Ali Tekintamgac has been playing poker for more than 20 years but only recently began playing in live poker tournaments. His first major event was last month’s EPT Grand Final, where his experience showed through with a 125th place finish in that prestigious event. Tekintamgac improved on that finish in his second event, but by a much larger margin than anyone probably expected, he is the newest World Poker Tour champion after the win in Barcelona.

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The WPT Barcelona event made headlines last week when it drew 326 players, the largest field since the tournament began in 2007. That field built a €1,043,200 prize pool, with €315,000 due to the winner, a great choice for your second live tournament if you’ve already cashed against the best in Monte Carlo. By the time the final table was set, the 40 year old Tekintamgac was in the driver’s seat with a significant chip lead.

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Tekintamgac held that lead the entire way, finding himself a 5-to-1 favorite against Spain’s Roberto Garcia Santiago by the time heads-up play began. Santiago had led the tournament in its early days, but he was unable to find the winning combination against the German and had to settle for a €160,000 runner-up prize. Tekintamgac, meanwhile, grabbed the top prize and a seat in next year’s World Poker Tour Championship. He says his next stop is the WSOP Main Event, where he should stand a pretty good chance of making himself three-for-three cashing in major tournaments.

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Rank, the owners of Mecca Bingo and the Grosvenor Casino brands, which is amongst the largest providers of UK bingo games, are said to be celebrating today as they’ve reportedly received a £42.5 m refund from HM Customs and Revenue in relation to overpaid VAT. This consists of £16.1 million for VAT paid on main session bingo fees from 2004 to 2009, and £26.4 million for VAT paid on amusement machines from 2002 to 2005. The repayment follows a number of successful rulings, both in the High Court and the Tribunal Tax Chambers.

The first case Rank brought was in relation to the double taxation that bingo clubs were subject to. Operators had to pay bingo duty and VAT on the fees taken in bingo games and sessions, but Mecca said that VAT should not be charged.

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The refund claim for the second case started as jackpot machines were subject to VAT, and fixed odd betting machines prior to 2005 weren’t. Rank said that the VAT obligations contravened the European Union principle of fiscal neutrality, basically that as the machines were similar they should be treated the same as far as VAT was concerned. The tribunal ruled in their favour, agreed that they were similar and therefore the jackpot machines should not have been subject to VAT.

Deloitte gave advice to Rank in both cases, and always believed that they would win. Tony McClenaghan, a Senior Tax Partner for the company said; “This is a very welcome decision following on from earlier victories at the Tribunal and in the High Court. We have always been confident that there was a breach of fiscal neutrality in the differential treatment of the relevant gaming machines and we welcome the Tribunal’s confirmation of this fact. Taxpayers affected by this decision should now consider making claims for overpaid VAT”.

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HMRC have appealed the rulings to the European Court of Justice. This is expected to be heard some time next year, although it is not thought likely to succeed. Rank must be keeping it’s fingers crossed on this, as if the HMRC were to overturn the original verdicts then they would have to return the payment, and to add salt to their wounds would also have to pay interest on this.

A 20-year-old man who planned to defraud casinos by manufacturing his own cash chips was jailed for a total of 18 months. Augustin Dago contacted companies around the world, including Holland and China, claiming he had a casino in his basement, and asked them to make cash chips in £25 denominations. He even sent photographs to the companies showing the type of chips he required, asking that they be replicated.

In fact Dago planned to cash in the chips at Gala Casinos across the UK and then launder the money he had made through bank accounts he had opened in a false name. Dago applied for a driving licence in a false name, using the documentation to open bank accounts. He also used the licence as identification to enable him to become a member of two London Gala casinos in February 2009.

At Southwark Crown Court on Monday 26 April he admitted four charges under the Identity Cards Act of possession of false identity documents with intent. Dago also admitted giving a false name to the DVLA to get a driving licence and a charge of attempting to possess Gala Casino chips to use in the course of or in connection with fraud. He was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court yesterday, Tuesday 25 May.

The token company reported the order from Dago to Gala Coral Group Ltd, which runs Gala Casinos, informing it that someone had tried to place an order for Gala chips. Gala subsequently reported this to the police.

Dago was arrested by officers from the MPS’s Clubs and Vice Unit, which is now part of the Human Exploitation and Organised Crime Command, in March 2009. Searches at his home address at Richford Street, W6, found the UK driving licence applied for by Dago in his assumed identity that enabled him to obtain Gala Casino membership in a false name.

A computer was also seized by police, which had 13 photographs of Gala cash chips and details of four of the companies Dago had contacted requesting chips be manufactured. It also had verification of his requests from two companies.

Detective Inspector Ann Marie Waller said: “This was a calculated attempt to commit fraud against one of the major gaming groups in the UK. Due to the quick thinking of both the chip manufacturer and Gala Coral Group Limited, Augustin Dago was stopped from circulating counterfeit casino cash chips”.

The world’s first ever iPhone betting application is going live on Apple’s Store, welcome to the world of Betfair! At last it seems Apple has passed this app and today is the day we will all get to see it.

Winners always welcome at Betfair!

People say this is the first established betting company to release a sports betting App on the platform. The question is How popular will it be?

This app will be very easy to use and will allow customers to place bets with ease and of course as simply as possible, the application also uses GPS to locate and verify a customer’s location before they are permitted to bet.

Main features of this app includes:

- Bet on any Betfair Market

- Back or Lay bets on your iPhone

- Check your account status

- Easy to use and Fast over WiFi, 3G or Edge.