The “lottery curse” appears to be working its malevolent power on the winner of Maine’s all-time biggest lottery jackpot, poisoning the relationships between the winner, his parents, and the mother of his child.

The anonymous $1.35 billion Mega Millions winner is suing his ex because he claims she blabbed to his parents about the win without his consent.

Now his former partner has hit back against her wealthy accuser, alleging misconduct on his part. Meanwhile, the winner’s father claims he is “not the son I knew.”

Doe Vs. Smith

The former couple are referred to in court documents by the pseudonyms “John Doe” and “Sara Smith,” respectively. That’s because Maine allows lottery winners to remain anonymous.

Doe sued Smith in November 2023, claiming she had violated a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) when she told his dad and stepmom about his newfound riches.

Doe wants an injunction preventing Smith from disclosing any further information about the jackpot. He has also asked the court to order Smith to list every person she told and pay compensatory damages of “an amount to be determined at trial, but no less than $100,000 per unauthorized disclosure.”

Rift Deepens

But in recently filed documents in the case both Smith and the man’s father claim that Doe himself told his parents about the win. Doe also demanded his father no longer speak to Smith, which caused a rift between the two men.

“I told him… ‘You are not the son I knew,’” claimed the father in court documents. “He got angry, calling me a ‘dictator’ and an ‘a***hole.’ I have not heard from my son since, and he has not done any of (the) things he promised.”

Smith alleges in a recent court filing that Doe has hired a security team that allegedly follows her and her daughter around on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, Doe claims that Smith is attempting to expose his identity. He also alleges she falsely accused him of trying to “kidnap” their daughter because he refused to pay for her and her new boyfriend to go on vacation.

Minnesota harness racing track Running Aces has added two more casinos to a federal racketeering suit that claims tribal operators in the state are running “illegal” games.

Last month, the Columbus, Minn.-based racino sued the Grand Casino Hinckley, Grand Casino Mille Lacs, and Treasure Island Resort. Running Aces claims they conduct class III card games that are not covered by their tribal-state gaming compacts, such as Three Card Poker and Ultimate Texas Hold’Em.

The Grand Casinos are owned by the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. Treasure Island belongs to the Prairie Island Indian Community.

In an amended complaint filed Tuesday, Running Aces added Mystic Lake and Little Six Casinos, which are owned by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC).

‘IGRA Violated’

The racino accuses all five casinos of violating the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), as well as state laws, by operating not only class III card games but also “video games of chance,” such as slots.

The tribes are permitted by the state to offer these games under the terms of their compacts. Minnesota was the first state to sign compacts with its federally recognized tribes after the enactment of IGRA in 1988.

But the Minnesota criminal code “specifically prohibits and makes illegal the playing of electronic video games of chance for any person,” as the lawsuit notes.

This is something the tribes “know only too well,” per the lawsuit. When Running Aces applied to Minnesota Racing Commission to “modestly expand its ‘dealer assist’ table games,” the SMSC objected on the grounds that “video games of chance are not permitted in Minnesota,” the suit states.

‘No Merit’

“All that we have ever sought was to be treated fairly, compete on a level playing field, take advantage of improvements within the pari-mutuel environment, and operate without fear of being eliminated,” Running Aces president and CEO Taro Ito said in a statement to local CBS affiliate KSTP-TV. “It is our sincere desire to have our day in court and let the facts determine the outcome.”

But the SMSC dismissed the Running Aces lawsuit as having “no merit,” labeling it a “desperate stunt to attack the good reputation of tribes and tribal gaming” in a statement to FOX 9.

All gaming conducted at Mystic Lake and Little Six Casinos complies with tribal law, federal law, and the gaming compact that was executed in 1989,” read the statement.

The SMSC claims Running Aces is seeking to “mislead the public and influence the final stages of the Minnesota Legislature’s 2024 session,” to prevent the passage of a bill that would hand a sports betting monopoly to the tribes.

