This week, Businessweek gives us a fascinating look inside a London-based sports bettting hedge fund. I highly recommend reading the entire article.

The Galileo Managed Sports Fund, which launched in April under the umbrella of the nine-year-old Centaur Group, is the world’s first sports-betting hedge fund. The idea has been knocking around for a while. Six years ago, Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the National Basketball Assn.’s Dallas Mavericks, proposed a similar fund, only to see his idea crash on the shoals of American prohibitionism. While the NBA forbids anyone involved with the league from betting on its games, there was a larger problem: Outside of Nevada, Delaware, and Oregon, betting on sports is largely illegal.

There are some interesting comments from a technical perspective over on Hacker News and there is a nice writeup of the financial dimensions at Hedge Fund Lounge.

Eye on Gambling is reporting today that U.S. House Democratic policy committee chairman George Miller has endorsed U.S. Regulation of internet gambling:

Congressman George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Democratic Policy Committee and the House Education and Labor Committee, has signed on as a co-sponsor of the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act. The legislation, introduced last year by Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), would allow licensed operators to provide Internet gambling services in the United States.

The endorsement of this key legislation by Congressman Miller, one of the most influential leaders on Capitol Hill, further demonstrates the growing support for regulated Internet gambling,” said Jeffrey Sandman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative. “We expect continuing momentum in Congress as more people realize that the current approach to prohibit Internet gambling is a failure. Rather than leave consumers vulnerable in an underground, uncontrolled marketplace, regulation of Internet gambling would protect consumers and generate billions in revenue needed for critical government programs.”

The Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act (H.R. 2046) and the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act (H.R. 2607), a companion bill introduced by Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA), would regulate and tax Internet gambling activity. Under the proposed legislation, each Internet gambling operator would be licensed by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and required to ensure that the individual placing the bet or wager is physically located in a jurisdiction that permits a particular form of Internet gambling. The legislation would reinforce the rights of States to control what, if any, level of Internet gambling was permissible within their borders, including the ability to apply additional taxes, and to ensure that appropriate consumer protections and limitations were in place.

It’s great to see that there are still some members of our government who are not in the pocket of influential offline casino interests. If you live in Congressman Miller’s district, please let him know that you support his position on this issue.

In other news, here are some interesting sports betting related links I’ve stumbled upon recently: