If there is one thing that is fairly constant within the gambling world, it’s that there will always be some sort of amusing tale to tell. Whether it’s a poker player who exposes himself during the WSOP Main Event or a professional getting banned from Twitchentertainment is always on the horizon. Over the past couple of weeks, a few more enjoyable stories have come to light from the gambling world too. Let’s have a look at some of the crazy happenings within the scene in this May 2023 edition of Freaky Fortnight.
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Backlash from Newcastle Fans as Ivan Toney Bets Against His Own Team
Ivan Toney is an English professional soccer player, serving as a striker for Premier League club Brentford. He also plays as part of the England national team. Yet between February 2017 and January 2021 , it unfortunately seems that he didn’t have much faith in his own teams.
We’re getting a little ahead of ourselves though. In November 2022, the Football Association stated that an alleged 232 breaches of gambling rules by Toney occurredand then a month later, he was charged with a further 30 breaches of such regulations. These violations covered a period of time during which Ivan Toney played for Newcastle United and Peterborough United as well as his current club, Brentford. Toney admitted to many of these allegations although also denying some.
Toney has been diagnosed as a gambling addict, which may be responsible for the relatively light punishment he received during his hearing in mid-May 2023. Ivan was banned from playing football for eight months and charged £50,000 ($61,760) for his indiscretions.
Footballer Ivan Toney Is Caught up in a Betting ScandalYet it seems as though he has a lot more making up to do with Newcastle United fans. Several instances saw him bet on his own clubs to lose, and he provided inside information to a friend regarding when he was starting a match.
In total, he wagered against his own teams 13 times with 11 of those instances being while he was playing for Newcastle. This, understandably, drew ire from the team’s fans, who labelled him a “disgrace.” Clearly, he had little faith in his own team’s abilities to win on these occasions.
One saving grace of this disquieting affair is that Toney did not play in any of the matches on which he placed wagers against Newcastle. Maybe he thought he was the shining star who could propel the team to victory and that without him playing, they weren’t capable!
”Adorable” Poker Game Banned from Nintendo Switch Due to Creator’s Joke
It’s well-known among poker players that the game is not exactly welcome in various countries. Gambling in general is restricted in many locations around the world. Ever since Black Friday in 2011many know how it feels to be suddenly deprived of access to their favorite games. Such is the case now with an unlikely candidate: a game entitled Sunshine Shuffle, which contains poker as a major gameplay element.
In the game, individuals get to play as one of several cute animals, who are all experiencing life on a boat together. To pass the time, these animals partake in rounds of poker, and as you play through the game, you learn that these animals have actually committed a felony together: robbery!
Still Image From the Sunshine Shuffle Computer GameWhen you combine poker with animals and theft, you have quite the mixture for a compelling computer game, right? Unfortunately, the game’s developer enacted an amusing joke which means it won’t be available for some people for several more days.
Strange Scaffold is the development brand responsible for Sunshine Shuffle. It is owned by Xalavier Nelson, Jr., who frequently thinks up jokes and amusing scenarios before a game’s release. He often comes up with tongue-in-cheek texts and phrases online although the results are often more cheesy than truly hilarious. One of the most recent of these hijinks surrounds the Sunshine Shuffle game.
In a video post via his Twitter account, the developer decided that it would be best to highlight the game as teaching children to gamblethanks to its combination of adorable animals and poker gaming. Yet the game doesn’t actually do this at all. Nelson, Jr. chose to repeat this gag within the video though, meaning that many people started taking him seriously.
As a result, Sunshine Shuffle is not currently available in the North American Nintendo eShop despite having launched successfully in May via Steam and itch.io. According to Xalavier, it has also been banned outright in the Republic of Korea due to his video.
The developer explained that the idea behind his joke was to get ahead of potential bad-faith critiques. This, he said, would likely have seen the game taken out of context with some suggesting it would teach children to gamble because of its cute animals playing poker.
Co-Founder of Stake Ignores Brand Ambassador…Drake Saves the Day!
The UFC is one of the most intense sports around today. Many people engage in betting on it, with the Stake brand being one of the bookmakers providing odds on match-ups.
Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya is one of the brand’s ambassadors, signing on as such in 2021. As such, you would think that the higher-ups would pay full attention to him. Especially considering he is a UFC champion and big news for Stake.
Unfortunately, it seems as though the co-founder of Stake, Edward Craven, wasn’t on full alert recently. An incident occurred when Adesanya extended his hand to shake Craven’s. The co-founder of the company didn’t notice the gesture though and instead simply walked away. Doubtless, Adesanya was left there feeling embarrassed by the whole situation.
Someone else who has a link to the Stake brand is Canadian rapper Drake who often places cryptocurrency bets at the platform. In fact, within a span of two months following becoming a member of the platform, Drake placed bets valued at over £800 million. This included both sports and casino bets, and he, like Adesanya, has continued promoting Stake ever since that time.
A viral video was posted to the official Instagram page of Stake, which displayed Adesanya being left without a handshake from Craven. He is visibly embarrassed by the whole situation until Drake comes along. Commenting on the Instagram video, the rapper noted, “This is AI-generated”, trying to save the UFC fighter.
This led to hundreds of fans liking the comment, and Adesanya would share the video to his own Instagram story, complete with Drake’s comment alongside. Many saw the video in a humorous light, although some also noted it as being disrespectful to Adesanya. It’s always best not to take yourself too seriously – and Adesanya seems to have found the whole charade amusing.
The Best Way for Ladies in the 1950s to Bag a Man? Play Poker!
If you think that dating in 2023 is difficult, then you’ve got no idea how difficult women had it in the 1950s. The market was much tougher back then.
Yet there are always those people trying to help out, which was also the case back in that decade. An article in a 1958 issue of “McCall’s” has come to light providing some unusual advice for women seeking love. Some of the pointers that young ladies had to take note of were quite odd.
For example, girls were told to become friends with less attractive women in order to catch the eye of the man of their dreams. The article even suggests that ladies read through the obituaries in order to find themselves an eligible widower. And let’s not even tackle the one that tells girls to make toupees so that they can easily catch themselves a bald man!
In fact, the list of things to do in order to bag a man stretches to 129 different tactics. It includes locations of where to find a man, letting a man know you’re present, making yourself look good to him, and landing him as your date.
It is the latter of these categories that features a tip relating to gambling. Tip 103 suggests that a woman could learn how to play poker so that a guy will be more than impressed by her. Would a woman being able to play poker make you more attracted to her?
The following point is, “If he’s rich, tell him you like his money – the honesty will intrigue him!” Could it be that men of the ’50s had had little experience with bluffing? Whatever the case, perhaps it’s only the rich poker players that women of that era wanted to impress!