The former leader of a notorious New York gang is seeking permission from the state of New Jersey to gamble at their casinos. Placed on a banned list in Atlantic City back in 2005, Robin Chee is requesting to be removed from the list, which would allow him to enter and gamble at the casinos at will. His removal from the list would have to be granted by the state’s Casino Control Commission.

Robin Chee spent years as one of the leaders of The Ghost Shadows, a violent Chinese street gang in New York. As one of the top three leaders in the gang, Chee had the authority to direct the illegal activities of the gang, which included dealing drugs, racketeering, offering illegal gambling and more. His daily activities at the time, by his own admission, were drinking, getting high and gambling. Of course, that was his free time. His working hours were spent extorting local businesses for “protection,” selling drugs and all of the other fun stuff that you can expect from a street gang.

Atlantic City excludes anyone involved in organized crime, cheating, fraud, extortion and the like from their casinos. Chee says that he is a changed man now, though, with no criminal ties. In 1995, he pleaded guilty to racketeering and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. While in prison, Chee says that realized that his life was “a waste.”

He was released from prison in 2003 and soon after got a job with a computer company in New York. Since then, he became a manager of the company’s shipping department, got married and had three children. He is now trying to convince the state of New Jersey that he is a changed man so he can play at their casinos, since gambling is something he misses doing.

The Casino Control Commission has already given a preliminary ruling in his favor. Today the panel will decide whether to uphold or reject that preliminary ruling. Since his release, they noted, Chee has stayed out of trouble. The state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement has reported that they have found no ties between any gang and Chee since his release from prison. Chee also submitted character reference letters from five individuals, which impressed the panel.

Commissioner Michael Epps said that the reference letters portray Chee as a “dependable, hardworking man who does his best to provide for his family.” He said that Chee has “provided substantial evidence of rehabilitation.” Chee’s probation officer concurs, saying that Chee has turned his life around.

Today the Commission is expected to reach an official ruling. It is expected that they will approve of Chee’s removal from the banned list. If that happens, here’s hoping Chee’s story doesn’t turn into one of those bad movies. You know the kind I’m talking about, where a former criminal cleans up his act and has gone straight, but his friends show up and reluctantly lead him back toward a life of crime. Sometimes it’s for that “one last job.” Yeah, you know those movies.

More and more governments around the world are finding that it is harder to stop citizens from doing things than they thought. That is particularly true of online gambling. Considered a vice by many governments but considered a harmless pastime by most people with common sense, government bans are usually largely ignored. Now it has been reported that Poland is seeing more online gambling now that it is illegal than they did while it was legal.

In October of 2009, Poland’s government passed a law that bans online gambling websites from operating in the country or even advertising. In 2009, Polish citizens had spent zl 3.2 billion on online gambling, which is 50% more than on land-based casinos and betting shops. So the number had nowhere to go but down, right? Wrong. In 2010, Poles are on pace to gamble approximately zl 4 billion over the internet. That’s a lot of zlatas and is a 20% increase from 2009, when it was legal.

So Poland bans online gambling and as result sees a 20% increase in its activity. Not only are Polish citizens ignoring the gambling ban, but some gambling operators are as well. For example, PokerStars is still offering their Polish website, PokerStars.pl, and continues to advertise on local cable stations, directly defying the 2009 law.

In response to people ignoring the ban, the Polish government has so far done nothing. They considered keeping a list of online casinos that violate the ban and then blocking them, but the internet censorship was met with sharp criticism and the plan was dropped. According to sources, a new plan may be to amend the current law to allow the prosecution of the gamblers who play on the illegal internet gambling websites. Another proposed amendment would be to claim personal jurisdiction over any overseas gambling websites, such as PokerStars, who illegally advertise in Poland. Doing so would allow Poland to prosecute the offenders wherever their companies are based.

On the other hand, they could also realize that clearly the people want to be able to play poker and their favorite casino games online. Since Poland is a democracy, they should listen to what the people want and repeal the online gambling ban.

Who would have guessed that getting a bunch of independent countries to agree on having the exact same laws would be difficult? Oh, I guess anyone with intelligence would. For whatever reason, that either didn’t occur to those who pushed for the establishment of a European Union back in 1993 or they just didn’t care.

In any case, if you’ve been following online gambling news you probably have noticed that there have been a lot of disputes between the European Union (EU) and its member countries about gambling. One of the things the EU is supposed to provide for its member countries is free trade. However, several countries either have a ban on foreign online casinos or give incentives for their citizens to use the casinos in their own country instead. The EU doesn’t like that.

You don’t want to make the EU mad, because when they get mad, they react about as harshly as the United Nations: They tell you that you’re being bad and ask you to stop. If you continue being bad, they’ll say that they’re getting really mad and really want you to stop. If you keep doing it, you can expect an angry letter.

The EU now has a new Internal Markets Commissioner, Michel Barnier, who resolves to end this problem once and for all. How? By drafting a paper that clearly outlines the EU’s position on online gambling, of course. He will then send the paper to each member country to remind them that these are the rules that they must follow. Not only that, but it will call out the countries that are violating the EU laws by pointing out what they’re doing wrong. Ooh, that’s gotta hurt.

So who’s ignoring the EU? A few countries right now. France, Germany and Greece have laws that give an advantage to state-run monopolies over foreign online casinos. Spain is a little more covert with their subversion. Though there is no law that gives an advantage to Spanish casinos, their tax code does. The Spanish government offers a tax break on winnings from gambling at Spanish-run casinos. If you win money from a foreign casino, however, you have to shoulder the full tax burden. For that reason, there is significant incentive for Spanish citizens to gamble using the state-run monopolies. Finland is a little more daring. They placed an outright ban on foreign online casinos, making it only legal to gamble using one of the two Finnish gambling companies.

You may be wondering where the new Internal Markets Commissioner is from. Well, Mr. Barnier happens to be from France, which is one of the countries defying the EU rules on online gambling. Maybe this will get interesting after all. France may get a very special letter from Barnier, which would basically say “I’m really disappointed in you. Oh, yeah, and you’re making me look bad.”