right after, my dick got real hard. In some cases it was hard for me to properly articulate my lustful feelings because in Vegas, my speech was ridiculously slurred.

4. There is never a free bench! This really pissed me off because I had to do a lot of walking from casino to casino. Just to give you an idea, if you’re familiar with the layout of Las Vegas, I had to walk from Treasure Island, across the Strip through the Venetian and all the way to the Sands Expo Center multiple times a day. My damn feet fucking hurt! So all I wanted to do every now and again was to take a seat on a bench. However, no matter where I was, inside or outside, motherfuckers were just sitting on benches with big ass “fuck you” smirks on their faces.

5. Strippers try and follow you home. Man, all I did with a few of my boys was walk by a goddamned strip club. Suddenly this half-dressed porn star wannabe was following us. I thought nothing of it as there are lots a big ass titties and people walking around in Vegas. Man we went for blocks and blocks and split off in different directions. The last friend I was with wanted to go into the Venetian. We walked inside, went to the bar and this stripper sat next to us. The trick was asking us if we wanted to bring her up to the room. We were hesitant as I didn’t need some loose ass trick jacking my MacBook Pro and my dirty underwear. After leaving the bar, she followed us for another twenty minutes and finally gave up. Bitch caught an attitude when we refused to buy her a drink when she requested one. Buy me a drink biotch, I’m the one getting macked on!

6. Why buy a hooker when there are plenty of hot non-hookers willing to have sex with anything free of charge? Now I personally didn’t purchase a woman of the night but a few of my homies were game and were willing to spend some serious cheese. I thought to myself, “Man, there has to be an easier cheaper way.” Well, there is. What I learned is that a lot of the people in Vegas on vacation just want to get fucked and fucked hard, I’m talking about women too. I can’t tell you how many wanted to get pregnant with the Martini seed just by sitting at any random bar and shooting the shit. What I realized through this experience of aggressive flirtation and over-the-clothes genital rubs is that I need to move to Vegas and open up a fucking condom store!

7. Gambling is the lamest thing to do (besides going to see the Blue Man Group). That’s about all I have to say on that.

8. Rita Rudner is never funny. This is a goddamned fact. I’m sure she is a nice lady but every time I walked by that theatre in the Venetian where they have the comedy shows, I was bombarded by videos of Rita Rudner telling her jokes. I’m assuming the two clips they run are her funniest moments, why promote her with her worst moments, right? Well, the clips weren’t funny. They were pretty awful actually. For a fifty-something chick, I’d drop a nut in her but damn, she needs to not call her show “Now Funny”.

9. One’s comedic timing is enhanced (except Rita Rudner’s apparently). I noticed that for whatever reason my hilarity was at an all time high. My comebacks, insults, wittiness, general joking and tomfoolery were all at peak levels. I had myself in hysterics pretty much the entire trip. Some of this has to be attributed to the fact that I was drunk for nine straight days and I was feeling some elation from the oxygen being pumped into my room every night but goddamn! I was like Chris Rock buttfucking Carrot Top with Richard Pryor filming it and George Carlin holding the boom mic while Denis Leary was handing out disposable cameras and snacks.

10. Downtown trumps the Strip. I can’t really explain it but Downtown Vegas felt real while the Strip just felt like touristy bullshit. The style and the atmosphere were legit and I enjoyed walking around this area even though motherfuckers kept hitting me up for change to buy beer or to have one more shot at winning it all back. Plus it was like 80′s night when I was there, not sure if it’s 80′s themed all the time but the DeLorean in front of one of the casinos mixed with the sounds of the Talking Heads gave me a serious hard on.

11. Friends don’t let friends drink and pick prostitutes. I’m not getting into the details on the fiasco that taught me this lesson. You’re just going to have to trust your boy on this one and be thankful that none of us got cut by a crazy bitch lactating all over the goddamned casino. My stomach churns even thinking about it but I’m alive, no thanks to my friend’s stupidity and bad choice in seedy women.

12. Dennis Rodman digs my artwork. I found this to be a great honor because Rodman is the most stylistic cat in the history of the NBA. For him to give props on something I created was pretty badass.

13. C+ level food can be sold at A+ level prices if it is covered in enough B level sauce. Man, the food in Vegas is expensive but it isn’t as good as it looks and especially isn’t worth the price range, except for a few places. Out of all the meals I had in the nine days I was there, only two meals were all that memorable. Most of the food is mediocre and smeared in good sauces to cover up the lack of anything spectacular. Trevi in Caesars Palace provided the best meal I had in the neon desert.

14. Frankie’s Tiki Room is as good as it’ll ever get for anyone. I have to go on record and state that this is quite possibly the greatest bar or lounge I have ever been in. The place feels authentic as fuck. It’s like it has been sitting on some Vegas side street for 50 years undiscovered. The truth is, the place was established in 2008! The music, the drinks, the atmosphere, everything is perfect. The bartender was cool as fuck. I was so blown away by the awesomeness of this majestic place that I vowed to return home and open up a place as close to this as possible, except my Tiki Room will serve burgers and tots. I left this bar with a huge list of new bands to check out off of their jukebox. It was a surf rock and tiki bar fan’s heavenly haven.

