Freaky Fortnight – Wonders of the Gambling World May 2024 Edition

It’s true that even a couple of weeks can’t go by in the poker and gambling world without something odd or amusing happening. That’s why we create our Freaky Fortnight articles – so that you can keep up with the bizarre occurrences of the gambling world. Over the month of May 2024, there have been more entertaining and odd stories coming to light relating to the scene.

Connecticut Man Wins Almost $2 Million from $5 Side Bet

We’re starting this edition’s Freaky Fortnight with a story of a man from Connecticut winning close to $2 million. That’s not particularly odd or entertaining on its own. In fact, we’re likely to consider ourselves highly jealous of his big victory.

What makes it so unique is that his big win came from a simple $5 side bet.

During a visit to Las Vegas on May 10, Joseph Nardello chose to play Three Card Poker at the Venetian Resort. The game featured a Millionaire Progressive, offering players the chance to place a $5 “red light” side bet while wagering on hands.

Once Nardello had placed his game wager, he was dealt a hand of a royal flush made up of spades, using his own three cards and two “dummy cards” dealt for the purposes of the progressive. This unlocked the mega tier of the Millionaire Progressive, which granted him a payout of $1,904,062 – a massive win from a Vegas trip.

Joseph Nardello Posing With His Winning Hand at the Venetian

The Millionaire Progressive is accessible on various table games within the Venetian and Palazzo casinos. Games in the selection featuring it include Ultimate Texas Hold’em, Three Card Poker, Let It Ride, Crazy 4 Poker, and Mississippi Stud. The progressive feature launched officially in 2018, and since that time, 14 people have been on the receiving end of payouts making them millionaires.

Just remember that the next time you intend to visit Las Vegas. You never know – you could be the 15th player to secure a millionaire payout.

Glitch in Grand Theft Auto Online Makes Casino Dealer Disappear

It’s not uncommon for computer programs to experience glitches. Whether playing via a console or via a desktop computer, games and other software can have niggling issues that pop up every now and then. That was certainly the case for the “Grand Theft Auto” (GTA) Online game only a few days ago.

One player reported that they had experienced a bizarre glitch while visiting the casino in GTA Online. As he played one of the games in the venue, the dealer hosting it randomly disappeared into thin air!

It’s not the first time bugs have affected the online world created for GTA fans by Rockstar Games. The same has been witnessed in the online “Red Dead Redemption” world, crafted by the same developer.

Reports of glitches in these open worlds are fairly common although the worst of these are usually fixed with patches. Open world games, in general, experience more bugs than other games because of their huge scale.

Rockstar isn't the only brand to experience such glitches either. Bethesda has various open worlds, and these have the same sort of troubles.

In terms of the latest glitch to hit GTA Online, a player going by the name of AntTalexanderTarnold opted to play a round of solo blackjack in the virtual Diamond Casino and Resort. A short video of the incident sees a non-playable character (NPC) dealer within the venue hosting the game, and she deals out the opening hand of fifteen to the player. She deals a 3 upcard to herself and proceeds to turn to the player for their next move.

Yet before AntTalexanderTarnold can decide on anything, the dealer has a change of heart. She looks away from the table and then returns to an idle pose. It is at this point she proceeds with hovering off the floor and then vanishes altogether from sight!

That’s probably something you wouldn’t experience by visiting a recommended online cardroom for poker or casino for blackjack gameplay. The only thing similar that we online gaming old-timers can recall is that you used to be able to push the dealer away to be replaced with another one at the poker tables on the now-defunct Everleaf Network.

It proved to be quite the unfortunate experience for AntTalexanderTarnold who had to completely exit the game due to not being able to proceed without the dealer being present. Their chips were thus lost in the process of quitting the game.

Unfortunately, there is little that can be said to explain the occurrence of the disappearing dealer. Of course, as highlighted, it’s not the first time something similar has happened in the Diamond Casino and Resort. Some players have experienced NPC dealers casually walking away from tables midway through games. Others have reported their dealers randomly sent flying across the screen as though they had been hit by a speeding vehicle!

Fortunately, online gamers can see the funny side of such bugs within the open world. Many commented that the dealer vanished so that the player couldn’t win the game, thereby saving the casino money. Some opted for a story on her being abducted by aliens.

