More Arrest As US Authorities Get Tough
In yet more moves designed to stamp out any possible connection between the US and online gambling, it has been announced that 12 people have been arrested in various parts of the US charged with gambling, conspiracy to engage in gambling and money laundering. It seems that this is the result on a long term investigation into the “trafficking” of gambling clients from a Costa Rica based gambling site to US bookies. So what exactly happened?
It seems that the owners of the Costa Rica site were “selling” customers to US based bookies, charging between $15 and $30 for each sign up. Over the last few years it has been estimated that the defendants received millions of dollars in revenue and were operating a very quick, focused and lucrative arrangement. They have been hit by the fact that online gambling in the US is outlawed as is the signing up of customers using an internet based system - even though it was in Costa Rica - and they were operating without the relevant licences.
This is just the latest in a long list of scams which have hit the US gambling industry over the last 12 months. The move to effectively lock down the online industry was always controversial and it has taken nearly 3 years to bring this group to justice, although it seems that there may be more arrests to follow in the short term. A gambling sign-up is by far and away the most potentially lucrative of clients on the internet, with hundreds of ways to pull in and retain customers for the long term. This is the reason why the business of actually signing up customers has attracted so many “undesirables”.
The gambling industry was always one which was very difficulty to police, with many underground operations, but since the internet it has become very expensive and almost impossible to stamp out these abuses. Are the authorities fighting a losing battle?