The Ohio Lottery has admitted that the names and social security numbers of more than 538K customers were compromised in a cyberattack on Christmas Eve last year.

In a regulatory filing, the lottery said it concluded its investigation into the attack on April 5, adding that there was no evidence the stolen data had been misused by any malicious actors. It didn’t attribute the attack to a group or individual.

However, on December 27, a ransomware group calling itself “DragonForce” claimed responsibility for the breach.

Dark Web Data Dump

DragonForce claimed it swiped 3 million records, or 600GB worth of data, 94 GB of which the group said it had made available for download in CSV format on the dark web. It asserted that dates of birth and home addresses are included in the data dump, which appears to contradict the Ohio Lottery’s filing.

In letters to the victims, the lottery apologized for the incident, adding that it was “committed to maintaining the privacy of personal information in our possession and have taken many precautions to safeguard it.”

“We continually evaluate and modify our practices and internal controls to enhance the security and privacy of your personal information,” it added.

The lottery said it has offered those affected 12 months of credit monitoring and ID theft protection.

What is DragonForce?

DragonForce appears to be a new threat actor, and the Ohio Lottery appears to have been its first victim. DragonForce has gone on to target Coca-Cola in Singapore and Yakult Australia.

In mid-March, the government of Palau, an island nation in the Western Pacific, was hit by a ransomware attack that knocked out its computer servers. DragonForce claimed responsibility, but so did another group, LockBit.

DragonForce is apparently unrelated to the Malaysian pro-Palestine hacktivist group of the same name whose attacks against government agencies in the Middle East are motivated by politics and not financial gain.

On Tuesday, New Hampshire’s Republican Governor Chris Sununu signed a bill to prohibit greyhound simulcasting from January 1, 2027. The state joins Kansas, Colorado, and Massachusetts in recently outlawing the broadcasts, in which races are streamed in real time, enabling bettors who are far from the racetrack to wager on races.

Live greyhound racing has been illegal in New Hampshire since 2009, but the new law puts an end to all betting on greyhounds for good.

Currently, only one venue in the state offers simulcasting, the racebook at the Brook in Seabrook. New Hampshire carved simulcasting out of the 2009 ban as a way to protect the economic interests of the Brook, which was then known as Seabrook Greyhound Park.

In the ensuing years, the Brook has transformed itself into a flourishing casino, offering charitable gaming via sports betting and historical horse racing machines (HHRs). Greyhound simulcasting is no longer a crucial part of its business model.

Connecticut Bans Live Racing

The move comes a week after Connecticut’s Democratic Governor Ned Lamont signed a bill to ban live dog racing. His is the 43rd state to outlaw the sport.

There have been no active dog tracks in Connecticut since the closure of Plainfield Greyhound Park and Shoreline Star Greyhound Park in 2005, but the bill’s supporters wanted to ensure that the tracks could never reopen. Simulcasting remains legal in the state.

Dog racing is a cruel activity and it has no place in Connecticut,” Governor Lamont said in a statement. “It’s mindboggling to think that at one time people considered this a legitimate sport, and I give credit to animal advocacy groups for their activism that has raised awareness about the abuse and extreme conditions these dogs face, leading to bans in nearly every state across the country. Signing this bill is an easy decision.”

‘Walls Closing In’

The move represents another nail in the coffin for a dwindling sport in the US. Live dog racing is now confined to just two venues, Wheeling Island Casino & Racetrack and Mardi Gras Casino & Resort, both in West Virginia.

Florida, once the epicenter of the sport in America, discontinued greyhound racing at the end of 2020. That’s after residents voted to change the state constitution to ban betting on the sport. An overwhelming 69% of residents backed the amendment.

Arkansas’ last track, Southland, pulled the plug at the end of 2022.

“The walls are closing in on greyhound racing in the United States,” Carey Thiel, executive director of Grey2K USA Worldwide, an advocacy group for greyhound protection, told Casino.org. “Betting on American dog races is down by a whopping 47% since 2019, and one state after another is severing ties with this cruel industry.”

