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Philip Pietras, 52, admitted to stealing from more than 170 people, many of whom are senior citizens who sought to limit the emotional and financial burdens placed on their loved ones by prepaying for their funerals. But instead of placing those funds, meant for caskets and burial services, in escrow accounts, Pietras pocketed the money to gamble.

Pietras accepted a plea deal from the state, and prosecutors expect him to enter a guilty plea on Oct. 23 and be formally sentenced on Jan. 22, 2027.

Under the terms of the state’s offer, Pietras will admit to stealing his clients’ money for his personal use. In exchange for his admission, the state has recommended a prison sentence of 7.5 years instead of 15 years, followed by five years of probation.

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Data from the Rede em Jogo project, by CondadoLab at PUC-Rio, revealed that 84% of the betting operators most recommended on Instagram are illegal in Brazil.

The research, published by The Intercept Brasil on Monday, analysed more than 55,000 Instagram accounts and cross-referenced the results with the official list of authorised operators from the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA).

According to the survey, the problem arises when a user follows a single account related to betting. The platform’s recommendation system then starts showing other profiles in the same segment, including betting sites, influencers and specialised pages.

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Lottomatica will absorb Cirsa through an EU cross-border merger, with Lottomatica as the surviving entity.

Angelozzi was asked about previous cross-border M&A that had failed to deliver on initial expectations and why he felt this time was different.

He said Cirsa wass already a well-managed company and in previous deals, it had tried to make too many changes to an asset. “First of all, in many cases you had M&A which was of assets that were second tier. The promise was to completely change the nature and the competitive position of the asset, in many cases, a turnaround.