15. You can get a draft beer and a blowjob at Ellis Island for $41! I didn’t get to go to Ellis Island, which is one of my biggest regrets on this trip, but I did learn from multiple people that they have dollar drafts and one can easily get a blowjob for forty bucks behind the dumpster out back. Granted I wouldn’t want a blowjob from a forty dollar hoochie but I know a lot of people that would, so I am sharing this with you. Go get some sucky sucky boys!

16. Supply and demand is a motherfucker in Las Vegas. I first realized this on my first day when I was thirsty as shit walking around the desert atmosphere. I went into a pizza place and grabbed two bottles of Aquafina. The cashier charged me $8.11! Talk about no condom shit-pushed-in prison rape! Then one of the more popular bars charged me $32 for two shots of Jameson! I quickly learned where not to buy stuff in Vegas.

17. People in Vegas believe that pirate ships had DJs. Well, at least the people who run the attractions and shows at Treasure Island believe this. I watched their pirate show and I was a bit perplexed at how they had a DJ on the pirate ship not to mention the fact that there is nowhere at sea to plug in an amp. Also, half the pirates were women which was against pirate code. Plus, these women obviously shop at Rave, which wasn’t around back then, and they danced and sung Pussycat Dolls sounding pop tunes. I guess historical accuracy isn’t important in Las Vegas.

18. The Bellagio and the Cosmopolitan are the only casinos with any real style. I stick by this statement, although the Tropicana, Bill’s and the Imperial Palace all had some unique shit. Everywhere else is exactly the same. I couldn’t tell which casino was which if I wasn’t in any of the ones already mentioned. The Bellagio is just off the charts and absolutely fucking beautiful. The Cosmopolitan is on some next level shit. The lounge Bond in the front of the building was one of the coolest places I ever sat in while drinking a Pabst (although it was $7!). I also had a Tom Collins and a bourbon sour. The best part about Bond was that there were multiple go-go girls dancing over my head! Needless to say, I fell in love with both of these awesome fucking casinos.

19. Celebrities are much cooler in Vegas. Well, at least the handful that I met were cool as balls. I won’t name them because I ain’t out to give free publicity and I’m not trying to wow anyone with a list of people who’s hands I shook. In any event, every celeb I saw was mad cordial and cool with shooting the shit for a few minutes. One celeb I got to hang out with at the casino bar for a good hour. He was a dope motherfucker.

20. Cab drivers are the coolest motherfuckers in town. That may sound crazy and you may think that they are all foreign dudes with little to no knowledge of the English language. In some cases this is true but the few who I really talked to were badass. One guy I met used to fight off elephant poachers in Africa. He was like the African Teddy Roosevelt. I should have got his autograph because my time with him trumped any of the celebrity bullshit.

21. Casino security won’t stop a pimp from hunting you down. This is a scary thing because when a friend of mine dissed a hoe, the pimp came hunting. When the pimp tried to follow him, security didn’t even attempt to stop him. Luckily for my friend, he got away safe. The lesson learned here though, is that pissing off a pimp in Vegas is a bad idea, especially when security isn’t going to protect you from getting a brick bounced off of your eye.

22. After 4am, most high class prostitutes run 2-for-1 specials, as in you can get two hoes for the price of one hoe! If you are down to pay for your pussy, this is a great deal! Just don’t get swindled and make sure your important shit is in the safe before bringing these pro-sluts up to your room. Then again, you’re probably not getting sloppy seconds or treacherous thirds, you’re getting frothy fourths or filet-o-fish fifths (and we’re talking extra tarter sauce if ya feel me). So play it safe!

23. Blueberry pancakes and Mai Thais compliment each other like “whoa!” That is all. Just go try it!

24. If a girl tells you that she has been drugged and that the couple who are buying her drinks are trying to have a threesome, she is probably trying to recruit you for an orgy full of old fat Canadians. I started to think this girl needed to be protected from these vile creatures but then instincts prevailed and I realized that it was a ploy to get the Martini seed. Nope, not happening trollop!

25. Nine days in Las Vegas is probably too long because then you start seeing things you can’t unsee. Just a word to the wise.

*Taken from Radar.

Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire is among more than a dozen high-profile Hollywoodcelebrities being sued in connection with a mega-millions illegal gambling ring that ran high-stakes underground poker games, Star magazine is reporting exclusively.

Maguire, 35, won more than $300,000 from a Beverly Hills hedge fund manager who embezzled investor funds and orchestrated a Ponzi scheme in a desperate bid to pay off his monster debt to the star and others, it’s alleged.

An FBI investigation into Brad Ruderman, the CEO of Ruderman Capital Partners, uncovered how he lost $25 million of investor money in clandestine poker games held on a twice weekly basis in suites at the luxury Beverly Hills hotel, Four Seasons, and the Viper Room on Sunset Boulevard.

Tinsel town A-listers Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon also played in the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em games which had a buy-in of $100,000, multiple members of the ring told Star.

