When I think of people who are absolutely famous because of the gambling industry, I'm not always reminded of the folks who got rich playing slots or blackjack. Sometimes, I think of the CEOs of huge companies and one of these is Calvin Ayre. He's the billionaire owner of the casino/poker room known as Bodog, and you could say that he's led a fairly nice life - even after losing money due to the closure of the American market. Despite this fact, his site continues to operate under the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group and continues to take real-money wagers from the US. However, he claims that Morris only has a deal that allows him to use the Bodog brand, and this means that Calvin Ayre himself is not guilty of breeching any Act put into place by the US.
Now, I agree with the man when he says that he refuses to travel to the US (after all, who would want to visit a country that is trying to shut down your multi-million dollar operation?) but he does make trips to Canada on occasion, particularly since he has that deal with the MMGG. He firmly believes that America is getting ready to enter into the gambling industry despite a lack of movement by the government but claims that the real, money-making market is in Asia. Of course, he travels all over the world and there are a few other places that he refuses to go, too.
Born to a pig farmer who was later imprisoned for smuggling marijuana into the country, Calvin Ayre eventually ended up a billionaire - at least, for a while - due to the success of Bodog. He's not only been a six-page focus in Playboy Magazine, but he's also judged supervised lingerie contests during the Super Bowl. He even claimed to have invited some 50 women to his last birthday party, the equivalent of one per each year of his life, and he regularly hosts huge parties at his various homes in places like Costa Rica, Thailand and the Philippines which are frequented by huge stars, gamblers and even some of the world's most prominent rap artists.