Quote:
Originally Posted by Hartley  The government has said that they believe organized crime is a concern with regards to online gambling and I'm saying prove it. If organized crime at online casinos is truly a concern then let's see them arrest someone from the Cleveland Mob or the Sicilian Mafia or .. Don't arrest Jay Cohen and say it's proof that organized crime is a concern for online gambling. |
here's one from 3/6
Suspected Mafia underboss boasts of $1-billion sports betting network
here's an older one
Betonsports and Safe Deposit Sports
"They stated that the ring had constituted a highly sophisticated criminal enterprise controlled by the Bonanno organized crime family and, that it had handled illegal wagers on horse racing, professional baseball and football and other sporting events totaling in two years $360 million."
Bonanno is synonmous with organized crime in the US
There are dozens of articles like these out there. Most of them were posted by clevfan here in the messhall. Hell, probably every week there is a story of a stateside operation getting broken up, and of course they all have an online/offshore connection.
I honestly don't know how you can say online gambling is not tied to organized crime at all. Practically all the U.S.-facing sportsbooks either were originally stateside operations or got off the ground by bringing in large stateside agents. I'm pretty sure all U.S.-based sports gambling falls under the "organized crime" tag, at least in the court of public opinion.
It shouldn't be a big deal though. Like Russ said, there is crime in every industry. Doesn't mean you shut the whole industry down. Organized crime might be involved in penny-stock schemes. Does that mean we shut down the whole stock market? No. You let legitimate people operate and just go after the people that are breaking laws.