Sports Gambling Ring Busted In US; Thirty-Eight Suspects Arrested

The Super Bowl and the NCAA college basketball tournament are two of the biggest moneymakers for sports books. Unfortunately, for those running illegal sports books, they are also the two events that bring out the authorities.

Prosecutors on Wednesday charged thirty-eight people with various crimes related to an illegal sports betting operation. The operation was being run out of websites based in Costa Rica, but the outfit was much larger than just any Internet gambling operation.

Prosecutors contend that almost $178 million in bets were placed in the three years that the investigation has been taking place. The two major sites that were unveiled were crownsports.com and jazzsports.com. The bust that occurred this week spanned all across the US.

The major operators were busted in Staten Island, New York, but arrests were made in Florida, Louisiana, Nevada, and Michigan. two separate rings were busted, according to authorities.

"Such computerized wire rooms operate around the clock and can handle a large volume of bettors at one time, thus allowing the organizers to increase their illicit profits without having to bother with the time-consuming, record-keeping aspects of a more traditional, paper-based bookmaking operation," said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, as reported by The associated Press.

Millions of dollars in cash and gambling records were seized in the undercover operation. Baseball, hockey, basketball, and football were all sports that wagers had been place on. The operators had others that met gamblers to pay and collect for the wagers that were made on the websites.

April 7, 2010
Posted By Tom Jones
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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