Freaky Fortnight – A Few Tales of Early April in the Gambling World

The gambling world won’t let you rest for long before even more bizarre and curious stories come to light. It seems like only yesterday we were informing you of the 20-minute tank by Nik Airball in a pot for $350,000, which appeared in the last edition of Freaky Fortnight. There’s even more for you to have a giggle at this time around though.

So from elephant escapees to theft by Michael Jordan, here is the Freaky Fortnight early April 2024 edition.

Circus Elephant Escapes in Montana and Heads for the Casino

Imagine being out and about in Butte, Montana and seeing an elephant pace its way towards the casino. Well, there’s no need to imagine that anymore because locals in the Rocky Mountains city experienced it firsthand!

Footage aired by NBC Montana displayed a 58-year-old elephant running across traffic in the middle of a busy road in the city on Tuesday, April 16. The Asian elephant named Viola had managed to escape from the circus and decided to have a stroll to occupy its time. It went on quite the rampage, wandering through the parking lot of a gas station before heading on towards the Montana Lil’s Casino venue.

Seemingly, the elephant also had a touch of nervousness before its circus show later, as it proceeded to defecate on the front lawn of a resident’s house.

According to reports, Viola is a part of the travelling Jordan World Circus, and she was stationed in the parking lot of the circus venue – the Butte Civic Center. There, she was being washed down by her trainers prior to the day’s performance.

Unfortunately, a vehicle backfired in the area, spooking the huge animal. It was at this point that she made her escape from the pen, roaming wild through the city for around 10 minutes. The elephant was secured and safely escorted back to its handlers after taking its own tour of Butte according to ABC Fox Montana.

Fortunately, no serious destruction was done to property during Viola’s unscheduled outing although a storage area did see minor damage. Neither the elephant nor any person in the area sustained any injuries either. This didn’t stop animal rights groups from blasting Jordans World Circus for the escape. Multiple times prior, campaigners have targeted the circus group for its alleged bad treatment of animals.

While nobody was injured in this instance, it may be safer for residents of Montana to not go to a land-based casino. Fortunately, it is possible to play online poker in Montana as well as casino games and other options.

NBA Places Ban on Raptor’s Jontay Porter for Violating Gambling Policy

If you’re a fan of basketball, then chances are you’ve heard of Jontay Porter who played as a center for the Toronto Raptors most recently. He signed with the team on December 8, 2023 as part of a two-way contract. The team has likely been left feeling angry over that decision, though, considering it was in March this year that an investigation was launched into him by the NBA.

According to ESPN, Porter was being investigated for multiple instances of engaging in betting over the past few months. Then on April 11, the Colorado Division of Gaming instructed all state sportsbook operators to report any potential wagering on NBA affiliated games from accounts linked to Porter.

Investigations surrounded irregularities on proposition bets around Porter’s individual statistics. During a March 20 game against the Sacramento Kings, the NBA said Porter disclosed certain confidential information regarding his own health to an individual known to him as a sports bettor. Another gambler then wagered $80,000 on a parlay bet that Porter would not be able to meet certain player statistics. That under bet would have won a $1.1 million payout.

Jontay Porter

Suspicion was raised about the player when he removed himself from the game due to illness. The size of the bets placed were highly irregular, so a payout never occurred. Instead, an investigation was opened when the sportsbook reported the activity to the NBA.

The investigation conducted by the basketball authority also discovered 13 NBA bets had been placed by Porter between January and March of 2024. He achieved this by using someone else’s betting account. Some of the wagers placed included parlay bets on the Raptors losing. Over that time period, he placed bets in excess of $54,000 and netted more than $22,000 in winnings.

On April 17, Porter was banned from the NBA for life. He is no longer able to play or involve himself with the league or any of its associated leagues. The decision makes him the first player to be banned from the NBA for issues surrounding gambling since Jack Molinas suffered the same fate in 1954.

It’s not beyond the bounds of regulatory bodies and organizations to ban players when they’re caught breaking rules. In fact, it’s happened in the world of poker before too. Daniel “KidPoker” Negreanu was banned from Twitch a couple of years ago because he couldn’t keep a cool head during a stream. During the session, he fired back at an online troll who had made unflattering remarks about his wife. Negreanu launched into a vicious tirade against the online viewer, which resulted in him being the first poker player to ever be banned from the streaming service.

Michael Jordan Allegedly Once Stole Casino Chips from Charles Barkley

It seems as though former basketball player Michael Jordan’s link to the gambling world just keeps on going. Not so long ago we highlighted that he allegedly still has a $6,000 unpaid bet to hand over to sportscaster Dan Dakich. That was an accusation from Dakich himself, and Jordan has never commented on there being any truth to it.

Now it looks like another story has risen to the surface about Jordan’s antics in the gambling world. This time, Cedric the Entertainer relayed the tale during time spent with fellow comedian Kevin Hart. The pair recently sat down to watch the Dallas Mavericks take on the Miami Heat. It was during this time that Hart noted how Cedric often has entertaining stories about various legends within the NBA scene.

At this point, Cedric began telling a story about Jordan and another former basketball player, Charles Barkley. Speaking of a time when he was with the pair gambling in Las Vegas, he said:

I’m on the roulette table with Charles, you know? He doing good too, he up like $600,000 or something at the time. He got a bunch of chips on the table… MJ walks in, grabs a bunch of Charles’s chips, and walk off!

While Jordan and Barkley aren’t known to be the best of friends these days, they were as thick as thieves back in the day. It’s very much understandable that MJ could very well have simply walked over and taken Charles’s chips without asking.

Basketball Legend Michael Jordan

Yet he didn’t steal the casino chips for no reason. According to Cedric, Jordan went over to the blackjack tables and started playing. Only thirty minutes later, he came back and gave Charles all his chips back before proclaiming that he was up $300,000 at the card game.

That’s also a highly likely scenario, considering how familiar with gambling both Barkley and Jordan were at one time. Both men have paid the price for their gambling hobby, though. Despite claiming big wins here and there, they have also experienced the downside of gambling too much.

Jordan’s gambling habit came to the forefront of NBA news in 1993 – a time when he was in the midst of his basketball career. This forced him to talk about it in an interview, where he denied allegations that he was addicted to it.

Barkley has spoken out about his gambling problems on multiple occasions though. Numerous times, he lost more than $1 million in a day placing bets. While sports stars have a larger sum of money to delve into than the average gambler, in the end, players should always practice responsible gambling.