A Bethlehem, Penn. man who allegedly operated a voucher-counterfeiting scheme for skill-gaming machines across northeastern Pennsylvania was charged last week with felony theft and forgery.

Anthony Diehl targeted convenience stores, presenting bogus “winning” tickets either in person or through his recruited network of vulnerable individuals, mainly drug addicts, according to prosecutors. These individuals would typically cash in the vouchers, either in exchange for drugs or for a cut of the illegally obtained “winnings.”

In this way, the network bilked numerous convenience stores and gas stations in multiple counties out of more than $20K, prosecutors said.

Diehl is accused of creating the vouchers himself using chemicals and printers to alter the information and inflate the prizes.

Return to the Scene of the Crime

Diehl was caught after he returned to the scene of an alleged crime – namely, the Carbon Mini-Mart in Palmerton.

On January 28, 2023, a man matching Diehl’s description cashed out two vouchers for a total of $695 at the convenience store, which were later discovered to be forgeries, and the incident was reported to police.

Responders arrived to find Diehl and another individual. The accomplice told them Diehl had provided him with the ticket to cash and that staff had refused the request.

Police searched Diehl’s vehicle and found a printer, a laptop, and other equipment. Investigators who later examined the laptop discovered more than 100 forged vouchers inside Microsoft Word documents, as well as the watermarks of numerous skill game manufacturers.

Google Searches

His Google search results showed hundreds of searches for businesses throughout Pennsylvania that deployed gaming terminals.

Investigators were able to match some of the vouchers on Diehl’s laptop with those that had been fraudulently cashed at other stores in the state.

The full list of charges against Diehl are corrupt organizations, conspiracy to violate, forgery, theft by deception, theft by unlawful taking, unlawful use of computer, unlawful duplication, possessing instrument of crime with intent, and theft by deception.

He is currently free on $100K unsecured bail and is due in court on May 31.

A North Carolina woman has found herself more than half a million dollars richer after buying a digital instant-win ticket completely by accident.

The freak win occurred when Cynthia Harris of Cary, NC was messing about on the North Carolina Education Lottery website. Harris believed she was playing the free demo version of the Bison Bonanza game. In fact, she had unwittingly bought a $2 ticket for the game.

This wasn’t just any old ticket, it was the “largest digital instant win since the lottery began offering digital instant games in November,” lottery officials wrote in a May 14 news release.

Harris instantly won $736,874 — $526,866 after taxes – overcoming odds of 15.5 million to one to land the progressive jackpot game’s top prize.

“I was like, ‘Wait how did this just happen?’” said a bewildered Harris. “It still hasn’t set in yet.”

“I am a blessed person,” she confirmed.

Long Shot

Harris isn’t the only blessed person to win the lottery inadvertently. In April, Miriam Long, of Christiansburg, Va., won $1 million after hitting a wrong button, leading to an accidental Powerball ticket purchase.

Fortunately, those numbers matched the first five balls that came out of the lottery machine in that night’s draw.

“It was the best mistake of my life,” reflected Long.

Stranger Danger

But the prize for the flukiest lottery win ever goes to Los Angeles woman LaQuedra Edwards.

In November 2022, Edwards was happily feeding $40 into a lottery ticket vending machine at an LA supermarket when she was bumped by “some rude person,” causing her to push the wrong button.

“He just bumped into me, didn’t say a thing, and just walked out the door,” Edwards complained.

“I almost crashed my car,” she said, although we’re not sure she should have been driving while scratching.

Edwards was able to go out and buy a house, all thanks to her collision with a very rude stranger.

The Stronach Group, owner of Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course – home of the Preakness Stakes – will sell the historic track to the State of Maryland for $1.

On Wednesday, the Maryland Board of Public Works voted to approve the plan, which will involve a complete rebuild of the track.