CONTINUED..

*Taken from LA Times.

The founders of the three largest online poker sites were indicted by the FBI on Friday in what could serve as a death blow to the thriving industry.

Eleven executives at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker were charged with bank fraud and money laundering in an indictment unsealed in a Manhattan court. Two of the executives were arrested on Friday morning in Utah and Nevada. Federal agents are searching for the others.

Prosecutors are seeking to immediately shut down the sites and to eventually send the executives to jail and to recover $3 billion from the companies. By Friday afternoon Full Tilt Poker’s site displayed a message explaining that “this domain name has been seized by the F.B.I. pursuant to an Arrest Warrant.”

The online gambling industry has taken off over the last decade, drawing an estimated 15 million Americans to bet online.

In 2006 Congress passed a law prohibiting online gambling. Most of the leading sites found ways to work around the law using foreign banks, but prosecutors allege that in doing so they broke the law.

“These defendants concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing others to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal gambling profits,” Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement.

Poker fans took to Twitter in droves, worried about the money in their online gaming accounts, fretting that online poker’s days were at an end.

“Well the good news is I think I only had about $300 left on the online poker sites overall,” tweeted Jimi Schindler of Madison, Wis. “Maybe I’ll see that money?!!?”

*Taken from Reason. Written by John Stossel.

Sunday night is Oscar night! Think you know who’s going to win? Want to make a bet?

The Hollywood Stock Exchange allows people to bet on which movies, actors, directors, etc. will take home Academy Awards. You can also bet on how much money a movie might make. It’s called a prediction market … except unlike other prediction markets, bettors can’t use real money.

What fun is that? It’s not only less fun, it’s also makes the prediction market less accurate. People are more careful when they have real money on the line, and the chance of losing money weeds out the frivolous guessers. Prediction markets are valuable for predicting all kinds of things because the prospect of making money attracts people with knowledge, judgment, and a good sense of the future. More information is better than less. The people most confident in their information bet the most. That’s why speculation is a sound market institution.

The promoters of the Hollywood Stock Exchange would have preferred the use of real money but—surprise!—government forbids it. The Frank-Dodd financial regulation law killed the real market at the behest of some in the movie industry.

Rich Jacobs, president of the Hollywood Stock Exchange, says that some studios wanted it killed because they didn’t want public discussion of their plans.

“I think they were just concerned about bringing financial market transparency to an industry that hasn’t had any transparency about finances,” he said.

Why would people want a prediction market for movies?

“Thousands of users out there follow movies very closely,” Jacobs said. “They have an opinion on how well those films will do, and they’d like to put some of their money (to) work.”

And through the betting, knowledge would be revealed. Films more likely to succeed would probably get funded.

Not every studio opposed the prediction market. Lionsgate defended it. Good for them.

“It would give an opportunity for those trying to produce (small) films and get distribution … by showing that the market thinks those films can make $10 or $20 million,” Jacobs said.

The betting would start at the very beginning of the process.

“First, it’s a script, an idea. Then, an actor or director signs on, and the value goes up. And by the time the trailer comes out, there’s a very good sense of the valuation of the property.”

But politicians called that “speculation” and “gambling.” Can’t have that!

“The Commodity Futures Trading Commission did a three-year review and concluded that there was legitimate economic purpose behind this market,” Jacobs added.

But last year, then-Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank said no.

Now I hear Dodd might be appointed head of the movie studios’ lobby. Cozy. Maybe sleazy. But that’s how politics and regulation work.

Meanwhile, the Hollywood Stock Exchange continues to operate. But with bettors using fake money, it’s less accurate.

“It’s certainly not as accurate as it would be with the real money market,” Jacobs said. “(But the) track record of the Hollywood Stock Exchange in forecasting how well a film will do at the box office has been extraordinary.”

That’s because prediction markets predict better than pundits and polls. An even better one is Intrade.com—it uses real money. One study found it has just half the margin of error of national polls. Intrade is based in Ireland because cloddish busybodies like Dodd and Sen. Jon Kyl won’t allow such gambling sites to operate in the United States. Nevertheless, Americans bet on Intrade anyway, so that prediction market is still a way for Americans to demonstrate their predictive talents.

So let’s have fun with the information that the bettors bring us. What does Intrade predict for the Oscars? As of Tuesday, The King’s Speech had an 81 percent chance to win best picture. Its star, Colin Firth, was a 95.5 percent favorite to win best actor. Natalie Portman had a 90 percent chance of winning best actress for Black Swan. The best director race was closer. David Fincher was the favorite at 60 percent for The Social Network.

I dare you to bet against the prediction market.

John Stossel is host of Stossel on the Fox Business Network. He’s the author of Give Me a Break and of Myth, Lies, and Downright Stupidity. To find out more about John Stossel, visit his site at johnstossel.com.

Jesse Ventura with Ross Mandell (the real life Gordon Gekko) confront Wall Street’s heavy hitters. The confrontation starts at 3:55. Everything before that is backstory to catch you up to speed before the confrontation.