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Content with the idea that they are about to make a cool couple hundred thousand from a settlement with PartyGaming, perhaps the US Justice Department has decided to ease off the burgeoning online gambling industry for the time being, or maybe it has more pressing issues like mortgage fraud.
"There was a frenzy of inquiries just a few months ago then suddenly things quieted down," a source tells Gambling911.com.
Various individuals have advised that the US Government is close to settling with the biggest IPO of 2004 in Great Britain, PartyGaming. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be paid out in fines so that PartyGaming could eventually become a powerful acquisition target or the acquiring power.
The only hurdle to get over in this regard is "jail time". The Justice Department wants Party's founder to serve a few years behind bars. Actually, they want blood.
"They'll pay the steep fines, but prison is out of the question," the same source told Gambling911.com Thursday. "That has to come off the table."
And it may soon, just not tomorrow or the next day or the day after that.
Industry observers have been watching both the PartyGaming matter and this week's news that Bodog's flamboyant Playboy founder, Calvin Ayre, abruptly announced his retirement.
The party line from Ayre is that he is "sick of the traveling and being in the spotlight". That could very well be, but the murmurs around the industry quickly suggested "the heat is on Ayre".
The US Justice Department - perhaps taking a chapter from the Calvin Ayre Book of "Everything is Hunky Dory" - claims they have "never heard of Calvin Ayre".
David Baines, a reporter for the Vancouver Sun and someone who admittedly hates gambling, expressed complete shock over Ayre's sudden retirement. Baines nor the Sun were aware of any investigations into the now former online gambling mogul.
Ayre incidentally fired his entire Public Relations Department this week, if there was any doubt his retirement was some type of hoax.
He's content with living the rest of his life in the online gambling friendly Caribbean nation of Antigua, a country that once turned over the outspoken head of its Sportsbook and Internet Gambling Committee, Bobby Eremian, to US Authorities in 1999 for alleged tax evasion. Eremian it seems was a little too outspoken against Antigua's desire to tax its own online gambling businesses.
Antigua is also at the center of a debacle involving defunct stiffing sportsbook BetonSports (still owing millions to customers), protected its most prestigious citizen, Eddie Hadeed (well, son of the island's most prestigious citizen) when he stiffed a few hundred sports bettors, and thumbing their noses at other groups such as iMEGA.org and the political collaboration of Barney Frank/Ron Paul, not to mention they are hardly working in conjunction with the now one million strong Poker Players Alliance. It's no wonder the US Government isn't exactly willing to work with Antigua nor Great Britain willing to allow Antigua's online gambling sites the ability to advertise in the United Kingdom.
The Justice Department, meanwhile, has its hands full - not with evil online gaming operators, but rather with major mortgage fraud investigations. In fact, the FBI is currently investigating 19 companies and almost 1300 individual cases of potential fraud in the US mortgage industry.
http://www.gambling911.com/US-Justice-Department-Online-Gambling-042508.html
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"There was a frenzy of inquiries just a few months ago then suddenly things quieted down," a source tells Gambling911.com.
Various individuals have advised that the US Government is close to settling with the biggest IPO of 2004 in Great Britain, PartyGaming. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be paid out in fines so that PartyGaming could eventually become a powerful acquisition target or the acquiring power.
The only hurdle to get over in this regard is "jail time". The Justice Department wants Party's founder to serve a few years behind bars. Actually, they want blood.
"They'll pay the steep fines, but prison is out of the question," the same source told Gambling911.com Thursday. "That has to come off the table."
And it may soon, just not tomorrow or the next day or the day after that.
Industry observers have been watching both the PartyGaming matter and this week's news that Bodog's flamboyant Playboy founder, Calvin Ayre, abruptly announced his retirement.
The party line from Ayre is that he is "sick of the traveling and being in the spotlight". That could very well be, but the murmurs around the industry quickly suggested "the heat is on Ayre".
The US Justice Department - perhaps taking a chapter from the Calvin Ayre Book of "Everything is Hunky Dory" - claims they have "never heard of Calvin Ayre".
David Baines, a reporter for the Vancouver Sun and someone who admittedly hates gambling, expressed complete shock over Ayre's sudden retirement. Baines nor the Sun were aware of any investigations into the now former online gambling mogul.
Ayre incidentally fired his entire Public Relations Department this week, if there was any doubt his retirement was some type of hoax.
He's content with living the rest of his life in the online gambling friendly Caribbean nation of Antigua, a country that once turned over the outspoken head of its Sportsbook and Internet Gambling Committee, Bobby Eremian, to US Authorities in 1999 for alleged tax evasion. Eremian it seems was a little too outspoken against Antigua's desire to tax its own online gambling businesses.
Antigua is also at the center of a debacle involving defunct stiffing sportsbook BetonSports (still owing millions to customers), protected its most prestigious citizen, Eddie Hadeed (well, son of the island's most prestigious citizen) when he stiffed a few hundred sports bettors, and thumbing their noses at other groups such as iMEGA.org and the political collaboration of Barney Frank/Ron Paul, not to mention they are hardly working in conjunction with the now one million strong Poker Players Alliance. It's no wonder the US Government isn't exactly willing to work with Antigua nor Great Britain willing to allow Antigua's online gambling sites the ability to advertise in the United Kingdom.
The Justice Department, meanwhile, has its hands full - not with evil online gaming operators, but rather with major mortgage fraud investigations. In fact, the FBI is currently investigating 19 companies and almost 1300 individual cases of potential fraud in the US mortgage industry.
http://www.gambling911.com/US-Justice-Department-Online-Gambling-042508.html
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:grinclap