In a time where everyone’s trying to legalize gay marriage, the great state of Delaware is working to give rights to the everyman–specifically, legalizing sports gambling.

A reworked sports betting bill passed the Delaware House of Representatives early Friday, greatly improving the odds that the First State will become the only state east of the Mississippi to allow legal gambling on sporting events.

Under the new proposal, the racetrack/casinos will eventually be allowed to conduct table games — currently, only slot machines and other electronic gaming are allowed — and will see a larger share of sports betting revenues than what was initially proposed.

This thing will be totally above board until they start having the NBA All-Star game in Delaware. Delaware is only one of four states permitted by federal law to establish legal sports betting. Illegal sports betting, however, is legal in all the other states. But really, going to jail for gambling and taking a trip to Delaware are pretty much the same thing.

|the monolith|

A professional poker player killed his parents with the hopes that his inheritance could pay off his mounting debts, officials say.  Ernest Scherer III (pictured) was arrested Monday and charged with murder after his parents, Ernest Jr and Charlene, were discovered stabbed and beaten to death last year.

Scherer’s parents were beaten and stabbed in their 4,000-square-foot, three-level home, apparently after returning from dinner at the country club the night of March 7. Their pajama-clad bodies were found a week later…

[Sheriff Scott] Dudek wrote that Scherer “did not appear to show much emotion” at the deaths. He seemed more interested in getting a look at the will, hoping that it would give him as much as $1.5 million, Dudek said.

Sounds like he didn’t have much of a poker face.  I guess the Scherers had a full house… of death.  Looks like this flop was a 1-8-7.  He went all-in, all right — and the police called.  YAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

[Sports by Brooks]

The good people at [adult swim] didn’t do weekly Carl Brutananadilewski this past year, and the NFL season was less entertaining for it. But the Aqua Teen Hunger Force star has returned to give you the inside track on some Super Bowl prop bets. These are basically the same kind of jokes you can get at Kissing Suzy Kolber, but it’s more satisfying to have a fat, bald, pissed off, Zubaz-pants wearing cartoon from New Jersey tell them than it is to read them. Basically, anything’s better than reading. That’s why I bought this Filipino child to read my emails and RSS feed to me. Dammit, Amado! SOUND IT OUT!

(Trouble with this vid? Different version after the jump.) Read the rest of this entry »

As the sports world continues to reel from Tom Brady’s knee injury, Las Vegas has quickly established that it does NOT have faith in Matt Cassel.  Specifically, the Patriots became 2.5-point underdogs for Sunday’s game against the Jets, the first time the Pats haven’t been favored in a regular season game since 2006.  Bodog‘s Sportsbook manager explained:

“There never has been one injury, so early in the season, that has affected football and a team’s chance of winning more than the Tom Brady injury…  The Patriots are still favored to make the playoffs, but have fallen into being categorized as no better than the 6^th or 7th best team in the AFC until Matt Cassel proves differently.”

It’s also affected odds for Super Bowl favorites.  The Cowboys are now favorites at 4-1, while the Pats have fallen to 20-1, behind teams like the Packers and the Vikings (both 15-1).  Because Aaron Rodgers and Tarvaris Jackson are so much more proven than Matt Cassel, no doubt.

Disgraced former NBA referee Tim Donaghy was sentenced to 15 months in federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison today for his role in the gambling "scandal" that NBA fans can still watch every day during the regular season and playoffs.  Commissioner David Stern offered his sincerest words on the subject:

"We anticipate that the judge's sentencing decision… will enable us to continue with the improvements we are making to our anti-gambling rules, policies and procedures," Stern said Tuesday.

"There is little comfort to be gained from the mandatory prison sentence, especially as it affects Mr. Donaghy's children and their mother, but hopefully the healing process can begin in earnest for all."

Oh yeah, Stern's all about the healing.  Perhaps there's not much comfort to be gained from Donaghy's sentence… but there's plenty of dollars to be won!  Hey Tim, Stern's got 5 grand on you getting shivved on Day 3.  If you can avoid any stabbings from crude knives fashioned from chicken bones until then, there's a five percent cut in it for you.

As of now there are only 26 remaining contestants in the main event of the World Series of Poker, and naturally the only one worth caring about is the official Last Woman Standing (technically the last woman seated, but I'm not here to quibble): comely Tiffany Michelle.  Tiffany began the day with the third biggest stack (10 million in chips) but has since lost 3 million after folding to a couple of big raises.  Now seventh in chips, she has an excellent shot to make the final table; however, even if she busts out now she'd leave with more than a quarter-million dollars.

Some other information about Tiffany Michelle: she has a first name for a last name, her IMDb page probably doesn't have Spielberg banging on her door, her appearance on Wicked Chops Poker's girl-on-girl feature was sadly just an interview, she was a "poker kitten" for Halloween in 2006, and blood is pooling in my groin.  I guess that last part isn't technically about her, but I have a hard time telling women that I like them.  So I just kinda slipped my compliment in real subtle-like.  D'you think she noticed?