Poker Crackdown Illustrates Risk of Illegal Gambling, Bookmaking Charges in Los Angeles
Bookmaking in Los Angeles may have moved to the relative anonymity of the World Wide Web, but the recent federal crackdown on online poker sites is a reminder that the Internet makes it no less illegal.
Whether its horses or dogs, or sports or cards or dice, the last two decades have seen an explosion of legitimate gambling outside Vegas. However, there remain very few places where sports betting or bookmaking is legal outside Sin City. Online companies operate under ambiguous legality -- often setting up offshore in locations where bookmaking is legal.
A Los Angeles bookmaking defense attorney must be familiar with both local and federal law and must have the knowledge and experience to defend a client against bookmaking charges, whether those charges involve old-fashioned pen and paper or a website located offshore.
Whether bookmaking for sports bets or operating an online gambling site of the type recently shut down by the feds, the penalties for arrest and conviction can be quite severe and typically include the seizure of millions in assets.
As the Los Angeles Times reported, U.S. gambling regulations are confusing, hypocritical and costly. April 15th's 52-page indictment of 11 defendants shut down three major online poker sites. The defendants are charged with bank fraud, money laundering and operating illegal gambling businesses.
Full Tilt Poker, Poker Stars and Absolute Poker were all based overseas. The Times reports authority for the bust comes from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which was slipped into a must-have terrorism bill and rushed through Congress.
A look this week at Full Tilt Poker's website brings the bust home in a hurry. The site is stamped with the logos of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice. It notifies visitors that "This Domain Name has been seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation pursuant to an Arrest Warrant in Rem issued by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York."
The feds claim the companies got around banking laws by setting up fake online merchants to handle credit card billing from and to players.
