I want to thank all you guys for coming to this meeting of the family. I thought it's important to give everyone an update on where we stand with our gambling business. Things have changed greatly and I think it's exciting. I'm gonna let Vinny talk to you first.
Thanks Frankie. OK, I know a lot of you are newcomers to the family so I thought I'd give you some history. It's like this. As you know most of the early family came here in the 1920s when Mussolini kicked us out of Italy. It was a tough go back then but America gave us our first real foothold with the alcohol prohibition of the 1920s and 30s. Our fathers were great at selling the liquor to the Americans who of course all loved to drink and we made lots of money due to American stupidity. But then America ended the damn prohibition and legalized alcohol and we had to find new sources of money, and with the help of people like Bugsy Siegel and Al Capone we got a good foothold in the gambling area. While we ran some legal stuff in Nevada most of our income was with our bookie businesses around the rest of the United States. It was a really sweet gig. Only Las Vegas had legal sports betting and no one wanted to go there so we put up operations everywhere else and we were the only place to bet on sports and stuff. It was all credit betting of course, and they paid us right away when they lost. If they didn't pay us right away we charged them what we thought was a fair interest rate of about 100% a day. If they still didn't pay, we used other means to get the money if you know what I mean. Anyways, things were going real well for the family in this area.
Then in the late 1990s we got screwed over. But it wasn't the usual guys that were trying to steal our turf, instead it was offshore betting places. They operated legally from countries like Antigua, Costa Rica, Australia, Britain and Curacao and we had no way of getting to them. These were honest business guys who just treated gambling like any normal business, for heaven's sake. And they asked for the money up front. A lot of these places were even traded on the stock exchange. The countries they were in said they could legally take bets from our clients and almost all our business went over to them. I guess our customers were tired of the high interest or having their kids lives threatened so they set up these offshore accounts and bet there with their credit cards and other easy means. We were basically sunk and it looked like we were going to have to give up our gambling hold in the U.S.
Then in 1997 our big break came again. Jonny of Arizona introduced the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act and wanted to make this offshore betting illegal. While a lot of Americans were mad, we of course were rooting Jon on. And that act was really sweet. He was going to arrest everyone: operators, banks, western union, bettors, you name it. We had a big opportunity to get our business back, but congress kept shooting down Jonny's bill. Even when Jimmy of Iowa and Bobby from Virginia added their name to the bill and gave some exemptions to help it pass, congress wouldn't help us.
Anyways, then came 2001 and I'm going to let Frankie tell you the rest.
Thanks Vinny. OK, so in 2001, after those terrible attacks in New York City the government started focusing on terrorists but they basically only cared about their definition of terrorists and started worrying about really weird things like bringing toothpaste onto airplanes. Anyways, they no longer had any interest in us so we thought it was time to grow again. We have done well with our usual gigs of prostitution, extortion, loan sharking and computer fraud and such but still couldn't get into the gambling area. This legal offshore sportsbooks and poker rooms and casinos were a big fukking pain in the ass. No matter what we did we really couldn't get any foothold back in the United States. Then in October of last year, Christmas came early. Billy from Tennessee stuck a bill making it illegal to fund these offshore places in an unrelated terrorist bill and it caused all our competition to start running away from Americans. Everything we couldn't do to get the family back in the gambling business was being done for us by the government. A bunch of the offshore betting places that were taking our clients closed up or stopped letting anyone living in America bet with them. And then all these payment places stopped taking American clients. The public couldn't pay by credit card, by Paypal or Neteller, you name it, and they even went so far as arresting the guys. Sure, Americans still have some options, but it's just a matter of time before Georgie gets his way and all our competition is gone. At that point we'll once again be the only place in town to bet for Americans. We're starting to recruit now and our numbers are growing. And soon we'll get all our old clients back. Americans have always gambled and aren't going to stop now, so when the rest of the world is betting with these legal companies in the Carribean, Australia or Europe, the Americans will have no choice. If they want to bet they play with us. Any questions?
Over here, Frankie. This doesn't make no sense. America worked so hard to try and get rid of the family and they succeeded in one major area thanks to internet betting and now they are trying to give us a chance to get back in again? Why would they do something so stupid?
That's a good question, Mario. But that's the way they operate. Why the hell did they introduce prohibition in the 1920s? Why are they wasting all this money on campaigns to stop the drug war they can't possibly win? I thought we was screwed with this internet craze, but now thanks to these American politicians we are ready to get the gambling business back. So get ready, start working out, get your guns cleaned and be prepared for our big return. We're taking back the streets and we're taking back our business. So when the word is out, no one other than us will take bets from America---the family will once again rule.
Oh, and one more thing from the boss. The Americans are now used to low juice on their betting. So we have to be somewhat accommodating given they lost the good thing. So only 50 percent interest per day.....at first anyways.
01-19-07
Hartley Henderson
MajorWager.com
henderson@majorwager.com http://www.majorwager.com/frontline-403.html