Let’s not forget the frustrations that could have been felt by AntTalexanderTarnold in the moment though. Nobody likes losing chips during a casino table game. There couldn’t possibly be a more amusing way for this to happen of course!

Fake Gambling Scandal Post on X Fools Many Users

Fake online social media posts occur on a daily basis. Many of them are there simply as clickbait while others like to draw attention to something that isn’t quite as talked about. And it seems that even the gambling world isn’t short on such posts.

In recent months, a fake social media account has spent its time fooling media personalities from the sports world, as well as athletes and fans of the scene. Yet the fake account involved has always utilized a similar account name to an actual reporter or has even pretended to be a local reporter. As a result, the account doesn’t have anything that obviously highlights it as a parody and something that isn’t to be taken seriously.

A post from the X (formerly Twitter) account under the username of @Derrico_Henrio still had people fooled recently. The bio part of the account reads, “PARODY ACCOUNT – TCU Grad – Former Meteorologist – Pulitzer Prize Winner – Lawyer – Tax Fraud Enthusiast – Sports Nut – Actor – NOT AFFILIATED WITH CBS SPORTS”. Whoever owns the account changed the display name and image to look like a CBS Spots’ college football account on Friday, May 17. The account has since been suspended for violating the rules.

A post appeared on the account about a supposed sports betting scandal occurring at Baylor University in Texas. Such a scandal never occurred and was quickly referenced as a satirical post by many X users, including Shehan Jeyarajah who works for CBS Sports.

Even so, the post picked up a massive number of viewers, reaching more than 1 million by midday of the following day. Some prominent people within the sports world even posted quote tweets, taking it as a serious news article. Many of the quote tweets remained active on their accounts more than 12 hours later with no follow-ups highlighting that they had been informed it was a joke. Sports columnist Jason Whitlock was one of the various well-known personalities who quoted it on his X account.

There was even the threat of a lawsuit from Sarah Kennedy Ellis, one of the vice presidents or global demand and growth marketing at Google Cloud. She later figured out that it was a satirical post and took the threat back.

It’s not the first time, and likely won’t be the last, that people fall for fake social media posts either. This one took off a lot more than many others as well despite it being posted on a much more obvious fake account.

This outcome could be in part due to the fact that there have been some betting scandals within the sporting world lately, which have been similar to those reported in the fake post. Basketball player Jontay Porter was recently dismissed from the NBA for engaging in gambling, so it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility for the post to have been real.

New Report Suggests Weight Loss Injections May “Trigger Extreme Gambling”!

Doctors around the world are being urged to warn their patients on semaglutide drugs about a couple of potential side effects. Wild and reckless behaviors aren’t often considered a side effect of many drugs, but there is the potential for it with these ones.

A new medical report, which was published May 6, warns of troubling potential consequences of using weight loss injections, such as Ozempic and Wegovy. The research highlights that the drugs could cause impulse-control disorder (ICD). This can interfere with the standard decision-making skills of humans, resulting in pathological gambling, sex addiction, and even divorce!

Semaglutide medicines (GLP-1) are usually prescribed to people who have diabetes and/or severe obesity issues. Yet they have been a big hit in Hollywood with celebrities turning to them for rapid weight loss. Stars like Rebel Wilson and Sharon Osbourne have endorsed the drugs. Neither have reported issues with ICD although the report published by the Oxford Academic Group in the Quarterly Journal of Medicine observed that such side effects are very much possible.

Research into the risk of ICD has been urged by senior clinicians, Professor Raymond Playford and Professor Martin Deahl. It is their belief that doctors should inform patients on the potential for these additional serious side effects from the drugs. Professor Playford spoke with British news company The Mirror and stated that ICD is well-described in patient information leaflets for the drugs Levodopa and Capergoline. Both of those are used for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

Like GLP-1, those drugs affect a person’s dopamine levels, which are also known as the “happy hormone” in the brain. Yet the warnings in the leaflets for Levodopa and Capergoline are not present in those for GLP-1. Professor Playford also noted that very few studies have taken place that focus on cognition and longer-term outcomes of using semaglutide drugs.