THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2009
NEWS
3A
GAMBLING
Student creates Web site for legal sports wagering
BY ADAM SAMSON asamson@kansan.com
Throughout the year, events such as the Super Bowl, the World Series and college basketball's March Madness create a stir in the sports gambling market.
Although sporting event gambling is illegal, new Web sites are allowing people to bet legally.
Grayson Ediger, Olathe junior, collaborated with two friends from the University of Missouri, Jermemiah Reardon and Taylor Swartz, to launch Quarterbets, com, a free and legal sports betting Web site.
“Technically in legal terms, we a sweepstakes company.” Reardon
said. "In everyday terms to explain to everyone, we say betting because people understand it more."
Ediger, Reardon and Swartz had been using offshore sports betting Web sites and bookies to place bats during last year's March Madness, but decided it was too risky and came up with Quarterbets.com.
"The offshore betting Web sites got so complicated to deposit money into the Web site and it was becoming a huge process to get around the rules," Reardon said.
Congress prohibited Internet users from depositing their own money into betting Web sites with the SAFE Port Act of 2006. Quarterbets.com is legal because it gives users 25 cents to begin with
and users don't deposit money into the site. Once a user reaches $20, the user can cash out and the trio will send a check in the mail for the account balance.
"We did a lot of different research for this." Ediger said. "From searching Google to calling lawyers to make sure everything we were doing was legitimate."
Quarterbets.com features seven categories: NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, tennis and NCAA basketball and football, but Ediger said he would consider adding more sports in the future.
To cover upkeep of the Web site and start up costs such as the server and domain name, the three students spent close to $5,000 of
their own money. Ediger said they also found ad agencies that would pay the site for each time a user accessed Quarterbets.com.
Ediger, Reardon and Swartz said the biggest way of getting advertising and marketing for the site was by word of mouth. The trio has done everything from posting on Internet discussion boards, to putting fliers on cars and spamming their friends on Facebook.
In the month and a half Quarterbets,com has been fully functional,Ediger said, more than 1,000 users have joined. Of the 1,000 users, only three have been able to cash out. Ediger said they started with a handful of people from Kansas and Missouri,but
spread to other states and reached users in Camada as well.
"It's very gratifying having an idea, finishing it, and then seeing it gain momentum," Ediger said.
Ediger, who described himself as a huge sports fan and very competitive, said the Web site was an entertaining way for users and sports fans to wager legally on sports and make a game more interesting.
"It's a very fun feeling watching a sports game with money on the line," Ediger said. "It makes any game, the game you want to watch."
Although Quarterbets.com is a legal site, offshore betting Web sites and sports betting are still a
problem.
Last week the NCAA issued a news release about education outreach on the participation of sports wagering for student athletes, coaches, administrators and fans.
The NCAA also created a multi media feature with real-life experiences of those affected by gambling.
Rachel Newman Baker, director of agents gambling and amateurism for the NCAA, said in the news release, "We want people to realize that money and gambling do not have to be involved for our games to be exciting and fun."
Edited by Carly Halvorson
CRIME
Convicted officers still have power to arrest, carry a gun
Investigation reveals 10 Ohio officers, including Bobby Cutts, Jr., haven't been decertified
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bobby Cutts Jr. listens during the closing arguments in his trial, in Canton, Ohio, in this Feb. 12, 2008 file photo. Cutts kills his lower and their unborn child while he was still a police officer. He was one of 10 officers convicted in the past five years that the AP found still had the authority to make an arrest or carry a gun.
BY ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
Associated Press Writer
Under state law, police officers
Ohio, with about 35,000 police officers, decertified 19 officers in 2007, the last year full data on all completed cases was available.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Bobby Cuttz Jr. was notorious in the law enforcement community because of his crime: While still a police officer, he killed his lover and their unborn child.
Stripping him of his police powers should have been routine. But the state didn't begin the process until The Associated Press asked about his status.
Cutts was one of 10 officers convicted in the past five years that the AP found still had the authority to make an arrest or carry a gun, at least on paper. The state now says it's taking a more aggressive approach to finding such convictions in hopes of catching the cases that fall through the cracks.
charged with serious crimes are decertified once they are convicted. Merely resigning or being fired does not mean an officer would lose his police powers. The crimes include murder, theft and robbery.
Once the process begins it's a simple matter of paperwork. But it can be difficult finding those
academy said. "It's all law enforcement's responsibility to take care of our own"
The state relies on courts to report convictions and tracks media reports of arrested officers. In the past, the academy asked
officers, with timing and the type of court sometimes complicating matters.
But it's still unclear how Cutts slipped through the system.
Fiatal, until recently the academy's interim director, knew about the case from the day in June 2007 that Cutts was arrested in the slay-
"I was aware of it ... As to why there was no action taken on it, I can't respond."
prosecutors to verify a conviction if there wasn't official notice. Now the agency assigns investigators to verify the information themselves.
"We just can't dump on the courts on this thing," Bob Fiatal, a liaison with federal police for the
BOB FIATAL Federal police academy liaison
ing of Jesse Davis.
Most police officers did.
But for whatever reason, that knowledge didn't transfer to decertification.
"I was aware of it.
And I the staff was even aware of it here." Fital said. "As to why there was no
action taken on it, I can't respond."
Canton police Chief Dean McKimm said the department notified the state once Cuts resigned in 2007.
State law requires a judge who sentences a police officer to notify
the clerk of courts of the conviction. The clerk must then tell the state.
But Cutts resigned before going to trial. That meant he was no longer a police officer when sentenced last year by Judge Charles Brown of Stark County Common Pleas Court.
Brown noted that fact when asked whether he should have reported Cutts' conviction. He declined to comment further or to say whether he thought there was a problem with the law.
Cutts was convicted Feb. 15, 2008. He was decertified Feb. 2 of this year.
Another problem with the reporting system: Officers who commit crimes are often prosecuted by federal courts, which aren't bound by state laws. No federal law requires such reporting.
The state began decertifying six former officers convicted in federal courts after their cases were pointed out by the AP.
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