Las Vegas Man Indicted Over Illegal Sports Betting Site

A Clark County grand jury has indicted Las Vegas resident William West Roberts, 57, on charges of operating an illegal sports betting business and money laundering, the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) announced. 

The indictment, handed up on September 29, follows a multi-year investigation that began after Roberts was arrested in April 2026 once investigators identified that he was accepting sports wagers through a website based in Costa Rica, according to the NGCB's press release.

Charges Unsealed In Court

The grand jury indictment was unsealed before District Judge Carli Kierny, charging Roberts with felony operating a gaming establishment without a licence, unlawful receipt of compensation for accepting bets or wagers without the required gaming licence, attempting to launder money, and a gross misdemeanour count of accepting unlawful wagers, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which reported from the unsealing. Roberts has maintained his innocence.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Austin Beaumont said investigators determined Roberts had been running a gaming website through Costa Rica "for the last couple years," operating under the domain ezwin247.com. 

"In 2025 he showed income, unlawful income of $208,888.50 from unlawful sportsbook making. In 2026 he showed income of $239,850 so far this year," Beaumont told the Review-Journal, adding that Roberts was "ratcheting up his sportsbook making to the point that he was making just under $50,000 a month this year prior to his arrest."

Funds Commingled With A Fitness Business

The NGCB said the investigation found Roberts commingled proceeds from the betting operation with finances from two other businesses he ran: a fitness centre and a social-media gambling tip service called Wild Bill Consulting Inc. 

Prosecutors say Roberts was captured on video explaining to an undercover agent how his bookmaking operation worked and how much money it generated. Beaumont said that since his April arrest, Roberts had taken more than $69,000 in additional bets and continued laundering money through the gym and the tip service.

Part Of A Continued NGCB Crackdown

"The Nevada Gaming Control Board remains committed to protecting the integrity of Nevada's gaming industry and will continue to aggressively investigate any activity that threatens the fairness and public confidence of regulated sports wagering," the board said in its release. 

The NGCB added that no further details would be released at this time while the case proceeds through the Clark County court system.

The case adds to a string of recent Nevada enforcement actions against unlicensed sportsbooks operating offshore websites, which regulators say continue to compete with the state's regulated sports betting market despite years of crackdowns. 

NGCB Targets

Nevada has licensed legal sports wagering for decades through its brick-and-mortar sportsbooks and mobile platforms, but illegal bookmaking operations run through offshore sites remain a persistent enforcement target for the NGCB precisely because they sit outside the state's tax base and consumer protections, including the self-exclusion and underage-wagering safeguards built into the regulated market. 

Investigators in this case said the probe into Roberts began well before his April arrest, reflecting the multi-year timeline regulators say is typical for building a money-laundering case strong enough to support a grand jury indictment rather than a simple citation.