About this app
How to play Piggy Pirates
When Australia hosts its first-ever regular season NFL game, an estimated 10,000 US fans are expected to attend the matchup at the Melbourne Cricket Ground following an exhausting trip that features one of the world’s longest flight paths.
The historic showdown between the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers will take place at a venue located 7,971 miles from Levi’s Stadium, home of the last meeting between the NFC West rivals. Both teams are based in California, a fertile ground for prediction markets given a sports betting ban in a state with more than 39 million residents. But the Americans in attendance for Thursday night’s matchup (Friday in Melbourne) will not be able to live-trade from their seats.
That is because trading on prediction markets is illegal down under, according to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, the nation’s regulator on financial services. Last month, in perhaps the ASIC’s strongest warnings yet against the asset class, the commission reiterated that prediction markets are not licensed as financial markets to operate in Australia. Through the guidance, the regulator urged consumers to exercise caution before partaking in certain investments on offshore platforms which have not obtained licensing nationwide.
What is Piggy Pirates?
In response to a query from local news outlet Patch, Republican Mayor Gary Grasso confirmed the existence of the donations from the Capri restaurant and the Are We Live nightclub, two Burr Ridge businesses owned by Filippo “Gigi” Rovito.
Rovito, whom NBC Chicago previously reported has alleged ties to the Chicago Outfit, is facing federal charges of operating an illegal gambling business and conspiracy to collect extensions of credit by extortionate means.
He was among 22 people arrested in coordinated raids by the FBI April 29 following a long-running investigation dubbed “Operation Porterhouse Parlay,” which allegedly uncovered links between illegal gambling operations and restaurant networks spanning Northwest Indiana and suburban Chicago.
How to play Piggy Pirates
Being a state-owned monopoly is beneficial for RG purposes. You don’t have an employer or shareholders expecting a positive quarterly earnings report four times a year, and as long as the business is self-supporting it can continue to make the best choices for player health and relationships. As Petra defines it: “It’s about a healthy long-term relationship.”
Holland Casino has a responsible gambling board, which includes scientists, experts with lived experience and their own RG executives. They meet with the board every few months to talk over current processes, and the board challenges the operator’s ideas and implementations, pushing them to do better.
“They challenge us both from an academic side and a more practical side. We try to develop our rules as we go along but you have to prove every single day that you’re doing all that you need to do on responsible gaming,” Petra notes.