Mark’s Soap Box

*** Update ***

BetOnSports.com is closed. No bets are being taken, and deposits and withdrawels are suspended.

IN LIGHT OF COURT PAPERS FILED IN THE UNITED STATES, THE COMPANY HAS TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED THIS FACILITY PENDING ITS ABILITY TO ASSESS ITS FULL POSITION. DURING THIS PERIOD NO FINANCIAL OR WAGERING TRANSACTIONS CAN BE EXECUTED. FURTHER INFORMATION WILL BE POSTED ONCE THE COMPANY IS IN A POSITION TO DO SO.

The BETonSPORTS.com
customer support team

BetOnSports boss David Carruthers was arrested at DFW on Sunday. A total of 11 individual have been arrested in connection with 22 count indictment alleging racketeering and conspiracy. Four corporations have also been indicted.

BetOnsports has been ordered to cease and desist all betting activity, and trading of it’s shares were halted on the London Stock Exchange. Shares of several stocks fell on word of the arrests.

Those Charged:

 BetOnSports: Neil Scott Kaplan, Lori Kaplan Multz; Norman Steinberg; David Carruthers, Peter Wilson, Tim Brown.

Florida Based: William Hernan Lenis; Monica Lenis, Manny Gustavo Lenis, and William Luis Lenis.

Companies: (all Florida-based) Direct Mail Expertise, Inc., DME Global Marketing and Fulfillment Inc. and Mobile Promotions Inc.

What’s The Big Deal?

The indictment alleges that Gary Kaplan started his gambling enterprise via operation of a sportsbook in New York City in the early 1990s. After Kaplan was arrested on New York state gambling charges in May 1993, Kaplan moved his betting operation to Florida and eventually offshore to Costa Rica. According to the indictment, BetonSports.com, the most visible outgrowth of Kaplan’s sports bookmaking enterprise, misleadingly advertised itself as the “World’s Largest Legal and Licensed Sportsbook.” The indictment also alleges that Kaplan failed to pay federal wagering excise taxes on more than $3.3 billion in wagers taken from the United States and seeks forfeiture of $4.5 billion from Kaplan and his co-defendants, as well as various properties.

The indictment alleges that Gary Kaplan and Norman Steinberg, as the owners and operators of Millennium Sportsbook, Gibraltar Sportsbook, and North American Sports Association, took or caused their employees to take bets from undercover federal agents in St. Louis who used undercover identities to open wagering accounts. The indictment also alleges that Kaplan and Mobile Promotions illegally transported equipment used to place bets and transmit wagering information across state lines and that DME Global Marketing and Fulfillment shipped equipment to Costa Rica from Florida for BetonSports.com.

The racketeering conspiracy alleges that the defendants agreed to conduct an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering acts, including repeated mail fraud, wire fraud, operation of an illegal gambling business and money laundering.

Gary Kaplan is a former bookie from NYC, and ran BetOnSports before it went public.

BetonSports founder Gary Kaplan has already had a chequered history with US authorities. According to the indictment, Kaplan - also known as Greg Champion and “G” - operated an illegal sports betting business “in and near New York City” in 1992.

Those arrested are all US citizens with the exception of David Carruthers. However they use toll free numbers to take bets, and run some of their companies out of Florida. More importantly money laundering is a crime that all countries have treaties with the U.S. to recognize and co-operate in prosecution of same.

Unfortunately the hysterical response will of course come forth from the shills err usual suspects, such as the PPA. They will say this is nothing more than an attack upon the poker player, and will end in ruin for all poker. This is more like 1998 when the DOJ went after several U.S. citizens, one of which was Jay Cohen