Gaming news briefs for August 25, 2003

Monday, Aug. 25, 2003 | 11:45 a.m.

Firm to debut high-tech, in-room services

MGM MIRAGE has selected Cox Communications to provide in-room video and data technology services at 13 of its casinos nationwide.

The multi-million dollar contract marks the first of its kind for MGM MIRAGE, which has upgraded its in-room technology services for guests.

MGM MIRAGE declined to reveal the exact cost of the contract, which involves Cox's Hospitality Network Division.

Hospitality Network will provide digital video-on-demand service, high-speed Internet service and wireless keyboard access to more than 19,000 rooms in Nevada as well as 1,780 rooms at Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Miss., and a casino in Detroit.

With the MGM MIRAGE deal, Hospitality Network provides high-tech, in-room service to more than 120,000 hotel rooms in Las Vegas.

Attorney gets five years for role in Internet gambling ring

MADISON, Wis. -- A Florida attorney convicted of felony charges stemming from an Internet gambling ring run via a computer from a South American island was sentenced to five years in prison Friday and fined more than $1 million.

David Hampton Tedder, 56, of Winter Park, Fla., was one of eight people indicted in U.S. District Court for his alleged role in Gold Medal Sports, an online betting service based in Wisconsin but operated from the Dutch Netherland Antilles.

He was convicted of four felony counts in June. He also was sentenced to three years of supervised release after his prison term and was ordered to immediately forfeit $2.8 million in laundered proceeds.

The company handled $402.7 million in bets from U.S. customers from 1996 through early 2000, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Madison.

Prosecutors say Tedder created shell corporations and offshore bank accounts for Gold Medal subsidiaries to help Gold Medal owner Jeff D'Ambrosia, of Henderson, Nev., hide his ownership interest in the company.

Tedder was banned from practicing law in Florida in 2001 and resigned his law license in California the same year because of seven disciplinary findings by the State Bar there, according to evidence presented at trial by prosecutors.