The state will run the track as a non-profit, while paying Stronach millions for the right to use the Preakness Stakes name and to run the famous race.

Consolidating Racing

Last week, Maryland’s Democratic Governor Wes Moore signed a bill approving $400 million in state bonds to pay for the renovations.

The Preakness will still run at Pimlico this coming Saturday (May 18) and next year, but it will move to Laurel Park in 2026 while the track is rebuilt. It will return to the new-look Pimlico – it is hoped – in 2027.

Laurel Park, which is also owned by the Stronach Group, will be permanently closed after 110 years of racing once the renovations to Pimlico are complete, per the agreement.

The Preakness is culturally important to Marylanders. First run in 1873 – beating the Kentucky Derby by two years – it is second only to the Derby for attendance. Maryland law prohibits the Preakness from leaving the state.

“With this agreement, we are making Pimlico the year-round home of thoroughbred racing in the state of Maryland,” Gov. Moore said Wednesday. “By consolidating thoroughbred racing at one track, Pimlico will become a reliable hub of economic activity, rather than only being in the spotlight for a few days of the year.”

New-Look Pimlico

The rebuild will create a smaller 5,000-seater grandstand, which will double as an event space and be open to the local community all year round, according to local NBC affiliate WBAL-TV. There will be a new sportsbook, a hotel with views of the track, and a 2,000-space parking garage.

Any operating losses will be covered by a fund derived from lottery proceeds. Meanwhile, 10% of track profits will go to local Park Heights community development projects.

“This truly is an historic moment,” said Alan Foreman, president and CEO of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, told WBAL-TV. “(With) the not-for-profit model, we are consolidating, reducing expenses, reimagining the future.”

A Massachusetts store clerk charged with extortion for his role in the theft of a $3 million lottery ticket is now a fugitive from justice after he failed to show up in court Monday.

A Plymouth County Superior Court judge has issued a warrant for the arrest of Joseph Reddem, of Raynham, Mass. He was allegedly involved in a plot to cash in a stolen lottery ticket and attempted to extort money from his co-conspirator.

Reddem, 33, worked as a clerk at the store formerly known as Savas Liquors in Lakeville, Mass., along with Carly Nunes, 24, who pleaded guilty in February to stealing the ticket.

Oblivious Winner

In January 2023, Nunes was working the checkout when a customer entered to purchase a bag of potato chips and two Quick Picks for the Mega Millions draw. He grabbed his chips but left his lottery tickets in the tray at the checkout counter.

They were subsequently fished out by Nunes.

The victim later told investigators he briefly searched for his tickets when he got home, couldn’t find them, and gave the matter no more thought. He was oblivious to the fact that he hit the jackpot that night.

Two days later, Nunes, her boyfriend, and Jeddem turned up at the Massachusetts State Lottery HQ in Dorchester to cash the ticket.

Reddem, who had driven Nunes to Lottery HQ, appeared to be demanding half the jackpot for himself. Nunes said she would only pay him $200K.

A criminal investigation was launched, and security video from Savas Liquors showed that Nunes was not the real winner.

Real Winner Found

She was indicted on June 12, 2023, on multiple charges of larceny and fraud, and was arrested on a warrant two weeks later.

Nunes ultimately pleaded guilty to one of those charges – presentation of a false claim. She was sentenced to two years’ probation with the requirement that she continue treatment for substance abuse.

After a month of canvassing the area with screen-grab shots of the surveillance video, lottery officials were able to track down the real winner, Paul Little.

He said he wished Nunes the best and would “pray good things come her way.”

Reddem remains at large.

The cryptocurrency house is not any stranger to controversy, with problems with regulation and institutional acceptance being debated. However among the many noise, some voices are authoritative.

One of many voices was Gabor Gurbacs, a revered adviser to Tether, who mentioned regulators haven’t got sufficient causes to reject the thought of ​​a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

This opposition from the US Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) stems primarily from issues about potential market manipulation, the safety of asset storage, and the general maturity of the underlying Bitcoin market.

