Wednesday, December 13, 2006

When James Giordano and 24 others were indicted by the Queens District
Attorneys office last month, many in the online gambling world immediately
feared the worst. The first "take down" of a "significant" internet
gambling business since President Bush signed a bill into law that would
attempt to prevent some forms of gaming transactions. The Queens DA himself
through spokesperson, Kevin Ryan, said it himself: "The arrests by
prosecutors and police in New York City represent the first time that
Internet gambling charges have been brought since President Bush signed into
law last month the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act." This case is
similar in nature to that which went down a few weeks ago in Montreal where
a number of individuals with suspected "Mob ties" were arrested. They too
had a connection with a gambling enterprise that just happened to utilize an
online website. Neither the Queens or Montreal cases actually signal an
escalation in online gambling industry prosecutions but rather demonstrate
an increasing focus on gambling enterprises that operate at least partially
from North American soil through use of agents (also known as "runners") and
do so by offering a website to clients. The vast majority of online
gambling industry companies operate exclusively off North American shores.
The charges made public by the DA's office are felony violations of the
Penal Law, and, nothing related to the recent law passed related to internet
gambling. Authorities said they broke the case wide open last year when New
York Police Department investigators secretly hacked into a laptop computer
that James Giordano had left in a Long Island hotel while attending a
wedding. Giordano, 52, was arrested Nov. 15 by FBI agents who scaled the
walls of his fortress-like Florida compound. He was indicted along with 26
others, including three family members, on charges of running an online
gambling scheme that rivaled casino sports betting. Prosecutors allege that
since 2004, Giordano had run a $1 billion-a-year operation involving tens of
thousands of bettors and 2,000 bookies. One of Giordano's attorneys says the
numbers derived at by investigators is "mathematically incorrect".