The Reel Life: Gambling nuns edition

Two nuns in Torrance, California, have been accused of embezzling nearly half a million dollars from the school and spending it on personal vacations, including lavish gambling trips to Las Vegas.

The story was originally broken in the local Long Beach Press-Telegram. Other news outlets quickly picked it up, reporting on the decade-long fraud in which the nuns, one of whom was the school principal, deposited tuition fees into a secret personal checking account while telling students' parents that the school was short on funds.

The original reporting on the story also noted that the archdiocese had decided not to prosecute the nuns, as they had said they were very sorry. Followers of news stories about misconduct in U.S. religious institutions will be wearing their "disappointed but not surprised" faces right now.

In the few days since the story has broken, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has changed its mind, telling the press that it will press criminal charges against the sisters. We wonder if the story, complete with the nuns' claims of having "a rich uncle," making its way up the news chain to nationally read outlets like the Washington Post had anything to do with it, or if the intense community backlash was more responsible.

We have some questions about this case that aren't answered in WaPo's otherwise quite detailed dive. Did the sisters go to the casinos in their nun habits, or did they change their clothes to fit in? Doesn't letting your "rich uncle" spend that kind of money on you still violate a vow of poverty? And isn't there a movie with basically this plot already? No, we're thinking of Nuns on the Run; never mind.

Get in the fast lane, Grandma, this bingo game is ready to roll!

SkillOnNet, the powerhouse online casino platform provider behind Europe’s most popular brands, is pleased to announce the launch of a winter special version of its “Spin A Mini” promotion.

SkillOnNet will be giving away a brand new Mini Cooper car every week for the duration of the promotion, which runs from 10 December to 6 January, as well as a raft of other top prizes including a dream destination holiday, a 75-inch TV, Amazon gift vouchers and more.

The Spin A Mini promotion will be available across all SkillOnNet brands, including PlayOJO, "the Fair Casino"; German casino brand DrueckGlueck; newly launched Finnish casino AHTI Games; and a host of other hit casinos such as Mega Casino, Cozino, SlotsMagic, PlayMillion Casino, Queen Vegas and many more.

Working with some major casino providers the promotion will be offered on a different slot title each week. Eligible games include Yggdrasil Gaming’s Baron Samedi (10–16 December), Play’n GO’s Reactoonz (17–23 December), GVG’s Spinning Wilds (24–30 December) and Thunderkick’s Pink Elephants (31 December–6 January).

To take part, players simply play 100 spins on the eligible game that week for which they will receive a Free Daily Tournament Ticket. They then select the Spin A Mini Free Ticket option to claim their Tournament Spins.

Wins from Tournament Spins are logged on a leaderboard, and come the end of the week the player with the most points wins a brand new Mini Cooper car. Players also have the option to purchase extra tickets for €1.

Michael Golembo from SkillOnNet said, “Winter can be a time of cold days and dark nights, so we wanted to spread some fun and happiness with a special give-away for all players across all of our popular casino brands.

“The Spin A Mini promotion is a huge success with casino players every time we run it but the €100,000 prize pool is a first and our biggest one to date. We look forward to handing over the keys to four new Mini Cooper cars in the coming weeks, as well as a sack full of other top prizes.”