Spot bitcoin ETFs, which immediately personal an underlying asset reminiscent of bitcoin, have been on the heart of those issues.

When an investor buys spot ETF shares, the fund acquires an equal quantity of belongings. This mechanism gives nearly actual correlation of positions, opening the door to a wider investor base.

A well-recognized and extensively regulated strategy to spend money on Bitcoin could possibly be a game-changer, encouraging each particular person and institutional gamers to enter the market.

The potential advantages of this growth are many, with elevated liquidity and improved pricing.

First, it might considerably improve institutional absorption, thereby selling market stability and lowering value volatility. Whereas the state of affairs now appears extra bearable than in 2018, any timing of market influence for bitcoin ETFs stays unsure.

El Salvador’s daring transfer to legalize bitcoin as authorized tender in 2021 has sparked a wave of change. Many firms at the moment are selecting to inventory Bitcoin or incorporate it into their monetary or funding administration methods.

World funding supervisor BlackRock is exhibiting growing curiosity on this pattern. The corporate’s submitting for a bitcoin ETF may mark a turning level within the cryptocurrency house.

If the SEC approves BlackRock’s proposal, the consequence may change the dynamics of the bitcoin market eternally and herald a brand new period on the earth of cryptocurrencies.

Two years after El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as authorized tender, residents are questioning the cryptocurrency’s advantages, based on former Ethereum developer Lane Rettig.

In a current speak at EthCC 2023, Rettig offered an replace on El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment, which he first mentioned in 2021. After visiting the nation twice after the regulation was handed, Rettig discovered Bitcoin adoption lagging behind regardless of sturdy authorities encouragement.

Salvadorans are usually not impressed with Bitcoin

“Only a few of them truly use Bitcoin every day,” Rettig stated, referring to the 4 million Salvadorans who downloaded the state-backed Chivo pockets for a $30 Bitcoin bonus.

In response to Rettig, lower than 2% of remittances undergo Bitcoin, even after the federal government rolled out Chivo ATMs in america. Analysis additionally reveals that the usage of digital funds and Bitcoin in El Salvador is low and declining over time.

“Most individuals do not assume bitcoin is nice for them,” Rettig stated, referring to a current essay by a Salvadoran. “It is mainly not an accepted medium of change in El Salvador, regardless of the federal government’s encouragement.”

El Salvador enhancements associated to Bitcoin

However Rettig stated the Bitcoin regulation has considerably diminished crime, which he referred to as “an enormous enchancment within the high quality of life.” Current polls present that greater than 80% of Salvadorans consider that Bukele managed crime. Residents say they really feel safer after they exit at night time for the primary time.

The variety of Bitcoin ATMs has skyrocketed from two in 2021. to greater than 200 nationwide. El Salvador now boasts protection that rivals the world’s main cities, with ATMs even in distant villages. In Rettig’s expertise, charges at these ATMs are negligible.

One other optimistic growth is that El Salvador just lately handed a digital asset regulation to create a authorized framework for Bitcoin-based organizations. This has attracted cryptocurrency entrepreneurs to put money into mining and different enterprise ventures within the nation.

Human rights issues

Nevertheless, with President Nayib Bukele’s more and more authoritarian rule, issues about democracy and human rights stay. The Bukele administration allegedly bribed gangs and constructed one of many world’s largest prisons to take care of the violence, imprisoning almost 2% of the grownup inhabitants with out due course of.

Bukele additionally eliminated presidential time period limits above the Supreme Court docket. Critics fear that he’s pushing the nation in the direction of a dictatorship and failing to convey financial advantages to on a regular basis residents by way of Bitcoin.

Whereas optimistic about Bitcoin’s potential, Rettig emphasised that extra work is required to construct belief. “Once more, there’s a whole lot of work to be accomplished to get folks to belief it and use it,” he stated. Rettig stays hopeful that El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment will in the end empower folks by way of monetary inclusion.