Riots Erupt on Tierijev IV over "Bad Taste Bets"

Tierijev, Verge Vendor – A local betting agency on Tierijev IV came under fire from local inhabitants after a series of holoreel advertisements offering betting on the IGC's Alliance Tournament XVI, with large-scale demonstrations leading to riots.

The agency, calling itself "Bad Taste Bets" decided to create a niche market for themselves by allowing locals to bet on the more macabre details for this year's Alliance Tournament. The bets ranged from "number of ship crew surviving ship destruction" and "capsuleer that causes the most crew death in a single match," to the more questionable "number of corpses gathered by capsuleers." The agency's owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, describes it as follows:

"Look, everybody knows what goes on, but they refuse to acknowledge it. I say to hell with that, let's bet on it. And I mean, why not? We all know that capsuleers don't care about their crew, this just lets people bet on how much they don't care! If people want to be upset at somebody, they should be upset at the capsuleers, not at me!"

Tierijev IV's ethnic Gallente inhabitants did not seem to agree with the views of the betting agency, and took to the streets of Tierijev IV's capital city last Friday. The demonstration initially started as peaceful, with participants chanting in front of the agency's main office to discontinue their bets. However, as rumors of the involvement of Caldari megacorps in the enterprise swept through the crowd, rioting broke out with the violence expanding throughout the city despite the efforts of police to halt the unrest.

In response to inquiries from Caldari Financial News, Independent Gaming Commission CEO Khumat Mebroh released the following statement:

"The IGC would like to remind everybody that the Alliance Tournament is a tournament for capsuleer alliances to show their might and prowess on the field of battle. We do not dictate what can and cannot be bet on, as that falls within the jurisdiction of the local governments. However, I would like to say that I personally do not agree with bets made in such poor taste; there are thousands of brave souls that choose to enter a battlefield knowing they might not return, and I strongly believe that we should respect their decision, not use them for cheap entertainment."

Local officials refused to respond to inquiries and Federation officials noted that Tierijev's status as a border zone free-trade system allowed for a wide latitude of business practices. Caldari State officials declined to comment on the matter other than to emphasize the importance of maintaining the free-trade arrangements in the Aideron-Tannolen border zone.