Add the traditional element of rail betting to the modern element represented by the Internet.
Where the two meet, you’ll most likely find Michael Eskander with one hand swinging the bag and one hand clicking the mouse.
Gambling and the computer seem to represent a match made in heaven. With its corporate betting entity, Betstar, Eskander and his family offer players from all over the world the ability to bet on everything imaginable, including football, golf, motor sports, cricket, tennis, rugby league and more. , offering punters both over the phone and online. betting services
Before anyone had even heard of the internet, Eskander was a rail bookmaker who emigrated from Egypt in 1966 and spent the next 18 years in various industries before obtaining his first bookmaker’s license in 1984, which allowed him to compete on tracks across Australia.
Eskander will most likely never fully leave the rails because of the computer clear. It would seem that the head-to-head aspect of high bookmaker versus high roller has too much attraction for him. It evidences the duels that he starred in with “Fast” Eddie Hayson, where he managed to dig a $300,000 pot for Hayson, which, by the way, it was alleged, required the intervention of the Victorian Supreme Court for Eskander to collect the obligation. At least he ended up with the money and didn’t have to accept the dubious potential of an untested thoroughbred, which was the fate of the Waterhouses.
However, Betstar has secured a place for itself as one of the dominant online sports betting portals.
Michael and his son Alan were forced to relocate Betstar’s operations to Darwin in 2007 when Victorian government bureaucrats raised issues and placed restrictions on Betstar’s operation that ultimately resulted in revenue billing and an estimated $100 million a year in job losses fleeing Victoria and coming to rest in the Northern Territory.
Betstar offers unique and popular betting products including the tote with a 5% bonus, fixed odds and max fluc bets, along with a big-name Cups double bet for those who love unlikely bets. It is even possible to bet on the results of elections and competitive eating contests.
Eskander is a strong advocate of regulation rather than prohibition, as seems reasonable to expect, when it comes to the subject of gambling. His position is that the vast majority of bettors are recreational and self-controlled, so the small minority who act irresponsibly in a way that brings disgrace to the sports betting industry should be handled openly rather than forced to the underground. This would seem to represent a reasonable approach, even given Eskander’s obvious personal interest in the subject, and anyone with any sense of history is well aware that outright prohibition is a cure worse than the disease.
Eskander, through Betstar, cites the analogy of gambling and alcohol. Most Aussies, he maintains, like to have a drink and do so responsibly, despite the small minority who go overboard.
Eskander’s further involvement in politics extends to his role in the 2008 campaign which resulted in the lifting of the advertising ban that had prevented out-of-state bookmakers from advertising in Victoria and New South Wales. The end result of this action was the prospect of corporate sponsorship and large capital injections for major events.
His dominant position in general would seem pragmatic in tone. The Internet is not going to disappear; the game is not going away. Much better, according to him, to regulate and generate fiscal income that benefits society instead of burying that income, concentrating it in the criminal sector.
The Eskander family is an excellent example of the opportunities offered by a society that is open and ready to embrace the future. Michael Eskander’s homage to traditional rail betting, despite the occasional well-publicized run-in with a Waterhouse from time to time, coupled with his son Alan and daughter Lisa’s foray into the future presented by the World Wide Web, they place Australia at the forefront of the effort to provide legitimate and honest avenues for sports betting.